Every new growing season brings a boatload of new plant introductions, most of them trumpeting some sort of improvement or new twist, if not one-of-a-kind break-throughs. They can’t all be better, can they? The short answer is no. Many are more of the same, and some aren’t even as good as what’s […]
Picking the best plants makes a big difference in whether your landscape thrives or withers. Genes matter. So how do you sort the strong from the weak? One way is to lean on the experience of the experienced. Each year, organizations of growers, horticulturists, researchers, and other plant experts bestow […]
Gardeners have to overcome erratic weather, sidestep a laundry list of potential bug and disease threats, and beat back attacks by deer, voles, and groundhogs to grow a decent plant. So why would any sane gardener ever consider cutting a healthy tree or shrub to the ground? I can think of a […]
The 2019 Philadelphia Flower Show’s hippie-throwback, “Flower Power” show is history, and the page now turns to next year’s show that will feature plants and gardens of Mediterranean climates. “Riviera Holiday” is the proposed title of the 2020 Philadelphia show, and it’ll take place next Feb. 29-March 8 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. […]
That post I wrote two weeks ago commiserating my new deer problem drew more feedback than anything I’ve ever written here. Apparently, deer-eaten plants is an even worse issue than I thought… and it’s one that seems to bring out a lot of passion, compassion, and empathy. Lots of fellow gardeners wrote […]
“Flowers on Parade” is the theme of the 2019 Pennsylvania Garden Show of York, which runs Friday through Sunday (March 1-3, 2019) in the York Expo Center’s Memorial Hall, 334 Carlisle Road, York. The 2019 show features eight display gardens built by local landscapers, a marketplace with nearly 100 home and garden exhibitors/vendors, […]
Thomas Edison, America’s greatest inventor, and Henry Ford, the father of the moving assembly line and his namesake car company, had more in common than fame, innovation, and a whole lot of money. They both also were very interested in plants. Edison was especially keen on bamboo and thought it would make […]
One gardening challenge I’ve never had to deal with is arguably the worst one: deer. These four-legged eating machines can take out half of a yard’s landscaping in a single night. And they’ve learned that people aren’t a threat but rather a sign that tasty vegetation is nearby. Groundhogs, voles, chipmunks, and […]
One of the first things you’ll notice about the Philadelphia Flower Show – besides the really, really welcome 10 acres of plants blooming while it’s still winter – is how elaborate the whole thing is. We’re not talking about a collection of paver-block rectangles planted with a few daffodils and forsythias. The […]
Before you beat yourself up too much over killing houseplants, realize that no plant is native to the inside of a house. It’s a tall order to ask any plant to grow well in the sunlight-challenged and dry air of a typical central-Pennsylvania house, especially in winter. However, a fair number of […]