Flowers & Ornamentals

Fall is here, and you know what that means – it’s pumpkin spice chrysanthemum season! Everywhere you look, there are potted mums for sale. If you plan on grabbing a …

Back in August, we published an article in which I was advising our readers on what plants we can take cuttings from. Next to dividing plants (which I also talked …

Spring and summer flowers offer a profusion of color that captivates from May through August. But what about fall? Not to be outdone, autumn offers a palette of sultry purples, …

Both the garden and I get a second wind in September.  After the mellowness of summer months, and leisurely August pastimes, my mind craves a refocus and regroup. It’s not …

I got the idea for this article just as I get most of my inspiration: working in the garden, noticing something, and thinking to myself, “I wonder if anyone else …

Oh, September, that month when the light drips with gold, the summer heat finally begins to ease up, and mornings come capped in fog and crisp air. We look forward …

Fall is synonymous with chrysanthemums. Those vibrant, bushy potted mums lining garden centers and grocery stores alike practically shout, “Fall is finally here!” With their deep burgundies, rusty oranges, golden …

There’s a subtle shift in the air when September rolls around. I can sense it, without even the slightest glance at a calendar. The light changes. The breeze changes. And …

As a gardener and a garden writer, I enjoy taking photos of plants, in all their stages of growth (and sometimes demise). Most photos I take for my own record-keeping, …

One of the things I’m becoming more aware of about gardening is how much it is a continuum. Like a talent show in which contestants follow one another – and …

You’d be hard pressed to find a showier flower in your garden than a dahlia. With their colorful heads full of neatly arrayed petals, their blooms that never stop, and …

I was reading a gardening magazine recently, which proclaimed that September is the most productive month in the garden. With veggies basically jumping into our harvest baskets, there’s little arguing …

For me, August is the month of lunching al fresco in the garden, a fresh meal sandwiched between getting a suntan in the morning and sipping cocktails on the terrace …

Japanese spirea is a beautiful addition to any landscape, with its fluffy pink clouds of flowers. That is, until those fluffy pink clouds turn into crusty brown clusters, which are …

In a classic tale of taking over someone else’s choices when you buy a place, when we moved into our current home and garden, I inherited a rose plant. I …

Where I live, columbine grows wild all over the mountains. I see it when I’m out hiking, and I feel as though I’ve stumbled into a fairytale. I fully expect …

Alliums are stunning in the late spring and early summer garden. Their tall, architectural blooms hover over the rest of the flowers like purple fireworks. They’re the kind of blooms …

July is great! I’m always ready to eat my body weight in sweetcorn and watermelon. The fireflies are floating up from the grass at night. And my flower beds are…well, …

Every spring, I’m amazed by my peonies. It still blows my mind that such a massive, frilly blossom comes from a bud roughly the size of a large marble. Aren’t …

Who doesn’t love hydrangeas? With their giant mopheads of icy blue, soft mauve or creamy white flowers, it’s no wonder they’re one of the most popular flowering shrubs out there. …

Growing lavender means happy buzzing bees and patches of fragrant blossoms in dusky purple. Not to mention glasses of lavender lemonade. But if your lavender is looking lush and leafy …

Irises are often the first flower to kick off the summer perennial season. So it can be incredibly frustrating when that tall crop of sword-shaped leaves ends up being just …

Peonies always make me think of weddings. They’re such a romantic flower, so frilly and beautiful in shades of creamy white, soft pink or magenta. What bride wouldn’t want a …

June is a bit like coming up to the top of the first drop of a roller coaster ride. It’s that slow and steady rise above the daffodils and crocus, …