You won’t find a lot of men wearing boutonnieres or, in the more prosaic English translation, “buttonholes”, these days. Individual blooms stuck through the buttonhole of a jacket or pinned to a lapel are still on view at weddings, proms and other festive events, but the days when fashionable, suit-wearing men wore a fresh flower … Read more
While we are all getting cozy in our homes, drinking hot toddies and planning for the upcoming winter holidays, what are our annual, perennial and biennial plants doing? Looking out at the garden or container array, you might be tempted to say “dying”, and you would be right, but there is actually a lot more … Read more
In 1928, a year before the onset of the Great Depression, the Carter Family, of folk and country music fame, recorded a song, “Keep on the Sunny Side”, that was originally written as a hymn. It became one of their standards and has lifted spirits ever since. The refrain is as follows: Keep on the … Read more
of us gardeners spend a great deal of time wandering aimlessly in the shady wilderness searching for something colorful. We know perfectly well that green is a fascinating color, perfect unto itself. But yet, many of us still want something more vibrant. This is not a problem in spring, because there are plenty of hellebores, … Read more
Now that the first of the little early crocuses—Crocus chrysanthus—have opened their petals, I am opening the seed catalogs to put together my orders. Of course, I peruse websites and visit garden centers as well, but I cling to the notion that there is nothing like catalog browsing to whet the gardening appetite. Every year … Read more
