I N A GOOD SPRING, BELOVED PLANTS COME BACK. Not everybody, of course; some just can’t find their way home. But enough come up again to keep you hooked, and so the cycle repeats itself. Are all your old friends back this year, and who were you (or will you be) happiest of all to see? This week, a bonus: A slideshow (below) of some of Andre Jordan’s greatest hits, from our first six months of doodles on A Way to Garden. Toggle through…or see all his past doodles at this link. [read more…]
doodle (and slideshow) by andre: old friends
May 7, 2009 at 5:28 am
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slideshow: perennial stars of early may
May 7, 2009 at 4:30 am
H URRY, QUICK, RUSH: Get them before they vanish, and before the next pretty face distracts your gaze. That’s May in the garden here, a mad rush of bulbs and then ephemerals, and the first stick-around-awhile perennials, too, all happening beneath a canopy of blooming trees and shrubs. Have a quick look at some current beauties in the slideshow below, and I’ll be back to the computer to write profiles of the ones you haven’t met before. But for right now, I simply must go out to weed, mow, edge, divide, prune…oh, and freak out! [read more…]
beloved conifer: microbiota decussata
May 6, 2009 at 7:31 am
F ILL IN THE BLANK: ___________ is an evergreen ground-covering conifer that can tolerate some shade and minus-30 or colder. I guess I gave away the answer in the headline, but you get the idea: It’s an unusual set of traits. And Microbiota decussata, the so-called Siberian cypress, distinguishes itself just a little further, turning a bronzy-purplish cast in winter. [read more…]
‘we saw the man go up in space today’
May 5, 2009 at 7:38 am
A NOTHER SELECTION FROM MY EARLIEST PROSE, circa 1961, unearthed in a bout of housecleaning here this winter. This one earned me a star (which seems just right for a penmanship exercise about space travel), and marked the day the first American, Alan Shepard (who in 1971 would walk on the moon) went up in space. The day before, my mind had been on matters more befitting a gardener in the making: [read more…]
a plant i’d order: trachystemon orientalis
May 3, 2009 at 8:03 pm
IT WAS KEN DRUSE, the garden writer and photographer, who gave me Trachystemon orientalis years ago, after many unsubtle hints on my part. Like any plant you don’t know and haven’t seen, it seemed a treasure: something precious, a jewel, oh could I please have just the tiniest bit, Ken? Today I garden in a small sea of this borage relative (think comfrey, another cousin, if you want to know the inclinations of Trachystemon, which is also a cousin of Pulmonaria). I have to smile when I recall how we relative few who had it “back then” kept such a tight fist on our prize possession. [read more…]
succumbing to the ‘hudson valley seed library’
May 2, 2009 at 8:31 am
O K, SO I FALTERED; I BOUGHT MORE SEEDS. I am weak, but with a good excuse: The new-to-me Hudson Valley Seed Library had a display at the event I spoke at last weekend, and they have the most charming seed packets I have ever seen. So that’s my explanation: The artwork made me do it. Well, and so did the fact that they sold some things I haven’t grown in years that got me all sentimental. The damage report: Three packets, and a reminder to save my own seeds. [read more…]
