Years ago I drove up a long hilly road and an equally long, bumpy driveway in Austerlitz, New York, to visit “Steepletop”, the home of twentieth century American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. One of the plants that grew on the Steepletop property, in Millay’s time and now, is the “poet’s daffodil” or Narcissus poeticus. … Read more
What is not to like about beech trees? They are high, wide and handsome at maturity, with big, spreading crowns and singular bark that looks remarkably like elephant skin. Birds and squirrels make homes in the branches and all kinds of creatures eat the annual harvest of beechnuts. Native American beech or Fagus grandifolia, is … Read more
I first saw Rosa glauca, sometimes known as Rosa rubrifolia, in a dreamlike setting. The large shrub was growing at Stonecrop in Putnam County, New York, former home of the late Frank Cabot, founder of the Garden Conservancy. The day was overcast and fog shrouded parts of Cabot’s magnificent garden. I came around a corner … Read more
I hate to admit it, but my mock orange is sad. The advent of spring and the deluge of recent rain have persuaded it to leaf out and I expect that flowers will not be far behind. Those flowers will be fragrant and beautiful, as always. Still, the shrub is more than five years old … Read more
Every day I take a long walk around my neighborhood to allay the claustrophobia that comes with “shelter in place” confinement. As I walk along I observe that almost every single house has at least one mail order package waiting on the front porch. I am reminded of the refrain of the Rolling Stones’ song, … Read more
