10 Boo-tiful Black Plants for Halloween

Halloween is around the corner, and if youre lucky, soon droves of candy-seeking ghouls and goblins will be at your door. Does your entryway show your holiday spirit? If not, here are some terrific black-hued pl

Great Design Plant: Oligoneuron Rigidum Brightens Fall Gardens

Gardeners want fall blooms. Insects want fall blooms. I want fall blooms. The goldenrod genus (Solidago spp) is one that will appeal to everyone, and unlike ragweed it won’t cause hay fever (the pollen is sticky

Great Design Plant: Symphyotrichum Novae-Angliae Ushers in Fall

New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) is one of the showiest North American native plants in the fall garden. Vibrant purple petals and contrasting yellow to orange centers are visually attractive to

Great Design Plant: Parkinsonia Florida

Perhaps the most iconic tree of the desert Southwest is the palo verde (Parkinsonia florida), with its characteristic green trunk and branches. This native desert tree comes with a Spanish name that literally tr

Get an Edge: The Best Border Material for Your Garden

It’s a funny thing, garden edging. When it looks good and works well, you barely give it a second glance. But when you’re trying to mow the lawn and you’re not sure where the grass ends and the garden begins, i

Stretch the Budget, Seasons and Style: Add Conifers to Your Containers

Perhaps your perception of using conifers in containers is limited to a weary topiary spiral juniper gathering cobwebs by the front door, or a young Alberta spruce dressed up in a gaudy foil pot cover and decora

Great Design Plant: Athyrium Filix-Femina

Within the world of ferns, some are thugs, spreading aggressively without asking permission, and some are shy introverts, sitting quietly without drawing attention to themselves. Then there is the lady fern. Wel

Great Design Plant: Helianthus Maximiliani Attracts Beneficial Insects

Prairies really begin to shine in the fall as the native grasses turn copper, bronze or gold. The tall flower stalks of Maximilian sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani) rise above this golden grass palette, unveili

Great Design Plant: Rhododendron Canescens

The Southern garden wouldn’t be complete without azaleas. Every spring they make a big statement in every color you can imagine. The Piedmont azalea (Rhododendron canescens) is a native woodland shrub with a pal

Great Design Plant: Dasylirion Wheeleri

Often the most notable plants in the Southwestern landscape are those that have a distinct growth pattern. The spiky gray leaves of common sotol (Dasylirion wheeleri) have long been used by people throughout the

Great Design Plant: Chionanthus Virginicus

White fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus) is a large shrub or small tree with a native range across the southeastern United States, but it can tolerate temperatures in colder zones. Fringe-like flowers cover the

Great Design Plant: Encelia Californica

California brittlebush (Encelia californica) is a must for low-water habitat gardens. This vigorous and dependable subshrub shows off its exuberant mass of large daisy-like flowers in spring and fall. Its long,

Great Design Plant: Low-Maintenance Allium Cernuum

When the weather cools in fall, it’s time to plant spring-blooming bulbs. Most of the familiar ones are from faraway places: tulips have their origins in the Mediterranean region and Asia Minor (Turkey), and da

Great Design Plant: Silphium Perfoliatum Pleases Wildlife

Cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum) is not for the faint of heart, especially gardeners who usually shy away from large plants. But use its size to your advantage. What perennial native plant grows to a height of 1

Great Design Plant: Small but Mighty Agave Victoria-Reginae

Queen Victoria agave (Agave victoria-reginae) is highly prized by gardeners throughout the U.S. Southwest and beyond for its beauty as well as its small size. Named after Queen Victoria, this long-lived agave i

Great Design Plant: Gelsemium Sempervirens

The late-winter blooms of Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens) herald the onset of spring in the south. Gelsemium sempervirens is a very common plant in gardens of the U.S. South, because it is a fragrant

Great Design Plant: Polystichum Polyblepharum

A well-designed shade garden makes up for its lack of raucous colors by providing subtle surprises at every turn. Here structure, texture and shape rule. While many plants provide only one of these qualities, th

12 Entertaining ‘Bee-haviors’ of Native Bees

What I relish most about my pollinator garden is the three-ring circus of clowns, acrobats, contortionists and other performers. While nurturing a garden habitat that gives native bees a place in which to live,

The Beauty of Bare-Root Plants

Bare-root plants aren’t ever going to make the cover of a magazine. You won’t see glamorous models posing beside them, nor will they make headlines as the “next new thing.” But for gardeners in the know, these d

Decorate the Landscape With Versatile Agave

Agave have a long history of being used as an accent plant in the landscape, where they attract attention wherever they are planted. With their succulent leaves reaching up toward the sky, agaves add a great sp