Great plants

More long bloomers

Another post on that thread at GardenWeb said Salvia greggi ‘Cherry Queen’ bloomed from mid April to October in her zone 6 garden in Missouri. That’s the same zone as us, although it’s much more humid and wet there. She also had a great web reference: The Missouri Botanical Gardens has a site that shows […]

Long blooming perennials

I found a nice thread at GardenWeb on long-blooming perennials. I definitely need to look at some of the plants mentioned. Here are some mentioned repeatedly: Savlia ‘May Night’. They say it goes for something like 18 weeks of bloom! Wow. ‘Walker’s Low’ Nepeta is also mentioned quite a bit. Geranium ‘Rozanne’ (a perennial, spreading, […]

Nice flower seed catalogs

I noticed some good suggestions for seed catalogs in the GardenWeb Annuals forum this week. Here are some of them: Swallowtail Garden Seeds from Santa Rosa, California Select Seeds from Connecticut Seedman from Mississippi Stokes Seeds from Ontario, Canada and Buffalo, New York – these guys have geranium seeds at a much better price than […]

More fall colors in my yard

For the past two days, my Autumn Blaze Maples have been at their peak color. I have three of these trees, which have been in the ground five years now. One has been sick — it’s been chlorotic, which isn’t supposed to happen to these. It lost its leaves in August, and some new ones […]

Fall colors in my yard

Many leaves are changing in my yard now. I should mention the plants that are turning and when they started. I wonder if it will be the same week in future years or if temperature affects these things much? Here’s a little rundown: Peking Cotoneasters were probably the first to change. They got very bright […]

2006 Most Valuable Annual (MVA): Rudbeckia

OK, since I gave an MVP award a few weeks ago, I thought it good to give an MVA to the Most Valuable Annual flower in my garden this year. I’ve been growing Rudbeckias for a long time, and they seldom disappoint. There is a perennial variety (Rudbeckia fulgida), but it’s too orange for my […]

2006 MVP Award (Most Valuable Perennial): Lavatera tauricensis

This summer, I have been extremely impressed with Lavatera tauricensis. This plant was not supposed to be hardy in my Zone 6 garden. I think it’s listed as a Zone 7 minimum. I had grown some in California, from seeds bought from Thompson & Morgan. The ones in California produced some seed, which I brought […]

Annuals for next year

Today I was at Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City, seeing all the flowers that are still blooming well at this time of summer. I’m thinking of replanting my flowerbeds next spring, perhaps with more summer annuals, especially in the backyard. Here are some good flowers to consider for next year, from what I […]