Z is for Zinnias. What is there to say about Zinnias except that they are cheerful, come in a whole variety of brilliant and tender colors, an array of forms from neat to shaggy. I love them. Renee's Garden will show you some of that variety. They are great in the garden and great in bouquets. The A to Z Challenge is over! I have survived and taken you on a ride through the garden from Apple to Zinnia.…
Yarrow is more properly known as Achillea. Achillea 'Paprika' is just one of a large family of flowers that are not fussy about location or soil. They love the sun and butterflies love them Achillea "The Pearl' is a slightly unusual form of achillea - or yarrow. Achillea 'Terra Cotta' grows right next to my front door. I do want to say that I have seen the same yarrows growing in other gardens and the exact hue of the color…
X is for Xeric. Xeric plants are those adapted to an extremely dry habitat. While the weather/climate in my area is definitely changing with periods of drought, and heavier rains when they come. I am paying more attention to those plants that are drought tolerant, if not really xeric. These Gaillardias are a wonderful perennials that have done beautifully in my garden. After checking a list of drought resisant plants I was happy to see that I have a number…
W 1s for Water, and for Dr. Betsy our fourth child, second daughter, and Queen of Water. That actually isn't her title, which I don't remember, but she has been working for the Mass Water Resources Authority for a number of years, as the scientist on the staff, although she also has administrative duties. Why is it we parents never understand our children's jobs anymore? Anyway just in time for her 50th birthday celebration, she has been given…
V is for Viola, a large family of plants that includes the johnny jump up, pictured above. Viola is also my mother's name. I never thought it was a very pretty name until I knew that johnny jump ups, violets and pansies were also Violas. Now I see the first violas in the garden centers and in my garden as a first sign of spring. I see the happy blue blossoms and I think about a mother of three sons looking…
U is for Unless. I was trying to find a good botanical U word, but I could locate very few. Umbel is "an inflorescence with pedicles or branches arising at the same point and of nearly equal length." Think Queen Anne's Lace. Ulmus is the whole family of elms, and Urtica is the stinging nettle. Stinging nettle made me think of the problems we can face when gardening. And that made me think of an alphabet book by…
T is for Thoreau, author of Walden and many many journals in which "[he omitted] the unusual - the hurricanes and earthquakes - and described the common." He had always recorded the weather and the natural scene in a sporadic and fragmented way, but in July of 1852 he declared a year of observation, a 'year' that lasted through 1861. Amidst the the poetry of his prose, and his record of his own responses to the world, he began a careful…
S is for Sustainability this Earth Day. Yesterday I introduced Tom Benjamin who designs sustainable, low maintenace landscapes to an attentive audience at our local 'Little e' (not the Big Eastern Exposition in Springfield) where the theme was saving energy. The topic was Reduce Your Lawn and Increase Your Leisure. Since I have been writing about low-mow landscapes I was interested to hear how Tom calculated the benefits. There are many. The first benefit, according to my husband, is…
It is time to begin spring chores. But exactly how do we know when spring is beginning? A tough question. The only sure answer is that it did not begin on March 20 this year when the temperature was 16 degrees at 7 in the morning and remained cold and cloudy all day. It was a very different story last year when the snowdrops were in full bloom and my first temperature record was 54 degrees with sun.…
R is for Roses at the End of the Road, my book about my life among the roses. You won't find much how to information about growing roses, because the roses that you will find at any given moment are hardy, trouble free roses. I don't grow roses that need a lot of fussing. And my climate is still to harsh for fragile hybrid tea roses. I love the old fashioned roses that speak to me of…