A selection of flowers for all levels of shade from medium to dense to bring color to the shade garden all season long.

If you’re looking for something a little more interesting than moss and lichen to brighten up a shady corner of your garden, the wide variety of shade-loving flowers available will provide you with [...]

Plants and Flowers !
Plants can be divided into two types: flowering plants and non-flowering plants. The are many flowering plants such as the rose, daisy, tulip and others. Non-flowering plants include coniferous trees [...]

If you’re looking for something a little more interesting than moss and lichen to brighten up a shady corner of your garden, the wide variety of shade-loving flowers available will provide you with an abundance of colors and shapes to start your shade garden with.
Knowing what kind of shade you’re working with is the first [...]

Proper selection of Ficus benjamina will give you a head start in growing this beautiful houseplant.

Purchase a healthy plant. Look for nice green leaves that are flexible and not brittle. There should be a minimum of dropped leaves in/around the pot. There should be no insects on the plant. Ask for a little water from [...]

While the Ficus benjamina is notorious for being difficult to grow, it is possible to raise a healthy tree. Just follow a few simple guidelines, and your tree will have the best chances for a long life.

Ficus Benjamina enjoys indirect light, so don’t place it in a window where it gets more than an hour [...]

This is a very easy step in how to grow flowering plants using stems. You will produce more plants faster than seeds.

Select a healthy, pest and disease free parent plant. The plant could be 1 year old or older.
Look for a stem that is already mature but still green inside. Scrape off the bark to [...]

Irises are not hard to grow if you keep a few basics in mind. They’re relatively drought-tolerant and very low maintenance. The plant has beautiful large flowers in the spring. It can also surprise the gardener by occasionally blooming again in the fall if conditions are right.

Understand rhizomes. Irises grow from fan-shaped clumps that grow [...]

Ever see a plant that moves when you tickle it?

TickleMe Plants Can Grow Pink Puffy Flowers “TickleMe Plant” is a brand of Sensitive plant seeds and educational growing kits. If you’ve never grown a TickleMe Plant and watched it move, here is some expert advice!

Use a flower pot or make a small hole in the [...]

Start by setting aside some space in your yard to have a garden. It should be in a sunny area where the soil isn’t too moist.
Decide what you want to grow and sell: Plants or cut flowers?
Decide whether you want to be an organic grower or whether you want to use pesticides and other chemicals. [...]

anther - the anther is the tip of a flower’s stamen ( the male reproductive organs of the plant) - it contains the pollen.filament - the filament is the part of the flower that holds the anther (and part of the stamen, the male reproductive organs of the plant).
ovary - the ovary is a female [...]

A plant is a member of the kingdom Plantae, a living organism that utilizes photosynthesis, a process in which energy from sunlight is converted to chemical energy (food). Plants are at the base of the food web and are autotrophs (or producers - organisms that make their own food). Plants vary greatly in size, shape, [...]

Plants and Flowers !
Plants can be divided into two types: flowering plants and non-flowering plants. The are many flowering plants such as the rose, daisy, tulip and others. Non-flowering plants include coniferous trees [...]

This summer I’ve noticed, as have others, many Bradford, or ornamental, pears with leaves that look like fall coloration. Usually these trees are older, probably in the 7+ year old range. Often these trees are also a little thin in the crown. I’ve looked at a few of these where I had access. Several of [...]

I’ve always liked the fast-growing, non-stop, blue-blooming, sun-loving, drought-enduring ‘Indigo Spires’ salvia. One weakness it does have is that grows so fast, and never stops blooming that it gets so big it tends to flop and fall over, especially in well-tended (read fertilized and watered) gardens. You can, and should cut it back occasionally, but [...]

The violet-blue color of achemines used to be relegated, at least in my mind, to hanging baskets and indoor light gardens. But several years ago, a member of the Tyler Men’s Garden Club passed along to me a handful of really small, dried coral-colored rhizomes and said for me to give them a try. They [...]

When living in Corpus Christi, I enjoyed growing a plant called Firespike (Odontonema strictum). It’s large, dark green glossy leaves emerged in late spring in a shaded spot in my yard, making a lush and luxurious clump. Then in late summer, firey red spikes emerged, drawing in every hummingbird to fight over the clusters of [...]

A few years ago while visiting the Ft. Worth Botanical Gardens, a little low growing plant in a shady grove caught my eyes. I’d never seen it before, but it had a sign right by it (bless the Bot. Garden folks for a good job of signage - the bane of many public gardens), removing [...]

Texas A&M introduced me to this plant many years ago, and it is a staple in my sunny perennial borders. It certainly doesn’t seem like a marigold, certainly not like the common French or African type annual bedding plants which usually end up as spider mite hotels in a hot Texas summer. No, this marigold is very different. [...]

Farfugium! It just kind of rolls off your tounge. At first, I really was miffed at the taxonomical change from what I knew as Ligularia tussilaginea to Farfugium japonicum. But, it acutally is a good thing, because what is still known as Ligularia are not predictably hardy here in our sultry Northeast Texas summers. Plus, I never [...]

A person asked recently how to tell the difference between gopher and mole mounds. As a matter of fact, a lot of people don’t realize that moles make mounds, and sometimes lots of them. The main difference in the mounds is that mole mounds are just blobs of dirt on the ground; gopher mounds have definite indents on one side of [...]

This is a favorite time of year, when one of my favorite groups of plants stand out like shining beacons even in broad daylight. I’m talking about Japanese maples (Acer palmatum). The northeast Texas area has ideal conditions for growing Japanese maples, and Tyler is a great place to see these spectacular plants in action.
Every year [...]

e redbuds. They are great plants that fit into almost any yard and landscape. There are several great varieties, with improved darker colors, Aggie-maroon foliage (’Forest Pansy’), and even a weeping variety. These are clones or subspecies of the native Cercis canadensis. Then there are the Texas redbud and the Mexican redbud, with a tougher constitution [...]

We are seeing an interesting number of galls already this spring. Galls have always fascinated me, mainly because of the many curious shapes and colors on such a wide range of plants. Most galls we see in trees are caused by very small insects, often tiny wasps. Galls are triggered to form when a gall-making insect lays eggs [...]

Tyler is famous not only for its roses, the Tyler Rose Garden, and the Texas Rose Festival, but also for the beautiful Tyler Azalea Trail each year mid-March through the first week of April. Mile after mile of brick-lined streets and quiet neighborhoods explode with color, along with the dogwoods and and other spring-time flowers. [...]

Fran Pontasch, North Texas viticulture adviser for Texas AgriLife Extension Service, announced a July 22 workshop in Stephenville, designed for persons thinking about, or already are growing, wine grapes. Pontasch serves the North Texas area, which includes Tyler, and will be conducting the workshop at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Stephenville from [...]

2008 has been a slower year for mole activity at my home. I’ve trapped a few of them, but recently, one has been a bugger to catch. I knew there was one in the area - tunnels directly under a newly planted vegetable garden; mounds in the middle of the backyard lawn; and an occasional [...]

One of the great things about the IDEA Demonstration Garden located in the Tyler Rose Garden is the how the Smith Co. Master Gardeners are always on the search for new and great plants for the Northeast Texas area. This spring they found this cool plant in one of the box stores - a dahlia with [...]

If you like  loud, gawdy, bright, attention-getting plants, then take a look at Dancing Flame salvia. This speciman is located in the Heritage Rose Garden in the Tyler Rose Garden, and you cannot miss it. It’s bright yellow and green variegated leaves on a 2.5 by 2.5 foot bush are alone enough to catch your [...]

I haven’t written much about moles lately, mainly because I haven’t caught any recently - until today. Quite awhile back I wrote that I haven’t had much success trying to trap in deeper tunnels that connect between mole mounds. Seems like the tunnels connecting mounds are so large that maybe the mole runs into part [...]

ke left a mess all across East Texas in his wake, and the extensive tree damage will take awhile to completely clear up. Many trees will retain scars for their rest of the life, though those scars will eventually be hidden. I’m referring to broken branches not properly pruned, or stripped bark, leading to internal [...]