The mallow family is best known for cotton, cocao, okra, hibiscus, and hollyhock, but includes other plants with showy flowers such as sidalcea, globe mallow, and lavatera, as well as…
This native of eastern and central United States is a small compact deciduous shrub with medium texture and rounded form. It produces yellow flowers about one inch across with five…
Roses are known to be susceptible to a variety of diseases and pests and compared to many other plants commonly grown in gardens they are. Of course, the kind of…
A native of woodlands in southeastern United States, bottlebrush buckeye is a wide, suckering deciduous shrub that needs plenty of room to grow. In summer, its palmately compound leaves are…
A book on soil microbiology may not grab you as a good read but you might be surprised. Teaming with Microbes makes soil and its inhabitants into a fascinating subject…
Common milkweed is native to most of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. It prefers full sun, fertile soil, and mesic conditions but tolerates much less and can…
Native of western Ireland, France, Northern Spain, and Portugal, this evergreen shrub can be upright and tidy or prostrate and unkempt. It grows up to two feet tall and wide,…
Asiatic garden beetle (AGB) is a native of Japan and China. In 1922 it was first seen in the United States at a location in New Jersey. Although not a…
Tolerant of pollution, salt, and wind, silver linden is a tall deciduous tree that can be a useful shade tree in cities as well as towns. The heart shaped leaves…
Any children’s book about gardening and plants attracts my eye but Peter Brown’s The Curious Garden had a special appeal. The story is simple but can be used to explore…
Karen