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.
Way up here in the land of tall conifers, dry shade is a common gardening challenge. I’ve had success with the following plants in the shade of conifers, and they also work well in deciduous woodlands or in the dry rain shadow of north-facing buildings and garden walls. As with any new plantings, they will require summer water for several dry seasons until they have established a root system capable of competing with existing tree roots.
You can feel fall in the air, but don't worry, our gardens are far from slowing down. In fact, September is one of the loveliest times in the Pacific Northwest garden, as foliage shows spectacular color, new flowers pop-up, and certain summer plants just keep right on performing until frost. Here are a few of our favorites for September.
There are a multitude of summer flowers, but one particular shrub always wows us with beautiful, show-stopping flowers: the hydrangea. With long-lasting pink, red, white, chartreuse, blue, and violet flower colors, hydrangeas will look right at home in any garden. I would like to feature a few most often seen growing in PNW gardens.
Do you have Swan Dollars lying around? Gather them all up and make a trip to Swansons, because you can use them for up to half of your purchase until July 31st, even on sale items! We decided to put together a short list of items, including plants and other merchandise, that we love and are spending our Swan Dollars on this July. We hope it inspires your Swan Dollar purchases!
