The front cover of Hugh Cavendish’s new book, A Time to Plant, looks like an abstract painting in shades of olive green, tan and rust. It is, in fact, a close-up of the exfoliating bark of a stewartia tree. The tree in question is part of a collection of stewartias at Holker Hall, the Cavendish … Read more
Most people think small when they think of rock gardens—miniature plants in confined spaces. Leonard J. Buck (1894-1974) was not one of those people. Buck, who made a fortune importing and exporting metal ores, created a thirty-three acre rock garden at his estate in Far Hills, New Jersey. Buck has been gone for forty years, … Read more
I have already reported on my conspicuous lack of success with tomatoes. For years I also tried to grow annual ornamental sweet peas—Lathyrus odoratus–with only limited results. This year is different. I have thriving sweet peas for exactly one reason—I ignored them completely from the time they were planted. I didn’t order any sweet pea … Read more
The Victorians and Edwardians had a passion for rock or alpine gardens, creating extensive pseudo-alpine landscapes from actual rocks, artificial rocks and various forms of debris, up to and including broken dishes. Fashionable gardeners filled the cracks and crevices of these layouts with alpine plants newly discovered by plant hunters in various mountainous regions of … Read more
One of the best plants in my garden is spiderwort—Tradescantia virginiana. The flowers are a vibrant shade of blue purple and have three petals apiece. Perched at the tops of relatively stout stalks, the blooms appear in clusters. Their lives are short but beautiful–individual flowers last only one day apiece. The long slender leaves curl … Read more
