EIGHTY DAYS In 1883 author Jules Verne wrote Around the World in Eighty Days, sending the fictional Phileas Fogg off to circumnavigate the globe in just under three months. That feat, though daring at the time, was small compared to the one I must pull off in my garden in the eighty days before … Read more
KNIPHOFIA Every year the color gurus at Pantone, Inc. do all kinds of secret research to come up with the “Color of the Year,” which then inspires a multitude of merchandising initiatives. Since I always aspire to be fashion forward, I make it my business to know the “Color of the Year.” This year’s … Read more
NINETY-THREE DAYS I have exactly ninety-three days to get as close as I possibly can to garden perfection. The seconds are slipping away fast and every day the deadline looms large in my imagination. I got myself into this by saying a single word–“yes.” In this case the “yes” was in answer to … Read more
REDBUD EXPLOSION With all the noise about European debt, American presidential elections and the international plague of reality television, you may not have noticed that we are in the midst of a redbud explosion. Breeders have taken the common Eastern Redbud–Cercis canadensis–and dressed it in flashy foliage, changed its growth habit and adorned it … Read more
JANE LOUDON I first “met” Jane C. Webb Loudon when I developed an interest in botanical art some time ago. A local dealer offered some original prints of Mrs. Loudon’s botanical illustrations and I fell in love with them. Those prints started me off on a small-time collecting hobby and now, even when the … Read more
