Want a long-blooming, low-growing easy-to-grow, winter-hardy perennial? Look no further than Soapwort, Saponaria x lempergii 'Max Frei'. You may already be familiar with the spring-blooming Rock Soapwort (Saponaria ocymoides). I grew it years ago and loved its warm, pink flowers. But, as things go, I got rid of it. I don't remember exactly why. Back in 2013, while perusing Digging Dog Nursery's website I found 'Max Frei.' I liked that it was a summer bloomer instead of spring and I knew exactly where I wanted to grow it. I have it cascading over a small rock wall, with a similarly colore ..read more

After a rare--for August--rainy morning yesterday, most of the taller perennials are bowed over from weight of the raindrops. Especially annoying is the Phlox paniculata and if its flowers weren't so delectable to the swallowtail butterflies, I might be tempted to cut it all back.  Sanguisorba hakusanensis 'Lilac Squirrel' isn't leaning as badly. And it is my plant of the week! Check out the flowers and you'll see why it is called 'Lilac Squirrel'.     This winter-hardy perennial (Zone 4a to 9b) starts out as a 12 inch wide basal clump with dark green, serrated, pinnate leave ..read more

When I was about four years old, I distinctly remember the magic of fragrant flowers. It was the face of a pansy flower's soft petals caressing my nose. One of my parents had planted a bunch of them in our front yard on the other side of the driveway. To this day, when I stick my nose in a pansy blossom, I'm that four year old once more. Circa 1964 Fast forward six years and I'm in Hawaii, discovering good and bad things about life. The good things included fragrant flowers. I remember my mother taking us to visit one of her wealthy friends who lived in a beautiful house and garden ..read more

In 2007, I bought Mukdenia rossii 'Crimson Fans' after somewhere seeing--I forget now--photos of the pretty leaves. I remember that I spent $18 for a one gallon and at the time, it seemed like such an enormous sum to spend on a plant--such an extravagance for a penny-pincher like myself. It grew. It's an easy plant with no fussy requirements at all except moist soil. (But wait.) It's deciduous and in spring, it pushes up new leaves of bronze. There are also these comparatively banal flowers. The flowers persist as the leaves grow.  Eventually, if the conditions are ..read more

Here is a cutie pie. Heron's Bill (Erodium manescavi) is a long-blooming, sun-loving front of the border beauty. It is also a nice rock garden plant and will reseed a little if one is lucky. I got my plant from Robin Parer's Geraniaceae Nursery back in 2018. I knew exactly where I wanted to plant it, under full sun, in loose soil by my outer pond. It has been growing here ever since, slowly expanding its ferny foliage and increasing its flowering stems each year. The flowers are a cool, lilac color with slightly darker veining on the petals. Once the flowers finish, the seed pod ..read more

After a ridiculously long self-imposed hiatus from my blog, I'm back. Again, it wasn't easy to pick a favorite because, as all plant people know, there are so many plants to love.  But with Belle Etoile's exquisite fragrance wooing me as I meandered my garden paths, I chose to focus on her. After all, she is in her finest element right now.    In early June Philadelphus 'Belle Etoile' or Mock Orange explodes with hundreds of three inch flowers on lax branches.  They emit a powerfully, sweet, slightly citrus fragrance. I bought this shrub back in 2007 from Dancing Oaks ..read more

Hi Plant Peeps. What to choose, what to choose for the plant of the week? So many plants are worthy of a post, as you fellow plant lovers know.  After much contemplation, I decided to go with this lovely variegated Spiraea. Spiraea x vanhouttei 'Pink Ice.' This plant is one of the legacies of the now-defunct Fry Road Nursery. It came as a spunky little thing, in a four inch pot or it could have been a plug since I bought a lot of my plants that way back in the day. This one specifically in the year 2009.  Any plant with "pink" in its name will pique my interest and I swoon ove ..read more

I hope you all are enjoying your gardens. I've seen on Facebook that some of you are getting snow. I think snow in April is just wrong and you have my sincerest sympathies.  Speaking of the weather, I'm sure it sounds like I'm bragging when I say that the skies have been clear and sunny here for the past week or so. But it's true, and ironically, we who live in this  part of the world can only take so many days of sunshine without the nagging reminder that April is usually a rainy month. And then we worry that maybe we're going to have a drought. The media helps with this.  On ..read more

Wow. The weeks just fly by. I guess this means I'm old.  I hope you all are staying safe and healthy. In these parts, the weather has turned beautiful. Yesterday's high temperature today was 74 degrees, fairly uncommon for early April and a hallmark for me:  I switched from socks and boots to flip flops!  My plant this week is Daphne x transatlantica 'Summer Ice.' I could feature this phenomenal shrub any week of the year because it always looks good. However, I chose this week because, although this Daphne has been flowering off and on all winter (and fall and summer...), the flower f ..read more

Hi Guys. Now that we're full-on into spring, it's getting more difficult to choose just one plant to feature each week. I contemplated between Fritillaria, Clematis alpina 'Constance' and Lathyrus vernus 'Albo Roseus'. The latter two will wait but the Frits probably won't, especially if they get pummeled by more hail, so this week I'll feature them.  Fritillaria meleagris in my woodland gardenFritillaria are small, fall-planted bulbs--one of the "minor bulbs" if you will. They require a good winter chill in order to bloom. There are many species of Fritillaria. We're talking about probably ..read more