Dear ##firstname[Friend]##,

Crystal Rennicke

Birds & Blooms and Wave® Petunias are both celebrating 15 colorful years! And now you could be one of 15 garden-lovers to win a beautiful, all-new 2010 series Wave® Petunias plant. Enter our 15th Anniversary Giveaway today!

Happy Gardening!
—Crystal

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READ ON TO DISCOVER...

• Plant of the Month
• Yard Smarts
• Question of the Month
• Frugal Backyard Tip
• Submit Your Story

Parkseed

Plant of the Month

Lilac
As spring gets into full swing, if you detect a sweet fragrance floating on the breeze, chances are it’s a lilac.
Botanical name: Syringa vulgaris
Bloom Time: Late spring to midsummer.
Hardiness: Zones 3 to 8.
Flowers: Small tubular blooms arranged in clusters. Lavender is the most common color, but white, pink, magenta and blue are available, as well as bicolors. 
Size: 4 to 30 feet high; 5 to 22 feet wide.
Growing Advice: Dig a hole the same depth as the root ball, but wider. Loosen roots of pot-bound shrubs before planting. Be patient. Lilacs tend to take 4 to 5 years to produce their first flowers.
Recommendations: The new Bloomerang is a repeat-blooming lilac that is now available.

Click here for our Top Ten list of Flowering Shrubs.

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RDA, Inc./GID

Yard Smarts

Prolonging Easter
When your Easter lily is finished blooming, don’t throw it out. Let it dry, cut off the old foliage and plant it in a partly sunny spot in the garden. It will grow and bloom again. –Eileen Crowley, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin

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Question of the Month

RDA, Inc./GID

Stumped by the Stem
Q: Every year, this flower comes up—no leaves, just a stem—then it produces flowers in July. What is it? –Bob and Linda Knuteson

Melinda: This bloom is sure to surprise and please. Its long, strappy leaves emerge in spring. The quiet plant is often overlooked or forgotten after it dries up and disappears…then surprise! Beautiful flowers, without a leaf in sight, appear in summer or early fall.

This growth pattern is the source of its common names—surprise lily, resurrection lily or autumn amaryllis.

Though it goes by many common names, it is known botanically as Lycoris squamigera.

The plant prefers full to partial sun and well-drained soil. Most books rate it only hardy to Zones 5 or 6, but many gardeners like you have had luck growing it in Zone 4.

For more answers from Melinda, click here.

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Frugal Gardener Tip

RDA, Inc./GID

Watering Juice Jug
Instead of buying a watering can, I made my own from a recycled juice jug. Simply take an empty orange juice container and drill a series of differently sized holes in the tops of three lids. Fill the jug with fertilized or plain water and, depending on the size of the spray you want, select a nozzle with the correct hole size. –Fred Gersbach, Glen Cove, Maine

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Submit Your Story

We’re looking for budget tips for our section “For Less.” Send us your best budget idea and photos by using the Submit Your Story form. If we use your tip in the magazine, we’ll pay you $25!

Submit your story»

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