Spring has come early, and so has the opening of the Bridge of Flowers. Tiny iris cristata and crocuses are blooming - with more blossoms to come very soon. There was great excitement at our beautiful new Garden House yesterday when Nancy Katz and Mark Liebowitz installed the beautiful stained glass window they designed and created. It is not terribly visible during the day from outside, but in the evenings it will be illuminated from inside. The Garden…
It is easy and fun to start seeds indoors. Seeds are just magical - tiny bits of stuff that can turn into a delicious fruit or vegetable or gorgeous flower with only the help of a little soil, sun and rain. That magic is available to us all. All of us can plant seeds, and wave our magic wands to keep ourselves busy while we watch the magic show produced by Mother Earth, Father Sun and Sister Rain.…
It's spring and I went shopping for Spice Bush. Yesterday, at the Hadley Garden Center I found a Spice Bush with bursting green buds. This Spice Bush, Lindera benzoin, is hardy, takes shade, and gets big, up to 12 feet tall and just as wide. I will plant it next to the fence which a relatively dry spot, but spice bush can also tolerates some wet. One special reason for planting spice bush is that it attracts Spice…
I felt we were ready for the first day of spring when I saw all the pansies from Andrews Greenhouse at the Western Mass Master Gardeners Spring Symposium on Saturday. Lots of vendors selling books and tools and plants! And best of all presenters teaching us all the things we wanted and needed to know about gardening. Keynote speaker Karen Bussolini explained why native plants are so necessary to attracting bugs, and pollinators and birds to our gardens.…
During the Mt Holyoke College Spring Flower Show the entryway to the Talcott Greenhouse is filled with the fresh and delicate fragrance from the plant room to the left. Before you even glimpse the oxalis and daffodils that embody the Emerald Isle theme you feel the arrival of spring in that heady fragrance. Gail Fuller is the captain of the Spring Flower Show. Her ship set sail last summer. It is Fuller who chose the Emerald Isle theme.…
These crocus were just beginning to bloom when my husband and I were visiting our across-the-street neighbors. This is our neighbors first spring in the house and the patch of crocus was a lovely spring surprise. I think these crocus are tommasinianus, fondly known as 'tommies.' They are known for spreading generously because they propagate by seed and offset. These purple crocus are growing in the garden of my down-the-street neighbor. She has quite a stand. Both neighborns…
The cheering Mt Holyoke Spring Flower Show continues. The Talcott Greenhouse is open every day from 10 am to 4 pm. This is a correction from my Between the Rows column in The Recorder. The show is a delight. Be sure to visit before 4 pm on Sunday, March 20. Remember open hours are 10 am - 4 pm.
Lilian Jackman is one of the presenters at this year's Western Mass Master Gardener's Spring Symposium, When Lilian Jackman was 22 she worked in the gardens of three elderly Vermont women. They each had their own way of gardening in their old age. One woman was very angry because she wanted the garden to stay exactly the same – and of course she was not successful. Gardens never stay the same. This made her critical, and unhappy. The…
The theme of this year's Smith College Bulb Show is The Evil Garden of Edward Gorey. There is more black and white in this show than usual, but the tongue-in-cheek tableaux next to various Gorey drawings, a dark but humorous look at the garden. The photo above is a reference to a Gorey drawing Great Uncle Franz being strangled by a snake. But I ask you - how evil could any garden be with all that fragrant pink?…
The Mt Holyoke College Flower Show, with its theme The Emerald Isle includes the fragrant spring flowers that we can enjoy in our own New England spring. The fresh fragrance that meets you as you enter the Flower Show greenhouse is the perfume of spring. I wonder why more of us, including me, don't think how easy it would be to enjoy that scent in our own houses. A few pots of hyacinths, and may a couple of…