Hort in the Home Landscape 2014

Have you noticed less Garden Impatiens (Impatiens walleriana), being sold in local garden centers this year? If so, this is due to a recent disease outbreak on impatiens called Downy Mildew of Impatiens (Plasmopara obducens). In 2011, the U of I Plant Clinic began receiving...

Plant of the Week! This week you can see Elderberry blooming along roadsides and in gardens everywhere. The most familiar of the Elderberry's is American Elder or Elderberry, Sambucus canadensis. This particular elderberry looked beautiful along the water...

During the spring, summer, and fall my windowboxes are filled with beautiful blooming and foliage plants, but once frost hits, I pull all those plants out and my windowboxes are left bare. Very dull and boring. To make these windowboxes usable year-round, I add some winter interest to the boxes...

If you're a lover of coneflowers (Echinacea sp.), then this is your time of year. The coneflowers are blooming beautifully in many gardens across Northern Illinois. Some gardeners have made note though, that their purple coneflowers in particular are looking a little peculiar this season...

There are two common types of cicadas in Illinois, the dog day or annual cicada and the periodical cicada. Annual cicadas make their emergence yearly during the heat of summer, but now is the time for the periodical cicadas to start making their emergence. Luckily, here in northern Illinois we will...

Plant of the Week! This week I'm featuring the Perennial or Hardy Hibiscus (Hibiscus mosheutos). Many gardeners are familiar with the tropical hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis) that many of us grow as houseplants in the winter and set outside for...

We've gotten many calls and samples concerning fire blight this season, and the same goes for our plant clinic on campus in Champaign-Urbana according to their recent report. The majority of the samples submitted to the plant clinic identified fire blight on pear trees and ornamental pear trees....

As gardeners I'm sure many have heard the folk tale that ants are needed to help open up the buds on your peonies. I've always heard this as well, but logically, never believed that to be true. In my head I just always pictured muscled up ants prying open the peony buds. Not very likely. Well...

Plant of the week is back! This week I'm featuring the Bridalwreath Spirea (Spiraea prunifolia or Spiraea vanhouttei). You may have noticed it's lovely white flowers blooming now. Bridalwreath spirea has clusters of white, double flowers in mid to late...

Plant of the Week! This week's plant is not only an ornamental, but it's also edible. Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris subsp. cicla) will produce fresh white, orange, yellow, pink, or red leaf stalks making it a colorful addition to the vegetable garden, as...

Winter can be a tough time for greenhouses. Even if you're not growing anything in your greenhouse for the winter, there is still care to be take to protect your structure from heavy snow loads this time of year. In a recent article in the...

Plant of the Week! This week's plant is an unusual one that you don't see planted too often. The Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus) is a perennial, hardy to zone 7, which is closely related to globe artichoke. I've seen this unique vegetable growing in various...

Buying bargain plants at the garden center can be very tempting, but before buying that marked down plant, it's important to give it a good inspection. Usually when a plant is marked down it's either because it is towards the end of the season for that plant, or it's because there is a problem...

Plant of the week! This week's featured plant is Trumpet Honeysuckle(Lonicera sempervirens).This vine is blooming beautifully in my garden right now. Honeysuckles get a bad rap because of their very invasive cousins the Exotic Honeysuckles (...