Your Backyard Garden Information Source
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 […]
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 […]
Were an artist to look upon a Petunia and wish that it had a delicate pattern traced upon its petals, he would create in his mind the Salpiglossis. The funnel-shaped flowers are borne upright upon slender but strong branches two feet tall. The flowers of Salpiglossis sinuala are crimson and gold, yellow and white, darkest maroon, scarlet and gold, violet […]
Cherries Two main groups of cherries are cultivated for the merit of their fruit, the `sweet’, dessert (Prunus avium) and the `sour’, culinary (Prunus cerasus); a third group, the ‘Duke’ cherries, form an intermediate class. The sweets are subdivided into the ‘black’ and ‘white’ varieties. All fruiting cherries are hardy in the British Isles, though the blossom may be damaged […]
Roses have a deep history behind them as well as their beauty. There are fossils of roses dated 35-40 millions years ago and are thought to originate in Asia. The oldest fossils were found in Colorado, Oregon and Montana, with younger fossils found in Yugoslavia and Germany. The oldest identified rose is Rosa gallica, commonly called the French Rose, can […]
CALLISTEMON—Bottle-Brush Tree (Calliste’mon). Tender evergreen flowering shrubs from Australia which belong to the Myrtle family, Myrtaceae. They are well adapted for growing outdoors in California and in similar mild climates and for greenhouse cultivation elsewhere. They have narrow, dark-green, leathery leaves, which are slightly aromatic when crushed. The flowers are densely packed in terminal cylindrical spikes resembling a bottle brush […]
Whether you specialize in any particular plant or not, the general design and layout of your garden must be pleasing and practical. There are some hard and fast rules to bear in mind, but in the main gardening is a subject upon which it is very hard to dogmatize, and the thing to remember is that the success or otherwise […]
Raspberries Most raspberries bear red fruit but a few have white or yellow berries. Most ripen in July, some in September or October, and some in either season according to when they are pruned. For varieties fruiting in summer, pruning is carried out immediately picking has finished, the old canes being cut out completely and replaced by the new canes […]
Japanese Maples Landscape Planting If your soil is heavy, it should be an amended with sand, bark, or other material to improve drainage, and the soil should be mounded above grade to assure good drainage. Maples are very adaptable to soil types, so if drainage is good, the addition of compost for nutrients and tilth is all that is needed. […]
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 colour ranges from white through pink, mauve and purple to red. Species […]