AS SHE OFTEN DOES, naturalist and nature writer Nancy Lawson—perhaps known better to some of you as the Humane Gardener after the title of her first book—caught my attention the other day.
11.01.2024 - 10:55 / balconygardenweb.com
Botanical Name: Fallopia japonica
This invasive weed displays bright green and large leaves that match really well with its red-maroon stems. It also grows small white flowers!
Botanical Name: Erodium cicutarium
This sprawling specimen thrives in dry habitats, and is quite a common spotting along roadsides. Its reddish stems against the green foliage can contrast a garden beautifully!
Botanical Name: Phytolacca americana
This is a perennial weed with thick, hollow red stems and dark purple berries. It can spread quickly, so it’s important to keep the growth in check.
Botanical Name: Apocynum cannabinum
Hemp Dogbane’s stems often have a red-brown hue. All parts are toxic to humans and pets, so it would be a good idea to avoid them in the garden.
Botanical Name: Polygonum convolvulus
Wild Buckwheat has twining stems with a red tinge that gets intensified if the plant gets full sunlight exposure. It’s mainly found in agricultural land, especially in grain fields.
Botanical Name: Lonicera maackii
Amur Honeysuckle is native to Asia and is a highly invasive species with typically red-brown stems ranging from lighter shades to nearly black.
Botanical Name: Oxalis corniculata
Resembling clover, this low-growing weed has light-green to purple-red stems and yellow flowers and spreads aggressively in fertile soil.
Botanical Name: Lamium amplexicaule
Henbit is native to Europe and is a weed-like plant of the mint family. It has flowers ranging from pink to purple attached to deep red or purple stems.
Botanical Name: Toxicodendron radicans
Poison Ivy is a woody weed that can also be a climbing vine, shrub, or groundcover. It has reddish stems and leaves with three leaflets.
Botanical Name: Parthenocissus quinquefolia
This fast-growing vine has
AS SHE OFTEN DOES, naturalist and nature writer Nancy Lawson—perhaps known better to some of you as the Humane Gardener after the title of her first book—caught my attention the other day.
Q: I have a winter flowering jasmine, growing profusely on a 3m-high north-facing wall. For most of its six years, it has produced an abundance of flowers, from early November until March. During the recent summer, I took a lot of its stems, which had bunched at about 2m, and gently stretched them out along a series of horizontal wires. This November I can only see a handful of flowers (less than 10). Did my gentle summer manipulation cause this drop in flowers and if so, how? CD, Co Dublin
If there’s one thing celebrity recipes are guaranteed to do, it’s spark a (lightly-controversial) conversation in the comments of their social media. Reese Witherspoon did just that after she shared a new creation with the world on TikTok January 18: a mug of snow mixed with cold brew topped with salted caramel and chocolate drizzle.
Placing trees of these colors needs great care, but their colors mingled with the multitude of others in autumn are effective and of great beauty; they do not blend well with the normal greens, particularly if used in quantity. They should, therefore, be used sparingly in isolation at points where they will inevitably catch the eye.
We'll help you recognize weeds that look like wheat. Some, like Wild Oats and Cheatgrass, seem similar but differ in seed heads. Others, like Jointed Goatgrass and Volunteer Barley, share features but have distinct characteristics. Learning to spot these differences can help you easily identify weeds that might be mistaken for wheat in your garden.
Winter is, broadly speaking, the ideal time to prune most trees and shrubs.
It is important to differentiate between pepper plants and their look like weeds to keep your garden clutter free and safe.
Aloe has many benefits — it's a natural remedy for sunburn, promotes skin health, and aids in wound healing. Use it for hair care, acne treatment, and as a makeup remover. But that's not all, it's for improving digestion, soothing minor burns, and repelling insects. You can create homemade lip balms and hand sanitizers with its gel, too. With potential health advantages like blood pressure regulation and immune system boosting, aloe is a versatile plant. Read more below!
Japanese Maple seeds have a very hard outer coating as do many ornamental plants. Under natural conditions, the seeds would have to be on the ground for almost two years before they would germinate. All that happens the first winter is the moisture softens the hard outer shell, and the second winter germination begins to take place. For all of this to happen in the proper sequence so the seedlings sprout at a time of the year when freezing temperatures or hot summer sun doesn’t kill them, takes a tremendous amount of luck. You can improve the odds by controlling some of these conditions, and shorten the cycle.
Pressure treated wood is created by forcing chemical preservatives into the wood cells. These preservatives- creosote, pentachlorophenol and chromated copper arsenate salts – help make the wood resistant to decay by curbing fungus and insect attacks.
DAVID CULP is a self-professed Galanthophile, a lover and passionate, longtime collector of snowdrops in all their various incarnations. He’s also a host of the annual Galanthus Gala symposium, which happens the first weekend of March in Downingtown, PA, and virtually online, too, for those of us who want to join in without even leaving home, as I did last year, and will again this time around.
Distinctive border perennial with Leaves are narrow, long, and grasslike. This is a sturdy, but graceful plant with few problems and architectural character. Varieties available in both dwarf and larger forms. Primary bloom season is summer. Remove spent flower spikes and old leaves in fall. Good companion plant for daylilies.