Growing Advice

There are two main reasons we should winterize our rose plants.

1) We are protecting the plant from dying 2) We are protecting the canes from damage.

Here are some tips for winterizing your favorite rose plants:

First, you must steer clear of fertilizing during the winter because if you try to encourage new growth in the winter it will only make your roses more accessible to dying from freezer burn. Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone with even a passing knowledge of plants knows that Daphne have wonderfully fragrant flowers. And because some of them - usually the most scented - flower in winter, they’re the sort of must-have plants that are usually among the first planted in any new garden.

There are around 50 species of Daphne, many of which are choice garden specimens. They are widespread lot, ranging from Europe and North Africa to temperate and subtropical Asia. Most of them are evergreen or nearly so, but a few are deciduous, often flowering before the foliage expands. Read the rest of this entry »

If you appreciate plants that have no hesitation in boldly stating their presence with huge, almost artificially perfect flowers, then tuberous begonias are for you. While some may find them rather too overstated, downright brazen even, if you like color, and plenty of it, with subtlety an option rather than compulsory, then look no further. Flowering from late spring, as the days exceed 13 hours long, until well into autumn when the foliage dies back, these tuberous-rooted perennials have been extensively hybridized and refined to the point where the larger-flowered forms are nothing short of spectacular. For those with greenhouses or a very mild winter climate there are even types that flower well into winter, if not right through the cooler months. Description and classification and groups. Read the rest of this entry »

Named by Linnaeus in 1735 in honor of the Jesuit priest and naturalist Georg Josef Kamel, Camellia is a genus originating mainly from China but with a range covering a large area of South East Asia. The exact number of species is not clear but it is somewhere around 100. Camellia is an important commercial genus because of one species, Camellia sinensis, and the plant from which tea is made.

Most gardeners recognize two main groups of camellias, the autumn flowering and the spring flowering. However, it is not quite that simple. Whenever a genus of many species (such as
Rhododendron, Rosa or Camellia) is used to produce a multitude of hybrids distinct groups tend to form. Read the rest of this entry »

Fuchsia (named after Leonhard Fuchs, a 16th century German botanist) is a genus of over 100 species of shrubs and small trees. Although there are four New Zealand native species (colensoi, excorticata, perscandens and procumbens) and one from Tahiti, the vast bulk of the genus occurs in Central and South America.

Think of fuchsias and chances are the fancy garden hybrids come to mind first. Showy as they are, it is not difficult to see they are related to wild species such as Fuchsia magellanica, Fuchsia denticulata and Fuchsia triphylla. Read the rest of this entry »

Did you know that those lush, colorful blooms called chrysanthemums are rooted in beliefs of human immortality and perfection? Today the “mum” graces gardens, cut flower arrangements and even salads (yes mums taste great), but they were taken much more seriously after T’ao Yuan Ming started it all in China around 500 A.D.

Over long periods of careful cross-pollination and selection, he developed stunning varieties of the flower and when he died, his birthplace was renamed Chuhsien. The City of Chrysanthemums. His efforts had produced a legacy that would bring pleasure to this world for centuries. Read the rest of this entry »