Learning in Bloom gathers the active side of the garden — where curiosity meets practice. This is the working record of what I’m growing, testing, and discovering right now, from individual plant notes to small-scale experiments and ongoing lessons that shape how I understand the garden season by season.
Context and Curiosity I came to buckwheat looking for a helper, not a harvest. The back edge of my yard, where the property meets the easement, has been a quiet mess for years. Between the trees and the buried utility lines, previous owners had left it to its own devices. Burdock, in particular, had taken […]
Buckwheat as Living Mulch Read More »
coral sunset peony Common Name: Coral Sunset Peony Botanical Name: Paeonia lactiflora ‘Coral Sunset’ Hardiness Zones: 3-8 Height: 2-3 feet Spread: 2-3 feet Foliage: Upright, neat, deep green; holds shape through season Bloom: Early spring; semi-double; coral pink fading through apricot and blush to ivory Growth Rate: Slow to establish; long-lived once settled Light: Full
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Opening Observation Astilbe has followed me for years, in catalogs, garden centers, other people’s yards, but somehow never home with me. I have put them in my online cart more times than I can count, only to trim them out at the last minute. Not yet, I would think. No good place for them. This
Plant Profile: Astilbe Read More »
A bright start to spring A bright, cheerful daffodil is a great way to see the garden start to come alive. A Golden Harvest comes early and lights up the garden when everything else is still half asleep. It’s one of my husband’s favorites. Daffodils are one of his favorites because they’re unapologetically cheerful, bright,
Plant Profile: Trumpet Daffodil ‘Golden Harvest’ Read More »
The first year we lived in this home, we noticed a tree in the yard dropping berries. A tree with berries. What? I grew up in the Pacific Northwest where berries are everywhere, I am no stranger to them, but on a tree? That was new. Google Lens told me it was a mulberry, but
The Best Gardening Resources You Might Be Overlooking Read More »
Opening Observation When I started researching cover crops and natural ways to reclaim the back beds, Alpine Strawberry kept appearing on every list. It was usually framed as a charming option, a ground-hugging perennial that covers soil quickly, suppresses weeds, and offers the unexpected delight of tiny, edible fruit. It caught my attention, if only
Plant Profile: Alpine Strawberry Read More »
Opening Observation Loropetalum was one of those plants I first admired from the sidewalk. When we lived in Georgia, I noticed it in front yards all over the neighborhood—rounded shrubs with deep purple leaves and those frilly, pink, firework-like flowers that seemed to appear right around the Fourth of July. I wanted one but didn’t
Plant Profile: Dwarf Loropetalum Read More »
Opening Observation Hydrangeas are the comfort books of the garden. Everyone knows them, and yet each type tells a different story: bold mopheads, delicate lacecaps, stately panicles, dramatic oakleafs. They can be showy or subtle, but always familiar. Hydrangea macrophylla, the bigleaf hydrangea, has always been my favorite. It is generous and moody, sometimes both
Plant Profile: Bigleaf Hydrangea (Deep Purple) Read More »
Opening Observation I first learned about Tuff Stuff while designing a shade garden for a neighbor who wanted to surprise her parents with something beautiful, fragrant, and low-maintenance. She sent me inspiration photos filled with layered, flower-heavy beds, the kind that look lush and lived-in. Hydrangeas were everywhere in her examples, but the space she
Plant Profile: Mountain Hydrangea ‘Tuff Stuff’ Read More »
Opening Observation I had admired panicle hydrangeas for years without realizing what they were. From a distance, the cone-shaped blooms looked like a cross between hydrangea and lilac, familiar but not quite. I would see them in the neighborhood, pale and upright, some bright white, some tinged green, some fading to pink, and think they
Plant Profile: Hydrangea ‘Berry White’ Read More »
Opening Observation I found Clethra while looking for something else. I had a list of reliable evergreens—Sweet Box, Pieris ‘Little Heath,’ a few other steady choices meant to hold shape and color year-round. Summersweet was only on the list as an option, a maybe. But the moment I saw it, compact and quietly elegant, I
Plant Profile: Clethra alnifolia ‘Hummingbird’ (Summersweet) Read More »
Opening Observation Artemisia ‘Silver Mound’ was the first plant that taught me about companion planting — even before I knew that was what it was called. I found it years ago in Better Homes and Gardens’ Gardening Naturally (1993), a book that introduced me to the idea that some plants could quietly protect others, deterring
Plant Profile: Artemisia ‘Silver Mound’ Read More »