This story is about the mimosa tree and how much I like it, but let me lead up to it gradually. I want you to know why I think it is the flowering tree that has performed best for me. When I was a boy, the catalpa and black locust were the only flowering trees […]

Few landscape plants are as truly American or as deeply loved and appreciated as flowering dogwood. From Massachusetts to Florida, then west to the Great Lakes and to Texas, dogwood blooms wild in the woods in early spring. Picturesque sprays of white flowers, set on delicate branches, unfold just as the leaves of other forest […]

Hibiscus Manihot, (pronounced MAN-e-hot) commonly called Sunset Hibiscus, offers high garden value to gardeners in search of a flowering plant that will endure the gridiron summer environment of Mid-America. This hibiscus has been long overlooked but it is an amenable beauty, nonetheless. If started from seeds indoors during late February, and transplanted outdoors by early […]

All gardeners know and love the common lilac. It came so early to this country and fits so perfectly into the surroundings of many an old houses that many people mistakenly think it is a native plant. A surprising number of otherwise up-to-date gardeners fail to realize, however, the extraordinary beauty of the newer varieties […]

If you like a lot of color in your garden during July and August, plant the standing cypress. Its botanical name is Ipomopsis rubra. The panicles of striking, flame colored flowers are borne on straight stems above fine, feathery foliage similar to that of cosmos. They grow in a pyramid shape, two or three feet […]

Back in the 1950’s travelers to Cuba were introduced to an exotic plant flowering at Christmas time called Candlebush (Cassia alata) along with poinsettias however it took a long time for it to make its way from tropical America along the southeastern U. S. coastal states to southern US. Candlebush has many things to recommend […]

Five years ago friends purchased a piece of property which could be described as an overgrown wildness of neglected trees and shrubs. Fifteen-year-old shrubs that had never been pruned had completely taken charge. Massive evergreens obscured the view from the windows and kept light and air out of the house. Today this property is a […]

The urge to garden is strongest in the spring when dormant trees and shrubs awaken from their winter’s rest. If you were among the foresighted last fall, you now would be preparing to reap the reward of having planted a variety of bulbs. Lilies are increasing in popularity very rapidly, and many gardeners are wondering […]

How long do hybrid rose tea plants live? How many times have you been asked this question? It is one that takes much explaining to the beginner, sometimes even more explaining to one who has tried a few hybrid teas for one year and after unsatisfactory results has given them back to nature. We always […]