Wild Ones Loess Hills Chapter Sioux City area Register at https://forms.gle/wrvntqVeA4oc8aGLA to receive the times and addresses for each garden. Block these mornings on your calendar for our 2021 walks:July 24: a guided prairie walk near AnthonAugust 14: Sioux City community gardensAugust 28: Le Mars and HintonSeptember 11: Sioux City’s Riverside and Stone Park area Invite a … Continue reading
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Deck or Porch Gardening
Choosing container plants and gardening on the deck or porch is one way to care for some plants you like. It has these advantages that you may see on the short video. —In the Plant Exchange region, some gardeners prefer to garden away from deer and rabbits. Fencing is an option, but this is another … Continue reading
Flowers in Hot Weather
We can hardly wait for spring in our Northern Plains region! It’s not uncommon to have lots of cool and erratic temperatures during spring, this year included. Now, as summer begins, the unseasonal sweltering days with little rain stress perennial vines like clematis. Its roots flourish with supplemental soil watering and mulch to slow moisture … Continue reading
Nature Moment with Monarda
What is attracting most pollinators at Plant Exchange today is the native plant, Wild Bergamot or Bee Balm (USDA Zone 4-8). The perennial likely will continue blooming into the summer. Wild Bergamot grows to about 4 feet tall, and the stems remain upright in windy conditions in the back of the flowerbed. According to Xerces … Continue reading
Unforgettable Lilacs
It’s a bouquet of lilac flowers, the lowest ones in reach, shades of lavender, the kind you bury your face in, to experience the fragrance of blossoms and sun-warmed leaves. Held with two hands with a drawing, signed in big letters, is an unforgettable Mothers’ Day. When driving by the rows of lilacs against evergreens … Continue reading
Where Do Tomatoes Originate?
Welcome to a couple of “Dibbles and Bits” at Plant Exchange blog. The first is about the origin of tomatoes, followed by what influences the Ginkgo tree to live so long. The quest for the tastiest and then largest tomato is part of the garden season lore. Finding the “roots” of tomatoes may help in … Continue reading
Garden Bloggers Bloom Day— April 15th
Welcome to Plant Exchange on the Northern Plains. We’re USDA Zone 4b-5a and having a couple of weeks of cool temperatures after an early spring warming. We’re featuring a few perennials and trees in bloom now. Hellebores have been in bloom since last month when it snowed, and the sturdy and droopy flowers fit this … Continue reading
Consider Perennials to Plant
With the latest layers of snow mostly melted, we begin to think about what perennials we’d like to include in our gardens this season. Adding color is a lift. Echinacea cultivars add color variety and intensity. Columbine flowers add delicacy to a flowerbed. Asters bloom later in summer. Rudbeckias are a natural part of summer … Continue reading
Dibbles and Bits
It’s a reflective time of year. Even bunnies are pausing a moment as they find today’s path. Plant lovers thinking about next gardening season have all the seed catalogs a table can hold and plenty online besides. At Plant Exchange, garden magazines are a hit for reading and reflection now. Articles in the January/February 2021 … Continue reading
How Does a Winter-Flowering Plant Make Seed?
Camellias are introduced plants from Japan and nearby Asian countries that have adapted well in the Southeast United States for more than a hundred years. In the south, camellias bloom in the fall or winter or early spring, sometimes before bulb plants. In nature, not many plants bloom at this time. Camellias are shrubs with … Continue reading
