Hyacinths are one of the “big three” bulbs in gardening interest (the others being tulips and daffodils) and these extremely fragrant spring flowering bulbs are worthy of a place in your bulb garden. Carnegie is a pure white hyacinth with a deep penetrating fragrance. Reblooms for several years. As an aside, the name comes from Hyakinthos – a young man accidentally killed by one of the Greek gods and from his spilt blood, this flower emerged.
The Hyacinth, ‘Carnegie’ ‘Hyacinthus orientalis’, a fall planted bulb, is one of the few all-white Dutch hyacinths, and this plant is the perfect contrast to brightly colored bulbs. The small, pure white flowers are densely packed on intensely fragrant spikes. Grow them for their graceful shape, long-lasting blooms and sweet scent. Hyacinths are great for indoor forcing, containers, and borders. They flower in mid spring for a 3 – 4 week period.
Hyacinths require a well-drained soil. If they must be planted in heavy soil, mix some sand into the soil. For the best effects, plant the bulbs in clusters of 5 to 15 bulbs of one variety, or scatter clusters throughout the garden or flower border. Prepare the garden bed by using a garden fork or tiller to loosen the soil to a depth of 12 to 15 inches, then mix in a 2- to 4-inch layer of compost. Dig a hole 6 to 8 inches deep. Set the bulb in the hole, pointy end up, then cover with soil and press firmly. Space bulbs 4 to 6 inches apart. Water thoroughly after planting.
When planted in somewhat shady spots, the flowers will last longer than they would in the hot sun. You have a decision to make here. If you grow them in the shadier sections of your garden, the individual blooms will last longer on the bulbs in the spring as the hot sun does tend to shorten the bloom time. The downside to this is that the bulb itself will not thrive in the shade and will die out. If you need flowers for a special spring event, mass plant them anywhere you like and treat this bulb as an annual flower.
You can easily propagate new plants by harvesting the little offsets that develop on the older bulbs. After the plant is fully dormant, (late summer) you can dig the bulb and separate these small offsets. It will take these small bulblets 2 to 3 years to develop enough size/strength to generate flowers. You can also grow them from seed treating the seed as a perennial.
Wear gloves to prevent skin irritation. These plants are deer, squirrel and rabbit resistant.
If you want to force the bulbs to flower out of season, then you need to use a technique called forcing. To do this, heat-treated hyacinth bulbs, which are more expensive than normal bulbs, need to be placed in a dark place for several weeks to allow flower buds to develop. To make a flowering bowl, start by planting three bulbs of the same colour in individual pots. Almost fill an 8cm (3in) pot with moist bulb fibre, and then push a bulb in gently to half its depth. Put pots in a cool, dark place, such as a garage or shed for about ten weeks to allow the roots to grow. Check bulbs regularly and water if the compost feels dry. When shoots appear, wait until they are about 5cm (2in) high and arrange the three pots in an 18cm (7in) bowl. Fill the gaps with more bulb fibre and place in a light spot to flower. Keep compost moist. After flowering, bulbs will be exhausted and are best thrown away – you could add them to your compost heap, but make sure you chop them up finely.

Pea is a frost-hardy, cool-season vegetable that can be grown throughout most of the United States, wherever a cool season of sufficient duration exists. For gardening purposes, peas may be classified as garden peas (English peas), snap peas and snow peas (sugar peas).
Garden pea varieties have smooth or wrinkled seeds. The smooth-seeded varieties tend to have more starch than the wrinkled-seeded varieties. The wrinkled-seeded varieties are generally sweeter and usually preferred for home use. The smooth-seeded types are used more often to produce ripe seeds that are used like dry beans and to make split-pea soup.
Snap peas have been developed from garden peas to have low-fiber pods that can be snapped and eaten along with the immature peas inside.
Snow peas are meant to be harvested as flat, tender pods before the peas inside develop at all.
The Southern pea (cowpea) is an entirely different warm-season vegetable that is planted and grown in the same manner as beans.
Peas thrive in cool, moist weather and produce best in cool, moderate climates. Early plantings normally produce larger yields than later plantings. Peas may be planted whenever the soil temperature is at least 45°F, and the soil is dry enough to till without its sticking to garden tools.
Peas grow best in moist rich soil throughout the cooler parts of the growing season. Water by soaking soil, avoid spraying foliage. A delicious source of many vitamins and minerals. When possible plant rows in a north-south direction for best sun exposure and good air circulation.
Plantings of heat-tolerant varieties can be made in midsummer to late summer, to mature during cool fall days. Allow more days to the first killing frost than the listed number of days to maturity because cool fall days do not speed development of the crop as do the long, bright days of late spring.
Sow directly into the garden as soon as the soil is workable from early to mid-spring. Sow seeds 2 inches apart and cover with 1 to 1 1/2 inches of fine soil firmed down. For successive crops, plant at 2 to 3 week intervals until mid-spring. Sow again in late July to early August for fall crop.
The germinating seeds and small seedlings are easily injured by direct contact with fertilizer or improper cultivation. Cultivate and hoe shallowly during the early stages of growth. Peas can be mulched to cool the soil, reduce moisture loss and keep down soil rots.

Aconitum (A-co-ní-tum), known as aconite, monkshood, or wolfsbane, is a genus of flowering plant belonging to the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). There are over 250species of Aconitum. These herbaceous perennial plants are chiefly natives of the mountainous parts of the northern hemisphere, growing in moisture retentive but well draining soils on mountain meadows. Their dark green leaves lack stipules. They are palmate or deeply palmately lobed with 5–7 segments. Each segment again is 3-lobed with coarse sharp teeth. The leaves have a spiral or alternate arrangement. The flowers have a large upper petal resembling a hood, hence the common name.
The most common plant in this genus, Aconitum napellus (the Common Monkshood) was considered to be of therapeutic and toxicological importance. Its roots have occasionally been mistaken for horseradish. It has a short underground stem, from which dark-colored tapering roots descend. The crown or upper portion of the root gives rise to new plants. When touched to one’s lip, the juice of the aconite root produces a feeling of numbness and tingling. The roots of Aconitum ferox supply the Indian (Nepal) poison called bikh, bish, or nabee. It contains large quantities of the alkaloid pseudaconitine, which is a deadly poison. Aconitum palmatum yields another of the bikh poisons. The root of Aconitum luridum, of the Himalaya, is said to be as virulent as that of A. ferox or A. napellus. Several species of Aconitum have been used as arrow poisons. The Minaro in Ladakh use A. napellus on their arrows to hunt ibex, while the Ainus in Japan used a species of Aconitum to hunt bear. The Chinese also used Aconitum poisons both for hunting, and for warfare.
The plant is a hardy perennial, with a fleshy, spindle-shaped root, palecoloured when young, but subsequently acquiring a dark brown skin. The stem is about 3 feet high, with dark green, glossy leaves, deeply divided in palmate manner and flowers in erect clusters of a dark blue colour. The shape of the flower is specially designed to attract and utilize bee visitors, especially the humble bee. The sepals are purple – purple being specially attractive to bees – and are fancifully shaped, one of them being in the form of a hood. The petals are only represented by the two very curious nectaries within the hood, somewhat in the form of a hammer; the stamens are numerous and lie depressed in a bunch at the mouth of the flower. They are pendulous at first, but rise in succession and place their anthers forward in such a way that a bee visiting the flower for nectar is dusted with the pollen, which he then carries to the next flower he visits and thereby fertilizes the undeveloped fruits, which are in a tuft in the centre of the stamens, each carpel containing a single seed.
Monkshoods make a good show when you need vertical spires with blue flowers in summer and autumn. The heights range from 1m (like the blue and white A. x cammarum ‘Bicolor’) to just 60cm. This medium-high, extremely popular form has white-eyed blue flowers and very attractive blue-grey foliage. In open, exposed areas the taller kinds need to be tied to stakes to keep them upright after being battered by strong winds.
Aconite prefers a soil slightly retentive of moisture, such as a moist loam, and flourishes best in shade. It would probably grow luxuriantly in a moist, open wood, and would yield returns with little further trouble than weeding, digging up and drying. In preparing beds for growing Aconite, the soil should be well dug and pulverized by early winter frosts – the digging in of rotten leaves or stable manure is advantageous.
The plant requires full sun or light shade. This plant will live in the shade but the flowers get quite floppy with reduced sunlight. They perform best with a minimum of six hours of full sun every day.
The plant can be raised from seed, sown 1/2 inch deep in a cold frame in March, or in a warm position outside in April, but great care must be exercised that the right kind is obtained, as there are many varieties of Aconite- about twenty-four have been distinguished – and they have not all the same active medicinal properties. It takes two or three years to flower from seed.
Propagation is usually by division of roots in the autumn. The underground portion of the plants are dug up after the stem has died down, and the smaller of the ‘daughter’ roots that have developed at the side of the old roots are selected for replanting in December or January to form new stock, the young roots being planted about a foot apart each way. The young shoots appear above ground in February. Although the plants are perennial, each distinct root lasts only one year, the plant being continued by ‘daughter’ roots.
Beware: It is extremely toxic and poisonous, so florists and consumers should wash their hands thoroughly after handling. When even attempting to grow Monkshood you should handle the seeds and the seedlings, and even the plants with protective gloves (surgical gloves), and wash your hands when finished.

‘Variegata’ is a more controlled and illuminating form of Giant Reed Grass, serving as a strong focal point in the landscape. This Giant Reed Grass has creamy yellow/white variegated foliage, but does not grow quite as large as the species. The same great impressive flowers and winter interest as species, just a different color.
A tall growing ornamental grass that will add an architectural touch to any planting scheme. Plants spread by underground rhizomes forming attractive leafy clumps that will make a bold statement at the back of border. The variety ‘Variegata’ has a broad yellow stripe along its leaves. Variegated forms are more tender than the plain green ones so plant in a sheltered spot away from strong winds. The flowers which appear in late autumn are purplish green and remain on the plant once growth dies back. Dormant canes are showy all winter.
Native to the Mediterranean region, giant reed has been widely introduced and is now common in many parts of the world, including the southern U.S. from California to Florida and northward on the East Coast to Maryland. It can be found growing on river banks and in ditches. Giant reed often is planted to control erosion on wet slopes and canal banks. It can be an invasive weed in tropical climates, clogging irrigation ditches and displacing native species in natural wetlands. Giant reed is not invasive in temperate regions.
Grasses are easy to grow, and adapts to most conditions & Giant reed grows best and gets largest with lots of water during the growing season. It thrives in soils that stay moist, and can even tolerate occasional standing water. Unlike most reeds, however, giant reed also does well in average garden soils, where it will not get as large nor spread as aggressively. It even tolerates drought. USDA Zones 6 – 11. Giant reed gets largest in frost-free climates where it grows to 20 ft (6.1 m) and stays evergreen. It dies to the ground in frosty areas, and may not flower, but it comes back in spring to get 10-12 ft (3-3.7 m) tall in a single growing season.
Feed once a year with a slow release fertilizer.