This year, in many parts of the country, winter stood its ground and refused to unclench its chilly grip. Spring-flowering plants emerged slowly; understandably cautious about exposing their petals to the freezing breezes. The flip side of that hesitance is that once the petals opened, they remained open longer due to the low temperatures. While … Read more
Recently a friend invoked the wrath of the Garden Gods. While trimming the winter-worn leaves of her hellebores, she came to a patch of the wonderful Eric Smith hybrid—Helleborus x ericsmithii. These hellebores don’t generally need trimming, because their beautifully marbled foliage remains good-looking right through the winter. Sometimes, however, all those lush green leaves … Read more
I always think that my gardening life will be more relaxed in the fall, which is yet another example of a triumph of hope over experience. In fact, the fall season is usually fraught with a long to-do list and a sense that time is running out. Life heats up after the relative ease of … Read more
Paging through an English garden magazine recently, I saw a column devoted to the snowdrop chapter of the unwritten garden rule book. Traditional wisdom holds that snowdrops should only be divided and transplanted “in the green”—just as the blooms fade in early spring. Many snowdrop growers have followed that rule since the beginning of time—or … Read more
No matter what time it is in my garden, it’s always time to clip the privet. It bounds the front yard on three sides and thrives on a diet of neglect and neighbors’ complaints. I trim and trim. When I am finished with the entire hedge, I start all over again. If I relax with … Read more
