Welcome to the Northern Plains. Snow covers or outlines plants outdoors, but indoor houseplants bloom with a bit of extra light in a room heated for comfort. Potted Camellia japonica evergreen shrub has bloomed now and then since November. The flower has a faint spicy fragrance, and each bloom lasts several days. Shiny leaves add a background … Continue reading
Garden Winners
Who doesn’t want flower or vegetable plants that grow well with abundant foliage and flowers? When they are grown in your region of the country and compared to similar plants and still have stand-out qualities, that’s a winner. All-America Selections is a national non-profit plant trialing organization that acquaints the public with new cultivars. Impartial gardening … Continue reading
Gardener’s Time Off
What does a gardener do with unstructured time in winter? Some of the garden-related topics for enjoyment with a practical twist that this gardener might choose to include checking plants in the nursery, reading missed articles from favorite gardening magazines, and previewing seed catalogs for new ideas and introductions. Here is the nursery under the … Continue reading
Garden Bloggers Bloom Day- December 15th
Warming to 29 degrees F., ice/snow pellets cover the ground near midday after a front blew through last evening. Turkey tracks remain after cleanup duty at the birdfeeder nearby. It’s mid-December on the Northern Plains for sure. It’s cozy indoors with warm sunshine spots for the cat and dog. Camellia shrubs in containers are in … Continue reading
Dibbles and Bits
We’re looking at winter interest, rewilding, and season wind-down for today’s Plant Exchange. ***Nearly mid-December, the first “shoveling” flips the landscape into contrasts we haven’t seen for a year. Now the red hues of Little Bluestem and Miscanthus appear against white snow cover. Snowcaps adorn the spent golden yarrow from summer. No wonder this is … Continue reading
For the Birds
From early December on, seeds, berries, and insects become harder to find after the growing season. Some bird enthusiasts provide supplemental feeder food that draws them closer for observation. Sometimes turkeys are the clean-up crew. While having coffee on the deck last summer, a motionless hummingbird perched on a plant container trellis for a moment. … Continue reading
Happy Thanksgiving
We share from Mary Oliver Devotions, her poem, “The Sunflowers,” in celebration of Thanksgiving for your enjoyment. The Sunflowers By Mary Oliver Come with me Into the field of sunflowers. Their faces are burnished disks, their dry spines creak like ship masts, their green leaves, so heavy and many, fill all day with the sticky sugars … Continue reading
PostScript to Fall
Mild Fall weather has been a treat in this region. Colors have been beautiful, including those of red maples, barberry, and prairie grasses. More needs to be learned about the variation in Fall color in maples. The more intense the red of maple in a season may show its all-out effort to get more nutrients … Continue reading
Garden Bloggers Bloom Day-November 15th
Welcome to Plant Exchange Blog on the Northern Plains. Our region is USDA Zone 4-5a. The lingering progression of Fall has been a treat for all, with the first killing frost more than two weeks late. Now, most deciduous leaves are falling, and indoors is where we look for plants in bloom. If we lived … Continue reading
Another Favorite Plant
A season standout at Plant Exchange Blog is two cultivars of Rudbeckia. The mother plant is native to North America. It grows well in clay soil and is tolerant of drought and deer. Blooms are at least 3 inches in diameter and, in summer and fall, form a canopy of golden blooms like their relative, … Continue reading
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