A garden contains a collection of plants chosen for the location and the role they are to play, but a garden can be much more. It can become an expression of shared memories created over a lifetime – a picture of things that have been important to you. Most residential gardens are obviously personal. However, it can be fun and constructive to review how your garden has evolved and consider what personal touches you might add ...

Where do perennials belong in your garden? The answer for me is everywhere. First of all I am known as “The Perennial Diva,” and I practice what I preach. You know about beds and borders so will cover them last. My favorite spot for perennials is containers, because they not only add color, texture and form, but they have the advantage of staying in a frost-free pot for the entire winter ...

When the summer sun blazes down, we humans turn into shriveled lobsters, scuttling to hide beneath beach umbrellas and lurking in the far reaches of the basement. Plants don’t have these options. Instead, over the millennia, they have adapted their physical characteristics (morphology) to deal with harsh conditions. Different species have adapted in different ways ...

It’s not too early to start thinking about plants you might want to grow next season. If you look out over this year’s garden area, consider what did well and what you might like to do differently. Most seed catalogs have already gone to print and you’ll start receiving the first ones right after Christmas. Here are a few unusual or so-called “new” plants you might want to try. I’ve had experience growing all of them in Missouri, and I can recommend each one as worthy of including in the garden ...

Long after the seasons of spring, summer and autumn have passed, you can still enjoy the trees in your landscape. After the leaves fall, some trees stand out in the garden with their unique bark. Some have bark with interesting texture, while others provide striking colors. An often overlooked feature in the garden, bark is most important in the winter. Trees continue to exude their beauty even in the bleakest of winters ...

This is the time of year that dedicated gardeners sort through their catalogs picking out their seeds for the upcoming planting season. I’m sure that you have noticed a little identifying mark on a seed packet that says “AAS.” That means it is an All-America Selection that has been grown in more than 30 trial gardens all over the United State and Canada ...