Trilliums are thrilling (in a plant sort of way). How to Get More Trilliums for Free Trilliums are shade loving spring wonders. They can be harder to find and on the more expensive side. They are really interesting spring plants though. So when I came across an old blog post by NYT columnist and famed gardener Margaret Roach about how to divide them, I mentally tucked it away. The thing is you divide them just when they are at their prime in spring. Last year I finally tried it. It totally works! Since these are ephemeral plants, growing and blooming in spring and then dying back not to be se ..read more

Look to buy ephemeral plants now. Happily, it seems as though we have more and more places to buy native plants. This means more availability for Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) this year. A good sign indeed. Some years, they have been harder to find. You likely already know Virginia bluebells. A great beginner plant and oh so cheerful in any type of garden, Virginia bluebells grow best in moist soils where they get bright sun in spring and then shade for the rest of the growing season. Under a deciduous tree is perfect. Mine grow in average moisture soil and do just fine. Virginia ..read more

Native plants insects need! Neonicotinoids are a class of insecticides used to prevent insect damage on plants. These insecticides are a threat to pollinators and other beneficial insects when they are used to grow plants sold in nurseries. Since one of the major benefits of gardening with native plants is feeding insects who sustain the food chain, we want to avoid those plants. But how? Increasingly, nurseries are able to hold themselves out as neonicotiniod free. Typically, these nurseries are either growing their own plants or working with a small network of growers they know and trust ..read more

Seven Easy Steps! If you are reading this, it is likely you have, or are about to become, just a bit nutsy for native plants! It's spring. Rains have likely moistened the soil in your garden. Sun and warmer temps are on their way. What better time to create a new flower bed sure to be buzzing with life by the time July rolls around? Step 1: Select a Spot that Gets Six Hours of Sun This will be a sun loving bunch of flowers, so six hours of direct sun is ideal for your new bed. It also helps if the area is one where you have easy access to water. Step 2: Prep the Area if Needed Is your spot co ..read more

Making sure your plant is the native one. Nature is amazing and I guess it should not be surprising a plant native to the eastern U.S. might have a look a-like in a foreign land. Interesting! Distinguishing among them can be a challenge. Here is how to tell the difference between common natives and ornamental look a-likes. Beautyberries Beautyberry shrubs are coveted for their bright purple berries in fall. Both native beautyberry and several types of Asian beautyberry (Callicarpa dichotoma,  Calllicarpa japonica, and Callicarpa bodinieri) are commonly sold in local garden cen ..read more

Getting a plan to plant. Whether you are new to gardening, a pro with an ornamental garden or nuts for natives it can help to have a strategy for your gardening season. You might want to go all in for ecological benefit this year or be motivated more by aesthetics. Or perhaps this is the year to be pragmatic based on time, budget or life. With any luck, one of these easy strategies for adding native plants to your garden will fit your native plant plans! Keystone Plants If you are in the category of wanting to do all you can do for the planet with your garden, keystone plants are the ones fo ..read more

Native plant nursery updates! Your local native nurseries are stocking, growing and getting ready for spring and a number have been open all winter! If you want an easy shopping experience, reliable advice to increase your chances of success and enhance your garden, these are the places to go. These local businesses specialize in locally grown native plants (a rarity), are surviving in a very competitive industry, all while providing an environmentally important service. A number of our local nurseries have shifted their business models a bit over the past several years. Some with regular ret ..read more

It's not too late to bump up your supply for hummingbirds. I don't know about you but at the end of every growing season I have a mental list of things I want to do for the following year's garden. Inevitably, I leave some, or sometimes, many of those undone! On my list after last year was to make sure I had plenty of plants to provide nectar for hummingbirds in April. I had read about scientific thought that the bloom time of native flowers up the east coast evolved over eons to coordinate with the return of ruby-throated hummingbirds as they make their way north. Fast forward, a few weeks a ..read more

Finding just the right native shrubs for your garden. The array of native shrubs native to our Chesapeake watershed is absolutely amazing. Many add spring flowers, summer fruit and fall color creating quite the boon for any gardener! Gardening on 1/8 of an acre, my real challenge is which native shrubs to grow. Here is what I have grown and learned over the past ten years.  Please note this is very limited experience in that I only have room for so many shrubs! As always, it is one perspective to take in combination with what the pros say provided in the links. Bayberry Bayberries (,More ..read more

The shrub for deep winter. Until recently, a February stroll in our small corner garden looking for color meant searching for red berries on American hollies and winterberries and blue fruits on female Eastern red cedars. I was not thinking pink. And there they were. Coralberry shrubs with bright deep pink berries. In a blink, February gardens seen in an entirely new light! Growing Coralberry (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus), a deciduous shrub, thrives in full to part sun. It tolerates a variety of soils and moisture levels and grows 2 to 4 feet high and 3 to 6 feet wide at maturity. This is a ..read more