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I WENT SHOPPING SATURDAY at a giant annual plant fair nearby, making a beeline to the bromeliad department, a.k.a. the booth of Dave Burdick’s Daffodils and More.  I know, bromeliads are not related to daffodils—but like many keen gardeners, Dave has more than one obsession. And I have a special affection for Dave, who delivered my first few too-big-to-handle shrubs here 20-plus years ago and planted them: two spicebush, or Lindera benzoin, and the start of a glade or devil’s walking stick, Aralia spinosa.  But I digress: Today’s topic is bromeliads. [read more…]

SATURDAY, MAY 12, from 10 AM to 4 PM is my first Garden Conservancy Open Day of the season, and I’m hoping to see lots of you. As further enticement, I’m pleased that Broken Arrow Nursery will be here selling exceptional plants (and besides meeting their amazing Adam Wheeler, you can also have a word with Jack the Demon Cat).  I’m in Copake Falls, NY; directions and other details are on the Conservancy site; a $5 donation to their efforts is requested, but no reservations are required. The whole scoop: [read more…]

I WAS HONORED (AND A LITTLE STARTLED!) to see myself on top of the front page of the Garden Conservancy’s April newsletter–where they wrote about our history together and my plans for expanded open houses here in the garden this year. [read more…]

MULCH IS NOT A DECORATIVE ITEM, like carpeting or paint! If chosen carefully and applied properly, it’s the most important soil-building, plant-sustaining tool a gardener has. At this time of year, I’m asked a lot about mulch, but most of the questions make me a little nervous, because they center on the aesthetics only. It seemed a good moment for a friendly reminder about what mulch is (and isn’t), and how to use it, in the form of my Mulch FAQs.

I LEFT HOME LAST WEEK (without telling Jack first!) for a lecture in Baltimore, the farthest I’ve been from here in more years than I can recall. Besides a great crowd at the event held by the Maryland Horticultural Society, there was an extra treat: I got to meet Susan Harris, one of the four bloggers who collaborate on the wildly popular site called Garden Rant. Here’s what Susan had to say about that.

UNDER THE BRONZE FROG ‘PAPERWEIGHT’ (actually a door knocker that never met up with a door), there they are: The last week’s garden to-do lists, scrawled by a certain madwoman on re-used computer paper in her compulsive hand. Scary, isn’t it? I so love when I get to cross out an item, even though another 10 quickly replace it. The spring that’s too fast and too dry (and today far too hot: 87 degrees forecast) is one I cannot keep up with, but I’ll pretend with the pacifier of my funny lists to try. How are you faring over there?