In the suburban gardens near my house, I hardly ever see common hollyhocks or Alcea rosea. Maybe they are considered too old-fashioned, rough-looking, or unruly. It might be because they grow so tall that they sometimes need staking. It’s equally possible that they have suffered the same fate that afflicted dahlias until a decade or … Read more
About 1,000 years ago, or in 1967, to be specific, the Fifth Dimension, a pop group, recorded “Up, Up, and Away,” a song about bout love and ballooning. The refrain goes, “Up, up and away–My beautiful, my beautiful balloon.” It was a huge hit, combining the ideas of love, hot air, and rising above earthly … Read more
If I had the means and motivation to annex my neighbor’s property, I would create a garden room devoted to peonies of all sorts. In my mind’s eye, the scene unfolds, with hundreds of garden peonies, otherwise known as Paeonia lactiflora, in bloom. Tree peonies—Paeonia suffuticosa–would abound. Intersectional types, a marriage of tree and garden … Read more
I have been enchanted by Clivia miniata, which usually just goes by “clivia”, or sometimes “fire lily”, for a long time. A few years ago, I succumbed and bought a clivia from a vendor at the Philadelphia Flower show. I brought it home, put it in a choice location beside the other house plants on … Read more
Opening up the new gardening catalogs is a form of post-holiday renewal. Despite the fact that I use lots of online vendors and do ninety-nine percent of my ordering online, I still get a thrill from the bright, splashy print catalogs. On New Year’s Day I delved into one of those catalogs. The vendor is … Read more
