Eleven Tips for Nonstop Summer Blooms
Six Weeks of Friday Letters, One Field Guide A few weeks ago I found myself out on the back patio until midnight, surrounded by blooming crapemyrtles while the fragrance of crinum and citrus drifted across the garden in soft, low clouds. Twelve years into parenting, I know better than to trade sleep for anything. But […]
How to Naturalize Daffodils in a Southern Lawn
A Lawn That Blooms Before It Grows The prettiest thing a Southern lawn can do happens in February, while the grass is still asleep: drifts of narcissus running loose under the bare trees like they planted themselves. That look has a name — naturalizing — and an open secret: it only works down here if […]
Oxblood Lilies 101: Planting the September Surprise
The September Surprise Right now — the hottest, most discouraging stretch of the gardening year — the smartest planting you can do is for a flower that shows no sign of existing. Oxblood lilies spend August as bare dirt. Then the first real fall rain comes, and within days, deep red trumpets erupt by the […]
Crinum ‘Mrs. James Hendry’: If You Can Only Grow One
If You Can Only Grow One People ask me some version of this question at every talk: if I could only plant one crinum, which one? I don’t even pause anymore. ‘Mrs. James Hendry.’ Then they ask why, and I get to spend the next ten minutes on my favorite subject. The Breeder and the […]
Milk & Wine Crinums: The Rent-House Lilies
The Flower That Outlives the House There is a rent house on my drive to work with two crinum clumps out front the size of small shrubs — close to a hundred bulbs each, if anybody ever dared to count by digging. Tenants come and go. The paint changes. Every May, without anyone lifting a […]
St. Joseph’s Lily: The Hardy Amaryllis of Old Southern Gardens
The Trumpet That Refused to Die Every March I start watching the old homesites, because April belongs to a flower most garden centers have never heard of: the hardy amaryllis, known across the South as the St. Joseph’s Lily. You have seen it even if you didn’t know its name — clumps of deep red […]
Bulb Fertilization
Should I Fertilize Bulbs? Everything you need to know about fertilizing flower bulbs! It’s a question I get as The Bulb Hunter (or just as Chris the friend at any old get together): should I fertilize my bulbs? The quick is answer is “yes, they love fertilizer” but you don’t have to. However, all plants […]
Forcing Paperwhites in December
Forcing paperwhites, making gift pots, and finding heriloom paperwhites in an abandoned lot!
Vegetable Gardening Tips with Dr. Bill Welch
While we’ve made a more concerted effort to keep our social media accounts active, I have sadly let the blog slip. However, I am running a newsletter tomorrow morning announcing some new products online such as the Lycoris squamigera (known as the pink naked lady) and two new products to our 10 for $10 page: […]