Garden Experiments
For the love of gardening and wildlife habitat
Bright, colorful flowers are a must for every garden. They can add color to container gardens, shade and full sun gardens, and mixed in with shrubs and trees. Find the perfect flowering plants for your garden's light, soil, moisture, and other conditions. Using a mixture of annuals and perennials helps keep your garden full of flowers throughout the seasons.
Despite the name, you’ll find this ‘weed’ in more and more gardens. Joe Pye Weed is a good garden staple for attracting pollinators from bees to butterflies. I planted it last fall and this summer the blooms have been prolific and I have seen all sorts of bees, wasps, and flies feeding on the nectar. Joe Pye weed flowers are gorgeous. The stem …
Continue Reading about Joe Pye Weed: Native Plant that Attracts Bees & Butterflies
Portulaca is the easiest genus of plants to propagate. You can start with just one plant and end up with four more with just a bit of extra care. It's so simple! Portulaca is also known as purslane or moss rose. It grows in full sun, can handle high heat, and is drought tolerant. It grows quickly and produces many bright, colorful flowers. The …
A few years ago, I acquired a new plant that has quickly become one of my favorites - Stokes Aster (Stokesia laevis). These stunning purple-blue flowers simply captured my heart. I really like incorporating native plants and flowers into my garden. They are easy to grow and very hardy AND they attract butterflies and hummingbirds. (Read my top …
Continue Reading about Stokes Aster – Native Plant With Beautiful Blue Flowers
If you've got soil that stays wet most of the time, then spotted jewelweed is the plant for you. It's native to most of the lower 48 states and prefers shade to part-shade - even better! In its native habitat, you'll find it alongside roads in ditches that stay wet most of the time, alongside a river or stream, in wetlands or boggy places, and …
Continue Reading about Spotted Jewelweed: Touch-me-not plant
I’m in love with all salvias. They grow really well and are so popular with hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees. And did I mention they are beautiful? That’s the perfect combination for my garden. The pineapple sage is no exception. Attract Butterflies with Pineapple Sage This past summer, it was a delight to discover that cloudless …
Continue Reading about Pineapple Sage Brings Fall Color & Butterflies
This is the second year that I planted freesia bulbs. I had a bag that had been in my gardening supplies for a year or so (I have a tendency to put things away and forget about them), so I finally decided to put them in the ground. The results were great! These are such strong-smelling flowers; I recommend you don't cut them to bring them …
