plant trials - Fine Gardening
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DesignGrow the Best Red-Hot Pokers—Planting Guide and Trial Results
Like many northern gardeners, I had red-hot poker envy for many years but ruled out growing them because of their iffy chances of surviving winter in my region. However, I…
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DesignEpisode 154: Putting Plants to the Test with Richard Hawke
Richard Hawke is the director of ornamental plant research at Chicago Botanic Garden, where he oversees comparative evaluations of ornamental plants. The CBG Plant Evaluation Program has included 117 distinct…
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DesignA Guide to Growing Reed Grasses: Best-Performing Varieties and Care
As native grasses such as little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium and cvs., Zones 3–9) and prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis and cvs., Zones 3–9) increasingly gain traction in gardens, exotics such as…
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How-ToBest of the Bush Clovers: Trial Plant Results
By the time August rolls around, I’m looking for something new in the garden to pique my interest. I’m not quite ready for fall plants to take their turn, so…
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DesignThe Best Summer Alliums to Grow: Plant Trial Results
Some years ago, during a midsummer trip to Wisconsin, I found myself transfixed by a vast planting of ‘Summer Beauty’ allium dotted throughout with taller bright pink coneflowers (Echinacea spp.…
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DesignNoteworthy New Summer Alliums
Although too new to our trial to be fully evaluated, these notable alliums are worthy of praise. Keep an eye out for them when you're at your local garden center…
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DesignMissing Plant Trials and Chile Rellenos | Letter from the Editor
Before we stopped traveling for the better part of two years, my favorite annual trip for Fine Gardening was to the Chicago Botanic Garden. Every year I’d visit Richard Hawke,…
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DesignThese New Burnets Deserve Your Attention
These burnets are new on the scene, but they're already showing promise. ‘Blackthorn’ burnet Robust ‘Blackthorn’ burnet (S. ‘Blackthorn’) was one of the largest of all the burnets after just…
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DesignBurnets Are Tough and Beautiful Plants
I have no recollection of burnets—native or cultivated—before my back-to-back encounters with great burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis) in the South Korean countryside and on the grassy steppes of Siberia. The sight…
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DesignChicago Botanic Garden Trial Gardens
For more than a decade, Richard Hawke has been writing for Fine Gardening, giving readers insight into his plant trial results. He is the plant evaluation manager at the Chicago…
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