Perennials & Landscape reviews

High Country Gardens

High Country Gardens

The mail-order nursery for the future your water bill is heading toward: waterwise perennials, native selections and pollinator plants bred and chosen for gardens that can't drink freely. Plants arrive potted and alive, the zone guidance is honest, and the specialty is only becoming more relevant.

Wildflower Meadow-in-a-Can (Skip It)

The shake-on meadow is gardening's most reliably broken promise: a can of generic seed scattered onto unprepared ground yields weeds, patchy annuals, and a second-year nothing. Real meadows are a soil-preparation project wearing a flower costume — the can sells you the costume.

Hybrid Poplar & 'Miracle' Fast-Growing Trees (Skip It)

The mail-order ads promising instant privacy from a miracle tree are describing hybrid poplar honestly and its consequences not at all: yes it grows shockingly fast, and that speed is bought with weak wood, invasive roots, disease problems and a short, messy life. Fast is the tree's whole résumé, and fast is a flaw wearing a benefit's clothes.