25 of the Best Ginkgo Biloba Cultivars for Your Landscape

There is no reason why you should settle down for an empty, boring backyard when there is so much that can inspire you. Check out our post on how Your Backyard Can Be the Best Hang Out Place with these DIYs!

A stroll through a boutique garden store might lead you to believe that filling a garden with happy, healthy plants is only for the well-heeled. But those very plants that have soaring price tags in the store might be yours for free if you are willing to be a little creative. If you are wondering how to get free plants, you’ve come to the right place. Read on for five tried-and-true paths that lead you to free garden plants.

No other plant native to South Carolina has such fragrant and beautiful spring blooms and stunning fall color as the witch-alders. Fothergilla was named after Dr. John Fothergill, an English physician and gardener who funded the travels of John Bartram through the Carolinas in the 1700’s. These beautiful shrubs have been planted in both American and English gardens for over 200 years, including gardens of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

Nothing says Christmas more than a poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima). Did you know that December 12th is known as National Poinsettia Day? Plant breeders have developed a wide range of colors in hues of white, purple, orange, and pink, but red poinsettias continue to be the most traditional color of the holiday season.

E. palustris, as its species name reveals, is a marsh-type plant, so wet and heavy soils are no problem for it (though it doesn’t seem to require them). Most spurges are finicky about such conditions. Not this one. It gets to between 2 and 3 feet tall and at least as wide.I grow seven or eight other Euphorbias, including the basic polychroma, its newer, red-foliage variant called ‘Bonfire,’ and the fiery-colored one called E. griffithii ‘Dixter’ [above]. In California, mail-order Digging Dog Nursery has a good list of spurges, but not palustris. I swore I got my most recent generation of plants at Forestfarm, but I don’t see it in their current list. Hmmm….how about Annie’s Annuals?The hardest thing about growing spurges is cutting them back,

John Forti is a garden historian and heirloom specialist and ethnobotanist, and a longtime leader in the slow-foods movement. He’s currently the executive director of Bedrock Gardens landscape and sculpture garden in New Hampshire.We talked about a range of topics including a new generation of chestnuts; what the difference between the words “yard” and “garden” is; the impressive properties of yarrow, and how Queen Anne’s lace is “the ancient queen of all carrots.”Read along as you listen to the November 1, 2021 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe t

The cinnamon fern is gorgeous, cold-hardy, and a breeze to grow.With practically no pest or disease issues, you won’t have to

A painted daisy is proof that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Or rather, that you can’t judge an effective bug-killer by its beautiful blooms.We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If

There is no surefire way to rid your garden of the possibility of a deer buffet.As the evening falls, the four-legged rats – *ahem

One day in early May, I was driving past the hardware store. I glanced over in the direction of the gardening center and what I saw made me slam on the brakes.Finally, after months and months of dreary

Most likely native to Southeast Asia, colocasia (Colocasia esculenta, Zones 7b–12) is used by many gardeners for its large, tropical-looking foliage. This plant also has a long history of being used in cooking. Visitors to Hawaii are often treated to poi, a starchy Polynesian edible food paste made from its rootlike corm. Common names of colocasias include taro, eddo, dasheen, and elephant’s ear. Elephant’s ear is the most commonly used common name, but that can be confusing because plants called elephant’s ear come from several different genera, including Colocasia, Alocasia, and Xanthosoma, all of which are members of the arum family (Araceae). While there are several different species of colocasia, cultivars and hybrids of Colocasia esculenta are the main ones you will find being sold in garden centers to home gardeners.

Whether you pronounce it correctly as puh-KAHNS or erroneously as PEE-cans, there’s no denying the aesthetic, nut-producing power of pecans.We link to vendors to help you find relevant products