Super Cool Plants - Formerly Known as Let's Argue About Plants

When we say "foundation plants" you might think we're talking about plants that are the backbones of our beds and borders. But that's not what we mean in this instance. Today we're discussing plants that are perfect for planting around your home's foundation. These selections need to adhere to a certain set of requirements: they can't get too big; they can't be too small; they can't have aggressiv...

Seattle-based garden designer Stacie Crooks creates beautiful, ecologically friendly, low-maintenance gardens throughout the Pacific Northwest. Her most recent article in the December 2024 issue of Fine Gardening magazine tackles the challenges of integrating a vibrant, plant-focused garden into a cookie-cutter neighborhood developed during the post-World War II building boom. To coincide with the...

  Great o ptions for welcoming winged visitors to your garden     Hardly an episode goes by where we don't mention a pollinator plant. But we have never dedicated an entire episode to the topic, which in our minds is bananas! So today we're fixing that track record and discussing 11 of our favorite pollinator plants. Native plant expert Cheyenne Wine joins us from Rare Roots Nursery in Virginia to...

Andrew Bunting is vice president of horticulture at Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS), where he promotes gardening for the greater good . PHS support s healthier neighborhoods through horticulture by cleaning and greening vacant lots, planting and maintaining street trees, partnering with community gardeners to share resources and conserve productive open space , and demonstrating ecologica...

The best ground covers are multi-purpose workhorses, suppressing weeds, preventing soil erosion, and adding another level of interest to garden beds. Naturally, we'd prefer them not to be invasive, and to look good over a long season. But why do so many gardeners seem to fall back on the same few choices? In this episode, Danielle, Carol, and expert guest Amanda Thomsen cover new ground in their q...

Mark Weathington is the director of the JC Raulston Arboretum at NC State University in Raleigh, North Carolina and author of Gardening in the South: The Complete Homeowner's Guide . Mark is a frequent FG contributor, covering a wide range of topics including magnolias , redbuds , compact shrubs , and unexpected replacements for overused plants .  Some of Mark's most fascinating work at the arbore...

It's late-July and we're officially HOT. And so are our gardens. Now is the time that we start to truly sit up and take notice of th e pl ants that seem to be gliding through summer's worst without skipping a beat. Today's episode pays tribute to all those perennials and shrubs that take a lickin ' and keep on tickin ' . We found some stars that thrive in heat, lean soil, and even some selections...

Jared Barnes is an associate professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, where he and his students cultivate The Plantery , a botanic garden complete with a native plant trial garden. Jared shares his love of plants with a wider audience through his gardening newsletter and The Plantastic Podcast , and he is also a frequent contributor to Fine Gardening....

There's nothing nicer than being outside on a beautiful late spring day, especially if it means you get a whole day away from your desk. Danielle, Carol, and digital editor Christine Alexander recently played hooky from their editorial duties and went on a horticultural adventure at one of New England's great public gardens. Located in Boylston, Massachusetts, Tower Hill is filled with fun places...

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to get exclusive access to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show? Well, your dreams have come true because in this exclusive interview we got an all-access pass to THE horticultural event of the year thanks to Annie Guilfoyle, a 2024 judge. Annie is co-founder of Garden Masterclass in the UK and an award wining garden designer who earned a Silver Medal at Cheslea ye...

  Chances are, you've got mixed conditions in your garden. One area might be in full sun, while another spot a bit farther away is in full shade. Even beds that have the same exposure on paper may have larger plants that shade out the ground below. This presents a challenge for developing a cohesive look within a landscape. As gardeners, we've been taught that repetition is one of the tenets of go...

Irvin Etienne is the curator of herbaceous plants and seasonal garden design at Newfields, a 152-acre campus with art galleries, performance spaces, world-class public gardens, and a nature park in Indianapolis. Irvin has been a frequent contributor to Fine Gardening, sharing his horticultural expertise through informative articles like A Bright Idea for Spring Containers , Big and Bold Plants for...

Due to their size and expense, gardeners tend to put a lot more thought into the trees they ultimately buy for their landscape. While a perennial might only live for 6 or 7 years, a tree might grace your garden for 50 years or more—outliving the person who so carefully selected it, in fact. Here at Fine Gardening, we feel strongly that trees should look good in more than one season (for all of the...

Jay Sifford is an award-winning landscape designer based in North Carolina. Several of his garden designs have been featured in Fine Gardening , including a one-of-a-kind modern meadow garden and a series of beautiful, functional dry creek beds . Jay's immersive, naturalistic landscape designs are based around four cornerstones: art, magic, story, and horticulture. In this episode, Jay offers insi...

One of the worst sights you can ever see in the garden is a plant that has been browsed by deer . (Sidenote: we don't love the gentle word "browsed" in this instance. A more appropriate term might be "obliterated.") If the munching is particularly bad, that perennial, tree, or shrub becomes unrecognizable. And in many cases, this can mean instant death to your prized specimen. With deer pressure i...

Richard Hawke is the Director of Ornamental Plant Research at Chicago Botanic Garden , where he oversees comparative evaluations of ornamental plants. The CBG Plant Evaluation Program has included 117 distinct trials over the past four decades, with 26 comparative trials currently underway in three evaluation areas. In 2011, Richard began reporting trial results in Fine Gardening magazine, and has...

Every gardener wishes they had 25 acres to garden on, right? Well maybe not , but most of us do dream of a healthy amount of ground to build beds and borders to our hearts' desire. The reality of homeowners today, however, is that land is expensive and typical suburban lots have decreased in size steadily since the 1970s. And smaller lots mean smaller gardens. That isn't an issue though, if you se...

One of our favorite things to do here on the pod is dig through emails and social media shout outs from our listeners. It is always nice to hear about what problems you may be having in your gardens and to be able to offer advice from our decades of horticultural experience. And we're lucky to have scores of experts at our fingers tips if we don't have an answer for a plant suggestion or design fi...

During the winter months many plants reveal s ubtle patterns, fine details , and a new range of colors that help us to see familiar beds and borders with fresh eyes . This is an excellent time to get outside , evaluate your garden's bones, and make some plans for spring planting. In this episode Danielle, Carol, and their guest will explore some of the plants that fly a bit under the radar in wint...

Stacie Crooks is a Seattle-based garden designer who has created beautiful, ecologically friendly, low-maintenance gardens throughout the Pacific Northwest. She is also a contributing editor for Fine Gardening magazine and has shared her insights with our readers through 10 feature articles and several departments over the past 17 years . In this episode, Carol interviews Stacie about the lessons...

Plants with a silvery sheen stand out beautifully against the sea of green that fills most garden beds. In this episode , Danielle, Carol, and their guest will highlight some shimmering shrubs, drought-tolerant perennials, a tiny dwarf conifer, and even an unusual silvery vine with a bit of a back story. Perhaps o ne of these lovely, luminous plants could be the silver bullet solution to one of yo...

Oh, dear listeners...it's the most glorious time of the year! No, not because it's time to hang the stockings or trim the tree—because it's time to make the 2024 gardening wish lists. This year Carol and Danielle have selected the 8 plants they are pining over most. You will hear about a brand-new perennial that few, if any, have seen before. And there's also a new hydrangea with...brace yourselve...

If you like the beauty and impact that ornamental grasses bring to a garden design, you will love the many shapes, forms and colors that North American native species offer. Whether you need a practical groundcover, a dramatic focal point, or an airy filler to knit a matrix planting together, Danielle, Carol, and guest Paula Gross have some options that will inspire you to start your spring shoppi...

While searching through our archive of episodes we discovered something: There are a few specific plants we just can't stop talking about. As the years have progressed here at Let's Argue About Plants, we find ourselves experimenting with more and more varieties, so we have something new to report back to you on. But frankly, there are a core of plants that we could talk about every episode becaus...

Isn't every plant great in a group? Well, the answer is no. Some plants are too vigorous in their growth habits to share the stage, while others are better if put on a pedestal all their own (i.e. the focal point plants of the landscape). Today's episode we talk about plants that are great in masses—that is to say—in groups of three or more. We have options for shade, choices for sun, and selectio...