Annual Wildflowers

One of the most appealing aspects of Annual Wildflowers is the fact that you can literally throw them anywhere and some will start blooming in as little as several weeks. If you have a spot in your garden you just couldn’t quite get to designing this year or are looking add some additional color amongst your existing plants, Annual Wildflowers are the perfect choice! They require regular watering until they are a few inches high, then rainfall should be enough.

Several favorite Annuals that add a pop of bold color in the summer are Zinnias, Cosmos, and California Poppies. We carry a large assortment of these favorite varieties in a rainbow of colors and all will thrive throughout the country, from Maine to California. Can’t decide which color to plant? Try planting our famous Annual Wildflower Mixture now for gorgeous blooms all summer long, starting in just weeks and lasting until fall.

Summer-Blooming Bulbs

Summer-Blooming Bulbs such as Dahlias, Gladiolus, and Begonias create some of the boldest, most dramatic color in the garden with very little effort. Many of these bulbs are known as Tropical bulbs, meaning they grow and thrive in very warm climates and can be planted in late spring or early summer for blooms in the late season garden.

If you’re looking for stunning summer bouquets, try planting a variety of Dahlias, Gladiolus and Calla Lilies. The wonderful assortment of shapes, colors and sizes make for a truly show-stopping display both in the garden and cut for bouquets. Looking to add a burst of late-season color in containers? Try planting Gallery Dahlias, Begonias,Canna Lilies or Caladium Bulbs.

There is still plenty of time to plant for fabulously-colorful blooms this season, so take advantage of our great in-season savings and quick shipping – We’re shipping all orders in one business day. Happy Gardening!

Morningside, an Augusta, Georgia garden estate with rich heritage and soil, is undergoing a renaissance to recapture its former glory.  Located high above the Savannah River in the Sand Hills area, this magnificent estate once encompassed thirty acres.  Its beauty has been documented, published, and admired by generations of guests throughout her years.

The history of Morningside begins in 1906 when Mary Speer Denny purchased six acres of mostly untilled farm land on which to construct a winter haven.  A prominent socialite from Pittsburgh, PA, Mrs. Denny and her husband, Francis Herron Denny, had made Augusta a seasonal retreat as did many affluent Northerners in the early 1900’s.  Their majestic Dutch Colonial style stucco home named “Morningside Lodge,” designed by famed architect Harry Ten Eych Wendell  was completed in 1909.  Property photographs as early as 1909 reveal few trees and shrubbery.  Subsequently a main garden and a sunken garden were laid out behind the home.  Plant materials were purchased from Fruitland Nurseries which included a variety of azaleas and camellia japonica species, English boxwood, and various cedars.  Little is known about the exact layout of the gardens, but from the plant selection it is assumed that the modest formal garden and walkways were lined with boxwood.  Colorful azaleas particularly well-suited to Augusta’s climate became inspirational to future Morningside owners.

Read more about the history of this fabulous property and its gardens.

The common theme in gardens throughout town is Tulips, Tulips, Tulips! Below are a few of my favorite that I was able to photograph. Varieties include Perennial Darwin Tulips, Rock Garden Tulips, Lily-Flowered and more.

Another place I visited was a house that I helped plant hundreds of Daffodils at last fall. We planted the Large Cupped Mix and the results are truly stunning – This picture does not do it justice!

In our test gardens at American Meadows we have an abundance of Tulips, Daffodils and other spring-bloomers, but I thought I’d share one of the earliest-blooming Perennials we have, which is this gorgeous Creeping Phlox.

What’s blooming in your garden (or your neighbors)? Please share a photo on our Facebook Page. Happy Gardening!

Celebrating the 20th year of the Flower
& Garden Festival, the Epcot Resort
was blanketed in a profusion of blooms.

Garden lovers visiting Walt Disney’s World’s Epcot Center in Orlando, FL are treated to a spring bonus, as Disney plays host to its annual Flower & Garden Festival.

The imaginative floral creations include topiaries of Disney characters, some up to several stories high. Welcoming visitors to Epcot are topiaries of Mickey Mouse, Minny Mouse, Pluto and Goofy.

No visit to Epcot would be complete without a visit to the butterfly garden, where you can find a Tinkerbell topiary, nestled amid the hundreds of butterflies and plants.

This black & white beauty is
perched on Spicy Jetropha
(Jatropha intergerrima)

The Epcot Flower & Garden festival continues this spring through May 19th.

I’ve also included more images below that I took while I was attending the festival this year.
I hope you enjoy and Happy Gardening!

All images taken by Connie Etter.

Hummingbirds are on their way back.  It’s time to get ready for them.

This is my 5th year photographing hummingbirds.  Planning my hummingbird area is always a time for me to get creative.  Not only do I have to think like a hummingbird but I also need to think like a photographer.  In the last two years I have counted 70-100 hummingbirds at one time during fall migration.

Let’s start with "thinking like a hummingbird".  We need to create the right environment for our flying jewels.  Hummingbirds not only need nectar they also need insects for protein.  Try putting some rotting fruit on a small birdbath.  This will attract fruit flies.  It is entertaining to watch the hummingbirds eat. 

Hummingbirds also love to perch. Statistics show hummingbirds feed for one minute 15 times in one hour and perch while their body absorb the sugar.  Head out into your yard and find a few broken branches around 5 feet tall.  Position the limbs in the ground or container near your feeders.  Some of my favorite images are behavior shots while my hummingbirds are perching.

Now we need to plan our gardens.  As we have been told hummingbirds love “Red”.  We are going to plant "lots of red".  They also love plants that are tubular in shape. When planting my hummingbird garden I plant flowers that bloom at different times.  Spring flowers for their arrival, summer and fall bloomers.  You especially need flowers that bloom in the fall.  Hummingbirds will be fueling up for their long trip south starting early August- mid September.

When designing my hummingbird area I “group” three or four of the same type of plant together.  Grouping plants together seem to make them stand out.  My feeders are usually placed at different heights throughout my hummer area.  Don’t forget to plant a few containers and hanging baskets.  Even the smallest gardens have room for hanging baskets.  You can make the most of containers by choosing plants with long seasons of bloom and replace faded plants with fresh performers. 

Thinking as a photographer, I like to photograph hummingbirds sipping from flowers rather than from a feeder.  I prefer flowers that are smaller than the hummingbirds. When arranging my flowers I try to keep the taller flowers to the back of my flower beds.  I position them this way to create a beautiful blurry color (aka bokeh) in the background of my images.

When setting up your garden try to position the sun at your back.  This will allow you to capture greater detail in bird’s feathers.  If you see your birds go to the feeder more than the flowers.  Try picking a flower leaving enough of the stem and place it in the port hole of your feeder. You can also cover the port holes in the back of the feeder to force the birds to the ports you want the birds to go to.

You could try these camera settings:  Mind you this is on a very sunny day.  Set your camera on shutter priority. Set the ISO at 400 and your shutter at 1/1000 of a second.  In shutter priority your camera sets your aperture.  If your images are too dark try raising your ISO to 800.

Here are some of my favorite flowers and theirs:

And a variety of wildflowers- wildflowers have the highest quality of  nectar which seems to really draw in hummingbirds!

Now it’s time to sit back and enjoy the greatest show on earth. I would love to see your hummingbird garden and your images.

Connie Etter is an American Meadows customer from Indiana, gardening in Zone 6. Connie not only loves to garden but also is a professional photographer and we are thrilled to accompany her blog with her own gorgeous photos. To see more of Connie’s gardening and photography, please visit her website or facebook page.

I’m excited to try many of the new bulbs we’re carrying for the Fall 2013 season. Although my Daffodils, Crocus and most of my Tulips come up each year, I like to add in new, unique varieties in the fall for more color and
blooms – I don’t think there’s such a thing as too many bulbs!

We’re carrying two new hybrid Tulips from Japan, Akebono and Hatsuzakura, that I’m definitely going to plant this fall. Both have really unique coloring – Hatsuzakura has charming, pink blooms that fade to white at the bottoms. Akebono’s huge blooms change from yellow to red. Two great additions to my spring-blooming garden bed.

Double Daffodils seem to be increasing in popularity throughout the country and I’m not surprised – I love their huge, almost-fluffy blooms. They’re great for bouquets!

This fall I’m going to plant several of our new Double Daffodil varieties, including the gorgeous Golden Ducat and bi-colors Rosy Cloud and Fashion. Who could possibly have too many Daffodils?

I always tend to overlook Grape Hyacinths, but this season we’re carrying several new varieties that come in a rainbow of colors, which is right up my alley (color, color, color)! It also doesn’t hurt that they’re all fragrant and deer-resistant. Going around the border of my garden this fall will be Yellow Fragrance, Album and Pink Sunrise.

Another new variety for this fall that absolutely fascinates me is Mediterranean Bells. I’m going to plant this somewhere where I can view it up close – The unique, bell-shaped blooms are fabulous!
I have a lot of planning to do for fall, but what takes priority right now is the prepping and planting for spring here in Vermont – Today is 60 and sunny. It’s almost here!  

To see all of our new Fall-Planted bulbs for 2013, click here. Happy Gardening!

Container gardening is going to be a big feature of my edible efforts now. The Strawberries I used to grow in a bed around a dwarf flowering cherry tree barely fruited last year because they had become too shaded. This year I dug them up and tucked them into a strawberry pot and around the edges of some other containers where they can get full sun. Tomato plants are going in 10-gallon pots with sturdy cages; strategically placed on the sunny concrete patio, they should be able to absorb as much heat as my bay-side climate can deliver. Beans and Tromboncino squash are also going in containers so they can climb up the pergola over my deck.

But I also want to take advantage of some of the shady ground I have. So I’m planning on moving a raised bed from a crowded section of my back yard to my partly shady front yard where I intend to grow shade-tolerant veggies like kale, chard and beets. My front yard has a sprinkler system already installed, which will save me some time in hand-watering these greens that appreciate even moisture.

The weather here is just warming up and I’m anxious to get going with my warm-season vegetable garden. But it’s important to take this time to plan it out and make sure I’m utilizing the space I have as wisely as possible. Every garden has its challenges, but challenges are not necessarily limits. With every passing season, I become more and more convinced: We can always grow more!

Claire Splan is the author of California Fruit and Vegetable Gardening (Cool Springs Press, 2012). She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area (Zone 10a) and blogs about gardening at An Alameda Garden.

Kelly Clark is a certified Master Gardener living in Wisconsin (Hardiness Zone 5). She has been gardening since she was 10 and her expertise is mostly in shade gardens, although she enjoys all aspects of gardening – Even weeding!

Fixing a low spot or run-off area in the garden is a heavy job, but not that difficult to cure. Although this problem is a bit bothersome, it can be turned into a functional, beautiful garden spot again. All it takes is a little bit of work, muscle, fieldstone and some river rock, along with moisture-loving plants.  

As you can see in this picture, water runs right through the middle of this little berm. To fix this issue, we need to pay special attention to where the water runs and with that, dig a small trench about 2 inches deep around the entire outside of the garden, cleaning it out thoroughly.  Then loosen the soil to a depth of about 6-8 inches and amend as necessary with more topsoil to build the sides up – This will help keep the water running through the middle.

Start by placing the bigger fieldstone near the edge of the main run-off area. This will slow the water down during a heavy rain or spring run-off. Using river or pond rock to fill in the main runoff area helps with slowing of the water as well. Follow the path of the water as seen here and plant such things as Hydrangea (Penny Mac), Spirea (gold mound), Hosta and Coral Bells.  When there is another heavy rain, you may need to make adjustments to the stones to see where the problems may still exist, but this small garden is an easy fix to a big problem – Plus, very nice to look at!

To learn more about Kelly and her gardening, please like her on Facebook.

Perennial Peonies are what experienced gardeners call investment plants. They’re some of the most permanent landscaping you can buy. In fact, many continue blooming beautifully for over 100 years. Once they’re established, they’re as hardy and dependable as oaks, creating a fantastic season of bloom in your yard year after year.

Planting Peonies Adding Peonies to your garden is not difficult. All you need is full sun and good soil. (In even partial shade, the bloom will be scant or non-existent–keep them out in the sun!) As most gardeners know, the roots look like a bunch of carrots–thick long tapering tuber-like masses that increase every year. Feed them, water them, and the clumps will expand rapidly, and more and more blooms will result.

Types of Peonies: The standard perennial Peony species is Paeonia lactiflora but within the species, there are thousands of hybrids old and new. And there are several flower types:

Single Peonies are the huge, wide-open ones with just one row of overlapping petals.Like huge poppies, they create dinnerplate-size beauty that’s really unmatched in the garden.The singles are less frequently seen in American gardens because of our passion for petals-people just prefer the doubles. One of the most famous singles is the breathtaking Krinkled White, an old classic and still a big favorite.

Japanese Peonies, not to be confused with Tree Peonies which often come from Japan, is a flower form somewhat similar to the singles, but with a more elaborate center. A great example is the big favorite, stunning Bowl of Beauty, with glistening cherry red petals petals plus fluffy yellow center, creating spectacular color contrast.

Semi-double Peonies are just that. They have the basic bottom row of large petals seen on the singles (often called the guard petals), but on top, there are more shorter petals, developing from the center. A great example is the beautiful red Edulis Superba.

Bomb Peonies are the ones with the guard petals flat and large, with a pile of petaling sitting upon them-sort of like a fluffly snowball sitting on a plate. Some of the most-loved and dramatic peonies are bombs including the magnificent Laura Dessert and the dramatic Raspberry Sundae As these two illustrate, there are bombs of various shapes and sizes. With Raspberry Sundae, the large bomb not only adds size and height, it gives the overall bloom a stunning palette of three colors-white guard petals, a collar of yellow, and then pastel pink making up the center. In Laura Dessert, the coloring is all white, with a hint of lemon yellow in the bomb.

Double Peonies are probably the most popular, and the most widely planted. Excellent examples are the famous Victorian introduction, Festiva Maxima with its snowy white flowers with red flecks, and Sarah Bernhardt, the all-time popular double pink with huge flowers and great fragrance. Other popular doubles are the red Karl Rosenfield and white Shirley Temple.

There’s really no end to a gardener’s pleasure with Peonies. They’re all good for cutting. The foliage stays glossy and green all summer long, and they attract almost no pests. (Don’t confuse the standard perennial Peony with the Tree Peony, a separate group. Tree Peonies are more shrub like, and don’t die down completely each winter.)

Staking: This is important, since once a Peony is established, the heavy flowers are often too heavy for its stems.You don’t have to stake them, but if you don’t, you’re going to have big beautiful flowers nodding down in the mud. So once you have a healthy clump, use peony rings to keep them upright. The rings are simply wheel-like wire arrangements that stand up over the Peony like a little wire table as the plant sprouts in the spring. With upright supports, the Peony ring is placed so the shoots will grow up through the round wire bale. Of course, the foliage quickly hides the ring, and you have a beautifully-supported clump well before the flowers open.

Happy Gardening!

As a Master Gardener, I volunteer at the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago. This past year, I was asked this question by a curious gardener:
“If I want to plant Native, should I get rid of the other plants that are not native?” 
“Not if they are naturalized and doing well,” I answer. 
“But how can we grow native plants if there are plants mixed in from other countries?” She asked.

Well, let’s examine the difference in the terms that are used, as we try to understand the benefits of planting native plants.

Knowing the difference between native and non-native plants can be thorny.  Do we actually mean native to our continent or our county? Do we mean native to Illinois or to our region?  A native plant is a phrase used to describe a plants life in a particular geographic location. Vegetation is considered native if it was present before Europeans settled the area.  There is plenty of research on the benefits of planting native, as listed above. Many sustainable nurseries now grow and sell native Illinois/Midwestern plants, and love to teach about the different types of native plants and their benefits.  Naturalization is a word in the plant world that people are confusing with “native.” I want to share two examples of naturalization of plants. 

The first, are shrubs: Lilacs, Syringa vulgaris and Forsythia, Forsythia intermedia.  Both plants were brought to the U.S as ornamentals and do quite well here.  Lilacs are originally from the Balkan Peninsula of Southern Europe, and Forsythia is originally from the Far East.  They are not native to our region or our continent, but they have not caused problems either. They have naturalized.  

My second example is Creeping Charlie, Glechoma hederacea. This plant was also introduced as an ornamental ground cover and has a long history of being used for medicinal purposes.  This is the plant that we all, now love to hate. This plant has also been naturalized but is also invasive. 

So let’s clarify the term invasive.  What makes a plant invasive?  According to Mr. Galen Gates, a horticulturist and botanist, who I had the pleasure studying under at College of DuPage, stated, “a plant that upsets by dominating an area is considered invasive.” If you introduce a new species to a setting, and it spreads and damages the surrounding ecosystem, this is invasive. In the case of Lilacs and Forsythia, they behaved themselves after their formal introductions in the18th century. Creeping Charlie became the wild child of ornamentals, which still have folks scratching their heads wondering why it was introduced in the first place.  The examples I used of Lilacs / Forsythia and Creeping Charlie have become naturalized, but creeping Charlie has become invasive.  Creeping Charlie grows aggressively in places people do not want it and disturbs the ecology with its invasive growth patterns, which in turn, becomes a weed.

Try planting a native Illinois plant or two this spring and see what happens. When thinking about plants for your garden this growing season, don’t just pick a plant because it looks good at the store. Pick a plant that has a job and works with your sustainable beliefs.  You don’t have to tear out everything to “go native.”  Just make sure that you have the right plants in the right place and you know that there is a purpose to your plantings. In Brookfield Illinois, I look forward to the palette of yellow and lavender that Forsythias and Lilac shrubs share with us, after a long winter sleep. These colors remind us that warmer days are ahead and new growth will flourish.  This growth is not just in your outside garden, but in your garden knowledge as well.  Happy spring!