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On Gardening: Use Color Echoes in the landscape to create visual magic
Oh, the possibilities with that Wicked witch! Son James dazzled me again with a combination planting featuring this year's hot new coleus ColorBlaze Wicked with coleus and Canary Wing begonia. Immediately I noticed his carefully intentioned design of having the lime green margins of the coleus echo the golden-lime of the Canary Wing begonia.
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On Gardening: Gold tones of Fluffy conifers make landscape sparkle
The weather forecast has several days with morning lows in the 50s, which is a cause for celebration. We can look for those long-lost fleece vests and, even better, it gives horticulturists like The Garden Guy the ticket to forget flowers for a week and write about a new golden conifer called Fluffy.
There is nothing that adds a thrill to the ...Read more
On Gardening: Plan an azalea Bloom-A-Thon for your landscape
There has been an azalea bloom-a-thon at The Garden Guy's house for the last six weeks and looks to not be stopping anytime soon. This has all been taking place in temperatures that have sometimes made me the irritable garden guy.
If you have not gotten on the bandwagon with re-blooming azaleas you are missing a real treat. I gave you a clue in...Read more
On Gardening: Oso Easy puts the fun back into growing roses
The first spray opened up in my Oso Easy Peasy rose and I thought, "Wow, they have captured the essence of a fine heirloom." This was like a breath of fresh air as I had fallen in love with antique and heirloom roses when becoming the director of the American Rose Society years ago.
Oso Easy Peasy is a landscape rose being brought to us by ...Read more
On Gardening: Truffula Pink gomphrena is even better than we thought
Truffula Pink gomphrena has already been hotter than the proverbial $2 pistol, but The Garden Guy is here to tell you it is even better than we thought. It has been the champion of all butterfly plants at my house and if your peak butterfly season is September/October and you find them for sale, BUY THEM!
It was just a couple of days ago I was ...Read more
On Gardening: Lo & Behold the Ruby Chip butterfly bush
This year The Garden Guy decided to add some dwarf buddleia into his arsenal of pollinator plants. The idea of 3-foot-tall or less buddleias or butterfly bushes seemed like just what the doctor ordered to be able to incorporate them with lantanas, rudbeckias, gaillardia and salvias for a colorful wild Serengeti style backyard habitat. Lo & ...Read more
On Gardening: Lemon Coral sedum is tough as nails in this sweltering heat
Every year most of us hit that period where the heat crosses over from hot to oppressive and we know the tough season for our plants has arrived. In much of the country it arrived early and there is one plant that if it could talk would say what heat. This plant is Lemon Coral sedum and its botanical name Sedum mexicanum gives clear indication ...Read more
On Gardening: A lineage of hosta champions
Etched Glass may just be the most beautiful hosta I have ever seen or grown. Not only do I find it mesmerizing but as a horticulturist I find it intriguing to know that it comes from a lineage of past champions.
The world of hostas can be a little like thoroughbred racehorses from the standpoint of lineage. The lineage is often enlarged via ...Read more
On Gardening: Put your garden in blooming rhythm with stunning daylilies
A hungry Eastern Tiger swallowtail butterfly gave The Garden Guy a lesson a couple of days ago and that is, everyone loves an orange smoothie in the summer. As you might suspect I am playing with you, but just a little.
This year I planted daylilies for the first time in years. While I was the director of University of Georgia's Coastal Georgia...Read more
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