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GROWING HERBS INDOORS

Even though winter has set in and your gardens are under snow, you don’t have to be without fresh herbs. You can plant an herb garden on your kitchen windowsill.   Here are some hints on how best to grow herbs indoors: Most herbs are not hard to grow indoors, but they do need plenty of

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FLOWERING HOUSEPLANTS FOR CHRISTMAS

You can’t beat poinsettias for a colorful Christmas plant in your home, but after Christmas, poinsettias tend to go downhill. Come January, we all are ready to move on from the Christmas theme. There are other beautiful houseplants that are colorful but do not scream Christmas and will continue to make a good houseplant month

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COLCHICUM—AUTUMN CRUCUS

Have you seen the lavender-colored crocus-type flowers that emerge in local gardens in the fall? To me, these flowers look like they should be growing in the spring because of their pastel-purple flower color when the colors of fall are oranges and yellows. These flowers are Colchicum, sometimes known as fall or autumn crocus, but

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Romance Cherries

We have always loved cherries. When my husband, Jerry, was a child, his mother bought some “Flathead Cherries” and he found out that Flathead Lake in Montana was a cherry growing area. (Flathead is not a variety of sweet cherries—many varieties are grown around Flathead Lake.) He loved to eat sweet cherries and although living

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Lilacs

by Jan Cashman 6/13/20 Everyone loves lilacs…and what’s not to love? Lilacs (genus Syringa) are beautiful to look at and wonderfully fragrant. They are hardy in our climate and grow well in our local soils that tend to be alkaline. Lilac bushes are long-lived; they make good hedges. If you choose carefully, you can have

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Why are pollination, pollinators, and pollinator plants so important?

By Jan Cashman 7/20/20                                                 Pollination is one of nature’s most important functions; it is the way many plants reproduce. Pollinators assist plants with reproduction; they take pollen from one plant to another. If plants aren’t properly pollinated, they can’t bear fruit or produce seeds to grow new plants. Many plants are wholly dependent on the

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