In anticipation of the Behnkes Holiday Open Houses this weekend, I took a stroll through the Beltsville store. Trees, lots of them. Love the smell, the best Christmas smell of all (and there are so many great ones!). The cute…
When I reported on my new back garden in late July it looked woefully empty, as shown above. Patio and walkway done, a few shrubs and trees planted, but otherwise bare. In this September photo you can see some of…
Something that gardeners sometimes disagree about is whether to clean up their beds in the fall or wait until spring, and I was interested to learn that horticulturist Carol Allen is in the clean-up-in-fall school. In fact, her garden is…
Tips from horticulturist Carol Allen: Vegetable Garden Remove and deeply compost debris all spent vegetable matter, except for anything that’s badly diseased, which should be removed but not composted. Before putting old plants in the compost Carol chops it all…
Like so many of you, I’ve been following the famous White House Kitchen Garden these last four seasons, and here’s what it looked like two weeks ago. There was no special tour for gardenbloggers (I wish!), just the usual twice-a-year…
I’ve reported on on my favorite plants for fall color in sunny spots and as promised, here are my faves for shade. Annuals Coleus come in dozens of colors and patterns. Mine are just now, in late October, losing their…
Another installment in what’s turning out to be a series of articles about fall color in the garden, this one the result of my trip to the Mall over the weekend. So what better place to start admiring the gardens…
Horticulturist Carol Allen shared her love of bulbs with customers at one of our free seminars, starting with this declaration: “Bulbs deliver, big-time!” Then she went on to give us tips, lots of tips, and these are just some of…
Ever heard of Dendranthemas? Me, neither. They used to be one of the types of Chrysanthemums but that genus was split in 1961 and now we have this new term for them. Other terms include “perennial chrysanthemums” and “hardy mums”…
Though summer will probably always be the most enjoyable season for a critter-lover like me (bugs and birds and frogs, oh my!) I’m learning to appreciate fall more each year, the more I get out and experience it. And, let’s…
Last Sunday I was manning the information booth at Greenbelt’s Farmers Market when a gentleman stopped to ask if anyone knew what colorful plants were growing in the median strip along the main street into town – the spot shown…
The butterflies are mostly gone for the season, but bees are still going strong. And nowhere do I see more evidence of that than in the Perennials Department at Behnkes, where I took these photos and could have bee-watched all…