Introducing Orienpet Lily: Garden Star — Va Va Va Voom!
My two-year-old stand of Satisfaction Orienpet lilies in late July
My days as a plant snob are over. There's room in my garden for both...
Royal Grevillea: Garden Dynamo from Down Under
Hi, my name is Tom and I'm a plantaholic, unable to leave a nursery without a plant, incapable of ignoring a nodding bud, lacy...
Hollyhocks Signal Summer’s Last Hurrah
As summer wanes, my hollyhocks mark its passage, each blossom a page in the season's story. June finds an optimistic sprout fighting off the early advances...
Foxgloves: Towers of Flowers and Then Some
Foxglove (digitalis purpurea) is the flower of the hour in my Pacific Northwest garden, towering three feet above my close-to six-foot frame. (That's height not...
Taylor’s Pink Perfection Camellia and Miss Wells’ Lipstick
Nature doles out some amazing colors. When my Taylor's Pink Perfection camellia began to bloom for the first time, I found its blush exuberant,...
Bart, Your Primula Is Doing Fine
In some cafe, perhaps in Amsterdam, maybe in Bruges sits a man whose interest in the works of Van Gogh and Rubens is only...
Periwinkle Vinca Major Covers a Lot of Ground
Periwinkle: Vinca Major, a sea of knee-high green
I'd have to say the periwinkle Vinca major saves me about a bazillion hours of weeding each summer, smothering out...
Daffodils: D is for Deer Proof
Deer proof is a designation that I usually find laughable. I suspect that given the chance, deer would dine on blue tarps and roof shingles. If these beasts...
Houseplant Clivia: Tough as Nails, Pretty to Boot
About this time every year, I look at my sickly menagerie of houseplants and wonder why I bother. The leaves of my streptocarpus have...
Trumpet & Oriental Lilies: Perfection in Bloom
Lilies Are the Whole Flower Package: Beauty, Fragrance and Strength
The phrase to gild the lily says it all. Why would anyone attempt to improve or adorn something that...