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Geraniums


Growing a Rabbit-proof Garden

Growing a Rabbit-proof Garden


Posted on Jun 12, 2017 | 0 comments

They’re cute, they’re soft, and to many gardeners they are a menace. Rabbits can clear a garden of foliage, flowers and fruit in a single night, making them some of the sneakiest and most destructive forces nature has in her arsenal. While there are many ways to fend off this cotton-tailed threat the effectiveness of each method depends on the situation. Just try a little of everything and see what works for you!

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Our Longest-Blooming Flowers

Our Longest-Blooming Flowers


Posted on May 11, 2017 | 0 comments

We dedicate so much time and energy to our gardens that it is only natural to want to get the most out of it. An easy way to ensure returns on our hard work is by growing plants with long seasons of appeal. Each of these plant varieties are known to feature long-blooming flowers for maximum beauty for months on end.

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Top Five Petaled Flowers

Top Five Petaled Flowers


Posted on Apr 18, 2016 | 0 comments

Why do we find five pointed flowers so delightful? Is it because when playing “He loves me-he loves me not” we’ll always get the best answer at the end? Or maybe because their simplicity reminds us of attempting (with varying success) at drawing flowers as children? Well, whatever the reason, they have a certain charisma that just can’t be ignored.  That’s why we just had to bring you our list of favorite five petaled flora.

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While browsing a few news articles for tidbits about Wayside Gardens I came across this article, “Ooty’s Wayside Gardens Go to Seed”, on the front page of The Hindu, India’s national newspaper. My first thought was (foolishly) “why would we be mentioned in an Indian newspaper?”– we don’t ship to India.

It is actually a very good article about how wayside gardens in Indian urban areas are increasingly at risk from modern development, surely not a concern isolated to India. As many American urban gardeners have found, it can be very hard to maintain a respectable plot in the hustle and bustle. Also, it is getting more and more difficult to conserve historically significant gardens in booming cities where air pollution and new construction dominate.

The revelation for me, however, was that “wayside gardens” are more than just the name of a company, they are a particular kind of garden. I had just never thought about it. Dictionary.com defines “wayside” as “the side of the way” (obviously) or “roadside.” Wayside gardens are simply decorative gardens planted along the roadside. For example, the DOT projects where they plant flowers or ornamental trees along the interstate, sometimes on hills facing traffic. In the spirit of the article, however, I understand a traditional wayside garden to be a more cozy thing, an invitation into your home, maybe even a botanical welcome mat. I guess the big cities have little time for such frivolities.

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Geranium Sweet Heidy v. Orkney Cherry

Geranium Sweet Heidy v. Orkney Cherry


Posted on Dec 19, 2006 |

Marco van Noort named Sweet Heidy for his wife. All those plant introductions, all that labor, and this is the one he’s chosen to give his wife’s name to! This alone tells us how special Sweet Heidy is.

The biggest distinction between Sweet Heidy and Orkney Cherry, aside from the foliage and bloom colour, is the habit. Sweet Heidy is partly trailing, a good plant for hanging baskets, flower pots, low walls, terrace gardens, that sort of thing. Give it a place to trail and it will do so, stretching about 2 1/2 feet long if need be. Simply lovely, needless to add.

Orkney Cherry is a spreader, and for a Geranium, it wastes no time! Give it bare soil and it will grow a 2 foot mat of fairly dense (this is a Geranium after all, not a creeping Phlox!) foliage of absolutely beautiful green spotted and veined faintly in deep pink, the same colour as the blooms. It’s a good choice for the border, because while it’s aggressive, it won’t choke anything out or really get in the way.

That said, most people will prefer Orkney Cherry because it’s the heaviest-blooming Geranium I’ve ever seen, full stop. The bloom season is endless too, but Sweet Heidy has an extra long season as well. For sheer number of flowers in a season, there’s no beating Orkney Cherry.

To give Sweet Heidy its due, the flower colour is its remarkable (and unique) merit. The flowers emerge a sort of cream colour with infusions of pink, which darkens as they mature. Finally they acquire blue edges, whilst keeping the pink further in, and the cream around the base. It’s the only hardy Geranium I know with this multi-ringed look. I hesitate to call it tri-coloured because all the shades aren’t present throughout the life of the bloom, but it is really distinctive and rather amazing.

 

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