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Attracting butterflies and hummingbirds to your garden can be as easy as planting flowers they love! One butterfly and hummingbird magnet is the butterfly bush. When checking catalogs, the Latin name can be classified as either “Buddleia davidii” or “Buddeleia davidii” (most common). Technically, the butterfly bush is a shrub, although it grows much like a perennial in that it dies completely to the ground each year. Buddeleia are best suited in USDA hardiness zones 5 - 10. In the lower zones, the butterfly bush won’t survive the winter.

There are a wide variety of Buddeleia. You can choose one by size or flower color. Typically, Buddleia grow anywhere from 6 to 12 feet tall and can spread as much as 15 feet across. The plant looks somewhat like a fountain when fully grown, with slender arching branches or stems. The leaf color can vary from silver green to dark green. The tip of each stem will have a long cone-like flower head, made up of tiny tube shaped individual flowers. The plant will bloom from early summer through the first frost.

Some popular cultivars of Buddleia are:

- Buddleia davidii ‘Black Knight’ - dark purple flowers, height to 72 inches.
- Buddleia davidii ‘Nanho Blue’ - deep blue flowers, height to 60 inches.
- Buddleia davidii ‘Royal Red’ - magenta flowers, height to 96 inches.

If you want to try a more unusual plant, try:

- Buddleia davidii ‘Harlequin’ - pale, variegated foliage with magenta blooms. Height to 72 inches.
- Buddleia davidii ‘Butterfly Hybrids’ - a mix of white, pink and purple blooms on the same plant. Height to 60 inches.

Buddleia grow best in well drained soil and full sun. Keep in mind the full sun is also what will attract the butterflies, as they need the sun to warm their body temperature for flying. When you plant your Buddleia, water thoroughly. While they will tolerate dry conditions, don’t let the newly planted bush dry out until it is established.

Like perennials, the butterfly bush will die down to the ground over the winter in colder climates. In colder hardiness zones, place mulch over the plant after the first hard freeze. Do not cut back the old wood until spring time to give the root crown extra protection. For warmer climates, prune the Buddleia back by about one third in early spring . In the spring, remove the mulch. Buddleia are slow to awaken in the spring, well after the last frost, so don’t give your bush up for dead if you don’t see growth for a while! During the bloom season, prune off the spent blossoms (called dead-heading) to encourage new flowers.

Deciding how many Buddleia to add to your garden is dependent upon how much space you have. Buddleia look great as a single specimen plant, or as mass groupings. When grouping Buddleia, keep them in the back of the garden, as there height will make a great back drop. The more bushes you plant, the more butterflies you will attract!

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Gardening

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Fall-blooming bulbs are not as well known as their spring cousins, but they can brighten up a garden just as most plants are fading.

A good time to plan your impending bulb additions is during winter, while your tulip and daffodil bulbs are lying dormant in the ground. It’s easy to imagine that great burst of color when spring arrives, and also easy to think about how quickly it will end, leaving you a fall garden with little color. Enjoying a few colorful blossoms in the fall is also an option, though. Planting fall-blooming bulbs will give you some color in your garden in addition to the fall reds, yellows and browns.

Finding fall blooming bulbs may be challenging. But seed or bulb catalogues are a good place to look. As you search for fall bloomers, you may also encounter the term “corm.” A corm is similar to a bulb although the shape is slightly different. A corm has a swollen stem base, which acts as the food reserve. Crocus and gladiolas are common corms (although only the saffron crocus variety will bloom in the fall).

Plant fall-blooming bulbs in early spring, or after the danger of frost is passed. The bulbs should be planted four to six inches deep, in well-drained soil. Consider adding sharp gravel around the corms to dissuade pesky garden scavengers. Because these bulbs can be planted so deeply, ground covers or other plants with an open nature will not harm the bulbs buried beneath.

The most commonly available fall bulb is the saffron crocus, also available in a white variety. As fall approaches, the leafless flower stalks of the crocus grow out of the ground and clusters of flaring, four-inch purple blooms appear on the stems. Other varieties of crocus include: medius, pulchellus, and speciosus. Speciosus, or “Showy Crocus” produces violet blue blooms with yellow anthers and deep orange stigmas. The plant will grow to five or six inches high. Also look for varieties of the showy crocus which include ‘Cassiope’ (aster blue flowers with yellow bases) and ‘Conqueror’ (clear, deep blue flowers).

Spring is not the only season that welcomes new life-fall blooms can brighten your yard, and your mood, just at the time other plants are turning brown.

American Homeowners Association (AHA)

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A lawnmower is one of those things that everyone has, and yet it’s still really difficult to choose the right one. There are hundreds - thousands even - of different lawnmowers out there to choose from, and it’s difficult to know which to get unless you have some basic grounding in what you’re looking for.

The first decision you have to make is whether you want a petrol mower, an electric mower or a mower that is powered only by you pushing it.

While push mowers are doubtless the cheapest and most environmentally friendly (not to mention the quietest!), it can be strenuous to push them well enough to cut all the grass, and will be completely impractical for you if you have a large garden that needs to be cut.

Petrol lawnmowers are more powerful, but at the same time more troublesome. They need a fuel supply, which can be expensive as well as dangerous to store, and they also often use difficult pull-string starting mechanisms.

Electric lawnmowers, on the other hand, are just as powerful as petrol ones, but don’t need the fuel and can be started easily. The main downside of electric mowers is that they need a power cord to be plugged into them, and this can be a safety hazard if you accidentally cut through it with the mower’s blades. There are rechargeable cordless mowers, but they tend to be more expensive and will not run for a very long time.

If your garden is big enough, you could even try a ride-on mower. These are exactly what they sound like, big lawn mowers that you ride on. They are generally petrol-powered, and expensive. However, there’s no denying that they get the grass cut very quickly, and they’re fun to ride, too.

Overall, what you choose will depend on the size of your garden, how much you want to spend and which features are important to you. For most people, an electric lawnmower will probably have the best balance of features.

John Gibb is the owner of lawn mower resources , For more information on lawn mowers please check out http://www.lawn-mower-guidance-4u.info

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