Renee's Blog
How To Grow Golden California Poppies
Lindsay shows how to sow and grow a long-blooming carpet of dancing California Poppies.
How To Grow Golden California Poppies
Lindsay shows how to sow and grow a long-blooming carpet of dancing California Poppies.
Growing Your Carefree Sunflower Garden
How to prepare the soil bed, sow and grow our carefree heirloom sunflower mix to give you armfuls of bouquets, feed bees and butterflies and produce oil-rich seeds to sustain songbirds.
Growing Your Carefree Sunflower Garden
How to prepare the soil bed, sow and grow our carefree heirloom sunflower mix to give you armfuls of bouquets, feed bees and butterflies and produce oil-rich seeds to sustain songbirds.
Organic Growing: Prepping Garden Beds
Easy step by step prepping instructions for flower garden beds.
Organic Growing: Prepping Garden Beds
Easy step by step prepping instructions for flower garden beds.
Cutting Zinnias For Bouquets
Make beautiful zinnia bouquets and regrow more flowers by following tips from Lindsay Del Carlo, Trial Garden Manager. Shop For Zinnias Now
Cutting Zinnias For Bouquets
Make beautiful zinnia bouquets and regrow more flowers by following tips from Lindsay Del Carlo, Trial Garden Manager. Shop For Zinnias Now
Growing Sweet Peas in the Midwest
It’s unfortunate that sweet peas have a reputation for being difficult to grow in the Midwest, because these lovely flowers offer both exquisite perfume and a wide range of colors from pastels to vivid hues. True, growing sweet peas in...
Growing Sweet Peas in the Midwest
It’s unfortunate that sweet peas have a reputation for being difficult to grow in the Midwest, because these lovely flowers offer both exquisite perfume and a wide range of colors from pastels to vivid hues. True, growing sweet peas in...
All About Sweet Peas
The graceful beauty of annual sweet peas with their ruffled blossoms, soft texture and glowing colors makes them one of the most irresistible flowers. Their scent is an exquisite perfume of orange blossoms and honey, surely one of the most...
All About Sweet Peas
The graceful beauty of annual sweet peas with their ruffled blossoms, soft texture and glowing colors makes them one of the most irresistible flowers. Their scent is an exquisite perfume of orange blossoms and honey, surely one of the most...
Sowing Sweet Peas Directly Into The Garden
In mild winter climates, where the ground does not freeze, sweet pea seeds should be fall-sown directly into the garden from September through November to grow strong root systems and then bloom in spring. If you do not get your...
Sowing Sweet Peas Directly Into The Garden
In mild winter climates, where the ground does not freeze, sweet pea seeds should be fall-sown directly into the garden from September through November to grow strong root systems and then bloom in spring. If you do not get your...
Bold And Beautiful Zinnias
Easy to grow and reliable, zinnias are bright butterfly magnets that have a long history as favorite flowers of American home gardeners. Indeed, we tend to take these popular flowers for granted, perhaps thinking them too ordinary, stiff or garish...
Bold And Beautiful Zinnias
Easy to grow and reliable, zinnias are bright butterfly magnets that have a long history as favorite flowers of American home gardeners. Indeed, we tend to take these popular flowers for granted, perhaps thinking them too ordinary, stiff or garish...
Success with Sweet Peas
I adore annual sweet peas and I think that their exquisite perfume, ruffled, winged blossoms and treasury of glowing colors make them the most irresistible and memorable garden flowers. Wonderful for cutting, a small bouquet of these fluted beauties will...
Success with Sweet Peas
I adore annual sweet peas and I think that their exquisite perfume, ruffled, winged blossoms and treasury of glowing colors make them the most irresistible and memorable garden flowers. Wonderful for cutting, a small bouquet of these fluted beauties will...
Poppies: Modern and Heirloom Varieties
Of all the old-fashioned flowers that welcome the summer season, poppies are the most brilliant—they glow like stained glass when the sun shines behind them in early morning or late afternoon. Although their silky petals look delicate nodding on their...
Poppies: Modern and Heirloom Varieties
Of all the old-fashioned flowers that welcome the summer season, poppies are the most brilliant—they glow like stained glass when the sun shines behind them in early morning or late afternoon. Although their silky petals look delicate nodding on their...
Growing Wedding Flowers
I get many letters from excited gardeners asking about what flowers to grow for weddings and how to plan the seed sowing and growing process. Having done this myself and had the pleasure of walking my daughter down a garden...
Growing Wedding Flowers
I get many letters from excited gardeners asking about what flowers to grow for weddings and how to plan the seed sowing and growing process. Having done this myself and had the pleasure of walking my daughter down a garden...
Flowers For Bouquets
The best way to plan your garden for bouquets is to dedicate a specific garden area to these cutting flowers. This way you can cut all that is in flower on any particular day without feeling that you might spoil...
Flowers For Bouquets
The best way to plan your garden for bouquets is to dedicate a specific garden area to these cutting flowers. This way you can cut all that is in flower on any particular day without feeling that you might spoil...
Gardening With Small Children
What better place to stimulate babies’ and toddlers’ senses and cultivates their growing minds than in the garden? When my daughter, Emilia , was a baby, she'd grab the tendrils of vining snap peas, kick with excitement when I'd rub...
Gardening With Small Children
What better place to stimulate babies’ and toddlers’ senses and cultivates their growing minds than in the garden? When my daughter, Emilia , was a baby, she'd grab the tendrils of vining snap peas, kick with excitement when I'd rub...
Flowers For Cutting
Renee and P Allen Smith demo the many wonderful heirloom and cottage garden flowers for bouquets in Renee's own garden including Cosmos, Bishop's Lace, Devil's Tongue, Nigella, Larkspur, and a myriad of Morning Glories.
Flowers For Cutting
Renee and P Allen Smith demo the many wonderful heirloom and cottage garden flowers for bouquets in Renee's own garden including Cosmos, Bishop's Lace, Devil's Tongue, Nigella, Larkspur, and a myriad of Morning Glories.
Color Drenched Zinnias
Renee introduces the many colors and forms of zinnias you can grow from seed in your garden, attracting butterflies and providing summer long bouquets.
Color Drenched Zinnias
Renee introduces the many colors and forms of zinnias you can grow from seed in your garden, attracting butterflies and providing summer long bouquets.
Romantic Cosmos & Color Drenched Zinnias
Renee introduces the many beautiful colors and forms of easy to grow cosmos, attracting butterflies and providing summer long bouquets.
Romantic Cosmos & Color Drenched Zinnias
Renee introduces the many beautiful colors and forms of easy to grow cosmos, attracting butterflies and providing summer long bouquets.
Growing Great Scented Sweet Peas II
Renee discusses all the beautiful colors and forms of wonderfully fragrant heirloom sweet peas and how to grow them successfully and in abundance in your home garden.
Growing Great Scented Sweet Peas II
Renee discusses all the beautiful colors and forms of wonderfully fragrant heirloom sweet peas and how to grow them successfully and in abundance in your home garden.
Growing Fabulous Fragrant Sweet Peas
Renee shows you how to reliably grow armfuls of heavenly scented sweet peas from seed. Includes detailed planting tips for getting great germination, growing and training your twining vines, and how to get the best long blooming bouquets of blossoms.
Growing Fabulous Fragrant Sweet Peas
Renee shows you how to reliably grow armfuls of heavenly scented sweet peas from seed. Includes detailed planting tips for getting great germination, growing and training your twining vines, and how to get the best long blooming bouquets of blossoms.
Sweet Peas: Starting Early Indoors
When to start: In cold winter areas, sow in seed starting containers in early spring about 6-7 weeks before the last frost date, then plant out as soon as soil can be worked; sweet peas can handle light frosts. In mild...
Sweet Peas: Starting Early Indoors
When to start: In cold winter areas, sow in seed starting containers in early spring about 6-7 weeks before the last frost date, then plant out as soon as soil can be worked; sweet peas can handle light frosts. In mild...
Sowing Renee's Scatter Gardens
Here in our trial garden in central California, the fall rains have begun. Our climate (UDSA zone 8) is mild and, although we have had hard frost, the ground does not freeze in the winter. Many flowers that had gone...
Sowing Renee's Scatter Gardens
Here in our trial garden in central California, the fall rains have begun. Our climate (UDSA zone 8) is mild and, although we have had hard frost, the ground does not freeze in the winter. Many flowers that had gone...
Summer Long Sunflowers
Sunflowers Have a Long History The ancient Incas first cultivated splendid sunflowers and carved enormous golden images of their blooms into their temples. Seeds were carried back to Europe where they were received with wide enthusiasm and described by Spanish...
Summer Long Sunflowers
Sunflowers Have a Long History The ancient Incas first cultivated splendid sunflowers and carved enormous golden images of their blooms into their temples. Seeds were carried back to Europe where they were received with wide enthusiasm and described by Spanish...
How to Grow the Biggest, Tallest Sunflowers
By guest author Alice Formiga To learn the secret of growing sunflowers to record-breaking sizes and heights, I turned to Dr. Tom Heaton, the world's foremost sunflower breeder and Renee's Garden sunflower seed supplier. Tom has been breeding sunflowers for...
How to Grow the Biggest, Tallest Sunflowers
By guest author Alice Formiga To learn the secret of growing sunflowers to record-breaking sizes and heights, I turned to Dr. Tom Heaton, the world's foremost sunflower breeder and Renee's Garden sunflower seed supplier. Tom has been breeding sunflowers for...
Easy, Colorful Edible Nasturtiums
Colorful, edible, butterfly-like nasturtium blossoms have delighted gardeners and cooks alike for centuries. At different times in their history, they’ve been considered a vegetable, an herb, a flower, and even a fruit! The name nasturtium comes from the Latin words...
Easy, Colorful Edible Nasturtiums
Colorful, edible, butterfly-like nasturtium blossoms have delighted gardeners and cooks alike for centuries. At different times in their history, they’ve been considered a vegetable, an herb, a flower, and even a fruit! The name nasturtium comes from the Latin words...
Lavender and Roses from Seed
Lavender and roses have been beloved garden plants throughout their long history of cultivation and their timeless beauty is easily adaptable to changing gardening fashions. In the formal gardens of the Romans, who bathed in lavender and rose-scented waters, in...
Lavender and Roses from Seed
Lavender and roses have been beloved garden plants throughout their long history of cultivation and their timeless beauty is easily adaptable to changing gardening fashions. In the formal gardens of the Romans, who bathed in lavender and rose-scented waters, in...