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…
Q is for the Quietness Rose, one of Griffith Buck's best hybrid roses. There is hardly any more to say after noting that this is a carefree rose, fragrant and beautiful. All you need to do is cut it back in the early spring because it blooms on new wood. The Quietness rose is one of the most admired roses on the Rose Walk. This is a rose for people who say they could never grow roses because…
P is for the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden. I last visited this garden in November of 2009 when there was still plenty of bloom on view although you wouldn't know it from this photo of the view from the entry to the Gazebo where Awakening roses twine around the beautiful iron framework. I had gone to meet Peter Kukielski, self-taught rosarian, and the then curator of the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden,…
O is for Organizations. We gardeners have all sorts of enthusiasms, about plants, about conservations, and about education. There are many Organizations that support those enthusiasms. I belong to the Massaachusetts Horticultural Society which is headquartered in Wellesley. There Mass Hort has a library, classrooms, and wonderful gardens from the Italianate Garden to the delightful Weezies Garden for Children. Founded in 1829 this organization isty is "dedicated to encouraging the science and practice of horticulture and developing the…
N is for Nasami Farm, the Native plant nursery of the New England Wildflower Society. Founded in 1900 the New England Wildflower Society is one of the oldest conservation organizations in the country. "The mission of New England Wild Flower Society is to conserve and promote the region’s native plants to ensure healthy, biologically diverse landscapes." The Society owns and oeperates the beautiful Garden in t he Woods in Framingham, Massachusetts which features the largest landscape of native…
M is for Marcescence. Marcescence refers to the retention of dead plant parts that are usually shed. We all know that trees lose their leaves in the fall. Some of us may have noticed that oak trees, and beeches carry their dead leaves will into the fall. And maybe until the new leaf buds give the old leaf a final shove in the spring. Over the past few years I have noticed that there seem to be a lot…
My life with hydrangeas did not begin well. When I moved to Grinnell Street in 1971 several tortured and overgrown white hydrangeas grew in front of the porch. I don’t know what kind they were but they did not please me. I cut them down, and ultimately planted three dwarf apple trees in the narrow space between the sidewalk and the porch. This was probably not a good idea, but we moved to Maine in 1974 so the…