Right now I have patches of snowdrops coming into bloom. The earliest appeared on Christmas day, followed by a long fallow period while winter did its worst. Now, the daylight hours last longer and the snowdrops are brave enough to emerge. I have a score of different varieties, but my favorite—the one I have been … Read more
Not all of us are adept at garden design and only some of us can afford professional help. What can we do to get beauty in our landscapes at a cost that still allows us to buy plants? Of course there are numerous internet sites, software programs, and other web-based means of finding garden plans … Read more
Winter has temporarily abated, with temperatures consistently above freezing and even jumping into spring-like territory. The weekend looks promising. It is past time for me to prune the flowering quince. That sounds like a perfectly reasonable thing to do, and it would be, except for one small detail—the flowering quince, or Chaenomeles speciosa, is armed … Read more
Winter sometimes gives us brilliant days—sunny, crisp and clear. Everything sparkles, especially if fresh snow is part of the landscape. But then there are the other days, when earth, sky and human dispositions are all equally gray and dispiriting. Chilliness creeps in and stays put, making you understand why sensible animals hibernate during the dark … Read more
I am a student of gardening history, especially in the winter, when actual gardening activities are necessarily limited. Sometimes in my reading, catalog perusal and other armchair activities, certain tantalizing figures pop up repeatedly. This happened recently with Lady Beatrix Stanley, whom I found waltzing across the pages of a snowdrop catalog, dancing through listings … Read more
