Posts tagged as:

shrubs

50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants: Book Review

February 24, 2009

I confess, when I first heard 50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants by Tracy DiSabato-Aust was coming out, I was dismayed. I have the first edition of The Well-Tended Perennial Garden, which was incredibly satisfying because it was based on her own close observation and methodical experimentation. At the time it was published, it was very [...]

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Forsythia Pruning: Before and After

July 10, 2007

Forsythia before pruning began

Back in April, I discussed my upcoming plans to prune my forsythia bush. It wasn’t flowering very much, and my commenters agreed with me that it needed a heavy pruning. Some even suggested cutting the whole thing down to the ground. But I felt a little too nervous to do that.

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Spring madness: Search and rescue

May 8, 2007

If you are short on time, energy, and money, but notably the first two, be conservative. You’ll be more pleased with one fair-sized, well-composed, well-maintained bed than with a half-dozen large beds that are choked with quack grass and creeping Charlie.
That’s excellent advice from The Complete Flower Gardener by Karan Davis Cutler and Barbara W. [...]

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Pruning strategy for forsythia

April 27, 2007

Remember the forsythia I pruned so that I could force some branches? It doesn’t look so floriferous out in the open, does it? (For comparison, check out the forsythias here.)
When I’m faced with a plant that’s not doing as well as expected, I try to analyze the situation before taking action. In the case of [...]

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Pruning forsythia in mud season

April 10, 2007

The standard advice for pruning spring-blooming shrubs is to prune them no later than two weeks after they’re done blooming. This is because most spring-flowering shrubs, at least, all those commonly grown, develop their flower buds on the previous year’s wood. So if you prune them in high summer, or autumn, you are cutting off [...]

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Bending the Rules, Planting Shrubs

April 16, 2006

When we last left our gardener, she had just received her Fedco shrub order, shortly after removing one and a half pounds of dock root from the spot where she wanted to plant her Hydrangea ‘Endless Summer.’
Have you ever had a gardening project turn into a Project? Heh. If you’ve been gardening any length of [...]

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Huh?

September 15, 2004

This is a photo of my Forsythia ‘Meadowlark’ blooming–sparsely, I grant you, but nevertheless blooming–in September. If I hadn’t been checking for signs of the colchicums recently planted in this area, I’m sure I never would have noticed the yellow blossoms, so it is entirely possible this shrub has done this other years without my [...]

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Edward Hamilton: Good gardening books, cheap

November 9, 2002

One of my favorite places to buy gardening books is Edward Hamilton. They do sell some new books, but most of them are remainders and closeouts. No problem when it comes to gardening books, as they don’t go out of date that fast and the good ones always bear re-reading.

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Lilac Books

September 6, 2002

I’ve been reading Lilacs for the Garden by Jennifer Bennett. It’s a much more approachable book than Fiala’s Lilacs: The Genus Syringa and has detailed information on numerous cultivars and species. I’ve discovered lilacs that bloom earlier and later than the ones in my garden, especially fragrant lilacs, especially hardy lilacs, and lilacs that do [...]

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