Favorite Nurseries and Variegated Woody Perennials
Several weeks ago, I made a request of readers of this column to tell me about their favorite nurseries. Two nurseries which received highly enthusiastic reviews — H & H Nursery in Lakewoo...
Category Archives: Flowers
Columbine, Convolvulus, and Kalanit
Columbine, a flower meant for every garden, is a study in irony. Let’s start with its name. Columbine is derived from columbo, the Latin word for dove. If you take the flower and turn it ups...
Godetia of Celestial Origins
When you look at Godetia, do you see God? Actually, Godetia is named for a Swiss Botanist by the name of Charles Henry Godet, who lived 200 years ago. But the plant that honors his name is clearly c...
Don’t Forget to Notice the Natives
You know you’re getting old when time worn clichés begin to ring true. One of those clichés admonishes us: “don’t forget to stop and smell the roses,” to which I would add, “and don’t forget to stop...
‘Barely Boysenberry’, Double Orange Daylily, and Other Del...
While I was at a home improvement center this afternoon, I was taken by a 12 inch potted plant called Anisodontea ‘Barely Boysenberry.’ The garden person told me it was a perennial bush and would gro...
10 Outstanding Plants with Blue/Mauve Flowers
Ten Outstanding Plants with Blue/Mauve Flowers 1. Frikart daisy (Aster x frikartii) 2. butterfly bush (Clerodendron ugadense) 3. lobelia (Lobelia erinus) 4. jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosifolia) 5. ...
10 Outstanding Plants with Pink Flowers
1. pink clover, pink buttons (Persicaria capitata/Polygonum capitatum) 2. pink rock orchid (Dendrobium kingianum) 3. pi...
Seeing with the Eyes, Seeing with the Heart
I had never seen double French marigolds before. French marigolds (Tagetes patula) are the little marigolds as opposed to African marigolds (Tagetes erecta), which are the large ones. In truth, tho...
Staghorn Fern Staggers the Mind
Otto von Bismarck, the powerful diplomatic deal maker of 19th century Europe, is famously quoted as saying that politics is “the art of the possible.” Horticulture, by contrast, could be defined as ...
Everybody Loves Bellflowers
Everyone loves bellflowers. They belong to the Campanulaceae family, an appropriate appellation since campanulate is the botanical term for bell-shaped flowers. It harkens back to those Italian campa...
