Here's today's second guest post from Ginny Stibolt. A recent NY Times article (covered here on The Rant) reported on how public gardens are expanding their offerings and canceling their traditional flower events. I'd like to offer additional ideas for organizing events that can attract a large numbers of gardeners. My observations are based on [...]
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Posted by
Elizabeth Licata on September 16, 2010 at 11:00 am This post has 9 responses.
I was very excited about The Late Show Gardens, a new sort of garden show invented right here in northern California and deliberately scheduled for fall, which is exactly the right time for a garden show, in my view. It's held outdoors, during prime planting season for serious gardeners...
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Posted by
Amy Stewart on September 10, 2010 at 8:43 am This post has 5 responses.
We challenged Timber staff to read our bawdy hymenoptera limericks inspired by Eric Grissel's new book BEES, WASPS, AND ANTS and post the video online. Then we decided they should wear bee suits while reading the limericks. And look! They went for it! Those Timber people will do ANYTHING!...
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Posted by
Amy Stewart on August 13, 2010 at 11:49 am This post has 15 responses.
Ah, yes. Everybody loves a good limerick about ant sex. Or bee sex. Or wasp sex. Thanks to all of you who commented on Eric Grissell's guest rant about his new book, Bees, Wasps, and Ants. The lovely people at Timber have not only offered to give a book...
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Posted by
Amy Stewart on August 11, 2010 at 4:35 am This post has 5 responses.
Please welcome poet Charles Goodrich, author of a new collection of prose poems called Going to Seed: Dispatches from the Garden. Garrison Keillor is fond of reading his poems on the Writer's Almanac. We're just thrilled that a poet writing about gardening gets attention like this in the wider...
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Posted by
Amy Stewart on August 9, 2010 at 2:59 am This post has 10 responses.
Eric Grissell, author of the delightful Insects and Gardens, is back with a new one: Bees, Wasps, and Ants: The Indispensable Role of Hymenoptera in Gardens. And yes, we've got a copy to give away–read on. Meanwhile, here's Eric: Few people realize that it was wasp-sex that prompted Dr....
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Posted by
Amy Stewart on August 5, 2010 at 4:03 am This post has 26 responses.
PBS’s Victory Garden sure isn’t what it was, but whatever respect it still commands among serious gardeners is largely due to the reputation lent it by such former hosts as James Crockett, Roger Swain, and former co-host Jim Wilson, who died Sunday at the fine age of 85. A...
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Posted by
Elizabeth Licata on August 3, 2010 at 5:35 am This post has 17 responses.
Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park in Oyster Bay, NY is worth at least one more post here, especially to introduce its director, Vinnie Simeone. Here he is looking mighty happy with some of his many roses (which he sprays twice in spring with Neem oil, and that's it.) ...
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Posted by
Susan Harris on August 1, 2010 at 3:56 am This post has 10 responses.
I can't remember the last time a BBC story made me so happy. Once again, the Brits prove their superiority in all things horticultural. Could you imagine Americans plucking snails from their garden, making a unique identifying mark on their shells, and swapping them with a neighbor up the...
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Posted by
Amy Stewart on July 28, 2010 at 5:23 am This post has 22 responses.
Teaming with Microbes author Jeff Lowenfels was kind enough to invite me over and show me how Alaskans garden when I was there last weekend. Here’s it is: Well, okay, that’s not actually his garden. That’s the edge of his garden, and the view from his garden. These Alaskans–they...
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Posted by
Amy Stewart on July 21, 2010 at 5:13 am This post has 10 responses.
Does your indie garden center have a diagnostician on staff with a microscope at the ready? I had the opportunity, of sorts, to benefit from the services of this one the other day in an attempt to save my Iteas, and wrote about it for his garden center's blog. ...
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Posted by
Garden Rant on July 18, 2010 at 6:15 am This post has 6 responses.
Have you ever noticed a "Sandy's Plants" label on one of your new perennials? Well, meet grower Sandy McDougle and her wholesale-retail growing facility on 35 acres just east of Richmond, VA. If you're in the area it's definitely worth a stop – not just for the opportunity to...
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Posted by
Garden Rant on July 17, 2010 at 4:19 am This post has 3 responses.
It's not that I think conducting the war in Afghanistan is easy. You have to deal with the dicey Hamid Karzai, Taliban insurgents, shakedowns from tribal warlords, rough terrain, and an American public that has long since forgotten why we are there. But could fighting the Taliban possibly be...
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Posted by
Michele Owens on July 16, 2010 at 5:46 am This post has 24 responses.
Mike Shadrack calls this (and below) his “Octopus’s Garden in the Shade,” but he also refers to it as using hostas as alpines. Neither of these playful descriptions is quite correct—there’s no octopus and Shadrack lives perched above a creek, not on a mountaintop. All the same, I...
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Posted by
Elizabeth Licata on July 15, 2010 at 5:00 am This post has 19 responses.
Dear Timber employees: Consider yourself warned. Next time I see one of you in person, I'm going to plant a big, sloppy kiss right on your face for getting behind an iPhone app like this. I know, I know–there are a few gardening apps out there already. But where...
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Posted by
Amy Stewart on July 8, 2010 at 4:12 am This post has 73 responses.
A quick follow-up to our previous post about Great Garden Speakers: In just two weeks, we've signed up 42 speakers at www.GreatGardenSpeakers.com and several more are in progress. Over the last few days we've had a glitch that just got fixed: the price to join is $5 per month,...
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Posted by
Amy Stewart on July 7, 2010 at 6:08 pm This post has one response.
…in the American gardening press, where it's all about laziness and snobbery. We have great gardens here in the U.S., too! Take a look around, you journalists, and consider reporting the evidence of your own eyes! And unless you happen to live in Portland, Oregon, there is relatively little...
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Posted by
Michele Owens on July 6, 2010 at 7:12 am This post has 11 responses.
We've just heard from Andrea Wulf, author of The Brother Gardeners. Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession. She's got a new book coming out and, because she's based in London, she asked us to help get the word out about the US book tour for her...
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Posted by
Amy Stewart on July 1, 2010 at 6:32 am This post has 5 responses.
I only just found out that San Jose Mercury-News garden writer Holly Hayes died of cancer in early April. Her obituary is here, but I suggest you read her husband's loving tribute as he chronicles his efforts to keep her garden going. I've read Holly's garden coverage on and...
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Posted by
Amy Stewart on June 30, 2010 at 8:47 am This post has 2 responses.
Some of you may remember that a few months ago, we posted an online survey to gauge the interest in a new website called GreatGardenSpeakers.com. The idea was to make it easier for garden clubs, botanical gardens, flower shows, conferences, and other such venues to find speakers with expertise...
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Posted by
Amy Stewart on June 23, 2010 at 7:43 am This post has 5 responses.
