It is now officially mid-spring and everything has burst into bloom. The last magnolia flowers are colliding with the first of the dogwood blooms, not to mention the unfurling of the first lilacs. Fluffy double cherry blossoms weigh down branches, while ornamental plums and pears strut their stuff in slightly more decorous fashion. Amid all … Read more
If a garden does not look good in May and June, it will never look good. I have heard that particular aphorism at least a thousand times over the years. Theoretically, at least, it’s true for many gardens. If your landscape is home to a lot of spring-flowering plants of the flashy variety—roses, peonies, iris … Read more
Europeans have always been crazy about hedges. In England they are practically a religion. We Americans, with our love of wide open spaces and vast suburban lawns, have generally been less hedge-crazy. It isn’t that we don’t like shrubs. In the twentieth century we have used everything from salix to sand cherry to conceal the … Read more
