Every five or ten years the horticultural world goes through a vogue for patterned leaves. Everything old is new again as gardeners snap up some of the flashier hostas, variegated weigelas, Japanese painted ferns and all manner of plants with splotched, splashed and marbled leaves. Breeders pump out even more of them to meet the … Read more
I hate to brag, but my hellebores are glorious. Little plants that I bought several years ago and installed in my front strip on a wing and a prayer have arrived at maturity. The gentle, open winter, with few really cold days and little snow has been a tonic for them, coaxing them into bud … Read more
Now that summer is almost here, my garden is witnessing the last of the peonies, the glorious middle of bloom time for the roses and the beginnings of the great lily fanfare, all simultaneously. For once, the flowering of property looks almost like the semi-miraculous floral explosions that you see only at exhibitions like the … Read more
I love serendipitous plants—those crafty covert operatives of the horticultural world that seem to spring up unbidden and surprise you with their beautiful flowers. Not long ago a friend had a serendipitous experience with nodding star of Bethlehem or Ornithogalum nutans. Touring her garden one day, she caught it in the act of showing off … Read more
Sometimes, no matter what you do, plants just die. When it happens, you haul them out of the ground, consign them to the compost pile and ease on down the horticultural road. Other times, you think a plant is dead and it makes a phoenix-like resurrection. This happened to me two weeks ago. The phoenix … Read more
