Right now it is gray, drippy and chilly outside my window. Even though the last roses are still shivering on the bushes, I feel starved for color. Grabbing at emotional straws, I peer hopefully through the mist for the new growth on the scarlet willow or Salix alba var. vitellina ‘Britzensis’—but the little tree does … Read more
Coronavirus has turned the world upside down. This is not the first time that the world has turned upside down, but it is the first time in just over a century that a contagious disease has threatened so many people. Gardening might seem frivolous in the context of a global pandemic, but in reality it … Read more
The fall bulb packages have arrived, nearly submerged under a high tide of holiday catalogs. Since I have long since forgotten most of what I ordered at various times during the summer, the boxes are full of glorious surprises. Unpacking them gives me a feeling akin to opening the boxes of Christmas ornaments in December. … Read more
Every year one or more forms or varieties of the many spring flowering plants—crocus, snowdrops, daffodils, tulips, hyacinths—capture my imagination. One year it was lily-form tulips, another year it was the splendid pink-cupped daffodil, ‘Mrs. R.O. Backhouse’, still another season found me enthusing endlessly about a particularly vivid blue chionodoxa or “glory of the snow”. … Read more
The gardening season at my house is ending as it began, with bright blue and white crocuses dotting the beds. As in the spring, they are poking bravely through the garden rubble that I haven’t yet had time to clean up. People who see them think that climate change has fooled the spring crocuses into … Read more
