BUSY, BUSY Spring is poetry on steroids. A million plants explode out of the earth within the space of about a week. Blossoms burst open, spewing pollen into the air and every second an additional thousand formerly dry noses begin to drip. Anyone who calls him or herself a gardener should be out in the … Read more
EGLANTINE Gardening is equal parts science, poetry, spirituality and dirt-under-the-fingernails. I was struck by the poetry part several weeks ago when I read a passage in Elizabeth Lawrence’s book gardening for Love. Ms. Lawrence mentions references in old southern market bulletins to a rose called “sweetbriar.” “Sweetbriar is the poet’s eglantine, Rosa eglanteria,” she says, … Read more
EDIBLES–2010 Anyone who has been around for awhile and is the slightest bit attuned to horticultural fashion trends knows that ten years ago kitchen gardens and ornamental potagers were all the rage. Back then, the 2000 Philadelphia Flower Show featured edible and ornamental plants mingled with wild abandon. Five years later, all of that had … Read more
Unless you count Thomas Jefferson, American garden writers have not been well known to the world at large during their lifetimes, let alone afterwards. Even Henry Mitchell, probably the best garden writer America has ever produced, is only remembered fondly by a charmed circle of literate horticulturists. It is no wonder that Elizabeth Lawrence, 1904-1985, … Read more
SNOWDROP WONDER Snowdrops are like horticultural popcorn. At a certain moment in very late winter or very early spring, individual plants or small clumps pop into flower one by one. A week later more blooming clumps seem to appear out of nowhere, and finally, if you know where to look, sheets of the white flowers … Read more
