Featured Articles

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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,…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

    Garden Design

  • 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 Regional Reports

  • 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…

    FG Web Extras

  • 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…

  • 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…

    Articles

  • 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…

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