The tall asters, now known as Symphyotrichum, will be finished with their impressive run by a week from now, leaving only some of their smaller cousins to carry on the garden show. The fall-blooming colchicums will also have finished their day in the sun, leaving only a few fading petals on the ground to show … Read more
I love Latin plant names. They are elegant and beautiful and often redolent of history and mythology. Most important, the Latin names represent a common language used by plant lovers all over the world. But my love affair with Latin names is in serious jeopardy right now due to third party interference. The heartless interlopers … Read more
The tall asters that dominate my front garden used to be known to dirt gardeners and botanists alike as “asters.” Botanists and plant taxonomists now call them Symphyotrichum, a name that makes simple plants sound complicated and inaccessible. Everyone else still calls them asters. I hope the plant taxonomists will take the hint and rescind … Read more
Butterflies delineate the transition from early to late fall. Choice food plants–asters and butterfly bushes—are in bloom in my garden now, in mid September, and Monarchs and skippers dance among the flowerheads. Summer’s swallowtails are mostly gone, but the ubiquitous Cabbage Whites persist. A few stragglers remain from the horde of Painted Ladies that descended … Read more
I used to think there was no earthly use for perilla (Perilla frutescens). No garden since the beginning of time has ever had just one plant. True to its mint family heritage, perilla spreads and spreads and spreads. Of course, it is quite decorative, with its purple-black ruffled leaves, but some of the similarly colored … Read more
