Category Archives: Garden
Lo, how an Iris e’er blooming
“It came, a floweret bright, amid the cold of winter.”
Walking through the Tanger Arboretum next to Wheatland Mansion, I was surprised to see a bed of blooming iris on St. Nicholas ......
Favorite November plant
Sure plenty of trees have great fall color, but how many smell like cotton candy? As the county’s autumn fairs finish, it’s a way to recapture that festival scent a little later into the season.......
Favorite October plant
It’s a reason to hold out hope for a late freeze. Just when they’ve come into their own in prolific showy displays, upward facing daturas and pendulous brugmansias make a heroic last stand in th......
Favorite September plant
Sure it won’t be the showiest plant in your landscape, and if you’re lucky, many of the leaves will have holes in them by the end of the month, but planting some perennial milkweed (Asclepias) i......
Daylily delights
Spent the afternoon in daylily heaven. Connoisseur Jim Stauffer played the perfect host, showing off his 130 varieties planted in the front yard of his Kissel Hill home. Subject to extreme condi......
Hydrangea – Favorite July plant
On hot summer days, the cool blue of a mop-head hydrangea creates a lush visual respite in the garden. Acid soil turns flowers to blues and purples. A more alkaline composition found in our swe......
Tomato update
Lots of growth already on my in-law’s topsy-turvy tomato plant. Good thing my father-in-law anticipated the future weight and built a solid support. (My neighbor’s much smaller one i......
Knockout roses – favorite June plant
They may be ubiquitous, but we’re joining the bandwagon and cheering the Knockout Rose. Unwilling to pamper fussy plants, we’d given up on roses and their chemical addictions. But finally, after......
Windfall at Winterthur
Spectacular spring gardens, impressive American artifacts, and a whimsical Campbell’s collection of soup tureens, all combining at Winterthur to reprimand me for delaying a visit to this D......
Bagged tomatoes
My father-in-law couldn’t wait to show off his latest project when I arrived for a visit – an upside-down tomato plant. I take my tomatoes traditionally, twisting up the stakes I se......