if you only have one mum…

Homalomenas are also popular for their compact size, making them ideal for indoor or outdoor spaces with limited room. They are a great choice for beginners, as they are relatively low maintenance and can adapt well to a variety of growing conditions. Read on to know about the Best Types of Homalomena Varieties.

Aldi

Native to the Mediterranean and Asia, dill has delicate, feathery foliage and lovely golden-yellow flowers in mid-summer. It’s one of the easiest herbs to grow and readily self-sows by dropping seeds in the garden which will pop up again next year. It’s pretty enough to plant among your flowers, and pollinators love it.

Marion Brenner

Tested by Marti Neely, FAPLD

Japanese anemones or windflowers (Anemone x hybrida) are especially attractive additions to a partially shaded landscape. These beautiful perennials bloom in fall starting the second year, i.e., after becoming well established in the soil. Many shades of pinks and white are available, but the intense pink flowers against the dark blue-green foliage of ‘Lucky Charm’ Japanese anemone is outstanding!

Anemone coronaria is not your stereotypical spring-blooming face that you see around here. It originated in the Mediterranean regions, and its Greek-origin name is a reference to the wind – hence the common name of windflower – as it can be described as dancing in the wind on a spring day. Anemone is becoming more commonly available in retail outlets and, in my opinion, is a much better pick for long-lasting color in Southern landscape beds when compared to the infamous tulip. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love a good tulip, but they are notorious for being a one-hit-wonder in our landscapes, never to be seen in flower again. Often, the only traces of a tulip’s former existence is its unremarkable foliage that peeks out from underground for a brief moment each year. I have been impressed and delighted with the colorful show Anemone provides in the landscape. In my landscape, they have faithfully emerged from the soil year after year, forming an ever-denser patch. These traits make them a top choice spring-blooming bulb to add to the garden over tulips any day of the week.

I KNOW, SOME OF YOU ARE ON TO THIS ALREADY, but in case you’re not: By clicking this link (equivalent to clicking the word “slideshows” in the “Topics” in the far-left column  of every page on the blog) you can browse through all the slideshows I’ve posted in two-plus years of blogging. King of fun, huh (especially if you’re someone who likes show-don’t-tell)? I love posting my photos taken in the yard here this way; what fun it has been for me.

ANDRE MADE ME DO IT. Go to the liquor store, I mean.

SERIOUS GARDEN-VISITING SEASON KICKED OFF for me on Monday, meaning visitors besides the usual amphibian suspects like this guy who wait on the doorstep for me to come play each day. Them I can deal with, but the human types! Yikes. My brain spirals, and I keep hearing the same thought over and again in my head while walking guests around: If only you’d come last week (when the lilacs were still blooming).

WHAT WE CALL STONE FRUITS all grow on trees in the genus Prunus, and have a hard, stony pit inside them (their seed), with fleshy fruit around it—unlike so-called pome fruits (see below).Apricots, cherries, nectarines, plums (and therefore prunes), and some interspecies hybrids of the above, like plumcots and pluots, are all stone fruits. So are peaches (like the ones in the 1940 harvesting photo by Lee Russell, in the Library of Congress archive, top, or just above in the print from Boston Public Library’s).And then there’s the trick-question one, the stone fruit you think of as a nut. What’s that?Almond, of course: Prunus dulcis.What’s a Pome Fruit?I KNOW, IT’S STONE FRUIT WEEK, but hey,

COLD MAY TAKE DOWN MANY GARDEN PLANTS the next days and weeks, but don’t be fooled by weeds that pretend to close up shop. Master doodler Andre Jordan isn’t, and neither am I.