“Life is a process of planting seeds for the future. This is how Adam (from adama, the Hebrew word for earth) got his name. For the virtue of earth is found in the plants that grow out of it and in...
I’m in love with a ballerina. A ‘Ballerina’ rose, that is. ‘Ballerina’ is a hybrid musk rose and hybrid musks, for reasons beyond comprehension, are seldom seen in the nursery trade. Hybrid musks are...
Imagine planting sunflower seeds on Monday and harvesting them on Tuesday. Or, imagine being a sower of grains – wheat, oats, rye, barley, or rice – that produce after just a few days in ...
I went to visit my family in Iran after an absence of 18 years and brought back pomegranate seeds from my mom’s garden. I dried them in the sun and left some in the freezer and some in the refr...
I have often thought that if everyone planted a few seeds each day, the world would be transformed. It is a forever humbling experience to watch tiny seeds, often no larger than grains of sand, turn ...
As daylight hours are reduced in the last days of December, gardening may be the last thing on your mind. But with the help of some Styrofoam cups and a little soil mix, you can start many plants ind...
Love-in-a-mist. To a horticulturist, this one-word poem describes more than a romantic adventure in San Francisco. Love-in-a-mist is the name of a plant that feels at home in almost any garden and ma...
OFTEN the thought of annual flowers in the garden is something like the thought of bungee jumping, the thought of spending a lot of money for a brief thrill. But can you imagine having deep beds of a...
“How to Grow the Wildflowers,” by Eric Johnson and Scott Millard (Ironwood Press) should be on the bookshelf of anyone in Southern California who enjoys growing plants. From achillea to c...