Plant Profile: American Chestnut (Castanea dentata)
Karen Native to Eastern US, the American chestnut is almost extinct in the wild because of the chestnut blight that was introduced on Japanese nursery stock in the late 1800s. Most…
Noisette Roses for Climbing in Trees
Noisttes are are tall vigorous old garden roses that need room. They can grow over twenty feet tall or long, and can easily overwhelm a small garden. A good solution…
Plant Profile: Flossflower (Ageratum houstonianum)
Flossflower is an annual belonging to the aster family (Asteraceae)and native to Mexico. It has become an invasive weed in some areas of the world while bred into a common…
Book Review: Small Holding Manual
We all have dreams for the “Good Life”; for some of us it is a house in a rural area with an acre of land, for others it is a…
A Visit to the Gardens of Melk Abbey, Melk, Austria
Most people come to see the church, the library, and the Benedictine abbey itself but few take the time to explore the grounds. As spectacular as the buildings are, the…
Plant Profile: Sweetshade (Hymenosporum flavum)
Sweetshade is a slender evergreen tree native to New Guinea and Queensland and New South Wales, Australia where it grows in rainforests and tall open forest habitats. It is closely…
Garden Plants for Flower Arrangements: Lily of the Nile (Agapanthus) Headborne Hybrids
There are many different kinds of agapanthus but the ‘Headborne Hybrids’ are considered the hardiest. They are rhizomatous perennials with fleshy roots and grey-green leathery strap-shaped leaves. Their funnel-shaped flowers…
Plant Profile: Rosa ‘Konigin von Danemark’
The medium pink blossoms with lighter pink edges are carried in clusters of three to nine and often weigh down the branches. The long sepaled flowers have a rosette form,…
Book Review: Sissinghurst:Vita Sackville-West and the Creation of a Garden
The gardens at Sissinghurst created by Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West, are icons of British gardening eminence and are visited by over 150,000 people every year. Author, Sarah Raven, traces…
Collecting Seed: Snapdragon (Anthirrhinum majus)
Snapdragons are tender perennials usually treated as annuls. They are cool weather plants and often grown in the spring and fall as they do not do well in summer heat.…