Perennials are often touted as “easy-care,” but not all perennials are equal. Like many gardeners, I want ones that don’t need frequent dividing or deadheading. I need plants that are not fussy as to soil or weather conditions—and come back year after year. That’s a lot to ask for, I know, so this month I’m […]

If you have not grown anything in Europe lately, you may not have noticed the battle going on between peat moss and coir. Well, it’s not actually a battle. More like a rout. Peat moss, which came into widespread use in the late 1940’s, has been vanquished back to its bogs. The reason: peat (or […]

One of my favorite places, the great Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago, is all shiny and sparkly. In a good way. I remember when it was shiny and sparkly in a bad way: the day in June 2011 after golf-ball-sized hailstones smashed 60 percent of the glass in the nearly 2 acres of display greenhouses […]