Author's posts
Jan 18
Delphinium Care
Few perennial flowers can match a delphinium in full bloom. Tall spikes packed with blue, violet, lavender, pink, or white blossoms can rise several feet above a border, creating the kind of vertical color usually associated with cottage gardens and formal perennial displays. The genus Delphinium includes hundreds of species, but many of the dramatic …
Jan 17
Springbeauty Care
Springbeauty is one of the quiet treasures of the early woodland garden. Long before most summer perennials have begun growing, its narrow green leaves emerge from the soil and delicate white-to-pink flowers open above them, each petal marked with fine pink or reddish veins. The botanical name is Claytonia virginica, commonly called Virginia springbeauty, eastern …
Jan 16
Lungwort Care
Lungwort is one of the most useful early-flowering perennials for a shade garden. Its clusters of pink, blue, violet, or white flowers appear in spring, often before many other woodland perennials have fully awakened, while its silver-spotted foliage can remain attractive long after the flowers have faded. The botanical genus is Pulmonaria, a group of …
Jan 16
Columbine Care
Columbine is one of the most graceful flowers of the late-spring garden. Its nodding blossoms seem to float above delicate blue-green foliage, with distinctive backward-pointing spurs that give each flower an unmistakable shape. Depending on the species or cultivar, flowers may be blue, violet, purple, red, yellow, pink, white, or beautifully bicolored. The botanical genus …
Jan 15
Lilac Care
Lilacs are among the most recognizable flowering shrubs of spring. Their large clusters of purple, lavender, pink, white, or cream flowers can fill an entire garden with fragrance, often becoming one of the most anticipated displays of the year. The best-known species is Syringa vulgaris, the common lilac, a deciduous shrub native to the Balkan …
Jan 14
Forget-Me-Not Care
Few spring flowers are as instantly recognizable as forget-me-nots. Their tiny blue blossoms, each centered with a bright yellow or creamy-white eye, can create a soft cloud of color beneath shrubs, along woodland paths, between spring bulbs, or around the edges of a cottage garden. The plant most commonly grown as the traditional garden forget-me-not …
Jan 14
Pansy Care
Pansies are among the most dependable flowers for adding color when the weather is too cool for most traditional annuals. Their broad, overlapping petals can be yellow, orange, red, burgundy, blue, violet, purple, white, or nearly black, often marked with contrasting blotches that create the familiar pansy “face.” The garden pansy is generally known botanically …
Jan 13
Primrose Care
Primroses are among the first perennials to bring substantial color back to the garden after winter. Their cheerful flowers appear in yellow, white, pink, red, purple, blue, orange, and countless combinations, often blooming while many other perennials are only beginning to emerge. The name primrose most commonly refers to plants in the genus Primula, particularly …
Jan 12
Top 100 Garden Flowers for North American Gardens: A Year-Round Guide
Choosing flowers for a garden is easier when you think in seasons. This guide brings together 100 beautiful flowering plants for North American gardens, organized by their primary season of interest so you can plan for color from early spring through fall and, in milder climates, into winter. Bloom times vary by USDA hardiness zone, …
Jan 11
Japanese Anemone Care
Japanese anemones are among the most valuable flowers for the late-season garden. Just as many summer perennials begin fading, these graceful plants send up tall, branching stems topped with pink or white flowers that can continue from late summer well into fall. The plants commonly called Japanese anemones include Anemone hupehensis and numerous garden hybrids …
