If you can dig a hole, you can still put plants in the ground  It’s a great time to plant trees even if there are no leaves on it. The roots are what will develop and grow from now until spring.  ..read more

After the first killing frost, here are the chores to tackle in the garden ..read more

Watch Victoria demonstrate dividing this peony because over time, the garden has grown more shaded and the peony will be much happier in full sun. There are also a couple of invasive weed trees sprouted up in the middle of the peony and dividing and transplanting will be a good opportunity to extract those ..read more

Monarch butterflies are currently facing population declines due to habitat loss, climate change, pesticide use, and other factors. Planting milkweed helps to restore and maintain their breeding habitats, contributing to the conservation efforts for monarch butterflies. Planting milkweed is crucial for butterflies, particularly monarch butterflies, for several important reasons: Monarchs lay their eggs exclusively on milkweed plants because the caterpillars feed on the milkweed leaves. Without milkweed, monarch butterflies cannot complete their life cycle. While monarch caterpillars feed on m ..read more

Bracken's Brown Beauty Magnolia Bracken's Brown Beauty Magnolia (Magnolia Grandiflora 'Bracken's Brown Beauty') is a cultivar of the Southern magnolia tree, renowned for its compact size, attractive foliage, and abundant creamy-white flowers.  Here are some of it's stand out features: Fragrant Flowers: Like other Southern magnolias, Bracken's Brown Beauty produces large, creamy-white, fragrant flowers during the late spring to early summer. The flowers can be up to 8 inches (20 cm) in diameter and have a sweet, lemony fragrance that adds to their appeal.  The ones we have ..read more

The USDA released a new, updated Plant Zone Map and...things have changed! Most of us in Ulster and Dutchess counties were listed as Zone 5 in the 2012 Plant Hardiness Map. The 2023 map is based on 30-year averages of the lowest annual winter temperatures at specific locations, is divided into 10-degree Fahrenheit zones and further divided into 5-degree Fahrenheit half-zones. Like the 2012 map, the 2023 web version offers a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based interactive format and is specifically designed to be user-friendly. Notably, the 2023 map delivers to users several new, sig ..read more

Q: Should I cut back my hydrangea plants now? A: First of all, you are not going to kill your hydrangea if you cut it back or prune it at the wrong time, but you will lose the blooms that you would have had this garden season. So we want to be mindful about when we are pruning, so that we enjoy the maximum number of blooms. Second, prune-time depends which hydrangea bush you have. If you have Hydrangea macrophylla (also known as big leaf hydrangea or mophead hydrangeas) then don't cut them in the spring! They are a shrub (like lilacs) that you only want to "prune after bloom ..read more

In the March episode of The Garden Show & Home with Sally Spillane, Victoria and Sally talked about ways to simplify your garden design to increase the visual impact and decrease maintenance. Incase you missed it, we thought the we’d share the key takeaways. Victoria has a long-held design principle, “You want your garden to quiet your heart.” Simplicity can support the feeling of calm we are all aiming for. What’s the opposite of calm and simple? Chaotic, messy, anxiety-inducing! That can mean visually, but it can also mean a complicated maintenance schedule, the constant need for deadhea ..read more

Your Expert Guide to Early Spring Gardening in the Hudson Valley Hudson Valley Magazine did a great article on early spring gardening advice. They interviewed local professional Gardeners and Garden Designers, including Victoria Coyne from Victoria Gardens. :) The advice she gave is something she also talked about on the March episode of the Garden and Home Show with Sally Spillane on WKZE: Divide but be “quick and quiet.” “If we’re on a job site and we know we’re not coming back for a month, and there’s some giant Siberian iris that wants to eat the world, we will dig it up then and put a sma ..read more

As we move into autumn, there is a way to bring more color, more interest, and more drama into your backyard. By planting fall-fruiting bushes you will have the double benefit of colorful berries and the colorful birds that the berries attract. Many bird species gorge on fall berries before they migrate south and many other species, like cardinals, nuthatches and blue jays stay for the winter and continue to feed off the berries in your garden.  Want to attract more birds to your backyard? Start with these attractive, fall-fruiting favorites: Juniper  There are hundreds of varieties ..read more