Once orchids bloom, we all want their beautiful flowers to stay forever! However, as that’s too much to ask for, we can help you keep them fresh for a long time!
19.01.2024 - 23:45 / backyardgardener.com / Frederick Leeth
This is the time of year when garden pundits tell their disciples to bring in branches of forsythia, pussy willow or flowering quince for indoor bloom.
A minority of those disciples will follow orders; the rest (and I am one of them) will wish they had actually planted some of those spring flowering shrubs last year or the year before so they could reap the rewards.
So this year I vow to make it my business to order flowering shrubs. They add to the beauty of the garden, and require less maintenance than most mixed borders. And, as far as maintenance goes, flowering branches help maintain human mental health in late winter and early spring. That alone makes them worth a little forethought.
But suppose you, like my husband, just can’t stand the chromium yellow color of the average forsythia. The answer is, of course, White Forsythia (Abeliophyllum distichum). This native of Korea sports flowers that are shaped just like those of a conventional yellow forsysthia, but they are pink in bud and white once the buds have opened. The flowers are slightly fragrant, and cut branches respond to forcing in the same way as other forsythias.
If pastel colors leave you cold at the end of winter, the answer just may be Flowering Quince. Known to the botanists as Chaenomeles speciosa, Flowering Quince is a relatively small shrub that shines in the early spring. The ‘Texas Scarlet’ cultivar has bright red flowers and long branches that are perfect for cutting. Eventually the plant also produces tart fruit, which is nice if you or a relative like to make quince jelly.
Everyone talks about witch hazel, but I know few people who actually grow it. This may be because while the fragrance is wonderful, the flowers look rather ragged. For something a
Once orchids bloom, we all want their beautiful flowers to stay forever! However, as that’s too much to ask for, we can help you keep them fresh for a long time!
If you’re looking for a low-maintenance groundcover that also flowers, look no further than creeping lilyturf. This tough perennial has thick, blade-like foliage and forms attractive clumps. In this article, I’ll share more details about creeping lilyturf, along with how easy it is to grow and care for.
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We bring you a beautiful array of blooms that resemble impatiens but also offer a different charm with their vivid hues and lush foliage!
While gardeners often extol the virtues of outstanding bark and winter interest, let’s not kid ourselves—flower power reigns supreme. A tree that is a stately focal point most of the year will be transformed into an awe-inspiring centerpiece by spectacular blooms. Spring-flowering trees often occupy prime garden real estate, but for some easy, unexpected floral elegance, it is truly worthwhile to plant trees that bloom in summer, fall, or even late winter. Many of my favorites even have dazzling displays when they aren’t in bloom. Here are some excellent choices for you to consider.
Pruning can be intimidating. Many of us fear making a mistake our plants won’t recover from. Overall, trees are resilient; with a little practice and know-how, any gardener should be able to tackle this task. Here are some things to keep in mind before grabbing the saw.
Winter is, broadly speaking, the ideal time to prune most trees and shrubs.
Fragrance in flowers is such a desirable attribute that it’s a perennial complaint of many gardeners that modern varieties of various plants, particularly roses, lack all or most of the fragrance of the older varieties. This is demonstrably untrue of many varieties, of course, yet there is a good deal of truth in the generalization. Some varieties are certainly much less fragrant than the ‘old-fashioned’ roses and a few seem to lack detectable fragrance, but, on the whole, a good modern variety will number fragrance among its qualities. Much depends, of course, upon the individual sense of smell, coupled with the ‘scent memory’ which all of us possess to some degree. It is, in fact, usually well developed and most of us are readily and instantaneously reminded by present scents of past incidents, places, and persons, and although the actual vocabulary of scent is limited, it is usually possible for us to describe a scent fairly accurately by comparing it with another. Thus it is quite usual for us to say that a flower has a lily-like fragrance, or that it smells like new-mown hay.
Flowering fiesta Bright Color
Nylon Consulting
(Aza’lea). Botanists now classify all plants they once called Azaleas as Rhododendrons. Garden lovers still use Azalea for deciduous or leaf-losing kinds and for a few that are not, and the name Rhododendron for evergreen kinds which have large, leathery leaves. In the treatment that follows, Azalea is used as a common name and Rhododendron as the scientific name, thus, when a species is named it is written, for example, R. calendulaceum instead of A. calendulacea.
Today was a day off! I know it sounds odd, but I tend to have the third Monday of the week off at the moment (I’m sure that’ll change soon), so as the weather was fabulous again I went back out into the garden to finish off those things I couldn’t get done yesterday.