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Marvelous Miniature Roses
Good things often come in small packages and that’s true of miniature roses. These little jewels have the great attributes of their full-sized counterparts on a petite scale. Ranging in height from 15 to 30 inches with well-proportioned stems, leaves, and blossoms, most are grown on their own roots and…
Really Good Garden Guys
Soldier beetles are predators to a host of bad bugs including aphids and other soft bodies insects. Also known as leather-winged beetles, adults are less than half an inch long, and straight-sided with a red, orange, or yellow head and abdomen. Larvae are elongated and cylindrical except flattened on top,…
Sumptuous Shrub Roses
You’ve heard the term shrub, and you know what a rose is, but what in the world is a shrub rose? Aren’t shrubs those plants that you grow as hedges to screen you from your neighbor? Or some type of woody plant? Sunset’s Western Garden Book describes shrubs as “woody…
These pests love dry and dusty!
With the last substantial rains being a distant memory, summer temperatures and low humidity are ideal conditions for spider mites – a scourge of the season for roses and lots of other plants. Spider mites are related to spiders and ticks. With eight legs and an oval body 1/20 of…
Incredible Climbing Roses
In the introduction to his book, Climbing Roses, noted rosarian Stephen Scanniello says, “Climbing roses are the acrobats and aerialists of the rose garden, the carefree plants that tumble over fences, scale walls and trellises, fling themselves over arches, and swing aloft on ropes and chains.” What an apt description…