This has been a great year of cool-season container color thanks to the addition of a little Florida Sunshine. Your first thought might be that the cloud cover finally broke and the sun was shining ever so brightly. However, we are under rain and thunder it seems forevermore, but our mixed containers or ever so beautiful thanks to Florida ...Read more

Peacocks are showing up in the landscape this year and causing many of us to become fixated on their beauty. As you might expect, The Garden Guy is playing semantics with you. I am talking Peacock kale. The innovative commercial landscaper industry in my area has caught on to the monolithic size and beauty these plants exhibit.

I have always ...Read more

Now that Christmas is over, it's time to put our thoughts on tulips. At least this is when many in the South do it. Friends and relatives in the North hopefully got theirs in sometime in October before the ground froze.

The Garden Guy will freely admit that a mass of tulips in bloom is about as beautiful a sight as there is in the world of ...Read more

The New Year will be rockin' baby thanks to Proven Winners' introduction of the Salvia Rockin' Blue Suede Shoes. Not only will this salvia bring in the hummingbirds, bees and butterflies all summer, but it will be trending with the celebration of 2020 Pantone Color of the Year 'Classic Blue'.

To be exact, Classic Blue is Pantone 19-4052, for ...Read more

It was a 191 years ago that Ambassador Joel Poinsett brought the plant we now know as the poinsettia to the United States. There is no way he could have dreamed of all of the colors, shapes, treatments or enhancements you find with today's poinsettias. Ambassador, we thank you for your vision.

Recently I was at a high-end food market and was ...Read more

The November Polar Express put a lot of good gardening folks in a funk. Consider, many of us had virtually had no frost, then the front swooped down dropping temperatures to a bone-chilling 22 degrees in West Georgia. So, if you are in a funk or simply found yourself behind in cool-season color then reach for a flat or two of ColorMax violas. I ...Read more

Euphorbias are starting to amaze in cool-season plantings whether they be in containers, or as the perfect pansy partner in the landscape. More than likely your first thought is euphorbias for the summer landscape like Diamond Frost but I'm talking Ascot Rainbow that has been the rage since it was declared a Texas Superstar in 2011 and Miner's ...Read more

Peanut butter for the holidays may elicit a 'that's for the birds' response, and, you would be right. But who doesn't like peanut butter cups and peanut butter swirled ice cream? Peanut butter, however, is a special treat for the birds, and if you like birds coming to your sunflower or thistle seed feeders, you will be in birdwatching ecstasy ...Read more

The lacebark elm met Old Man Winter's confrontation head-on and won and is now showing out in the Chattahoochee Valley area of West Georgia. While record cold took its toll by freezing leaves to the tree, these small elms are decorating neighborhoods with a soft, orange and yellow glow.

The lacebark elm is known botanically as Ulmus parvifolia ...Read more

Fatsia and pollinators don't often find themselves in the same discussion but in the last few years my eyes have been opened to the point I can give a Holy Wow to this 'Shrub of the South.' Most of us never pay attention to the blooms of the fatsia which on their own are as intricate as a bottlebrush but comprised of showy spheres or globes. ...Read more

Fall is the best time to plant trees and shrubs from the standpoint of acclimatization in the landscape. That being said, I would like to give a shout-out for an underused illicium or anise.

Throughout the South or Pacific Northwest in zones 7 and warmer, the illicium is a much-used shrub for the evergreen structure or bones of the landscape. ...Read more