Q. I won a 4-inch potted toad lily and planted it in a whisky barrel. It draped over the sides and from late September until now has had a profusion of remarkable spotted lavender blooms. It is lovely ...

If plants could talk, what would the toad lily say about its name? Certainly, it's peculiar, as is the bloom of this woodland perennial. Yet the toad lily is a bewitching beauty in the fall garden.

Toad lilies come in various colors and have a distinct protruding bud with three tentacles. The plants thrive in a mild and damp environment. With good planning, gardens can have something blooming ...

If someone had named them forest orchids or woodsy lilies instead of toad lilies, perhaps more of us would be growing them. “Sometimes they name plants very strangely,” said Julie Morgan, whose ...

I had toad lilies in my former garden and miss them. They are orchid-like flowers that bloom late summer and early fall. Here’s what Smithfield Gardens perennial expert Ann Weber says about them; ...

Late summer is a tough time of year in Kentucky gardens. Sure, if you’re harvesting sweet corn everything’s looking all nice and rosy right now. But by Labor Day the slugs have eaten the hostas, the ...

Every month at the Pitt County Arboretum, we hold what we call a Northside Plant Walk, where we walk through the Arboretum (often including a loop on what is known as the Northside Walking Trail) and ...

A late-blooming perennial with unusual flowers, toad lilies do share traits with their namesake amphibian — but are a lot more graceful. No one knows exactly how the plants acquired their name, but ...

Every month at the Pitt County Arboretum, we hold what we call a Northside Plant Walk, where we walk through the arboretum (often including a loop on what is known as the North-side Walking Trail) and ...