Plant Profile: European Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)
Karen With its fine texture and beautiful oval to round crown, European hornbeam is an excellent tree for the home landscape. It can be pruned and sheared repeatedly so can be…
Book Review: Fantastic Fabric Folding: Innovative Quilting Projects
Rebecca Wat’s book, Fantastic Fabric Folding, takes origami to a new level. Introduced from Japan, origami is traditionally the art of paper folding but Wat presents techniques to produce flowers…
Valentine’s Day Flowers and Cards
Flowers are as traditional as cards for Valentine’s Day celebrations. In bygone eras, Valentine’s cards often featured flowers as part of the sentimental message the card was trying to convey.…
Five Red Miniature Roses for Containers
In spite of their delicate appearance, miniature roses are tough plants that offer a lot to gardeners. They can be used in the landscape like other roses but are especially…
The Goddess Flora and her Garden
Flora was an ancient Italian diety and was the goddess of the flowers and mother of spring. She may be recognized in art by a garland of flowers on her…
Plant Profile: ‘Red Racer’ (Helleborus ‘Red Racer’)
Hellebores are the one of the earliest flowers in spring to bloom and begin the gardening season. Most have white, lime-green, or pink to purple flowers, so ‘Red Racer’ is…
Book Review: Grow Fruit Naturally: A hands-On Guide to Luscious, Homegrown Fruit
If you love fruit you might consider growing your own and Lee Reich’s book Grow Fruit Naturally, is an excellent guide to help you. Written for the everyday gardener, the…
Botany for Gardeners: Taxonomy of Dicots – Identifying the Mint Family (Labiatae)
Botanically called Labiatae and more recently, Lamiacea, the mint family is large and made up mostly of annual or perennial herbs, many shrubs, and rarely trees. It includes a large…
Plant Profile: Blue Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica ‘Glauca’)
Like most conifers, blue Atlas cedar is evergreen and produces cones. It is a tall handsome tree native to the Atlas Mountains of Algeria and Morocco and closely related to…
Botany for Gardeners: Taxonomy – Classes of Flowering Plants, Monocots and Dicots
The plants that dominate the world today are known as flowering plants because of their method of reproduction. They produce ovules (flower eggs) that are completely contained within the ovary…