Garden variety hellebores are still the best
The upper middle hybrid is pretty, but doesn't do nearly as well as the others here. Like many shade gardeners, I am in love with hellebores. They start [...]
Elizabeth Licata
Clean water? Fresh air? Unspoiled national parks? Science? Who needs ’em?
The Niagara River is part of the watershed that is threatened by a funding cutoff. After appointing what are essentially bizzaro-world choices to lead the EPA, and other [...]
Is Facebook a great place for gardening questions? Usually not.
One of the only places to find decent info on FB It can depend on who’s in your friend list, but I’ve seen enough to determine that asking [...]
Commenters are telling us to stick to gardening
Life is messy. I think we can all agree. You’d like to keep all the separate activities—professional life, family, hobbies, friends, travel—in their little boxes, but it’s never easy. Things [...]
Alternative facts about my garden I’m choosing to believe
Everything will come up roses. Alternative facts, that is. If there is any group of people that has learned to accept unpleasant realities—often brought on by natural forces—that [...]
A trendy wish list for 2017
These were cheap and great from the botanical gardens sale. Not having even looked at any of the predictions or surveys regarding general gardening behavior, here is my [...]
The myth of black thumbs and plant killers
If you can kill one of these, you're good. May 2017 be the year that nobody insists to me that they have a “black thumb.” Except that I [...]
Trends I won’t be following this season
This is what's trending in the house right now: Erlicheer tazettas from Old House Gardens At this time of year, the inboxes of garden writers (and editors of [...]
Catching up with Dr. Armitage
Here we are at the Plant WNY CNLP Education Day (totally insider/geek event) It’s been a while! Horticulturalist, professor, breeder, and—as we know him best—author of Herbaceous Perennial [...]
There’s an upside to snow
Here I am during a 2001 storm; we were snowbound for about a week. This post is for my friends and fellow gardeners on the East Coast and [...]
Are show gardens making us bad gardeners?
Here are some sensible plantings at the Berkshire Botanical Gardens, a lovely site we happened upon on the way to Connecticut. It's the less famous sites that tend to [...]
Resolving to become a better naturalist
Bluebell wood image courtesy of Shutterstock They knew where to go for the first of everything: the first snowdrops, the first catkin, primroses, violets, forget-me-nots, wild roses, honeysuckle. [...]