Colorful spring containers celebrate the start of the gardening season and creating them is fun and easy if you know which plants to choose. Look for these great gems to create a new spring container or refresh an existing pot.
Who isn't captivated with the lush blooms of the peony? We still get excited when peonies begin arriving! Alex LaVilla, our perennials buyer, has a few planting and care tips to help you be sure your peony is as happy and productive as it can be.
Early-blooming plants help brighten the gray, rainy days and remind us that warmer days are on the way. Here are a few of our favorites for the period we call “early spring” (February-late March). Some even bloom earlier in winter and well into April!
No matter whether this is your first-ever vegetable garden or just the first time planting this year, if you take a little time to prepare before you plant, everything will go more smoothly and you’ll be more successful. Here are a few simple things to consider when starting a vegetable garden this spring.
One of the first activities I want to do outside in early spring is to plant my early spring vegetable garden. There’s nothing like the smooth, clean surface of prepped garden beds, the soil still pristine and just waiting to nurture rows of bright green spring vegetables, carefully planted in perfect rows. It’s like a fresh school notebook - full of promise. But what to plant? Here are a few of my favorite vegetables to plant in spring, with tips on when and how to plant them.
Rhododendrons, arguably the Maritime Northwest’s most beloved plants, can vary from two-foot-high dwarf shrubs to 30-foot trees. Most varieties don’t typically need a lot of pruning for their first several years but over time, many rhodies grow a dense weave of thick-wooded branches, and the thought of pruning one can intimidate all but the most experienced gardener. Of course, we are here to help!
We love our lilac shrubs with their exemplary fragrance in May but almost any lilac that has not been pruned for two years or more is likely to have flowers up high, out of optimal sniffing range. Pruning can help keep your lilac to a manageable size, accentuate its lovely form, and improve flowering. Sometimes, a complete refresh is needed (coppicing). In this post, we walk you through several options for pruning your lilac bush, using helpful diagrams.
