A visit to the Ruth Palmer Blanke Boxwood Garden virtually transports visitors to another time and place, as the meticulous plantings display the Missouri Botanical Garden’s outstanding collection of boxwood. There are 60 unique varieties of boxwood in the Boxwood Garden, which have the reputation of being difficult to grow in the Midwest. Boxwoods have been valued in gardens for thousands of years, from the “pleasure gardens” of ancient Persia and the landscapes of Greece and Rome, to the formal gardens of Europe.

Dot your landscape with potted plants and flowers in beautiful planters. Colorful and decorative, planters add an extra touch of style to your yard.

one: Versatile wide opening planter, available at Greenscape Gardens and Gifts.

two: Colorful ceramic planter, available at SummerWinds Nursery.

three: Blue scalloped top planter, available at Sugar Creek Gardens.

The Shaw Nature Reserve (SNR) encompasses 2,400 acres of natural Ozark landscape, breathtaking Meramec River frontage, and an extraordinary diversity of native plant and animal habitats. The Missouri Botanical Garden founded the Shaw Nature Reserve, formerly known as Shaw Arboretum, in 1925 when coal smoke in St. Louis threatened the living plant collections at the Garden. The orchid collection was moved to the Reserve in 1926, but pollution in the city abated before it was necessary to move the entire plant collection.

When Connie and Lynn Suydam considered a move to the City of St. Louis, Connie had one requirement. “I had to have a place to put my fingers in the dirt,” she says firmly.

Sharon Buchanan gardens on two acres that she and her husband Larry are transforming from an out-of-control wilderness into a native Missouri showplace. Her efforts already are getting attention. Last December, Creve Coeur recognized the Buchanan garden as the best in the city.

That type of recognition should be no surprise when you learn a bit more about Sharon, who cannot remember a time when she did not love being outdoors. The love of the natural world led her to pursue a career in forestry at the University of Georgia, where her family lived at that time.

“A web-based irrigation controller is great to have in the garden. We like the Irrigation Caddy. It has an app for irrigation instead of going to the control box all the time. You can use any web browser or the app to fully control your irrigation system no matter where you are.” Bob Graeler, Chesterfield Valley Nursery.