Cold Climate Gardening
One of the longest-running garden blogs on the web, Cold Climate Gardening also provides links, book reviews, and plant profiles to help you garden successfully. Freelance author Kathy Purdy shares her gardening insights with you. Come join the conversation!

• January Thaw Discoveries: Plants
  The January thaw of last week provided me with an opportunity to “check under the hood”–or, in this case, under the snow cover. It’s always thought provoking, prompting me to think about how different plants respond to this cold season. This snapdragon looked perkier the last time I saw it. I don’t think it [...]
• The Great Houseplant Census of 2010
  Mr. McGregor’s Daughter, in an effort to promote domestic harmony*, has requested gardeners everywhere to tally up the number of plants they currently have growing inside. Here are my results: Outdoor Plants Wintering Over 1 rosemary 1 ‘Rehoku Sunrise’ carex (an experiment) 1 apple seedling (my middle daughter’s experiment) 1 orange tree grown from seed by my 16 year old [...]
• Edible Blue Honeysuckle: A Fruit for Cold Climates
  My first introduction to Clayton was his comment on my post about cold climate seeds. On his recommendation I checked out the links in his sidebar. That’s how I found out he grows edible blue honeysuckle, a fruit that is extremely hardy. I thought my readers would like to know more about it, so I [...]
• January Thaw: A Video
  What happens when the snow melts in the middle of winter? I made a brief video to show you: Some roads and a few low bridges have flooded, forcing early school closings and rerouting traffic. A thaw in January is common, but rain doesn’t always accompany it. Sometimes it is brilliantly sunny, inspiring snowball fights in shirt [...]
• Seventh Annual Great Gardens and Landscaping Symposium
  Kerry Mendez just emailed me about the Great Gardens and Landscaping Symposium: “Six dynamic garden lectures by nationally recognized speakers, great handouts, food, door prizes, and garden gifts. The event takes place at The Equinox Resort in Manchester, VT. Overnight packages and day only rates available. Speakers include garden designer Julie Moir [...]
• How Do You Know If A Plant Is Hardy?
  I was just reading Graham Rice’s musings on plants that grow in the coldest climates. He observed that the resources he consulted did not agree on which plants were tough enough to take USDA zone 2. If you’ve been gardening for any length of time (which of course Graham has), this won’t surprise you. First, [...]
• Winner of the Botanical Interests Seed Collection Giveaway
  John Deal is the winner, chosen randomly by the random number generator. Thank you to everyone for participating! Botanical Interests will be holding other giveaways later on this year, so you will have other chances to win.
• Garden Bloggers Bloom Day January 2010
  There’s Nothing Blooming Outside The plants I saw two and a half weeks ago are buried under snow. No Houseplants Are Blooming The Christmas cactus that provided a bloom this time last year dropped its one and only blossom a couple of days ago. My Forced Bulbs Aren’t Ready Yet–Neither Hyacinths My forced hyacinth is just barely getting started: According [...]
• Seeds for Cold Climates
  Seeds of vegetables grown in cold climates need to have a short length to maturity and an ability to tolerate cooler than typical temperatures–day and night. You can look in any general seed catalog for terms like “short growing season,” “early-bearing,” “tolerates cool evenings,” or even the magic words, “especially bred for northern growers.” It’s even [...]
• Botanical Interests Seed Collection Giveaway
  Botanical Interests was a new seed company for me when I hosted a giveaway of their seeds last year. Since then I’ve had a chance to grow their seeds. My favorite has got to be the Lauren’s Grape poppy. It is gorgeous paired up with ‘Dark Towers’ penstemon. Over 300 Kinds of Seeds But Botanical Interests sells [...]