People who have not experienced the aftermath of a severe hurricane may be surprised at how long it takes to clean up an area. Today, 70 days after Ida’s landfall, tree debris still lines the streets of my neighborhood in Mandeville LA. Mandeville is around 40 miles from the path of Ida’s eye, but still …
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Common garden flowers have added cheer to our summer landscape. This post is simply to share pictures of some of my favorites. Petunias Day Lilies Geraniums
The summer of 2021 has been exceptionally dry in Utah. Despite this several hardy wildflowers are flowering along hiking trails at high elevations east of Salt Lake City. Think of the water that could be saved by replacement of grass lawns with attractive plants like these.
Roses can be successfully grown in cold climates, like our area in Northern Minnesota which is in USDA hardiness zone 3 (very cold winters). Helpful web pages from the Minnesota Rose Society and Gardening Know How provide terrific information on proper selection and care of roses that can survive even brutal winters. Alternatively, there are …
Rose plants in your landscape reward a little effort with terrific value. Over the past month in my yard in SE Louisiana several roses have exploded with blooms. Some of these roses also bloomed in the winter months, but then it was just one flower at a time and the blooms developed over several weeks. …
This is a gorgeous time of year in SE Louisiana, and the azaleas are blooming vigorously. By my memory, this azalea display in 2021 is much better than last year’s. To bloom their best, azaleas typically need 4-8 weeks of temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit in the preceding winter. So, I wondered whether a mild …
Grandiflora roses are crosses between Hybrid Tea and Floribunda roses. They combine desirable characteristics of the two lines. Their well-shaped blooms on long stems are inherited from the Hybrid Teas, while their hardiness and repeat blooming come from the Floribunda side. The Queen Elizabeth rose was the first Grandiflora rose. It was introduced in 1954 …
This slideshow has ten images that follow a bud on an English Rose, “Teasing Georgia”, as it developed over the month of January.
During walks with the dogs through our Louisiana neighborhood in January we noticed irregular balls of green leaves in tall trees that were otherwise barren. We eventually found a clump of this near enough to the ground to take a reasonable picture, and the ‘Picture This’ app identified it as oak mistletoe. Of course we …
The American Sweetgum tree (Liquidambar styraciflua) is the second most common tree in Louisiana forests (the most common is the Loblolly Pine). Sweetgums are also plentiful in our local suburban landscape despite a significant drawback, the spiny seed-carrying balls that fall from their branches by the hundreds this time of year. The sweetgum is a …
North MN Outdoors