This flashy Floribunda has bright golden yellow flowers with a wide orange-red edging and golden stamens. The mildly fragrant flowers are borne singly or in clusters of three to seven. They have a flat to cup-shaped form and are lightly double with ten petals. The petals have yellow backs and wavy edges that emphasize the contrasting colors. The bush has dark, glossy, healthy leaves is disease resistant and easy to grow. It is a popular exhibition rose with flowers that last a long time on the bush or in a vase. [click to read full post]
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Lois Ehlert’s book, Growing Vegetable Soup, is a great way to interest your children in growing and eating vegetables. From onions, to broccoli and tomatoes, peppers, squash and more, the plants are presented in stages from seed to the contents of soup. Tools and equipment as well as the skills necessary for raising the vegetables and making them into soup are all included. 
A native of southern Asia, velvetleaf is also known as Indian mallow. It was introduced into North American in the 1700s and is now found throughout the US. It is considered an invasive weed in agricultural areas of eastern and midwestern US, causing considerable harm to crops especially soybeans and corn. Velvetleaf takes both nutrients and moisture from other plants and can also shade out small plants because of its height and large leaves. Velvetleaf thrives in sunny gardens as well as in disturbed sites such as roadsides. 
A native of southern Texas south to Mexico, center-strip agave is also known as thorncrest century plant. It is a slow growing evergreen succulent with leaves seven inches long and two inches wide forming a rosette twelve inches high and up to twenty four inches wide. The cultivar, ‘Splendida’, developed in South Carolina, features conspicuous white teeth along the margins of the leaf and an especially attractive broad center band that can be seen on both upper and lower surfaces. Like other agaves, ‘Splendida’ when mature produces a single stalk up to twelve feet tall that bears numerous greenish yellow flowers with long stamens. After blooming the plant dies but pups growing around the central rosette of leaves will take its place. The thorns on the plant are very sharp and gloves should be worn when working around it. 
A garden planted with white flowers can be a breath taking sight. The white brings a feeling of coolness to the garden in daytime heightened by the green foliage. In the evening, the white flowers are seem to glimmer in low light and stand out almost as if they had an inner light of their own. The many shades of white can be extended to include the silver and gray foliage that also can add a variety of textures to the garden. To start the growing season in the spring, try including some spring bulbs that boast white flowers. 
Garden design can mean many different things to different people but to author Julie Moir Messervy, it is a journey of discovery. It involves looking within ourselves and creating a garden in the mind based on favorite memories such as childhood experiences and places visited. This inward, imaginary garden is then transformed into reality with a garden on the land. Messervy’s book, The Inward Garden, takes the reader through seven steps that provide both the structure for building the imaginary garden in the mind and the practical process for creating a garden design that reflects the personal values and feelings of the designer. 
Carolina chickweed is native to Eastern United States but is known throughout North America where it is a winter annual from Zone 6 southward but a spring weed in northern areas. It likes full or partial sun, dry conditions, and sandy, gravelly, infertile soil but tolerates many soil types including acidic conditions. It easily invades disturbed areas and can be found along roadsides and other waste areas as well as in pastures, woodland, lawns and gardens. 
This native of Japan is a small deciduous tree or large shrub that provides a beautiful display of flowers in spring. The white or pink tinged flowers are star-shaped, three to four inches wide and appear in late winter or very early spring before the leaves emerge. Reddish aggregate fruits bearing orange seeds develop in early fall. The leaves are bronze in spring when they emerge, turn medium to dark green in summer and become an uninteresting yellow in fall. They are two to four inches long, smaller than those of other magnolias. Star magnolia is an excellent tree or shrub for shrub borders, an informal hedge, and small spaces such as patios. Since the flower buds are susceptible to frost damage plants should be located in protected areas and warm southern exposures should be avoided. 
The Romans enjoyed animals in the garden just as we do. Birds, dogs, cats, and fish all had a place in Roman life. Evidence for the presence of animals in Pompeian gardens comes from wall paintings, mosaics, sculpture, skeletal remains, castes and the writing of ancient Roman authors. Putting all of this evidence together we can get a reasonably good idea of the role that animals might have played in a garden of ancient Pompeii but we can not know for sure. 
