The Blog

There's a good reason camellias have been a part of the southern landscape for more than 200 years - simply put, they're just amazing.

Lucky for us gardeners, planting isn't just a spring activity. Your gardening season doesn't have to be over in the fall. Pansies are a great way to extend your blooms into cold weather.

What flower has a face, is edible, blooms in both spring & fall and comes in the widest range of colors of any garden annual? If you guest pansies, you are right. Yes, October = pansies here in Hampton Roads! These beloved blooms are one of the best ways to add color to your landscape during those six months of cool weather, from October through March. These vibrant, colorful flowers come in all the shades of the rainbow and then some including red, purple, blue, bronze, pink, black, yellow, white, lavender, orange, apricot and mahogany.

by Kathy Van Mullekom, a lifelong gardener and gardening writer living in York County, Virginia

Bulbs are too often afterthoughts in the garden. It’s wrong thinking, something I’ve been guilty of, too. For years, I ignored bulbs. Then, I became the energized owner of a woodsy garden where I envisioned a river of daffodils blooming in early spring.

Get fired up this fall with Autumn Embers Encore azaleas! Well known for being hardy and low-maintenance, these reblooming azaleas add vivid, multi-seasonal color unlike any other azalea. This dense, rounded shrub features an abundance of semi-double, fiery, orange-red flowers that are produced in spring and fall and sporadically throughout the summer. Autumn Embers reaches a height of three feet by three and half feet wide and is ideal planted in garden beds and borders, foundation plantings, large containers or as a focal point in the garden.