The vibrant colors of Oriental poppies make them one of the most valuable garden perennials. They shrug off the cold, go dormant in midsummer, and burst into a magnificent display that is as breathtaking at several hundred paces as it is at arm’s length in late May and early June. In addition, the foliage is … Read more
To me, primroses are the real aristocrats of those plants that bloom in the earliest spring. They are wonderful when massed in a bed or border. Even when just one or two plants are grown in the shaded rock garden, nestled among other greenery, they will provide a lovely spot of color. Probably the reason … Read more
The lesser-known beauties are like frosting on a cake: no one would construct a garden just from these, but mingled with old standbys like phlox, gaillardia, and summer annuals, they create lovely surprises. A few are hardy far into northern states. Half of the best on my list can be wintered successfully outdoors as far … Read more
Study a few iris catalogs, especially from hybridizers, and you will see that far more remarkable achievements are being made with iris breeding. Once color-crazed, iris hybridizers also concentrate on vigor, disease resistance, and good branching and height variations. All the varieties discussed in this article are vigorous except one or two, which have enough … Read more
While the memory of your early spring garden is still fresh, why not compile next year’s bulb list for fall delivery? Narcissus should be at the top of your list, from the large-trumpet varieties to the tiny N. bulbocodium for your rock garden. If you learn the different varieties and their flowering time, you can … Read more
The dean of daylily hybridizers discusses their development, beauty, and usefulness as garden plants. There are today about 3,500 named daylilies or hemerocallis. Forty years ago, only about a dozen— including both species and hybrids—were widely known in American gardens. Twenty years later, in 1930, there were about 15 species and approximately 175 hybrids. During … Read more
A shaded garden spot can be mighty frustrating to a gardener who wants color all through summer. Most of the best-known summer annuals demand sunshine to bloom well. Generally speaking, the more sun they get, the more buds they set. But take heart! There are wonderful summer-colorful, easy-to-grow, quick-result plants that prefer shade! A few … Read more
No matter where you garden, in the cool North, or humid South, California, Connecticut, or Colorado, there is a native iris that will be happy with you because it is either indigenous to your region or able to adapt itself well enough to it. Native iris fall into either the beardless or crested divisions. Except … Read more
Few enjoy enviable popularity among tender bulbous plants, and others are treated as such. Most relatively neglected species deserve greater popularity, and none deserves it more than the summer-flowering species of Hymenocallis, or Ismene, as it’s commonly referred to and listed in most catalogs. Hymenocallis clothing, better known as Spider-lily, basket-flower, or Peruvian daffodil, comes … Read more
Iris means rainbow, and no other flower deserves this name quite well. You will find masses of all spectrum colors among the tall bearded irises. Add elegant flower form and texture, plus a hardy disposition that lets the plant live almost everywhere, and you have a spectacular garden perennial. It fails only in the deep … Read more