Gardening Basics: Simply Put, Save Those Leaves! Before your rake all of the rest of the leaves to the curb, consider a compost pile. People become obsessed with composting, with bins, thermometers, turning the pile, adding this and that…but, if…
Simply Put: Local Public Gardens A couple of the Behnke staff went to Swarthmore College near Philadelphia recently to attend a perennial conference. We also walked around the Swarthmore Campus (which hosts the Scott Arboretum) and spent an afternoon at…
For the urban/suburban gardener, dealing with deer and other warm-blooded garden grazers is generally a case of discouraging their feeding in your garden. You can probably visualize herds of discouraged deer, walking dejectedly down the street, looking for some hosta to terrorize, their little white tails limp. Bad posture and everything. Sooner or later they will feed, it’s just that you are trying to get them to feed elsewhere, maybe on the next street.
Simply Put: Parents, It’s Autumn. Do You Know Where Your Houseplants Are? Those cool autumn nights are upon us, and if you have some of your houseplants outdoors, it’s time to think about bringing them back indoors for the winter…
Knock Outs Although they have been around for a couple of years, the Knock Out series of roses still knock my socks off. I am very impressed by their repeat blooming and great disease resistance. You can see wonderful specimens…
Perennials are plants that grow for more than a year (assuming they live; it’s a life style, not a contract with God). They take their time; frequently they don’t even bloom in the first year of growth after the seed germinates.
Annuals are plants that are programmed (Mother Nature 3.0) to live their entire lives in one year (an annual life cycle). That is, they start out as a seed, grow, flower, make more seeds to start the next generation and die, all within one year or less. In the garden center, some plants that would live for more than a year in a warmer climate are sold as annuals because they croak when it gets cold (begonias, for example) or hot (pansies).
Throughout most of human history the average person’s daily life revolved around the search for food, and nearly every occupation related in one way or another to agriculture and the production of fruits and vegetables. In days gone by, a…
The Easter lily, Lilium longiflorum, is a symbol of the Easter observance all around the world. Well, actually, as it turns out, it’s more of an American tradition. And here is how it came to be. Lilium longiflorum is native…
‘Grace’ & ‘Golden Spirit’ ‘Grace’- a real gem. Attractive new leaves emerge an intense wine-red and mature to dusky-reddish-blue. It’s bright orange-red fall color is unmatched in the plant world. Masses of extremely large, deep pink panicles cover this beauty…
There are many wonderful cultivars of crape myrtle. Of particular note are the National Arboretum hybrids, which were bred for winter hardiness and powdery mildew resistance.
Hakonechloa macra (Japanese Forest Grass) 2009 Perennial of the Year My favorite ornamental grass is the Perennial Plant Association’s Perennial of the Year for 2009, Hakonechloa macra or Japanese Forest Grass. This is an interesting choice because, while they are…