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Chicago Botanic Garden, Fall Visit Part 1; Non-Hardy Plants
For the first time since January 2011 I was able to make a trip to Chicago Botanic Garden. This was also my first trip during the growing season since 2006. You'd think a professional plant geek would...
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The Lost Post! Green Bay Botanic Garden 10/6/15
So I was just finishing up my Chicago Botanic Garden post and I noticed an untitled post in drafts. I started a post about my trip to GBBG last October and apparently never finished it. Man, I'm awful....
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Chicago Botanic Garden, Fall Visit Part 2; Hardy Plants
Chicago Botanic garden has a massive diversity of plants and garden spaces. We were able to find a few plants that we'd never seen before which is always a nice bonus. It's nearly impossible to see...
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Chicago Botanic Gardens Part 3: The Trial Garden
Finally to part three of our Chicago Botanic Garden trip! This is one of the few trial gardens in the country dedicated primarily to perennial plants. 2016 saw their first non-hardy plant trial,...
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Thug Life: Mildew Resistance and Garden Suitability of Bee Balm
Mt. Cuba Center just released their evaluation of Monarda. So I thought I'd talk about it, Chicago Botanic Garden's 1998 trial, and my experience growing various forms. This will be a less image...
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Garden Gems: Geum
Chicago Botanic Garden has released another plant evaluation report, this time for the lovely plants in the genus Geum. If you've never heard of this group of plants, that isn't surprising and you're...
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Primroses
I've grown several forms of Primula over the years. Sometimes with success and sometimes not. Those successes and failures have slowly taught me what most Primula need to do well in my gardens. What I...
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Botanic Garden Trips - April-May 2017
Being able to go to various botanic gardens during spring has been a somewhat surreal experience for me. For the last 20 years I've worked between 60 and 120 hours every week during late April to early...
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Baptisia - False Indigo
Baptisia is a genus in Fabaceae, which is the same family as peas and peanuts, making it a legume. There are around 30 species and subspecies found throughout North America. Most are found in...
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Fall Flowers for the Shade Garden
I think for the average gardener shade gardens are tough to wrap their head around. They're not like sun gardens that have an abundance of blooms all spring, summer, and fall. A majority of well-known...
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Creating a Drought Tolerant Lawn
I need to preface this post with a disclaimer. I'm not fan of turf. There's far too much lawn being mowed in the USA; it unnecessarily uses up water, gas, fertilizer, and time and creates nothing but...
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Learning Plants in a New Region
If you've been following this blog for any amount of time, you know that I recently moved 200 miles from south-east Wisconsin to north-central Wisconsin. While we still haven't sold our house and life...
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New Beginnings
Remember back in 2016 when I was so optimistic about our move to the north? I thought we'd have a new property and have the business moved by spring 2017. Life has a way of not working out how you'd...
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Round Pegs and Square Holes: Proper Planting
I've been seeing some advice making the rounds lately from many sources via social media. Plant your trees in square holes to make them grow healthier and faster. This info is being re-blogged and...
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Growing Heuchera
It's been ten years since I originally wrote about Heuchera, and an update has been a long time coming. I'm scrapping my old posts and updating them with some slight revision for clarity. This post is...
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Heuchera Species and Hybridizing History
Heuchera wasn't always the garden rock star we know today. For almost 100 years, selections were simple green foliage with variable amounts of silver veil, possibly with small but nicely colored...
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Hybrid Echinacea
14 years ago Echinacea ‘Art’s Pride’ ORANGE MEADOWBRITE arrived on the market and the world of coneflowers was changed forever. This hybrid of E. purpurea ‘Alba’ and E. paradoxa opened the floodgates...
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Walk into any garden center and ask for perennial recommendations for shade. Likely the first thing to be recommended will be Hosta; the second thing will probably be Astilbe. If you're not familiar...
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Aralia cordata 'Sun King'
Aralia cordata'Sun King' has rocketed to stardom in the last several years and was named 2020 Perennial of the Year by the Perennial Plant Association. This wonderful plant was introduced by Barry...
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Native groundcovers for shade.
I often get asked about groundcovers for shade. There are certainly a lot of choices out there; and while I like plenty of non-native selections, I find myself gravitating more and more to native...
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Tiarella - Foam Flower
Tiarella is a genus of woodland perennials found mostly in North America, with one species currently known from Asia. Closely related to Heuchera, the two genera can be hybridized to create the sterile...
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2021: A Year in Plants Review
Warning: This is going to be wordy early and then become a very picture heavy post. I took a LOT of pictures last year. This will be but a fraction of them. I suppose I ought to review the actual year...
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Hydrangea arborescens
Mt. Cuba Center recently released the results from their Hydrangea arborescens (and relatives) trial, and I want to offer some of my views on their results. For those unfamiliar with them, they're in...
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Anemone 'Macane001' WILD SWAN™ PP23132
Anemone 'Macane001' WILD SWAN™ PP23132 was kind of a smash hit when it hit the market about 10 years ago. Its white flowers with lavender sepal backs are incredibly stunning and offer a delicate...
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Season of the Witch
Hamamelis virginiana flower I love witch hazels, Hamamelis sp. And even though summer is my favorite season, I also love Halloween. So it's time for the convergence of those two loves; our native...
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