The National Garden Bureau wants to see everyone’s home blossom with geraniums. Each year the bureau selects a flower and a vegetable to promote, and in 1998 the geranium is the flower they will spotlight. Geraniums include a diverse array of garden flowers from the highly double-flowered hybrid annual types that give season-long color, to ivy geraniums noted for their cascading growth habit, and scented geraniums grown primarily for the remarkably fragrant oils contained in […]

Amaryllis is a popular holiday gift plant but may have the lucky recipient wondering about its proper care. Amaryllis is a tender bulb that won’t survive outdoors even in the mildest of Indiana winters. But it can be grown indoors to provide a dramatic show of color during dreary winter months. The showy flowers range from crimson, scarlet, rose, lavender, white or bi-colored combinations. Although each plant may produce only one cluster of 2-4 blooms, […]

The Perennial Plant Association has named the purple coneflower cultivar ‘Magnus’ as the perennial plant of the year for 1998. Known botanically as Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus,’ this cultivar and species was selected for its outstanding performance as a sun-loving, long-flowering perennial that is easy to grow. Purple coneflower is native to the midwestern plains, though the cultivar ‘Magnus’ hails from a Swedish nursery and is named for the plant’s breeder. Purple coneflower as a species […]