HINTS OF SPRING The calendar says that we are about halfway through winter, but I know that spring has just started. It isn’t a date; it’s a feeling. Just as winter really starts on the day in early October when the butterflies vanish, spring starts on the day when you can smell the thawing … Read more
CHEERFULNESS For the past few months I have read a lot about the art of growing food. In fact, I have read enough about growing vegetables–in back and front yards, in pots and even in window boxes–to last me for the next ten years. Toothsome photos of glamorous vegetables, like Multi-colored Swiss chard and … Read more
MOURNING WIDOW I have to admit that it is hard to recommend that people spice up their gardens with a plant nicknamed “the mourning widow.” To add insult to injury, the authoritative guide Hortus Third, describes the species’ flower color as “sordid lilac.” Both those phrases sound positively Victorian and completely uninspiring. In reality, … Read more
CHRISTMAS ROSE If you aspire to be fashionable in the world of horticulture, you must have hellebores. This year’s catalogs have more of them than last year’s, and last year’s had more of them than the catalogs that came out two years ago. The hellebore hybridizers and merchandisers have been very, very busy. … Read more
SWINGING SINGLES A few years ago a windstorm blew through my garden and tore a large branch off ‘Sally Holmes’, one of my favorite roses. The branch was covered with fat yellowish-ivory buds and big, white five-petaled flowers with prominent golden stamens. I took the branch inside, cut it into manageable stems and arranged … Read more
