My struggles with roses have entered their final phase: reconciliation. After getting rid of all the boring Meidiland shrubs that came with the house (though for their kind, they were nice enough), I experimented with a few old rose cultivars as well as some Carefree varieties. Nothing really thrived and the Carefrees took up too [...]
Read more in: It's the Plants, Darling
Body: Posted by Bert CreggLast week I posted about some horticultural disasters I witnessed in the Czech Republic. This week the chamber of horrors. […]
Biodiverse Lawn by Coalition Member Thomas Christopher Like other members of this group, I believe that the contemporary model of lawn has got to go.. […]
Body: Posted by Linda Chalker-Scott If you've been following us for a while, you might remember a post from August 2009 when I got cranky about a pot. […]
For the past 8 years or so, I have been filling up pots with tulips at the same time I do my October in-ground bulb plantings. Species tulips and other small bulbs like erythronium go in the ground, and the big hybrid tulips go into pots and a couple...
Read more in: It's the Plants, Darling, Shut Up and Dig
Guest Rant by Geoff Lewis I would like to speak to the curious sport of bedding plants. Bedding plants – you know, big pansies, dwarf marigolds and their ilk. One’s vision is of an orgiastic colour melee: Vast flocks of the vegetative equivalent of Pekinese and/or Schitzu-Poodle crosses (schit-poos)...
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Thousands of red tulips have been planted in the Churchill Downs paddock and winner’s circle for this year’s Kentucky Derby. They were shipped from Holland months ago. Nearly 500 red roses will arrive from South America a few days before the race (the first Saturday in May) and be...
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D.C. local Jacques Domenge wanted to photograph the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin, which are finally blooming but swarming with the hordes, so he waited until dark. He then used the very cool “light painting” method, starting by setting up a tripod and choosing a long exposure. Then...
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When you think of plant hunting—Indiana Jones style—you usually think of faraway places. Throw in tall mountains, deep ravines, landslides and feuding warlords, and you might soon forget the plants. The story becomes more about the adventure. Andy Schmitz and Jeff Carstens haven’t been to China or India, but...
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Or the planters. Or the dirt. I’ve often seen tillandsia on tables at art fairs and home and garden shows without thinking much about them. “Air Plants!” proclaim the signs on the tables. “Freak plants!” I think, and dismiss the idea of owning organic matter that sits around on...
Read more in: It's the Plants, Darling, Shut Up and Dig
For the last couple years, I have been reading ominous reports of downy mildew decimating impatiens plants. As most of you know, it’s more than just reports now. It’s real—to the extent that entire plantings of traditional impatiens (impatiens walleriana) have been completely wiped out throughout the United Kingdom,...
Read more in: It's the Plants, Darling, Taking Your Gardening Dollar
by Debra Prinzing Read on to WIN ONE DOZEN AMERICAN ROSES Post a comment here about why American-grown flowers are important to you! You might just win one dozen gorgeous roses from Oregon or California! We have rose donations from Eufloria Flowers and Peterkort Roses. Two winners will be...
Read more in: Books, Guest Rants, It's the Plants, Darling, Taking Your Gardening Dollar, What's Happening
As if they knew, the entire crew of Erlicheer tazettas now installed in glass vases throughout my ground floor has indicated their willingness to bloom. Last year was characterized by a high percentage of bud blast, but then last year, we didn’t really have a winter. Welcome back! This...
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Too many times over the decades, even knowing that it won’t end well, I have herded party captives into a corner, hoping for a mad gardener conversion. The compliant lambs sip Sauvignon Blanc, and chat about their boxwoods, then turn deaf when I start in on the wonders of...
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If all goes as planned, this room (above) will soon be filled with these (below, sorry for the fuzzy pic). Erlicheer is my tazetta of choice—each stem produces a small bouquet of mildly scented white flowers. As I’ve posted before, the commonly sold Ziva has become synonymous with paperwhites...
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How did I miss this? I got in on the terrarium revival, but somehow, kokedama has been raging throughout the U.S. and U.K. unnoticed by me. It’s also known as string gardening or moss ball gardening, and originated in Japan, receiving some innovative tweaking in the Netherlands. Of course,...
Read more in: It's the Plants, Darling, Shut Up and Dig
Marijuana’s Going Legal Hard to believe, but America’s long prohibition against marijuana may be coming to an end, at least in places like Colorado and Washington State, both of which voted this week to legalize pot. And that’s for recreation, not for any medical purpose, real or phony. In...
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The Osage orange tree doesn’t have a large following but I have become a big fan. I love its beautiful, glossy green foliage and its yellow stained wood. And there’s something even more irresistibly loveable about the misshapen, softball-sized pale green fruit that looks like an alien’s brain. The...
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Everyone loves the Smithsonian museums on D.C.’s National Mall, but gardener-tourists also love their gardens. Here’s a sampling from mid-October, when I particularly admired (and will copy!) their use of annuals. By email, the Smithsonian’s supervisory horticulturist Jonathan Kavelier told me that “These plantings also include Amaranthus and Cuphea,...
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Regardless of whatever Pantone has decided, I declare orange to be the color of 2013. It needs to be, because I somehow ordered 500 orange/orange-red tulips. Maybe more—hard to say how some of the multi-colored species types will turn out. Let’s see—we have Prinses Irene, Orange Princess, Christmas...
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Two springs ago, a pruning mishap (not mine) caused our huge wisteria to come crashing down from its garage-roof empire. We cut it back to a six-foot-high stump, cleaned up what looked like a tree’s-worth of debris, and waited, in hopes that we could train it back into viability....
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I owe my love of pink flowers to Wilson Pickett. The rhythm and blues singer was my high school cosmic everything. Teenage boys often feel they are irrelevant. Or at least they once did. In the mid-60s, I played a white soul man to prove the point. When I...
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Who the hell knows what kind of winter we’ll be having in this formerly snow-identified corner of New York, but there will certainly be a few months of dormancy. This is what bulb season is for. It’s the closest I can get to real gardening (other than houseplant maintenance)...
Read more in: It's the Plants, Darling, Shut Up and Dig
Commented on Plant Ideas Needed for Biodiverse Lawn { For Professor Roush. Although I can't find the orginal document, I've seen home (and landscape) versions of this, using PVC pipe, and cotton clothesline made... } – May 21, 5:15 PM
Commented on Cats in the Garden - Solutions Only { We live in a high-coyote neighborhood so we are blessedly free of the little feline rascals. The coyotes enjoy ratting too. } – May 21, 4:54 PM
Commented on OG Mag on Wildlife-Friendly Gardens: What's Wrong with this Picture? { and the Smithsonian Institute's "research" has been since debunked. "Gregory J. Matthews of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst conducted a thorough and independent review... } – May 21, 4:18 PM
Commented on Cats in the Garden - Solutions Only { Not to weigh in on either side, but if cats weren't controlling the bird population we'd have a different problem. At 500 Million a year... } – May 21, 3:20 PM
Commented on Cats in the Garden - Solutions Only { As I say, many animals poop in my garden. This is nature. I have found plenty of dog poop in my front yard. Shortly after... } – May 21, 3:07 PMWe are:
perfect
magazine
gardens.
Gardening
our
asses
off.
Having a
hell of a lot
of fun.
