Digger magazine

Written to make you a nursery industry expert.

You are here: Home / Archives for Plant Features

High times for low-water plants

By — Posted

Retail garden centers increasingly turn to drought-tolerant varieties that beat the heat The summer of 2015 was a turning point in the Northwest, which suffered the longest heat wave in 75 years. Portland had more days above 90 degrees Fahrenheit than any other year in recorded history up to that time. That year marked a […]

Low-water lawn alternatives

By — Posted

Miniclover, ecolawn and a variety of groundcovers grow landscapes that are green and drought tolerant Expansive lawns in Europe and the rising popularity of golf in the late 1900s launched America’s obsession with a perfect plot of grass. The invention of the rotary mower and the development of climate-adapted grass varieties made a landscape of […]

A string of succulent successes

By — Posted

Thanks in large part to social media, the market for indoor succulents is larger, more varied and more popular than ever before Ann Patterson, houseplant buyer at Portland Nursery, said she has been collecting succulents for a long time. She called them lovely, intriguing little plants. “They’re interesting looking with lots of different textures,” Patterson […]

Trendy shade trees, part two

By — Posted

In a prior installment regarding shade tree trends, published in the August issue of Digger, we talked about flowering shade tree trends. This time, we will discuss shade trees that don’t necessarily have prominent flowers, from Acer to Zelkova, and we’ll also include some columnar and native options.

Hot, hardy hydrangeas

By — Posted

The historic heat dome of June 2021 left homeowners panicked about their crispy hydrangeas and wondering how the plant can thrive as climate change continues to bring unprecedented weather events. Even before last year’s record-breaking temperatures, breeders saw the effects of climate change and began selecting for better heat and
cold tolerance.

The shifting shade tree market

By — Posted

What people find useful can change with societal trends as well as improved genetics Shade trees are such a presence in everyone’s daily lives in so many ways, that many different factors can influence changing trends in terms of what’s grown and what’s sold. At home, the pandemic pushed people towards making their backyard spaces […]

A new day for crabapples

By — Posted

This flowering tree is on the upswing, thanks to disease resistance and all-season beauty Crabapples have enjoyed a bumpy history. Originating in the mountains of Kazakhstan, crabapples’ spring flowers landed in Chinese palace gardens and were carried along the Silk Road to Europe.  Beyond their beauty, crabapples can act as a blanket pollinator for an […]

Unsung perennials

By — Posted

A treasure trove of options is available for those who want to go beyond the staples Thousands of books are written about them, as are poems, and there are even songs sung about the flowers we know as perennials. Perennials are the backbone of most garden designs and some container gardens, as well. Consumers adore […]

Nature is in the house

By — Posted

A back-to-earth ethic fuels the lust for new, classic and collectible house plants In the 1970s, it seemed like everyone decorated their indoor space with a pothos (Epipremnum aureum) winding around the ceiling and a dusty-looking Coleus on the windowsill, but houseplants fell out of favor during the more technology-driven ’80s. Now they’ve come roaring […]