In the winter I tend to avoid doing necessary things, like cleaning out closets, in favor of wallowing in garden catalogs, shelter magazines, and my large collection of garden and horticultural books. I was indulging myself the other day, when I found out, courtesy of one of the better shelter magazines, that carnations are unfashionable. … Read more
I hate to admit it, but my mock orange is sad. The advent of spring and the deluge of recent rain have persuaded it to leaf out and I expect that flowers will not be far behind. Those flowers will be fragrant and beautiful, as always. Still, the shrub is more than five years old … Read more
The spring beauty of star magnolia flies in the face of epidemics and uncertainty. They are the first magnolias to open their petals as the air warms up, offering up cascades of “stars”–actually showy flowers composed of multiple slender petals. Most often those petals are white, but occasionally you will see a pink-flowered specimen. All … Read more
Thomas Jefferson collected many things, including plants. But there was one specimen that he could never lay hands on: Vigna caracalla or corkscrew vine. Writing to one of his plant suppliers, Jefferson described the flowering vine, a member of the legume or Fabiaceae family, as “the most beautiful bean in the world.” I think of … Read more
Marvel of Peru is a plant that lives up to its name, even though it rarely, if ever, appears on garden center pallets. Practical gardeners call it”four o’clock.” Botanists, starting with Linnaeus, the great eighteenth century father of binomial nomenclature, refer to it with a Latin superlative — Mirabilis jalopa. Whatever you call it, the … Read more
