Searching for a new shade-tolerant annual? Crack the wishbone flower

Shade is common among us plant lovers, especially those of us who adore and overplant trees and shrubs in our yards. Shade can be limiting, though, especially when it comes to infusing color and how many pots of impatiens and begonias can you plant, year after year, and remain enthused? So, I was excited to…

Hello Dahlia! Don’t delay another day to discover this diva of the late summer/fall garden

I have found dahlias to be about as addictive as wasabi peas and chocolate covered almonds. Oh, I’ve always found them enchanting, to be sure, and have certainly swooned while visiting the dahlia test garden at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum — that little caged jewel box of delights. But, this is my first year of…

Climbing up and spilling over

Plants that climb to the sky and and plants that spill to the earth are very dramatic performers in the garden and some of my favorite flora to incorporate into a space. Climbers transform a space like nothing else as they draw the garden visitors eye up, transforming the entire garden picture. Spillers soften hard edges…

Oh, favorite annuals of mine. Won’t you come in and spend the winter with me?

If you garden, you can’t help but to pick up a few favorite plants along the way. This is a sweet experience when that favorite plant is a perennial. You let it slumber through the winter months, knowing it will emerge well-rested and stronger next spring. You hope the same for yourself. When your favorite…

Everyone needs a pansy or two at this time of year

The pansies have landed and are at your neighborhood nursery or garden center. Every northern gardener needs to treat their garden and themselves to a pot of pansies as early as possible in the spring. Particularly after the winter we have all just weathered. Pansies will take a little frost, which makes them the ideal harbinger of…

Dusty Miller saved my gardening butt this summer

An accent plant that has always bored me a little worked its way into my heart this past summer and I now declare “I love Dusty Miller.” Botanically speaking, its Senecio Cineraria. Native to southern Europe (but with less attitude), it is a perennial to zone 9, but an annual up in these parts. When…