I'm back from speaking at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. What a whirlwind trip and a breath of Spring! My suitcases are bulging with gifts, and I also snuck in a few dahlias and a peony I've never grown, 'Myrtle Gentry.' I'm told it truly is dinner-plate sized. Time to buy another peony support. I bought several dahlias on my last day at the show. In keeping with trying not to grow every single thing I see, I bought two each of three varieties. Friends, Leslie from Growing a Garden in Davis and Cindy From My Corner of Katy gave me a dahlia from Swan Island Dahlias called 'Tutti Frutti.' A group of us are growing this dahlia all over the U.S. to see how it performs. As you know dahlias in Oklahoma aren't the easiest thing ever, but I am often successful with them if I get them started...

There comes a time in every gardener's life when she realizes she can't grow it all. Gardeners by their very nature fall in love with most plants, especially new ones, and cottage gardeners like me? We have no self-control. Acer palmatum 'Shindeshojo' and a peak at the garage border. That's probably how cottage gardening started. The lady of the manor had more than enough plants, and her gardener took home some cuttings to grow in his own vegetable patch. I like to think so anyway. Phlox divaricata and Chinese fringe flower in a shady bed. With all the bountiful goodness out there, how does one balance their love of all things green and growing with the physical limitations of time and space? Further, how does the gardener make editing decisions in a garden that's matured into middle age? These questions buzzed about my mind yesterday as I cut back ornamental grasses and perennials for the...

It's January. Time for the annual seed catalog roundup, but I don't want to do one, so I'm not going to. I'm working on several new speaking engagements for spring and summer, and my head is full of other information. I've done seed catalogs before. From those posts, you can see which companies I favor. Here's information on when to start seeds with a calculator too, and here's how to start seeds indoors. Seed catalogs are crack for the winter weary gardener. Now, that we're done with my normal seediness, let's do ten tips to get started gardening. Hell, I don't know where to start some years. In winter, I walk out in the garden and just stare at it for awhile. It's as if it takes the spring breeze to blow all the cobwebs from my winter brain. Once I begin removing the insulating cover of dead foliage from emerging plants though,...

The only things blooming at RDR in January are those in my indoor garden: amaryllis, hyacinths, daffodils and lily of the valley, to name a few. This living menagerie is enough to get me through winter. As I wrote last week, blooming plants beat the winter blues. I started forcing hyacinths and milder scented paperwhites in September and October, the date dependent upon whether I wanted them for Christmas flowers or after. I try to time them for a continuous indoor garden from November through March. I also scour local nurseries and stores for other blooms too. The photo, above, although not blooming, is one of my favorites because there is so much promise of good things to come. Hyacinths are starting to peek out from behind their leaves. Some won't bloom all the way in spite of my chilling period. The hyacinths are just starting to peek out from behind their leaves with...