July/August 2022

Horticulture

Horticulture Magazine

Horticulture1 min read
Horticulture
Editor Meghan Shinn Contributing Editor Jennifer Howell Scott Beuerlein | Thomas Christopher | Greg Coppa Jeff Cox | Niki Jabbour | Mary Purpura Associate Art Director Carrie Topp Executive Editor Kristin Beane Sullivan Executive Art Director Eri
Horticulture2 min read
Editor’s Note
As noted on the cover, this issue of Horticulture is a celebration of “the garden in bloom,” with most features and columns focused on flowering plants. When I read these pages one last time before they went to the printer, it struck me that they als
Horticulture4 min read
Blooming Where Planted
WHEN I STARTED GARDENING as a young man, one of the first perennials that caught my eye was the bleeding heart (then Dicentra spectabilis, now Lamprocapnos spectabilis), which hung out its charming floral valentines in mid-April in my eastern Pennsyl
Horticulture4 min read
Storied Seeds
I RECENTLY ATTENDED a cooking class taught by two Ohlone men. The Ohlone are Native American people from coastal northern California. We learned a lot about native greens, local protein sources and edible seeds and berries, and how to prepare them in
Horticulture3 min read
Summer: A Time To Sow
AS SPRING-PLANTED CROPS are harvested in early to midsummer, you’ll find you’ve got some empty spaces in your garden. This is the perfect time to plant succession crops for a late summer or autumn harvest. You can even succession plant in containers
Horticulture1 min read
Summer Checklist
Fertilize! Heathy soil grows healthy plants. I feed my garden soil regularly with organic amendments like compost and aged manure. I also supplement long-term vegetables like tomatoes and peppers in summer with a liquid organic fertilizer, like fish
Horticulture3 min read
Planting For A Comeback
WILDFIRES ARE becoming more ferocious, damaging and expansive in the West. California just weathered its worst two years ever in terms of total acres burned. And conditions are no better this year, with the Golden State experiencing its driest winter
Horticulture3 min read
Check It Out!
SEED LIBRARIES WERE a revolutionary concept when they first began to appear almost a generation ago. The earliest example I can find is BASIL, the Bay Area Seed Interchange Library founded at the Berkeley (California) Ecology Center back in 2000. The
Horticulture14 min readArchitecture
Daniel J. Hinkley
DANIEL J. HINKLEY rose to fame in the plant world through his plant-collecting expeditions, which brought numerous beguiling introductions to the trade, and through Heronswood, the Seattle-area destination and mail-order nursery that he developed thr
Horticulture5 min read
The Beauty Of Herbs
The older I get, the more I purchase plants with multiple uses. If the plant is edible and it adds beauty to the landscape, I put it in my garden. Often such a plant is a culinary herb that doubles as a hardy perennial or shrub in my USDA Zone 7 Virg
Horticulture5 min read
Navigating Amid Nativars
Several years ago, I was consulting with a new client. We made our way around to a small bed with mismatched plants and began trying to decide what could stay and what should go. “How are you enjoying this coneflower?” I asked, noticing it was a doub
Horticulture1 min read
Talking About STRUCTURE
These words describe the overall form of an inflorescence, which refers to the development and arrangement of flowers on an axis, or stem. Other useful terms that help decode the following definitions include pedicel, a plant stalk that supports a fr
Horticulture1 min readArchitecture
Shifting Shapes
Structure, shape and habit—we tend to think about these concepts in relation to the overall body of a plant. As we seek a perennial or shrub to fill a spot in the garden, we look at its silhouette and how it will function amid the forms already prese
Horticulture1 min read
Talking About HABIT
These words are used to describe the stance that a flower takes. In addition to using diverse shapes, combining flowers with varied habit can add much character to the garden. Incorporating horizontal, nodding and pendant flowers among erect stems ke
Horticulture1 min read
Talking About SHAPE
We use the words on the opposite page to describe the shape of an individual flower. It helps to first know that limb refers to the expanded portion of an organ or structure, especially the upper spreading portion of a corolla whose lower part consis
Horticulture1 min readArchitecture
Off Beat Bulbs
Planting anything is an act of hope, but planting bulbs is a promise that winter ends. Tucking a few bulbs in the ground (and maybe a few in pots for indoor forcing, because I’m impatient) is such a satisfying fall task. The garden goes to sleep, but
Horticulture3 min readArchitecture
HARDY BULBS for SUMMER & FALL
Please plant more Allium—all the allium. The bulbous types are a diverse, drought-tolerant, deer- and rodent-impervious, easy-growing group offering a wide zonal range and a size, shape and bloom time for every taste. For the most part, they tend to
Horticulture2 min readArchitecture
WINTER DELIGHTS & WONDROUS DAFFS
If eager beavers delight you, then a few snowdrops (Galanthus) will surely make you smile. Likely to bloom in snow alongside the most precocious of hellebores, these petite delights warn you to finish up any dormant pruning and that your weeding days
Horticulture2 min readArchitecture
Blue Ribbon Winners
(Acacia boormanii), an evergreen shrub from Australia, shines in both its narrow, silvery foliage and its frothy golden flowers that appear in early spring. It grows to 15 feet tall, with a willowy habit. Full sun; USDA Zones 8–11. (Pyracomeles ‘NCX
Horticulture4 min read
Drought-ready Plants
MEGHAN SHINN is Horticulture’s editor. Water conservation is top of mind for many gardeners, but perhaps none so more than those in California, where prolonged droughts have prompted tight regulations on landscape irrigation. The state provides list
Horticulture1 min readArchitecture
Happy Mediums
(Rhus ovata) is a Southern California-native sumac with white spring flowers that pop against its broad, leathery leaves, which are evergreen. The red berries that follow the bloom are popular with birds. It grows 8 to 12 feet tall, with an upright s
Horticulture8 min read
Cactus Country!
I’VE ALWAYS HAD an interest in the flora of my native New England. There was so much to learn about native and introduced plants that could be used for food, fuel, medicine, building materials, ornamentation and more. When I travel to places with mar
Horticulture3 min readArchitecture
Plants We Love
SHADE GARDENS CAN SHINE from spring to fall, often thanks to early-flowering ephemerals and a mix of foliage textures that provide summer interest. However, some perennials that relish low light conditions also provide July or August bloom. These pla
Horticulture2 min read
Reap What You Sow
WHEN VISITORS ASK if my wife and I work in the garden together, I reply with my now worn-out joke: “I make the garden; Michele enjoys it.” Nowadays, she does help out more, particularly by pruning things behind my back and not always using ISA-recomm

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