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
Winter is only one month old and even if the groundhog doesn’t see his shadow, it is going to be a long wait until spring. You can spend that time staying warm, perusing catalogs and tending the houseplants, but many of us miss being outside. “Outside” is not always congenial, due to seasonal drama provided … Read more
I love my roses. Something about them has stirred my imagination for far longer than I have raised them. I am not alone in my passion for these flowering shrubs. They have been in cultivation for thousands of years, and have been objects of fascination and desire for the entire time. The Empress Josephine of … Read more
Winter has temporarily abated, with temperatures consistently above freezing and even jumping into spring-like territory. The weekend looks promising. It is past time for me to prune the flowering quince. That sounds like a perfectly reasonable thing to do, and it would be, except for one small detail—the flowering quince, or Chaenomeles speciosa, is armed … Read more
When the majority of people and gardens are young, they can get by on natural beauty and freshness. Nothing matches the dewy allure of humans in their twenties and perennials in their first few years. But when maturity sets in, good grooming makes all the difference. My grandmother and lots of other grandmothers have said … Read more
