This week: Keep Quaker Ladies in Your Lawn
Hello! In the past, I’ve mentioned a few favorite native lawn “weeds” that are worth preserving like wild violets and spring beauties. Let’s add another...
This week: Trillium for Woodland Gardens
Hello! This weekend I visited Raccoon Creek State Park and native Trillium was putting on a show. These spring ephemerals are easy to identify: each flower...
This week: Early spring bloomers + big box native plants
Hello! First, an announcement: This summer I am keeping a list of native plants that I find at my local Lowes and Home Depot big box stores. The first...
This week: Spring Beauty
Hello! This week I happened across a field full of Spring Beauty—the ephemeral spring wildflower, not a general description of the landscape. Virginia Spring...
This week: How to start native plant seeds indoors
Last week we sourced native seeds to plant in spring. This week, we'll begin with cold stratification and starting seeds indoors. How to Cold Stratify Seeds...
This week: Native seeds for a spring start
Hello! Last week we dug into bare root plants. This week, we’ll talk sourcing native flower seeds in the spring. If you’re reading this in the northeast,...
This week: Accessible, affordable bare-root native perennials
Hello! Spring is the perfect time to capitalize on affordable, easily accessible native perennials. How? Local garden centers and big box stores often stock...
This week: Hemp dogbane—weed or wildflower?
Hello! This weekend I explored Churchill Valley Greenway, a former golf course located outside of Pittsburgh. It was abandoned over a decade ago and was...
This week: Signs of spring
Hello! At ground level, daffodils, snowdrops, and crocus are blooming here in Pittsburgh. But if you look up, you’ll notice thousands of native flowers...
This week: Eastern Hemlock, a native evergreen in trouble
Hello, I hope you spotted all the hairy bittercress in your garden beds and yanked them out last week! This week, we return to native evergreen options....
This week: A ballistic weed emerges
Hello! This week I spotted one of the earliest emerging spring weeds: hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta). Unlike common violets and certain volunteer...
This week: Ubiquitous Arborvitae
Hello! Walk through any neighborhood and you’re bound to see Arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis). This ubiquitous evergreen is native to North America,...
This week: Spruce it up
Hello! Did you know that in the eastern U.S., most of the large spruce trees you see in residential landscapes are probably not native to the area? I’m going...
This week: Native White Pines
Hello! Most of the year, evergreens play a supporting role to showy blooms and fall colors. In the winter, though, evergreens stand out. One of my favorites...
This week: Woolly Bear Caterpillars
Hello! This week I encountered a very famous caterpillar—the Woolly Bear. This caterpillar has at least two festivals celebrating it, and the size of its...
This week: Another method to grow natives from seed
Hello! Previously in this space, we talked about starting native plants from seed as one affordable option for getting a lot of plants for not a lot of...
This week: Getting rid of grass, part 2
Hello! Last week, we covered how to get rid of smaller areas of grass—techniques one might use to enlarge a flowerbed or start a small garden. But what if...
This week: Getting rid of grass, part 1
Hello! Are you planning to expand or create a new garden bed for native flowers this spring? If so, you will likely need to get rid of some grass. There are...
This week: Basal foliage provides winter greenery
Hello! Imagine that it’s the first week of January and you notice bright green foliage popping out of the ground. Maybe it’s been warmer than usual and...
This week: Winter sowing natives
Hello! This week is the perfect time to get outside and plant some native flowers. Starting from seed can be a more affordable way to procure native plants,...
This week: Garden sounds
Hello! When you imagine garden sounds, what do you hear? Birdsong and bees buzzing for sure, but incorporating other sounds can also enhance your time...
This week: The difference between moths and butterflies
Hello! This week I was listening to the latest podcast from The Field Guides and they cleared up a niggling question I’ve had: what’s the difference between...
This week: Plant flops
Hello! Lots of plants are tall. This is especially true of native perennials. Whether it’s 3 feet or 8 feet, plants that achieve great heights are prone to...
This week: Let violets grow wild
Hello! It’s never too early to look forward to the first flowers of spring, and one of the most common native bloomers is the violet (Viola spp.). While it...
This week: Mushrooms in the lawn
Hello! A reader recently asked why mushrooms were growing in her lawn and what she should do about them. I always have mushrooms magically appearing in my...
This week: Baptisia and Purple Dome Aster, a perfect pairing
Hello! Looking for a fantastic native plant combination that’s suitable for garden borders small and large? Look no further than Baptisia australis and New...
This week: Winterberry holly
This week: Winterberry holly Hello! Here in western Pennsylvania the leaves are mostly off the trees, which makes it the perfect time to notice Winterberry...
This week: Smooth Sumac
This week: Smooth Sumac Hello! Let’s talk about Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra), a ubiquitous native tree that turns a spectacular flaming red in the fall. Smooth...
This week: Bluestem grasses
Hello! Recently I visited Davidson Mesa in Louisville, Colorado, a public open space with trails winding through a native grassland prairie. The mesa’s...
This week: Guarding trees against antler rub
Hello, 'Tis the season for antler rub damage on trees, and sadly, my Sweetbay Magnolia has fallen victim. My loose understanding of why this happens is that...
This week: Water for birds
Hello, So you’ve attracted birds and butterflies to your garden with a fabulous array of native flowers and pollinator plants. What more can you do to make...
This week: Calico aster, native wildflower
Hello! In this week’s edition of “flower or weed?” we have Calico Aster (Symphyotrichum lateriflorum). I’ll admit that I weed this one out of my garden but...
This week: Perennial asters for fall blooms
Hello! What flower reliably blooms at the end of September and well into the fall? Native asters! The one that is currently blooming in my garden is...
This week: Choosing goldenrod for the garden
Hello! This week goldenrod came into full bloom in my garden. However, this particular goldenrod was unintentional—it’s a volunteer plant that popped up on...
This week: Say hello to Helenium!
Hello! Fall is quickly approaching here in western Pennsylvania. Nights are cooler and summer blooms are fading. Yet some flowers are still going strong!...
This week: All about native Baldcypress
Hello! I’d like to introduce you to one of my favorite native trees, Taxodium distichum, the Common Baldcypress. This tree grows up and down the eastern...
This week: Blue Mistflower blooms
Hello, Do you have an out-of-the way soggy spot that only gets as little as a handful of hours of sun a day? There’s a plant for it: Conoclinium coelestinum,...
This week: Wild grape, a native edible
Hello! This week I’m kicking off an occasional series all about weeds. The common axiom—a weed is simply a plant in the wrong place—is often true! Perhaps we...
This week: Bee balm, beloved by bees and hummingbirds
Hello, Monarda, sometimes called Bee Balm or Bergamot, is a common native perennial that is a standout mid-summer pollinator plant. An added benefit? The red...
This week: Why bees pollinate
Hello, My Joe Pye Weed is blooming which means it is buzzing with pollinators. I’m not skilled at identifying insects, but I appear to have a lot of...
This week: Summer Azure butterfly pollinates
Hello! Today I was able to spot (and poorly photograph) the Summer Azure butterfly, scientific name Celastrina neglecta. Though it has a wingspan of just an...
This week: ‘Cheyenne Spirit’ is an unexpected coneflower cultivar
Hello! A few years ago I picked up a couple Echinacea ‘Cheyenne Spirit’ plants at a big box store due to my pesky habit of buying pretty things. This...
This week: Culver’s Root blooms
Hello! This week I noticed that Culver’s Root (Veronicastrum virginicum) is starting to bloom. Culver’s Root is an eastern North American native. Like many...
This week: Garden gnomes
Hello, Garden art takes many forms. As I was flipping through The Garden: Elements and Styles by Toby Musgrave, I spotted an article about the humble garden...
This week: Reverting to type
Hello! I was at one of my favorite ice cream haunts the other day and noticed a landscape curiosity. A dwarf blue spruce had what looked like a regular blue...
This week: Early Sunflower blooms
Hello! My garden is around a week away from being filled with coneflowers, butterfly weed, and lots of other great native flowers. One favorite that began...
This week: Tips for living fences
Hello! This week I helped my parents add more privacy to their back yard by planting a native hedge. Unlike meticulously trimmed boxwood or privet (invasive...
This week: Evening sundrops
Hello, A few years ago I was browsing the native section at a local nursery and spotted some sundrops. Generally, Oenothera is a low-growing plant with a lot...
This week: Meet Amsonia, my favorite plant
Hello! Sometimes I feel like a broken record because I can’t stop recommending a certain native plant to Blooms to Bees clients—Amsonia. Let me tell you why...
This week: Red Buckeye Blooms
Hello! I was at Pittsburgh Botanic Garden this past week and noticed that they had several red buckeyes (Aesculus pavia) on the grounds. They were...