This winter, my advice to gardeners, would-be gardeners and those who simply want an amusing plant or two is “order early”. Last fall, bulb and plant vendors were among the few merchants doing land office business, selling out in record time. With at least a couple more cold, dark, alarming months ahead of us, the … Read more
At high summer, no respectable flower garden should be without garden phlox or Phlox paniculata. Strange to say, the suburb where I live is somewhat short on phlox. This is probably because it is long on easy to grow annuals like impatiens. There is nothing wrong with impatiens, but a well-established clump of brilliantly colored … Read more
I frequently tell people that my garden speaks and sometimes even sings to me. What I don’t say is that the voices are in many different languages. Any given plant might have ancestry going back to one or more species native to Asia, Africa or one of the world’s many other cradles of botanical diversity. … 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
The tall asters in my garden are finishing their bloom extravaganza, which makes me a bit sad. It is the last big hurrah of the gardening season and it means that I will have to cut them all back, which is not a small endeavor. It also means that I won’t have another big, Cecil … Read more
