Shrubs

 

Looking for some great foliage interest in your shade or filtered sun that isn't hostas or painted ferns?  How about Lamium 'Purple Dragon?'  It's a real survivor, thriving across six zones (3-8), and it produces big, beautiful clusters of purple flowers for many weeks.  The eye-catching silvery-white leaves shade quickly to dark green around the interesting toothed edges.  This groundcover perennial is drought-resistant and evergreen, too, so you'll have this beautiful foliage year-round.

For a different look, try Kolkwitzia amabilis 'Dream Catcher'.  This Beauty Bush does well in filtered sun or part shade in zones 4-9 and is deer-resistant, so it's a great choice for many different gardens.  It's rich coppery color seasons to bright yellow in Spring and Summer, and by fall it turns a rich golden-orange with interesting dark tips.  It's amazing as a specimen, but even better in mass plantings for a really eye-drawing effect unlike any other.

This week's Plant of the Week is a real crowd pleaser and a plant that
I have personal experience with — it's been growing beautifully next
to my patio for almost three years. The foliage is what seals the deal
on Weigela My Monet™. The dense bright tuft of pretty pink,
green, and white leaves jiggles and dances in a light breeze. My Monet™
is a very pretty and graceful shrub that makes a perfect stand-alone
specimen or complement to plants with darker foliage. The cute purple-pink
blossoms make for a fun showy spring, and they attract hummingbirds
and butterflies. 
 
My Monet^TM is very reliable and perfect for formal landscaping
plans. It is a tough shrub — its strong, short branches stand up well
to rough and windy weather that might damage a lesser shrubbery. Short
and dense, this Weigela is never more than 18 inches tall and is perfect
for container and patio gardens. 
 

Cities are packed with millions of people, and civil engineers have long-solved the problem of housing for such a dense population — build up, not out. Save ground space by creating taller structures, with higher capacities. If you are one of these teeming millions and you happen to have some interest in gardening, you know how difficult it can be to garden in the cramped conditions that urban life demands.

Take a hint from the engineers who designed your living space — build up, not out, and save ground space. On a small patio, balcony, or rooftop you can increase your harvest exponentially by using containers, trellises, arbors, and innovative growing techniques to maximize the space you have.

There are plenty of new plant varieties that lend themselves to small areas: climbing plants and dwarf varieties of popular fruit trees and flowering shrubs. I found a few people online who are benefiting from the new vertical gardening trend that is becoming a necessary adaptation for urban gardeners.

It seems strange to look outside in the green heat of summer and picture the barren coming winter.  However, your garden will soon be dieing back in the face of coming winter yet again (it really does sneak up on me every year).  However, your winter garden doesn’t have to be devoid of color and life.  There are a variety of plants that are just as, sometimes even more, beautiful in the winter.  Helleborus is one of my favorites of these, blooming in late winter to very early spring.

I’m especially excited about our new collection of Winter Jewels Helleborus. These have the most vivid, intense bloom colors I’ve ever seen on Helleborus, and they look absolutely amazing.  These American-bred Helleborus are vigorous and heavily budded, and the flowers stick around for as long as three months.  They really add something fantastic to the winter palette without losing any of the easy gardening of other Helleborus.