Last year at about this time, my daughter and I sought out some COVID lockdown relief in a park that boasts the highest elevation in our state. As we indulged in that relief, we spotted a number of interesting wild plants, including the star of the wildflower show, pink lady’s slipper orchid or Cypripedium acaule. … 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
Someday I will write a garden book and the title will be My Garden in Twenty-Five Mistakes. Each chapter will detail one of my particularly egregious garden mistakes and the steps I took to rectify it. My book will be the perfect antidote to all those garden books that detail how the garden owner inherited … Read more
It is almost mid-spring and creeping phlox—Phlox subulata—is having its moment. You can see it on the edges of flower beds, in planting boxes and cascading politely over garden walls. Healthy creeping phlox looks like a plush pink, blue/purple or white carpet that spreads outward just in time to make you forget that the daffodils … Read more
In 1928, a year before the onset of the Great Depression, the Carter Family, of folk and country music fame, recorded a song, “Keep on the Sunny Side”, that was originally written as a hymn. It became one of their standards and has lifted spirits ever since. The refrain is as follows: Keep on the … Read more
