Needled evergreens take a back seat to flowers, flowering shrubs, and pretty much every other aspect of the summer landscape. These landscape staples are often considered little more than “backdrop plants” or necessary additions to keep the yard from looking completely bare in winter. Color-lovers diss them for being plain green all […]
Trees are the most expensive plants in the landscape budget. They not only cost the most at purchase time, but pruning and other care can chew up some dollars over the years. And if you have to have one cut down? Well, let’s not think about that bill. Picking a tree is […]
Most people use their pots for posies – primarily petunias, geraniums, coleus, and other annuals that get planted each May and yanked each October. Then the pots get tucked away for winter until frost stops knocking at the door the following spring. Hardly anyone uses pots to grow woody plants – i.e. […]
Our climate isn’t like it was just a generation ago, and our plants are showing it – especially trees. Many of Pennsylvania’s recent tree demises – from diseases on spruce and firs to branch diebacks on Japanese maples to “mysterious” deaths of sugar maples – are directly or indirectly related to climate changes. […]
A miniature version of the popular Knock Out rose, a super-short clematis that can be used as a groundcover, and three new dark-leafed shrubs are among the best new trees and shrubs debuting in the 2021 growing season. Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts picked the following for my annual January […]
I’ve planted 11 trees at my new place in the last year and a half, and in every case, I bought small ones. Small as in ones in the four- to six-foot-tall range as opposed to the bigger ones that many nurseries also offer. I mention this because it’s a question I […]
This is a classic tale of a good guy turned bad… except the star is a tree instead of a movie villain. It’s about the ornamental or “callery” pear, that hard-to-kill spring beauty that blooms white in yards, parking lots, and along streets all over Pennsylvania and beyond. When it came to […]
A lot of gardeners are trying to lean native in the landscape these days. Trees are one of the easiest ways to do that because, fortunately, many native Pennsylvania and U.S. tree species are as functional survival-wise and wildlife-friendly-wise as they are beautiful and “well behaved.” If you’re planning to add a […]
I’m running a deficit right now. Money and energy, too, but the one I’m talking about has to do with trees. When my wife, Sue, and I moved to Pittsburgh last year, we inherited a long-unkempt lot that had a variety of dead, dying, and hazard trees. A huge, struggling pin oak […]
A new line of blight-resistant boxwoods, a super-short version of native chokeberry, and a disease-resistant new leucothoe are among the best new trees and shrubs debuting in the 2020 growing season. Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts picked the following for our annual four-part, best-new-plants series. Today’s best new trees […]