If you have a heated greenhouse, you have a big advantage in growing amaryllis, those bulbs with huge, dramatic flowers that are such popular holiday gifts. Pretty much anybody with a bright window can get an amaryllis bulb to bloom, but to keep the plant alive and get it to flower again next year requires […]
“I’m telling you, I have full heads of broccoli and cabbage only seven weeks from seedlings in a six-pack—huge!” Joe Lamp’l is pleased. In a phone interview, the executive producer and host of the TV show “Growing a Greener World” is sharing with me the delight all gardeners feel about a horticultural achievement. The secret […]
Flavour is one of the main reasons most people grow their own food. You might be able to buy bags of low cost veg in the supermarket, but you can never replicate that just picked, fresh, harvest taste and by growing your own, you can have ingredients that are hard to find in the shops, […]
Although her first love was painting, Jacqueline van der Kloet seems to have made her peace with the medium her parents thought more practical—garden design. Her remarkable gardens both private and public throughout Europe, and in recent years, several highly visible U.S. gardens, including Millenium Park in Chicago and Battery Park in NYC, are testaments […]
One of the delights of a greenhouse is the opportunity to grow citrus fruits in pots. You’re never going to rival the Florida citrus industry, but imagine the joy of cooking with a Meyer lemon you grew yourself. And you can feel a little bit like Louis XIV, who ordered up the orangerie at Versailles […]
Seven Tree Warning Signs You Should Know Trees are your garden’s greatest asset. Whether evergreen or deciduous, they cool your home in summer and protect from harsh winds in winter. And they offer aesthetic appeal. Handsome trees raise property values. So late autumn is an excellent time to take thirty minutes and do a tree […]
The sumac leaves have turned scarlet and the end of the season is finally near. It’s time to clear away this summer’s garden and get tender plants into the house or the greenhouse before the first frost hits. Hygiene is important outdoors as well as indoors. Many insects, disease-causing bacteria and fungal spores can overwinter […]
As the gardening season goes into fall, I’m already looking forward to 2015. That’s because I just attended the Far West Show, a national nursery and greenhouse trade show in Portland, Oregon. It features the New Varieties Showcase—the hottest wholesale introductions in ornamentals—and I wanted all fifty-two of the selections. So gardeners, here’s the […]
Windswept at the Berkshire Botanical Garden On the grounds of one of the oldest botanic gardens in the country, an exhibit that interacts with breezes large and small welcomes garden visitors this summer. Windswept is as multifaceted as the garden itself, which is located in Stockbridge, Massachusetts on fifteen cultivated acres and includes three greenhouses. […]
THE FUTURE IS GREEN in Pittsburgh’s famous glasshouse I saw one of the world’s great greenhouses last month when I visited Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh. One of the largest conservatories in the world, with soaring, lacelike Edwardian architecture framing the glass overhead, it has 17 separate indoor garden spaces – pools, gorgeous […]
Ed knows that gardens are for kids as well as adults. That’s why this veteran television and radio personality, book author, and head of Ed Hume Seeds included a children’s educational garden around his family-owned seed-packing factory in Puyallup, Washington. School groups—and grownups too—come to visit throughout the year. However, Ed’s idea of garden education […]
As the summer winds down and the garden outside the greenhouse is wan and fading, up pop the dahlias. With jaunty bright flowers on tall stalks, they scoff at the coming of fall like flamboyant Auntie Mame defying middle age. There are dahlias of many colors, mostly in pinks, reds, oranges and yellows, with […]
