Nature Hills Gardening Neighborhood

Sedum ‘Fulda Glow’ creates a striking color of beautiful bronze-red foliage that persists all season long.  It is an easy to grow, drought tolerant sedum with rose red flowers that appear on short stalks over the plant in late summer. These flowers are then followed by reddish seed pods.  Being a vigorous grower, it ...

Making “scents” in your garden If you find the smell of traditional fragrant flowers too overwhelming, maybe you might want to choose some plants with aromatic leaves.  Plants with fragrant foliage can make strolling along a scent-filled pathway a delightful experience.  It requires a little forethought since the leaves ...

I use a word processor to keep a log of what I have planted and where.  The computer allows me to add, change, and delete throughout each season; having a printout is very helpful as well. For each plant listed, I add information about its location and care.  For instance, I will make note when to prune, if ...

The ‘Abiqua Drinking Gourd’ Hosta requires high-filtered or dappled sunlight that is necessary for its clean, healthy growth.  Morning sun is tolerable and will help to intensify the leaf colors, but hot afternoon sun is usually deadly to this Hosta.  This perennial  is most at home in shady, woodland settings and often ...

Growing to a height of 12 inches, ‘Tony Monster’ Geranium is like all geraniums, very reliable!  It has blooms  that are large with a bright magenta color.  Along with these prolific blooms, it also is a vigorous grower.  This geranium is a hardy perennial and should not be confused with annual ...

What welcoming plants can you select to make your front entrance more inviting?  Try a plant with a weeping habit!  These plants will create a spectacular welcome for friends or family as they arrive at your front door. The ‘Sweetspire’ is a naturally weeping plant that produces finger-like panicles of white flowers ...

Astilbe 'Maggie Daley' is great for adding a spiky accent in the moist part of the garden .  It displays a profusion of showy spikes of lavender-purple panicles in mid to late summer.  It is a robust and somewhat drought resistant plant.  The fuzzy flowers are full and packed closely together, resembling a ...

Creeping Thyme is a low growing mat that is covered with hundreds of rosy-red flowers in summer.  Since it is a strong grower, it is ideal as a drought tolerant lawn substitute, or as a groundcover for planting between flagstones, tolerating moderate traffic.  Thyme spreads by growing from one set of leaves to the next. ...

Balloon Flower Astra Double Blue is a compact, well-branched plant.  The interesting balloon-like buds swell to form (mostly) hollow, pillow-shaped structures before its starry petals unfold, and it resembles a hot-air balloon!   Its compact, uniform habit makes a good selection for cut flowers, containers, or the ...

With its unique name, and sporting an unusual two-toned color, the Peony ‘Shimanishiki’ is an exotic beauty that any gardener would be proud to have on display!  ‘Shimanishiki’ has large reddish purple flowers with streaks of white throughout the petals.  Making an excellent specimen plant for spring color, it booms in late ...