Posts By

Katherine Rowe

Katherine is a garden professional with a background in design, conservation, and public horticulture. She holds a master’s degree in landscape architecture and a love of gardens, parks, and natural lands alike. Katherine enjoys exploring gardens and wild spaces through work and travel and designing gardens with nature at the helm.

Bright pink Rosa shrubs covered in dense clusters of flowers with lush dark green leaves.

Shrubs

How to Prune Knock Out Roses in 7 Easy Steps

Knockout roses are popular for their color, reliable reblooming, and easygoing nature. But even these low-maintenance beauties benefit from simple pruning for the best form and flowering. Garden expert Katherine Rowe reviews how and when to prune Knockout roses for a (nearly) effortless show.

Round melons with textured rinds, ribbed skin, and juicy orange flesh sit on a wooden table in the garden, their seeds gathered in the center to sow melon seeds.

Fruits

9 Melon Seeds to Sow Now

With the warming, sun-filled days of spring, we look toward starting our heat-loving crops. It’s time to envision robust summer melons as we start seeds now. Whether direct sowing, starting indoors, or using protective row covers, sowing melon seeds now gives the long-developing fruits ample time to reach peak perfection. Gardening expert Katherine Rowe explores favorite melon seeds to sow now for the juicy taste of summer.

A pre-sprouted dahlia tuber with thick, green shoots rising from its brown, knobby surface in a woman’s hand.

Flowers

Should You Pre-Sprout Dahlia Bulbs?

For many gardeners, it’s time to bring prized dahlia bulbs out of winter storage to plant once the risk of frost has passed. To ready the tubers for early growth and flowering, you can pre-sprout them. Gardening expert Katherine Rowe explores how to pre-sprout dahlias for earlier blooms this summer.

When planting dahlias. Large, vibrant blooms with layered, well-arranged petals in delicate shades of orange and apricot create a bold, striking display.

Flowers

When to Plant Dahlias Outside: Tips for Your Zone

Dahlias bring exquisite blooms over a long flowering season, which makes their care worthwhile. With spring as the prime time for planting and dividing, dahlias are top-of-mind for hooked gardeners. But don’t rush the process, as the tubers love warmth. Garden expert Katherine Rowe reviews the best time to plant dahlias outside for your growing zone.

Bright pink Chrysanthemum morifolium flowers with yellow centers, layered petals, and dense green foliage.

Gardening Tips

15 Perennials You Should Divide in Spring

With spring comes the prime time to divide certain perennials, including many natives. Whether dividing to expand the colony, restore growth and flowering, or manage size, the benefits bring renewal for those on our list. Garden expert Katherine Rowe reviews our favorite perennials that benefit from division in spring for long-lived performance.

Budget spring container ideas, vibrant purple petunias and delicate white Calibrachoa cascade over the edges of a large decorative garden planter.

Ornamental Gardens

15 Budget-Friendly Spring Container Ideas to Try This Season

Let the spring-inspired creativity flow: It’s time to refresh the collection with container arrangements that meet our growing goals (without diminishing precious earnings). Whether growing edibles or ornamentals, budget-friendly potting designs do the job with a nod to form and function. Join gardening expert Katherine Rowe for spring container inspirations that keep the budget focused on growing.

Glossy, deep red delicious cherry variety hang in a tight cluster from a slender stem, nestled among vibrant green, serrated leaves with a slightly waxy texture.

Fruits

9 Most Delicious Cherry Varieties to Grow for Fresh Eating

It’s cherry blossom season across the globe, and at home, we can enjoy the delicate blooms, ornamental bark, and shining fruits of bearing trees. Gardening expert Katherine Rowe highlights the tastiest cherry varieties to plant this season for years of sweet rewards.

A cluster of Osteospermum flowers with soft pink petals and dark purple centers among green foliage.

Ornamental Gardens

Our 17 Favorite Spring Porch Plants

One of the collective rites of spring is refreshing the look of our outdoor spaces with exuberant color. Entryway and porch plantings add welcoming cheer and boost curb appeal, whether they’re containers of mixed blooms or singular specimens and hanging baskets. Gardening expert Katherine Rowe explores favorite spring porch plants to celebrate the season.

Dark green Cucumis sativus fruits hanging from climbing vines with broad, textured leaves and curling tendrils.

Vegetables

9 Cucumber Growing Tips to Try This Season

Cucumbers, sliced or pickled, are favorites fresh from the summer garden and the easygoing vines and prolific producers. A few benchmarks of cucumber care promote the best yields and overall vigor. Gardening expert Katherine Rowe highlights top tips for enjoying outstanding cucumbers right off the stem.

Close up of vibrant red reblooming tulips with bright yellow contrasting edges on the petals, rising on strong tall stems with large, smooth green foliage growing from the base.

Flowers

11 Pro Tips for Getting Your Tulips to Rebloom

Tulips epitomize spring splendor. Though they're often grown as annuals, you can get your tulips to rebloom with a few essential care techniques improve success. Garden expert Katherine Rowe explores options for getting tulips to bloom again and how to care for the bulbs post-flowering.

Vegetable rabbits won't eat. A close-up of a wild rabbit with fluffy, tan-grey fur, large black eyes and long ears hides among young vegetable crops in a garden bed.

Vegetables

13 Vegetable Garden Plants Rabbits Won’t Eat

With spring’s sweetness comes fresh, tender, new growth and the bunnies that make quick work of it. If you have rabbits in your vegetable garden, we’ve got ideas for plants they won’t devour (at least, that they don’t prefer). With a palette as expansive as ours, honing in on their least favorites means more for us. Gardening expert Katherine Rowe explores vegetable garden plants that rabbits avoid and how to use them as deterrents.

A small white and brown rabbit sits on green grass next to bright yellow Taraxacum officinale flowers, its ears perked up.

Gardening Inspiration

How to Grow a Bunny Garden in 9 Simple Steps

If you have a pet bunny, creating a garden with their preferred foods in mind is a fun and valuable endeavor. It offers them enrichment while providing favorite crops for their humans, too. From simple container setups to interactive sites, bunny gardens offer a rewarding space for all involved.