After about three years of indecision and inattention, I have finally acquired a crape myrtle, known to its botanist friends as Lagerstroemia indica. The acquisition involved aging by yet another year and alerting my daughter to the fact that a crape myrtle might make a wonderful birthday present. Now, I am the proud owner of … Read more
Ever since my daughter was a little girl we have made small, sentimental journeys at various times of the year. In spring, we check our favorite garden centers religiously for the first plant arrivals and visit as soon as the pansies hit the pallets. We brave the crowds and the parking challenges to get to … Read more
We are well into mid-spring and everything has burst into bloom. In my corner of the northeastern United States, you can drive down local streets and highways and see redbuds finishing their run of bloom as dogwoods get going. If you are lucky, you might also see a silverbell tree—Halesia Carolina—covered with hundreds of dangling … Read more
Growing up in the wilds of western New York State, crape myrtles were as foreign to me as winters without snow. I had a vague notion that they were nearly as important in the South, as camellias, but even northeastern greenhouses that were chock full of winter-flowering camellias were devoid of crape myrtle. I was … Read more
A few weeks ago, I vowed that if I had an arboretum, I would include Japanese stewartia, for its beautiful, camellia-like flowers. As is often the case, a stewartia popped up in front of me just a few days later. Despite the recent infernal temperatures, it was not a heat-induced mirage. I was on a … Read more
