Happy Mardi Gras! Our botanical greeting for this day of revelry includes Show Off forsythia, Pucker Up dogwood, and Purple Emperor butterfly bush. Laissez le bon temps rouler!
Amethyst coral berry (Symphoricarpos x doorenbosii ‘Kordes’) was just awarded 2013 Cut Flower of the Year in the woody category! We are proud to be a resource for North American cut flower growers and floral arrangers.
View of the incredible Four Seasons Garden in England. This suburban backyard was designed and is maintained by Tony and Marie, two self-taught gardeners with the vision and enthusiasm to make it happen. See the garden in all four seasons here, and for even more from this amazing residential space, visit their Flickr stream.
Landscape looking dull? Instead of brown sticks, you could have glossy red berries if you plant Cardinal Candy viburnum. This linden viburnum was selected especially for its hardiness and heavy flower and fruit set.
October is breast cancer awareness month! As a proud partner of The Breast Cancer Research Foundation since 2009, Invincibelle Spirit hydrangea and Pink Day fundraisers at garden centers have helped raise over $427,000 for BCRF. That funds almost 10,000 hours of scientific research to find a cure for breast cancer!
Callicarpa is more commonly known as beautyberry - and what a beauty it is! While other plants are lighting up in red, orange, and yellow, beautyberry keeps its cool purple berries to brighten the landscape up through the first couple of frosts.
Flowering shrubs in containers = lots of bang for the buck. Here, Bobo hardy hydrangea keeps company with Vista Bubblegum petunia.
While hydrangeas are generally thought of as shade plants, Bobo is a panicle hydrangea, which can tolerate quite a lot of sun and heat. It also helps that this container is on a drip irrigation system, ensuring consistently moist soil.
The Gardener’s Nightmare
The candy bowl was empty, the candles all burned down,
So I picked up a volume of garden verse
And went to bed in my long flannel gown
Though I read a few poems and several horticultural tips
Twasn’t long til I began to doze and nod
With the words, “plant the rest of those crocus” still on my lips.
I awoke quite suddenly to a din, a true cacophony
It seemed to be coming from the garden
Somewhere around my planting of Daphne
I went to the window, pulled back the shade
and ran down to the yard to witness
An 11-mile long garden pest parade
Slugs and snails led the way, leaving trails of slime
Yet not a single raven flew in the sky
To prey on these vile things, one at a time.
A million Japanese beetles followed, shells shining in the light
They skeletonized every leaf they came across
With neither bT nor bucket of soapy water in sight
After them came mice and voles in terrifying array
They gnawed at the roots and the trees
Where was that red tailed hawk I saw yesterday?
Shouldn’t he be taking care of all of these?
Next the gophers and woodchucks lumbered, as they may
Cackling wickedly as they walked
They sneered and leered toward me and my hot pepper spray
Yet even they were nothing compared to two thousand rabbits
Who mowed down everything in their path,
Causing even more damage than is their normal habit
Deer, of course, were the main attraction, so regal they appear
And they browsed and rubbed every tree and shrub
I could only sit and watch, paralyzed with fear
Bringing up the end were acres of poison ivy and weeds—
There was dandelion and dock and grass galore
And each planted itself in the space that had just been freed
Then cloned itself, and planted one more.
Wake up, it’s just a dream, yelled a voice in my head
Then I awoke to muddy footprints on my sheets
And a trail of fallen leaves, ending at my bed.
- S. Hirvela, 2009
