Harvard’s Glass Flowers

  • Post published:02/19/2011
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While the northeast is blanketed in snow and ice, even in Cambridge, Massachusetts, amazing flowers made of glass are blooming at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. In a darkened room on the third floor of the museum, glass cases sparkle, carefully lit to best show off grasses with their seed heads, delicate wildflowers, cocao plant and seed, one of the economically important plants on display, and more familiar flowers like rhododendron, mountain laurel, iris and dahlia. Each…

I Am Fascinated

  • Post published:02/18/2011
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After Bloom Day, wanting to preserve the tulip blossoms as much as possible in order to use them Sunday at church, I moved the pot of Pieter de Leur into the sitting room which is very cool. This is where my few houseplants live all winter. The jasmine dries up slowly over the season, but when I cut it back it always revives with the arrival of warm weather. I have been fascinated watching these forced bulbs as…

Win a Garden Starter Kit from Timber Press

  • Post published:02/17/2011
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Having told you all what an informative and inspiring book Andrea Bellamy has written, Sugar Snaps and Strawberries, I want you to know that Timber Press is now holding a contest that will have three lucky winners. First Prize winner will receive - A garden starter kit with all you need to start your own vegetable garden wherever you live, including: A copy of Sugar Snaps and Strawberries A gardening container, watering can, gloves, and a garden journal from…

Blooming on February 15

On this Bloom Day I have slightly more to show than usual.  The large tulip blossom in the photo is just about ready to fall apart, but you can see three more blossoms will carry on. These grape hyacinths are sharing a pot with the little hoop daffodil. The revelation for me is how much foliage comes along with the grape hyacinths.  I have another tiny pot of muscari on the windowsill by my bed. All the bulbs…

I Should Have Added Patience

  • Post published:02/14/2011
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This tulip has changed even since I took the photo on Friday but Frank and the tulip look so pretty in the sun I had to include it here. The grassy shoots have no buds that I can see but that pan of Baby Moon daffodils should bloom soon. I hope. When I complained last week about the bulbs I was forcing not responding to the force I kept sending their way I did not menton this Apricot…

Two Garden Styles – Two Books

  • Post published:02/12/2011
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Every gardener is an individual with different dreams, desires, skills, interests – and constraints. Thus every garden is unique reflecting those differences.  William Robinson (1838-1935) was a British gardener who propounded a new flower garden aesthetic, away from hundreds of annuals being bedded out each season, to a wilder, more informal planting of perennials, shrubs and trees, many of them natives. He wrote several books, most notably the influential  The Wild Garden. That book went through several editions.…

Warm Memories

  • Post published:02/11/2011
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With the snow so deep, the temperatures so low, and the winds so brisk I had to take a day to revisit summer in Buffalo and some of the beautiful gardens we toured.  I have a similar arrangement of lilies and beebalm in my garden.  It will be such a joy to see those shoots in the spring. These daylilies enjoyed a deep drink one night in Buffalo.  My Daylily Bank should look pretty good this year, and…

What Did I Do Wrong?

  • Post published:02/10/2011
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My records have failed me once again.  I know I potted up the tulip bulbs for forcing sometime in December. Brent and Becky sent pre-cooled tulips and I thought they would start to sprout almost immediately, but I am still waiting for most of them to get beyond this stage.   Although they were planted earlier than the tulips, this little pot of Muscari armeniacum "Christmas Pearl", chosen because it was listed as a good bulb for forcing…