National Garden Bureau

Sunflowers - the Perfect Zodiac Flower for the Leo in Your Life! 🌻🦁

With mane-like petals and the ability to follow the sun, sunflowers embody Leo’s personality. The big, bright, cheerful blooms add energy to any occasion. Have you ever seen anyone NOT smile when handed a bouquet of these brilliant blooms? Plus, as late summer/fall flowers, sunflowers celebrate Leo’s birthday with a spectacular show in the garden.

Find out more at https://ngb.org/zodiac-flowers

So the best way to keep your buddleia in bloom is to remove the dead or spent blooms. The Pollinators will Thank You!

https://ngb.org/year-of-the-buddleia/

Here are some mid-summer reminders that will keep your gardens productive and your dinner table loaded with the freshest, tastiest food on earth.

Victory Garden 2.0 Summer Maintenance Mid-Summer Maintenance will keep your garden thriving throughout the summer with these how-to tips on watering, weeding, and harvesting.

Big, Bold, and Beautiful: Use Maximalism to Grow a Gorgeous Garden

Ready to ditch the boring and embrace the bursting beauty of maximalism? This trend isn't just for interiors anymore - it's taking the gardening world by storm!

Maximalist gardens are all about creating a feast for the senses. Think vibrant colors, overflowing textures, and unique features that make your garden a showstopper. Here's how to get started: https://ngb.org/maximalism-garden/

We see beautiful music ahead for 2025 - it’s the Year of the Caladium!

It's the Year of the Hosta! (Giveaway Alert!)
Calling all shade garden lovers! This year belongs to the hosta, and we're celebrating with a fantastic giveaway thanks to our National Gardening Bureau members, Black Gold and Jung Seed Co. One lucky winner will receive a collection of hosta varieties to add stunning texture and color to their shade havens.
Enter today at https://bit.ly/BGJuly24

What’s your favorite garden memory?
Is it burying your nose in sweet lavender lilacs, sneaking a sip of nectar from fragrant honeysuckle as a child, snipping spicy roses for a bouquet, or harvesting piney rosemary for recipes?
Whatever your memories evoke, they’re sure to be tied to scent. After all, smell, emotion, and memories are closely linked, due to the brain’s anatomy. And while choosing plants based on color scheme or texture may be at the forefront of your mind when plant shopping, selecting deliciously fragrant plants adds a whole new dimension to your garden design.

Savor a Scent-sational Garden with Fragrant Plants You’ll find spectacularly scented shrubs, perennials, bulbs, annuals, and herbs. So many new fragrant plants to choose from, scent-sational!

Squash requires bees to move pollen from the male to the female flowers. It takes as many as twelve visits to a female flower by pollen-laden bees to complete the pollination process. Timing is everything and there should be both male and female blooms open for pollination to occur.

Learn more at https://ngb.org/year-of-the-squash/

Have you ever tried Hosta Flowers?
Celebrate the Year of the Hosta!

https://ngb.org/year-of-the-hosta/

Looking to succession sow and don't have room? Then you need an easy-to-assemble, mobile trellis that fits in small spaces like raised beds! Perfect for peas and cucumbers!

There are many options for foldable trellises. These trellises come in multiple shapes and sizes and the best ones are galvanized and thus resistant to rust. Opt for types that hinge and can collapse or fold for easy storage. For added fun, connect raised beds with more tepee or arched-type foldable trellises.

Find out more about the 7 Easy Vegetable Trellising Methods to Elevate Your Garden at
https://ngb.org/vegetable-trellising/

Written by our NGB member Pure Line Seeds, Inc.

Did you know that many of your favorite herbs are native plants?

The Herb Society of America defines native herbs as “chiefly seed-bearing plants—annuals, biennials, and perennials, aromatic or useful shrubs, vines, and trees that grew naturally in this country without the interference, accidental or intentional of man before European settlement.

This is Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum). An herb native to the North-Central US, anise hyssop’s striking lavender flowers make it an attractive addition to any garden. Its aromatic leaves are useful for crafting a potpourri or brewing a delightful herbal tea.

Find out more at https://ngb.org/native-plants/

Celebrate the Year of the Hostas with some new Hosta plants from our NGB member Jung Seed Co. and soil from NGB member Black Gold

Welcome Summer- July Hosta Giveaway! Jung Seed Co. a new Partner for us and we are very proud to offer this Hosta variety surprise! Enter today https://bit.ly/BGJuly24

Add Big, Bold Tropical Color to Your Garden with Hardy Hibiscus and You Will Feel You are on a Tropical Vacation All Summer!

If you think bigger is better, you’ll love the oversized spectacle of hardy hibiscus blooms. Like their tropical hibiscus cousins, hardy hibiscus adds big, beautiful, bold blooms to your garden, letting you create a gorgeous tropical space by the pool or adding instant impact in landscape beds.

But unlike tropical hibiscus that whimpers and withers at the first chill, begging to be brought inside, hardy hibiscus sticks around for years, dying back to the ground in winter and reappearing each year in late spring.

Find out more at https://ngb.org/tropical-vibe-hardy-hibiscus/

Want fresh lettuce all season long? Then it's time to succession sow! Succession sowing involves multiple seed plantings of the same crop throughout one growing season. Instead of sowing 100 lettuce seeds at once, for instance, succession sowing spaces out the plantings every few weeks throughout the growing season. Because most home gardeners can’t consume 100 heads of lettuce when the crop all matures at once, a more practical method of succession sowing—planting 20 seeds, waiting two weeks to plant another 20 seeds, and so on—allows you to harvest and enjoy the first planting, while the successive crops continue to grow. Learn more at https://ngb.org/seed-starting-direct-sowing-succession-planting-garden-like-a-pro/

Have you seen the adult Japanese beetles buzzing around?
They're back and ready to munch on all sorts of your plants.

These guys are the grown-up version of the grubs you might find in your soil. They can damage fruits, veggies, flowers, and even trees. Learn more about these summertime pests and how to deal with them: https://ngb.org/treating-grubs-beetles-organically/

Did you know that gold hostas gain the most intense color when planted in filtered shade or morning sun? Planting in deep shade will result in more chartreuse or green color, planting in full sun will typically cause leaf scorch. Find out more at https://ngb.org/year-of-the-hosta/

This is SHADOWLAND® ‘Coast to Coast' Hosta from NGB member Walters Gardens found at NGB member Proven Winners

Your Tomato and Pepper Problems are Solved with this eBook from our Experts! Grab Yours Today at https://mailchi.mp/ngb/tomatoandpepperebook

There is still ONE DAY left to enter to win two new beautiful Sun Parasol Giant Peach Sunrise Mandevillas from NGB member Suntory Flowers! 20” containers from Algreen Products and NGB member Black Gold potting mix. Enter today at https://bit.ly/JuneBG24

Beyond the Garden Gate: How Native Plants Help Sustain Us and Our World - Ground covers like Wild Ginger, Crested Dwarf Iris, and Violet, and perennials like common mountain mint, anise hyssop, and wild bergamot are all ideal additions for your native garden, says NGB member Susan Betz, Fresh Starts Herbs. Find out more at https://ngb.org/native-plants/

Are you celebrating the Year of the Squash?
https://ngb.org/year-of-the-squash/

Year of the Squash Year of the Squash: A versatile and delicious vegetable with lots of varieties for summer, winter, and pumpkin, plus tips on growing!

Have you entered our June Garden Giveaway yet? Enter for a chance to win two new beautiful Sun Parasol Giant Peach Sunrise Mandevillas from NGB member Suntory Flowers! 20” containers from Algreen Products and NGB member Black Gold potting mix. Enter today at https://bit.ly/JuneBG24

5 Hydrangea Mistakes That Produce No Flowers - #2 Too Much or Too Little Water. Here’s the trick: too much water is as bad as too little. Yes, this plant will droop when it is in that morning sun and you will be tempted to immediately provide relief.

DON’T! Wait until the sun is off the plant so it can do this miraculous trick of rehydrating (if there is enough moisture in the surrounding soil). Watering the plant prematurely could kill it as that water will take up necessary pore space below ground and displace critically important oxygen. Plus excess water will lead to more leaves and fewer flowers.

If it doesn’t rehydrate by the next morning, then, by all means, give it a drink. But also take steps to address the moisture issue in the surrounding soil: add compost to increase water retention and/or increase the depth of mulch to reduce moisture loss. Do a knuckle test regularly to check that water is getting down to the root area and keeping it moist. If all of that doesn’t work, consider moving your plant or altering your irrigation practices. Find out more about all the Hydrangea Mistakes that cause no flowers at https://ngb.org/5-no-flower-hydrangea-mistakes/

Squash Goals Still Achievable? You Bet! ☀️
Don't write off your squash dreams just yet! Squash thrives in hot weather and can shoot from seed to harvest in just a few short months.

Check the "days to harvest" info on the seed packets - you might be surprised at how quickly you can be enjoying homegrown squash!

Learn more at https://ngb.org/year-of-the-squash/

♋️ Calling all Cancers and Cancer lovers! ♋️

You know them – the ones with the biggest hearts and the most emotional depth. They crave adventure sometimes but truly find comfort in familiar faces and places.

What's their perfect flower, you ask? The elegant white rose, of course!

Just like Cancers, white roses symbolize peace, love, and positivity. Their pure and innocent beauty reflects Cancer's optimistic spirit. But remember, these delicate blooms have protective thorns! And both Cancer the Crab and white roses can pinch.

Find out more at https://ngb.org/zodiac-flowers

It's officially summer and what better way to enjoy it than watching butterflies on your butterfly bush!

Buddleias are, in fact, butterfly MAGNETS, drawing a wide range of butterfly and other pollinator species to them with their plethora of sweet-smelling flowers. So much so, that many butterfly gardens are designed around Buddleia as the core element to support these beautiful creatures. In peak bloom Butterfly Bush can become a joyous source of entertainment — transforming the shrub into a mesmerizing real-life GIF animation while the pollinators move from one nectar-rich flower to the next.

Find out more at https://ngb.org/year-of-the-buddleia

Calling all pollinator pals!
Looking to add a splash of color AND give our buzzing buddies a feast? Hardy hibiscus are your new best friend!

These beauties boast big, beautiful blooms that attract hummingbirds and feed bees, making them the perfect focal point for your pollinator garden.

Plant some pollinator power today! Learn more at https://ngb.org/tropical-vibe-hardy-hibiscus/

Damage from Japanese Beetles in the United States amounts to millions of dollars in losses per year with most damage occurring in the Midwest and East Coast. However, the problem is no longer isolated to the eastern half of the country.

Japanese beetles continue to move westward and south and now have become a big nuisance in Colorado, and even in isolated areas in California, Washington, and Oregon.

Identifying & Treating for Grubs (and Beetles) in Your Yard...Naturally and Organically! Easy steps on how to identify and treat the grubs and beetles in your yard, naturally and organically. that you can do this year!