The Annual Rose Viewing is almost upon us. The roses have held up in the heat pretty well. So have the weeds, unfortunately. But the roses don't care and neither do I. From 1-4 pm we will be enjoying rosy visions and the Heath zephyrs carrying their perfume. Cookies and lemonade in the Cottage Ornee to restore the tissues. Come up Route 2 to Charlemont, take 8A north to Rowe Road where you will see a ROSES sign,…
The preschool kids from Buckland-Shelburne Elementary School came to the Bridge of Flowers yesterday morning to drop off the 21 dahlia tubers they planted and have been tending for the past weeks. Head Gardener Carol DeLorenzo and I greeted them and thanked them for their patient work in caring for the 'China Doll' dahlias that will bloom in all the shades of the sunset later in the season. Everyone loves dahlia season. After several days of excitement in…
End of the Road Farm is now officially Zone 5b, with winter temperatures down to -15 degrees. I think that is pretty accurate. When we first moved here I put us in Zone 4b, with temperatures down to -25 degrees. Thirty years ago we would have those bitter temperatures for days at a time, not just a day or two. Even allowing that winters are generally milder, we had a very early spring, after a mild winter. The…
Weeds or wildflowers? What do you think? For more wordlessness this Wednesday click here.
The hardy rugosas are so cheering, blooming early and beautifully as they do. Belle Poitvine suffered a lot of winter damage as did several of the other rugosas. I don't think it was simply the weather which was very mild, but the age of the shrub. Like any living creature a rugosa has a life span, but it also has babies. More on that later. Like Belle Poitvine, Blanc Double de Coubert, is only about two feet tall…
As we slip into June I also slip into high gear preparing for the Annual Rose Viewing at the End of the Road which is always held the last Sunday in June, this year June 24 from 1- 4 pm. Roses, with cookies and lemonade in the Cottage Ornee. It looks like a good year for the roses, but even when the winter has taken a toll, I love welcoming people to the garden because sharing the garden…
Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) was a painter who gained great fame. He lived in the time when French artists were inventing Impressionism, but his own work is representative. American-born James Abbott McNeill Whistler introduced him to England where his still lifes became very popular. He spent many summers in Normandy with his wife, Victoria Dubourg who was also an artist. They tended a garden, growing many flowers, including roses ,that found their way into his paintings. He was so…
The transit of venus, the passage of Venus between earth and the sun is an astronomical event that many will never see because it is so infrequent. We wanted to see it again, as we had seen it at dawn in 20o4, using the same technique, a homemade camera obscura. We went up to our attic which has a western window, perfectly situated for watching this phenomena that began at 6:04 pm on Tuesday, June 5. The only…
Salvia is a large genus of plants that includes shrubs as well as perennials and annuals. I have the beautiful Salvia May Night in my Lawn Bed, but I also have culinary sage, Salvia officinalis, in my Herb Bed. There are many reasons to love salvia. It is an undemanding plant that will bloom again if it is sheared back after that first springtime bloom. There are also many cultivars, many in shades of blue, some in…
The Roses are in bloom at the Flowers' house - rather the garden belonging to Carolyn Flowers and Jim Lapore. Roses and clematis are starring right now so Carolyn opened the garden today for a special rose viewing because when her garden opens again for the Greenfield Garden Club Farm and Garden Tour on July 7 the roses will have finished their fragrant season. I realized a couple of years ago that the rose I call Apothecary is…