The English are masters of gardening and garden writing, but they tend towards dramatic understatement. The Royal Horticultural Society, for example, described perennial polemonium as a plant that “often seeds itself around rather freely.” Generally a statement like that means that the plant is prolific to the point of invasiveness and is best planted by … Read more
I have always told people that there are no headaches in the garden. There are also no social faux pas, ranting politicians or demanding bosses. Some people, of course, bring those things into the garden because they refuse to be parted from their electronic devices. I try to avoid co-mingling of digging and devices because … Read more
For millennia gardens and gardening have been used as metaphors for life. English author Edith Pargeter, who wrote under the name Ellis Peters, created a many-volume series from that metaphor when she wrote her Brother Cadfael mystery books. Her sleuth/protagonist, Cadfael, tended his herb garden in the same intelligent, methodical and patient way that he … Read more
In his play Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare gives the following lines to Marc Antony: “The evil that men do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones…” This may sometimes be the case, but it was not so with Lewis Ginter—1824-1897—a New York native who migrated to Richmond, Virginia and made successive … Read more
There is nothing like a tulip, hyacinth or daffodil in its first spring. All the energy that growers in the Netherlands or elsewhere have pumped into the bulbs is distilled into glorious floral display. Tulips stand strong and proud, with magnificent multi-colored petals. If the daffodils’ trumpets could sound, they would be loud enough to … Read more
