Focus on Flowers

If you are wondering what to buy as a holiday gift for a gardening friend, you can order a shrub now to be delivered next spring. There is a wonderful, scented viburnum that I have in my garden...

If you are looking for a holiday gift for a gardener, now is the time to order online. You will, of course, have a delivery date of next spring when it is safe to plant, but a notification of the spring delivery will be sent to your lucky recipient before the holidays. 

There are so many new varieties of hellebores now available, and these plants make perfect gifts for gardeners. In early spring when there are no garden flowers available, I am so grateful when I look under the leathery leaves of my hellebores and find flowers to pick for the house. It is a wonderful joy. 

If you prefer not to use strong pesticides, there are other ways to get rid of unwanted aggressive and invasive plants.

Many perennials like to be divided in the fall, especially if they have outgrown their space or have ceased blooming well. 

Making potpourri from flowers is an easy dried-flower craft. It smells lovely and makes a great gift and looks pretty in bowls, baskets, and jars, reminding us of summer. 

The Aztecs who first inhabited South America domesticated the plant that we now call marigold many years before any Europeans ever set foot in the area that we now call Mexico.

Since the beginning of time, it seems that humans have ascribed magical powers to flowers. 

Rudbeckia hirta is the botanical name for our bright yellow black-eyed Susans that light up our gardens in late summer and fall. 

One of our native lilies is the spectacular Lilium superb , spelled “superbum,” (but it is not pronounced as it is spelt). Its petals recurve, so a common name is Turk's cap. 

The Latin name “Physostegia” refers to the calyx, which covers their seed pods. “Physa” means bladder and “stege” means a covering. Common names are false dragonhead and obedience part because the stems can be bent up and down and sideways without breaking.  

When goldenrod is in bloom, it indicates that fall is in the air. It does not cause hay fever (That is ragweed!), as the pollen of goldenrod is too heavy to be dispersed by the wind.

The lobelia family is extremely diverse but there are two American natives that are hardy perennials: Lobelia cardinalis and Lobelia siphilitica. 

Many years ago, I bought a perennial plant at a nursery, and after I planted it, found that there was a ride-along plant in the pot.

There are few flowers like liatris in the flower world, as the blooms open on top of the stalks first, and the ones on the bottom open last.

Heuchera is the botanical name for coral bells .The one that is most frequently found in our gardens is Heuchera sanguinea -- tiny bell-shaped flowers on 15-inch stems dangle above mounds of deep green leaves. The flowers are bright red, which explains why “sanguinea,” which means blood red, is in the name.

Our native Eupatorium purpureum, commonly known as Joe Pye weed, flowers in late summer and fall, producing tall clusters of fluffy purple flowers. 

Ground cover plants are a bit like area rugs in our homes, as we can mix and match them or plant many of the same type of plant to cover bare patches.

In a cultivated garden, helenium looks best with other yellow or bronze flowers that bloom in the fall, and they light up a flower bed as the growing season draws to a close.

If you especially enjoy delicate, airy types of flowers, then you should grow Gaura to enjoy in your garden and in flower arrangements. 

Coreopsis is from the Greek word koris meaning bug and opsis meaning resemblance to. This is because the seeds of coreopsis took like small ticks. 

Farmers do not care for wild carrots that grow in their fields and on roadsides and produce thousands of seeds that produce more plants. 

Echinacea purpurea flowers well from mid-summer to early fall and combines well with most other flowering perennials. 

Vita Sackville West's white garden at Sissinghurst in England is world famous. Here is her own description of the plants in it.

Most of us enjoy watching the butterflies in our gardens, and it can be a magical experience for us and for our children.