The day you look at a Wedgewood Blue Summer Snapdragon is the day you will get hooked and believe anything is possible with today’s flowers. It looks as though each flower is a rare piece of hand-painted porcelain. Wedgewood Blue is part of the Angelface series of summer snapdragons, which r… Read more

Insects and diseases in the vegetable garden and on fruit plantings are minimal under the natural organic program, but the occasional serious pests have relatively easy solutions. Read more

Sunstar is the name of a new series of pentas debuting this spring and it is an understatement to say they are taking the world by storm. There are four colors in the series coming from Proven Winners — pink, red lavender and rose — and all have won awards from north to south. Read more

Goodness, it is proving to be a “wonderfully wicked” year for coleus. In this case wicked is great and promises to add incredible color and texture to your garden. Wicked actually refers to two new colors or varieties in the ColorBlaze series of coleus. If you are like me you probably though… Read more

Every quarantined morning these days I sit on my front steps and watch a bee have its breakfast at a crocus or azalea, a tranquil reminder that while disruptions continue to the world of man, nature moves placidly along. Read more

The last few years, cordylines have seen a remarkable uptick in popularity. Cordyline is a funny name to pronounce, and if you go online, you’ll find at least three different suggestions. The common names are also simply crazy: false dracaena, cabbage tree, and cabbage palm, to name a few. L… Read more

It’s no surprise we’re embracing victory gardens today: During both world wars, patriotic Americans kept the home fires burning — and their soldiers fed — by converting any available space into a garden. It was an act of defiance and self-reliance with a shovel and a hoe. Read more

The winter was such that The Garden Guy’s house has some of the most beautiful flowers ever for mid-April. There are echinacea, coreopsis, dianthus, and salvias galore. The first plant you would walk to however has no blooms yet; it is a shrub that for all appearances seems like “the burning bush.” Read more

Horticulturists like The Garden Guy sometime struggle with capturing the beauty of flowers in certain blues and those that are a deeply saturated, fire engine red. Put the two together and the camera may just have a technical explosion. Read more

Oh my, it’s the bomb! To be exact, it is the Cherry Bomb an incredible mix that I’ve been seeing at garden centers this year featuring Superbells Cherry Star Calibrachoa, Supertunia Black Cherry petunia and the pristine white Snow Princess sweet alyssum. Read more

Americans have been showing their colors a lot since the coronavirus showed up as a special and surely unwanted spring guest. Just as red, white and blue stirs the heart and sends a message as Old Glory hangs from the door, your flowers can echo the theme throughout the landscape. Read more

Forced to shelter in place, most of us are coming down with a bad case of cabin fever. Instead of worrying about the future and whether that scratchy throat you woke up with this morning is something serious, plant a victory garden. Read more

Shazam! All of a sudden everyone is thinking about growing a vegetable garden. Essentials disappearing from the local supermarket is at best a wake-up call. One thing for certain now that families are all together — there is no better way to teach children a little horticulture, pollination … Read more

The commercial landscape world is where the proverbial ‘rubber meets the road’ scenario. We can all gawk at flowers in trial gardens and get a good indication of how they will perform at home, but shopping centers and city streetscapes may be the best indicator of all. Read more

LOS ANGELES — The leaves of your Fittonia verschaffeltii are brown and brittle and aren’t growing back. Read more

When it comes to watering plants, the best advice is simple: Water infrequently but deeply, and let the soil be your guide. Read more

The calendar had not reached March this year and I already had my first blooms on the new Superbells Double Blue Calibrachoa. Your first thought is, “What am I doing planting so early?” The fact is, these are returning from last year’s plants I was testing. Read more

One of The Garden Guy’s favorite new plants making its debut in 2020 has name so unusual I had to look up the definition and gift it a little thought. It is called Unplugged. Did you know we have a National Day of Unplugging? Read more

Pickerelweed is native over a monstrously big range, from Nova Scotia to Argentina. In our country pickerelweed calls 36 states home. I assure you “Where the Pickerelweed Grows,” a spectacle of nature is waiting for you to see the show. Read more

If there was such a thing as a Super Bowl dynasty in the plant world it would have to go to Diamond Frost euphorbia. Somehow, I doubt that Proven Winners and the entire green industry knew what they had when it made its debut over a dozen years ago. Read more

Phil the groundhog predicted an early spring and he was right on. Groundhog Day was Feb. 2 and spring arrived at my house Feb. 3. Great Scott that was fast! I know I am slightly exaggerating but as I write this, on Feb. 3, I have the sunroom door open for any pollinators that might want to c… Read more

This winter we are seeing copper in baskets, containers and even landscapes all thanks to new Heuchera varieties. There seems to be nothing that today’s flower breeder can’t do with Heuchera or its common name coral bells. Read more

The November Polar Express put a lot of good gardening folks in a funk. Consider, many of us had virtually had no frost, then the front swooped down dropping temperatures to a bone-chilling 22 degrees in West Georgia. So, if you are in a funk or simply found yourself behind in cool-season co… Read more

Euphorbias are starting to amaze in cool-season plantings whether they be in containers, or as the perfect pansy partner in the landscape. More than likely your first thought is euphorbias for the summer landscape like Diamond Frost but I'm talking Ascot Rainbow that has been the rage since … Read more

Peanut butter for the holidays may elicit a 'that's for the birds' response, and, you would be right. But who doesn't like peanut butter cups and peanut butter swirled ice cream? Peanut butter, however, is a special treat for the birds, and if you like birds coming to your sunflower or thist… Read more

The lacebark elm met Old Man Winter's confrontation head-on and won and is now showing out in the Chattahoochee Valley area of West Georgia. While record cold took its toll by freezing leaves to the tree, these small elms are decorating neighborhoods with a soft, orange and yellow glow. Read more

Fatsia and pollinators don't often find themselves in the same discussion but in the last few years my eyes have been opened to the point I can give a Holy Wow to this 'Shrub of the South.' Most of us never pay attention to the blooms of the fatsia which on their own are as intricate as a bo… Read more

Electric blue and neon purple in "The Garden Guy's" hydrangeas made 2019 an unforgettable year in the garden. These colors came courtesy of Let's Dance Rave hydrangeas from Proven Winners. We've all seen those photos in catalogs and brochures making us wonder if those flowers really will loo… Read more

Fall is the best time to plant trees and shrubs from the standpoint of acclimatization in the landscape. That being said, I would like to give a shout-out for an underused illicium or anise. Read more

Monsoon Mixer and Hawaiian Big Kahuna were two plants that brought us a load of tropical joy during a long growing season that started with monsoonal rains and finished with what is now being called a flash drought. Read more

Everblooming and bush habit, are not two adjectives or descriptors you would ever expect to give a sunflower, but that has all changed. It's called Suncredible Yellow and botanically speaking it is a Helianthus hybrid. Read more