Posts made in March, 2009

Buxus is the most popular hedge shrub in the US – it's deep-green foliage and dense habit makes it perfect for the trimmest formal
hedges. Borders, fences, topiaries, or knot gardens can be grown to
architectural perfection with the right pruning and training, giving
your garden impressive structure and depth.

This week's Plant of the Week is an especially attractive boxwood,
Buxus 'Green Velvet'. As the name suggests, this variety of boxwood
boasts beautiful deep green foliage, while maintaining an easy to
prune, dense, compact habit. Green Velvet tolerates full sun, cold
winters, and severe pruning. This is the perfect tough little topiary
shrub.

Born in Cambridge, England, Graham Stuart Thomas was a world famous horticultural artist and garden design who studied in the University Botanic Garden at Cambridge University. He won many awards and medals for his work from The Royal Horticulture Society, the National Rose Society, and the Garden Writer's Guild. The famed rose breeder, David Austin, even named a rose after him.

He combined the art and science of gardening in perfect harmony. While beautiful and passionate, his paintings were accurate enough to be featured in the most scientific gardening publications. Mr. Thomas pass away in 2003 leaving a legacy of wonderful creations–making the wonders of nature a little more accessible for the rest of us.

Wayside gardens was fortunate enough to have Mr. Thomas create two series of exclusive limited-run print, one in the seventies, and the other one in 1988. Wayside is now exclusively offering limited-supply reproductions of these amazing historical garden prints for less than a third of the original cost of the 1988 exclusive prints, which, adjust for inflation, is an amazing deal.Graham Stuart Thomas Prints

If you subscribe to the Wayside Gardens Newsletter you may have already gotten this week's "Plant of the Week" newsletter featuring Heuchera 'Midnight Rose.' (Actually you may have gotten it twice – it was sent out without pictures the first time. Oops!)

This is a really beautiful perennial that will add foliage interest and depth of color to your shade garden. 'Midnight Rose' is very tolerant of heat and humidity, and it thrives in part shade. It may tolerate full sun in the cooler zones. This exotic Heuchera starts out black, speckled with bright pink, and slowly transitions to a deep purple as the season progresses. The foliage stays bright and colorful from spring until fall. This plant is a great shade-garden companion to the brighter foliage of Hostas, Hydrangeas, and other Heucheras.