Last week I spotted an alluring plant in the garden center. It was in full bloom, offering up a cloud of small, white blossoms and a billowing habit. I reached for it, imaging exactly where in the garden it would go. Then I saw the label—Gypsophilia paniculata or baby’s breath. I stopped in mid-reach. Baby’s … Read more
About five years ago I bought an alluring plant from a roadside stand in the Finger Lakes region of Central New York State. The “stand” was actually a large cart, laden with perennials that were clearly surplus specimens from someone’s well-stocked garden. The “someone” was nowhere to be seen. Among the offerings were gaillardia daisies, … Read more
When I first wrote about pincushion flowers, which go by the unattractive Latin name, scabiosa, fifteen years ago, I had just purchased a lovely one. It was a striking dark purple-flowered variety, ‘Ace of Spades’. Billed as a perennial, I cosseted the plant for its entire first year, giving it sun, water and a prime … Read more
The tall asters in my garden are finishing their bloom extravaganza, which makes me a bit sad. It is the last big hurrah of the gardening season and it means that I will have to cut them all back, which is not a small endeavor. It also means that I won’t have another big, Cecil … Read more
About ten years ago, a friend gave me a single large iris rhizome division. It was from a tall, bearded type that grew in carefree splendor in her western New York garden. I planted it in the free-draining soil at our family’s summer cottage in Central New York and it grew, or maybe “grew” is … Read more
