Professional Gardening Tips
This group of plants, as a whole, are not generally valued for their flowers. but all have very ornamental foliage. The plants are almost as hardy as Oaks, yet are very attractive when in bloom from August until frost-time. The […]
CONVOLVULUS Dwarf Convolvulus (Dwarf Morning-glory) (Latin meaning to twine) These plants deserve wider acquaintance. They are not strictly Morning glories because the flowers are open all day in good weather. They also differ from the climbing sorts in that each […]
LAYIA Tidytips (Named for Thomas Lay, naturalist) A California Daisy-like annual, Layia elegans, has yellow flowers with the rays often white-tipped. The plants are more or less hairy throughout. It grows about 12 inches tall. USE. The unusual white tipped […]
LEPTOSYNE (Greek for slenderness) A Daisy-like flower related to Coreopsis, Leplosyne stillmani, grows 18 inches tall. The flowers are golden yellow, 2 inches to 3 inches across; the tips of the ray florets are 3-lobed. The foliage is very finely […]
Sanvitalia procumbens flowers are much like tiny Zinnias, being golden yellow with very dark purple centers, some of them single and others double. The plants grow only 6 inches tall, or rather they are prostrate and spread over the soil […]
When you want lots of color quickly, flowers to cut by the armful and bloom all summer, you want annuals. For earliest possible bloom, sow seeds indoors, then transplant-or buy started plants in May. But you’ll still get plenty of […]
CYNOGLOSSUM Houndstongue (From Greek cuon-dog; glossa-tongue, refers to papillae on seeds, which gives the texture of a tongue) Recently a lovely blue Forget-me-not-like flower has been introduced to our gardens known as Cynoglossum amabile and cataloged as the Chinese Forget-me-not. […]
LOBELIA (Named for M. L’Obel, botanist and physician of King James I) Clear blues are found among the annual Lobelias. The varieties of the Edging Lobelia, Lobelia erinus, the common species, are of two sorts-those which produce compact plants four […]
The long stems and tufted flowers of the annual Scabiosa (S. atropurpurea) are charming. The colors also are pleasing in all cases white, light pink, rose, fiery scarlet, pale yellow, azure blue, and deep blackish-purple. The stamens are light in […]
SWEET ALYSSUM (Name derived from a-not lyssa, rage a myth relates that the plant dispels anger) The Sweet Alyssum is one of our most beloved white edging plants. Seed catalogs list many varieties of Alyssum maritimum, some being dwarf, tufted […]