I have always told people that there are no headaches in the garden. There are also no social faux pas, ranting politicians or demanding bosses. Some people, of course, bring those things into the garden because they refuse to be parted from their electronic devices. I try to avoid co-mingling of digging and devices because … Read more
In his play Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare gives the following lines to Marc Antony: “The evil that men do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones…” This may sometimes be the case, but it was not so with Lewis Ginter—1824-1897—a New York native who migrated to Richmond, Virginia and made successive … Read more
Every five or ten years the horticultural world goes through a vogue for patterned leaves. Everything old is new again as gardeners snap up some of the flashier hostas, variegated weigelas, Japanese painted ferns and all manner of plants with splotched, splashed and marbled leaves. Breeders pump out even more of them to meet the … Read more
The snow is finally melting in my part of the world, after an intensely hyped “blizzard” ten days ago. Gardeners are emerging from their lairs and approaching their beds, borders and overwintered containers with low expectations. After an “open” winter, with fairly reasonable temperatures and almost no snow, we were hit with a series of … Read more
Surfacing at the end of winter like a horticultural life raft, the week-long Philadelphia Flower Show is salvation for gardeners grown weary of cold weather. The Philadelphia Convention Center, a cavernous place, is filled with flowers and plants, from tulips to exotic orchids to beautifully grown succulents. Flowers strut their stuff in display gardens and … Read more
