JESSICA DAMIANO | Press Register

Home

This image provided by Jessica Damiano shows a bouquet of cut sunflowers on Oct. 15, 2019 in Mattituck, N.Y. (Jessica Damiano via AP)

AP
premium content - for subscribers only
Click to subscribe

Sunflowers: Popular, native and, for some, newly meaningful
By JESSICA DAMIANO - Associated Press
Tue,05/03/22-10:11AM , 322 Reads
The annual sunflower (Helianthus annus) has a long history in North America, with evidence of its cultivation for food, ceremonial and medical use by Native Americans dating back to at least 1,000 B.C.
Click Here to Read More

This combination photo shows purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), left, and a Liatris spicata, commonly called blazing star or gay feather. Purple Loosestrife is an invasive plant that threatens wetlands and chokes out food sources and habitat for wildlife. TheLiatris spicata is a recommended alternative for invasive purple loosestrife. (Chicago Botanic Garden via AP, left, and Jessica Damiano via AP)

AP
free content

Plant this, not that: Native alternatives to invasive plants
By JESSICA DAMIANO - Associated Press
Tue,04/26/22-9:22AM , 532 Reads
When my family moved into a new home in the spring of 2005, the only plants growing in the garden were a rhododendron by the front door and a few scattered daffodils and ferns. I was delighted to see a stunning perennial pop up a month later.
Click Here to Read More

This image provided by Mt. Cuba Center shows the formal native plant garden blooming at the botanical garden, located in Hockessin, Del. Plantings depicted are: Amsonia tabernaemontana 'Storm Cloud', Asclepias tuberosa, Coreopsis verticillata 'Crazy Cayenne', Gillenia trifoliata 'Pink Profusion', Monarda didyma 'AChall', Penstemon 'Dark Towers', Physocarpus opulifolius 'SMPOTW', Rudbeckia maxima, Sisyrinchium angustifolium 'Lucerne', Solidago sphacelata 'Golden Fleece' and Symphyotrichum oblongifolium 'October Skies'. (Alessandra N. Stokley/Mt. Cuba Center via AP)

AP
premium content - for subscribers only
Click to subscribe

For Earth Day, plant native plants, practice benign neglect
By JESSICA DAMIANO
Tue,04/19/22-9:20AM , 535 Reads
Picture this: You step into your garden, and the beds are brimming with flowers that thrive on benign neglect.

You seldom need to water them, and they don’t require much in the way of fertilizer, either. What’s more, you feel like Snow White as birds, bees and butterflies congregate around you, eating seeds and gathering pollen.
Click Here to Read More

This image provided by Proven Winners shows a sweetly scented heliotrope flower, an old-time garden favorite. (Proven Winners via AP)

AP
premium content - for subscribers only
Click to subscribe

8 nostalgic garden flowers worth revisiting for charm, aroma
By JESSICA DAMIANO - Associated Press
Tue,04/12/22-9:53AM , 392 Reads
In Thornton Wilder’s 1938 play, “Our Town,” heliotrope flowers connect two sets of characters who gather to inhale their intoxicating scent in the moonlight. Heliotropes, then common, are, indeed, wonderfully fragranced. Yet somehow, they’ve fallen out of favor in American gardens.
Click Here to Read More

Subscribe to JESSICA DAMIANO