I Love Euphorbia Pulcherrima – aka the Poinsettia
Name: Euphorbia pulcherrima – aka the Poinsettia
Type of Plant: A shrub in zones 9-11 but for most of us this is a holiday greenhouse plant. We all are familiar with the standard colors – red, white etc…but there are many more new varieties with new and novel bracts and/or foliage.
Why I Love This: Frankly, I’m loving the fact that this plant is only sold at this time of year. In a world where we can buy strawberries or roses whenever we want regardless of season, it’s refreshing to have plants that only appear in a certain time of year. I also love the many new varieties with variegated bracts or foliage.
A Word to the Wise: Don’t overlook keeping your poinsettia past the holidays, not with plans of using it next December, but with the idea that these make great container components outside in the summer. See my post about this here.

Here is the variegated ‘Tapestry’ poinsettia plant I bought last year in early December. I put it in an enameled pan I had and it was a cheerful display of color well through January.

Container Rose Garden
When I lived in Osterville I had very little sunny garden space where I could grow roses, so I planted them in pots and made a rose garden on my back deck. Anyone with a sunny patio or deck can grow a container rose garden as I did. In some ways it makes good sense to...

Frame a Garden View
Whether it's winter or summer, what we see in our gardens can sometimes be complemented or enhanced by framing the view. You might have seen people who mount an empty old window frame in their gardens and the view through that border makes what we see have an...

Potato, Kale, Ricotta Meal
There are times when we find a recipe and follow it and times when we buy the same-old-same-old ingredients and prepare what we've done in the past. But one of the challenges and joys of cooking every day is those meals when you have no idea what you're going to...

A Rain Garden – You Can Grow That!
You may have wondered just what a rain garden is and why you might want one. Should everyone have a rain garden on their property? Is the purpose of a rain garden to display the water that falls from the sky, grow moisture loving plants, or something else? These are...

I Love Amaryllis
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Garden Signs
Do you have need to label an area of your garden? Let me suggest using press-on vinyl letters. These are available in more interesting fonts than the usual "name on the mailbox" block lettering as well as classic fonts such as Helvetica. C-Thru Vinyl Letters, 4-Inch,...

A New Year’s Cooking Tradition
If you're reading this on New Year's Eve, you'll know that there are people, many people, cooking in my kitchen right now. One of the best things that Dan and I did even before we became parents was to start a tradition of spending New Year's Eve at home with another...

Growing and Displaying Air Plants (Tillandsia)
Tillandsia, aka "air plants" are quite popular right now. We all love the fact that these epiphytes are interesting in texture, don't require soil to grow, and have colorful flowers. But some people wonder how they might display and grow air plants to best advantage....