A not-so-simple man making the transition from digging in the soil to sitting in his electric wheelchair directing a garden.
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2011/06/best-of-specialty-catalogs-2011.html
Sure you can grow all the super sweet enhanced hybrids you want but I'd like to share with you four tales of some unusual sweet corns. Multi-colored corn is associated with jack-o-lanterns and...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2009/12/rainbow-inca-sweet-corn.html
Corn Poppies, Monet 1873 Yes, I am talking about the Midwest and, no I'm not pushing any envelopes here. As a kid, I remember planting my Iceland Poppies as a winter annual in my Sydney garden...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2011/02/sow-your-poppies-outside-in-february.html
Somehow I was able to narrow down my dahlia order to just three after looking at the Swan Island Dahlias catalog of 350. I have always been a fan of flowers that are so deep red, in the rig...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2011/02/my-2011-dahlia-order.html
B&D Lillies www.bdlillies.com 'Raspberry Swirl' (above) The premiere source for asiatic, oriental and trumpet lillies in the US and maybe the world is B&D Lillies. The company's catalog is eye...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2011/02/best-of-specialty-catalogs-2011.html
The AAS winners for 2011 are generating a lot of buzz as they do every year. There are three new vegetables including two tomatoes ideal for hanging baskets. It should be interesting if they ho...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2010/01/be-skeptical-of-aas-vegetable-winners.html
This column first appeared in the June issue of the Kansas City Gardener. Drive into most new home developments in the Kansas City area and within a stone’s throw you’ll find the overused f...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2011/01/patricks-picks-underused-shade-trees.html
The Missouri Botanical Garden is one of the most beautiful places on earth. In this master gardener's mind it ranks not too far above the Grand Canyon. I lived in St. Louis for three years and ...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2011/01/best-kept-secret-mobot-plants-of-merit.html
A Cartoon by Joseph Tychonievich The seed catalog people are all about pushing new varieties and getting them to the market as soon as possible. Many times there is less field testing of the ...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-of-seed-catalogs-2011.html
I'm working on a major landscape project for a dear friend this year. It's a 1910 two story home with a wrap around porch. All white with limited black trim. She made a significant investment ...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2011/01/clematis-niobe-for-inspiration.html
Can't sleep again tonight so I'm blogging. Came across this serene imagine earlier in the day while checking the spelling of helleborus on google. It's a memory garden for a woman who lost a s...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2011/01/memory-garden-what-beautiful-thought.html
The most exciting introduction of 2011 is hands down 'Black Velvet' petunia. Most flowers that use black or night are just very dark people such as 'Queen of the Night' tulip. But Black Velvet is...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2011/01/black-velvet-petunia-goes-with.html
From top:'Tropical Bronze Scarlet' Canna 'Sunstastic' Scaveola 'Plentifall' Trailing Pansy 'Black Velvet' Petunia Greenhouse Grower is a trade publication targeted at commercial gr...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-flowers-coming-2011.html
When I moved from my subtropical paradise garden in Sydney, Australia to Kansas in 1978 at age 13, I was devestated. We had moved with my father's job and the only saving grace was it was a two...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2010/12/gardening-101-series-begins.html
Poinsettias now seem synonymous with the holidays, but we owe their existence as we know it to one man: Paul Ecke. Ecke, founder of the Paul Ecke Ranch in Encinitas, CA, was single-handedly respo...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2009/11/patricks-picks-poinsettias-poinsettias.html
The Christmas Cactus is actually a tropical epiphyte from the rain forests of Brazil. An epiphyte is a plant which relies on another plant for support but not for nutrients. Despite the high rai...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2010/11/3-holiday-plants-beyond-pointsettias.html
At a New Jersey art museum on last night's Antiques Roadshow, the program spotlighted glass paperweights including the above poinsettia paperweight. Crafted at the New England Glass Company, ...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2010/01/poinsettia-paperweight-1850-1870.html
Paul Ecke had a daunting objective in the 1960s when he started breeding pointsettias. He wanted to take a tall, gangly mexican shrub and turn it into a potted plant. Then he had another daun...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-polar-bear-poinsettia-launch.html
Checkout my gardening gifts column in this month's Kansas City Gardener. For the newbie and experienced gardener, the award winning Veggie Gardener Answer Book could be very useful. The book...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2009/11/patrick-picksgardener-giftspart-2.html
I'm working on an advertising project and asked the marketing team at PW what do they consider to be their best combos? Picture above are three of those combos. From top: Purple Haze...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2010/11/best-of-proven-winners-combos.html
one of the holy grails of peony breeding was to introduce the deep yellow of tree peonies into the tradional peony. the new catergory are called intersectionals or itoh peonies, named for the j...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2009/10/yellow-itoh-peonies.html
when australians think of pumpkins, they think blue. Without Halloween to drive the jack-o-lantern industry of thick skin type pumpkins. Australian pumkins are all about taste. Baker Cr...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2009/10/blue-pumpkins-of-australia.html
I've always been a collector from Christmas ornaments to watering cans. Now that I'm in an apartment I've been looking for an inexpensive catergory that didn't need a lot of storage. I just h...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2009/12/collecting-antique-seed-packets.html
for many years heucheras were dark green plants with insignificant flowers. then a dark purple seedling was bred at Kew Gardens in London. i can personally tell you that Kew is wonderful. (n...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2009/10/heucheras-new-hybrids-explosion.html
in honor of the season, i'm enjoying reading a book titled "backyard giants - the passionate, heart breaking, and glorius quest to grow the biggest pumpkin ever." it's a documentary followin...
http://gardenwheeling.blogspot.com/2009/11/backyard-giant-pumpkins.html