Post - Mary Snoddy It’s easy to imagine lovely garden features. Daydreams are free; installation and maintenance are not. Some of the ideas that capture our hearts turn out to be far more demanding than we anticipated. ...

🌱If you are considering a new gardening project but your free time is limited, here are two to skip:
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Post - Mary Snoddy Like many others across the Southeast, my garden is wrapped in ice today. We are experiencing record-breaking cold temperatures, with power outages and frozen water pipes topping the list of concerns....

It's another icy day in Landrum, SC (unusual for this area). The main roads have been cleared, but my driveway is like a luge course. How does this impact the garden? Read on...
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Post - Mary Snoddy I grew up in an era where white chenille bedspreads were popular. They had a frustrating habit of leaving fuzz on everything they touched. It would take an entire adhesive lint roller to freshen black...

Chenille Plant is so very touchable. Grow this one outdoors in the US Southeast, but bring it indoors for winter.🌱
www.marysnoddy.com/blog/2025/12...
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Post - Mary Snoddy The dreaded first fall freeze arrived in my area last night, and my garden annuals are now either mush or crispy. Even those in protected areas were damaged by the frigid wind gusts. I hate to say far...

Torenia, or Wishbone Flower, is a lovely annual for shade -- Some of my gardening friends are reporting that it overwinters in zone 8 gardens! 🌱
#shadegardening #marysnoddy www.marysnoddy.com/blog/2025/11...
#shadegardening #marysnoddy

Post - Mary Snoddy Anyone witnessing my push-mowing of the back lawn last week would have been amused. Despite my lug-soled work boots, I was slip sliding around like the slope was ice covered. But it wasn’t ice; it was...

What do hordes of turkeys have in common with tons of acorns? More than you might think.🌱
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Post - Mary Snoddy During my weekly walk through our woodlands, my attention was drawn by a bright spot of color. It was the brilliantly colored seed clusters of Euonymus americanus , (yoo-ON-uh-mus ah-mer-uh-KAY-nus),...

It is a certain sign of fall in the southeastern US when Strawberry Bush starts showing its brilliant seed clusters.🌱
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#nativeplants #marysnoddy

Post - Mary Snoddy I enjoy a beautiful shrub that flowers along the South Carolina coast. I had not seen it locally, so I assumed that it was tender and would not survive cold weather further inland. Recently, however, ...

Oleander (Nerium oleander) is a beautiful but highly toxic shrub found along warm coastal areas of the southeastern US. The story of its common name is entertaining. 🌱
www.marysnoddy.com/blog/2025/10...
#evergreen #Hedge #marysnoddy

Post - Mary Snoddy Strawberry Begonia plant is not a strawberry and is not a begonia. Instead, this shade-loving groundcover is Saxifraga stolonifera , pronounced SAK·suh·fra·guh stoh-lon-NIF-er-rah. The species name, ...

Strawberry Begonia is neither a strawberry nor a begonia. It is a super groundcover for shade.
www.marysnoddy.com/blog/2025/9/...
#shadeplants #groundcoverplants #marysnoddy

Post - Mary Snoddy It seems unfair that bright yellow ‘Florida Sunshine’ Illicium is getting landscape attention to the exclusion of other species, so I want to share the love with other Illicium that are garden wor...

Yellow-foliage Florida Sunshine Anise is a popular shrub for zones 7-9, but don't ignore the other members of the Anise tribe. They make great hedges and features in shady gardens. 🌱
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#evergreen #shadeplants #marysnoddy

Post - Mary Snoddy My Princess Flower started blooming this week. It has a lovely, deep purple flowers and velvety leaves. Princess Flower, Tibouchina urvilleana , is a tropical plant, reliably perennial only in zone 9...

This morning I am enjoying the deep purple blooms of Princess Flower. It is not cold hardy in my zone 8 garden in southeastern US, but it is so lovely that I will grow it as an annual. 🌱
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#tibouchina #marysnoddy

Post - Mary Snoddy At one point of my gardening life, any suggestion of Hedera (Ivy) for the garden would have been met with a resounding, “NO!” That was before I discovered Fatshedera , an intergeneric cross between...

Fatshedera, "Bush Ivy," is a solution for dry shade in US zones 7b-10. 🌱
www.marysnoddy.com/blog/2025/9/...
#garden #gardening #dryshade #evergreen #fatshedera #marysnoddy

Post - Mary Snoddy Much of the southeast is experiencing a growth spurt. The latest statistic I heard from my own area of South Carolina is that an average of 29 people move to Spartanburg County every day . New subdiv...

Sky Pencil holly can make a perfect skinny hedge or container focal point. 🌱
www.marysnoddy.com/blog/2025/9/...
#evergreen #privacyhedge #ilexcrenata #marysnoddy

Post - Mary Snoddy Several years ago, I saw Allium (Ornamental Onion) in bloom at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden. It was a first for me, and I was immediately smitten by the softball-sized purple flowers on tall st...

'Millenium' Ornamental Onion is a great choice for any full-sun southeastern US garden.🌱
www.marysnoddy.com/blog/2025/8/...
#gardening #garden #summerbulbs #provenwinners #allium #marysnoddy #southeasterngarden

Post - Mary Snoddy After thirty-plus days of ninety degrees or more, my area of the southeast has enjoyed plentiful rains and unusually cool, fall-like temperatures. My brown lawn has turned green, almost overnight. Ann...

I think the Luna moth is a beauty queen of the insect world. Unfortunately, they are short lived. Here is why. 🌱
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#gardening #garden #mothsandbutterflies #marysnoddy

Post - Mary Snoddy Here are a few steps to discourage Canada geese from moving into your garden.

If Canada geese are turning your lawn into their own private campsite, there are a few steps you can take to encourage them to move out of your garden and off your lawn. Important: these birds are federally protected in the U.S.🌱
www.marysnoddy.com/blog/2025/8/...
#wildlife #garden #marysnoddy

I've always thought of earthworms as the garden's best friend, but there may be another side to the story. Today's guest blog educates us about an evil invasive earthworm that is definitely NOT a friend. 🌱
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#gardening #garden #invasivespecies #marysnoddy

Post - Mary Snoddy I tend to take for granted the low-maintenance, high-performing plants in my flower gardens while I obsess over the Japanese Beetles on the roses, the rust on the Daylilies, or the brittle stems of th...

Yes, I am guilty of ignoring a hardworking, wonderful plant in my garden while I obsess over the divas. 🌱
www.marysnoddy.com/blog/2025/7/...
#garden #gardening #pollinatorplants #marysnoddy

Post - Mary Snoddy I have received a number of requests to identify a weed that seems to have appeared overnight in almost everyone’s garden. In reality, these have been present but they grow so rapidly that they are no...

Is American Burnweed a friend or foe? It's up to you, gardeners.
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#garden #gardening #weeds #natives #marysnoddy 🌱

Post - Mary Snoddy The southeastern US has been melting under a heatwave over the past weeks. Last month, I provided some recommendations to help you select heat tolerant plants for next year. But what can you do here a...

🌱The heat is radiating off the lawn at 8am here in the southeastern US. There are a few steps you can take to help your garden survive: www.marysnoddy.com/blog/2025/7/...
#garden #gardening #heattolerant #marysnoddy

Post - Mary Snoddy Cast Iron Plant, Aspidistra elatior , fills the gardener’s need for an evergreen, vertical plant that will survive in dry shade. Sometimes, though, the long leaves of Cast Iron plants can suffer wind...

Consider planting Rohdea japonica in your garden's dry, shady spots. It is a carefree, lovely, evergreen that spreads slowly.
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#garden #gardening #dryshade #marysnoddy
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Post - Mary Snoddy A record-breaking heatwave is punishing the southeastern US right now. Yesterday’s heat index in my area was 105 and today is projected to feel like 107. At these temperatures, gardeners and their pla...

While the southeastern US is suffering under an intense heat dome, gardeners appreciate heat-tolerant plants. Here are a few winners in my garden.🌱
www.marysnoddy.com/blog/2025/6/...
#garden #gardening #heattolerant #marysnoddy

Post - Mary Snoddy Creating beautiful flower gardens is satisfying, but part of me is thrilled when I grow something edible. This is the genetic result of my grandparents’ farming background, I suppose. Two years ago, I...

I have an exciting new plant in my southeastern US, Zone 8 garden. Eriobotrya is borderline cold hardy here, so my is a container resident that will overwinter in the greenhouse. A love, evergreen, exotic-looking tree. 🌱
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#garden #gardening #marysnoddy #tropicaltree

Post - Mary Snoddy I occasionally splurge and buy intriguing plants for which I have no intended location in my garden. Such is the case with El Niño®  Desert Orchid, an intergeneric cross between Southern Cat...

This is my first growing season for Chitalpa, a intergeneric hybrid between Southern Catalpa and Dessert Willow. Looking forward to good results here in the southeastern US.🌱
www.marysnoddy.com/blog/2025/5/...
#garden #gardening #easyplants #marysnoddy #provenwinners

Post - Mary Snoddy Verbena (pronounced ver-BEE-nah) is a popular garden plant due to its ease of growth, low maintenance, and heat tolerance. There are more than 250 species. Most grown in home gardens are hybrids, Ver...

Verbena hybrids are an easy, heat-tolerant plant for the southeastern US gardens. They offer bright color all season long, require little maintenance, are a butterfly magnet, and are typically ignored by deer. 🌱
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#gardening #garden #heattolerantplants #marysnoddy

Post - Mary Snoddy Years ago, I received a Walking Iris as a garden gift from a fellow Master Gardener. It was labeled, Neomarica gracilis . I assumed that it was an ordinary Iris. The giver hesitated to describe it. N...

Walking Iris is a slow-spreading bulb for part shade in the southeastern US. She is long-flowering, low maintenance, and pretty:
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Post - Mary Snoddy One of the top reasons we moved to a country town was to avoid noise, light pollution, and traffic. As the southeast US grows, our car traffic has increased exponentially and my patience with other dr...

This week I accidentally stumbled across a flowering native shrub in North Carolina. Bonus!
www.marysnoddy.com/blog/2025/4/...
#garden #gardening #nativeplants #marysnoddy 🌱

Post - Mary Snoddy I am convinced that the reason more gardeners don’t use the native groundcover Chrysogonum virginianum is because the name is hard to spell and pronounce. Maybe that explains why it is hard to find ...

In the southeastern US, an excellent but underused groundcover for shade is Chrysogonum, "Green and Gold." Native, evergreen, and deer resistant.🌱
www.marysnoddy.com/blog/2025/4/...
#gardening #native #evergreen #pollinatorplants #marysnoddy

Post - Mary Snoddy Gardeners everywhere are removing weeds from their gardens, hoping to control the nasties before they become deep-rooted and tougher, or at least before they set seeds and spread. One weed that I find...

It's the weed that won't let go of your glove: Sticky Weed, Sticky Willy, or Catchweed Bedstraw.
www.marysnoddy.com/blog/2025/3/...
#garden #gardening #gardenweeds #MarySnoddy

Post - Mary Snoddy Carolina Jessamine is currently beautifying waste places, chain link fences, and unkempt roadsides with its happy yellow flowers. Carolina Jessamine (sometimes labeled Carolina Jasmine) is Gelsemium&...

The state flower of South Carolina is a native vine, Carolina Jessamine. Its yellow flowers are beautifying southeastern gardens and roadsides.
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#gardening #nativeplants #garden #marysnoddy

Yellow flowers and blue flowers in woodland setting

Yellow flowers in woodland setting

Spring flowers blue mertensia and burgundy trillium in woodland setting

Deep pink flowers on shrub with burgundy leaves Loropetalum

Spring flowers are emerging in upstate South Carolina. #garden #gardening #marysnoddy