As winter days tick down and spring looms ahead, the sap starts to rise in gardeners and trees. A brief snowdrop sighting, a few brave early crocuses, or even a stalk of rhubarb in the market make hearts beat faster. Witch hazel works the same magic. Our great-grandparents used a bottled witch hazel decoction as an … Read more
It is rare that I see red about something green, but I am having an angry moment about yucca. Not all yucca, mind you—there are 40 or 50 species of yucca in the larger agave family—but Yucca filamentosa. I suppose that Yucca filamentosa, sometimes called “Adam’s Needle”, is loved in some places and tolerated in … Read more
I have had a crush on abutilon or “parlor maple” plants for the longest time. It might be because I love their hollyhock-like flowers. Or perhaps it is because I live in a Victorian house and the room that I refer to as the” living room” would once have been called “the parlor”. It stands … Read more
Several years ago, I read and wrote about Meryl Gordon’s literate and comprehensive biography of Rachel Lambert “Bunny” Mellon, garden designer, tastemaker and socialite, who died in 2007. Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend took Bunny through a long and eventful life that included the accomplishment for which she is most often … Read more
In my part of the world we have not had substantial, soaking rain for nearly a week. It is now officially high summer, with the kind of pervasive hot weather that makes and lawns and gardens extra thirsty. Those fortunate pieces of earth watered by in-ground irrigation systems are much less parched, but even they … Read more
