Longfield Gardens Blog

If you want to add a big splash of color to your garden with a very small amount of effort, plant some cannas. Their bold foliage, impressive size and brilliant red, yellow and orange flowers always get noticed. Cannas look fantastic planted in perennial gardens and make a fabulous living hedge. They look equally amazing in containers. So if you’re ready to turn

Topics: Foliage Plants , Inspiration , Spring Planted Bulbs , Summer Bulbs

Gardeners often have a strong opinion about the color pink. In truth, it can be challenging to work with. Read on to learn why that’s true, and get some tips and techniques for using pink in your flower garden. Cultural biases are the first challenge to overcome. Pink is a color that’s often associated with sweets, babies, girls, cuteness, cotton candy and

Topics: Fall Planted Bulbs , How-To , Inspiration , Perennials , Spring Blooming Bulbs , Spring Planted Bulbs

January and February are the peak selling season for dahlias. It’s still months before we start shipping tubers, but dahlia lovers are always eager to reserve their favorites. They know from experience that the only way to get the varieties you want, is to order them early.

Topics: Cut Flowers , Dahlias , Spring Planted Bulbs , Summer Bulbs

Acidanthera is a lovely, summer-blooming bulb that deserves a place in every flower garden. Curiously, very few gardeners seem to know about it. Being burdened with an unappealing name doesn’t help. Just ask plants like chionodoxa, crocosmia and lisianthus! And to make matters worse, acidanthera goes by nearly a dozen other names, including gladiolus murielae, gladiolus callianthus,

Topics: Cut Flowers , Spring Planted Bulbs , Summer Bulbs

August is an exciting time in our trial garden. There’s something new to admire every single day. This month the stars of the show are summer bulbs, and in particular, cannas and dahlias. Here’s a quick peek at what we’re seeing.

Topics: Dahlias , Spring Planted Bulbs , Summer Bulbs

Hummingbirds have a weakness for red flowers. So even though it’s not MY favorite color, I always try to have a few red flowers in the garden —  just for the hummingbirds. Some years it’s salvias and hibiscus. Others it’s fuschias or geraniums. Always there’s  Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’.  Its flowers are redder than red and there’s just no way a hummingbird can

Topics: Habitat Gardens , Perennials , Spring Planted Bulbs , Summer Blooming Flowers , Summer Bulbs

August is just a couple days away, and in our New Jersey trial garden the heat is definitely ON!  We are located in the eastern part of the state about 10 miles from the ocean and summertime temperatures are typically in the 90’s. This 3/4 acre garden, was (not very long ago) a scrub-covered empty lot behind our warehouse and offices. Eventually there will

Topics: Lilies , Spring Planted Bulbs , Summer Blooming Bulbs , Summer Bulbs

It’s midsummer and the dahlias are coming on strong. This year, my cutting garden is filled with 70 of these solar-powered flower-producing machines. Hopefully this is the peak of my dahlia obsession and I’ll be able to scale back next year. (Yeah, right?) These plants have already been pushing out blossoms for several weeks, and will continue blooming right through

Topics: Cut Flowers , Dahlias , Spring Planted Bulbs , Summer Blooming Bulbs , Summer Blooming Flowers , Summer Bulbs

Lilies have an elegance few other flowers can rival. With such big, exotic-looking blossoms, it seems like they’d be tricky to grow. But they’re not! Here are eight tips for growing lilies that will help you succeed with these gorgeous summer-blooming flower bulbs.

Topics: Cut Flowers , Lilies , Spring Planted Bulbs , Summer Blooming Bulbs , Summer Bulbs

Many years ago, I had a neighbor who was a beekeeper. We used to joke about him giving me a discount on honey, because I was sure his bees spent most of their time in my flower garden. I didn’t realize how true that was, until he moved away and the honeybees went with him!

Topics: Habitat Gardens , How-To , Spring Blooming Bulbs , Spring Planted Bulbs , Summer Bulbs