Jenny Rose Carey
Dazzling Plants, Design Ideas, and Proven Techniques for Your Shady Garden
Today is the first day of spring but you would not know it as we had a late season storm yesterday that brought another few inches of snow. It was beautiful outside today with morning temperatures hovering around 32 degrees fahrenheit and the snow crisp and crusty on the surface. The sun came up and …
Continue Reading about Snowy garden on March 21st! Wasn’t I meant to be planting peas?
The largest indoor flower show in the world opens tomorrow at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The annual taste of spring for all of us gardeners who are starved of the color and smell of the earth and flowers is a treat that we look forward to all winter. The Theme this year is 'Celebrate the …
Despite all the moaning about the weather and how cold it has been for the last few weeks, the complaining is often followed by the refrain, 'but thank goodness I am not in Boston'. We have had snow, frozen rain, and other unidentifiable frozen precipitation, but not the feet of snow that have …
Continue Reading about Touches of Color in the Winter Garden
With one heavy wet snow this week and two more larger snowfalls expected, it is time to think of ways to prevent snow damage to your trees and shrubs. The first way is smart plant choice, and coniferous evergreens with needles are one of the best for a snowy climate. Not only are many of them very …
Continue Reading about Preventing snow damage to evergreen trees and shrubs in the snow
We had several snow falls this week accompanied by bitter cold. Trips to the compost heap were about all the garden visiting possible until today when the temperatures have risen to around freezing. The winter garden is shades of sepia and white. The tiny details of old plant stems are outlined in …
Happy New Year. A new year brings another year of expectation in the garden. We always hope that this gardening year will be better than ever! At least this year we are not submerged in snow like last year. Winter is still young, we will see what nature has in store for us. …
Of course it is right by my door. An Eastern Cicada Killer wasp has just dug her burrow between the paving slabs by the front step. The female Cicada Killer is aptly named as she catches and stuns a Cicada, and carries it back to the nest. The wasp then drags the Cicada underground, into the burrow, …
Continue Reading about Eastern Cicada Killer wasp drags Cicada into burrow
Larkspur (Consolida) flowers in that rare shade of blue and purple, that is so beloved of gardeners, are one of the joys of the self sown garden. Rising gracefully to 2.5 - 3.5 feet, larkspur plants are perfect to mix and mingle in the flower bed, as they take up very little horizontal space. After …
This year at Northview there is a heavy infestation of aphids on the cup plants. Aphids are a type of insect that can reproduce asexually and reproduction is rapid. They insert their sharp proboscis into the phloem (the vessels carrying plant nutrients) and suck food out of the leaf. The aphids are …
The garden looks bare. Areas that were full of pink, purple and blue blooms last year are shades of green. Much as I like green, I do miss the glorious Hydrangea blooms that are normally a prominent feature of the July shade garden at Northview. The emails started flying in late March, asking me: …
Continue Reading about 2014 – The year with no Hydrangea Flowers?
