This past week Tom and I got to Travel to the motor city for a wonderful GCA Detroit Garden Tour. For those you that don’t know the Detroit and surrounding area houses some of the most state of the art greenhouses, growing facilities, and retail locations in the United States. Below i have posted a…
Pruning Big Leaf or Mophead Hydrangeas
Pruning hydrangeas can be very tricky because there are so many varieties and species. I hope in this blog to help you understand how to prune your hydrangeas to keep them healthy, happy, and flowering at their best. I am sharing the advice of Dr. Bir, North Carolina plant expert, extraordinaire. According the Richard Bir…
Tsuga canadensis – Eastern (Canadian) Hemlock
We are so lucky, here in Wisconsin, to have many beautiful native trees to choose from for our landscapes. If you have traveled to the reaches of Door County or any of the Northwoods counties, you have, no doubt, come into contact with a stately Eastern Hemlock. It is a versatile tree for those of…
New admiration for Martha Washington Geraniums
I have adopted the courtyard at my church. This Easter our Caan plants that adorned the altar were beautiful. The plants that were not taken by parishioners, I planted in the courtyard. These Marthas were in full bloom Mid June. Four hours sun. I did some research and noticed Marthas like the cooler weather (Spring, Fall). Right…
Corylus avellana ‘Red Majestic’ – Red Majestic Contorted Filbert
I have decided to take a bit of a writing detour. I said I would spend the next few weeks writing about plants that are attractive to wildlife. Instead, I am going to focus on a plant that is a showstopper. It is a newer shrub that I think is worth taking this brief pause….
Pansy Window Box
This is early June and the pansy’s and springeri are doing good. This gets morning sun and shaded for the afternoon. Deadheading is done every day or every couple of days and fertilized with a dilluted mixture of an all purpose fertilizer. In years past, I’ve tried the “bloom booster” fertilizer and found the results…
Eastern Redbud – Cercis canadensis
The Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) is another tree that could rival one of my all time favorites for a number of reasons, it has the most wonderful pink flower display in spring, I love the heart-shaped foliage, and it attracts many of our native pollinators. This tree is a wonderful choice for those of us…
Container and Ground Plantings
So this is blogging! Not being born with a chip in my head pertaining to computers, I am a beginner to this, but not to designing container gardens or sensing what looks good together. Now that we have most of our floral gardens set for the season, don’t forget to be faithful to deadhead and…