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The Best Houseplants for Low Light
Raise your hand if all of your plants are currently squished into the one spot in your house with bright light... 🖐️ We understand the feeling! But thankfully, there are some plants that...
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 lifestyle. It creates a better...
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 were absolutely right! The two...
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 have been leaving the...
Going Back to Berry Basics
Our mild climate is perfect for growing sweet, juicy berries, and homegrown berries are a great way to save money while eating fresh and local throughout the year! Between blueberries,...
Creating Your Own Terrarium
What’s all the fuss about terrariums? Terrariums are mini masterpieces that you can enjoy throughout the year; they are easy to make and even easier to maintain. Terrariums make great...
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 with the ability to grow food,...
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 accents surrounding plants. When...
Beneficial Insects in Your Garden
In any well-balanced ecosystem, there are pests and there are natural enemies. For this reason, some pests must be present in the environment for natural enemies (beneficial insects) to...
Creating a Habitat for Bees in Your Garden
Bees pollinate ⅓ of our food supply and ⅓ of the feed for our meat sources. Want to "bee" part of the solution to increase awareness about bees and help protect our future food supply?...
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 prefer temperatures between...
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 love to fill your indoor...
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 rooting hormone can increase...
DIY Moss Pole 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! Popular selections such as...
Living Christmas Tree Care Tips
The purchase of a living Christmas tree (instead of a fresh-cut tree) is a wonderful way to celebrate the holiday season and provide an addition to your landscape! Living Christmas trees...
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 Cover/shelter: thickets/hedges, dense...
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 this large family are...
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 Goals/reasons to prune Tools, Terms,...
Fall is for Planting!
Fall is a great time to evaluate your garden and determine what needs to be corrected, moved, or added. Based on this season’s performance, one can assess the nutrient needs of the soil...
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 tightly sealed space for us to...
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. The good news, however, is that...
Trees in the Landscape: Summer & Fall Focus
Summer has been long and hot, and for most of us, our time has been spent (very) close to home. Whether you’ve passed the time surrounded by towering Douglas Firs in Lake Oswego, admiring...
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 foliage at lower light levels and...
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 of the beauty. My garden...
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 evolved ways of gaining...
Vines in the Garden
Discover the right vines for your garden space and learn how to best grow and support them! 3 Basic Growth Styles: Clinging, Twining & Climbing with Tendrils Clinging vines use...
Facts About Bee Pollinators
Look carefully for groups of bees crowded together in the evening or early morning. They may be hanging by their jaws from various plant parts, hidden inside flowers that are closed up for...
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 succulents is full of weird and...
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 even some trees and shrubs...
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 for a succulent plant to be...
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 flowers or contrasting foliage...
Privacy Screens & Hedges
Do you feel like you've been gardening in a "fish bowl" or providing entertainment for the neighbors? Making a space that feels private and intimate in your urban garden can sometimes pose...
April in the Garden
For Fresh Color In April, we have warmer days and cool (even frosty) nights; average last frost date is April 15th! Many cool-season annuals can be planted this month, especially during...
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 spot treatment for weeds, bare...
Kokedama: Our Favorite Mossy Balls
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 (between 1603 and 1868)....
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 demeanor, along with his...
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 best used by dropping in a...