Few scents announce spring as clearly as the fragrance of hyacinth flowers (Hyacinthus orientalis) in bloom. The spikes of bright tubular flowers rise above strap-shaped leaves, and the perfume carries across a garden bed at a surprising distance. Hyacinths reached Europe in the 16th century, Dutch bulb growers had bred more than 2,000 cultivars by […]
Roses are tougher than they look, but the roots that carry a plant through winter sit close to the surface. When soil freezes and thaws in repeated cycles, those shallow roots get lifted, torn, and exposed, and the rose wakes up in spring with a smaller root system than it went to sleep with. Mulch
Chrysanthemums, known to most gardeners as mums, bring the richest color to autumn gardens, whether they sit on a porch beside the pumpkins or fill a bed with late-season blooms. The plants are famously adaptable, but planting them in the wrong spot makes them vulnerable to pests, root rot, and other stressors that cut into
A flower garden that looks effortless is usually the result of planning. Gardeners who match plants to their site conditions, water on a schedule that fits the soil, and protect blooms through the season make fewer costly mistakes. The habit of studying conditions before committing is the same one home builders rely on when they
Every gardener knows the disappointment of watching a bedful of summer color die back in fall and never return. The usual cause is not bad luck; it is a garden built mostly on annuals. Perennials come back year after year from the same root system, and a bed stocked with the right ones repays the
Boxelder bugs are one of the few pests that announce their presence by the hundreds. In late summer and fall, they gather on the sunny sides of trees, buildings, and rocks, then work their way into homes through cracks and crevices to escape the cold. The bugs are native to North America and mostly harmless
Many homeowners treat the first cool day of September as permission to park the mower until spring. The grass has other plans. Cool-season grasses grow most vigorously in fall, and warm-season lawns keep growing until the first hard frost. The right time to stop mowing depends on grass type, growth rate, and soil temperature rather
Fall moves at a different pace than spring. The planting rush is over, the garden slows down, and the work shifts from growing things to putting the property to bed for winter. The chores done in these weeks decide how much work shows up in March. Gardeners who skip fall cleanup find their beds full
Mums grow best in moist soil and struggle when their roots dry out, so the real question is not a fixed number of days but a reliable way to check. Water slowly and deeply, either daily or whenever the top 1 to 2 inches of soil feel dry, and keep the foliage dry by watering
The Gerbera daisy, Gerbera jamesonii, is a flowering plant from South Africa in the Aster family, best known for its large, brightly colored blooms held on sturdy stems above a rosette of lobed leaves. Today’s nursery and seed catalog varieties are hybrids that fall into four main classes: single flower, semi-double flower, double flower, and
