One of the delights of planting perennial flowers like Echinacea (Echinacea, also Coneflower) and Gaillardia (Gaillardia, also Blanket Flower) in your garden is that they return every year to bloom anew. The purchase of perennial flowers such as Coreopsis (Coreopsis, also Thickseed) or Leucanthemum (Leucanthemum, also Shasta Daisy) from your local garden center adds beautiful color and fragrant blooms to your garden, providing years of enjoyment. Gardeners have a particular fondness for easy-care perennials because they thrive with so little effort. Unlike annuals, perennial plants do not die or require re-planting every year. As their name implies, perennials continue to live and thrive in your garden year after year. ...read more

A perennial fall favorite, Chrysanthemums (Chrysanthemum), commonly referred to as mums, add beautiful color to fall gardens, patio plantings and container arrangements. Looking for all the world like bright, colorful bouquets that have sprung up amidst the shriveling leaves and dead stalks of fading summer flowers, Chrysanthemums revitalize garden landscapes. ...read more

It’s never too late in the season to start exercising your green thumb. While some plants are best planted in the spring, most perennial plants will still have plenty of time to become established before winter’s killing frosts if planted in the late summer to early fall. Some perennials do not begin flowering until late summer when they revitalize gardens with new color and texture after summer blooms fade. These fall-blooming perennials will continue to brighten your garden until winter’s killing frosts arrive. ...read more

The approach of fall means it's time to redo the containers that grace your front porch or backyard deck. Out with the bedraggled Ivy Geranium (Pelargonium) and wilting Wave Petunias (Petunia); it's time for a fall makeover.  ...read more

As fall approaches, lush summer gardens seem to lose their luster. Gone to seed are the once-bright Echinacea (coneflower). All that's left of the Petunias is a leggy tangle of twisted vines. Barren stalks protrude from the earth where blossoms used to bounce on the breeze. But it's too early to give up on Mother Nature. There's still life left in your garden; it just needs a little rejuvenation. Revitalize your fall garden by adding some lovely late-blooming flowers, a few decorative grasses and exotic ornamentals.  ...read more

The flower of poets and love, Roses (Rosa) add beautiful, rich bursts of color and a lovely, heady fragrance to the garden from their first blooms in June through the final days of summer. ...read more

Garden centers at local stores are setting up their bulb displays, encouraging gardeners to start planning spring gardens. After a long, dreary winter, spring-flowering tulips, daffodils and other bulbs are a cheerful harbinger of the fragrant annuals and perennials to come. ...read more

As we swelter through the final days of August, it's easy to give up on the few heat-bowed flowers still struggling in the garden and turn our thoughts to fall gardening chores and cooler weather. ...read more