A cold-hardy banana tree with maroon striped leaves, a snowbell tree that reblooms, and several more ever-higher-performing hydrangeas are among the most interesting new trees and shrubs hitting the market for the 2025 growing season. Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts mentioned the following 15 choices for my annual wintertime four-part, […]
A new line of high-performing mixed-species peonies, a super-sized new salvia, and several new varieties of pollinator favorites highlight the list of interesting new perennials debuting in the 2025 growing season. Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts picked the following 12 choices for my annual January four-part, best-new-plants series. The […]
A butterfly-magnet new ageratum, a shrub-turned-annual-flower called dampiera, and a new sunflower with a thousand blooms headline the list of interesting new annual flowers debuting in the 2025 growing season. Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts picked those and more for the four-part, best-new-plants series that I compile each January – […]
It’s another new year, and the garden is waiting in the wings to be filled in just a few months with fresh, home-grown produce. This is a good planning time – not only to order seeds for the 2025 edible garden but also to hone in on the best varieties of vegetables, herbs, […]
Nature-friendly gardening seems to be graduating from mere trend to a lasting and widespread mainstream movement. That’s the prevailing development that gardening trend-watchers see as we head into 2025, with interrelated facets of that movement – including native plants, pollinator gardens, and less-perfect lawns – all growing and dominating how we view yard […]
If you’re growing any boxwoods in your yard, you might want to make a note to check them starting next spring for the latest deadly threat facing our top-selling shrub. A new bug called the box tree moth officially entered Pennsylvania this fall. The state Agriculture Department confirmed reports of the bug’s […]
The upstate New York seed company, Fruition Seeds, is taking a rather radical step for any business. As of today, the producer of organic, Northeast-adapted vegetable, herb, and flower seed is shutting down its online seed sales and moving to what co-owner Petra Page-Mann terms a “gift culture.” From now on, Fruition […]
When is it “safe” to plant the tomatoes and summer flowers? That’s a question gardeners wring their compost-stained hands over every year at this time – especially the eager ones who don’t want to miss a day of potential frost-free grow time. Not that long ago, Harrisburg-area gardeners could rely on the […]
Organizations of growers, horticulturists, researchers, and other plant experts each year bestow assorted awards on what they believe to be the best of the best plants. Some of these award-winners are new introductions. Others are under-known or under-appreciated oldies-but-goodies that deserve more use in home gardens. Here’s a look at plants that […]
We’ve had purple- and dark-blue-skinned tomatoes for years now, but this month marks the arrival of the world’s first tomato that’s a true, dark purple throughout. For now at least, it’s called simply The Purple Tomato, and it’s a bioengineered cherry-type tomato that gets its purple coloring from the genes of a purple […]