Archive for the ‘Roses’ Category

Pruning Times for Flowering Shrubs

The late winter / early spring period are ideal times for pruning many (not all) flowering shrubs. At this time, shrubs are leafless, and you are better able to see the overall shape of the shrub and easily identify dead, damaged, diseased wood, and structural defects.  Pruning also stimulates new growth. Spring flowering shrubs (those […]

Adding Compact Summer Flowering Shrubs

Yes, to reduce annual garden maintenance some gardeners are switching to space-saving flowering shrubs. Patio gardeners are popping compact shrubs into containers such as spireas, hydrangeas, crape myrtles, chaste tree, weigelias, and buddleias. They’re looking to add color and reduce their maintenance workload.   Numerous new [rose] varieties have been created that are relatively resistant to the […]

More Cool Small Flowering Shrubs

For many urban gardeners, landscape space is very limited. Here are several showy shrub choices along walkways and perennial border, and in deck and patio containers. Each year the list of dwarf shrubs continues to get longer. They are low maintenance, including very little annual pruning. Shrub Roses – like Drift™ and Flower Carpet™ roses- […]

After The Holidays Poinsettia Care

The gift of a poinsettia means you should enjoy the beauty over the next three months or more. Your poinsettia should be warmly wrapped to protect from chilling outdoor temperatures from the garden shop to your home or apartment. If applicable, carefully unwrap the protective sleeve around your poinsettia to prevent injury to leaves and […]

Getting Rid Of Difficult Weeds

Some aggressive perennials like Chameleon plant (Houttuynia cordata), variegated Bishop’s weed (Aegopodium podagraria), along with many woody briars can be extremely difficult to eliminate from a landscape area or garden bed.  If a weedy garden bed contains no desirable plants, you can over spray weeds with glyphosate, a nonselective herbicide.(Roundup™ is common trade name). This […]

New Landscape Roses With Exceptional Fragrance

Over a century of rose breeding has rewarded gardeners with so many gorgeous garden roses: hybrid tea, grandiflora, floribunda and shrub types. Rose breeders have concentrated on plant vigor, flower color, disease resistance, and greater numbers of flowers over the growing season. Over the years, floral fragrance has been mostly ignored. In the past two […]

Repel Deer And Rabbits

We live at a time that deer population numbers have grown out of control in many areas of the U.S. The internet lists plants that “DEER DON’T EAT”. However, deer have not read these lists, and secondly, a starving deer will eat just about anything. An adult deer may eat 5-6 pounds of plant material […]

Six Perennials For Dry Shade

Many of the following perennials tolerate dry shade but flourish in moist, well-drained soil. Each typically displays the richest foliage colors with a couple of hours of direct sunlight a day. All hold up well to dry conditions and are deer and rabbit resistant. Barrenworts (aka Bishop’s cap, Fairy Wings) (Epimedium spp.) represent over 70 […]

Fall Garden Chores

Fall is the perfect time to take on a few of the many spring garden chores. Here is a list of ten of the most important tasks:  Weeding– get rid of newly emerging winter annual weeds now before they flower and set seeds. Perennial weeds such as dandelions, plantains, and thistles can be sprayed and eliminated in the […]

Fall – Winter Pruning Dos and Don’ts

Pruning is a chore that you don’t need to put off until spring. Many trees and shrubs may be pruned this autumn. However,  NOT all landscape trees and shrubs are pruned.  Here are some pruning guidelines to follow: WAIT to  prune spring flowering deciduous shrubs such as Forsythia, Lilac, Bridal Wreath & Vanhoutte Spireas, Quince, Viburnums, Fothergilla, […]