Lilacs blooming in September? Apple blossoms in October? Perhaps you have seen spring blooming plants flower this fall in your garden. It has not been uncommon in the past few years to see spring flowering shrubs, such as forsythia, magnolia, apples, crabapples and lilac flowering in the fall. The reason is usually stressful weather conditions such as drought or high temperatures. These conditions induce dormancy or reduced growth. When the conditions improve, with cooler fall temperatures and rainfall, the plants are stimulated to grow. And what is on the plants to grow are the flower buds w ..read more

The garden of Wayne Johnson and Bonnie Beresford in Alexandria, MN, is filled with unusual trees, shrubs, hostas and large flower beds. But Wayne’s favorite flower is the daylily, and his 2½-acre garden includes more than 370 daylily cultivars. But which are the best daylilies for northern gardeners?   Recently, Wayne suggested more than 40 of his favorite daylilies and sent us photos. I put them together in a video, so you can see some of the best daylilies that grow in central Minnesota. Daylilies are a terrific plant for northern gardeners because they can handle our cold temperat ..read more

Have you heard about agroecology? There’s a movement among some farmers and growers toward “greener” crops—switching from genetically modified (GMO), non-native plants to native crops that can help capture carbon and/or fix nitrogen in the soil. Chestnut tree (Credit: Florent-g/Getty Images) For example, hazelnuts (Corylus spp., see feature image) and chestnuts (Castanea spp.) can fill some of the same roles in agriculture and the food supply as corn and soybeans, providing sustainable crops, cooking oil and food for humans and animals. They also conserve soil and create habitat for wildlife ..read more

It’s time to button up the garden and watch the forecast for snow. It’s also a good time to curl up with the Northern Gardener® Winter issue, which should be in subscriber homes early next month and on newsstands by Nov. 8. This issue is packed with so much information that you’ll be reading until almost January. Start by savoring profiles of five delightful, but very different gardens and their gardeners. John Larsen’s formal urban garden in Minneapolis involves precise plantings and meticulous care. Plus, he offers on-point advice for hosting events in your garden. In Roseville, Stephanie R ..read more

We gardeners get as excited about new plants as some people do about new restaurants. The day I heard about the new InnovaTreeTM poplar developed by the University of Minnesota, I was as excited as I had been all week. “For homeowners, InnovaTree’s fast growth and disease resistance make it ideal for quick shade, privacy screens and windbreaks,” reports Jeff Jackson, Extension Education with the University of Minnesota Extension. This is music to a gardener’s ears. It’s virtues are many, but first and foremost, InnovaTree is a fast grower at five to eight feet a year; you can enjoy its be ..read more

Growing ornamental, blooming plants alongside fruits and vegetables offers many benefits, and it’s fun! The term “companion planting” is defined by WebMD as “the practice of enhancing your crop production by growing combinations of different plants close together.” Research and care are required before planting because some combinations provide benefits, while others can negatively affect each other. Companion planting can include combinations of edibles that work well together, or interplanting edibles with ornamentals. In good-case scenarios, companion planting can: Increase yields—For exam ..read more

Here’s an interesting question: where do your plants’ stems and leaves actually come from? In other words, where do plants get the raw materials that they need to grow? A tiny seedling begins with very little mass; a couple of months later it becomes a mature plant many times the original size. Where did it get the building blocks to create all that new material? Out of thin air A first impulse might be to guess that plants get their material “from the soil.” It’s easy to imagine plants reaching down into the dirt with their roots, “feeding” on the ground and somehow using that to grow. The id ..read more

Have you heard the news? Marijuana/cannabis became legal in Minnesota on August 1. It only took about 15 days for me to get my first Master Gardener question about it, so I did some digging into this psychedelic plant. Full disclosure: I have never actually grown it myself, so my information was gleaned from the internet. Reader, I googled this for you and found a dizzying array of blog posts, YouTube videos and news articles. Here is my attempt to distill it all into something… edible. Question: How hard is it to grow marijuana? Are there any regulations around it if you’re just growing it fo ..read more

Do you ever wonder what to do with your flowers once they’ve bloomed in the garden? Here are three fun ways you can make the most of your blooms even after they’ve passed their prime. Whether you’re looking for an arts and crafts project or ways to entertain and educate gardeners of all ages, these creative ideas will bring joy and beauty. Pressed Flower Design Ready for a unique crafting project? Twin Cities-based Garden-in-a-Box program participants TOV Community Garden and Relentless Academy partnered up to celebrate the growing season and preserve their beautiful flowers on fabric, leavin ..read more

‘Tis the season for county fairs and all the delights that go with them: cotton candy, Ferris wheels and (hopefully) lots of blue ribbons. If you’re hoping to exhibit some of your homegrown vegetables this season, here are some tips for giving yourself the best chance of earning a blue ribbon. Follow the rules               We’ll discuss this first, because you don’t want to get disqualified on a technicality. (Well, you don’t want to get disqualified at all, but especially not on a technicality.) Familiarize yourself with t ..read more