Category: Evergreen Perennials

Bulb Gardening / Conservation / Container Gardens / Evergreen Perennials / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Geophytes / Heirloom plants / Hummingbird Gardening / Native Plants / Permaculture / Plant Literacy / Sustainable Gardening / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Ornamental Perennials Every Master Gardener Should Know

Perennial plants feature prominently in most gardens.  They may be evergreen or deciduous, have showy flowers or may be grown mostly for their foliage.  Some steal the spotlight for only a few weeks while others remain productive over several months.  Flowering perennials, whether native or not, help support a variety of pollinating insects.  Those that produce seeds may support birds long into the winter. Plants readily available in the nursery trade are most likely hybrids or named cultivars of specific...

climate change / Conservation / Edible Plants / Evergreen Perennials / Ferns / Foraging / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Jamestown Island / Larval Host Plants / Native Plants / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Summer Wildflowers on Jamestown Island

 May, 1607 Jamestown Island was uninhabited and covered in native vegetation in May of 1607 when the first English settlers chose to establish their colony on a small peninsula in the Powhatan River, now the James River.  That peninsula, along with most of the shoreline of the lower river, was under the control of the Powhatan Chiefdom, a confederation of thirty tribes by that time, based to the north at Werowocomoco, in what is now Gloucester County.  This chiefdom of...

Carbon Garden / Edible Plants / Evergreen Perennials / Food Forest / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Herbs / Holiday Plants / Ornamental Shrubs / Pollinators / Wildlife Gardening / Williamsburg Botanical Garden

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Mythical Rosemary

  Mythical Rosemary The woody, green fragrance of rosemary brings happiness.  Rosemary has served as food, fragrance, medicine, as a religious tool, and as a favorite garden plant for millennia. It is considered a sacred and magical herb, associated both with Aphrodite and with Mother Mary.  Rosemary has been planted in monastery, temple, medicinal and royal gardens over many centuries. Known now as Salvia rosmarinus, rather than the Rosmarinus officinalis we all learned, rosemary has one of the longest cultural...

Edible Plants / Evergreen Perennials / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Herbs / Pollinators / Spring / Summer / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Magical Thyme

  “I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine: There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight; And there the snake throws her enamell’d skin,  Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:” William Shakespeare, from A Midsummer Night’s Dream Magical Thyme If you are wanting to conjure a bit of magic in your...

Beneficial Insects / Birds / Bulb Gardening / Carbon Garden / climate change / Compost / Conservation / Deer / Evergreen Perennials / Evergreen Shrubs / Evergreen trees / Ferns / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Larval Host Plants / Ornamental Shrubs / Perennial Care / Phenology / Trees in Winter / Watering / Wildlife Gardening / Winter

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Winter in the Garden: To Do, To Do Less, and What to Avoid

  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,...

Carbon Garden / Evergreen Perennials / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Hummingbird Gardening / Invasive Plants / Larval Host Plants / Native Plants / Nuisance Plants / Permaculture / Poisonous Plants / Sustainable Gardening / Trees / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Climbing Vines in Coastal Virginia

  Vines of all types love our Coastal Virginia climate.  Many different species thrive in summer’s heat and humidity, growing by inches each day.  They creep across the ground until they encounter something to climb.  Their tender, flexible tips reach up and out in search of a support, and then they climb. Benefits of Vines All vines in our area produce flowers and seeds.  While some flowers are bright and showy, like the bright orange trumpet creeper, others are nearly...

Carbon Garden / climate change / Evergreen Perennials / Evergreen Shrubs / Ferns / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Larval Host Plants / Native Plants / Native Trees / Ornamental Shrubs / Sustainable Gardening / Water Wise / Weather / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Sustainable Gardening in the Shade

  When you’re planning a new garden, do you look for a sunny spot or for a bit of shade?  That used to be an easy decision.  We all know that plants need good light to grow well.  Gardening books used to advise anyone planting a small vegetable garden or flower bed to watch how the sun moves across the sky and how the shadows fall across their yard to select a good sunny spot to break ground.  Traditional gardeners...

Carbon Garden / Citizen Science / Climate Change / Evergreen Perennials / Ferns / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Native Plants / Restoration / Soil Conservation / Sustainable Gardening / Wildlife Gardening / Winter Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Christmas Ferns: A Small Step Towards Climate Solutions

  A Very Personal Challenge As more and more of us feel the effects of chaotic weather patterns and climate change on our own communities and families, we know that waiting for governments and corporations to ‘solve’ the problem is no longer enough.  We each explore ways that we can make a personal, positive difference in this very personal circumstance.  Whether we worry about heat or storms, flooding or high winds, we understand that communities around the planet are also...

Beneficial Insects / Container Gardens / Evergreen Perennials / Evergreen Shrubs / Food Forest / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Herbs / Sustainable Gardening / Therapeutic Gardening / Wildlife Gardening / Winter Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Landscaping with Herbs in Williamsburg

  Once upon a time, I found herb gardening a topic of mystique and mystery.  Maybe it was the herb gardening books I found, with their illustrations of medieval knot gardens, and the cute little pots of culinary herbs grown on the wide, sunny windowsill of someone’s gourmet kitchen.  Or maybe it was learning that many herbs prefer a Mediterranean climate with dry, rocky soil and lots of sunshine.  How could I replicate that in Virginia? It may have been...

Beneficial Insects / Birds / Carbon Garden / Evergreen Perennials / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Holiday Plants / Native Plants / Poisonous Plants / Wildlife Gardening / Winter

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Legends, Lore and the Truth About Mistletoe

  From November through May we can admire the living mathematics of the trunks and branches of hardwood trees.   Their leafy crowns have fallen, and their beautiful bark in all its silvery, marbled, textured variety is revealed once again. Looking up, we sometimes see lively green clusters of mistletoe shining in the treetops.  These shrubby, evergreen plants have been a part of myth and folklore since ancient times.  They live suspended between heaven and Earth, rooted into the branches of...