The Garden Guy has been part of a lot of coleus trials over the years, but I don’t remember seeing one like ColorBlaze Mini Me Chartreuse, which will be making its debut in 2025. I gave it casual mention in a column recently, but I am certain it deserves its own column. Hopefully you will see why.

First off it is an electrifying color of ...Read more

When its mid-November and your geraniums are still electrifying on the porch or patio you know you are talking about one of the Boldly varieties. Boldly Coral made its debut in 2022 and as such I had the opportunity to trial it in 2021. Since then it has been my go-to geranium because of its dazzling color and incredible longevity.

Boldly Coral...Read more

Awards for plants come in a variety of names: Louisiana Super Plant, Mississippi Medallion, as an example, and in Georgia where I live, it is the Classic City Award given out by the University of Georgia. The UGA Trial Gardens said in a press release that the winners represent the best overall in the gardens and were ranked on a scale of one to ...Read more

Pinky Winky has gone Prime! One of my all-time favorite hydrangea paniculata varieties, Pinky Winky is now being offered as Prime. This means you can now choose Pinky Winky or Pinky Winky Prime hydrangea for your landscape or pollinator habitat, as I will explain.

Your first question is what the difference is, and that would be size. It is ...Read more

The Temple of Bloom is like the tree of life to everyone who gardens for pollinators. It is a more compact form of Seven-Sons Flower known botanically as Heptacodium micronioides. The Temple of Bloom’s native habitat is China where its wild populations are under threat of extinction.

If you live in zones 5a to 9b however, and you are looking ...Read more

ATLANTA — Atlanta has landed a new NBC drama series “Grosse Pointe Garden Society,” which begins production Nov. 6.

According to a note provided to members of the IATSE 479 union, the series will be shot at Assembly Studios in Doraville. A 12-episode pick up is scheduled to shoot through early April and is set to debut mid-season in ...Read more

The Unplugged salvia group is growing to four in 2025 and that can be your start to an epic red, white and blue garden. There is also an Unplugged Pink that has 26 awards in the trophy case. Unplugged So Blue and Unplugged Pink have won a whopping 63 awards in what seems to be just a couple of years. Plus, what I am seeing in my own garden makes...Read more

As I look back at this gardening year, one of the plants I enjoyed the most was the Upscaled Red Velvet monarda or beebalm. I am in my third year growing the fairly new variety, and it is just getting better and better. Like countless others before me have said, the third year is like magic.

It was like magic with the bees and butterflies too. ...Read more

Four years ago or so, Supertunia Mini Vista Indigo was extensively used in our area and was like the shot heard round the world. We all looked at each other with a sense of bewilderment asking how a Mini Vista could compete with the Vistas for a long, hot summer show of color. With every new variety or addition to the series, it has been the ...Read more

The Garden Guy has always been a tropical plant geek, and not a closet one either. My second book was "Paradise Found: Growing Tropicals In Your Own Backyard." The years I was the host of Mississippi State’s Southern Gardening TV, I was most always decked out in a tropical floral shirt.

So, when Proven Winners announced this year that ...Read more

You have heard or perhaps even said something like, "Wow, he caught lightning in a bottle." It may now be said, "Boy, they caught lightning in that phlox." You will see what I mean if you try the new Luminary Pink Lightning phlox coming out in 2025.

The Luminary series already has Opalescence, a light pink tall garden phlox that is indeed the ...Read more

I looked at one of my photos the other night and thought "Holy wow!" I leaned over to the couch and said to my bride, Jan, "Look at this."

She said much the same but asked, "Where is that garden?"

Delightfully, I said, "In your backyard!"

The picture was clear evidence that the Heart to Heart caladiums faced the onslaught of extreme summer ...Read more

Water-hungry lawns are symbols of Los Angeles' past. In this series , we spotlight yards with alternative, low-water landscaping built for the future.

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LOS ANGELES -- When Aurora Anaya bought her little Art Deco house on a corner lot in Whittier, California, she was excited about the chance to create her own garden. And then she met a man...Read more

There is a grand lady who has been gracing my garden the past couple of years. In fact I would say she is definitely Miss America. You know The Garden Guy is having fun, as I am talking about Shadowland Miss America hosta.

The past two summers have to go down as a hosta survivability challenge of sorts. If the hostas are not crying uncle The ...Read more

SACRAMENTO — Eight-foot sunflower stalks tower over tracts overrun with weeds. A wooden post marks a habitat for ground-nesting native bees. Near one garden entrance, a tree’s branches droop to the ground, laden with ripe yellow peaches.

Here, in the River District, at the confluence of the Sacramento and American rivers, large green ...Read more

Last year was exciting for The Garden Guy as I became introduced to a plant called Estrellita Little Star. The name is neat to me as Estrellita actually means Little Star. While that might sound redundant it also sounds like a profound introduction: This beautiful flower is Estrellita…. Little Star. It is like Spanish and English celebrating ...Read more