Your Backyard Garden Information Source
An old Latin name for violet (Violaceae). A genus of some 500 species of hardy perennials, mainly from northern temperate regions, including violas, pansies and violets of which there are many hybrids and strains. Species cultivated V. adunca, hooked spur violet, to 4 inches, violet or lavender with white eye, spring, North America. V. arvensis field pansy, 6 inches, cream, […]
AUBRIETA: THE PURPLE ROCK CRESS Fine Plants for Spring Bloom in the Rock Garden and at the Front of the Flower Border (Aubrie’ta). Hardy, perennial, more or less evergreen, low-growing plants which bear a profusion of bloom in early spring. They are invaluable in the rock garden and wall garden, as edging to flower borders, and as groundwork for taller […]
Commemorating John Tradescant (died 1637), gardener to Charles I (Commelinaceae). A genus of 60 species of hardy perennial and greenhouse plants from North America and tropical South America. The hardy varieties are commonly called spiderwort, flower of a day, Moses-in-the-bulrushes, or devil-in-the pulpit. According to some botanists the garden plants grown under the name T. virginiana belonging to a hybrid […]
How to Grow Violet Violet Viola odorata, the sweet violet, is a hardy perennial, parent of the florist’s violets, many of them sweetly scented. The soil should be rich and moist but well-drained. Plant the crowns in the open in a sheltered, shady position in April, or in September for winter flowering in a cold sunny frame. Propagation is by […]
How to grow Geranium From the Greek geranos, a crane, because the seed pod resembles a crane’s head and beak (Geraniaceae). Crane’s-bill. A genus of hardy herbaceous summer-flowering perennials with lobed or cut leaves, widely distributed over the temperate regions of the world. They are easily cultivated, free flowering and some are useful rock garden plants, others good border plants. […]
Delphinium: Tall queen of the perennial border The Stateliest of All Hardy Blue-flowered Herbaceous Perennials (Delphin’ium). 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 Ajacis, originally from eastern […]
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 a long period, blooming on and off from spring through to autumn. The leaves are evergreen and the flowers are […]
The students have returned to school, your mailbox is crammed with a new crop of seed catalogs, the leaves are falling, and the days are getting shorter. Drive by your local garden center or roadside stand and the displays are filled with ornamental kales and cabbages. Autumn has arrived. Long after the first snowfall and frost have erased most traces […]
Every gardener is familiar with the extraordinary effectiveness of vines in a proper setting, but most of us become discouraged after bad luck. The daintier vines have a habit of developing some unknown illness and dying back unexpectedly, while those which thrive, usually do too good a job of it. Many a porch has collapsed under the weight of a […]
African violet is perhaps the only full-blown paradox that can survive on a windowsill. On one hand, it is a celebrated show plant, with new cultivars eagerly sought after by collectors and enthusiasts. It has its own organization, the African Violet Society of America, and its own magazine, African Violet. A quick Internet search reveals that there are almost as […]