Trailing Princess Flower
If you can coax a single flower from a plant that has been flowerless for several years, you may experience a greater sense of accomplishment than you get from observing a reliable bloomer, su...
Category Archives: Perennials
Hellebores — heavenly and far from boring
The best part about writing a garden column is the opportunity it provides for spreading the word about wonderful plants that most people know nothing about. Indeed, it should come as no surprise if ...
Jasmines of Early Spring
Throughout the East and the Midwest, the brilliant yellow flowers of Forsythia are the horticultural harbingers of spring. In the Valley, the fluorescent yellow flowers of primrose jasmine (Jasminum ...
English, French, and Spanish Lavender: Hardy and Fragrant
In the Garden of Eden, smell was the only one of the five senses not to be corrupted by the wily serpent. The reason for this, the Talmu...
Flower Garden Evolves from Trial and Error
Every day I look at a stunning flower garden that is an eclectic mix – some would say hodgepodge – of annuals and perennials. This garden was not planned out, but evolved capriciously in ...
Dwarf Yarrow: A Ground Cover You Can Walk On
Yarrow is the Toughest Ground Cover Q: A gardening show on PBS had one program about all kinds of ground covers aside from grass that are tough enough to walk on. Do you know of a thick ground cover ...
Classic Winter Bloomers
Note: The following was written shortly after a major earthquake in January, 1994. Whenever I walk my dog, I see a microcosm of Los Angeles at the end of the block. In the ruins of an ...
Lilacs
I have a lilac in front of my house in a west-facing planter. It is of the `California Rose’ variety and was purchased a few years ago. It bloomed this spring but is blooming again now. I have ...
Geoff Stein, Humble Plant Lover
Geoff Stein is the classic example of a plant lover, only moreso. When you interview him, you quickly realize that his mission in life is to instruct the world about plants, but that he seeks no pers...
Cool Blue Blooms of Fall
And so, in the end, it has been left to the cool blue blooms of November to finally grant us a reprieve from the die-hard summer of ’96. Until a few days ago, it seemed that this summer, regard...
