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Braving the Thorns Part 2: Pruning Your Dormant Rose
Rose pruning is such a satisfying task – you go from a tangled icky mass with thorns everywhere to a lovely clean set of sturdy stems – yet too many people are intimidated by their roses. There’s no need to be shy! The worst thing you can do is not tackle them at all, since…
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Ornamental Grasses: How to Prune Miscanthus, Stipa, and More
Now’s the time for us mild-winter gardeners to prune back many of our ornamental grasses. But how do you know which to prune back all the way, which to deadhead, and which to leave be? Well, if your grass is an evergreen and is still looking great, then leave it be unless you want to…
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January Garden Maintenance: The To-Do List
If December is all about putting things to bed – raking, weeding, mulching, and cutting back perennials – January’s for dreaming big dreams of the coming year’s harvest and blooms – pruning, spraying, and planting for a productive year. You’d think while pruning a completely bare tree you’d feel wintry and rather desolate – but…
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Garden Q&A: Snow-Loading on Arborvitae
A timely question from Jennifer about sprawling Arborvitae: I have several 8-10 ft arborvitae that are bent over to various degrees from the weight of the heavy snowfall. Will these branches bounce back on their own or should I try to tie them to the main trunk to straighten them back up?
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Wicked Plants: The Movie
Update 1/8/09 – Amy just posted more about the making of this movie over on Garden Rant. Check it out! Amy Stewart is one of my very favorite garden writers. I mean, who wouldn’t love someone who wrote a WHOLE BOOK about earthworms, and managed to make it good, too? Then Flower Confidential: all the…
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Braving The Thorns: How to Select a Bare Root Rose
If you want to buy a rose anytime this year, January’s the time to do it. They have just arrived in the nurseries and are cheap, transplant well right now, and the selection is fantastic. (Next month they’ll be even cheaper, of course, but do you want to risk your favorite being gone?) Here’s how…
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The Military Flat-Top: How To Prune Your Astilbe (Video Tutorial)
Feathery Astilbe plumes in spring are one of my favorite seasonal shows, and even though I’m a big proponent of year-round interest, I’ll forgive a species that goes dormant if it does so with either: A. Loads of fanfare and splashy color, or up-to-the-last-second blooms. B. Such profoundly fast dieback that one day you are…
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Tree-Shaped Shrubs; Pruning Princess Flower or Tibouchina (Video Tutorial)
As a Garden Coach, I’m often asked for “trees” that stay about 8-12’ tall. Most people don’t realize how few trees there are with that mature size – but there are many shrubs that can be pruned to have a tree-like form, with an open branching habit down below and a pretty multi-stemmed trunk. Tibouchina…
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I Love Alstroemeria! And: A Cool Trick For Pruning Them (Video Tutorial)
Florists love Alstroemeria for their gorgeous, long-lasting cut flowers, and I do too – the orange ‘Third Harmonic’ above, the traditional salmon-pink ‘Regina’ found in your florist’s shop, the always-lovely ‘Casa Blanca’ with its white flowers striped with pink and green – there are colors and tones to suit any garden.
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Cheerful Conifers: Some Year-Round Stars (With Photos)
To finish up my Fall Planting for Winter Interest series, I’m excited to share some of my favorite conifers that look awesome in winter. Conifers are one of the strongest evergreen elements in a garden. They’re usually fairly tough once established, and there’s an enormous variety in textures and colors – from stately and stiff…
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Showy Trees for Winter Interest in the Pacific Northwest
It’s getting pret-ty darn chilly outside, and I don’t know about you, but most of my gardening activity in the last couple weeks has been planning, dreaming, and viewing my garden from indoors, thank you very much. Even my chickens are resting in their toasty coop a good portion of the day, and they have…