The name Dianthus means divine flower but their common name is Cottage Pinks (or just plain Pinks) due to their many different shades of pink flowers. Modern day breeding efforts have also led to shades of red and white. Most dianthus species range in height from 6-12 inches with the flowers accounting for half of the plant height. Most plants create a clump of 12-18 inches wide.

Dianthus prefer to be planted in a location that receives at least 4-5 hours of sunlight per day. They thrive in rich, well-drained soil and are fairly free, their only enemy being excessively wet soil which can rot the plants. They look great in borders, rock gardens or on the edges of a perennial garden.

With just a minimum of care, your Dianthus will give you years of lasting blooms. We have a great selection of Dianthus and invite you to stop by and bring some home soon. To help you plan your garden, simply click on the link below for a complete list of all the varieties we stock.

Click here to see our Dianthus gallery

One of the most versatile blooming plants one can put in the garden is the weigela. And the new varieties that have been introduced in the past few years are very different from the original single blooming specimens of the past. Today's weigelas come in an array of different foliage colors, bloom shades, and growth habits to please even the most finicky gardener.

If you're a bird lover, then this deciduous flowering is the perfect plant for you. The one-inch funnel-shaped flowers are especially attractive to hummingbirds, who love the extended blooming season (spring-fall) of most of the new varieties. The flowers are also great for cut flower arrangements.

These outstanding shrubs make charming addition to any garden and are especially suited to withstand city conditions. The size of the plants ranges from 2 ft. high and wide up to the 5-6 ft. range. They are superb as a solo specimen, garden background plant, or they can be combined together to create a colorful hedge.

Weigelas are extremely hardy as well as pest and disease resistant. They require only a minimum of care to provide you years of beauty and enjoyment in the garden. A light pruning in mid-spring after initial blooming in spring will usually reward one with a second bloom. A slight trim in winter when they go dormant will shape them up for the following year.

Weigelas prefer full sun locations but will perform fine in partial shade in warmer locations. They require regular water the first year to get established, but become quite drought tolerant after that. We recommend planting them in a 50/50 mix of native soil and a soil amendment to create the perfect growing environment for them. They look their best when fed every two months during the growing season.

Click here to see our Weigela gallery

"That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet"

William Shakespeare

The presence of roses in gardens transcends time. Roses have always been, are today, and will forever be, not only a plant member of our gardens, but most often the featured plant in our gardens. And this happens simply by default, because nothing has as great a floral color impact in your garden as a rose.

Humans have an ongoing love affair with roses. And to that end, we have created many different garden designs, most of which leave space for the rose. Whatever your garden style, a rose is a welcome addition.

Roses in English gardens are tucked in with lavender, foxglove, daisies, and delphinium. They appear in wildflower gardens with poppies, forget-me-not, love-in-a-mist and clarkias; they stand in rows in formal rose gardens and gather in circles in the informal rose garden, and please believe us, they are in vegetable gardens too. Roses are planted en masse as a flowering hedge, roses are planted in commercial settings, roses are in our cemeteries, and roses are growing in the wild. We think you may be getting the picture.

There are thousands of different roses, wild or species, hybrids, old roses and modern roses. There are China roses, Gallica roses, Damask roses, moss roses, Bourbon roses, hybrid perpetual roses, rugosa roses, macranth roses, ramblers, and polyanthas. And we haven't even begun to talk about the roses in our garden center!

We welcome you to join us in the garden center for a stroll through the roses. Don’t forget to leave a few spaces in your garden for your favorite ones.

When most people think of annuals they think about upright varieties for borders and containers. But when planning your annual garden, think about more than just upright plants. There are a number of wonderful trailing varieties that are perfect for providing a splash of color between shrubs, on a hillside or cascading over a rock wall or trailing from a hanging basket.

For a hillside, it's hard to beat trailing lantana, with its showy purple and white blooms. A happy plant can reach 3-4 ft across in diameter. If you are looking for a slightly flatter foliage that hugs the ground, consider the mauve-flowering scaevola.

It's easy to perk up your landscape by planting patches of million bells (callibrachoa) in spaces between larger shrubs. This colorful annual comes in a variety of bright hot colors including red, yellow, apricot, white, pink, fuchsia, blue, and violet. Another alternative would be verbena, which is available in many colors, flower sizes and flat or mounding foliage. These plants also look great flowing over rock walls or pool edges.

For large splashes of color in the landscape, use petunias or ivy geranium. Both grow incredibly fast and come in every color under the sun. You can dress up the edges of a boring-looking vegetable garden with nasturtium, whose orange, red and yellow flowers are also edible.

All of the above mentioned plants perform well in hanging baskets but there are a few plants that make great partners with them and are particularly suited for container planting. To add some texture and unique foliage color to your hanging baskets consider using silver dichondra, licorice plant (helichrysum) or parrot's beak (Lotus maculatus). All have silvery grey foliage that provides a great contrast to other plants.

While most plants in hanging baskets perform better with a little shade from the afternoon sun, one annual is particularly suited for slightly shadier confines. Use trailing lobelia, which comes in many shades of blue, rose and white. Its cheerful little blossoms are perfect for any container.

Most homeowners look at pottery as just a container to hold a plant on the patio or inside the home. But with so many unique shapes and sizes available today, more homeowners are using pots as decoration to add a piece of interest to the home or garden.

Sometimes a pot can be the perfect solution to turning a space that is missing something into a dazzling focal point. Just like a water fountain or a piece of statuary, a well-placed piece of pottery can turn a boring area into a visual treat for the eyes.

Consider glazed containers in unique vase or urn shapes. Tall and slender pottery can be especially stunning when placed in the right location. Instead of just putting out a sea of plants, consider how you can lead the eye to points of interest throughout your landscape or home by using a well-placed piece of pottery.

We have a great selection of pottery. Come in for a visit and our staff of nursery experts will help you find the right container to transform your empty space into a visual delight. In the right setting, the perfect pot will look like a work of art. They make great gifts, too!

It takes some pretty tough plants to put up with the harsh growing conditions surrounding a street-side mailbox. Because most mailbox locations are surrounded by pavement it takes plants that thrive in full sun and can tolerate heat and drought.

With the exception of perhaps one taller focal plant or a vine that wraps around the post, most plants in a mailbox garden should be varieties that stay under 2 ft. in height. This way you don’t block the view of your home or when backing out of the driveway.

Before planting, prepare the area. Shape the bed, remove any existing weeds or sod, then dig down at least 6-8 inches and turn over the soil, mixing in a soil amendment 50/50 with the existing soil. Add a starter fertilizer to the entire area. This will mix into the soil when you plant your plants.

Remember, it takes 3-4 months for most plants to get established. For best results, water regularly and feed every few months during the growing season with a good flower food, and your plants will reward you with long-lasting beauty.

We have a great selection of plants perfect for mailbox gardens. Stop by for a visit and one of our staff of nursery professionals will be happy to help you make your selections.

Spider mites are common pest problems on many plants around yards and gardens. Spider mites, like all mites, are not insects. They are related to spiders and therefore fall into the class of arachnids, which have eight legs, not six.

These tiny creatures cause injury to foliage as they feed, bruising the cells with their small, whip-like mouthparts and ingesting the sap. Damage to the foliage gives a speckled appearance to the damaged tissue sites. They also leave a cottony web material between leaf stems.

Spider mite infestation tends to occur during periods of dry, hot weather and hit plants that have not been well watered. A good lesson to learn from this would be to keep your plants healthy and watered at all times, especially when hot, dry weather strikes your gardens.

But if you still have spider mites, even after your best precautions, what can you do? Because spider mites are not insects, insecticides will not work on them; and worse, such a spray will just kill the beneficial insects coming to the plant to eat the spider mites.

Fortunately, the spider mite, like other pesky bugs on our plants, has several natural predators. One important one is the ladybug larva. Other less well-known predators of the spider mite are pirate bugs and predatory thrips.

Another easy physical control is simply to spray them off the foliage with water. Sound familiar? That is also a treatment for aphids, mealybugs and other garden insect pests. If the natural predators haven't come to the rescue, or the improvement of plant health and water control techniques is not solving the spider mite problem, talk to one of us and we will further direct you to a spray oil or miticide product. For example, if you have mites on your tomatoes, sulphur dust will work to kill the spider mites.

But remember, if you decide to use an insecticide or miticide control, first double check for the beneficial insects coming in to gobble up the mites!

By Tamara Galbraith

Ask rose enthusiasts what one plant disease they would vote off the face of the planet, and their answer will inevitably be Black Spot. It is the bane of the rose growing world, and has been for many years.

Thanks to the introduction of many new rose cultivars with built-in Black Spot resistance, this problem isn't what it used to be. But what if you are nursing a rose that isn't quite so sturdy?

As the name suggests, this fungal disease appears as circular black spots surrounded by a ring of yellow on infected leaves. Remove and destroy infected leaves and canes, and take these actions to prevent Black Spot from completely owning your rose:

1. First, don't irrigate late in the evening before water has a chance to evaporate from leaf surfaces. Better yet, water at ground level and don't wet the leaves at all. Also, make sure there is plenty of air flowing around and through each plant. Fungi love to grow in moist, stagnant air, so prune your roses periodically, especially after each bloom period.

2. If you do find yourself with a case of Black Spot, act quickly, as it can take over an entire rose bush in no time. A teaspoon of baking soda per quart of water is an effective fungus fighter. Some say milk works well. My personal preference is Neem oil, which boasts both insecticidal and fungicidal qualities, and won't harm beneficial insects.