Your Backyard Garden Information Source
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 […]
Ajuga – Bugle Flower For creeping over the soil in shaded places the Bugle Flower is excellent. Two sorts are commonly cataloged. Ajuga replans rubra has deep purplish-blue flowers and purplish leaves and is prostrate in habit; A. genevensis is more upright in growth and bears flowers varying in color from dull red to white and blue. There is a […]
Raising plants from seed is a most economical means of providing a long-lasting display for the cool greenhouse. Where a minimum night temperature of about 45°F (7°C) can be maintained the choice of flowering and of decorative foliage plants is considerable. Many plants that we normally grow as annuals in the open may prove to be perennial when grown under […]
Armeria – Sea Pink, Thrift, Cliff Rose The Sea Pink is a low growing plant which derived its name from the fact that it grows along the seashore and is pink in color. There are other colors, such as red, deep rosy pink, lilac and white. It grows in dense, low clumps with numerous, narrow, grass-like leaves, all clustered at […]
Try growing them from seed and enjoy a hand in producing miracles of color Classes Annuals may be classified according to the time that their seeds may be safely sown. There are many annuals, which are sometimes known under the rather misleading name of “hardy annuals.” These plants are not hardy in the sense that the plants themselves live through […]
The Chinese Balloon Flower is very closely allied to the Campanulas. It grows erect and the stems are rigid. The flowers have five petals and open out rather flat, but when in bud they look like inflated balloons, from whence the common name is derived. The flowers are both single and double. They are blue and white in color and […]
Fuchsias are shrubs and in mild districts the hardiest kinds, such as F. magellanica and its variety riccartonii, are used for hedges. But most of the hybrid forms grown are not so hardy and are treated as disposable bedding plants or plants for a ‘cool greenhouse, apart from the warmer parts of the country. They are readily trained as bushes, […]
Lavandula – Lavender Sweet Lavender is one of the well-beloved, fragrant plants of the old-fashioned garden. It was a favorite because of its delicate odor. Lavender (Lavandula vera) grows from 1 1/2 feet to 3 feet high, has downy, silvery gray foliage and long spikes of blue lavender flowers. It blooms from July through September and produces flowers very freely. […]
PANSY The Pansy, it would seem, is one of the most alluring of all garden flowers. It’s little faces make most of us laugh when we look at them. The English have given the Pansy many nicknames, such as Call-meto-you, Love-true, Three-faces-under-a-hood, Pink-eyed-John, Tickle-my-fancy, Bird’s-eye, Jump-up-and-kiss-me, God-father, Godmother, Love-in-idleness, Kiss-me-in-the-buttery, Rob-run-the-street, and Heartsease. With such names, it is not strange […]
Digitalis – Foxglove, Witches’ Thimbles A well grown Foxglove in full flower is a plant of dignity and beauty. The long flowering spikes grow from 3 feet to 6 feet tall, rising high above large clumps of broad, downy leaves. Upon the flowering stalk, the flowers open slowly as the impulse to bloom moves upward. This tends to lengthen the […]