Around St. Patrick’s Day I like to dip into Thomas Cahill’s wonderful book, How the Irish Saved Civilization. The title is lofty, but the book is very accessible and focuses on how Irish monks helped preserve great works of Classical learning as civilization traveled the path of time from the Roman era to the medieval … Read more
I am partial to toads. Greenish-brown and warty, they perform useful functions in the garden, including consumption of troublesome plant pests. Despite those virtues, they are usually exempted from the good press lavished on their relatives, the frogs. This probably happens because frogs, with their smooth skins and slender profiles are considered the most glamorous … Read more
Marvel of Peru is a plant that lives up to its name, even though it rarely, if ever, appears on garden center pallets. Practical gardeners call it”four o’clock.” Botanists, starting with Linnaeus, the great eighteenth century father of binomial nomenclature, refer to it with a Latin superlative — Mirabilis jalopa. Whatever you call it, the … Read more
I read a lot. It is a nasty habit and it gets me into trouble all the time. For instance, yesterday, I was reading a press release from Spring Meadows Nursery of Grand Haven, Michigan. Some gardeners may know of Spring Meadows. Even more are familiar with their trademarked line of flowering shrubs, Proven Winners™, … Read more
Amaryllis are exploding all over my dining room plant area. The enormous bulb that I bought back in November now boasts two flower stalks with a total of eight huge white blooms and another four-bloom stalk on the way. A second pot features a brilliant red-flowered variety, its dramatic coloration enhanced by the giant white … Read more
