Helen’s Weed

My late summer garden is still waiting for its moment of glory—when the New England asters that have multiplied in droves, will burst into waves of blue, pink and purple glory. In the meantime, my spirits are bolstered by a few large dots of landscape color, including the last of the purple and white coneflowers, … Read more

Dahlias Rock

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

Rain Lilies

There are days when I want to live in the moment, celebrate the quotidian experience and relish immediate delights—like the many stands of snowdrops currently on display in various parts of my garden.  Other days, I am drawn to the past; especially when I think about people and places that exist only in memory.  Being … Read more

Gentian Blue

Garden centers are catnip to me.  I watch for them when I travel, and if at all possible, stop in, even if only for a few minutes.  In winter, I make note of promising places, aiming for return trips when the days lengthen and the sap has risen. I have passed a particularly tempting garden … Read more

Spiders in Summer

In the last two weeks I have gotten used to seeing tall garden phlox in the summer gardens in my neighborhood.  This morning I walked farther afield and saw masses of another tall, old-fashioned favorite—cleome or spider flower.  The cleome were part of a cottage garden planting scheme and when I saw it from a … Read more