Your guide to top plants

There are dozens of excellent trees for the average sized home garden, but forced to choose just one tree, I would pick this one - the Japanese snowbell tree (Styrax japonicus). It's the perfect tree for any home garden. My snowbell tree is at its peak right now in front of my house and is literally covered with beautiful, delicate,...

People don't care anymore when they buy a clematis if it dies at the end of summer. They just want to have good flower impact on their patio, balcony or deck for a few months. After, they don't care what happens to the vine. This according to Rob Wein, one of the owners of Clearview Horticultural, the biggest grower of clematis...

Some friends brought us a huge bouquet of gladioli the other day - four bunches containing red, purple, orange and peach ones. They were barely in flower when they arrived, but they have since started to open up and we have placed them in two tall vases and they actually look very good. In fact, the more the flowers open,...

My Reine des Violettes old-world rose has collapsed under the weight of abundant blooms and smothered the little wooden bench below. I never expected this rose to produce such an avalanche of flowers, particularly after the hard winter we had this year, but it has bounced back with renewed vigor. Reine des Violettes is a once-flowering, old-world Hybrid Perpetual with an...

What’s the quirkiest plant on the shelves this spring? It could well be the “electric daisy” (Acmella oleracea), possibly the hottest novelty plant of 2017 that also is known as the toothache plant. This also goes by the botanical name Spilanthes acmella. It has glossy green  leaves and golden, bud-like flowers with a dark red eye. In Brazil, where it is an...

Alchemilla mollis Alchemilla mollis (Lady’s mantle) All the great cottage gardens of England have this old-fashioned favorite. It is loved for the way it displays raindrops like diamonds on its rough, hairy leaves. It is also valued for the lime green color and frothy texture of its effervescent sprays of flowers, which first appear in June and last for several weeks....

  Will Barron Walter Pennel Serenata Ville de Lyon Sea Breeze Prince Philip Ernest Markham Pamiat Serdsta Candida Bees Jubilee Your guide to clematis Every garden should have a few clematis. I have at least five kinds in different parts of the garden. I used to have several more but over the years I have replaced them - pyracantha instead of clematis around an arch, for instance. People fall madly in love with...

Styrax japonicus (Japanese snowbell tree) Looking for a superb, moderate-growing, small tree for your garden, you can do no better than to pick the graceful snowbell tree. This exceptionally handsome deciduous tree is an excellent pick for a small- or medium-sized garden. It is relatively slow-growing, reaching only 25 to 30 feet (7.5 to 9 m) with a loosely rounded...

Buddleia davidii ‘Black Knight’ (butterfly bush) Walk into any garden and most of the plants you see come from other parts of the world. Buddleia, the butterfly bush, originates from the Sichuan and Hubei areas of China. It gets its name because it has the uncanny knack of attracting butterflies. ‘Black Knight’ is one of the most beautiful and reliable...

In the early 1990s, I suffered, as did most other young gardeners who were starting out on their first major gardening project, from a serious case of plant lust: I felt I just had to have all the great plants in the book. Of course, I ended up with a hodgepodge, a disjointed jumble of plants, some of which obviously...

Remember plants are living things. If you neglect them, don’t feed them, don’t care for them, force them to live in the dark when they need light or in the hot sun when they need shade, they will experience stress. They will either live out their life weak and failing, or get sick and die. First rule of good...

There’s a reason bride’s love to have peonies in their bouquets and at wedding celebrations. Next to roses, peonies are one of the most romantic flowers, unashamedly soft and delicate and extraordinarily pretty. Pink and white peonies with their dense explosion of petals are without doubt a sensational sight in a vase or bouquet. Now, the question is which kinds should you grow in...

First thing this morning, I found room for a bunch of new perennials in a sunny spot already home to some ornamental grasses and weigela and burgundy and lime green ninebark. I put in six Coreopsis Uptick, considered the “kings of summer” and have the added appeal of being hybrids of a native North America species. The names of the ones I planted...

Here’s a quick look at six of the best vines to plant in your garden this spring. These will get visitors to look up. Raising their head will give them a positive feeling and you'll also be giving them something beautiful to look up at. This list, of course, is just a start. There are many other vines worth...