Garden cyclamen, sometimes known as hardy cyclamen, are subtle plants and easy to forget when they are not in leaf or flower. I forgot mine completely until I noticed that they hadn’t appeared this year. I don’t know what happened, but I blame the squirrels who have rampaged through the garden, digging with impunity and … Read more
Right now it is gray, drippy and chilly outside my window. Even though the last roses are still shivering on the bushes, I feel starved for color. Grabbing at emotional straws, I peer hopefully through the mist for the new growth on the scarlet willow or Salix alba var. vitellina ‘Britzensis’—but the little tree does … Read more
I live near a small botanical garden that houses an amazing array of ornamental plants, including a significant collection of rhododendrons. The majority of those plants are grown with great deliberation and care, but one of the most amazing seems to have sprouted of its own volition near a boundary fence. Over the course of … Read more
As I bring some of the geraniums inside, and consign others to death at the hands of the Frost God, I have to stop and consider the miraculous nature of these ubiquitous plants. The bright, fluffy-headed, tender perennials that we call “geraniums” are actually members of the Pelargonium species. When we fill our window boxes … Read more
“Ampelopsis” sounds like something out of a children’s book. I can imagine a large, lumpy monster—possibly friendly, but definitely massive. Ampelopsis brevipedunculata is a monster, but not of the animal kind. Better known as porcelain berry or Amur peppervine, it is a non-native vine that grows rapidly, spreads like wildfire and dominates everything in … Read more
