At this time of year I am always envious of my neighbor’s fabulous daffodil array, which covers her entire front yard and sidewalk strip with a golden blanket of spring color. My own front yard has also awakened from its gray slumber, with hellebores still in bloom, more daffodils every day, a few remaining squills … Read more
Every year one or more forms or varieties of the many spring flowering plants—crocus, snowdrops, daffodils, tulips, hyacinths—capture my imagination. One year it was lily-form tulips, another year it was the splendid pink-cupped daffodil, ‘Mrs. R.O. Backhouse’, still another season found me enthusing endlessly about a particularly vivid blue chionodoxa or “glory of the snow”. … Read more
At this time of the year we celebrate spring by rushing out to the garden centers and buying flats of pansies and violas. We breathe the warming air and fill up our window boxes, pots and borders with these spring avatars. And then we turn around and try to exterminate their cousins, the common violets, … Read more
In Western New York, where I grew up, we did not put away our winter clothes until Memorial Day. Now I live in a gentler climate and when the “official” first day of spring arrives, I expect the garden to be well on its way to mid and late spring glory. We have had a … Read more
‘Orange Glow’ is up and glowing, even though “up” is a relative term for a plant that is only a few inches tall. Though it has the same name as a popular cleaning product, ‘Orange Glow’ is in fact a winter aconite, a type of buttercup, belonging to the same Ranunculaceae family as the more … Read more
