Your All Things Plants weekly news
July 26, 2014

This Week's Gardening Ideas:

By dave July 26, 2014 Our Herb Spiral In early 2012 we built an herb spiral and it has since become a cornerstone of our gardens. Allow me to take a moment to share with you how and why we built this amazingly useful garden structure. (915 words - Read the full article)

By dave July 25, 2014 Announcing the ATP and Caladium Bulbs 4 Less Photo Contest! Our friends at Caladium Bulbs 4 Less are sponsoring our very first photo contest at All Things Plants, and there are prizes to win! Do you have great photos of caladiums? Then enter them in our contest and win prizes along with the admiration of your peers! (99 words - Read the full article)

By SongofJoy July 25, 2014 Beautiful Lamb's Ears One of my favorite foliage plants is the 'Silver Carpet' variety of Lamb's Ears (Stachys byzantina). It's tough and semi-drought-tolerant. (192 words - Read the full article)

By kararenee July 24, 2014 Indoor Cactus Gardening 101 A beginner's guide to growing cacti and succulents indoors. (2,407 words - Read the full article)

By dave July 23, 2014 ATP Podcast #65: Xeriscaping in the Garden We took last week off but we're back and ready to talk about gardening. It's Xeriscaping Week at ATP and today we're going to dive down deep into the topic of xeriscaping. What is xeriscaping? Is it only for desert regions? Is it something that you can put into practice in your own garden? Find out in today's episode of the ATP podcast!

By Sharon July 22, 2014 The Magic in Yarrow There was magic, she said, in the plants we gathered from the mountain. Magic plants had three reasons for living: They gave us food, they gave us medicine, and they gave us beauty. She said yarrow was truly magic because it was also a plant that could live with very little water. To me, the very best part about yarrow was that it was so old it had a story to tell. That made it even more magical. I loved Aunt Bett's stories. (1,225 words - Read the full article)

By SongofJoy July 21, 2014 Some of My Favorite Xeriscape Plants Are Real Stinkers I love stapeliads, especially Stapelia gigantea. Some people say the blooms emit a terrible odor. Others say they can't smell them at all. (156 words - Read the full article)

By Sharon July 20, 2014 Landscape or Xeriscape A few years ago if you had asked me what I thought when I heard the word "Xeriscape," I would have immediately said "Cactus and rocks." How little I knew and how quickly my mind was forever changed. (568 words - Read the full article)

The most popular images last week from our plant database: Photo of Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Cobalt Rings') by JWWC: Photo of Dahlia (Dahlia 'Lynette') by janwax: Photo of Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Jay Farquhar') by Heart2Heart: Photo of Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Apres Moi') by Sharon: Photo of Hummingbird Trumpet (Epilobium canum subsp. latifolium) by dirtdorphins: Photo of Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Trance') by shive1:

The most popular Multi-Plant Photos from last week: Multi-plant photo by typwc: Multi-plant photo by foraygardengirl: Multi-plant photo by Oberon46: Multi-plant photo by Paul2032: Multi-plant photo by pirl: Multi-plant photo by Oberon46:

Noteworthy acorn tips given this week:

15 people gave for the idea "The Magic in Yarrow" by Sharon 5 people gave for the idea "Indoor Cactus Gardening 101" by kararenee 4 people gave for the idea "Our Herb Spiral" by dave 4 people gave for post #663165 in "Acorns" by JeanneBoucher 4 people gave for post #663266 in "Banner for July 21, 2014 by jon" by jon 4 people gave for a photo of Hummingbird Trumpet (Epilobium canum subsp. latifolium) by dirtdorphins 3 people gave for post #665913 in "L. wallichianum" by mnorberry 3 people gave for post #663965 in "Banner for July 22, 2014 by Char" by Char 2 people gave for the idea "Lily Beetles" by pixie62560 2 people gave for post #666694 in "what plant is this?" by ndantonio2

The most active threads this week:

Subject	OP	Area	Replies
Sad Thread - Open Thread	mcash70	Sandbox forum	75
Privacy??	virginiarose	Site Talk forum	60
Westbourne Flowers	Ditchlily	Daylilies forum	42
How to print my plant list	Frillylily	Site Talk forum	41
Unknown for 50 years or more	OldGardener	Plant ID forum	40
Vanishing rhizomes....is it the "Garden Gnomes"??	UndertheSun	Irises forum	31
Daylilies that bloom for over a month, two months, and three months?	Seedfork	Daylilies forum	31
Foliage That Shines in Warmer Climes	chalyse	Daylilies forum	30
log.dmtry.com	greene	Site Talk forum	30

Some new reviews from the ATP Green Pages:

dormantsrule recommended Tropical Plants & More and wrote: Hard to believe that I've never owned a houseplant and chose orchids as my learning curve. It's a stretch and a challenge, but I will try to ensure they don't meet their demise. Package arrived yesterday and my first impression was the thought and care of the packaging itself. Being used to receiving daylilies crammed into flat rate boxes, I was in for a surprise when USPS delivered the long box, which could have held an entire rain forest. Every plant was secure and healthy. One plant is secured on cork and looks like it was plucked straight from nature. I'm especially appreciative of Ken's advice and hand holding.

jvdubb recommended B & D Lilies and wrote: I have meant to order from B&D for at least 6 years. I never got around to it for one reason or another. FINALLY, this year I ordered. I have not received my bulbs yet, but already I have to say customer service is out of this world! My budget was limited, but I look forward to ordering again next year!

Anderwood recommended A Backyard Farm and wrote: "A Backyard Farm" is like having a CSA in your backyard. They install raised bed gardens in your back yard according to what you want planted. Each week they come out and harvest, maintain, and plant the next vegetable according to the season. They also work with school gardens. There is a mentoring option as well. Harvests occur April through late October.

We keep growing, because ATP is where all the excitement is these days! Check out these numbers from last week:

• 238 members joined.
• 4,913 posts written.
• 1,376 images posted to the plant database.
• 835 plants added to personal inventory lists.