Fine Gardening – Issue 192
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Plant Collecting | Letter from the Editor
I have a bit of a collecting problem. As a kid I was always collecting things: matchboxes, pins, rocks (gotta get ’em all!). I would shift focus with regularity, and…
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How to Keep Your Begonias Happy
Making begonias happy is so easy that many gardeners miss the mark merely by overindulging these affable plants. To give you some idea of their congeniality, begonias were being grown…
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Friends and Anemones in the Garden
It’s been many years now since a friend gave me meadow anemone (Anemone canadensis). I was happy to receive it. It brought back fond memories of spring walks through the…
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Check Out the Legs on This Shady Character
Sometimes the boss sends an email that you choose to ignore. And then there are the times that the boss sends an email and it’s impossible to ignore—because there’s a…
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An Early Spring Plant With a Tropical Sizzle
About 40 years ago on a visit to Maryland, I went to a colonial house and garden. It was a cold, blustery day, and the snow had only just melted…
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Calling All Hummingbirds—and Those Who Love to Watch Them
Who knew there was a plant for fans of the cultural phenomenon that is the Angry Birds video game and movie? While the unusual plant Cardinale™ Red red birds in…
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A Garden Design Plan That Incorporates Mass Plantings
When you’re first designing your mass plantings, it can be hard to envision how many plants to include and how close to install them. This garden is located at Afterglow…
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Readers' Tips: Drink Coffee, Start a Plant
Winning Tip: Use K-Cup Coffee Pods to Start Seeds K-Cup coffee pods make great containers for starting seeds or rooting cuttings. I cut off the foil top and wash the…
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Give Your Garden Mass Appeal
There is no denying that massing plants makes an impact. Many of the most compelling gardens (think Piet Oudolf’s High Line plantings in New York) feature masses of plants. Massing…
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Redbuds: Sweethearts of the Woodland
Small, native, flowering trees always seem to be in high demand, with dogwoods (Cornus spp. and cvs., Zones 2–9) traditionally getting the lion’s share of attention. But in recent years,…
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Making Room for Color and Creativity in the Garden
It was happy chance when a current client said, “We have a new neighbor, Kim, with a great energy about her who needs garden help.” A short walk later we…
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If You Like Heirloom Vegetables, You'll Love These New Varieties
Many gardeners, including myself, grow older, classic, or heirloom varieties of vegetables. We have many reasons for doing so. Some may be sentimental reasons, such as we obtained the seeds…
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Regional Picks: Spring Color—Midwest
If your first few trips to the nursery can be overwhelming and chaotic, check out our plant recommendations for spring color in your region. There’s no doubt that these spring…
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Regional Picks: Spring Color—California
If your first few trips to the nursery can be overwhelming and chaotic, check out our plant recommendations for spring color in your region. There’s no doubt that these spring…
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Regional Picks: Spring Color—Mountain West
If your first few trips to the nursery can be overwhelming and chaotic, check out our plant recommendations for spring color in your region. There’s no doubt that these spring…
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Regional Picks: Spring Color—Northwest
If your first few trips to the nursery can be overwhelming and chaotic, check out our plant recommendations for spring color in your region. There’s no doubt that these spring…
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Regional Picks: Spring Color—South
If your first few trips to the nursery can be overwhelming and chaotic, check out our plant recommendations for spring color in your region. There’s no doubt that these spring…
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Regional Picks: Spring Color—Southern Plains
If your first few trips to the nursery can be overwhelming and chaotic, check out our plant recommendations for spring color in your region. There’s no doubt that these spring…
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Are Nativars OK?
Enthusiasm for native plants continues growing each year as we become increasingly aware of and concerned about the deleterious impacts humans have on the natural world. These impacts, which include…
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10 Perennial Standouts
The Chicago Botanic Garden’s evaluation program has looked at nearly 10,000 different plants during the past 30 years, most of which were included in one of the more than a…
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7 Important Host Plants for Pollinators
While an array of plants provide nectar for bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects, some pollinators require individual host plants to develop from their larval to adult stage. As few…
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Pruning and Staking a Weeping Redbud
Weeping redbuds will generally not grow much taller than the height to which they are staked. When they come home from a nursery, they have usually been staked to about…
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Find the Right Begonia for You
There’s something for everyone with begonias. The size range runs the gamut from tight little nuggets with tiny foliage to big whopping plants that stand several feet tall and take…
Featured Articles
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Answers to Common Mass Planting Questions
Mass planting can be just the thing to create drama and impact in the garden. That said, planting masses of the same type of plant isn't for everyone or every…
Garden Design
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Regional Picks: Spring Color—Northeast
If your first few trips to the nursery can be overwhelming and chaotic, check out our plant recommendations for spring color in your region. There’s no doubt that these spring…
Garden Regional Reports
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Awesome, Underused Rhododendrons
I knew rhododendrons at an early age. These woody evergreens were great havens in a game of hide-and-seek—if you could find a way to navigate the tangled hell of branches…
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How to Prune Common Shrubs
Perhaps you can relate: A few years ago a family member of mine purchased a gorgeous ninebark—because, honestly, this shrub was featured as a “must-have” in all the local nurseries…
FG Web Extras
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Pollinator Perspective: Natives or Nativars?
Prompted by public interest in the light of recent pollinator declines, researchers at the Chicago Botanic Garden sought to investigate pollinator preferences between true native species and their cultivars. Leveraging…
Articles
Fine Gardening Magazine
