What a great way to welcome in 2012 with rain and cool weather. After the grueling triple digit temperatures for 60 days with no rain to soothe the parched ground, we are dancing in the ditches of water everywhere! I will be posting a gardening article every month that will address inquiries we receive from [...]
Heaven Scent Sweeties here, and sweeties there. The scent of jonquils everywhere. Each passing year as the pixies bloom, joy prevails and conquers gloom. -Greg Grant, January 29, 2012 (for my sweet Rosie) On January 28 I spoke at the Hilltop Arboretum Symposium on the LSU campus in Baton Rouge with mentor Bill Welch. I [...]
We have devoted a garden to Greg Grant at the Arbor Gate. He’s got full control over the garden, and it will even feature plants he has introduced. Here he is introducing in garden!
What a month December was. After being assured by the meteorological experts that the unprecedented dry weather pattern would continue into the fall and winter, and that we would all dry up and blow away, the unthinkable happened. It rained! It rained every week as a matter of fact. Instead of having far below normal [...]
Sure the drought was bad, and caught many of us on our heels, but that doesn’t mean you should stop gardening or landscaping completely. Yet, that’s sort of the sentiment I’m reading in many of the emails I get via my radio show. In most cases, any landscape plant or shrub seemingly lost from this [...]
Although we still haven’t had any significant runoff to fill ponds and lakes in my neck of the woods, we did have welcome weekly rain with each passing front last month. We can certainly be thankful for surface moisture and the lifting of the burn ban. I managed to get my summer brush piles burned [...]
It’s amazing what a few rains and some cooler temperatures will do for your spirit. At least gardeners and gardens have been renewed with the will to live. My garden in Arcadia received .4, .9, and .4 inches of rain during October. Although we need to average 1 inch per week to reach our yearly [...]
You can read this month’s blog as somewhat self-serving to a nursery or garden center like the Arbor Gate, or you can take it as the sound advice that it truly is from someone who has written about the horticultural world in and around Houston for nearly 16 years. This is the absolute best time [...]
This fabulous shrub rose is a legacy in more ways than one. Not only is it a great landscape rose, it has a wonderful story to tell. American Legacy produces heavily petaled (30 – 40) blooms that are a deep raspberry pink color with a subtle fragrance. The foliage is dark green and waxy on [...]
The drought continues. Enough said about that. I’m tired of talking about it. I’ve accepted the fact that I now live in Laredo. Things could always be worse. When I lived in San Antonio, Dr. Jerry Parsons and I would actually take a trip to Laredo each summer to see what looked good. He always [...]