A Guide to Planting Gaillardia

Commemorating M. Gaillard de Marentonneau, a French patron of botany (Compositae). Blanket flower. A small genus of annuals and perennials, natives of America, with a long flowering period, useful for cutting flowers. Somewhat untidy in habit, the long stalks fall […]

Vinca, A Hillside Groundcover

Vinca minor is, as my father used to say, neat but not gaudy. Sometimes known as periwinkle or myrtle, this creeping perennial appears everywhere. Like a good soldier, vinca hits the ground running, and does its task efficiently, even under […]

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. […]

Basket plants for the Container garden

Many attractive plants are suitable for cultivation in suspended baskets. For this purpose plants of a drooping habit of growth are preferable, as their pendulous stems, falling over the sides of the baskets, display the flowers or foliage to the […]

Growing Pansies

Pansies are annual garden flowers (blooms for only one year, then dies) that are usually the first you find for sale in stores in spring.  Pansies have been around for many years and are popular, being easy to grow and […]

Growing Guide for Echinops – Perennial Plant

From the Greek echinos, a hedgehog, opsis, like, referring to the spiky appearance of the flower heads which resemble a rolled-up hedgehog (Compositae). Common Name : Globe thistle. Hardy herbaceous perennial and biennial plants for the border. Species cultivated (All […]

Heuchera – Perennial Plant, How to grow

How to grow Heuchera Named in honor of Professor J. H. Heucher, 1677-1747, a German professor of medicine, and a botanist (Saxifragaceae). Alum-root. A genus of hardy perennials with dainty, small, bell-like flowers in loose panicles which are produced over […]

Gardening Guidance for Delphiniums

Hardy perennial and annual plants of varying heights which bloom in June and July chiefly; the original species or wild types from which the modern beautiful varieties are descended are natives of California, Siberia, Syria, India and other countries. Delphinium […]

Valentine Roses

Valentine’s Day has just passed, and if you were lucky, someone you love gave you roses to celebrate the occasion. All the romance and fragrance in the air bring to mind one of history’s great love stories-that of Napoleon and […]

Guide to Growing Black-eyed Susans

Commemorating Olaf Rudbeck (1660–1740) was a Swedish professor of botany and counselor of Linnaeus (Compositae). Coneflower. A genus of about 40 herbaceous plants, mostly perennial and hardy, natives of North America, related to Echinacea. The flowers are showy, daisy-like, often […]