If you're craving a pop of color in your home, Behr is here to help with their 2025 Color of the Year, Rumors.
07.08.2024 - 13:46 / finegardening.com
Hydrangeas (Hydrangea spp. and cvs., Zones 3–9) are timeless favorites of gardeners everywhere, but these beloved shrubs are also favored by a wide variety of pathogens. Fortunately, there are many preventive measures we can take to keep our plants safe, and knowing the signs and symptoms of common diseases can help us make a prompt and accurate diagnosis when disease does strike. With a little planning, research, and appropriate action when needed, you can keep your hydrangeas healthy and flowering for many years to come. Here are some of the most common hydrangea ailments, their signs and symptoms, and recommended management strategies.
Cause: Xanthomonas campestris bacteria
Symptoms and signs: Angular leaf spots first appear in the interior, lower canopy of the plant, often when the weather turns warm and wet. Unlike fungal leaf spots, the discolorations are black and angular, and they occur on both top and bottom sides of the leaf. The spots sometimes have a yellow halo. Bacterial spot is commonly misidentified as Cercospora leaf spot (p. 22) on oakleaf hydrangea (H. quercifolia, Zones 5–9). Microscopy or more advanced laboratory techniques may be needed to correctly diagnose this problem.
Management: Bigleaf hydrangeas (H. macrophylla and cvs., Zones 5–9, smooth hydrangeas (H. arborescens and cvs., Zones 3–9), and oakleaf hydrangeas are common hosts, but all members of the genus are susceptible. This bacterium is spread by water and enters injured tissue. To reduce its spread, avoid overhead watering and working around wet plants. Copper-based products are often suggested for treatment but are only marginally effective; this heavy metal will build up in the soil over time and can cause phytotoxicity problems if
If you're craving a pop of color in your home, Behr is here to help with their 2025 Color of the Year, Rumors.
One of the secrets to producing big, bushy basil plants is trimming. Many gardeners are shy about harvesting from their herbs and don’t want to cut them back in case it damages the plants or reduces yield. I’m the opposite, constantly trimming herbs like basil to use fresh, or preserve by drying or freezing. Not only does it promote bushier growth it also increases stem and leaf production. Are you ready to learn how to trim your basil plants for maximum yield? When it comes to pruning basil, it doesn’t matter if you’re growing basil in containers or garden beds. It doesn’t matter if you’
A conversation with Sarah Price about how she designs her planting schemes is fascinating. She works in an unfettered way, with no specific planting plans but an intuitive sense of the plants that will work well together to form the nature-inspired compositions she is known for. Her gardens are like exquisite paintings, comprising layers of detail with a gentle succession of plants that provide interest for most of the year. This summer combination comes from Sarah’s own garden on the edge of Abergavenny. Here, she has created different areas and habitats, including a dry garden in the old walled kitchen garden.
I WAS SCROLLING through Instagram the other day—yes, sometimes I just can’t help myself—when I saw a post by Matt Mattus about Christmas cactus. So even though it’s still high summer, it made me long for one of my own.
The coastal region and Pee Dee saw lots of rain and flooding in places from Tropical Storm Debby last week. As field conditions improve this week, please document any crop or infrastructure impacts from the storm by using the ESF-17 form. The information collected will be used to estimate the statewide agricultural impact of TS Debby. Please note this form is for agricultural impacts only. Extension agents will also be helping to collect this information this week.
I SUSPECT I’m not alone when I say that weather extremes in recent growing seasons have made me feel a bit like a stranger in a strange land in my own garden, wondering what will bloom when and when to do what. And most of all, wondering what madness is coming next.
A new TikTok trend is making the rounds, and you aren't going to want to miss out on this one! TikTok users are now obsessed with minimalism—especially when it comes to home decor and cleaning. And for good reason!
Panayoti Kelaidis is the senior curator and director of outreach at Denver Botanic Gardens , a founding member and collaborator with the Plant Select plant introduction program, and an active member and past president of the North American Rock Garden Society .
For those of us who garden in small spaces, container gardening strikes an ideal balance between structure and flexibility. Potted plants can be rearranged as often as necessary, which makes it easy to accommodate new additions and to ensure that each plant gets the sunlight or shade it requires. Compared to traditional in-ground beds, container gardens also give us a bit more control over factors such as water, weeds, and pests. I’ve spent the past few decades creating designs for roof decks, balconies, courtyards, and patios in San Francisco. Through this work I have discovered that the key to container gardening success is always the same: finding a mix of appealing plants that are well suited to each garden’s specific climate and light conditions. Using my home garden as a testing ground, I’ve developed some strategies that anyone can use to create lush urban jungle and cohesive container displays that truly stand out from the crowd.
Over the past few years, Pamela Anderson has had more time to contemplate life. That is, until things kicked into high gear again—but more on that later. At the start of the pandemic in 2020, she moved from France, sold her house in Malibu, and headed north to the small town on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, where she was born and raised. She hunkered down with her two grown sons, Brandon and Dylan. She bought her grandmother’s old motel, renovated it, and set up her parents there. A lifelong cook, she perfected her baking skills. She reclaimed and expanded her grandfather’s garden on the same land where she had run barefoot as a self-described wild child. It’s the site of both her greatest childhood joys and harrowing traumas, which she describes candidly in her 2023 autobiography, Love, Pamela, and Netflix documentary, Pamela, A Love Story. Almost poetically, for Pamela has journaled and written poetry her whole life, she has reclaimed her true self and her youthful creativity on the exact spot where they were born. When I had the chance to sit with her and talk over Zoom recently, our conversation quickly moved beyond her new cookbook, I Love You (due out in October), to all aspects of life—and her ability to find the deepest of meanings in even the tiniest of seeds.
Several years ago while shopping at a big-box store, I spotted this tote in the household-cleaning section. In addition to carrying cleaning supplies, it can be used as a shower caddy, but I envisioned it as a garden-tool tote—balanced, sturdy, comfortable to carry, and with holes in each compartment for drainage. I’ve used it for a few years now, switching tools as needed so that I’m always ready for the current job. Cleaning the tote in spring or fall is as easy as removing the tools and spraying it out with a hose.