Articles Index

Pruning Shrubs

Familiarize yourself with the basics of pruning shrubs in this introduction, including the proper cutting angle to use when cutting. This necessary operation is easy once you learn how.

Japanese Willow

Flamingo Japanese willows are fast-growing shrubs that offer good color in their leaves and stems. Bearing "dappled" leaves, in the sense of variegated foliage, stems and leaves have a touch of pink (thus "Flamingo").

Blue Princess Holly

Blue Princess holly needs her "prince" (other male pollinators may also work to produce berries). This bush and her prince are Meserve hybrids.

Iris Reticulata

Iris reticulata (also named "netted" or "reticulated") is one of the earliest bloomers in spring. The flowers of this dwarf are tricolored (purple, yellow and white) and plants spring from a "netted" bulb giving them the species name "reticulata."

Snowdrops

You can plant snowdrops under deciduous trees without concern that shade will stunt their growth, since they bloom before the leaves come out. The flowers are among the first to appear.

Crocus Bulbs

Crocus bulbs, generally, are planted in the fall in the U.S. and yield flowers in early spring. Grow these plants in full to partial sun.

Hyacinth Flowers

Hyacinth flowers are star-shaped and fragrant. Dutch hyacinths are the best known of these spring bulb plants.

Scilla Siberica Bulb Plants, or "Siberian Squill"

View my picture of Scilla siberica to see what the flowers of this bulb plant look like. The plant's common name is Siberian squill, and these bulbs offer blue flowers in spring.

Daffodil Bulbs

Daffodil bulbs spread and eventually become crowded, after which flowering declines. Divide them to remedy this problem and get them growing vigorously again.

Planting Tulips

Learn about planting tulips properly here, so that you'll be able to enjoy their magnificent flowers in spring. Like roses, these bulb plants may be at their best before their flowers have fully opened.

Allium Schubertii: Ornamental Onion That Looks Like Fireworks

Allium schubertii is that ornamental onion that looks like fireworks exploding. I describe these bulb plants and tell you how to grow them in this introduction.

Korean Spice Viburnum

Korean spice viburnum shrubs are among the most fragrant plants. Also called "Koreanspice" or spicebush, these bushes bear white flowers in spring.

Sky Pencil Holly

'Sky Pencil' holly presents an interesting option for small spaces. The narrow form of this columnar shrub lends itself to usage near house foundations, especially at the corners.

Colorado Blue Spruce Trees

Colorado blue spruce trees are deer-resistant and often used as specimens or windbreaks. A classic choice for Christmas, Colorado blue spruce trees can also be impressive landscaping components.

Kwanzan Cherry Trees

Kwanzan cherry trees are deciduous flowering specimens. Japanese Kwanzan cherry trees flower in spring.

Maltese Cross

How did Maltese cross plants get their name? As any graphic of the same name reveals, the symbol has 4 parts; but the plant's flower has 5.

Golden Chain Trees

Golden chain trees bear striking racemes of yellow flowers in late spring. Its blooms can be damaged by frost; nor does Laburnum x watereri tolerate humidity well.

Zebra Grass

Zebra grass is the common name for Miscanthus sinensis 'Zebrinus.' It is a striped ornamental grass and boasts not only variegated leaves, but also a pretty flower head.

Maiden Grass: Miscanthus Sinensis Gracillimus

Maiden grass miscanthus is a clumping ornamental that bears plumes in fall. M. sinensis 'Gracillimus', like the Zebrinus (zebra) type, is an outstanding foliage plant.

Rock Cotoneaster Plants

Rock cotoneaster plants (or "rockspray") are popular rockery plants. Low-growing shrubs, rock cotoneaster (horizontalis) can function as ground covers.

Common Ragweed, Hay-Fever Culprit: Weed Identification

Fall hay fever sufferers have common ragweed and its giant cousin to blame for their hay fever. Through the pictures provided here you can undertake weed identification, isolate common ragweed plants, and eradicate them.

Flowering Quince Shrubs

Should you grow flowering quince shrubs? These spring-blooming bushes have their good and bad points, which I relate while telling you how to grow them.

Little Titch Catmint (Nepeta Racemosa or Mussinii)

'Little Titch' catmint (Nepeta mussinii or Nepeta racemosa) stays short and is, in fact, considered a dwarf. This makes it more suitable for tight spots than '6 Hills Giant' catmint, for example.

Virginia Sweetspire

Virginia sweetspire shrubs are flowering bushes. But these shrubs are most valuable for their red fall foliage, as the cultivar name 'Merlot' suggests.

Hollyhocks

Hollyhocks are tall perennial plants effective for the back row of a plant bed. Some have flowers so dark as to be considered "black."