Gardenig in Germany. Tips & Guides

Even if your vacuum cleaner has served you well for many years, all appliances have an expiration date and aren't meant to last forever. So how do you know for sure that yours is on its last leg?

Gardeners just getting into garlic have some decisions to make: there are dozens of different varieties, and choosing which one to grow can be difficult. But it’s hard to go wrong. Experimenting with various varieties can lead to a new appreciation of a crop you already love.

Today’s boozy vase shares some elements with last week’s although lacks its fullness, containing less than an armful but more than a small posy, although with more time at my disposal it could have become more fulsome than it is. Having achieved my personal challenge of creating a vase with such a large number of blooms, I feel more confident of repeating the exercise and the garden is certainly proving the material to do so.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve all had to get used to communicating across a distance, whether that’s through video chat or with significant physical separation.

In January I visited the world’s largest horticultural show in Essen, Germany, and came away with some great take-aways, but I was especially impressed with the significant trend of pruning, training and grafting certain plants into new and unusual forms.

On a trip through Germany in 1971, I took a train from Frankfurt to Munich. The train was half-empty, and I looked around for a while before finding a friendly face. He was a factory worker in Germany but was originally from Italy. I don’t think we had talked more than three minutes before we were on the subject of food. He asked me if I had tasted pasta with broccoletti di rape. I assured him that I had, and he clasped his hands, rolled his eyes, and exclaimed in his beautiful dialect, “It’s so good it hurts!” What he called broccoletti di rape, or rape (pronounced rah-PAY) for short, is better known in this country as broccoli rabe. However you pronounce it or spell it, this marvelous cool-weather vegetable is a joy to grow and to cook with. Learn how to grow your own broccoli rabe from seed, and take advantage of this versatile green.

2024 is a big year for football fans and punters assessing the best sign-up offers, with Euro 24 in Germany kicking off in June. However, when studying the form of the players and sides ahead of the summer showpiece, have you ever stopped to wonder what a footballer has in his garden?

Flowers that are endemic to a particular place always grab attention with their special beauty. Today, we bring you the best Iranian flowers that are sure to impress!

Bluestars are in the genus Amsonia. There are at least twenty-two known species, and most are native to the Eastern United States. All are in the Apocynaceae (Dogbane) family, so named because the milky sap is slightly toxic to dogs. Due to the unpleasant taste of the sap, Bluestars are deer- and rabbit-resistant. There are no known serious insect or disease problems.

With so many varieties to choose from, it can be hard to know the Best Tasting Tomato varieties. Do not worry, tomato lovers! We’ve rounded up some of the most delicious tomatoes out there!

From the eye-catching Edelweiss that thrives in the majestic Alps to bright and playful Cornflowers that are a common sight in the lush countryside, all German flowers have a story to tell, which we will discover in this article!

Ranging from $500 to $5,000 per kilogram, saffron, or the Red Gold as it is commonly referred to, takes a total of about 150,000 flowers to produce just one kilogram! Now you know why it would be a great idea to have its plant at home!

Are Peace Lilies Toxic to Dogs?

Health Benefits of Kohlrabi

Dumping manure in public spaces, hurling eggs at government buildings, blocking major roads—the European farmers who have taken to the streets to challenge free trade policies sure know how to raise a ruckus. Beginning with German farmers in January earlier this year, to then include French and Belgian producers, the continent-wide protest movement has expanded into Spain and Italy as of mid-February. Their public disruption has also produced results.

How to Plant and Grow Turnips Brassica rapa subsp. rapa

Cross summer-blooming begonias with some of their cold-tolerant counterparts and you get the Rieger begonia—a great option for a pop of tropical color during the winter season. Pronounced “REE-ger,” the Rieger begonia is a winter flowering plant with blossoms like tea roses. Although these hybrids don’t have any scent, they more than make up for it with their riotously colorful, creamy blooms. Riegers range from reds, pinks, and bright yellows to shades of orange and stark white. What’s more, under the right conditions, they can bloom indoors for several weeks and they’re fairly easy to propagate, too.

There are certain global events that everyone knows. If you've never heard of St Patrick's Day, people will likely ask you what planet you are from. Globally, people grow up hearing tales of Carnival in Brazil, Oktoberfest in Germany, and several other festivals that are also celebrated in smaller numbers outside their home countries. But what of the world’s lesser-known celebrations? Have you ever heard of Spain’s baby jumping festival? Or the Monkey Buffet Festival in Thailand? (No, it doesn’t involve humans eating them.)

Iris flowers are named after the Greek Goddess of the rainbow, which is appropriate for their extensive range of colours.

Over the course of 130 years, spanning from 1893 to 2023, the cultivation of giant pumpkins has undergone a remarkable evolution. In 1893, the exploration of oversized pumpkins was in its nascent stages, marked by growers experimenting with novel approaches. Fast forward to 2023, and the quest for world records in giant pumpkin weights has burgeoned into a global phenomenon. Contemporary growers leverage advanced cultivation techniques, innovative fertilizers, and meticulous care to foster giant pumpkins, consistently shattering previous records.

African violet is perhaps the only full-blown paradox that can survive on a windowsill. On one hand, it is a celebrated show plant, with new cultivars eagerly sought after by collectors and enthusiasts. It has its own organization, the African Violet Society of America, and its own magazine, African Violet. A quick Internet search reveals that there are almost as many African violet sites as there are pages for sex and dieting. And yet, these plants are mass-produced by the hundreds of thousands and are readily available for a minuscule price from mom and pop garden centers, enormous mega-merchandisers, and a host of medium-size vendors.

Named for Karl August von Bergen, 1704-60, German botanist (Saxifragaceae). These hardy perennial herbaceous plants with large evergreen leaves were at one time called megasea, and were at another time included with the saxifrages. The flowers which come in early spring are showy in white, pink or red-purple, borne in large heads on long stems. The large leathery, glossy leaves are also decorative, especially as in some kinds the foliage is suffused with reddish color in winter.

How to grow Heuchera

January is an interesting time to look for birds in the garden, as days are short and the availability of natural food is limited. This brings more birds into gardens, for whom a reliable source of supplementary food can be a lifeline.

Eric Sternfels sent in these photos today, of a beautiful community-created garden in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania called Ned Wolf Park. We’ve visited this garden a couple of times before (Revisiting Ned Wolf Park) and it is always a pleasure. This garden is special because it is created and maintained by volunteers in the community, so everyone can enjoy this beautiful space.

It is not so much a lawn as a moonscape: pitted craters dug by bandicoots, exhausted tufts of withered yellow grass plucked by wallabies and pitiful plants shrivelled brown under the Australian sunshine.

Last week, Anna of Green Tapestry apologised for ‘cheating’ when she shared her amaryllis/hippeastrum In a Vase on Monday. Happily, our rules for this meme are fairly fluid and contributors share vases very much in the spirit of it, and it was by no means cheating – and I am not just saying that because I doing something very similar this week! In fact, I am very grateful to Anna for messaging me back in November to let me know that ‘a certain German supermarket’ had these bulbs in stock, allowing me to hotfoot it down to our local store ASAP.

How to Grow and Care for Persian Violets Exacum affine

Today we’ve got photos from Christine Callwood’s garden, sent in by her daughter, Jinger.

How to Grow and Care for Queen’s Tears Bromeliads Billbergia nutans

Looking for a greatgardening book to read or gift this Christmas? Here’s my pick of the crop from this year’s harvest.

While some may be familiar with Japanese sacred lily (Rohdea japonica, Zones 6–10), Rohdea pachynema is an uncommon species that is indeed a Rohdea less traveled. Found only in the Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan, it is an intriguing member of the Asparagaceae family that is slowly becoming more available to gardeners. It was formerly known as Campylandra sinensis or C. pachynema, but recent DNA work has moved it into the genus Rohdea, whose name commemorates German botanist Michael Rohde. We can find no documented common name for this species, so we have dubbed it “yellow thread rohdea” since pachynema means “thick thread” (referring to the colored central stripe on the leaves). 

From rich history, characteristics, appearance, growth, and more – here’s everything you need to know about the Family of 210 Flowering Plants!

Beyond their delicate beauty, Forget-Me-Not Flower Meaning can signify many things. Explore the hidden symbolism and diverse uses of these charming blooms below!

Whilst we huddle with cups of hot chocolate, wrapped in layers of wool, gearing ourselves up to make those first boot tracks in crisp frost, our wintry gardens are already being enjoyed by the birds. From the cunning Treecreeper to the bolshy Robin, the RSPB help us identify who will be paying your garden a visit in the cold season.

On 8 September 2023, Virgin Galactic’s ‘Galactic 03’ mission flew three tourists to the edge of space. The news that one of them  (Tim Nash) carried a pocketful of priceless hominin bones has caused a backlash from the scientific community, due to their being both irreplaceable artefacts and human ancestral remains.