Native to Europe, this cool-season biennial is wreaking havoc on deciduous forests from New England west to Wisconsin and south to Tennessee. Read Garlic Mustard: A Palatable Pest
Plants & Gardens Blog
Plant Choices
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Growing FoodPlant ChoicesSustainable Gardening
Garlic Mustard: A Palatable Pest
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Native FloraPlant Choices
Native Viburnums
Viburnums have long been popular garden plants, celebrated for their white, often fragrant spring flowers and their fall color. Read Native Viburnums
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Garden DesignPlant Choices
Lofty Liatris—Drought-Tolerant Beauties for the Summer and Fall Border
Liatris is much more than a cut-flower-industry standard. It is, in fact, a group of wonderfully diverse and easy-to-grow perennials that can brighten up the outside of your home just as beautifully as they can the inside. Read Lofty Liatris—Drought-Tolerant Beauties for the Summer and Fall Border
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Garden DesignPlant Choices
Designing with Summer-Flowering Bulbs
Summer-flowering bulbs come into bloom at the same time that many perennials and annuals are at their best, and by adding them to your garden you can multiply the colors, textures, scents, shapes, and contrasts in your palette. Read Designing with Summer-Flowering Bulbs
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Native FloraPlant Choices
Native Azaleas
North American azaleas have soft-colored blooms and loose, natural-looking growth habits. Some species bloom in summer and even early fall, and many have colorful autumn foliage. Read Native Azaleas
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Growing FoodPlant Choices
Saffron Crocus—Conjuring Color and Flavor in the Autumn Garden
Long before flowers were cultivated solely for their good looks, they were grown to serve some practical, or even preternatural, purpose. This was especially true in the good old days of Minoan Crete, about 1500 BC, when a thriving industry and religious iconography grew up around Crocus sativus, the corm better known as saffron crocus. Read Saffron Crocus—Conjuring Color and Flavor in the Autumn Garden
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Growing FoodPlant Choices
Grape Tomatoes: Giving the Cherries a Run for Their Money
Grape tomatoes combine a number of desirable tomato qualities, including very sweet flavor, firm texture, and at least the semblance of having been ripened on the vine. Read Grape Tomatoes: Giving the Cherries a Run for Their Money
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Pollinators and BirdsPlant Choices
Columbines—Elegant Flowers Spurred to Greatness
When folks hear the word "spur," many of them invariably think of cowpokes in the Old West and the jangling metal boot contraptions they wore to urge on their horses. For us plant lovers, however, the word can conjure up something a little more serene. We can think, for instance, of the architecture of a columbine flower, with its distinctive spurs curling outward like the necks of graceful birds in mid-flight. Read Columbines—Elegant Flowers Spurred to Greatness
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HouseplantsPlant Choices
Bamboo: Graceful Grass or Jungle Giant
Imagine yourself enclosed deep within a bamboo grove, a "living room" of green, with walls enveloping but breathing, a cathedral of vertical stems stretching to the heavens above, the shadows delicate and swaying. You feel quiet, contemplative and calm, protected. Are you in Kyoto, Bangkok, or Bali? No, you are at home, surrounded by bamboos in containers. It is not difficult to create your own bamboo grove indoors—try it! Read Bamboo: Graceful Grass or Jungle Giant
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HouseplantsPlant Choices
Cacti and Other Succulents as Houseplants
Succulents evoke glorious warmth, and range widely in form and texture. They make wonderful houseplants, alone or in a group. Read Cacti and Other Succulents as Houseplants