Some people are party animals. They may arrive early or late, but they always stay to close the place down. I have some roses like that. Now that the fall garden party is almost over, they are still awake and alive, dancing in the cold wind, putting on an exuberant show of new growth and … Read more
The gardening season at my house is ending as it began, with bright blue and white crocuses dotting the beds. As in the spring, they are poking bravely through the garden rubble that I haven’t yet had time to clean up. People who see them think that climate change has fooled the spring crocuses into … Read more
For those of us in cold winter climates, mid-fall is the time to say a gradual goodbye to flowers. Annuals will soldier on until the first hard frost, but they are slowing down in anticipation of the inevitable. Most perennials have finished up, with the exception of a few Montauk daisies, tall sedums, fall crocuses … Read more
WEEPING WILLOW By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps Those exiled Israelites of Psalm 137, weeping by the waters of Babylon, could not have known that centuries later, a Chinese tree with long, drooping branches would be christened Salix babylonica … Read more
If you are hoping to grow an olive tree in eastern North America and proudly incorporate your homegrown fruits into martinis, tapenade, or empanadas, you are destined for disappointment. The handsome European olive—Olea europaea—needs a warm winter climate to produce its toothsome harvest. But other members of the Oleaceae or olive family do flourish farther … Read more
