Author Archives: mrpgc

About mrpgc

Welcome to the blog from PlantsGalore.Com. My name is Ralph Heiden and I am a retired Extension Horticulture Educator from the Midwest. Over 30 years as a professional horticulturist, I have gained a lot of education and experience...some of it quite interesting. In this blog and with my website, I hope to continue to share what I have learned with my fellow backyard gardeners. Although I was once forced to be a "generalist" covering all aspects of horticulture, my retirement gives me the freedom to concentrate on my main love, ornamental horticulture. So, you won't hear much about fruit and vegetables or greenhouses on these pages. My energy will be focused on ornamental trees, shrubs, annuals, biennials, perennials and vines that are used in the home landscape. I have developed a special interest and "expertise" in hostas since I have gardened in the shade for several decades. That is why I have created a website called HostaHelper.Com where I currently have photos and information on over 2,400 different hostas.

Garden Home Remedies

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“Spread some lime to get rid of those grubs.” “Marigolds will keep those rabbits away.” “Plant winter squash on the third day after the full moon.” “Spray beer, molasses and ammonia on the lawn to make it healthy.”

Home remedies come in all shapes and forms. Some actually work. Others do no harm but do not work either. A few will do a lot more harm than good. After a couple of decades of answering homeowners’ phone calls, I sometimes think I have heard them all…then the phone rings again and it is something new.

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Green Thumb Resolutions for 2013

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Wow! Another year has spun by and we are heading into 2013. The older I get, the faster the planet seems to spin. Anyone else feel that way? It is always important to take a look into the future this time of year and make some more resolutions (which we can look back on next year and wonder why we did not do any them).

In 2013, I (or we) resolve:

- To always remember that gardening is supposed to be fun. When it becomes a chore, I will figure out why and make a change in the way I do things. I will slow down this year and take it easy in my garden for once. I spend too much time working in it and not enough time just enjoying it. Continue reading →

Daylily vs Hardy Lily

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When a gardener says, “She has some very nice lilies in her yard!”, the message received may be quite different depending on who hears it. Members of the lily family are among the most prized flowering plants for the home garden. Their throated, often fragrant blooms can add a lot to any landscape. But, when talking about the general category of “lilies”, the backyard gardener is usually talking about either the daylily or the hardy lily. Though related, they are quite different plants.

Daylilies belong to the genus, Hemerocallis. The common name comes from the fact that individual flowers last just one day and then fade away. The good news is that a mature sized clump will develop dozens and dozens of buds and flower continuously with 5 or 6 blooms opening every day for a month or more. A few cultivars including the classic H. ‘Stella de Oro’ will have an initial flush of blooms and then follow with sporadic blooms throughout the rest of the season. Continue reading →

General Garden Styles

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In a broad sense, there are two types of gardens commonly found in home landscapes. One is called a “collection garden” which is the type grown by people who are dedicated to one genus or category of plant.

Hosta Collector’s Garden

For instance, there are said to be over 60,000 named cultivars of daylilies (Hemerocallis). There are over 8,000 named cultivars of Hosta. For each of these and other species such as iris (Iris), peonies (Paeonia) or roses (Rosa) with large numbers, there are gardeners whose primary goal is to accumulate as many specimens as they can. These gardens tend to prominently display all the most recent, “cutting edge” cultivars in addition to the old classics. Often there are few, if any, other species of plants included in collection gardens.

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Backyard Composting Basics

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Whenever I teach a class on backyard composting, I always started out by saying, “All you have to do is throw your yard waste into a pile back in the corner of your lot and it will compost.  Nature will eventually take care of it for you. Any questions?”. The students usually look at each other and wonder what the heck that means.

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