Plant Profile: Creeping Mahonia (Mahonia reptans)
Karen This low growing suckering evergreen shrub is native to northwest America from British Columbia and Alberta to Arizona and New Mexico and west to California. The shiny blue-green leaves are…
Garden Gnomes and Priapus
Some people love them, other people hate them. Gnomes are popular with many gardeners but the organizers of the Chelsea flower show banned them because they detracted from the garden…
Plant Profile: Escallonia (Escallonia rubra)
This native of Chile is a tough evergreen shrub with medium texture growing up to thirteen feet high. It has glossy dark green aromatic leaves and produces loose panicles of…
Book Review: Rain Gardens: Managing Water Sustainably in the Garden and Designed Landscape
Water is increasingly become a scarce commodity for gardeners and many measures are being taken to make the most of the water supply we have. One of these measures is…
Weeds and Their Control: Spanish Needles (Bidens bipinnata)
Spanish needles is a summer annual native to tropical America. It is found along most of the East coast, Midwest, South and west to California. Spanish needles prefers partial shade,…
Plant Profile: Inkberry (Ilex glabra)
Native from Nova Scotia to Florida and west to Mississippi where it grows in swamps, inkberry is a medium sized broad leaved evergreen shrub. It has a spreading habit and…
Major Diseases of Roses
Roses have a reputation of being prone to problems causes by diseases and pests. Unfortunately, there is some truth to this belief but rose’s vary enormously in their susceptibility. Some…
Plant Profile: Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana)
One of the icons of the deep South, the live oak is often shown draped with Spanish moss. Its huge massive size, wide-spreading horizontal branches, and stiff, glossy, leathery leaves…
Book Review: In the Garden: Who’s Been Here?
Gardens are made up of more than plants and Lindsay Barret Beorge’s book, In the Garden: Who’s Been Here? introduces the reader to some of the animals that might be…
Botany for Gardeners: Taxonomy of Dicots-Identifying the Mallow Family (Malvaceae)
The mallow family is best known for cotton, cocao, okra, hibiscus, and hollyhock, but includes other plants with showy flowers such as sidalcea, globe mallow, and lavatera, as well as…