Every garden has those plants that quietly blend into the background—and then there are the showstoppers. Castor beans and senna definitely fall into that second category. They both bring a kind of presence that makes you stop and take a…
Tag: Flowers (annual)
2025 All-America Selections
The 2025 All-America Selections (AAS) winners include outstanding vegetable and flower varieties chosen for their superior garden performance through trials across North America. Here are some highlights: Flowers: 5. Petunia Shake Rasberry – Blooms of raspberry swirled with lemon-lime colors.…
All-American Flower Selections for 2024
Ready to dive into the floral wonders of the All-American Flower Selections for 2024? Brace yourselves – we’ve got some blooming beauties to chat about! First up on the floral runway is the Burning Embers Celosia. The dark bronze leaves…
Flowering Tobacco
Most people know the flowering tobacco annual flowers. You can find them at the greenhouses or order the seed online. Easy to grow, coming in many colors: white, lavender, red, and shades in between. I plant the variety Nicotiana alata,…
Hardening Off
Have you bought plants at the greenhouse, set them out in the garden or flowerbed and they died? It is the same as you wintering in your house then going outside on a nice spring day and ending up with…
Marshmallow Plant
A new plant this year, the marshmallow plant which is related to the hollyhock. Grown as an annual reaching 4 to 5 feet with hollyhock-like blooms. The candy origin comes from this plant. The ancient Egyptians boiled the root to…
Vining Plants
Whether you want an ugly fence covered or adding a focal point using vining plants. My favorite vine for quickly covering a large fence is hops. It is a green vine without noticeable flowers, however, having cute papery hops. A…
Calendula
Calendula gets its name from the Romans in that the plant blooms every month of the year in warmer climates. In the early history of the plant, it was grown as an herb in easing headaches, toothaches, and fevers. You…
All-American Selection
Every year the All-American Selection of vegetables and flowers comes out with winners of excellence in hardiness and breeding for the upcoming year. This year’s flowers begin with a celosia called Candela Pink. It has bright pink blooms with keep…
Success and Failures in the flowerbeds.
Success and Failures in the flowerbeds. Success: the tulips out bloomed the daffodils. The daffodils seem to be more prone to early heat and late freezes than tulips. The crocus and allium (flowering onion) did great. The mainstays like four…
Datura Flowers
Datura flowers open up at night-blooming on rounded plants up to 3 feet tall. Newer varieties come in a variety of flower and leaf foliage. Other names of the non-cultivated variety are Angel Trumpet, devil trumpet, and jimsonweed (which is…
Four o’clock the Flower
Want to grow a flower that has about every color of the rainbow in its bloom? Try four o’clocks, a shrubby like annuals which bloom in mid-summer till frost. Four o’clocks get their name from the time of day that…
Snow on the Mountain
Snow on the Mountain is a native weedy plant found around in pastures in the area. Belonging to the family of Euphorbias, which are a family of succulents. This means they are drought tolerant and need full sun. Like its…
Cleome Plants
Cleome plants are not too popular anymore and I do not know why. They are hard to start indoors but come up readily in the garden if you allow the seeds to drop. Once the flower spike opens up, cleomes…
Amaranthus
Amaranthus plant has been grown for thousands of years as a food crop in Mexico from the Aztec. When Spain’s Cortez arrived, he burnt the fields as punishment. Mexico is reviving the crop as a staple food source. Also called…