Although the snow (if you ever had any) has melted and many gardeners are seeing their tulips, daffodils, and other fall bulbs sprout much earlier than usual, they will still be OK. Fall bulbs are extremely hardy and even if there are a few more hard frosts, the plants won’t die and you will still have beautiful blooms come spring.

What you are seeing is the foliage starting to pop up out of the ground. The flower stems and buds are what lie beneath the surface, still cozy and protected underneath the soil. For those in colder areas that are worried about another snowstorm before spring, scatter a light layer of mulch or leaves over the foliage to give them more protection. When doing so, you will want to make sure you don’t layer too heavy and damage the top growth.

One of the best features of fall bulbs is their resilience. Even when the weather doesn’t want to cooperate, they will
still be there with their bright, cheery blooms to welcome spring!

Happy Gardening!

1. Purchase Garlic Bulbs (Here).

2. Plant – Separate cloves from the bulbs and plant each clove, pointed end up, 4” deep in a sunny spot. Space the cloves 6” apart, with about 12” between each row you plant. The best time to plant is early spring, as soon as the soil is workable.

3. Care – Water, weed, water! Pinch off flowers that emerge. Although pretty, they will steal much-needed energy from the growing bulbs!

4. Enjoy! When the green growth starts to die back (around mid-summer), this means it is time to harvest and start curing. Curing is basically drying the bulbs out – simply place them in a warm, sunny area for several weeks. Once the stalks are dry, cut them off and you are ready to start chopping! Garlic can be stored for a long time in a cool, dry place by roping or hanging in netted bags.

You will enjoy your next garlic-infused dish so much more knowing it came from your own green thumbs!

Happy Gardening!

Gladiolus
What I love about these summer bulbs is also the dramatic color of the flowers. ‘Peter Pears’ gladiolus features eye-catching, apricot-orange flowers with red centers. ‘Windsong’ gladiolus has vibrant pink flowers with yellow centers. If you’re really a pink lover, try ‘Pretty in Pink Mix’ gladiolus that features various shades of pink in the flowers. Glads grow great in part or full sun on well drained, compost-amended soil. If harvesting as a cut flower, pick gladiolus flower stalks when one to three flowers have opened. The other flower buds will continue to open indoors.

Dahlias
While some dahlias are known for their huge-sized flowers (up to 10-inches is diameter), what makes them unique is the variation in flower and plant sizes you can grow. Sure you can grow dinner plate dahlias featuring one strong color such as ‘Dinnerplate Islander’ (pink) and ‘Dinnerplate Purple Giant’, but why not get adventurous with your large-sized flowers? ‘Hawaii’ has white, pink, and yellow colors all mixed together in a fascinating array on the petals. ‘Pippi’ features large, orange flowers with red and yellow swirls. If you can’t decide on a color, go with a mix. ‘Purple Rain Mix’ features white, pink and purple colored flowers, while ‘Pure Elegance Mix’ has more classic white, red, and yellow colored flowers. For something even on the bolder side, try the ‘Cactus Mix’. This variety features pink, red and purple colored flowers with spiky petals. If you don’t have room for these large-flowered varieties that can grow to 3- to 4-foot tall and wide in your garden, try the one foot tall ‘Dragon Ball’ dahlia with orange colored flowers and striking black foliage, or the ‘Windowbox Mix’. They both grow well in containers.

Whichever dahlia variety you choose, give your plants full sun, plant in well-drained soil amended with compost, and keep them well watered. Tall varieties may need staking or caging to keep the flowers from flopping. To keep those large varieties from getting too rangy, snip off the tip of the stems when the plants are 18 inches tall. You’ll get a bushier plant that’s more manageable. When cutting blooms for indoors, cut 2 inches below the flower base and dip the cut end in boiling hot water to seal it, then let it cool. They will last up to a week indoors.

Happy Gardening

All throughout February we are giving away:

$25 Gift Certificate every day,
$100 Gift Certificate each week, and
$250 Grand Prize Gift Certificate at the end of the month!

Simply go to our Facebook page, “Like” us if you don’t already, and enter to win! Remember, enter every day for more chances to win!

The Element of Fragrance

Fragrant plants are essential to the Sensory Garden; their sweet-smelling blooms bring the initial rush of sensation to the experience. Try planting Peonies, Lavender, Butterfly Weed, Yarrow, Butterfly Bushes, Bee Balm, Phlox, or Lilies in your Sensory Garden to enliven the sense of smell.

Plants to Touch

A Sensory Garden needs textured, interesting plants that will give the hands something to feel and examine. Make sure to use durable plants that can withstand curious hands! Try planting flowers with soft petals or leaves, spiky greenery, or feathery flowers – with no thorns! A few examples of plants that will fascinate the fingers are Astilbe, Bleeding Hearts, Foxgloves, Ornamental Grasses, Salvia, Caladium, and Canna Lilies.

Vivid Colors

Stimulation to the eyes is a key aspect to a Sensory Garden. Try choosing plants with bright, interesting colors. Try a color combination that you wouldn’t normally plant in your garden! Here are some suggestions for bright blooms for your Sensory Garden: Tahiti Sunrise Dahlia, Jamaica Dahlia, Scarlet Tuberous Begonia, Purple Rain Gladiolus Mix, Cappuccino Tango Lilies, Anemone Mix, White Queen Caladium, Columbine McKana Giants Mix, Coral Flame Phlox, Pure as Gold Bearded Iris, or Queeny Purple Hollyhock. This part of your Sensory Garden is completely up to you – choose your
favorite, vivid colors to highlight.

Adding Sound

Adding the element of sound to your Sensory Garden is not as tricky as you would think! If your time and budget allow, try adding a water feature to help bring this element of relaxing sound to the garden. Another option is to add plants that will attract beautiful and wonderfully-noisy wildlife to the garden. What’s better than the buzzing sound of a hummingbird’s wings or the delightful chirp of a beautiful bird feeding on your flowers? Try these plants that will attract these winged friends to your garden: African Lily, Butterfly Weed, Butterfly Bushes, Yarrow, Spiderwort, Lavender, Shasta Daisies, Echinacea, or Black-Eyed Susans.

Creating a Sensory Garden is not something that will happen overnight. It can be a wonderful addition to your outdoor space and an extremely fun project for the avid gardener. Try starting with a small corner of your garden, encompassing a few of each type of plant. As they grow, gradually add more to the lovely space. As space permits, try placing a bench or swing in the Sensory Garden so you and your lucky visitors can experience the treat for your senses in the utmost relaxation and peace.

Happy Gardening!

Enter our Get Gardenin’ Giveaway Now!

Blue Perennials are perfect for a hardy, romantic statement in the garden. For those gardening in shade, try the African Lily; its waist-high, beautiful foliage sets off the full, strikingly-blue blooms. Blue Wild Indigo can be planted in sun or shade and will provide a beautiful contrast to your favorite white blooms. For a blue ground cover, try the Creeping Phlox Emerald Blue. This favorite perennial is easy-to-grow and fast-spreading, making it a hardy blue statement in any garden. For a blue climber, try the Passion Flower Vine. It’s wonderfully unique blooms are white with blue highlights – perfect for winding around trellises and a fast-grower.

Try planting several blue Spring Bulbs for a unique, dramatic statement in a sunny part of the garden. The Starflower Bulbs Queen Fabiola bloom a rich, deep blue and are named after Belgium’s Queen. Try planting these bulbs among low-growing plants, so the stunning flowers poke up through the foliage. The Semi-Dinnerplate Dahlia Blue Boy is a favorite for its large, full blue blooms and tall foliage. The Gladiolus Bulbs Nori and Blue Moon Mix provide wonderful splashes of blue and do not take up much room in the garden – perfect for tucking in with other colors.

Try planting an all-blue wildflower meadow for a cool, relaxing statement. Blue Flax is native to the US and is an extremely hardy and easy-to-grow perennial; its blooms are a lovely powder-blue. Baby Blue Eyes is a beloved, quick-blooming annual that will make a lovely statement in any sunny area. Try planting Morning Glories along a fence for a quick-blooming, bright statement of blue.

There are endless possibilities for blue blooms this season; try planting an all-blue garden bed or nestle striking blue flowers in with other colors such as white or yellow, to cool down the color scheme. What is your favorite blue flower? Feel free to comment below!

Customer Photo - Lupine and Blue Flax

Happy Gardening!

The keys to success is designing a butterfly garden with perennial and annual flowers that will provide blooms all season for nectar and leaves for the larval caterpillars to feed on. Also, include plants and structures to provide shelter and water.

Butterfly Attracting Plants

Butterflies are mostly attracted to bright colors such as red, orange, yellow and purple. Select full-sun loving perennials that have varieties featuring these bright colors and will bloom throughout the growing season to give your butterflies a good nectar source. For early season bloomers, Coreopsis ‘Creme Brulee’ with its large, bright yellow flowers on 20-inch tall plants, and Coreopsis ‘Route 66′ with its yellow flowers with a bright red center, are two good choices. For mid-summer bloomers, try Echinacea ‘After Midnight’ with its striking magenta-colored flowers on only 14-inch tall plants. Gaillardia ‘Trumpet Red’ has bright red flowers with a yellow center and Gaillardia ‘Commotion Moxie’ has unique tube-shaped, yellow flowers and bright orange center. Butterflies are sure not to miss these.

For late summer and fall flowers, grow some butterfly bushes. These shrubs are hardy to USDA zone 5 and consistently produce 3- to 5-foot tall and wide shrubs with flowers that butterflies adore. Regardless of the flower color, butterflies flock to these fragrant shrubs. ‘Flutterby Grande Peach Cobbler’ , ‘Flutterby Grande Blueberry Cobbler’ and ‘Flutterby Grande Vanilla’ are three new selections that add color, fragrance and, potentially, lots of adult butterflies, to your garden. Tall garden phlox are also a late summer/fall butterfly favorite. ‘Coral Flame’ and ‘Red Super’ are sure to catch your eye, and the butterflies’ attention as they soar by.

To insure constant color and food for your butterflies, plant some annual flowers such as zinnias, lantana, and French marigolds in amongst your perennial flowers.

It’s not just about growing flowers with blooms and nectar for the adults to feed. The larvae (caterpillar-stage) need food, too. Grow caterpillar-loving plants nearby such as willow, black cherry, parsley, and fennel for adults to lay eggs on and the caterpillar young to feed. I even leave some milkweed growing in my meadow for the monarch butterflies to use. Don’t spray any pesticides in your butterfly garden or on host plants. In this case you want to see leaf damage. It means you have larval butterflies and the adults are not too far behind.

Butterfly Habitat

Your butterflies will need other features in your yard to stay around and be happy. Plant evergreen shrubs or deciduous shrubs such as lilacs close to the butterfly garden . They will use the shrubs as protection from wind and weather, a hiding place from predators, and a place to rest between feedings. Have a water source, such as a bird bath, or even a small bucket sunk in the ground filled with pebbles, sand and water, for the adults to drink from.

With a little planning and choosing colorful perennials, you’ll create a butterfly garden that will be filled with color and activity all summer long.

Happy Gardening

Butterfly Bushes emit a sweet fragrance that isn’t just heavenly for our noses, but attracts beautiful butterflies and hummingbirds to your garden. We planted one right outside our window at American Meadows and were amazed at the multitude of wildlife that it brought for us to enjoy. We are carrying three new Butterfly Bushes this year that I am excited to try, not only for their looks but for their yummy-sounding names! Try the Butterfly Bushes Flutterby Peach Cobbler, Grande Vanilla, or Blueberry Cobbler.

These bushes can also provide privacy, shade, and protection for the garden. The Butterfly Bushes Black Night and Bi-Color will spread to be about 5-6 feet tall and wide, providing gorgeous privacy and shade. Miss Ruby is famous for attracting Hummingbirds and will mature to about 4’ wide and 4-5 feet tall. If you are looking for the wonderful fragrance and wildlife that Butterfly Bushes bring to the garden, but don’t have as much space, try The Lo and Behold Blue Chip. This gorgeous blue variety only grows to be about 3’ tall and wide, making it perfect for that small spot in the garden.

Butterfly Bushes are not only fragrant, beautiful, and attract wildlife, but can also be a funky statement in the garden. Try pairing three varieties together for a multi-color statement in the summer months. This spring, instead of planting a normal shrub, try a Butterfly Bush – they are one of the most rewarding plants to grow in the garden.

Happy Gardening!

However, clematis has gotten a bad reputation as being hard to grow. The key to a happy clematis vine soaring into the sky is the right sun, moisture, and fertility conditions. Clematis grow best when their tops are sunny and the roots are cool and shaded. Plant your vine where the shoots will grow in full sun and be supported on a strong trellis. However, the soil around the roots must be well-drained, yet moist. Mulch around the roots to keep them cool and healthy.

Proper Pruning

Another confusion is pruning. Pruning is critical to keep the vine healthy and flowers within sight. You can remove dead or weak vines almost any time. The remaining pruning cuts are based on the type of clematis you’re growing. If you’re growing the early flowering clematis that produce small flowers in spring, such as Clematis montana, prune the vines after flowering, mostly to shape the vine and keep the plant in bounds. If you’re growing the large-flowered varieties that bloom in late spring, such as ‘Nelly Moser’, prune each vine in late winter to just above two healthy, green buds. The vine may end up being only a few feet off the ground, but it will produce healthy shoots with better flowers, If you’re growing the flowering clematis that bloom in mid summer to fall, such as ‘Jackmanii’ and ‘Sweet Autumn’ clematis, prune each vine in late winter to 2- to 3 feet tall. They will flower on the new growth that emerges in spring.

Once you have the growing and pruning set, then it’s time to experiment with varieties. While single-colored, large-flowered varieties such as ‘The President’ (purple), ‘Henryi’ (white), and ‘Niobe’ (red) are beautiful and stunning to look at, consider unusual clematis varieties, too. ‘My Angel’ features bell-shaped, orange and pink flowers that bloom in late summer. It also has intriguing purple-colored foliage.

Once settled in a place they love to grow, clematis will give you years of enjoyment.

Happy Gardening