A few years I bought a fall-blooming camellia that was supposedly cold hardy. I planted, tended and fussed over it because I wanted the beautiful rose-like flowers to light up my garden in the late fall. It obliged me by surviving exactly one year. Failure doesn’t usually faze me, but for some reason I did … Read more
Some things in this life never change. Take writing and book publishing for example. Author and artist Titian Peale—1799-1885—worked on his book, The Butterflies of North America, beginning with a prospectus in 1833. When he died, fifty two years later, the book was still unfinished and Peale had no commitment from a publisher. In 1916, … Read more
You can tell a lot about a culture by the word its citizens use to describe the insect we call “butterfly”. German butterflies have such a weighty-sounding name–“schmetterling”—that it’s a wonder they manage to take to the air. The French and Italians allow their butterflies to float along as “papillon” or “farfalla”. Spaniards delight in … Read more
“It’s a sad situation,” said my friend, the plant lover. “This climate change has gotten so bad that the plants are confused.” Since I am often confused myself, this resonated with me. “It’s the poor cherry trees,” said my friend mournfully. “They are blooming in November. Now they will never bloom next spring.” My friend … Read more
Friends often ask me to identify mystery plants and those identification attempts sometimes lead me on voyages of discovery. Not long ago I took one of those trips. My friend asked me to look at a mystery tree growing only about two blocks from my house. I had only a few available minutes, but I … Read more
