Lilacs

When I was much younger and had very little life experience under my belt, I lapped up elegiac poetry.  I am pretty sure that many bookish teenage girls did the same thing before the advent of 24/7 texting.  Elegiac poetry also paired nicely with the hunger pains engendered by the tea and strawberry yogurt diet … Read more

Dr. Stokes’ Aster

Pity the poor common chicory or Cichorium intybus, a Mediterranean native that has made itself at home all over the United States, gracing roadsides, field edges and other untended spaces.  The semi-double daisy flowers are the most beautiful shade of sky-blue, but the stems are gangly and scraggly, with rough-looking toothed leaves.  On top of … Read more

Beautiful Balloons

Lately the balloon flower—Platycodon grandiflorus—has been stalking me. As I wander through garden centers in search of mid-summer bargains, the inflated buds pop out from the pallets. A neighbor’s border overflows with a blue-flowered variety. Last week, on a visit to the main garden of the Cloisters museum in Upper Manhattan, I saw a giant … Read more

Orchid Profusion

The masters of the color universe at Pantone have decreed that “Radiant Orchid,” a shade of rosy purple, will be the 2014 “Color of the Year.”  The promotional copy is effusive, describing Radiant Orchid as a shade that “blooms with confidence and magical warmth that intrigues the eye and sparks the imagination.”  Not only that, … Read more