Category: The Gardening Guy

Seeds, journals, and how about a Nut Wizard?

New England skies in winter are often cloudy and dark, accompanied by sleet, slush, rain or snow. The sun sleeps late and goes to bed early. Gardeners sometimes give up and go to Florida. Not me, but there is much I do to make the holidays cheerful.

I put up blue holiday lights outdoors on trees and shrubs. And I think about gifts for my loved ones — most of whom are gardeners. Let’s see what I am helping Santa with this year.

First, there are books. Always good for long nights or cold days. A book I have enjoyed this year was written by a friend of mine, Jill Nooney. She wrote a wonderful book called Bedrock: The Making of a Public Garden (Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2025, $50). Jill is a plant collector, a garden designer and a sculptor. Her book is not only the story of making a public garden; it is also full of design insights and an introduction to many unusual plants suitable for our zone. She writes well, and tells good stories, too.

Then there is entomologist Doug Tallamy’s 2025 book, How Can I Help? Saving Nature with Your Yard. The book is in the form of questions — 499 of them — and answers in a simple, readable form. It’s like sitting down with your favorite and wise uncle, but one who knows the science behind complex questions about what we can do to help save our environment. Hardback, $30.

I believe in supporting local garden centers and avoiding internet purchases. We need our local purveyors of plants, seeds and fertilizers. But an unusual tool might not be found locally: the Nut Wizard. This is a long-handled tool with a rolling wire device the size and shape of a football that picks up apples or nuts. When the device is full, spread the wires over a bucket or wheelbarrow and it empties. This is fun to use — kids love it, so Tom Sawyer will be proud of you for “letting” them use it. I got one long ago and I see that now there are several brands, not just the Nut Wizard, and several sizes.

For those of you on a shoestring budget, let me suggest a few no-cost/low suggestions, too. If you’ve saved seeds from your heirloom tomatoes or flowers, these are good gifts. If you have none, the seed companies have their 2026 seeds available well before Christmas. I called Johnny’s Selected Seeds and High Mowing Organic Seeds, two of my favorites, and they both confirmed next year’s seeds are ready to ship. So if you had good luck with a tomato or zinnia variety, give some seeds.

Maybe I am from a different era than you (or a different planet), but I like keeping a journal. I started at age 8, but I confess that these past 20 years my computer has become my record keeper. Perhaps you use your cell phone (I don’t have one). This year I am going back to keeping a handwritten gardening journal.

There are many available for sale, some just blank books, others designed for use by gardeners. Lee Valley Tools has a 10-year gardening journal, one big page for each day of the year, and 10 sections per page. I’ve had one, and if I were diligent in its upkeep I’d have some great data. But it’s a bit big and clunky, and I didn’t keep it in a handy place.

This year I found The Old Farmer’s Almanac Garden Journal for sale at my local bookstore. I bought one — I like that its pages are not dated. It has some nice art prints of plants and some nice quotes about gardening here and there. It only cost me $15.95, and it will last me more than a year.

Every year I recommend the CobraHead Weeder because it is the best darn weeding tool ever made. It’s a rugged single-tine hand tool shaped like a cobra up and ready to strike. It is neither right- nor left-handed. I use mine to loosen the soil to plant, to tease out long roots of grasses and weeds, or to get in tight places. At $39 from the website (www.cobrahead.com) it is a bargain. It’s a family-run business, the tools made in America. It has a hole for a bright colored string to help you find it if buried in the compost pile. Also available from good garden centers and seed companies.

Lastly, a friend recently sent us an amaryllis bulb that had been dipped in shiny red wax. It’s gorgeous, and for non-gardening friends it is excellent, too: no soil needed, no watering needed. Just put it on the table and watch it grow, blooming in four to six weeks. It sits nicely on its flat base of wax. I can’t wait to see it bloom!

So start your holiday shopping now. Give gardening gifts, and hope someone gives you something off this list, too.

Henry lives and gardens in Cornish, N.H. This column appears just once a month now, in his semi-retirement. Reach him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.

Featured photo: Nut Wizard. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Rinse your pots, test your soil and more

By Henry Homeyer
listings@hippopress.com

After a severely dry summer, October brought much-needed rains, at least here in Cornish Flat, New Hampshire. It is particularly important for trees, shrubs and perennials planted this year to go into the winter well-hydrated, and it looks like Mother Nature has taken care of that. I always recommend watering new plants before the ground freezes if they are dry.

Because of the drought, there is virtually nothing left blooming. Everything has gone by. The only bloomer in my garden (in early November) is a small native tree, witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), which is loaded with small curly yellow flowers on its branches. It is pollinated by the owlet moth, one of the few pollinators still active now, after many frosts. The seeds are not formed until spring, and it is not until next fall that the seed capsules burst open, sending seeds up to 45 feet away.

Winterberry is not blooming now, but it is loaded with bright red berries. A native shrub, it grows in swamps and wet places in the wild, but it also can be used in regular garden soil. It is dioecious, meaning that there are male and female plants. Fortunately the nursery industry labels their stock as male or female. Only one male is needed for most plantings. It looks great in a vase with cuttings of witch hazel or with sprigs of evergreens.

But on to the late fall chores. Now is the time to empty your clay and enamel pots of their soil. If not, they are likely to burst when wet soil in them expands on freezing. Best to rinse out and put your favorite pots in the garage or barn. Plastic and fiberglass pots won’t break.

What about your lawn? If you have a heavy leaf load, I recommend raking up the leaves. Oaks and other heavy leaves can impede growth in early spring and can encourage snow mold. If you don’t have a smothering load of leaves, you can just mulch them with your lawn mower and leave them in place. They will add needed organic matter to the soil, helping you to have a nice lawn next summer. To avoid snow mold, give your lawn one last mowing, cutting it a little shorter than usual.

By now you probably have brought inside all potted house plants that summered outside. If so, you may have a nice crop of aphids on some of them. Look for sticky excrement on leaves, and tiny aphids. You can get rid of the aphids two ways: first, take the pots outside and rinse the leaves (top and bottom) with the hose. Or take a shower with your plants! Only kidding; just rinse them off in the kitchen sink or shower. Alternatively, you can spray them with “Safer Soap” or your homemade equivalent: one tablespoon of mild dish soap in a quart of water. Spray the leaves and rinse after 20 minutes. It will dissolve the fats in their skin, drying them out and doing them in.

This is a good time to test your soil. In the spring the wait is often long. Now you can get quick results and make improvements to the soil if need be. Each state has a Cooperative Extension Service that offers soil testing for a minimum fee. In my state the standard test includes recommendations for adding fertilizer, pH, mineral content, organic matter content, and a test for lead. If your vegetable garden is near a house that was built before 1970, when lead paint was outlawed, you should get it tested for lead. For an additional fee you can get your soil tested for cadmium and other heavy metals, too.

When you buy blueberry plants the soil they come in is at the proper pH (a measure of the acidity). But as the roots extend outward, they may not have the proper pH. If your blueberries are not producing well, get the pH tested. They need very acidic soil, 4.5 to 5.5 on the pH scale. This is a good time of year to add soil acidifier or elemental sulfur if your soil is not acidic enough. Sprinkle soil acidifier around the plants, extending out 2 to 3 feet from their centers. This will improve production in a year or two. You may want to get the soil around your bushes tested for pH, in addition to a general soil test for your other gardens.

This is a good time to do some pruning. After leaf drop you can really see the branches. You can ask yourself, as you look at a shrub or tree, “What will this branch be like in five years?” If it’s growing toward another branch or shooting through the middle of the shrub, you should remove it now, while it is still small. I never prune a woody plant in the first or second year after planting — it needs all its leaves to produce food for the roots.

If you have cleaned up your vegetable bed and removed annual flowers elsewhere, it is good to cover the soil with chopped leaves. Weed seeds are blowing around now. Don’t offer them a good place to land and spend the winter. I don’t usually pull annuals in the fall for that reason. I just snip off the tops and pull the roots in the spring.

Generally we are most active in the garden in the spring and early summer, but this is the time to do some planning. Put on an extra layer of wool, grab a notebook, and take a walk around your gardens. Make note of places that need more or different plants, and do some research about what would do well there. We have a long winter ahead, so do your homework!

Henry is an organic gardener living in Cornish, N.H. He is the author of four gardening books and frequently lectures to garden clubs and library groups. Reach him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.

Fall leaves make good mulch

By Henry Homeyer
listings@hippopress.com

After a hot, dry summer — there was a drought in most parts of New England — we had a very early frost this year, Sept. 20. Not enough to kill our late potato vines, but enough to kill squash and dahlias. I was caught off guard. I am now getting ready for winter.

It is important to clean up the vegetable garden well to avoid overwintering diseases. Pull your squash, cucumber and tomato vines and compost them well away from the vegetable garden. I have a compost pile for noxious weeds and grasses and for plants that harbor fungi. That compost never gets hot enough to kill weed seeds or diseases, but it disposes most of the organic material at home, rather than sending it to the landfill.

After pulling the plants in the vegetable garden, I weed carefully and then hoe up the mounded beds with soil from the walkways and add a layer of good compost. Finally, I mulch planting areas well to keep weeds from starting in early spring, before I plant. Fall leaves are fabulous mulch: They inhibit germination of weeds, prevent soil erosion, and add good organic matter and minerals to the soil.

Although many gardeners chop up their fall leaves with a bagging lawnmower, I usually don’t. I just rake them onto a tarp and spread them over the vegetable beds. Will the leaves blow away? A few might, but after the first good rain they compact and settle in for a good winter’s nap. If I have more than I need for the vegetable garden, I run them through my chipper-shredder to reduce their volume and store dry in big barrels. This stuff I use in flower beds in the spring. Plants love it!

We have an exorbitant number of flower beds so it’s a lot of work to cut back perennials and get out any late-season weeds. Here are a few tips:

1. Use a serrated knife or folding pruning saw to slice off multi-stemmed plants like daylilies. Grab a handful of foliage and with one swipe they are all ready for the wheelbarrow. If that method is not for you, how about using hedge shears or even a weed whacker to cut down big expanses of flower stalks?

2. I have my pollinator or “Darwin” bed, which gets no weeding — it has filled up with tall plants that fight it out for space: phlox, fall asters, goldenrod, Joe Pye weed and obedient plant. I leave it until spring to clean up, as it provides good places for beneficial insects to overwinter.

3. We have a lot of hostas, and I wait to clean up until hard frost has killed the tops. Then I can either just grab the mushy leaves and pull them off, or use a rake to do the work.

4. As for weeds, we don’t have many. The flower beds are weeded early in summer and then well-mulched. But I use my favorite tool, the CobraHead weeder, to remove any late season invaders. It is able to get under weeds, loosen the roots, and get them all out.

Now is the time for planting bulbs. To save time and energy, don’t plant them one at a time. For 25 daffodils I excavate an oval 30 to 36 inches long and 18 inches wide and 8 inches deep. I put good soil in a wheelbarrow or a tarp, and rocks and heavy clay or poor soil in another. I put about 2 inches of good soil in the bottom and mix it up with some bagged organic fertilizer or bulb booster. I nestle the bulbs into that mix, and cover with good soil or soil and compost mix. Bulbs need good drainage and reasonably good soil.

Daffodils last many years — tulips less so. I plant 100 tulips just 3 or 4 inches apart in rows 8 inches apart in my vegetable garden once it is cleaned up, and use them for cutting and putting in vases and for giving away. I generally pull the bulbs after cutting in the spring, but one year I kept 50 or so and replanted in the fall. The following spring they bloomed, but were shorter and smaller. Since deer love tulips I can use chicken wire vertically along the sides of the bed to keep them away, come spring.

I plant garlic in mid-to late-October each year, mainly using garlic I grew the year before, but sometimes buying new varieties to try. I plant once the soil has chilled as they may start growing this fall if planted in warm soil. That’s not awful, but I prefer to avoid it. I plant garlic 3 inches deep, 4 inches apart in the rows, and rows 8 inches apart. I give them a little organic fertilizer at planting time, and cover with a 6- to 10-inch layer of mulch hay or straw. They’ll grow through it next spring, but most weeds will not.

I prune some trees and shrubs in October, too. You really can prune any month, but once leaves are down it is easier to see their stems and look for crowded areas, crossing or rubbing branches, and dead branches to remove. To identify dead branches, just rub the bark with your thumbnail. If it shows green it’s alive; if not it’s dead. Prune so sunshine can hit every leaf and there is good air circulation.

So don’t walk away from the garden now and say, “I’ll get it next spring.” Get those weeds now. The more you do, the easier it will be next spring.

Henry can be reached by e-mail at henry.homeyer@comcast.net.

Featured photo: Daffodil bulbs planted in a 36-inch oval hole, ready to cover with soil. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

And other advice for September gardening

By Henry Homeyer

listings@hippopress.com

I’ve seen the big yellow buses meandering down the road, lines of impatient drivers behind them, noisy kids inside. That tells me, temperatures notwithstanding, that fall has arrived.

The most common question I am fielding is about lilacs: Why have so many had their leaves turn brown and fall off early? We had a wet spring, ideal conditions for fungal diseases to thrive, and many are affected. The ultra-dry conditions of August stressed the lilacs, making them even more susceptible. But fear not: They should recover next year.

I recently spoke to Kitty Werner, curator of lilacs at the UVM Horticulture Farm. She agreed that the problem is a blight and suggested that you rake up the dead leaves so spores don’t overwinter near your lilacs.

Give your lilacs a slow, deep watering now, and again every week until we get some serious rain. Bring your hose to the plant, and set the rate at very slow. Let it slowly sink in over a period of five minutes or more. If you have planted any new trees or shrubs this year, also give them a deep watering on a regular basis. This will allow roots to grow — scientists have determined that fall is when most root extension occurs.

Mulch can be useful for minimizing weeds, but it is also a liability. Even 2 inches of ground bark mulch on a flower bed can soak up all the water from a quick watering with your hose, or a nice 20-minute shower from the sky. If you are not sure if the water is getting to your soil, water, pull back the mulch and poke around in the soil with your finger.

My vegetables did well this summer, as they loved all the sunshine. My soil is very high in organic matter, so it holds water well. My spring-planted lettuces were cut-and-come again varieties, so I ate good lettuce all summer. Because I cut off heads instead of pulling them, the roots started up new plants, which produced well. Now everything has bolted and I will leave a few to set and drop seeds. Those will start new plants in April, even when the soil is too wet for me to work it.

When I was visiting a friend the other day, she pulled off a leaf from a lettuce plant that had bolted and ate it. Huh? I always worked on the idea that bolted lettuce is too bitter to eat. But I tried one, and it was good. So I have been tasting my lettuce that has bolted, and lettuce from other gardens. Most tasted fine to me, a few were worth making a face. Of course, I know that as we age our taste buds change, so to you younger folk, maybe all bolted lettuce is inedible. But it’s worth sampling your lettuce before pulling it out.

It is not too late to plant more lettuce. In late August I planted some Black Seeded Simpson. It is heat tolerant and frost tolerant, and matures in 21 to 40 days after it germinates. It’s a workhorse, and I should be able to start picking a few leaves later this month. Even if you plant in mid-September you will get some in October — and maybe into November. Because of the dryness, I did not seed the lettuce in the ground, but used potting soil and cells that I could monitor for moisture levels. When it is well established, I will transplant it into the ground.

Over the years I have created flower gardens that have something in bloom all three seasons. Right now monarch butterflies and migrating birds need lots of energy for their long journeys. Birds need seeds, which are high in calories, so I am not cutting back summer bloomers even if they have gone by.

We all know that monarchs need milkweed — but that is so their larvae will feed on the leaves and become toxic to birds. Adult monarchs do not feed on milkweed leaves, but right now they are enjoying feeding on nectar from goldenrod, Joe Pye weed and fall asters, among others.

As the vegetable garden winds down, it is important to pick vegetables at peak ripeness if you intend to freeze, can or dehydrate them. Woody green beans picked huge will never get eaten even if you freeze them.

You know better than to let your zucchinis get too big, but did you know you can freeze them? Cut them into bite-sized pieces and blanch them very briefly in boiling water. Thirty seconds or so will kill the aging enzymes to keep them nice once frozen. Dump the blanched squash in a sink of cold water, let cool, drain and pat dry. Freeze in zipper bags and eat within six months.

If you haven’t got your seed garlic yet, buy some. We should plant garlic in October, but by then most seed garlic is gone. And harvest your potatoes soon — even if they haven’t blossomed (which is usually when we dig them). I got a great crop, due to all the sunshine.

Every year has its own challenges, but I try not to focus on the difficulties like lack of water. And who knows? Maybe next year it will rain some every week.

You may reach Henry at henry.homeyer@comcast.net

Featured photo: Lettuce bolts when it gets tall and produces seeds. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Arranging flowers, visiting a botanic garden and putting up tomatoes

By Henry Homeyer

listings@hippopress.com

Every year on the third weekend in August, my hometown of Cornish, N.H., sponsors a country fair. Not only does it have junk food and rides for the kids, it has ox and horse pulling competitions, woodsman’s events and more. The school is full of photography, art and crafts, 4-H and a chance to show off your best and biggest zucchini. Flower arrangements of all sorts fill a whole room.

If you want to compete in a flower competition, start a week ahead of time. Test out flowers to see if they will look good for the length of the fair. Will black-eyed Susans still look good? How about bee balm?

It’s best to pick flowers for an arrangement in the morning when they are fully hydrated and before the heat of the day has had a chance to dry them out. Watering your flowers the night before helps if you’re in a dry spell. Bring a picking bucket when you collect flowers. As soon as they’re cut, plunge them into deep water, but don’t submerge the blossoms. It’s best to pick flowers that are just opening up, not in full bloom.

When you actually make your arrangements, make sure no leaves go in the vase as they will decompose and invite bacteria that will clog up the stems. And re-cut the stems before using them, removing at least ¾ of an inch of stem. Some folks do this in a bowl of water, but I just cut them and quickly put them in a vase.

What kind of vases work best? That depends on the flowers to be used. I tend to like vases with relatively narrow openings, as they keep the flowers upright. Use heavy vases to keep tall arrangements from tipping over. Pick plenty of stems, and then choose the best to use.

How tall should an arrangement be? An 8-inch vase looks good with the tallest stems about 12 to 16 inches tall. You may want to start an arrangement with a low filler, something with stiff stems that will help keep taller stems upright. Boxwood branches are good for that. Place three, five or seven stems of a particular kind of flower in the vase. Use medium-height flowers, then add another variety with slightly taller flowers until the vase seems almost full. Some people obsess about making colors complementary, but I feel all flowers are beautiful, and look good together. You’ll know what looks good as you make the arrangement. White flowers add a nice counterpoint to the others.

This is a good time of year to visit a botanical garden — it can give you ideas about new plants and interesting designs for your garden. My wife, Cindy, and I recently visited the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill in Boylston, Massachusetts (near Worcester). It has acres of well-planned gardens on 200 acres with hundreds of perennials, trees and shrubs, all artistically placed.

One of the things I especially appreciated at Tower Hill was their effort to have readily visible labels for most things, with both English and Latin names. I came away with the desire to find two plants I had not seen before: a tree called hornbeam maple (Acer carpinifolium) and a perennial called rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccafolium).

Within a week or so I found rattlesnake master at Rocky Dale Nursery in Bristol, Vermont. It is related to sea holly but has leaves like a yucca. At maturity it can get to be 4 to 6 feet tall with greenish-white, thistle-like blossoms and a basal rosette of yucca-like leaves. It is hardy to Zone 3 and is native to the Midwest. I had seen it once in Ohio in the wild. It likes hot, dry, sandy soil, preferably in full sun.

The hornbeam maple tree was intriguing. It is in the same genus as our maples, but its leaves look nothing like our maples. It is from Japan, and the leaves are like those of a hornbeam. It was growing as an understory tree in the shade garden area at Tower Hill. I loved the smooth gray bark, which is a little like that of our native beech trees. It can get to be 20 to 30 feet tall, is hardy to Zone 4, and does best in full sun to part shade. It’s a gorgeous small tree and I’m keeping an eye out for one.

For me, mid to late summer is a great time in the vegetable garden. I can eat fresh veggies every day and still have plenty left to put up for the winter. My favorites are the tomatoes. I often eat them three times a day — or more, if you count the cherry Sungolds I snack on in the garden.

I planted 37 tomato plants last spring and plan to freeze lots of tomatoes for winter use in soups and stews. The simplest method for this is to fit clean, dry tomatoes into zipper bags and put them in the freezer. To use, just run them briefly under hot water in the sink, wait 5 minutes, then rub off the skins (if you like) or just chop them up and cook with them. No canning work involved.

I also dry tomatoes in my Excalibur and Nesco American Harvester food dehydrators. Mainly I dry cherry tomatoes, cutting them in half and arranging on the trays. When dry, the tomatoes can be stored in the pantry, no need to freeze them. I put them in soups and stews, where they provide a burst of flavor.

The garden keeps me young: I get exercise, good food, and beauty. Who could ask for more?

Henry writes his column just once a month now. You may write him at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746 or email him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net.

Featured photo: Pick plenty of flowers so you have many to choose from when arranging them. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

It’s a great month for blossoms

July is a great month for blossoms — on trees, shrubs and perennials. Here are a few of my favorite July plants.

The most dramatic of my July bloomers are my Itoh peonies. These are hybrids of herbaceous and tree peonies that were developed in the mid-20th century by a Japanese plant breeder named Toichi Itoh. Unlike their parents, the blossoms of the most commonly sold ones are yellow, not pink, red or white. In fact, I’ve never seen anything but yellow ones for sale.

I have a “Garden Treasure” Itoh, and counted 46 buds on it earlier this summer. The stems of Itoh peonies are stronger than on ordinary peonies, so I don’t feel the need to support them. The blossoms on mine are 5 to 7 inches in diameter. And instead of blooming all at once, they bloom over a period of several weeks. These perennials are very pricey, but worth every dollar. And they last well in a vase.

Another favorite July bloomer is a small tree called Stewartia. I only got mine four years ago as it is a Zone 5 plant, and I was previously in a cold Zone 4 location and unwilling to take a chance on it. I’m still here in Cornish Flat, N.H., but our winters “ain’t what they useta be,” so I got one four years ago. It has a plethora of 1-inch creamy-white flowers with yellow centers that are lightly fragrant, and exfoliating bark with patches of gray, orange, white and brown that is pleasing all year. I plan to prune mine to keep it around 12 feet tall, though it could go to 20 feet tall or more if I let it.

Then there is sea holly (Eryngium amethystinum). This was a challenge for me to grow. Not because it is delicate, but because it really only thrives in dreadful soil — sandy, infertile and dry. My soil is normally high in organic matter, moist and great for most plants. The flowers are blue, numerous and spiky — and great in dried arrangements. Florists love it. If you have crummy soil, this is for you. Never fertilize it!

This year my two wisteria vines started blooming on June 19, though they usually do not bloom until July 4. For decades gardeners in northern climates lamented they could grow wisteria but couldn’t get any blossoms. That is because those vines bloom on buds set the previous summer. But ‘Blue Moon’ and ‘Amethyst Falls’ bloom on new shoots that grow in the spring. Wisteria need trellises or supports and are vigorous growers. In southern climates some wisteria can be invasive, spreading out everywhere, but I have never had a problem with mine. They produce hundreds of blue flowers, though to me, the blossoms smell vaguely of cat pee. Blue Moon re-blooms again for me later in the summer, though not profusely.

By now we’re all aware that native trees and shrubs support our birds and pollinators. According to research done at the Mount Cuba Center, a botanic garden and research center for native plants in Delaware, the best of the hydrangeas is a native one called ‘Haas Halo’, a variety of Hydrangea arborescens, or smooth hydrangea. I have it, and love that caterpillars eat the leaves. After all, it takes 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars to feed a clutch of chickadees from hatching to fledging. It blooms well in shade, and is fast growing.

For exuberant perennials that spread, bloom well in July in sun or part sun, and serve as great cut flowers, it is hard to beat the clustered bellflower (Campanula glomerata). Yes, some people consider it a thug as it can spread by root or by seed, but I find it easy to remove if it oversteps its welcome. The clusters of small blue-violet blossoms form 2-inch balls on 24-inch stems and are a delight to grow.

I grew up in Connecticut, where the mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) is the state flower. There it grows in the wild under the high canopy of oaks and other deciduous trees. It has small, dark evergreen leaves that look good all winter. The small blossoms are usually pink to white with stripes of pink, though now growers have varieties that are deep pink or even red. It does best in acidic soil. It will grow in full sun to full shade, but flowers best with moderate amounts of sunshine. Mine get morning sun only.

Another flower I love is called Knautia macedonica, a perennial with no common name. Unlike most perennials, it blooms all summer, producing wine-red 1-inch flowers on thin stems. Each flower resembles a tiny dahlia or double peony. It loves sun and rich soil, but blooms in part shade, too. Not a great cut flower, but a worthy addition to any garden.

A great shade perennial I grow for its foliage is called ‘Sun King’ Aralia. This plant has bright yellow-green leaves that just pop in a full or part shade garden. Mine gets bigger every year. Now, five years old, it stands almost 5 feet tall and more than 5 feet across. It’s in rich, fairly dry soil and gets some morning sun.

So if July in your garden is just ho-hum, get thee to a garden center and try something new.

Henry can be reached by email at henry.homeyer@comcast.net. His articles appear near the beginning of each month.