Growers Guide for Bee Balm – Monarda Plant

Named after a sixteenth-century Spanish physician and botanist, Nicholas Monardes (Labiatae). A small genus of annual and perennial herbs from North America, with fragrant leaves and flowers, related to Salvia. The leaves are nettle-like, and the flowers have a spiky appearance and are clustered together in whorls: the color ranges from white through pink, mauve, and purple to red. Species […]

What is Beetroot

Beetroot This sweet salad vegetable has a high food value. It needs deep soil and is best suited to a place where a previous non-root crop has been grown. Do not add fresh manure, as this is inclined to cause root forking. If instead of growing vegetables in the kitchen garden, they are grown in the old-fashioned cottager’s way interspersed with […]

Grow Japanese Red Maple Trees from Seed

  Most Japanese Maple seeds ripen in the fall. Watch the tree and wait for the seeds to turn brown. The seeds are ready to be harvested when they are brown and can be easily removed from the tree. The seeds are attached to a wing, it’s best to break the wing off before storing or planting the seeds. Japanese […]

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 a long period, blooming on and off from spring through to autumn. The leaves are evergreen and the flowers are […]

Kniphofia ( Red-hot Poker )

Distinctive border perennial with Leaves are narrow, long, and grasslike. This is a sturdy, but graceful plant with few problems and architectural character. Varieties available in both dwarf and larger forms. Primary bloom season is summer. Remove spent flower spikes and old leaves in fall. Good companion plant for daylilies.

Growing Guide for Peonies

Few perennials can offer what the peony does–beautiful, prolific flowers in early summer and good foliage afterwards. Once established, peonies will flower for many years with minimum care. Moreover, they’re incredibly hardy and can easily withstand cold northern winters. The basic types of peonies are herbaceous (Paeonia officinalis), which grow to heights of two to four feet; fern-leaved (Paeonia tenufolia), […]

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 Josephine. Naturally the whole tale is full of roses. It is fitting that Josephine began life with a rose in […]

How to plant Strawberries

Stocks Strawberries are subject to several serious virus diseases, and at one time these threatened to make commercial cultivation quite uneconomic and garden culture most disappointing. However, there has been considerable improvement in the general health of strawberry stocks since the introduction of a government scheme of inspection. It is of the utmost importance to start with disease-free stock and […]

Growing Primroses the Guarantee Way

The few requirements for primroses are easily met and are found in practically every garden. They do require shade throughout Mid-America, but this is always available on the north side of the house or in the shade of shrubs, evergreens, or trees. Primroses not only offer a variety of form, size, color, the habit of growth, but bloom (depending upon […]

Heirloom Vegetables and Tomatoes

In the 70’s, my father would pack all of us in the station wagon, and drive for what seemed an eternity to visit my relatives. I was pretty young, but I can remember two details quite vividly. My brother getting me to ask, “Are we there yet?” and, visiting my Grandparents. My Grandma was an avid cook and gardener. While […]