The Gardeners' Apprentice I need a garden product that will take care of business. This product must do its job with only a single application, and keep the garden looking good in all seasons. It should also work steadily and stealthily to eradicate horticultural archfiends like chickweed and crabgrass. If I go to the garden center and describe … Read more
This is the story of a plant obsession that started with a snowdrop. The snowdrop in question, ‘Lady Elphinstone’, is known more formally as Galanthus nivalis f. pleniflorus. Like all snowdrops, ‘Lady Elphinstone’ is a small plant that bears pendulous flowers with three elongated outer petals and several shorter inner petals. ‘Lady Elphinstone’ has a … Read more
I have never been a person who gravitated to warm places in search of respite from winter’s rigors. Growing up in the Snow Belt I learned that real virtue comes from toughing out the cold weather, the better to truly appreciate the spring and summer. My recent trip toBermuda convinced me that all that virtue … Read more
Two days ago I saw the first goblet-shaped crocus blossoms just in front of the privet hedge by my driveway. They were little Crocus chrysanthus, early bloomers that are only about half the size of their later blooming, Dutch crocus relatives. They are amazingly powerful little plants, pushing up through the frozen earth, shrugging off … Read more
The island of Guernsey sits in the English Channel, thirty miles from Normandy and seventy-five miles from Weymouth, England. Occupied at various times by Romans, Vikings, Normans and Germans, it is now An English dependency occupied primarily by foreign banks who have taken advantage of the island’s favorable business climate to establish offshore operations. But … Read more
