When the winter world resembles a gray, cold veil of sleeting tears, I turn to my library of garden books for psychological sustenance. One of my favorites is Beautiful Gardens in America, a book written in 1915 by Louise Shelton—1867-1934–of Morristown, NJ. I have the second edition, a hefty volume with a gold embossed title … Read more
The latter half of the twentieth century produced a bumper crop of great gardeners, garden designers and garden personalities. I have been inspired by many of them, especially British born Beth Chatto, 1923-2018, who shone brightly in that horticultural pantheon. Now, an authorized biography, Beth Chatto: A Life With Plants, presents a fond, but unvarnished … Read more
Sometimes I think it would be useful to have an alias, or maybe even several. A false name allows you to try on other lives and opinions without scaring the people who know you best. The practice has certainly become increasingly popular. People on social media do it all the time. Alicia Amherst, who lived … Read more
Whenever I go to the movies, I am very aware of the fact that you have to be a superhero to get any box office traction these days. The horticultural world is full of superheroes—past and present. Most of them would look rather lumpy and feel downright uncomfortable in masks, tights or body armor, so … Read more
