Gardeners tend to remember days, months and years by certain significant events and conditions. Right now, too many people in the western United States are sweating through The Year of No Rain. Five years ago, many of us who grow hydrangeas in the northeastern part of the country went through a couple of late spring … Read more
My behemoth quince bush has been taken over by a plant that has had more names than a check forger, is bound and determined to run completely out of control, and makes regular, unscheduled appearances in respectable gardens everywhere. Sweet autumn clematis is the plant, and if America’s Most Wanted had a plant list, this … Read more
Opportunist plants lurk in every garden, even those well maintained oases of perfection that routinely knock visitors’ socks off. Some of those opportunists we tag as “weeds”, but others are perfectly respectable plants whose only sin is seeing the main chance and taking it. In fall, some of the most prominent of these plants make … Read more
