Another warm winter has faked the landscape into acting like we’re farther ahead on the calendar than we really are. That’s not a problem if the weather course stays full steam ahead. So long as temperatures don’t nosedive in the coming weeks, the upshot is that we’ll simply have an early spring. Plants […]
The just-ended 2024 Philadelphia Flower Show was another typically wow event with its 75,000-flower main-entrance garden, billboard-sized floral map of the U.S., and floral “clouds” hanging from the ceiling. But among the blooming glitz was a lot of fascinating plant and gardening information. Here’s a sampling that filled this reporter’s notebook. See George’s […]
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 […]
If you pay attention to which plants tend to croak in our winters – and as a gardener, you should – you’ve probably noticed less cold-weather mayhem over the past 20 years or so. Although our temperatures can nosedive to zero or below, that’s been happening less and less. And as a result, […]
A hydrangea with dark leaves, a mock orange that reblooms, and an inkberry holly that solves the “bare-legs” problem are among the most interesting new trees and shrubs hitting the market for the 2024 growing season. Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts mentioned the following 12 choices for my annual January […]
A cross between coneflowers and gloriosa daisies, a new variety of a little-known native plant, and the smallest native Joe Pye flower yet top the list of interesting new perennials debuting in the 2024 growing season. Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts picked the following 14 choices for my annual January […]
A super-cold-hardy dusty miller, a double-award-winning purple-blooming agapanthus, and a whole new type of succulent are among a slew of interesting new annual flowers debuting in the 2024 growing season. Growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts picked those and more for my four-part, best-new-plants series that I compile each January – […]
A lot of winter is still staring us in the face, but for gardeners, it’s a time to dream about the many plants already awakening in greenhouses. Some of these plants will be new to the market in 2024 – improvements or new twists that haven’t been grown in home gardens yet. […]
The National Gardening Association’s 2023 National Gardening Survey found that an estimated 80 percent of American households are taking part in some sort of lawn or gardening activity. That’s a five-year high and comes despite markedly higher prices in plants and gardening supplies. What form will that interest take in 2024? Here’s […]
The 2023 gardening season took us down a lot of roads… too much and too little rain, the sudden appearance/disappearance of spotted lanternflies, more bans of invasive plants, and gardening in a smoky haze, to name a few. I thought I’d close out the year by highlighting some of what I wrote about […]