Garden styles go in and out of fashion and such has been the case of the English garden in America. Once hailed as the style, it then went out of favor, considered to be too labor intensive due to its reliance on an abundance of perennials or endless clipping of topiary structures. Yet I would…

One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is finding special gifts for the people I love. The most important thing for me is that the gifts I give are thoughtful and have some meaning. Often, the story behind the gift or its creator really makes it unique. In honor of that spirit, here […]

It seems like every year when I sit down to write a column on thankfulness, I keep coming back to the same things. We live in a horticultural paradise and…

With cheerful red bracts and delicate yellow flowers framed against velvety green leaves, colorful poinsettias are an indisputable symbol of Christmas. In fact, poinsettias are the most commercially important potted plant in the world because of their endearing association with the December holiday season. But how did this warm-weather shrub native to western Mexico become […]

Thank you to our wonderful clients! We greatly appreciate your business and thank you for trusting us with your landscapes. Some of you have been with us for many years, and we are grateful for our long-term relationship. And we also thank you for being our partners in building a healthier planet one landscape at… […]

The year was 1970 and I was just about to graduate from college with a degree in plant science. One of my job options was to go to work in Leucadia or Encinitas, California for one of the many foliage companies where plants like Spider Plants, Boston Ivy, Snake Plants, Aglaonema, and Prayer Plants, to […]

Swanson’s model train is steaming around the track for the holiday season. This year, our train has traveled far back in time to the prehistoric age and we have gone all out to make it spectacular. It’s a fantasy world where dinosaurs roam the land with some of your favorite characters: Scooby-Doo, the Peanuts Gang, […]

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It generally takes a few years to assess new shrubs. For example, the habit can initially be nicely compact yet after a few seasons they may resemble a gangly teenager. Or what you thought was going to be a low maintenance, drought tolerant, and deer-resistant specimen proved to be a demanding primadonna. As the gardening…

Now that the thrill of summer has passed and the warm colors of fall are fading with each passing storm, our eyes should be being drawn to attractive broadleaf plants like…