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On Gardening: Double your garden pleasure with two new Superbells
Two new Superbells calibrachoas are hitting the garden centers this year and will forever change your mind on the incorporation of double flowers in your designs. That’s right: Superbells Double Vintage Coral and Double Smitten Pink will win your hearts.
Yours truly had a mental block on double calibrachoas until a few years ago when I had ...Read more

The Greener View: Great Backyard Bird Count
In just a few weeks, winter will be over. Most birds will be happy it is over, too. The typical sparrow or cardinal that comes to a backyard feeder weighs about as much as a quarter. They spend virtually every waking moment looking for food (just like teenagers) and may consume 15% of their body weight on a cold winter's night trying to stay ...Read more

On Gardening: Become the maestro of your garden with agastache
Agastache, also known as anise hyssop and hummingbird mints, needs to be at the top of your list as we rocket toward planting season. Your trusty friend The Garden Guy is here to give you the long and the short (or to be more specific, the short and tall) of these ever-so-important pollinator plants. You will soon become the "maestro" of your ...Read more

The Greener View: American Garden Rose Selections 2025 Winners
The American Garden Rose Selections judges have announced the newest roses to be selected in their testing program. This year, there are an unprecedented nine new winners.
The All-America Rose Selections program ran from 1940 until 2013. The AGRS program began in 2016. If you are looking in a garden catalog and see that a rose was the winner of...Read more

On Gardening: Serendipity ornamental onion is a must-have for perennial or pollinator garden
During my years as executive director of the Columbus Botanical Garden in Georgia, I fell madly in love with the garlic chives in our herb garden. I’m not an herbalist or a culinary artist in the kitchen, but I am a butterfly lover and had just completed a stint as executive director of the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas.
Who ...Read more

The Greener View: Crinums
My birthday is coming up, and I was asked what my favorite plant is.
My favorite plants have to meet a few important criteria. They must come back on their own, because I can be a lazy gardener. Insects and diseases must be rare, so there will be no need to spray. I like plants that can grow in the water along the shoreline of my water garden, ...Read more

On Gardening: Solenia Apricot begonia is a dream come true
Years ago I had the opportunity to visit gardens in Victoria, Vancouver, and scenic towns like Leavenworth, Washington, and was mesmerized by their hanging baskets and mixed containers. If you’ve been there, you probably have had the same dreams as The Garden Guy. And the past two years have opened my eyes to new possibilities, thanks to the ...Read more

The Greener View: Green Thumb Awards
For the past two weeks, I have been writing about the All-America Selections winners. The AAS program trials the plants at test gardens all over the country, and judges rate the plants all during the growing season. The Green Thumb Awards program winners have been announced, so let us talk about them today.
Winners of the 2025 Green Thumb ...Read more

Across generations, these community gardens offer refuge, passion and 'wonderful friendships'
SAN DIEGO -- When Kelicia Pitts moved here from New Jersey in 2021, she figured it wouldn’t be too hard to find work and housing. Give me two months, she thought to herself, as she rented an Airbnb in Del Cerro.
But finding a job that could pay San Diego’s high rents was easier said than done, and after bouncing around, she soon found ...Read more