91 Best Blue Flowers For the Garden

Red Hot Poker Plant is valued by gardeners for its upright structure, bright, eye-catching blooms, and ability to attract pollinators like bees and butterflies to the garden. Here’s everything about growing it.

I love surprises, and that’s precisely what I got when I received an envelope from 10 speed press the other day containing of all things, a graphic novel about vegetable gardening written by my friend Joseph Tychonievich and illustrated by Liz Anne Kozik. But first, I should share some background here, about me. In my previous life, I was a creative director for Hasbro (you know, Transformers, My Little Pony, Marvel Comics, Star Wars, etc). Comic books were part of my everyday life, from Comicon to day-long meetings at Marvel Studios. Not that I am anything close to a comic book fan, but I can appreciate the medium and especially the higher-end category of graphic novels, like this.

I can remember the first time I read about Zaluziantkya – trying to pronounce it in my head before daring to speak it out loud. It’s one of those words that once you master pronouncing it, you just love to say it over and over again like a two year old. At the very least, you will impress your friends. Za-loo-zee-ann-ski-ya.

When I think of a plant hunter—as in, someone who goes to places like South Africa, Vietnam, China, and Nepal to find rare species and bring them back to the United States—I imagine a swashbuckling Indiana Jones type running through the mountains complete with hat and whip. And to hear famed plant collector, horticulturist, and botanist Daniel Hinkley tell it, there is a bit of daredevilry to the job. “I’ve had hard treks, bad knees, bee stings, and leeches hanging from my neck,” he says. “But if I am lucky, plant collecting offers me a bit of seed, and the resulting plant possesses all of the memories associated with it.”

The bold flower clusters of Clivia in early to mid-spring and their arching, often symmetrical, strap-like foliage make them stunning additions to an indoor plant collection.This guide will discuss how to care for them as hous

Botanically, New Zealand is an extraordinary country. Because it drifted off from the rest of the world so early on, its natural flora is very limited and with the exception of the red flowers of the Metrosideros (New Zealand Christmas Tree), flowers tend to be insignificant, with a natural wooded landscape that is predominantly a mixture of trees in many shades of green and tree ferns. It’s not really surprising

Free Range Feather Duster One of the surprises during our time in South Africa was the number of ostriches in fields and in the wild.  The first couple of times we saw them we got very excited, but by the time we realised how common they were, they barely rated a mention.

I do love seeing plants growing in their natural habitat, especially when they grow nowhere else. I remember standing in a field in South Africa – actually the Tienie Versveld Wildflower Reserve just outside Darling in the Western Cape – while a botanist pointed out flowers that were unique to those few acres. There are a number of w

I may have been excited to see Thunbergia scrambling way up into the trees, but when I mentioned it to someone, their comment was “That thing?  It’s a weed that we are always having to pull out of the garden.”  Maybe that is winter’s gift to us – it stops a plant we treasure for its autumn colour from becoming a pest that we seek to eradicate.  

Garden Africa Garden Africa is a wonderful charity that works with people in South Africa, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe training smallholders to grow crops to organic standards to improve their income and protect the environment. Whatever support you can give will be appreciated.

I’ve always known that South Africa is the home of the pelargonium, but even so I was amazed by the sheer diversity that exists there in the wild. From vibrant red species tumbling down cliff faces,  to large pink-flowered shrubs on the road verges to the subtle beauty of Pelargonium triste in amongst the wildflowers of the veld, everywhere we looked there were examples of this highly adaptive plant.  

Keith Whiley is a remarkable man. I first saw his work at The Garden House in Buckland Monachorum where he began his experiments with reshaping the land to recreate the natural plant habitats that he has observed around the world.  His methods have not been without controversy, partly because they are so labour intensive and partly because his approach is so uncompromising.  So when he had the opportunity to buy and develop his own piece of land ten years ago it was the perfect opportunity for him to stretch his ideas and theories to the limit – without the need to please anyone else.  What he has done is astonishing – starting with a flat 4 acre field planted with cider apples, working alone with a hired digger, he has gouged out small-scale canyons, created hills and valleys and turned a piece of south-facing pasture into a  landscape that includes north-facing slopes, sun-soaked scree and a series of lush natural ponds. In the process of doing all this earthmoving, he has  rather miraculously increased the surface area so that it now covers 6 acres. The adjoining fields