The last few years I have been quite taken by plants that feature black—or actually near-black—foliage. The rest of the gardening world seems to share that fascination, as the number of black-leafed perennials and shrubs has grown by leaps and bounds. Without too much effort you can now buy “Bishop’s Children” dahlias, the offspring of … Read more
There are some tunes that stick in your head, sometimes for weeks. That happened to me recently with the old sea chantey, “What do we do with a drunken sailor?” The song isn’t as common as it was a generation or two ago, possibly owing to its bawdy lyrics, but is still widely known. The … Read more
Last year we had no blue hydrangea flowers. A late spring frost decimated the buds of all old-fashioned Hydrangea macrophylla bushes and for most hydrangea lovers in my corner of the northeast, the blooms never came. Eventually the shrubs bore fresh green leaves in abundance, but hydrangea aficionados were forced to say “next year” in … Read more
Life in my garden each season can be like a telenovela, with a cast of colorful characters, a somewhat improbable plot line, tempestuous relationships and the occasional untimely death. Of course telenovelas generally involve a lot of hair tossing and that doesn’t happen much at my place. Still, the similarities are there. This year’s dramatic … Read more
In my yard, the mophead hydrangeas—Hydrangea macrophylla—have long since surrendered their sky-blue color to the blue-gray-beige of late summer. The oak leaf hydrangeas—Hydrangea quercifolia—have turned dusty rose. When I look at the edges of individual petals on the huge, cone-shaped flower panicles, I can see that they already have the crispiness of dried blooms and … Read more
