When you see or hear something—plants, animals, situations—several times in a short span of hours or days, the universe is probably trying to send you a message. This past week, the message I received was about buttonbush, known to botanists as Cephalanthus occidentalis. On three separate days, I saw buttonbushes in three separate parks in … Read more
I saw a woman at the Farmer’s Market last week with a bouquet of huge dahlias. They weren’t quite dinner plate-size, but they would put the average butter plate to shame. It occurred to me then that mid-summer is no time for subtlety. The big, bright colors and shapes of zinnias, cannas, Mexican sunflowers and, … Read more
If Eastern skunk cabbage—Symplocarpus foetidus—were a person, you would avoid him. Inactive for part of the year, skunk cabbage comes alive in late winter. It never looks terribly attractive and most of the time it smells awful enough to justify one of its nicknames, “polecat weed.” People and even animals tend to avoid the plant … Read more
