How to Grow and Care for Hardy Hibiscus Flowers

First, the disclaimer. I know I said the plant is specifically Pinus strobus ‘Nana,’ and that’s how mine came to me, but here’s the wrinkle: ‘Nana’ is kind of a grab-bag name for many relatively compact- or mounded-growing Eastern white pines, a long-needled species native to Eastern North America, from Canada to Georgia and out to Ohio and Illinois.Today, you can shop for named varieties that are really compact, with distinctive and somewhat more predictable shapes, like‘Coney Island’ or ‘Blue Shag’ (to name two cultivars selected by the late Sydney Waxman at the University of Connecticut, who had a particular passion for this species).I could have pinched the tips of the new growth, or candles, by half each year to keep

IF YOU ARE STILL USING any synthetic chemicals on your lawn, I hope you will stop. So does Paul Tukey. When he founded SafeLawns in 2006, Paul says, “It didn’t occur to people that their lawns could be dangerous.”“The sad reality is that we know that a lot of the chemicals used to grow the lawn (the fertilizers), or the chemicals used to control weeds or insects or fungal diseases—all  of these chemicals are designed to kill things, and they can make us very sick, and they make the water very sick, and the soil very sick, and the air very unhealthy.”Giving up chemicals doesn’t mean you have to pave over your front yard.“We will have lawns long after all these chemicals are banned in the United States, as they have been banned in Canada,” says Paul—explaining that more than 80 percent of Canadians cannot use weed and feed products, or glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide) because they are

For a more detailed answer to each question, plus an extra question and answer or two, be sure to listen in. I’ve recapped the highlights below:Q. I have some plants in my garage that still have to be planted. Is it too late? I’ve never planted this late before, but I just got too busy with my job.–Michelle in Canada (hardiness Zone 5B)A. Yes—definitely get them in the ground, whether plunged (pots and all) or planted properly (removed from their pots first). I confess I often simply plunge

In a series of emails and Skype calls since I began A Way to Garden in 2008, Gayla and I have found so much shared turf:We two longtime organic gardeners can get riled up—over topics ranging from the environment, to chemical companies and the “business” of gardening in general, to dyed mulch and more (her most recent rant on offcolor mulch is way down in this post). We both overdo it—on plants, work, and a major inclination to cart home lots of rusty buckets and other “vintage” metal stuff from tag sales. We both live in the garden offseason crammed into spaces where in many rooms, the plants get a majority of the square footage. (And why not?) In addition to the usual tools, you’ll find us both with a camera in the garden, though Gayla is a professional ph

My first step with any weed—meaning: wrong plant, wrong place—is to I.D. it, as I have said before, and try to understand its life cycle, so I have a shot at approaching it in the most effective way, and at the right time of year. (More on how to do that, and a link to weed I.D. tools, is at the bottom of the page.) I know I have my work cut out—and probably won’t do better than reducing them, with complete elimination unlikely.mugwort (artemisia vulgaris)THE NURSERY INDUSTRY agrees with me on this one: bad news. In the Eastern U.S. and Canada, it’s a major issue, because mugwort’s energetic rhizomes can quickly overtake places where regular cultivation isn’t called for, such as a row of

I say “beyond” because some of those seeds came with Rowen from the colder, wetter Northeast, her “living, breathing relatives that want to live and grow with the earth, she says,” just as she does, “witnesses to the past” that tell stories that might otherwise be lost–stories she has dedicated herself to keeping alive. Like Rowen, the seeds have adapted to their new home, and thrived–including colorful corns for many distinct purposes both cultural and culinary.Rowen (above, braiding corn), who was elected in 2014 to the board of Seed Savers Exchange, is also co-author of the handbook, “Breeding Organic Vegetables: A Step by Step Guide for Growers” (pdf). We spoke on my public-radio show and podcast about curating Native American seeds; about the benefits of polyculture (Rowen adds

I guess that’s why she titled her 2011 book, “The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener: How to Grow Your Own Food 365 Days a Year No Matter Where You Live.”Niki’s vegetable garden in Halifax just got a facelift to become even more productive. She is one of the contributors to the blog Savvy Gardening and creator of the award-winning radio program, The Weekend Gardener, that’s heard throughout Eastern Canada. And we spoke just in time for all of us us to order the seeds and learn the tactics we’ll need to grow our own offseason gardens, too.Read along as you listen to the Aug. 8, 2

ALONG came a spider the other afternoon, specifically an impressive female garden orb weaver, Argiope aurantia—an extremely widespread species, from southern Canada down to Costa Rica and most of the lower 48 between.And I say female with a degree of confidence, because of her size (a female of this species can be up to three times a male’s) and also because of the big web she had made.See th

Niki helped convince me of that, as part of my annual wintertime seed series. She is author of “The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener: How to Grow Your Own Food 365 Days a Year No Matter Where You Live,” and a contributor to the blog Savvy Gardening dot com. She also creates the award-winning radio program, The Weekend Gardener, heard throughout Eastern Canada.Most relevant to this discussion, though: she grows a global range of vegetables and other edibles—from the world’s craziest cucumbers and edible gourds, to “Chinese artichokes” that aren’t artichokes at all, to oddball salad ingredients and even rice, quinoa and more.Read along as you listen to the Jan. 2, 2107 edition of my

Today’s guest, the leader of Cornell Lab’s Project FeederWatch, will tell us more about changing bird populations–including not just rare birds but among some of our most familiar backyard species, like blue jays and juncos–and also about how data from birdwatchers helps, plus best practices for feeding birds this winter and more. Emma Grieg is the leader of Project FeederWatch at Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York, which for more than 30 years has fostered connections between people and birds, and also between birdwatchers and scientists, who benefit from all those extra sets of eyes to help them get a closer look at bird population changes over time. That’s Emma below, o

WHEN YOU’RE TALKING plants and not people, how do you figure out who lives where? You can’t send census takers door to door to get a head count, but doing so is a critical step in devising conservation strategies in a changing world, among other key goals. A New York Botanical Garden botanist is coordinating such an effort.

Long before central North America was settled and developed, large swathes of verdant prairies teeming with diverse flora and fauna thrived there. Expansive grasslands existed from Canada south to Texas, and from Indiana west to Colorado. Though few original prairies still exist, gardeners across America have begun to take action to restore prairie plantings right in their own backyards.Why grow prairie plants?Prairie gardens, especially more expansive and interconnected ones, offer habitat, food and refuge for vital pollinator and wildlife populations. Also, compared to turf grass, mature prairi