My Garden Online Blog

I just completed my Master Gardener certification and am focusing on wild flowers.  There are so many wonderful websites that promote the protection of these beautiful natural plants.  I recommend checking them out because they offer classes; plant identification links.  For starters, take a look at:

• Chiwaukee Prairie organization (http://chiwaukee.org/)
• California Native Garden Foundation (http://www.cngf.org/index.htm

I have a Christmas Cactus that is 10 years old; unfortunately, it blooms at Thanksgiving instead of Christmas.  No matter – it is still a fabulous plant. 

What do you do with your dried out bouquets or holiday plants?

As I was preparing my garden for the winter months, I couldn’t help but be amazed by the few flowers that had survived the first couple of frosty evenings.  They are long gone now but I took these pictures in late November and just wanted to share them with all of you.

Happy Winter everyone.

How many to plant?  That is the question!  When I was arranging a wedding bouquet a long time ago, I was informed that you should always have an odd number of plants/flowers in an arrangement.  Maybe I use that as an excuse to purchase more plants or is there really a mathematical equation to composition?  Would three similar plants have the same effect as three plants with the same color?

Thoughts?

I have a sedum that looks like a large pot was dropped in the middle of it – what can be done to save it?

So what is the right time to start working on the garden (outside versus working on this site!).  In chicagoland, we have an unwritten rule that May 15th (we had a light frost 3 days ago).  Of course I didn’t follow the rule and I moved some plants.  Hopefully, they weren’t too shocked.  Is the May 15th rule universal?