Tagged: pollinator plants

Animal repellant products / Beneficial Insects / Container Gardens / Edible Plants / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Herbs / Tender Perennials / Wildlife Gardening

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Designing With Lemon Scented Plants

  Picnics with citronella candles, lemon scented furniture polish and sweet tea with lemons all recall happy childhood memories.   Fragrance has a profound ability to create or shift a mood, to trigger memories and create new ones.  Just as cinnamon evokes the holidays; crisp, cool lemon is a summertime fragrance. Most lemon scented plants thrive in warm climates.  Lemon trees, Citrus limon, are hardy only to Zone 8.  Originally native to Asia, they spread throughout the ancient world wherever the...

Beneficial Insects / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Ornamental Shrubs / Permaculture / Pollinators / Summer Color Plants / Sustainable Gardening / Wildlife Gardening

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Summer Flowering Trees and Shrubs for Pollinators

  Have you ever watched a bumblebee explore a Hibiscus flower?  Each flower is large enough for the bee to crawl around the depths of its funnel shaped petals to collect as much pollen as possible.  Short, powdery stamens grow like bristles on a bottle brush from a long, tubular pistil. The bee emerges white with pollen and satisfied by the flower’s nectar. Hibiscus shrubs, commonly known as Rose of Sharon, bloom from June through November in our area.  Each...

Beneficial Insects / Container Gardens / Edible Plants / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Larval Host Plants / Native Plants / Perennial Care / Poisonous Plants / Summer Color Plants / Wildlife Gardening

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Designing Plantings to Host Butterflies and Moths

  A friend was excited to buy milkweed plants at a WBG plant sale several years ago. They aren’t easy to find commercially, and few people raise them from seed.  When I saw her again a few weeks later, I inquired about how her plants were doing. “Oh, I must have done something wrong. They’re not looking so good.  Most of the leaves have disappeared,” she replied.     I quickly reassured her that it was unlikely she had done...

Container Gardens / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Native Plants / Perennial Care / Poisonous Plants / Summer Color Plants / Sustainable Gardening / Wildlife Gardening

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Top Plant Picks for Summer Color: Foliage (Part 2)

Colorful and enticing plants fill every table and rack at garden centers in May.  Even the most experienced gardener may feel a little overwhelmed with so many interesting choices. Annual or perennial?  How big will this get? Will deer and bunnies eat it?  How long will it last?  Sun or shade?  Will it grow in a pot?  Will it stand the heat?  How much care will it require?  And most importantly, will it go the distance and survive all season?...

Crafting With Plants / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Permaculture / Propagation / Soil Conservation / Sustainable Gardening

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Resourceful Gardening with Seed Bombs

Seed bombs, also known as earth balls or seed balls, have roots in classical Egyptian agricultural practices.  The method may have been widespread in the ancient world as an efficient way to sow large amounts of seed quickly, with minimal tools, especially after floods and other disruptions.  Available sources indicate that some Native Americans used this method for sowing seeds. It is an effective way to sow seeds in areas with little rain. A seed bomb is made with clay...

Beneficial Insects / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Larval Host Plants / Lepidoptera / Native Plants / Native Trees / Permaculture / Soil Conservation / Sustainable Gardening / Wildlife Gardening

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Invitation to a ‘Homegrown National Park’

The bright flash of a butterfly’s wing brings instant joy.  My mind clears for a moment of rapt attention to see what sort of butterfly it is.  Where is it flying?  Where is it feeding?  Will it stay in our yard?  Whatever had been churning through my mind evaporates in that moment of pure beauty. Birdsong in the morning gently pulls me back from dreams, and we hear birds chattering and calling throughout the day, flying from shrub to tree. ...

Container Gardens / Deer / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Perennial Care / Permaculture / Poisonous Plants / Propagation / Soil Conservation / Sustainable Gardening / Wildlife Gardening

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Hellebores: Winter Flowers for Pollinators

What blooms through the snow in your yard?  Many older homes in our neighborhood have established clumps of evergreen hellebores blooming from January through April or May.  Suddenly, there are delicate pink and white petals emerging in the depths of winter. I asked a new friend about them soon after we moved to Williamsburg, and she generously gave me trays full of seedling plants when she thinned hers that spring.  What a wonderful gift!  The plants she gave to me...

Beneficial Insects / Birds / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Invasive Plants / Larval Host Plants / Native Trees / Nuisance Plants / Permaculture / Poisonous Plants / Sustainable Gardening / Weeds / Wildlife Gardening

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Noxious or Nice?

  The swiftest way to find yourself in a rollicking argument with someone you may otherwise count as a friend, is to disagree with them over whether a plant is useful in the garden, or is a noxious, invasive weed.  This drama can erupt among those of us passionate about our gardens and the plants we grow.  We all know just enough to know we’re right, but these arguments over plants can hinge on nuance and circumstance. Do you know...

Bulb Gardening / Container Gardens / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Geophytes / Heirloom plants / Permaculture / Poisonous Plants / Sustainable Gardening / Wildlife Gardening

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For Love of Narcissus

Is it possible to fall in love with a genus of plant?  Absolutely.  Some flowers appeal to us so persistently that we respond to them in ways that don’t quite make sense.  Their pull on our imagination, our affections, and yes, our resources, defies reason. Across horticultural history you’ll find characters who left their home continents behind to collect favorite plants.  You’ll find those who quit their day jobs to breed and grow them full-time.  And you will find smitten...

Beneficial Insects / Evergreen Shrubs / Flowering Shrubs / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Holiday Plants / Ornamental Shrubs / Permaculture / Wildlife Gardening

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Winter Blooming Camellias!

November and December in Williamsburg bring beautiful fall colors to my backyard which include my blooming camellias. There are two popular types that are late fall/winter bloomers, sasanqua and japonica camellias.  Although caring for them is easy, there are a few things I recommend you do to encourage healthy plants. Your efforts will be rewarded with beautiful flowers and luscious greenery. Mulch Add three to four inches of natural mulch to protect your plant from the cold winter winds. Mulch...