Amaryllis in a decorative container are one of the most popular live holiday decorations. These plants are known for their bold colors, easy care, and tendency to thrive indoors. Actually, the plants that we purchase for the holidays are from the genus Hippeastrum, and are not actually Amaryllis. They are in the same family, but there is only one species of actual Amaryllis, Amaryllis Belladonna, a native of South Africa.
If you are planning on getting any Amaryllis for Holiday decorating, you should order them now. They take about 6 weeks to bloom. If you wait too much longer, it will be too late to have your Amaryllis holiday display bloom through the holiday season. After they bloom they should continue flowering for another seven to ten weeks.
Given the proper care and timing, you should have a beautiful display through the holiday season. Nothing creates that cozy feel in your home like live decorations–the huge star-shaped amaryllis flowers will illuminate your holiday decor.
Read More
Gift certificates allow you to give the perfect gift–because they choose it themselves, your friends and family get exactly what they want. Gift certificates are a very personal gift because they show that you are aware of the person’s interests. It is the perfect gift for those people who seem to have everything. If you have a friend who is a gardener, loves plants, or just seems to spend a lot of time on their yard, a Wayside Gardens Gift Card may be the perfect gift.
Wayside has a huge selection of rare, high-quality trees, shrubs, roses, perennials, and flower bulbs that any gardener would love to browse. A gift certificate would give your beloved gardener the opportunity to browse our plants, and choose the perfect new addition to their garden.
Read More
There would be no garden without perennial summer and spring bulbs. They provide most of the colors, textures, and fragrances which give gardens most of their allure. From spring to fall, these are your staples–just fill in along the way with a few annuals, tropicals, and short bloomers.
Your flower bulbs will also require very little of your attention, freeing you up to work on other garden projects. Daffodils, tulips, amaryllis, and other bulbs need no regular maintenance as long as they have moisture and well-drained soil. They never need to be divided or replanted – just let them clump and spread as they will for a more natural and playful looking garden.
Read More
It’s almost time to plant those bulbs! You can plant your summer bulbs this fall and they will have plenty of time to establish, giving you a much stronger display and longer bloom time than if you planted them next spring. So, go ahead and order your lilies and iris now to have a great flower garden next summer.
Planting bulbs is one of the least expensive ways to fill your garden with a huge variety of colorful flowers in all shapes and sizes. Bulbs can brighten your garden from early spring until it’s time to plant for the next year. Most bulbs are planted in the fall to bloom the next spring. And most plants grown from bulbs are perennials that come back year after year. If you choose strong varieties and care for them properly, the flower bulbs you plant this fall may become the most important feature of your flower garden.
Read More
Bulbs should be firm and never mushy or rotten—small amounts of surface mold should be okay. If only a small part of the bulb seems to be mushy, try slicing off that part with a knife and stick it in the ground anyway. It’s better to give it a fighting chance than to just assume it’s dead and throw it away. Even chancy plants can live a healthy life if you’re diligent.
Bulbs that have already sprouted will be vulnerable during the winter, so make sure your bulbs have as little new growth as possible. Larger flower bulbs, like tulips, produce bigger plants and tend to come up later in the season than plants from smaller bulbs. Plants with smaller bulbs, like crocus, come up much earlier.
Read More
While probing for ideas that might add a little intrigue to the pitifully uninspiring flora of my backyard, I was told by a friend to check out bog gardens. My first thought was of a marsh or swamp, something more appropriate for a wildlife preserve or ghost story than my simple little yard. However, trusting my source, I dove, head-first into that murky swamp of information, the all-knowing internet.
Apparently, if you have a low spot in your yard that never completely dries and you plant some elephant ears there, you have not created a bog garden as some of the sources I found would lead you to believe. It is a clever way to turn a problem into an asset, but not a bog garden. A bog is actually a type of wetland formed from a deposit of dead plant matter, most commonly some type of moss or lichen. Its moisture comes almost completely from precipitation and tends to be slightly acidic. An exotic environment for exotic plants- It’s exactly what I was looking for.
I also found that recreating this environment on the small scale is not very difficult; some people even create indoor bog gardens in terrariums, which would be a perfect way to display those bog-loving carnivorous plants and make an excellent conversation piece. I just needed a place that will hold moisture and that I could fill with peat. I had the perfect place, that gross little pond insert that I installed two seasons ago, or as I like to call it, my “mosquito nursery”. I just cleaned that out and poked a few holes in the bottom for drainage- lined the bottom with coarse sand and filled it with moistened peat. The moss maintains the acidity and I use a soaker hose to keep my bog damp. I planted an Iris, this very interesting Juncus Effusus Unicorn, and two Pine Hibiscuses. Situated in the center of my garden, accented with two lawn gnomes and a pink flamingo, my bog has definitely added spice to my back yard.
Read More
