Featured Articles

Winter Gardens

Winter Gardens Between the outstanding fall colors of deciduous trees and the early spring blooms of Cherries, Magnolia and Forsythia there, sometimes, is a perceived notion that nature is on hold. Winter doldrums can get the best of us, leaving us longing for the arrival of...

23 January, 2009
Maritime Colours

  October of this year I had an opportunity to take something off my life to do list. Retail, seasonal businesses, sometimes do not allow you certain chances that others may take for granted. A life experience that I have wanted to do for a number...

25 December, 2008
Redneck Rhododendron

Redneck Rhododendron   When I first learned of this plant some years ago, immediately thoughts of Jeff Foxworthy’s blue collar humor were conjured in my mind. For those of you who don’t know Jeff Foxworthy, he is one of the most successful comedians today whose coined catchphrase,...

17 November, 2008
Portable Gardens

Portable Gardens        Late August of this year I attended the IGC (the Independent Garden Center Show) in Chicago. Located on Navy Pier, this is truly becoming the quintessential trade show for the independent garden center. Touted as the world’s largest show of its kind, it...

17 October, 2008
“Go For It”

“Go For It”     Who can forget the famous catchphrase “Go for it” muttered throughout the Rocky films? I believe it was the mobster Gazzo in Rocky 2 that first yelled it as Rocky was about to beat Apollo Creed. Clearly though it was Clubber Lang’s (Mr....

17 September, 2008
Scholar Tree

A Scholar and a Tree Across the street from our garden center, located on county road 512, stand four trees all the same. Their trunks are within inches of this well traveled road and their branches have been sheared by vehicular traffic for some thirty years....

29 August, 2008
Umbrella Pine

Umbrella Pine Sciadopitys verticillata or Japanese Umbrella pine has long been a curious creature that has excited first time gardeners as well as seasoned plants person. Ranking right up there with such inveterate conifers as Ginkgo and Metasequoia, Sciadopitys has its roots dating back to the...

15 July, 2008
‘Pacific Fire’

         Fifteen years ago I started an annual trek across the country in search of, arguably, some of the world’s finest plant materials. My first trip to the Pacific Northwest, Oregon specifically, was thrilling before I even hit the ground. As the plane was descending,...

15 June, 2008
Wheel of Fortune

Wheel of Fortune        Behind a privacy row of Carpinus betulus ‘Fastigiata’ (Columnar European Hornbeams), situated in front of a large curvaceous bed of Imperata cylindrica ‘Red Baron’ (Japanese Blood Grass) and flanked by two Acer palmatum ‘Sharp’s Pygmy’ (Sharp’s Pygmy dwarf Japanese maples) lays a...

17 May, 2008
Going Native

  Those who know me well know that my passion for unique plants often leans towards the coniferous end of the plant world. While I admit that conifers are exciting, offering bold textures, unique colors and interesting bark, my appreciation for deciduous and broadleaf plants is...

29 April, 2008