Ghouls and Goblins won’t kill you. But these plants could.
Many of the garden plants we grow for ornamental reasons got their vibrant, exotic colors as nature’s way of saying “Warning—Poison!” While most of these are innocuous enough sitting in pots or in the garden, if ingested they could cause illness of varying severity, and sometimes even death.
Read MoreThis Guest Post was written by Randy Schultz of Home, Garden, and Homestead Magazine.
Read MoreOne of the numerous negative ecological effects of urban development is a higher rate of soil erosion. Forests naturally hold on to soil with their roots. Trees slow the fall of raindrops to keep them from disrupting the soil. The natural bumps and hillocks in the landscape break up the flow of water, giving it more opportunity to be absorbed by plant roots and filtered through the soil before it winds its way into creeks, streams, and rivers. These natural soil-defense mechanisms do not exist in developed land, where rain falls on rooftops, asphalt, and flat lawns covered in relatively sparse, shallow-rooted plants. All this means that on developed land, wind and rain carries off much more top soil, dumping it into storm drains and into the water table. This not only degrades the soil quality, but also dumps soil into the local water supply, along with oils and often-toxic pollutants.
For the sustained health of your garden and your community, you should try and minimize erosion and runoff as much as possible with careful garden design. Where downspouts empty onto your yard or where storm waters flow through it, you should take every effort to absorb and filter this water. A well-designed garden will capture water effectively, keeping plant roots moist much longer while also holding on to the soil’s nutrients and keeping pollution out of the local water table.
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Hydrangea pruning rules vary from one variety to the next, but none of them are too complicated. The easiest to remember is white-blooming hydrangeas – most white hydrangeas bloom on new wood and can be pruned as soon as the blooms fade. If you haven't pruned your white hydrangea this winter, you can go ahead and cut them back for full spring blooms.
For most macrophyllas, mopheads, and oakleaf hydrangeas, blooms form on at least one year-old stems. If you prune too severely you will not have any blooms. Other than cleaning out the dead and ugly parts, it's best to leave these alone unless your plant has become too large.
If you are pruning for cut-flowers, your goal is not to make the plant
look pretty, but to get the best blooms on long straight stems. First,
remove all of the dead or dying material that you would normally
remove. Second, you will cut the plant back to about a third of its
current size. Cutting the plant really low, will force it to grow long
stems, which is exactly what your want.
Hydrangeas have become very popular cut flowers due to their bold presence, attractive colors, and versatility—they can be used in fresh-cut arrangements or dried as everlastings. Out of all the types of Hydrangeas, lacecaps are really the only ones that don’t dry very well.
We have put together a few tips to help you get the most out of your cutflower Hydrangeas, including how to keep them fresh as long as possible as well as how to dry them for use long after the season has passed.
Read MoreFew blooms provide more showy appeal than Hydrangeas: long-blooming, with showers of magnificent clusters of colorful flowers. However, some of us may be wondering why that beautiful pink shrub that we planted last year has now turned a bright shade of blue! Hydrangeas may produce pink, blue, or lavender blooms, depending on where it’s planted and how it’s fed. The presence of aluminum in the plant ultimately determines the color, and pH affects the uptake of aluminum. Alkaline soils, pH of 6.0 or more, are more likely to produce pink blooms, and more acidic soils, pH 4.5 to 5.5, produce blue flowers.
You can change your bloom color to blue, pink or red with acidic or alkaline soil!
Acidic Soil (pH below 6) Blue flowers: 
Alkaline soil (pH above 7) Pink or Red flowers: 
PRO TIP: If your soil naturally produces very blue or very pink hydrangea flowers, you may need to grow your hydrangeas in containers or raised beds to achieve the desired color.
PRO TIP: If you do attempt to change the color of your blooms by adding these minerals, dilute them well, and add sparingly. It is very easy to scorch your plants by adding too much. Always follow the product’s application instructions for the safest and best results.
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