Windcliff by Daniel Hinkley and Uprooted by Page Dickey

  • Post published:09/28/2020
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Two beautiful books have come across my desk. Apparently many gardeners are finding the need to leave their beautiful old gardens and move on to new gardens. I can speak to this urge myself, having left my gardens in Heath, to create a compact stroll garden filled with trees, shrubs, flowers and a place to sit in Greenfield. I also needed a garden that would not need so much work. Windcliff: A  story of people, plants and gardens…

Good Berry – Bad Berry – Beautiful Berries in Autumn

  • Post published:09/25/2020
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Autumn is a berry season, although  those berries would end up on my dinner table. However, these berries are beautiful at this time of the year and into the winter. This column appeared in September 2011.   When I walked through the garden the other day I realized how many red berries I have in the fall. Three years ago I noticed for the first time that my holly, ‘Blue Princess,’ and my cotoneasters had finally started producing…

John Bartram, Quaker, Farmer, Plant Hunter Right in Our Colonies

  • Post published:09/18/2020
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There are many stories about plant hunters who travelled the world looking for new plants. Ernest ‘Chinese’ Wilson discovered the Lilium regale in China in 1910. Scot David Douglas discovered what is now called the Douglas fir at Hudson’s Bay in North America in 1825. However, there was a plant hunter who lived his life in the American colonies during the 18th century and sent American native plants across the ocean to England. Quaker John Bartram ((March 23,…

Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day – September 15, 2020

  • Post published:09/15/2020
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Firelight hydrangea slowly becoming fiery on Garden Bloggers Bloom Day This summer has been a very dry summer and Garden Blogger's Bloom Day will tell of some of the difficulties. Dry summer or not, the hydrangeas are lush bloomers. I think this energetic foot tall aster is Wood's aster. Whatever, it is a great bloomer on our hugel. The gold winterberry is also ripening and the  birds will be very happy this winter. My Sheffield daisies have not…

Spring Bulbs Need Fall Planting – Time to go shopping

  • Post published:09/11/2020
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Fall is the season for planting - bulbs! Gardeners always have to think ahead if they want springtime flowers and it is bulbs that produce that brilliance. I love bulbs because they give us color and hope early in the spring. Since we moved to Greenfield I have planted some spring bulbs. Purple and golden crocuses bloom in March under the lilac tree. I think I should add at least a few more. My snowdrops also bloom in…

Michelle Parrish, Growing Dye Plants

  • Post published:09/04/2020
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Early this spring Smith College was ready to present its glorious annual Spring Bulb Show. However, as we now know, that show never opened. Like so many events the Bulb Show was shut-down because of the newly blossoming Covid-19 pandemic. I was fortunate to visit the Lyman Plant House just before the word covid was heard everywhere. I got to visit the space used for the Bulb Show, but preparations had been called to a stop. Fortunately, a…