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 Santa Claus could work his magic in the garden like he does in the toy shop, what would gardeners want him to deliver? Better weather would certainly be high on the wish list. Who else gripes more about the weather (too wet, too dry, too hot, too cold, too humid, etc.) than […]
A landscape is never ever really “done,” as any experienced gardener will tell you. However, the never-ending waltz of caring for a yard – and especially the amply landscaped variety – fits into one of three stages. Stage one is the beginning of the line – or the end of the line, […]
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 […]
I’ve been eating dozens of bioengineered purple-fleshed fruits of the new Purple Tomato for two months now, and so far I can report that I’m not taking on any snapdragon characteristics. I say that facetiously because this first-year variety is controversial for being the first bioengineered or “GMO” (genetically modified organism) vegetable being […]
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 […]
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 […]