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Another name for spiderwort is widows tears. This plant is very, very advasive and to my thinking should be banned. Once this plant is in your garden you can't get ride of it. When the small flowers die off they go into tiny seeds, the seeds then drop off and spread everywhere in your garden. The only way to get rid of the plant is to dig it out. Every spring I'm always digging this plant out from somewhere in my flower beds. I dug out the main plant a few years back but it left enough seeds behind to keep sprouting new plants. If you try pulling the plant out you won't get all the roots and the plant will come right back up again.

For beginning gardners this is a good plant to start with because it is so hard to kill. If you have a spot to where the plant can spread without bothering other plants or harm any natural woodlands, then this is a good plant for you. The flowers are small but kind of pretty, they come in a couple of shades of purple and of course white.

Planting time for your new garden is coming very soon in New England. When you think of different plants for your flower or vegetable garden, think about herbs.

Lets take lavender for a herb to plant in your garden. The benefits of lavender is that's wonderful in a flower vase, helps your skin and even makes a wonderful tea.

Here is some uses for lavender. Helps relax the body, and settle the stomach and lift your spirits. Lavender can be used for nausea, depression and colic. Lavender oil can be used on your skin for burns and added to your bath water for a great relaxation therapy. The oil is good for the nervous system, respiratory and even the digestive tracts. It even helps with the itiching of insect bites and calms headaches too.

The dosage for one cup of tea is a teaspoon of lavender flowers. You can drink a couple of cups a day if you wish. Its a very mild tea, and depending on the variety of lavender, your tea maybe a little sweeter.

Also, if you are on any medications always consult your doctor before taking any herbs. Because there is some herbs, like ginger, that can interfere with the way a drug is absorbed into your system.

Happy planting!

Have you wondered why your plant or shrub won't bloom for you? Well, there can be various reasons why that stinking plant just doesn't want to give you those beautiful blossoms. Here is just a few ideas that might be the problem.

1. Maybe the dirt that the plant is in doesn't have enought good nutrients in the soil. I have alot of clay soil so I make my own compost. When I'm going to stick my plant in the ground I always add some good compost to the hole I dug. Then I mix the soil and compost together and water the hole well. When the water is almost drained into the ground I add the plant to the hole and cover it with the dirt and maybe some more compost. I Water the plant well and mulch it and water it again. The mulch will help keep the soil moist so the plant won't dry up as fast.

2. By any chance do you have a plant that requires more sun in a shady area? Sometimes you have to move the plant to a different place in your yard for it to be happy and bloom. But, I've had plants that is suppose to be in full sun do poorly and when I stuck them in a shady spot they bloomed well for me.

3. Water, water and more water for most blooming plants. During the growing season the plants like lots of water for them to get their buds.

4. Prunning to can help some plants bloom well. Check with you local nursery when the best time to prun a certain bush.

5. A good fertilizer can be a big help too. Try using a fertilizer called Triple Super Phosphate by Espoma its 0-46-0. You can find it at a local nursery or a good farm store. The middle number (46) is what you want for blooms and the higher the number the better. There is also a good product called Schultz Bloom Plus and its 10-60-10. Just be careful not to over feed the plants becuase you can burn their roots or the plant my not bloom at all. Always read the directions before using any type of fertilizer!

My clematis you see in the picture is many years old. In fact I was ready to dig it up being it wouldn't bloom for me. The secret to the clematis, make sure you mulch the root base so the roots stay cool but the top portion likes more sun. But, I have clematis growing up oak trees which gets some shade. It really depends on the soil they are in and giving them a good fertilizer in the spring.

The companies below I've used in the past without any problems. For my garden I need very large quanities with wholesale prices. So, I sought out additional companies which offer the quanities and good pricing too.

Wayside Gardens offers some very unusual plants. I've used them in the past and their plants they send are top quality. Didn't have any problems with them.

Those beautiful peonies that come as single and double flowers can be a sight to behold. When you first start seeing buds coming on your plants make sure you leave those wonderful ants alone. Don't dust the plants or spray them to keep the ants off. Here is why:

The ants have a purpose for peonies, they eat the wax off the flower buds. This inturns lets the buds open up into flowers. If the ants don't eat the wax your buds won't open up and they will just die. So you see ants are really worth something!

Up in the northeast our bee balm is out (July) and my butterfiles love it. There are so many plants that attract those beautiful insects that I try and find as many as I can and plant, plant and plant.

The hummingbirds are a wonderful bird to watch. If you can't plant flowers for them then get hummingbird feeders and the food to attract them to your house. I have the ruby throated hummers that come every year. Being I have window boxes on my house I plant petunias to get the hummers by my windows. They are so funny and very territoral its just incredible. You can't have to many feeders or flowers for them. In fact I have 3 feeders and loads of flowers and they still fight with each other over certain areas in my yard. If you use more then one feeder make sure you put it far away from the other feeder so the hummers won't fight.

Here is a very small list of flowers for butterflies and hummingbirds.

Astilbe-butterflies
bee balm-butterflies-hummingbirds
butterfly bush-butterflies-hummingbirds
Butterfly Weed-butterflies-hummingbirds
Bleeding heart-butterflies
Beauty bush-butterflies-hummingbirds
Cardinal flower-hummingbirds
Coral Bells-hummingbirds
Fuchsias-hummingbirds
Hosta flowers-hummingbirds
Hollyhock-butterflies-hummingbirds
Honeysuckle-butterflies-hummingbirds
Hibiscus-butterflies
Iris-hummingbirds
Laverder-hummingbirds
Passion Flower-butterflies
Petunia-hummingbirds
Snapdragons-butterflies-hummingbirds
Roses-butterflies
Sun Flower-butterflies
Trumpet Vine-hummingbirds

Again this is a very small list, but you can see that a lot of the flowers are used by both the butterflies and hummers. Check with your local nursery for the best plants to use in your area for these winged friends. Happy planting!

How to get rid of those cute little chipmunks out of your flower beds. When you find a chipmunk hole, just put a good size wad of dog and or cat hair down the hole. Cover it back over with dirt and leave it alone. Sometimes the chipmunk will dig another hole in the same bed, just repeat the same step again. After a while the little critter will leave for good and not return. I've had the chipmunk get really mad and try and kick the dog hair back out of his hole. I just stuck the hair back in the hole and put a small stone over the hole. He finally got fed up and left for good.

If your planting flower bulbs just add dog hair to each whole that you dug for the bulb. Put the bulb on top of the dog hair and then just cover the whole with the dirt. The chipmunks won't bother any of your bulbs. I have thousands of flower bulbs planted, I've added dog hair in each whole(no my dogs aren't bald)and I've never had a chipmunk bother my bulbs. Yes, I have loads of chipmunks. Also, planting daffodils can deter the chipmunks from digging in your flower bed. They may dig beside the daffodil bulb if they have room, but I haven't had a chipmunk dig one up yet.

I feed my chipmunks and squirrels all year long. People say don't you get more of those furry creatures? No, I have a few squirrels that live up in my trees and when another squirrel trys to come in from another area and horn in on the bounty, the other squirrles chase it away. Infact I have 5 gray squirrles, 2 red squirrles, one black squirrel and hords of chipmunks that come and feed during the day.

Garlic you say? Yes, you can also put a fresh garlic clove down the chipmunk hole too. The chippies just hate the smell of the garlic and will leave. But, be prepared you may get garlic growing in your garden (great for a vegetable garden). That's one reason I don't use the garlic is because it sprouted every place I put it. When the garlic sprouted in my flower beds it looked like tall weeds growing up. So I stick to the dog hair, it does a good job and doesn't cost me a cent.

If you find a spider in your house, don't kill it. Get a tissue, pick it up and take it outdoors and let it go. If the spider is outside, leave it and the web alone. I know you think I'm nuts, but those little creatures are very beneficial to the hummingbird. Not only does the hummingbird eat the spiders but they also use the spider's web for their nest.

Nest construction:

Nests are constructed of plant down or catkins (flowers without petals) and are fastened in place by spider webs. The outside of the nest usually has bits of moss and lichen (composed of fungus and alga). The tiny nest is about 15-25 feet from the ground.

So you see, don't kill those spiders they are worth their weight and web!

The plant that's pictured is a plant that the birds love. It gets about 6' tall and gets a daisy like flower on it. The leaves are very big, when it rains or you water it, the water goes down into a little cup like area in the leaf. The hummingbirds come and drink the water from the leaf. But the water doesn't stay long and goes down into the plant.

In late summer the gold finches love this plant, that's the bird in the picture. There is some kind of insect that comes on this plant and the finches land on the plant and eat the insects. This will go on for a few weeks until the insects are gone. I finally moved the plants away from my house because the birds were flying into the windows after the insects and I didn't want the birds to get hurt.

The latin name for this plant I could never find, so if anyone knows it let me know. I've only seen it called the hummingbird plant or cup plant. But they do get very tall and spread, the flowers aren't all that big or even that pretty. To me the plant looks more like a glorified weed! I just like having it around for the birds.

The picture was taken from my kitchen window so its a little blurry.

Here's some plants that will be banned starting next year in Massachusetts. The burning bush, barberry and creeping jenny.

Lets start with the burning bush. Being these shrubs get berries and the birds eat the berries, the seeds get spread through their deposits. Being the birds are spreading the seeds around, the burning bushes are coming up wild in our forests. In certain parts of New England the burning bushes are taking over the natural wooded areas.

The barberry bushes, which so many people love because they are very tolerant of a variety of conditions. They are being banned in New England too. Again, the birds eat the barries that the bushes produce and they spread the seeds through their waste. So, in our natural wooded areas we are having wild barberry bushes coming up.

Creeping jenny or lysimachia. The golden creeping jenny is in the picture above. This is a ground cover and is a wonderful plant for covering areas where other plants won't grow. I have mine covering a slope by my driveway. Once established you don't have to do a thing to it. The creeping jenny will grow in any type of soil and light. It doesn't have any seeds, but left unattended it can spread everywhere. I don't really understand why the creeping jenny is being banned because it can be contained easily. There are a lot of other plants that should be banned instead of the creeping jenny.

If you are a gardener and aren't taking care of your plants outside, you can be a cause of certain plants being banned. To many people leave things go and this results in plants spreading into areas where they shouldn't be. Please take care of your plants outside so they don't become a has-been. If you have your own gardens and can't or don't want to take care of them, please contact another gardener or nursery that may want the plants. Don't just neglect them because they maybe come an issue someplace else. This is one reason why some plants get banned do to poor behavior by some gardeners.

So many have asked me how to get their Christmas catus to bloom? There's a couple of small things that need to be done starting in September.

1. Start feeding your Christmas catus.
2. NO artificial light starting in September.

Artificial light means no lamps or the use of light bulbs. Otherwise light that doesn't come from the sun. If you have to put a sheet over your Christmas catus during the night, do so, just remember to take it off during the daytime. Some people put their Christmas catus in a closet, but if its as big as mine you don't want to be moving it around. My Christmas catus will bloom around Christmas and again around easter time.

The Christmas catus that you see in the picture is about 200 years old. It use to be my great grandmothers. That's not the whole plant it had been divided up years ago and another quarter of it is with my mother. In fact, the plant is so big and heavy I built a sunroom for it so I wouldn't have to move it around. Let me tell you when I have to transplant that Christmas catus(about every 5 years)its a job and a half!

What I like to do with my plants that I get from people, like my Christmas catus, is take cuttings off the plant and stick it in a glass of water. When it roots I plant it in a pot and give that plant to someone that appricates them. My great grandmother lives on and on as well as my mother in law.

Christmas Catus Wilt
Recently my Christmas catus got the horrible wilt problem. Most people state that once you get this wilt your Christmas catus is gone. Not so. What I did with my Christmas catus is I cut it back to the main stock of the plant. Then I put it in a warmer place next to my baseboard heater, and let it alone. I only watered the catus lightly when the dirt was dry. Within a few weeks I noticed green shoots coming back out onto the stock. My Christmas catus is saved and starting to do well. It will take a couple of years before it gets back to where it was.

Over Watering.
Its best if you have your Christmas catus in a pot with holes in the bottom. If your catus gets overwatered and it starts to wilt the first thing to do is get it drained. Get as much water out from the roots of the Christmas catus. When you've done that find a nice warm dry place for the catus to be at. Leave it alone and just monitor it for awhile. If the catus doesn't come back within a week or two you can either try and repot it or cut it back a little at a time. Wait another week and cut back some more if it needs it. Repeat the procees even if you have to cut it back to the stock if it doesn't pick up. Then just leave it alone sooner or later it will probably come back. It depends how long the plant was soaking in the water.