Wood shavings and chips save you a lot of work, water, and plants – and they don’t make the soil sour, as we have been told for years. They keep down weeds, retain soil moisture, and because of their size absorb very little rain or artificial watering. They prevent the spattering of mud on flowers, […]

Picking fruit at the proper stage of maturity is of vital consideration in orchard operations and the home garden as well. Harvesting when convenient, or when labor is available, cannot be a guide to the proper picking time. All too often fruit of inferior quality, both for storage and for the ultimate consumer, results from […]

The demand for indoor house plants – foliage plants as decoration in modern homes seems beyond limit. And the one introduction, among those who supply plants to meet this demand, concerns the alocasias. These handsome natives of the tropics are related to the better known philodendrons, anthuriums, dieffenbachias and aglaonemas or Chinese evergreens. Unique in […]

In one sense we have no favorite lilacs at Rochester for we grow them all – that is. all ire can get by purchasing, swapping or as grateful recipients of the generosity of introducers of new varieties. Indeed. this has been our policy since the Highland Park collection was started in 1892. The happy result […]

In midsummer I went on a jaunt to Virginia several years ago. The heat was oppressive in the Tidewater area, but the crape myrtle in all the richness of its pink bloom made me forget somewhat the temperature that seemed to envelop me wherever I went. To be sure, there are lavender, white and reddish […]

Since the idea of a Biblical garden has always fascinated me, I was naturally delighted to discover a garden designed around the familiar plants of the Bible in the grounds adjoining a Church in California. The low-eaved church, which is an architectural jewel in itself, makes an impressive setting for the garden which has two […]

We have chosen the loosestrife, which belongs to the primrose family, as our wild flower of the month. Our common loose-strife, Lysimachia guadrifolia, is a slender, symmetrical flower one to two feet tall. Its lance-shaped leaves are in whorls and its little star-like blossoms are on delicate pedicels at regular intervals along the stem. It […]

It is painful irony indeed that one of the very spectacular hardy shrubs is dangerously poisonous to most people. This is poison sumac, one of the most brilliant native plants of autumn. It possesses a generous amount of the same oil found in poison-ivy and its close relative poison-oak. The scientific name for poison sumac […]