Howerton Horticulture

05/28/2026

Spotted lanternfly nymphs are out and about! They’re like 5x this size at maturity and way nastier. Squish em while they’re still small. Not only is this fun and helps (BARELY) reduce their numbers, it has another little known benefit.

05/26/2026

Pull it! Or cut it. Or twist it. Or bop it. Whatever you gotta do.

04/21/2026

Can’t believe they did the Virginia sweetspire and redbud like that 😔

04/18/2026

Phlox divaricata AKA woodland phlox. Fun example of putting a plant outside its ideal conditions and still having an okay result. Nowadays, I use this plant as a flowering option in shadier areas. But a few years back I planted this in full sun.

It blooms nicely but it does start to struggle over the summer and needs some extra water. In nature, we typically see different plant species fade in or out on a gradient dependent on the growing conditions. It’s not a hard line where all of a sudden the conditions are perfect for one plant and unacceptable for another. What we really see is one species being more competitive in a given spot than another species. So as conditions get more shady, we see fewer grasses and sun loving plants, and more sedges and plants like woodland phlox. And so here we have a woodland phlox in full sun and very much not in a woodland, and it’s doing fine. A different plant would be more “competitive” and lower maintenance in this spot though.

And that’s how we design for low maintenance plantings. Low maintenance just means matching plants to growing conditions where they will be most competitive and the best adapted. A low maintenance landscape in a dry area in the shade is very different from a low maintenance landscape in a wet, sunny area. If you read all that, good on you. That’s an awful lot to write about one plant.

04/16/2026

Podophyllum peltatum is a low growing plant that will start to fade over the summer as things heat up and pretty much disappear. Then it will wait until next spring and do it again! The leaves are so cool and unique. There’s nothing else like this in our area. Go look for some! But leave them alone please. The turtles have enough to worry about.

04/13/2026

04/07/2026

We did cut the rest down! I just don’t have a picture/video of it. Ailanthus altissima is an extremely destructive species in the mid Atlantic and is very common, especially in urban areas and disturbed areas. If you live in DC, you’ve definitely seen it. The earlier you can get this taken care of, the better. It grows very fast and seeds prolifically. This species will try to regrow from the bottom and needs herbicide to fully get rid of it. But this removal solved the immediate problem, makes it safer, and it can be treated later.

04/04/2026

Get em while they’re hot! Or don’t. You can just look too. These are pretty abundant in the DC area and are currently at their peak bloom around here. Since they’re native here, they have relationships with many native insects, birds, and other living things and are much more ecologically beneficial than non native (but still pretty) trees like cherry blossoms.

03/25/2026

This form is preventable if you prune when the tree is young. It’s too late for me to fix this redbud with pruning without hurting it. If you really care a lot, you can use a cabling system to reduce the strain on the joint below and help prevent the trunks/branches from tearing open. That’s common on larger trees with this form when there is a safety concern.

03/21/2026

Friends don’t let friends’ plants choke each other out! You can see here where they were wrapped around each other, and the branch on the bottom was beginning to show damage to the bark. This will kill branches over time.