foliage plants

Pulmonaria

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Every five or ten years the horticultural world goes through a vogue for patterned leaves.  Everything old is new again as gardeners snap up some of the flashier hostas, variegated weigelas, Japanese painted ferns and all manner of plants with splotched, splashed and marbled leaves.  Breeders pump out even more of them to meet the … Read more

Fancy Plants

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Many people over the years have quoted Oscar Wilde’s famous aphorism characterizing marriage as “the triumph of hope over experience.” My husband, David, and I defied Oscar Wilde and hope always won out. The same cannot be said of my experiences with fancy leaf begonias, which have been bitter. A few years ago, I wrote … Read more