Houseplants are just fine—they don’t need to clean the air
So just stop with the claims. I thought this—well, let’s call it an exaggeration rather than a myth—had died down, but no. It cropped up in a recent enewsletter from [...]
Elizabeth Licata
Gardeners make terrariums; plants laugh
Then (left) and now The wonderful terrarium I had planted by a local shop last year is still wonderful; it’s just different. The large fishbowl had been the [...]
I don’t hate Valentine’s Day, but I have a problem with Valentine’s Day roses
A day devoted to spoiling people you love is okay with me, regardless of its Hallmark stigma and general aura of cliché. Just like the extra information at the public [...]
In defense of palms
Recently, Ranter Allen Bush drew our attention to an NPR segment on the problem with palm trees in Florida. In Miami Beach, they make up almost 60% of the tree [...]
More gardening-adjacent occupations
Neither of these are really hobbies, in my view. One is something almost everyone does on a regular basis and the other is used routinely by professional growers and others [...]
Closing the gap
Last week someone commented that I—well, the whole site—was crotchety and out of date. I didn’t really mind; we do voice strong opinions and when people don’t agree they can [...]
Let there be light
Thank you, cannabis growers and houseplant collectors. I’m going to assume that it must be in part due to the increasing popularity—well, explosion— of this type of gardening that we [...]
Tis the season for houseplant anxiety
We’re getting better at choosing outdoor plants that resist drought and disease, and we try to maintain insect-friendly gardens that would only be hurt by human intervention in the form [...]
Want to get in the spirit? Try a garden center
One of my favorite garden center shopping expeditions occurs after the garden has been put to bed. (And by that, I mean that I’ve started my four month-period of ignoring [...]
Ranters’ Roundtable: Trends
Welcome to our first informal roundtable, in which various Ranters opine on garden-related issues. We chose trends for the inaugural discussion, because a few of us had just received interesting [...]
Don’t worry, plant bulbs
That’s the title of a talk I gave recently for a suburban/rural gardening club, though maybe it didn’t apply. They all seemed like longtime spade-wielding warriors. Very few of them [...]
Since when did annuals become perennials?
It sure seems that way. So many in my online gardening group have already filled their windowsills, basements, and (increasingly) greenhouses with coleus, begonias, geraniums, petunias, impatiens—you name it, they’re [...]