What in the world is as weird and wonderful as carnivorous plants? At first, it seems so odd and wrong that some plants can eat animals. Yet seems to me that bug eating is a remarkable and inspiring adaptation to the tough circumstances in which these species eke out a living. The weirdness is what […]
The Friendship Plant is a very tough house plant, and an even better choice for the glasshouse. Attractive clumps of foliage erupt nodding spike after spike of pink bracts, each cascading green petals with a bright blue edge and golden anthers. These continue to appear over a long period. It will withstand neglect, and resists […]
If you are growing C. orientalis and C.tangutica; Clematis texensis, Clematis viticella and their cultivars and the large flowered hybrids like āHagley Hybridā and āPerle dāAzureā, nowās the time to prune. This group flowers in summer and autumn on the current yearās stems, so select the strongest pair of buds near the base, and cut […]
This spring I visited Heritage Gardens in Sandwich, Massachusetts, to see the rhododendrons in bloom. These 100 acres were formerly the estate of Charles Dexter, who, beginning in 1921, spent years propagating and raising thousands of rhododendrons.Ā He gave many to friends and neighbors without keeping records of these gifts, which is why new Dexter […]
In recent times the modern planting style has been airy and light, dare I say as frothy as badly drawn beer. Itās led to an explosion of umbels, a term short for umbellifers, in show gardens and gardens alike. These plants have an arrangement of tiny, nectar-rich flowers arranged in a variety of ways. The […]
Weāre having some character-building weather in Chicago. The thermometer got all the way up to zero today (Fahrenheitāthatās 17.5 below zero for you centigrade folks). I was bumbling down a sidewalk wearing layers of leggings, multiple socks, gloves within mittens, and so much headgear I could hardly peer out. I passed a nonchalant tree, standing […]
At the start of the New Year gardeners and greenhouse owners keep a close eye on natureās clock. As the sun rises and sets to create a few extra minutes of daylight each and every day, so the sun returns to our gardens and gradually warms the soil. Every extra moment of daylight is a […]
A sanctuary under glass, your greenhouse offers an escape from the winter weather ā and the world. The rising clatter is intense, drowning out every other sound, a roaring mix of what a raging waterfall and what ā I imagine ā an avalanche sound like. The latterās a decent guess; the greenhouse roof is being […]
It may be the depths of winter but it will not be very long at all until it is time to start sowing Brussels sprouts. This is how the year turns and surprises us: come February, just a few short weeks away, it will be time to sow. I realise I must get my early-sowing […]
High elevations and low waterfall mean gardening in the southwest depends a lot on what you might call āmechanical interventionā; glasshouses and tunnels for season extension and irrigation to compensate for shortages are the chief tools at the gardenerās disposal. Developed by the ancient Romans, adapted by the Moors in pre-Christian Spain, aqueducts fed water […]
Amongst the benefits a glasshouse offers can be year round flowers for cutting. Cut flowers are more expensive to purchase than most fruits and vegetables so really deserve some attention. And one of the best cut flowers for sheer endurance once cut is the Chincherinchee. Ornithogalum thyrsoides is a bulbous plant of the Lily family […]
I love when I come across a new (to me) gardening term. Iād never heard the word fascine, until I talked with Vanessa Gardner Nagel, award-winning landscape designer and author. She mentioned she was building fascine to stabilize the slope in her Pacific Northwest ravine garden. A fascine, she explained, is a bundle of sticks […]
