Gardening With Tony

UNITED STATES—From a human perspective, flowers should not be stinky. They should be pretty and colorful, and perhaps delightfully fragrant. Many flowers in landscapes and home gardens actually are. After all, they are grown for their appealing bloom. Many plants that provide only foliage produce wind pollinated flowers. They are not particularly pretty, colorful or delightfully fragrant, but not...

UNITED STATES—Bedding plants that go into the garden in spring are generally warm season or summer annuals. They should perform through summer until the weather gets too cool for them the following autumn. Bedding plants that go into the garden in autumn are generally cool season or winter annuals. They should perform through winter until the weather gets too...

UNITED STATES—For several years in the late 1960 and early 1970s, European white birch were trendy. Most lived in ubiquitous groups of three. Where three did not fit, a single multi trunk tree, typically with three trunks, was a popular option. Each multi trunk tree provided as many trunks as a few single trunk trees. For these particular white...

UNITED STATES—Vegetation make people feel closer to nature. It is, after all, what most of us expect to see out in the wild. Most vegetation that is observed in forests and undeveloped areas really is natural. Much of the associated insects and wildlife are natural as well. Such flora and fauna know how to survive within their respective ecosystems....

UNITED STATES—Many of us who are still sowing spring seed know the doubt. Seed for warm season vegetables and bedding plants is presently scarce. Consequently, we doubt that all the varieties that we want are still available. Many unusual varieties that we purchase by mail order or online are sold out. Some more popular and reliably obtainable varieties in...

UNITED STATES—The majority of common pollinators are not impressed with blue. Otherwise, more flowers would be blue. After all, floral color appeals to pollinators. Each type of pollinator prefers specific colors. Plants customize their floral color to their preferred pollinators. If more flowers could attract more pollinators with true blue, they would do so. Instead, they rely on colors...

UNITED STATES—Germinating seedlings know which way is up. Perhaps they just know which way is down. They cannot see, hear, taste, smell or feel anything like we can. Nonetheless, they know which direction to extend their first root and stem. One thing that they can perceive is gravity. Gravitropism, which was formerly known as geotropism, is how they respond...

UNITED STATES—A plant 'variety' is a group within a species that exhibits distinguishing characteristics. A 'cultivar' is simply a cultivated variety. The first five letters of 'cultivated' merged with the first three letters of 'variety' to form the word 'cultivar.' A variety should be self-perpetuating to some degree, and may be naturally occurring. A cultivar perpetuates by unnatural means,...

UNITED STATES—Every palm tree in local landscapes is exotic. Simply put, all palms are originally from somewhere else. The desert fan palm, the only palm that is native to California, came from isolated colonies in desert regions many miles away. In fact, most plants in common landscapes are exotic. Landscapes composed of Californian plants likely include some plants from...

UNITED STATES—The need to deadhead so early in spring is one of the few minor consequences of spring bulbs. Long before it becomes necessary to deadhead zinnia, canna and rose, the first flowers to bloom as winter ends are already finished. Many are those of spring bulbs. Their lingering deteriorating bloom can be slightly unappealing. What is more of...