Lots of plants pop up in the fertile ground under my privet hedge—poison ivy, Virginia creeper, wild grape, Japanese honeysuckle, Oriental bittersweet and common mulberry, to name a few. I spend a good chunk of time every month battling them. It is a quixotic battle, based on the romantic notion that I can actually defeat … Read more
Bleeding heart—Lamprocapnos spectabilis–has shed seeds, if not blood, all over my garden. I probably planted the first one deliberately ten years ago, though I have no memory of doing so. Now, they are everywhere. Normally those words would constitute the start of a rant about garden thuggery. In this case, however, I have no complaint. … Read more
There was a time when I had no asters in my front garden. Then I planted one small pot of tall, pink-flowered ‘Alma Potschke’ asters. ‘Alma’ prospered—so much so that now, if I didn’t pull out the seedlings every year, I would have hundreds of ‘Alma Potschke’offspring. Not only do I pull out the seedlings, … Read more
Last week I saw a one-gallon container of old-fashioned double columbines at my neighborhood big box store. This is a sure sign that columbine—aquilegia to horticulturists—has arrived in a big way. The plants, generally short-lived perennials, have been spring harbingers in the Old and New Worlds for centuries. Now they are suddenly as à la … Read more
I am being stalked by cardinal flower—Lobelia cardinalis. Otherwise known as red lobelia, the plant is tall and handsome, rising just shy of three feet and producing brilliant red flower spikes in mid to late summer. The flowers are so red that they knock you for a loop when you first see them. That happened … Read more
