As you may have gathered, in my garden world lime green rules! Last year when I bought my house, I fantasized about what I would do artistically with the long rock wall that stretched almost the whole width of the backyard. Someone referred to it as a retaining wall and I was incensed; this is The Wall, the focal point of my soon-to-be ...Read more

In an area of Japan where the mophead or bigleaf hydrangea, Hydrangea macrophylla, grows wild along the coast line, there is something magical happening higher up in the chilly mountains. This is the home of the mountain hydrangea, Hydrangea serrata.

You might have been under the idea the mophead or bigleaf hydrangeas were from France, as they ...Read more

Typically, the words Royal Hawaiian would direct your thoughts to tropical islands, vacations and exotic getaways among lush foliage and clear blue seas. As wonderful as those dreams seem, I won't try to anticipate your travel plans for the summer but instead invite you to let the words Royal Hawaiian be a transformational landscape moment for ...Read more

There is a "see-through" phenomenon going on in the world of flowers and it is nothing short of thrilling. This is happening thanks in large part to the mass production of Meteor Showers verbena and to some extent Truffula Pink gomphrena.

Some of us have dabbled in the "see-through" world with giant alliums and reveled in the possibilities with...Read more

New at the garden center this year is one of those petunias that is a rare jewel of a color. It's one that catches your eye and stops you in your tracks; it is Supertunia Mini Vista Indigo. By all means don't let the mini throw you for even a second. This is the little indigo that could, or should I say does, deliver riveting beauty and maximum ...Read more

It may be called Poquito, which means a little, but I promise you in the case of Poquito Butter Yellow agastache it delivers color to the garden like a champion. In September, this new hummingbird mint won the prestigious Classic City Award in University of Georgia Trials.

The Garden Guy has been an agastache lover for well over 20 years and is...Read more

The day you look at a Wedgewood Blue Summer Snapdragon is the day you will get hooked and believe anything is possible with today's flowers. It looks as though each flower is a rare piece of hand-painted porcelain. Wedgewood Blue is part of the Angelface series of summer snapdragons, which represents nine different selections with pages of ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- People, get a grip. Yes, the Asian giant hornet, now famously known as the "murder hornet," is one huge scary wasp, capable of decimating an entire colony of honeybees and savagely stinging and possibly killing humans who get in their way.

But since last week, when it was reported that two hornets were spotted for the first time ...Read more

Each spring I wake to the sound of a bird purring in my neighbor's trees. Now, I know birds don't purr, but that's the best word I could come up with to describe the sound. It wasn't chirping. It didn't seem like a flirty mating song. It was a little like a throaty, thrumming hoot. Could it be an owl?

I finally asked a birding friend and felt ...Read more

Sunstar is the name of a new series of pentas debuting this spring and it is an understatement to say they are taking the world by storm. There are four colors in the series coming from Proven Winners -- pink, red lavender and rose -- and all have won awards from north to south.

When I say awards, I am talking about 78 of them already, and it ...Read more

Goodness, it is proving to be a "wonderfully wicked" year for coleus. In this case wicked is great and promises to add incredible color and texture to your garden. Wicked actually refers to two new colors or varieties in the ColorBlaze series of coleus. If you are like me you probably thought we had all of the coleus we could ever want 10 years ...Read more

The last few years, cordylines have seen a remarkable uptick in popularity. Cordyline is a funny name to pronounce, and if you go online, you'll find at least three different suggestions. The common names are also simply crazy: false dracaena, cabbage tree, and cabbage palm, to name a few. Lastly as you would probably guess, they are in the ...Read more

The winter was such that The Garden Guy's house has some of the most beautiful flowers ever for mid-April. There are echinacea, coreopsis, dianthus, and salvias galore. The first plant you would walk to however has no blooms yet; it is a shrub that for all appearances seems like "the burning bush."

Your eyes become fixated on the glow of golden...Read more

Horticulturists like The Garden Guy sometime struggle with capturing the beauty of flowers in certain blues and those that are a deeply saturated, fire engine red. Put the two together and the camera may just have a technical explosion.

Such is the case this spring with three cameras, four lenses and two unbelievable verbenas: Superbena Red and...Read more