Who Makes the Bridge of Flowers Bloom? Carol DeLorenzo

  • Post published:05/18/2013
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For the past 12 years Carol DeLorenzo has been the guiding vision behind the changing bloom seasons on the Bridge of Flowers. However, she didn’t start her professional life thinking about flowers. “After I graduated from the College of the Atlantic, I got a fellowship that allowed me to spend a year traveling around the world, focusing on agricultural issues. When I returned to the United States I got a job as co-manager of a community based farm.…

Bridge of Flowers Plant Sale – Saturday May 18

  • Post published:05/17/2013
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One thousdand perennials are ready for the Bridge of Flowers Plant Sale on Saturday, May 18. When the starting bell rings at 9 am (no sales before that hour) the buying begins. From this photo you might be able to pick out lady's mantle, candelabra primroses, hostas, Solomon's seal, ferns, and bleeding hearts, pink and white. I can tell you that there are also peonies, fairy bells (new to me) campanulas, yarrow, achillea, shasta daisies, and some shrubs…

Bloom Day May 15, 2013

Last spring was early and hot and on Bloom Day there was a lot of bloom. Things are moving slowly this Bloom Day. This is an  area of my lawn reduction project. Waldsteinia has spread over the past three years and I'm underplanted with daffodils. Waldsteinia is a beautiful plant and it is just coming into bloom. It is not  any kind of strawberry plant. These miniature daffodils are some of the daffs growing amid the barren strawberry Some daffodils…

Life Under Our Feet – and Fruit Over Our Heads

  • Post published:05/13/2013
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There is life under our feet. I have talked about living soil from time to time, but in his New York Times essay yesterday  Jim Robbins says that "One-third of living organisims live in  soil. But we know littel about them." Well, of course I know about worms and  bugs and the mycellium that I can see, and I know the soil is full of microbes, but to think that one-third of ALL living organisims live in the soil…

Awesome Annuals for the Garden

  • Post published:05/12/2013
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  If you have a flower garden, chances are you grow a few annuals. For a while perennials were the fashionable family and annuals were almost forgotten. At least they were forgotten in conversation and garden articles, but to keep a garden in bloom from spring into fall annuals are essential. Each perennial will bloom for its three or four week period, but an annual will bloom all summer. It is no wonder that some of our favorite…

Greenfield Garden Club Extravaganza

  • Post published:05/09/2013
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The Greenfield Garden Club Extravaganza is a wonderful plant sale and is held annually on Trap Plain at the corner of Federal and Silver Streets, Greenfield  on Saturday, May 11, 2013 from 8-1.  Hardy perennials from members' gardens, annuals, herbs, and hanging plants for Mother's Day will be sold.  There will also be soil testing by the WM Master Gardener volunteers, a Green Thumb Tag Sale, and a Garden Gift Drawing. The Garden Club members have potted up…

Daffodils, Daffodils, Daffodils

  • Post published:05/08/2013
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All of a sudden this year I realize I have lots of daffodils, and lots of kind of daffodils.  I thought I could try to identify some using the Brent and Becky's Bulbs catalog, where I bought many of the daffodils, but that system is not working. Some of my daffodils will not bloom until later in the month. Do I know all the variety names? No. I can't identify the 'weed' in my flowery mead of a…

Digging, Weeding and Planting Season in High Gear

  • Post published:05/06/2013
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This is the season of digging, weeding and planting. The priority this weekend was to get plants dug for the two big plant sales coming up. The Greenfield Garden Club, of which I am a member, will have its plant sale on Saturday, May 11 at Trap Plain, at Siver and Federal Streets, and the following weekend, May 18, the Bridge of Flowers will have its plant sale at the Trinity Church's Baptist Lot in Shelburne Falls. This…

My Essential Garden Tools

  • Post published:05/04/2013
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When faced with the array of garden tools at the garden center, a new gardener can be forgiven for being confused and unsure of how to decide what is needed. There are all manner of shovels and rakes, trowels, cultivators, and weeders, as well as grass clippers, pruning shears and loppers. Where to begin? How much of an investment will be required? In fact, very few tools are absolutely necessary, as any experienced gardener who finds herself using…

Surprising Blossoms

  • Post published:05/03/2013
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There are surprising blossoms in the garden right now. Yesterday I found my first dandelions growing against the house foundation. None in the lawn but it won't be long. I never know when the neglected orchid cactus in the guest room will bloom. Surprise! The orchid cactus is loaded with buds waiting to come into bloom.  More surprises to  come