Growers Guide for Heathers, Erica and Callunas shrubs

Small, hardy, evergreen shrubs which grow wild in many parts of Europe and in a few localities in North America. They belong to the Heath family, Ericaceae. The name is derived from kallunein, to sweep. Branches are used as brooms. Only one species. is known, Callunas vulgaris, the common Heather or Scotch Heather, but it has many varieties which differ […]

Growers Guide for Pot Marigold

A Southern European Plant That Is Popular in Garden and Greenhouse Showy annual plants from southern Europe belonging to the Daisy family, Compositive. They have simple alternate leaves and branching stems 1 1/2-2 1/2 ft. high, bearing large heads of yellow, yellowish or orange-colored flowers which are in full beauty during the summer. Calendula is derived from calendae, the calends, […]

Plumbago Passion

I am very prone to love at first sight. In fact, it happened just last week. I saw a tall southerner “across a crowded room”, as the song says. My heart stood still (as another song says). I was enraptured. The tall stranger was plumbago (Plumbago auriculata, also known as Plumbago capensis), which is sometimes also known by its extremely […]

Purple Ragwort – SENECIO (Jacobaea) Purple Groundsel, Annual Flower Information

Purple Ragwort – SENECIO (Jacobaea) – Purple Groundsel (Latin from senex, old man, refers to gray pappus of seeds) In English gardens one finds a lovely dwarf annual listed as a Jacobaea, Senecio elegans, which grows less than 18 inches tall and is completely covered with double purple, crimson or white flowers, not unlike a double Cineraria of the greenhouse. […]

PENTSTEMON – Bearded tongue, Annual Flower Information

PENTSTEMON – Bearded tongue (From Greek for five stamens, the fifth is sterile and bearded) Persons who are familiar with the Gloxinia Pentstemon, Pentstemon gloxinioides, already know its beauty; to others who are not, we would say that the price of a packet of seed is entirely out of proportion to the pleasure of bringing these flowers into bloom. The […]

Arabis – Rock Cress, Wall Cress, Perennials Guide to Planting Flowers

Arabis – Rock Cress, Wall Cress The Rock Cress is a small, white, four-petaled flower, and its masses of snowy bloom early in the Spring contrast beautifully with the Basket of Gold (Alyssum saxatile compactum) and the blue False Wall Cress (Aubrietia). It blooms very soon after the snow disappears and the flowers are so numerous that when a plant […]