Dennis’ 7 Dees Blog Articles
Tips for Budgeting Your Landscape Project
Investing in a new landscape for your home is a smart decision. Not only does it boost curb appeal and give you and your family a beautiful and functional...
Summer Harvest & Fall/Winter Vegetable Gardening
At this point in the season, it can be tough to know whether or not you can keep certain crops productive or when to call it quits and plant something new....
Growing Succulents Indoors & Outside
Succulents come in all shapes and sizes and are generally grouped into two categories: winter hardy and annual (NOT winter hardy). The world of hardy...
20 Questions & Answers for Extreme Heat Recovery for Plants
Looking to help your garden with heat recovery for plants? We've received quite a few questions during the recent heatwave about how to revive stressed...
Growing Cacti & Succulents Indoors
Is there a difference between cacti and succulents? Cacti are fleshy plants that store water—therefore, all cacti are succulents. On the other hand, in order...
Summer Houseplant Care & Vacation Tips
During summer months, our houseplants need specific care and attention to stay lush and healthy. With more intense sunlight, a few plants may need to be...
Solutions for Landscape Drainage Problems
Even though drainage may not be the first thing that comes to mind as your next stunning landscape improvement, perhaps it should be. With an average of 36...
Summer Hanging Basket & Mixed Container Maintenance
Keeping flowerpots and hanging baskets looking fresh and floriferous all season is something many gardeners struggle with. "Hang" in there—we've got you...
How to Grow & Harvest Herbs in the Garden
Fresh, homegrown herbs are easy to grow and an economical way to add a little gourmet to your every day. Learn about selection, care, and growing of herbs,...
Gardening With Nandina (Heavenly Bamboo)
Heavenly Bamboo, a.k.a. Nandina, is a commonly used evergreen shrub for northwest landscapes. It has earned its reputation as low maintenance by being...
How to Grow Edible Plants in Containers
If you’re an urban gardener, container-grown edibles may be your best chance to raise food crops at home. Growing food in containers requires less weeding and...
All About Boxwood
Boxwoods have been used for centuries in European gardens and are now commonly planted in American landscapes coast to coast. Grown as traditional hedges or...
How to Care for a Hanging Basket
Hanging baskets of flowers are just the right thing to add to your porch for instant pizzazz! If properly maintained, they can offer months of color and...
Elevate Your Landscape With Raised Garden Beds
With visual appeal, convenience, and controlled soil conditions, it’s no surprise that raised garden beds are popular among novice and seasoned gardeners...
Beginning an Organic Veggie Garden
Ultimately, you are just going to have to dig in and get a little dirty, but reading books and taking classes is a great way to learn the basics of gardening!...
Ground Covers, Creepers & Cascading Perennials
Dress up your retaining wall, adorn a pathway, or plant living mulch with these low-growing or mounding perennials. We have featured some of our favorite...
Big Landscaping Ideas for Small Backyards
For those of us who live in the city or on a smaller plot of land, we're constantly looking for landscaping ideas for small backyards. At Dennis’ 7 Dees, one...
Plant Nutrition: Fertilizing Basics
Plants "eat" sunlight to create energy through a process called photosynthesis—the roots take up water from the soil, the leaves absorb carbon dioxide from...
How to Refresh a Tired Container Planting
After a few years, most container plantings begin to show signs of decline. The plants start to lose their vigor, while the soil appears hard and compacted,...
Our Favorite Spring Flowering Shrubs in the Northwest
Rhododendrons, Azaleas, and Pieris are considered classic Pacific Northwest landscape plants. Mostly evergreen and spring blooming, they thrive in our acidic...
New & Noteworthy Plants for 2022
Each year the National Garden Bureau selects an annual, perennial, bulb crop, edible, and shrub as "Year of " plants, plus a houseplant for this year. Plants...
Pet-Safe (Non-Toxic) Indoor Plants
As our lives become more urban, tech-based, and harried, we have come to embrace plants and nature as selfless companions to help us relax and beautify our...
Don’t Kill Them with Kindness: Watering Guidelines for Indoor Plants
The most common cause of houseplant demise is root rot brought on by overwatering—not from too much water, but from watering too frequently. Plants need a...
Magnolias for Small Gardens
Magnolia trees come in a multitude of shapes, sizes, and flowering types, and many of them are perfect for growing in small, urban gardens. This is an ancient...
Become Enlightened With Indoor Grow Lights
Improve your houseplant success and grow more plants by using indoor supplemental lights. Recent advances in lighting have provided us with increased options...
Hooray for Heucheras
While most of our landscape plants slumber through the winter, there are a few who thrive during the colder months. For steady, reliable color in the garden,...
Indoor Vertical Gardening & Living Walls
Limited on space? Go vertical! Innovative containers are providing us with more ways to incorporate plants into our indoor spaces these days, from...
The Benefits of Biophilia
Spending a lot of time indoors? With changing seasons and more extreme weather events, many of us are spending more time than ever indoors and somewhat...
The Difference Between Living Walls & Moss Walls
Left: a living wall made of live plants with built-in water system. Right: A moss wall made of preserved plants that are securely attached and do not need...
How to Care for Ferns Indoors
As Pacific Northwesterners, we have a soft spot in our hearts for ferns. When we add them into our homes and dwell amongst their feathery fronds, we can’t...
Improving Soil Health
The single most valuable investment in your home landscape is soil improvement—healthy soil means healthy, productive, beautiful plants! Soil that is healthy...
The Science Behind Plant Propagation
With the growing season almost over (March through September), now is the perfect time to do some last-minute houseplant propagation! If you are a seasoned...
Basic Indoor Plant Care & Selection
Whether you're a long-time indoor plant grower or you recently got into the hobby, there is always something to learn. Read on to discover some of the best...
How to Care for Your Fiddle Leaf Fig
The indoor plant that has dominated style and design trends since houseplants became popular is the Fiddle Leaf Fig (Ficus lyrata). Found in either tree form...
The Power of Plants: Improving Our Wellbeing
Recently house plants have skyrocketed in popularity, finding homes in kitchens, living rooms, offices, and our hearts. Although indoor plants may be...
Summer Landscape Design Ideas
With warm weather beckoning you outside and cooler nights calling for family and friends to gather, summer may just be the absolute best time of year to enjoy...
Common Houseplant Pests & Problems
Whether you have a large collection of houseplants or you are just starting to explore your green thumb, houseplant pests are something you will have to deal...
Alocasia Care Guide
Plants in the alocasia genus are known for their stunningly large leaves that feature an arrowhead shape and gorgeous vein patterns. One of the reasons we...
There’s No Place Like Home
As an owner of Dennis' 7 Dees, Dave Snodgrass takes great pride in his company, and his passion for landscaping and plants is unmatched. A few years ago, he...
Our 7 Favorite Easy Care Houseplants
Even though we love our collector houseplants, sometimes a low-maintenance, easy-to-care-for houseplant is exactly what we're looking for when we don't have...
Outdoor Living: Bringing the Indoors Outdoors
When beautiful weather beckons us to spend more time outdoors on the patio, enjoying al fresco dining, and laughing together around a fire pit, you know it's...
Why You Should Start Planning Your Holiday Décor Now
Holiday decorations bring festive cheer to any space, making them especially inviting to visitors and customers. However, installing professional decor and...
How to Care for a Cactus
Cacti may be one of the most underrated and unique plants in the houseplant world. Although often confused with succulents, cacti are completely different...
Front Yard Landscape Renovation
A crumbling brick wall, drainage challenges, and outdated plantings were just not going to do for this Dennis’ 7 Dees landscape designer's home. Since...
Designing With Plants in the Workplace
Access to nature is increasingly critical for employee mental health and overall wellbeing. Within the last decade, workplace design has embraced bringing the...
The Latest Houseplant Trend: Variegated Plants and the Science Behind Them
Like any houseplant trend, variegated plants have plant lovers and connoisseurs going crazy. However, unlike other trends in the past, the love of variegated...
Made in the Shade: Successful Shade Gardening
In an area with an abundance of trees, one of the biggest challenges for gardeners is shade. Generally, a partially shaded area is one that receives 3 to 6...
Anthurium Care Guide
A beautiful and eccentric cousin to the philodendron, anthuriums are a favorite plant genus among houseplant collectors for their unique, veined leaves and...
Warm Weather Planting Tips
Here we are in early June and temperatures have already reached over 90 degrees! The excitement of planting may be tempered by the need to keep plants...
Gardening by Moonlight: Ideas for Night Gardens
Summer evenings in the garden can be one of the best ways to end a busy day. There are many reasons to plant a night garden—to unwind after work, decompress...
3 Ways to Use Plants for Social Distancing in the Workplace
As offices start to open and employees begin to re-enter the workplace, social distancing solutions in the office have come to the forefront of businesses'...
Edible Gardening for Beginners
Growing our own food has evolved over the years. What started as a necessity has now grown into a hobby for many people and a way to live more sustainably....
How to Care for Hoyas
Hoyas, also known as wax plants, have grown in popularity due to their lust-worthy vines, star-like flowers, and ease of care. Hoyas are vining plants that...
Summer Vegetable Gardening: Beyond Tomatoes
In the Pacific Northwest, we basically have three main growing seasons: two cool, wetter seasons (spring and fall) and the warmer months of summer in between....
Selecting the Best Tomato Variety
Each Spring, we stock and carry a large selection of tomato varieties at our garden centers including heirloom and hybrid tomatoes with organic and...
The Importance of Green in the Workplace
The colors that paint the world around us have been proven to influence our mood and our behaviors. We are so deeply connected to color—the design of an...
The Latest in Houseplant Trends: Is Pink the New Green?
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Complete Calathea Care Guide
With their bold stripes, patterns, and colors, calathea have become one of the most popular tropical plants to have in your home. However, they also have a...
The Green Industry: Creating a Better Environment to Live, Work, and Play
The green industry is much more than people growing, planting, selling, and maintaining plants—it is an art, a profession, a hobby, a science, and a...
Incorporating Pantone’s Colors of the Year into Your Home & Office
After the crazy 2020 we’ve all experienced, Pantone (a universal language of color) thought we could use two colors for 2021’s “color of the year” and they...
Is the Future of Landscape Design Lawn-Free?
Beautiful landscape design has long been associated with luscious green grass, vibrant flowers, and abounding trees. However, more and more property owners...
How to Create Your Own Living Fence With Hedgerows
Sometimes called windbreaks, shelter belts, or conservation buffers, hedgerows are layers of trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses that create living fences...
Versatile & Colorful Coleus
Although flowers are usually the stars of our summer containers and landscape plantings, foliage is also an important element that provides contrast and...
Emergency Care for Indoor Plants During a Winter Power Outage
If a recent winter storm has left you without power or heat in your home, your indoor tropical plants may be shivering right alongside you. Most houseplants...
Mounting Indoor Plants to Wood
Plants on bookshelves, floor plants, countertop and coffee table plants, plants hanging from the ceiling… so many ways to display them! If you are like me and...
Basic Indoor Plant Propagation
Often, there may be more than one way to propagate a specific plant. The ideal time to propagate is during the growing season (March through September). Using...
DIY Moss Poles for Indoor Plant Support
Trailing plants are fun to hang from macramé or display on high shelves, but for many of our favorite trailing plants, there is another way to grow... up!...
Gardening to Attract Birds
The Basic Elements of Habitat Food: seeds, nectar, insects, fruits, and berries Water: bird bath, fountain, water feature, stream/pond, sprinkler...
What Are Aroids?
Botanically speaking, several of our favorite houseplants all belong to the same family, but in many ways look different from one another. Plants included in...
Pruning 102: Pruning for Shaping & Structure
Learn how and when to prune common woody landscape plants to improve health and productivity, and to enhance their beauty.Review of Pruning Basics...
Breathe Easy With These Great Indoor Plants
Since we have all been spending more time at home, thoughts about our indoor air quality might be coming up more often. Modern home-building has created a...
Tomato Tasting 2020
With so many festivals and events cancelled in 2020, it should come as no surprise that we will not be holding our annual Tomato Tasting Festival this year....
Trees in the Landscape: Summer & Fall Focus
Summer has been long and hot, and every Summer and Fall we notice how important trees are in the landscape this time of year. Whether you’ve passed the time...
All About Outdoor Ferns
Most perennial ferns are understory plants and cannot tolerate very high light levels. As with tropical ferns, the same plant will have lush, dark green...
Entertaining in the Garden
I just have to say, I really love my garden. Sure, I have my share of bugs and slugs, weeds, and thugs—there is plenty of imperfection, but I see that as part...
Carnivorous Plant Care
There once was a clever plant that swallowed a fly... and thought it was delicious! There are places in the world where the soil is so poor that plants have...
Vines in the Garden
Vines bring elegant charm, dimension, and even fragrance to outdoor spaces like walkways and patios. They can be grown over arbors and up trellises,...
Setting the Stage for a Successful Container Performance
The weather is warming up, the bees are buzzing, and now is the perfect time to freshen up your exterior containers! Summer annuals, vegetables and herbs, and...
Plants that Make Scents
One common request from garden designers is to engage our senses in order to enhance the entire experience and leave a lasting impression. Bright, colorful...
Spring Lawn Care
Because of our cool, rainy winters and acidic native soil, your lawn may require a “spring tune-up” to help it look its best. After a little moss control and...
How to Create a Kokedama Moss Ball
The Japanese word “Kokedama” literally translates as “moss ball”. It is an ancient botanical art form that likely originated in Japan during the Edo period...
Celebrating 40 Years with Joe Kerzel
Joe Kerzel is a salesman at our Lake Oswego Garden Center, and back in March of 2019, he celebrated 40 years of service with Dennis’ 7 Dees! His charming...
Indoor Pots with No Holes… What’s the Deal?
“Why doesn’t this pot have drain holes?” is a question we hear quite often. Modern indoor plant containers are being designed without drainage holes and are...