Indholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2025 i Horticulture

We once ran a bulb article called “Buried Treasures.” This metaphor has only become more real to me in recent months. I planted 155 bulbs last October—and left myself something like a pirate’s map to remember their locations. I meant to be more organized. I stuck to a list when bulb shopping: dwarf daffodils, heirloom tulips, just two varieties of snowdrops, which I haven’t grown before. I was careful about bloom time, color and height, keeping in mind the established bulbs and early perennials in my front garden beds, which these new purchases would join. But I did not have a plan for exactly where each type of bulb (13 cultivars total, in quantities of 5 to 25) would go. When I set out to plant them one Sunday, I…

SPRING BRINGS so many flowers, but one stands out as a true icon of the season: the tulip. Its unmistakable silhouette figures in artwork from the Ottoman Empire, the Dutch Golden Era and the Impressionists. Tulips have served as a common motif in American folk art and architecture and they carry cultural significance across Asia. For gardeners, the 15 different groups of tulips offer countless colors, patterns, textures, heights and flowering times. Shopping for these bulbs—best planted in very late fall to avoid any top-growth-triggering warmth—is just as fun as seeing their long-anticipated bloom. While species and cultivars are quite diverse in their details, tulips hold some features in common. The tulip flower has what appears to be six petals; however, only three of these, the inner three, are true…

It would be nice to have a bumper sticker that reads I Brake for Penstemons. Because if there are penstemons growing beside a trail or in a garden, I have to stop. It doesn’t matter if we’re on a tight schedule for a long hike, or if the best angle for a photo takes a bit of precarious maneuvering along a drop-off. Their eye-catching forms are that hard to resist. “I think penstemons are one of the best native plants we have in North America,” says Dr. Stephen Love, PhD., professor emeritus with the University of Idaho, bulletin editor for the American Penstemon Society and co-author of The Heart of Penstemon Country: A Natural History of Penstemons in the Utah Region. “They’re generally a Western species, and most of those…

IN THE LAST ISSUE, we identified keystone plants of Ecoregion 5, the Northern Forests, which mingles with the upper part of the Eastern Temperate Forest, or Ecoregion 8. In the North, Ecoregion 8 runs from the Middle Atlantic states and southern New England west through the Ohio Valley to Wisconsin—roughly from the 40th to the 45th parallels. But that’s only half of the Eastern Temperate Forest region. The other half exists south of the 40th parallel, from Delaware west to Missouri, from Florida west to Louisiana, and all the land in between. In other words: the South, as distinct culturally as it is ecologically. That’s our focus in this issue. This region’s keystone plants include the trees, shrubs and flowering perennials that attract the most butterflies and moths, whose larvae…

BOBBY WARD IS ONE of the most respected names in the world of horticulture. A retired environmental scientist with a PhD in botany from North Carolina State University and a past president of the North American Rock Garden Society, he has authored four must-read books relating to our shared fascination with plants. SCOTT BEUERLEIN: There are so many interesting things we will talk about, but first can you tell me a little about your background? What led to your love of plants and your career? BOBBY WARD: I grew up on a 120-acre farm in the Coastal Plain of eastern North Carolina. The soil was sandy (one of the ancient beaches back in geological times) and we grew cotton, peanuts, corn, wheat and soybeans. My mother had a flower garden,…

How far north of its native habitat a plant will survive is one of the most fascinating questions for searchers of new plant material.” So wrote Elizabeth Lawrence, famed North Carolina gardener and the author of A Southern Garden (1942), among other books. We still wrestle with this question today. Many of my colleagues farther north are looking “down yonder” to see what species can be added to their planting repertoire—because the South is home to wonderful native plants that deserve wider use. I know of recent botanical expeditions through east Texas, the Ozarks, the Gulf Coast, the panhandle of Florida and more. And with a warming world that sees more erratic weather, we need tough, dependable selections to use in our gardens and landscapes. Fortunately, some southern plants are…

aesculus parvi ora ES-cue-lus: Latin name for a kind of oak par-vih-FLOR-ah: From Latin parvum, small, and ora, ower acer saccharum ay-SIR: Latin for maple sah-CAR-um: Latin for sugar alpinia al-PIN-ee-ah: For Italian botanist Prospero Alpino aquilegia canadensis ah-quill-EE-gee-ah: From Latin for eagle (referencing ower’s talon-like spurs) can-ah-DEN-siss: Of Canada anemone blanda ah-NEM-uh-nee: From Greek anemos, wind BLAN-duh: Latin word for pleasant aralia cordata ah-RAH-lee-ah: From French-Canadian plant name aralie core-DAH-tah: From Latin cor, heart (for leaves) arisaema ringens ah-ris-SAY-mah: From Greek aris, arum, and aima, red RING-ens: From Latin ringi, to open the mouth asclepias incarnata as-KLEE-pee-as: For Asklepios, Greek god of medicine in-car-NAH-tah: Latin for esh-colored berberis thunbergii BUR-bur-iss: Latinized form of Arabian fruit name thun-BUR-gee-eye: For Swedish botanist Carl Peter Thunberg, identier of species in Japan, 1784…

While others make resolutions at the beginning of the calendar year, spring is the time for gardeners to make a fresh new start. Many of us make it our goal to add more pollinator-friendly, spring-blooming bulbs to our gardens, especially when we see their colorful blooms in neighboring landscapes, contrasted with bare spots in our own. Spring bulbs can bloom as early as February all the way through mid-June, depending on your zone. They are the most welcome botanical signs of the season for us and early foraging bees. Many flowering bulbs, such as crocus and grape hyacinth, provide nectar resources in early spring. So, we add “plan for more spring-blooming bulbs” to the gardening to-do list. But as the season progresses, we face competing priorities in the garden and,…

I have often said that as a regional gardening community, South Florida is the Jan Brady of the USA—that is, a neglected middle child who rarely gets any attention. At a glance, this reputation is perhaps understandable. South Florida has a brutal climate that vacillates between tropical savannah and tropical rainforest, and it is also completely devoid of winter chill (and by proxy, the dormancy that accompanies it). And probably none of this comes to mind when you think of fine gardening in America. Yet fine gardening does exist down here; come visit our Fairchild, Vizcaya or Edison Ford botanical gardens for proof. And now, owing to climate change and the overall warming of our planet, South Florida is gaining more and more horticultural relevance for the rest of America.…