Extension Consumer Horticulturist, Clemson University
My hostas have become crowded and need to be divided. Is spring a good time to separate them?
—E.R., Rolla, MO
Answer: Yes. Hostas can be divided as soon as the “noses,” or …

Pacific Northwest BY VALERIE EASTON / Seattle, Washington, Zone 8
The Flash of Early Bulbs
HERE IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, we’re grateful for every precious flower that blooms beneath spring’s often gray and chilly skies. Nevertheless, once …

Northeast BY GORDON HAYWARD/Putney, Vermont, Zone 5
Turning Point
THE WEEKS BETWEEN the end of winter and the beginning of spring here in the Northeast form the cusp of the gardener’s year. We look back with longing …

Southeast BY FELDER RUSHING/Jackson, Mississippi, Zone 8
Our Seven Seasons
SOUTHEASTERN GARDENERS can savor at least seven subtly overlapping but distinct gardening seasons, thereby partaking in a horticultural equivalent of the Slow Food eating philosophy.
Though a heating …

Midwest BY MARTY ROSS / Kansas City, Missouri, Zone 5
Early Arrivals
ONLY THOSE WHO HAVE LIVED through the unforgiving bitterness of a midwestern winter can detect the sweet breath of spring in a cold, gray, drizzly …

Oklahoma BY RUSSELL STUDEBAKER / Tulsa, Oklahoma, Zone 6
Cherokee Daffodils
ONE MARCH, while visiting a 19th-century Cherokee courthouse in rural Oklahoma, my eye wandered down the gravel road to a nearby Indian Territory cemetery. In it …

How to choose the mulch that’s right for your garden
ORGANIC MULCHES are central to any successful garden. They retain moisture in the soil while helping to control weeds, erosion, and muddy backsplash from rain onto …

Breeders have overcome genetic barriers to create these tough, gorgeous hybrids
by JAMES W. WADDICK
photography by DONNA KRISCHAN
IT SEEMS THAT EVERY GROUP OF PLANT HYBRIDIZERS has its own impossible dream: for rosarians it’s a blue rose; …

After decades of neglect, an Italianate garden in Florida blooms again
by JUDITH B. TANKARD
Above left: The Italian Garden as it looked circa 1937. Above right: The garden as it looks today. Although cypresses have replaced …

Nurserywoman Jan Midgley celebrates the richness of Alabama’s flora
by CAROL BISHOP MILLER photography by MARY GRAY HUNTER
“I CAN’T TELL YOU HOW TO GET THERE,” an officer of the law once told a customer searching for …

Essentials for Getting the Job Done
Spring Cleaning
BY ROGER B. SWAIN
WINTER whittles down the landscape. Freezing rain transforms trees into fragile chandeliers, and heavy wet snow bends limbs past the breaking point. Avalanches rumbling from roofs …