InsatiableGardener.com

All Time Favorite Bulbs are For Growing in Pots and Boxes

Image by Valter Jacinto | Portugal via Flickr Agapanthus or Blue Lily of the Nile Fleshy-rooted evergreen plant, with strap leaves, often grown in tubs and urns on terraces and steps during the summer, when the tall blue spikes unfold. Culture is easy, but plants require a well-lighted, frost proof room or greenhouse in winter. This is an old-time favorite, often seen in gardens of Europe. Calla Lily. Showy, hardy outdoors in warmer regions, but a tender pot plant in the North. Most familiar is the white one with large, shiny, heart-shaped leaves. Start bulbs indoors in February or March in ...

Ferns That Like Meadows

Image by cyanocorax via Flickr The hay-scented fern This fern Found (Dennstaedtia punctilobula, 2-3 ft.) grows in sunny openings in rocky woods where its light green lacy fronds grow in dense masses. It spreads madly, and even when transplanted produces new fronds from underground runners all season. The fronds taper gradually at the tip. When cut, crushed, or dried, the foliage gives off a wonderful sun-on-the-meadow scent. Interrupted-fern (Osmunda claytoniana, 4 ft.) Very much like the cinnamon fern, the identifying feature of Interrupted-fern (Osmunda claytoniana, 4 ft.) is its freedom from tuft at the base of the pinnae. On the ...

Robust Garden Ferns (That Can Handle Cold Weather)

Image via Wikipedia Christmas Ferns The Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides, 15-18 in.) with rich dark glossy leaves, is one of the sturdiest and most dependable. Last year's fronds are still green as this year's new ones emerge. You can easily recognize the Christmas fern for each pinna is shaped like a long Christmas stocking, foot and all (foot against the stem). Light brown scales also cling to the stalk. One plant for years remains one plant. It spreads by spores alone, not by underground runners or by division of clumps. The evergreen wood-fern, leather wood-fern or marginal shield fern This species of fern (Dryopteris ...

Creating A Primrose Path

Image by gwen via Flickr "We have a real 'primrose path,' with lots and lots of primroses! Although at first you may feel that any large tended planting is incompatible with my constant emphasis on carefree gardening, you'll soon know it is not. That's chiefly because primroses are so easy and obliging. At any rate, it all began one recent April-with spring fever in the air, warmth penetrating the soil, and three delightful primrose plants in a grocery store window. Large and lush and yellow they were as they caught the sunlight that golden morning. It was one of those days when ...

More Ferns For Your Garden

Image by janet.powell via FlickrThe Rattlesnake Fern Be not alarmed by the rattlesnake fern (Botrychium vir-ginianum, 5 in.-2 ft.) which has no special affinity for its namesake. This charming yet stately little plant is common and happy in rich shady woods. Here the plumelike sporophyll springs stiffly up amidst a cluster of sterile fronds. This fern fruits when small as well as large. The royal fern This tall dramatic fern (Osmunda regalis, 4-6 ft.) boasts great high fronds. The root of it, as with some of the other osmundas, is the source of the familiar orchid potting material. It is most ...

Let Your Perennials Grow Wild

There are two ways to have colorful plantings and still hold the line on upkeep. In addition to bringing flowers from woods and meadows to your garden, you can let some of your garden flowers run wild. Many perennials that grow in dignity in a well-ordered, well-weeded border will, if permitted, contribute the same color, fragrance, and beauty to another area. Suppose you let them run loose in your own tiny or large meadow or woodsy area. Wherever you set them to naturalize, bee balm, spiderwort and dianthus become as independent as the native flower, needing no watering, ...

Early Risers: Flowers of Early Spring

Image by JustABigGeek via Flickr One of the first flowers to emerge in our snow garden at the end of the winter are snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis). Pure white and delicate they are, with wax like single and double flowers. Each cup-shaped blossom has six petals. The outer three are white, and the inner three striped green. Deep in the cup is a small cluster of yellow stamens. The blossoms hang down, so be sure to tip one up so you can observe the charming formation within. If you have a magnifying glass handy, take a really good look. The inner ...

Everlasting Ferns

Image via Wikipedia The joys and adventures of growing ferns are countless. Being perennial they return year after year. Many ferns thrive in dense shade where few other plants will live. Some are evergreen. Most are easy to grow, requiring literally no care and upkeep. Ferns multiply rapidly, remain lovely all summer, seldom are seriously bothered by insects or diseases. The appeal of a fern lies in the exquisite beauty of its form, texture, and its various shades of subtle foliage color. Incidentally where you have ferns you will also have birds: the furry down that covers the ...

Growing Primroses In An Informal Setting

In planting primroses I've discovered that they look best when set in a casual unplanned manner. Group, say, seven in one area, staggering them nonchalantly along the way. Establish three more just there as the path turns. Then on the opposite side, a little further on, five more, and beyond-thirteen. Perhaps there by that old stump, plant one, in the sheltering arms of its buttressed roots. Maintenance of the Primrose Path is practically nil-chiefly keeping the new plantings free from weeds. There is no need in a wooded area to provide winter cover, for nature does it ...