"The best preparation for tomorrow is the proper use of today." Dr. Stan Toler

Reading about cool, new plants inevitably leads to the desire to grow and own them. Here are some favorites of mine, bringing joy to the garden. Plant them; your friends and neighbors will be green with envy!

Carex flagellifera — foliage like golden locks of hair. Best grown in full sun to part shade and well-drained soils. Carex siderosticha "Lemon Zest" is a slowly spreading plant with lemon-yellow foliage, and grows best in full sun to part shade; it's wet-site tolerant. Carex siderosticha "variegata" with white and green stripes running horizontally down the leaf is best grown in moist soils with partial sun exposure. Carex brings vivid color to a darker area in your garden.

An exciting category of new wood blooming hydrangeas is in garden centers, with stunning colors and forms. Most hydrangeas set their flower buds in fall, leaving them susceptible to winter injury. The new hydrangeas produce their flower buds on the new growth in spring, ensuring blooms every year, and provide a vivid colorful display in partially shaded areas. Forever & Ever Red is a sport of the original mophead plant. It has brilliant red flowers atop burgundy stems, maturing to shades of purple. Compact in shape, this plant grows to about 36 inches tall and equally as wide. Forever & Ever Double Pink is very floriferous and long blooming. Its unique double-pink flowers create a billowy mound of rich pink flowers, almost covering the plant at bloom time. The compact habit makes it perfect for small gardens. Forever & Ever Lace Cap will be on the market in 2010, a magnificent plant with elegant lace cap blooms atop medium green leaves. It blooms from early summer until frost and does best in well-drained, slightly acid soil with good organic matter. All hydrangea have moderate to high water requirements and do not perform well in overly dry conditions.

It's time that you heard more about what is most likely the most indestructible fern in the world, the "Christmas Fern." Known in botanical circles as polystichum acrostichoides, here is an evergreen native fern that can take almost anything you can throw at it. It is found growing naturally in every state east of the Rockies and will remain green all winter. It prefers open woods, shady areas and grows 2 to 3 feet tall. However, the evergreen fronds are not immortal. As new fronds begin to uncurl, old ones wither away. It is a tough plant, a virtual bundle of perseverance, and looks wonderful.

Gardeners are supposed to be unusually serene and tranquil, a result of constant contact with nature. What non-gardeners don't realize is that contact with nature actually means an intimate acquaintance with a long "to do" list, which must be followed ruthlessly. Summer is here, and a marathon of deadlines is upon us:

If you have hanging plants, make sure the pot has drainage holes.

Water only when the top of the soil is dry to the touch.

Water until is comes out of the drainage holes.

Don't allow your container to be waterlogged.

In midsummer, use weekly water-soluble fertilizer.

Deadhead and give your plants a "haircut," usually a few inches off the entire basket.

It will increase strong growth and branching.

Whip out your garden calendar and make notes of what is working in your garden and what is not. Decide which plants you want to divide in the fall or next spring.

Check for signs of insect damage or infestation. Use integrated pest management (IPM) to deal with the problem.

Apply or replenish mulch to conserve water and suppress weeds.

Deadhead throughout the summer to encourage repeat bloom.

Support taller plants as they grow.

Pinch chrysanthemums until mid-July.

Fertilize your roses, following the three-holiday schedule (Memorial Day, July Fourth, Labor Day). Remove any sucker shoots emerging from the root stock of grafted roses.

Dig and divide iris, lily of the valley, oriental poppies, and bleeding hearts.

Avoid applying fertilizer when temperatures are above 85 degrees.

Annuals will benefit from a light feeding of fertilizer.

Put out saucers of beer to drown slugs

Harvest seeds, and collect seedpods for fall arrangements.

If this list sounds daunting, remember, a garden is not only a romance, but becomes a long-term relationship, and like all long-term relationships, requires continual care. Sometimes, when I crawl around the peonies raking in organic fertilizer and getting scratched and attacked by insects and plants alike, I am thinking, "Why am I doing this, what for?" But the next day finds me out there again, armed with wheelbarrow, rake, saw, clippers and a good pair of gloves to bring order and neatness into my garden. Then, when I listen to the birds, smell the heady scent of summer flowers and the fresh earth, I realize my commitment is here to last.

Gotti Kelley, a past president of the Navesink Garden Club, also serves on the board of The Garden Club of New Jersey.