In this Golden Rules video, William Sinclair of Rotherview Nursery gives his expert advice on growing sempervivums.
12.01.2024 - 18:13 / gardenerspath.com / Joe Butler
How to Grow and Care for Dogwoods Cornus spp.
Looking for beautiful, fascinating plants that amaze, astound, and astonish? Sounds like you’re in need of a dogwood or two.
It’s rare for plants to have attractive leaves, bark, flowers, fruits, and forms. For most plants, usually at least one of those qualities is considered aesthetically meh, if not bleh.
Not dogwoods, though – those have a rating of five stars pretty much across the board.
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And even though they’re metaphorically and literally overshadowed by larger trees, understory species like dogwoods have their merits. For a gardener looking to pepper their landscape with pretty ornamentals that don’t dwarf their home, Cornus species have a lot to offer.
So strap yourself in, dear reader. We’ll be discussing how to cultivate these lovely plants and how to best use them in your landscape. We’ll also cover a handful of our favorite species.
Here’s what we’ll be getting into:
What Are Dogwoods?Containing 57 currently recognized species of trees, shrubs, subshrubs, and even perennial ground covers, the Cornus genus is part of the Cornaceae family along with its sister genus Alangium.
Collectively hardy in USDA Zones 2 to 10, species of Cornus are distributed across the Northern Hemisphere in Asia, Europe, and North America.
In the United States, you can pretty much find a species of dogwood in any region of the country, save for the hottest and driest of climates.
Taxonomists have identified four clades within the genus: blue- or white-fruited types, big-bract types, dwarf types, and cornelian cherries, though these descriptions are seldom used by gardeners
In this Golden Rules video, William Sinclair of Rotherview Nursery gives his expert advice on growing sempervivums.
How to Grow and Care for Weeping Cherry Trees Prunus spp.
Since 2015 she’s run the NT’s Heritage Horticultural Program, delivering practical workshops to hundreds of garden staff members. Here, she explains how to handle your hellebores so that you can enjoy a quality display of flowers for years to come.
London pride (Saxifraga x urbium) is a low-growing evergreen perennial, a hybrid between Spanish Saxifraga umbrosa and Irish Saxifraga spathularis. Once a great garden favourite, London pride plant is hardy and looks good all year round, forming spreading clumps of leafy rosettes made up of spoon-shaped, fleshy, mid-green leaves. In summer masses of small, pink-flushed white flowers are borne on slender stems of around 30cm in height, lasting for up to three months. London Pride thrives in most soils and situations and is especially useful for shady sites. It’s an undemanding and versatile perennial that has fallen from fashion but is a worthwhile garden plant, being easy to grow, yet not invasive. Called London pride because it flourished on bombed sites in the city during the Second World War, it’s even the subject of a song by playwright and composer Noel Coward, whose song titled ‘London Pride’ was popular at the time.
Kathy Sandel has shared her gardens with us before (More of Kathy’s Calabasas Garden, Kathy’s Garden Transformation in Sacramento), but today she’s sharing the garden she created for her daughter in Sacramento, California.
How to Grow and Care for Crown of Thorns Euphorbia milii
How to Grow and Care for Ironweed (Vernonia) Vernonia spp.
Courtesy of White Flower Farm
All About Orchid Pseudobulbs and How to Care for Them
How to Grow and Care for Freesia Flowers Freesia spp.
Lipstick plant (Aeschynanthus radicans) is a popular house plant with an almost constant display of bright red, tubular flowers, that resemble lipsticks, against trailing, green foliage. Native to the rainforests of South East Asia, Aeschynanthus is an epiphytic plant, which means it doesn’t grow in the ground but instead is found hanging from tree branches, where it gets its moisture from rain water vapour. As a house plant in the UK, it grows well in a free-draining, peat-free potting mix.
Witch hazels (Hamamelis) are one of winter’s most distinctive shrubs, their quirky, spidery blooms making them instantly recognisable even before you’ve breathed in their scent. At their peak, these are shrubs that make a lasting impression.