“Don’t duct me. Don’t spray me. Don’t swat me. Please!” This could very well be the earnest plea of the tiny yucca moth, whose scientific name is Pronuba yuccasella. Without this tiny moth to pollinate the creamy-white waxen blossoms of the yucca plant, the beautiful Yucca filamentosa would soon die out, for it would fail […]

Yuccas appropriately used in a garden give a feel of the plains or desert, much as rhododendrons would remind one of the Northwest forest, spruce trees of the Rocky Mountains, magnolias of the South or flowering cherries of Washington, D.C. Yuccas must be carefully used in a garden, for they are accustomed to dominating the […]

When the upper petal of Torenia fournieri is bent back it discloses a wishbone formed by two stamens and that is why it is called Wishbone Flower. Except for this surprise element, its two-toned, velvety blue flowers with yellow centers look rather like pansies and violas but they’re more satisfactory as bedding plants because they […]

Our family hopes to set a pattern for incipient Johnny Flower-seeds. There’s nothing easy about gardening in Minnesota but we’ve done it, though on the wing, and our efforts are strung gaily across the state, from the gumbo of the western prairies to the rock cliffs of Lake Superior’s north shore. We’ve set up housekeeping […]

It was about 90 years ago the evergreen Catalina cherry (Prunus ilicifolia ssp. lyonii) was first introduced as a garden shrub or tree. Since then it has become one of the most useful of all the California native plants. Climate, soil, exposure and water have a bearing on the size and shape of the shrub, […]

The splendid hybrid lupines which we now enjoy, were developed, apparently, from just a few lupinus species. In a genus with hundreds of species, it is surprising that such a small number of species have found their way into our gardens and that only a few have been drawn upon in the creation of the […]

Nasturtiums splash their golds, tangerines and maroons through our gardens and add bright patches of color to our flower bowls. All of us know and most of us delight in growing tropaeolum, which comes in a wide range of colors and in either dwarf or climbing varieties. A wealth of decorative color, however, is not […]