I’ve been on a family vacation this past week. The weather was lovely – sunny, hot but not too humid, with no rain to put a cramp in our activities. Upon our return to Cincinnati, I found that the same hot, dry weather I loved on a lake in Tennessee, I loathe here – where [...]

I had the pleasure of visiting a local community garden this morning – the East End Veterans Memorial Garden. There I met with my friend Cindy Schrader and some folks from Cincinnati Magazine to do a photo-shoot for an upcoming article I’ll be writing about growing a cutting garden. Cindy’s is one of several gardens [...]

Another month, another Gardener’s Bloom Day! On the 15th of each month, gardeners from around the blogosphere tell us what’s blooming in their gardens. Here are a few things that are blooming in my Cincinnati-area garden. I’ve decided to feature annuals this month. These plants live for only one growing season, but they bloom their [...]

On the 15th of every month, Garden Bloggers everywhere post pictures of the plants that are blooming in their garden. Here are a few from mine. The above picture shows purple coneflower, Echinacea ‘Magnus’, with white-flowering Echinacea ‘Avalanche’ in front. ‘Avalanche’ is a new cultivar that is shorter – to about 18 inches – and very [...]

In my daughter Kara’s garden, we are growing mostly fruits that are her favorites, like strawberries and blackberries. Since the blackberries haven’t grown much yet, we are using some of that garden space for other useful plants. We put our potato bags in that area. We planted pumpkin and watermelon vines. And we filled in [...]

There is often a spot in the mixed flower and shrub border that looks a little drab or dreary – because the flowers aren’t blooming yet; because you just cut back something that was going to seed; because you planted a colorful shrub that hasn’t yet reached its full size, so there is empty space [...]

On the 15th of each month, garden bloggers from around the globe post pictures of the things that are blooming in their gardens on that day. I’ve decided to join the crowd and add my own photo montage. There are a lot of things blooming right now, so I’ll limit mine to the most interesting [...]

One plant that I would be sad to live without is feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium, also sometimes sold as Chrysanthemum parthenium). It is a charming plant that is a member of the sunflower family. A perennial herb, it prefers to grow in full sun, and usually reaches about 24 inches tall. It is hardy to USDA zone 5. Feverfew [...]

The Baptisia plants are putting on their spring show, and when they are blooming, they are my favorite flower ever! Of course, like many gardeners, my favorite flower ever changes every few weeks . . . Anyway, this native North American wildflower is commonly called blue false indigo, wild indigo, or simply baptisia. It is [...]

A former student from my herbaceous plant I.D. course at U.C. wrote to ask: What were some of my favorite spring blooming annuals and perennials? We had covered the summer bloomers in some detail in the class that runs from mid-June through August. So what did we miss? I thought it would be interesting to [...]