Garden spiderwort or Tradescantia x andersoniana is one of those plants that invariably pops up on lists of flowering specimens for partial shade. To say that it flowers is an understatement. It actually rampages. A mature clump of spiderwort may boast scores of flowers, but it conceals another talent—self seeding. Right now I am up … Read more
The garden looks desolate right now because winter does not have the good sense to pack up its snowy bags and go away. Despite that, the foxgloves thrive. Even when wintery mix threatens in April, their lettuce-like basal rosettes spring up stubbornly from the earth, challenging the elements to a seasonal smack-down. Old man winter … Read more
I have a space in a shady part of the garden where nothing succeeds except hellebores, and a “volunteer” privet shrub that is the offspring of the line of privets that bounds the front of the garden. This semi-dead zone is probably semi-dead because of its proximity to a middle-aged maple tree that sucks up … Read more
