Non-invasive Varieties of Butterfly Bush

It’s fast growing.Its foliage is willow-like, and in the ‘Argentea’ (meaning silver-leaved) cultivar I grow, a pleasing grayish-green, if not wildly silver.Its flowers are fragrant, like those of its cousins. Deadheading after bloom will somewhat reduce the messy twiginess, especially of older plants.And like I said, the butterflies really like it.Sources for Buddleia alternifolia: At High Country Gardens At Forest Farm Categoriesdeciduous trees & shrubsTagsbutterfly plants

My longtime friend Ken, an award-winning garden photographer and author of many books, including “The New Shade Garden” and “Making More Plants,” produced his own “Real Dirt” podcast for 10 years, all available on KenDruse dot com.Read along as you listen to the May 15, 2107 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).The May show is a doubleheader; this transcript is the “overtime” segment, starting at about 24 minutes into the audio file, and Part 1’s transcript is at this other link, including how to work around wet spring so

Updated backstory: The Habitat Network collaboration between Cornell Lab of Ornithology and The Nature Conservancy, provided a suite of tools that helped you map, and then manage, your own home landscape ecologically, to be a better habitat style gardener. The information in the maps created in this citizen-science project helped researchers learn about wildlife interactions in residential landscapes, and more. In January 2019, the mapping project was suspended due to lack of ongoing grant money, hopefully temporarily.I asked Dr. Rhiannon Crain, at the time The Habitat Network’s project manager, to talk about rethinking fall clean-up from an ecological point of view, and I’ve got some tips of my own as well. Read along as you listen to the Oct. 23, 2017 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the playe

It’s called the Habitat Network, a collaboration between Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Nature Conservancy, and powered by a powerful mapping program called YardMap. It provides a suite of tools that doesn’t just help the scientists learn more from your inputs, but actually helps you map and then manage your own home landscape ecologically—to be a better habitat-style gardener, if you will. Citizen science is a participatory effort—when non-scientists like myself help collect more observations, or data, from more locations than scientists could without our help. Besides the feel-good part, you get t

Lane is also an assistant professor in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University who confesses to an obsession with a diversity of radicchio, among other weaknesses, and we talked about growing salads of gorgeous radicchio (above, in a photo from Uprising Seeds), and extra-flavorful varieties of fennel and arugula, about some exceptionally beautiful and tasty beets and more—including winter squash that last a very long time in storage and can be enjoyed cooked or raw, that you may not have grown but should.Plus: At the end of the transcript is a list of more, more more varieties and sources Lane is in love with. Enjoy (and explore)!Read along as you listen to the January 13, 2020 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).exceptional vegetable varieties, with lane selmanMargaret Roach: Hi, Lane. I guess there are crazier things one could be obsessed with tha

For the past four years, Michael has worked at Native Plant Trust (formerly known as New England Wild Flower Society) as manager of the New England Plant Conservation Program and seed-bank coordinator. Now he has been named Director of Conservation there, leading the internationally recognized team focused on documenting and saving imperiled plants and restoring habitat.Native Plant Trust offers educational courses in-person and online on topics related to native plants and conservation; see all the offerings here.Read along as you listen to the October 7, 2019 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here). (Photo of Michael, below, by Tara Shugrue.)invasives, conservation & more, with michael piantedosiMargaret Roach: I was very, very happy to see of your promotion. As I said in the introduction, “overwhelm,” you know?

To find out what scientists know so far, I called researcher Brad Herrick of University of Wisconsin-Madison, who gave us a 101 last year on these destructive worms, and has since published some new insights–specifically about the impact of heat on the embryo-filled cocoons that contain next year’s worms-to-be–that may in time help lead to answers in some situations.Brad is Arboretum Ecologist and Research Program Manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum, where the staff first noticed the destructive effects of Asian jumping worms in 2013. He’s been studying them ever since.Learn how to diagnose the presence of Asian jumping worms; what corrective tacti

From barberries and multiflora rose bushes to the nasty annual grass called stiltgrass (above), Angela and her team have faced them all.Angela is a conservation biologist who serves as stewardship manager for The Nature Conservancy in the Southern Berkshires of Massachusetts. Her role there ranges from tackling invasive species, to helping save endanger

Invasives are our topic today. Trigger warning: The subject of chemical use, and when it outweighs the damage done by invasives, is also part of the discussion.My guest is Christian Allyn, who founded Invasive Plant Solutions when he was still pursuing a double major in horticulture and economics at the University of Connecticut. Rather than just watch the continuing ravaging of natural habitats (like the one in his photo above) by invasive species in Connecticut and Massachusetts, where he practices, he decided to do something, to make it his career path.“This does not have to be our realit

Despite its association with holiday cheer, mistletoe is actually pretty malevolent.Invasive species can spread to

Most of us gardeners have a good read on which plants in our gardens are problematic—which we often refer to as weeds. Typically these plants make seasonal appearances, like the common mallow ( Malva neglecta ) that germinates in my home meadow with an impressive, if troubling, degree of tenacity. Each year I weed all that I can, digging their fibrous, white taproots from the backyard clay. And each year as soil temperatures approach those appropriate for tomato planting, a fresh crop springs anew from the seed bank left before I began weeding the space. Occasionally, however, a new undesirable plant makes its debut on our horticultural stage. 

As gardeners, we all know the thrill of wandering through a garden centre, our eyes widening at all the pretty plants that would add color and interest to our landscapes.