Quick Cut Flowers
A riot of color. That's the rosy definition of my yard's unruly borders, where colorful annuals and self-seeded dill, parsley, and forget-me-not tumble together. "It's the cottage garden look," I kept telling my husband. "It's a mess," [... more]
National Gardening Association |
Tarnished Plant Bug
This bug gets its name from its coppery-brown color. It is a major pest, especially for commercial growers. The list of favorite hosts reads like a catalog of major crops: apples and cotton to flowers and vegetables. In other words, if it grows ... [... more]
National Gardening Association |
Blackfoot daisy (Melampodium leucanthum)
Baja fairyduster (C. californica) is native to Baja California. Noah Webster was wrong. In his dictionary, he defined desert as "a desolate or forbidding area." Clearly, the famed lexicographer had never traveled through this country's [... more]
National Gardening Association |
Controlling Slugs
If there's one garden pest that's universally despised, it's slugs. Not only do they eat prized vegetables, herbs, and flowers at night while you sleep, but when you do catch them, they're so slimy and squishy that many gardeners won't even touch ... [... more]
National Gardening Association |
A Roundup of Unusual Rakes
Although a general-purpose wire or bamboo rake is fine for raking leaves and grass and cleaning up around shrubs and perennials, some unusual new rakes are designed for specific gardeners and specific fall gardening chores. After National ... [... more]
National Gardening Association |
Animal Fencing
Fencing is the most reliable defense against garden-raiding deer Fencing is the only sure-fired way to keep wild and domestic animals out of a prized garden long term. Although it can be expensive for large animals such as deer, it may be the ... [... more]
National Gardening Association |
Agastache 'Blue Fortune'
Plants that combine beauty with edibility are in vogue, and a new selection in the mint family fits this bill. Agastache 'Blue Fortune' has anise-scented leaves (hence its common name of anise hyssop) and purplish blue flower spikes that are ... [... more]
National Gardening Association |
A Rose Guru's Garden
The 1997 All-America Rose Selection 'Scentimental' was created by Tom Carruth. During a trip to sunny Los Angeles, this Boston-based rosarian was delighted to be invited to visit the home garden of Tom Carruth and his partner, John Furman. ... [... more]
National Gardening Association |
All-American Daylilies
A good daylily variety will bloom continuously for 3 to 4 weeks. By choosing varieties carefully, you can have daylilies flowering for the entire perennial season, 3 months in the North to 10 months in the South. It's an astonishing performance, ... [... more]
National Gardening Association |
Agastache 'Apache Sunset'
Agastache or hyssop is an old-fashioned perennial plant that's gaining in popularity with the introduction of new varieties. Agastache is a versatile plant. It has attractive foliage and flower spikes that bloom in a range of colors, such as ... [... more]
National Gardening Association |
Adding Color to Our Lives
Adding color to our lives is often why we garden in the first place. Color is an intensely personal element. Think of how you choose your clothes. I happen to love orange lilies in my garden although I would never wear orange. A friend of mine ... [... more]
National Gardening Association |
Alice's Flower Garden
Manchester, Vermont, is a ski town in the winter and an outlet town in the summer. While tourists stream up U.S. Highway 7, few realize that, whether they turn west toward town or east toward the mountains, they are within a mile of one of this ... [... more]
National Gardening Association |
