In this season of rapidly emerging garden weeds, Doug Tallamy's recently published Nature's Best Hope really got me thinking about how subjective and value-skewed the word "weed" is. We want plants with wildlife value but get tripped up with words that carry a lot of baggage. The common definition of weed as a plant out of place is subject to all sorts of interpretations. It depends on your point of view.
After such a mild winter, my 'Brandywine' strain hellebores (Helleborus x hybridus 'Brandywine' ™) are especially lovely. Time to give these Lenten roses, aka Oriental hellebores, center stage. Even my cut-leafed stinking hellebores (Helleborus foetidus) look pretty good this spring.
Not bound by the same interrelationships, many invasive plants get the jump on natives by greening up earlier, growing faster, photosynthesizing longer. March offers a window of opportunity to recognize and remove them before native plants leaf out and gardeners get too busy to notice.
To restore, protect or create habitat, first you need to determine what is already there to preserve and encourage to spread. Even in winter, deciduous trees and shrubs offer a lot of clues about the site and what wants to grow there.
As we all know, iconic, fascinating, beautiful (and seriously threatened) monarch butterflies are milkweed specialists. So how do monarch butterflies find milkweed plants? Read how to design gardens for maximum monarch butterfly benefit.
Looking at the kinds of adaptations plants evolved to survive in different environments gives us clues for choosing plants that will thrive in our gardens. It's what I call The Darwinian Garden.
Listen to Thomas Christopher's interview with Karen Bussolini on his Growing Greener podcast. Garden coaching, garden photography, garden making, it's all there.
Soon after settling in beside the wood stove with Summer Rayne Oakes' How To Make a Plant Love You and a comforting cup of tea one recent cold Saturday, I had to lay that book right down again - and turn to plants.
Emerald ash borers (EAB) are bright metallic green wood boring beetles. They play a role in decomposition of dead and dying trees in their Asian home habitats, but quickly devastate even healthy ash trees in ours.
February's Connecticut Flower & Garden Show comes at just the right time for plant-lovers eager for spring. The speakers and landscape displays get better every year. Highlights from the 2020 show.