Outdoor Plants & Growing

We sell A LOT of summer annuals here at Gardener’s. In fact, we sell more annuals than we do perennials, shrubs and houseplants COMBINED every year. They are definitely one of our specialties and we’d like to share some thoughts, tips and pointers regarding the summer-annuals ritual that we all love so much.

They’re beguiling. They’re bewitching. They’re begonias and they’re Sean’s favorite annual. Sean, our horticulture guru here at The Gardener’s Center, points out some key reasons why they make great additions to gardens and containers, no matter your light conditions. Watch the video and see if they’re not going to be your fave, too!

You’re going to love peonies! First, they are easy to grow. Second, you’ll be enjoying them for a long time… They can live in your garden for a hundred years!

You want to enjoy beautiful plants in your pots, hanging baskets and window boxes. But it’s not as simple as getting a container, putting soil in it, putting plants in it — not if you want them to remain healthy and as beautiful as they can be.

You’re simply not using this plant enough. Maybe it has a bad press agent, but Sean, our horticulture guru here at The Gardener’s Center, says Phlox subulata, otherwise known as creeping phlox, has a lot of good things going for it and it isn’t being used nearly enough.

Every year in the spring we start getting tons of inquiries regarding everyone’s favorite hydrangea, the hydrangea macrophylla, also known as mophead hydrangeas or big leaf hydrangeas. And most of those questions and inquiries are about pruning this specific type of hydrangea, because everybody loves to prune their mophead hydrangeas.

Sean, our horticulture guru here at The Gardener’s Center, says, “Stop! Back away from your pruners!”

First to bloom in spring, Hellebores are shade-flowering perennials that grow in hardiness zones 5-8. And they can live 30+ years under the right conditions. Sean’s got all of the deets…

Perennial lavender is a desirable plant, but it’s very challenging to grow here in the northeast. There are lots of things that lavenders don’t like about living and growing in Connecticut (and it has nothing to do with traffic or taxes!), but they center around our climate and our soil structure.

Sempervivums (Hens and Chicks or Houseleeks) and Groundcover Sedums (Stonecrop) are two hardy succulents that we should be adding to our Connecticut gardens! Sean covers the different varieties and what makes them so hardy and well-suited for our area, even if they aren’t native.

Hydrangea paniculata, or panicle hydrangea, is easy to care for and they have the longest bloom cycle of all hydrangeas. But when should you prune?