The hunt is on for the rare and unusual It’s the darkest time of the year, when your outdoor garden makes few demands—although you may be enjoying the plants in your greenhouse—so now is the perfect time to curl up and read catalogs. Start your armchair hunt for the next fabulous wow-factor plant to give […]
Ferns are the duct tape of garden design—they visually connect all other disparate plants. That’s why floral designers feature ferns in bouquets. And they perform the same function when you’re staging plants this winter in your greenhouse. To find out which ferns thrive best under glass I called on my friend Judith Jones, the owner […]
The decisions about which new plants will appear at a nursery near you next spring are happening right now. Here’s a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes process so you can jumpstart your own plant wish list. I was recently one of three judges for the 2009 New Varieties Showcase at the Farwest trade show in Portland, […]
Unusual fruiting shrubs and trees – where have you been all my gardening life? That was the question I asked myself while standing at One Green World’s tasting table in Molalla, Oregon. The nursery specializes in unique fruits from around the world. Affable owner, Jim Gilbert, presided over an enticing array of mouth-watering offerings. Landscaping […]
Five questions for strong healthy growth What do gardeners really want? Recently, I conducted an unscientific two-day sampling of homeowners’ gardening questions. The most common concerns were about how to help ailing plants. I spent an enjoyable weekend, volunteering in the “Ask An Expert” booth at the Sunset Celebration, a hoopla of all things great […]
Two new plant introductions in two If they made movies about the plants’ life stories – how they start out as unknowns in far away places and end up as star performers at a nursery near you – these two variegated must-have specimens would have award-winning biopics for best screenplay. Act One The first is […]
This is the year of the vegetable garden—from the White House to local front lawns—everyone is planting crops. However, even seasoned gardeners can have disappointments with veggies. So I asked my friend, Rose Marie Nichols McGee, owner/ president of Nichols Garden Nursery in Albany, Oregon, what to do about the most common edible errors. Rose […]
We gardeners all rely on the common wisdom passed along through books, magazines, blogs, or the neighbor down the street. However, John Fischer, a retired meteorologist, Master Gardener, and garden writer, offers this—make your own observations. Throughout his career as a television meteorologist, John always tied together the weather and gardening. When horticulture questions arose, […]
Outside,Oregon gray skies dump cold and windy rain-it’s that moment of no-color, before spring’s panoply of blossoms. But inside my sunroom, I’m greeted with colors-not only shades of green, but reds, yellows, blues and bright whites. This month I celebrate my top reliable winter bloomers for greenhouse or sunny windowsill. These are the toughest survivors […]
The summer’s too dry, or the summer’s too wet—weather swings across the U.S. are dramatic. Now more than ever, gardeners should consider steady and efficient water delivery for the times when plants need it. In the past, a permanent installation involved a choice—either underground pipes with sprayer heads, or drip with flexible half-inch pipe and […]
In the colder months, birds bring color and motion to gardens at rest, whether you watch them from a kitchen window or enjoy their antics through the glass of a cozy greenhouse. When I have questions about feeding my winged denizens, I turn to Dan Gleason, owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Eugene. Dan taught […]
Finally—after a notably cold spring, it’s time to shift my sun room plants outdoors. Over the years I’ve noticed that certain plants make the move more easily than others. Some show their displeasure by dropping leaves (the brunfelsia), getting sticky indoors before winter’s end (the Meyer lemon) or simply not thriving outside (the dracaena). So […]
