 While I relish our warm months, winter forms our character and brings out our best. Tom Allen
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Adding Color to Our Lives
Color is an intensely personal element. Think of how you choose your clothes. Color can excite and stimulate or it can soothe and refresh. One of the hardest features to design in a garden is color, especially because every color is affected by its companion colors. None stands alone. |  |
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How to Grow and Care for Poppies
Sporting huge, cup-shaped blooms in early summer, the Oriental poppy is the most striking of the perennial poppies, and the delicate, papery flowers belie the plant's hardiness and durability. |  |
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Hybrid or Open Pollinated
Gardeners have been flooded with information on the relative merits of hybrid and open-pollinated vegetable varieties. In some quarters, the distinctions feed a passionate debate, and of course, each point of view has its champions. Various controversies are involved, but in almost every discussion one issue inevitably arises: Which type of plant is better suited to today's home garden, hybrids or open-pollinated varieties? |  |
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Herbs in a Pot
There's nothing like a home-cooked meal flavored with herbs cut fresh from your garden. The best part is that you don't need to cultivate an entire backyard plot to grow enough herbs to use in meals — a simple container on a deck or patio can provide herbs all season, as you need them. |  |
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Forcing Branches for Inside Blooms
In the dead of winter, it's hard to imagine the stage is already set for flowering trees and shrubs to burst into bloom. In fact, after six to eight weeks of 32 to 45 F outdoor temperatures (by January in most areas), trees and shrubs have met their dormancy requirements. By pruning branches from many common deciduous trees and shrubs, you can create beautiful indoor bouquets to serve as harbingers of spring. |  |
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Getting Started with Fruit Trees
Tree-ripened fruits are sweeter and more flavorful because you can harvest when they're ready, not when the packer and shipper are ready. There's room in almost every garden for at least one or two, especially if you chose dwarf kinds. Here are some tips to help you get started with fruit trees. |  |
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Eat Well
I used to have a rather narrow view of fruits and vegetables: they were just a way to take in fiber, vitamins, and minerals while avoiding fat and calories. But I now know that these foods are more than just filler laced with the relatively narrow list of natural chemicals we know as nutrients. |  |
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Together with Jung Seed The new Jung Seed Spring 2023 Catalog has arrived! Shop hundreds of varieties of flowers, shrubs, vegetables, fruits, and more. We have a wonderful new selection this year that we are very excited to share with you. FREE SHIPPING on orders $100+ valid till 2/28/23. Shop now!
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Rose (Rosa 'Red Cascade')
Bloom size: Small: under 2"
Petal count: double: 16-25 petals
Rose bloom color: Dark red
Extra Bloom Info: In clusters
Rebloom: Good
Class: Miniature
Growth Habit: Very short, 1-2 feet, very bushy; true groundcover rose. Can also be grown as climbing miniature, 6-8 feet tall.
Fragrance: Mild
Hybridizer & year: Ralph S. Moore, 1976
Optimal growing zones: USDA zone 5 and warmer
Plant Habit: Shrub
Life cycle: Perennial
Sun Requirements: Full Sun
Plant Height: 1-2 feet
Plant Spread: 6-8 feet
Leaves: Deciduous
Flowers: Showy, Fragrant
Flower Color: Red
Flower Time: Spring, Summer, Fall
Uses: Groundcover, Cut Flower
Wildlife Attractant: Bees
Containers: Suitable in 3 gallon or larger, Needs repotting every 2 to 3 years, Needs excellent drainage in pots
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Canary Island Lavender (Lavandula canariensis)
Sun Requirements: Full Sun
Leaves: Fragrant
Flowers: Showy, Fragrant
Uses: Culinary Herb, Cut Flower, Dried Flower, Suitable as Annual
Wildlife Attractant: Butterflies, Bees
Resistances: Deer Resistant
Toxicity: Other
Containers: Suitable in 3 gallon or larger
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Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Bluegrass Memories')
Hybridizer: Preuss-T.
Year of Registration or Introduction: 2006
Foliage type: Semi-evergreen
Scape height: 24 inches
Bloom size: 5.5 inches
Bloom time: Early midseason
Plant Traits: Rebloom, Diurnal
Bud Count: 16-20
Branching: 4-way
Fertility: Pod Fertile, Pollen Fertile
Bloom Traits: Eye or Band
Bloom Form: Single
Color description: purple with slate blue eye above green throat
AHS Awards: Award of Merit, Honorable Mention
Plant Habit: Herb/Forb
Life cycle: Perennial
Sun Requirements: Full Sun to Partial Shade
Minimum cold hardiness: Zone 4a -34.4 °C (-30 °F) to -31.7 °C (-25 °F)
Flowers: Showy
Ploidy: Tetraploid
Parentage: Unvanquished x Mrs John Cooper
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Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum)
Plant Habit: Herb/Forb
Life cycle: Perennial
Sun Requirements: Full Sun
Water Preferences: Mesic
Flower Time: Late spring or early summer
Edible Parts: Stem
Eating Methods: Raw, Cooked
Resistances: Drought tolerant
Toxicity: Leaves are poisonous
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Corn Plant (Dracaena fragrans)
Plant Habit: Tree
Life cycle: Perennial
Sun Requirements: Full Sun, Full Sun to Partial Shade, Partial or Dappled Shade
Water Preferences: Mesic
Minimum cold hardiness: Zone 9b -3.9 °C (25 °F) to -1.1 °C (30 °F)
Plant Height: 10 to 40 feet or more
Leaves: Evergreen, Other
Fruit: Showy, Other
Flowers: Showy, Fragrant
Flower Color: White
Bloom Size: Under 1"
Suitable Locations: Houseplant
Uses: Windbreak or Hedge
Wildlife Attractant: Hummingbirds, Butterflies, Bees
Resistances: Humidity tolerant
Containers: Suitable in 3 gallon or larger, Needs excellent drainage in pots
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 Photo by floota
"LITTLE DEJAS BLUES"
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 Photo by HamiltonSquare
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 Photo by sedumzz
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 Photo by RuuddeBlock
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 Photo by HamiltonSquare
"var. minnelli"
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 Photo by Valery33
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 Photo by Baja_Costero
"First fruit"
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 Photo by MargieNY
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 Photo by RuuddeBlock
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 Photo by HamiltonSquare
"Adromischus marianiae f. herrei"
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Together with Victory Seed Company Every kitchen garden needs herbs and we have them at Victory Seed Company. Anise, basil, catnip, dill, echinacea, fennel, lemon balm, oregano, parsley, sage, thyme, and more. These are all easy to grow from seed and cost way less than buying these as individual plants. Grow a bunch for yourself and to share with friends and neighbors. Browse our collection of herb seeds.
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Active threads from our forums:
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The numbers from this week:
197 members joined.
3,197 posts written in our forums.
993 photos posted to the plant database.
604 plants added to personal inventory lists.
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 Winter is a season of recovery and preparation. Paul Theroux
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