There are plenty of reasons to add bees to your garden. They pollinate flowers and contribute to vegetable and fruit production. Without bees, there would be fewer fruits, vegetables, and flowering plants in the world. Employees at Mercer Botanic Gardens understand these benefits better than most. Since 2019, Education Director Jennifer Garrison and a small […]
Can you tell the difference between a pest and a beneficial insect? Sometimes it can be difficult distinguishing between juvenile milkweed assassin bugs and leaf-footed bugs. Stephen Brueggerhoff, an extension agent with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, shares how to tell these insects apart. How can I tell the difference between a juvenile leaf-footed bug and […]
The secret to better fruit and vegetable gardening may not just be about what’s in the soil, but about what’s in the air. The truth is, even with the proper lighting, soil, and climate, some plants won’t produce without pollinators. Beekeeper Jerry Maxwell learned this lesson the hard way. A year after planting fruit trees, […]
There’s no shortage of rare plants to discover at Mercer Botanic Gardens. Filled with endangered native species, obscure exotics, and the latest wild plant discoveries, Mercer boasts 128 rare and endangered species, a renowned ginger collection, a globally rare cycad collection, and an Endangered Species Garden. Check out a few of our favorite rare plants […]
We’ve all seen the rainbow-colored roses, purple sunflowers, blue bananas, and other fantastical plants filling popular e-commerce sites like Amazon and eBay. These too-good-to-be-true offers usually feature boldly colored plants in vibrant hues that are impossible to find anywhere else. But are the offers legitimate? Jacob Martin, Mercer’s greenhouse manager, decided to test seeds from […]