Lungwort

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LUNGWORT               Pulmonaria always takes me by surprise.   Sure, the soft, silver-splashed leaves cling to the ground on the edges of my shady beds, and I see them every time I pass by.  In fact, I see them so often that I take them for granted.  Then, every year in the early spring, a … Read more

Eastern Europe

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TREASURES OF EASTERN EUROPE             A couple of years ago I was looking for a large-flowered clematis for my garden.  Paging through various catalogs, I noticed a lot of clematis named after famous Poles.  One of the most notable was ‘Cardinal Wyszynski’, a large, red-flowered variety, named after Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, former Roman Catholic Primate … Read more

Brenthurst

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BRENTHURST               Last summer, for the first time in years, I had the pleasure of regular hummingbird visits.  A single tiny bird came by every afternoon to sip nectar from the butterfly bush and other plants in my upper back garden.  Its route always seemed to be the same, and it never strayed into … Read more

Spring Breezes

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SPRING BREEZES             We have had so much wind this year that spring didn’t just arrive; it blew in with a vengeance.  Of course all those blustery gusts might also have been winter blowing its way out–only a meteorologist would know for sure.  One thing does seem certain–if the gales keep up, the robins and … Read more

Beardtongue

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BEARDTONGUE             One of the wonderful things about being a gardener is that you get to fall in love with different plant species and varieties as often as you want.  Successful relationships can last a lifetime.  Less successful pairings are easily ended with cheap divorces that frequently involve the compost pile.  Some gardeners are monogamous, … Read more