We can consider winter as the ‘weekend’ of the gardening year, both the last month and the first months of the year when we can enjoy a much-needed rest from the regular routine. A period of rest and renewal restores energy to both the garden and the gardener. It allows us time for reflection on the successes and challenges of seasons past and an opportunity to plan and prepare for the seasons to come. If winter is the weekend,...
What’s the big fuss about Nandina? It is attractive, easy to grow, and can be found growing throughout older neighborhoods in our area. Its berries (drupes) turn bright red in October, just in time to brighten up the winter landscape. Some people cut the red fruit for use in holiday decorations. Nandina’s foliage may even turn bright scarlet after frost, depending on the cultivar. It can be a beautiful and useful plant. Nandina is so tough and versatile that...
If fragrance is the gate of memory, the spicy aroma of Eastern red cedar takes me back to childhood holidays. My parents would load us in the car, about a week before Christmas, for a drive out to a friend’s farm where we could walk through the meadows in search of our Christmas tree. After a lively debate about the trees we found, Dad would pull out an old handsaw and begin cutting the tree. We would all help...
I never intended to create the Lantana stand. Never in my wildest gardening dream did I expect it to get this huge. There were no warning labels to prepare me for what it has become. And it all began so innocently… In the beginning, there were only a lonely tea rose and a few New Guinnea impatiens, I. hawkeri, growing in the neat round bed in the center of our new front yard. We bought the house in...
“… despite its bad reputation, Phragmites provides many benefits that are generally unknown and unappreciated. After studying salt marsh ecology and the impacts of stressors, including invasive plants, for many years, I have concluded that removing this invasive species wherever it is found – especially along vulnerable coastlines – is a very expensive and often foolish procedure.” Dr. Judith Weis, Professor Emerita in Biological Sciences Rutgers University Historically, Phragmites Are Part an Important Part of the Ecosystem Our...
Every tiny seed holds a bit of life, stored efficiently enough that it can spring into growth in some future time when conditions permit. The saying goes that every acorn holds the potential for a future forest of oaks. Although that acorn will grow into only a single tree, each tree can produce millions of acorns during its lifespan. A ripened seed, the DNA for a new plant, contains stored proteins, carbohydrates and minerals in its cotyledon, and a...
A friend showed me a video she had taken in her backyard of hummingbirds swarming around one of her feeders. She loves hummingbirds and works hard to attract and care for them. She plants containers filled with flowers she knows they like, and maintains multiple feeders kept stocked with sugar water. She told me that she has several tiny feeders on stakes that she places among the flowers in her containers. There were so many tiny birds flying about...
Container gardening is a great way to garden if you have limited space. Have you ever considered growing native plants in your containers? And what might be even better than this, you ask? Why container gardening with native keystone perennials, of course! Why Keystone Plants? Keystone plants are the “powerhouses” of native plants. While all native plants are beneficial, keystone plants are the linchpins for entire ecosystems, providing crucial resources for the greatest number of insect species. These keystone plants...
The Perennial Plant Association has named a new cultivar of the familiar black-eyed Susan as its 2023 perennial plant of the year – ‘American Gold Rush’. Like its older cousin ‘Goldsturm’, this plant is a hybrid among several species of Rudbeckia. It is said to be easy to grow with a long period of bloom in late summer on a compact habit and foliage that is less disease-prone. We are all familiar with the daisy-like bright yellow flowers with dark...
In late autumn, the Williamsburg area woods light up with evergreen holly trees as the hardwoods lose their leaves. It is their time to sparkle in the winter sunshine. Their broad, prickly leaves are waxy on top, reflecting what light reaches them through the forest canopy. Unobtrusive throughout the summer, hollies are among the few forest trees, along with wax myrtle, pines, cedars, and magnolias, which remain bright green and covered in leaves throughout the year. Holly King Legends...