The landscape use of Camellia japonica can be greatly enlarged by carefully selecting varieties that will extend the bloom season. A major portion of the camellias grown outdoors in the South bloom in late winter and are termed mid-season varieties. Even in the larger plantings and collections, one does not find any great number of … Read more
On the Pacific coast, where the number of firethorn (pyracantha) varieties is increasing, it is not easy for the newcomer to make his choice. Pyracantha Graberi In California, Pyracantha Graberi, with its vigorous growth and huge clusters of very large glossy, scarlet berries is one of the best. It is one of the hybrids of … Read more
West Coast gardeners cannot hobnob together for long without the question “How do you grow lupines?” cropping up. Many want to know where they can get plants and seeds, yet nurserymen say there is no demand and carry little stock. “They can’t be grown.” some gardeners tell me. “The seed won’t come up, and they … Read more
Nothing is more restful yet cheerful year-round than green foliage. My choice of the best foliage plant is the ivy. Collecting ivies over the years and through purchases has been a source of great pleasure, direct importing, trading, and even polite begging. I now have a good number of not only the fascinating new varieties … Read more
Autumn coloration is not usual in broad-leaved evergreens, but drooping leucothoe, Leucothoe catesbaei, has been liberally endowed with this quality. The change in the season and the attention now focused on evergreens make this species’ rich, purplish, and reddish tones unusually noteworthy. This North American shrub has the same scientific and common name; its namesake … Read more
By November, most truly migratory birds have departed. However, many birds undertake a partial migration. They travel, often in huge flocks, from breeding or roosting grounds on a mountain range into valleys and lowlands or roam the countryside for several hundred miles searching for food. Among these partial migratory species are the bluebirds. No North … Read more
After chemical methods have controlled plant growth, the matter of maintenance is of prime importance. The margins demand the most attention, for along the borders of a converted field, there are bound to be invaders. The edge of a forest will surreptitiously creep in by underground runners or by the arching branches of shrubs taking … Read more
And so they come, the long winter months when the garden lies still and withdrawn beneath Nature’s decree of dormancy, and the eye sees only the shadows of shrub and tree limbs starkly stenciled upon the snow. What joy it is then to entice into this bleakness the ardent warmth, the vivacity, the vivid bar … Read more
Great-grandmother grew ribbon beds of coleus, carefully pinched to keep them from becoming uneven or straggly and never allowed to bloom. Grandmother filled hanging baskets on the porch with Trailing Queen and grew a few handsome specimen plants in jardinieres here and there. Mother practically forgot coleus – she heard mealy bugs destroyed them, anyway, … Read more
Topiary art is a form of structural gardening that once had great prominence in the old country. This called for the trimming and training of amenable plants in certain forms of animals, birds, or pieces of furniture. There are today, in America, a few estates where these pieces of garden art have been formed and … Read more