If I were to create an alphabetical summary of my garden’s current status, I would say, “L is for leggy lilacs looking lovely.” The “lovely’ part is the abundant, perfumed blooms. I grow three lilacs, all Syringa vulgaris, the most common type. Two have pale purple flowers and one, which is the newest, features deep … Read more
For years, one of the highpoints of my gardening year was the annual arrival of the lush print catalog from Klehm’s Song Sparrow Nursery in Avalon, Wisconsin. The book was plump, rife with beautiful illustrations and featured a stunning array of gorgeous, romantic plants, especially peonies, daylilies, hostas, lilacs and flowering crabapples. Paging through the … Read more
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
I have a bad case of ceanothus envy. For those of you who don’t know this (mostly) western groundcover or shrub, it goes by the common name “California wild lilac.” Its flower panicles, especially when seen from a distance, look similar to those of common lilac (Syringa), though the leaves differ. Every spring it flowers … Read more
