Rose of Prairie Rose's Garden in Central Illinois. Rose has won Nan Ondra's book, The Perennial Care Manual, and 2 dozen CowPots! Congratulations! When I get Rose's mailing address I'll send them right out. Now, since this is my Second Blogoversary, Storey and CowPots are offering a second chance to win in a drawing. This time the book is Right Rose, Right Place: 359 Perfect Choices for Beds, Borders, Hedges and Screens, Containers, Fences, Trellises, and More by…
Sometimes I think you have to be a mature person to fully appreciate evergreens. In youth, when we are changing and changing again, it is flowers and trees that are always changing in their own seasons that catch our attention, but evergreens are more stable. Which is not to say that their growth, even from season to season is static, but that the changes are more subtle. This fall, when the deciduous trees were bare, I…
The first wildness was our local porcupine sunning himself (I don't really know if he is a he or she) in front of the henhouse this morning. I nearly stepped on him on my way to feed the chickens because I was so busy looking at a wild hardy kiwi vine on the adjacent shed and wondered how I was ever going to prune and tame it. Fortunately the movement of the porcupine, including getting all his quills in fighting…
When rose the eastern star, the birds came from a-far, in that full might of glory. With one melodious voice they sweetly did rejoice and sang the wonderous story, sang, praising God on high, enthroned above the sky, and his fair mother Mary. The eagle left his lair, came winging through the air, his message loud arising. And to his joyous cry the sparrow made reply, his answer sweetly voicing. "Overcome are death and strife, this…
My Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumbergera truncata) had just barely started to open on Thanksgiving day, but it is in full bloom right now. It will have passed its moment of glory by Bloom Day, so I continue to give thanks in the here and now. I've had people tell me their Thanksgiving cactus or Christmas cactus never bloom at the proper season, but that is usually because they have misidentified their plant. The Thanksgiving cactus 'leaf segments' have little points…
"Now, thank God, everything is finished; perhaps there are still things to be done; there at the back the soil is like lead, and I rather wanted to transplant this centaurea, but peace be with you; the snow has already fallen. . . . Well then make a fire in my room; let the garden sleep under its iderdown of snow. It is good to think of other things as well; the table is full of books which…
Much has been written about the “Columbian Exchange,” which refers to the plants and animals (and diseases) that were exchanged between the Old World and the New once Columbus started ships regularly traveling across the Atlantic. The Old World owes a lot to the New, especially in an agricultural sense. Potatoes, corn, tomatoes, cocoa, pineapples and pumpkins and a dozen other crops traveled from the New World to the Old so successfully that everyone’s diet changed radically. However,…
All those who think roses are finicky plants that require fussing and lots of chemical sprays for disease and bugs will be surprised when they visit the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) in the Bronx with its more than 3000 healthy roses. I visited the garden last week and spent an afternoon with the Curator, Peter Kukielski, the man who has supervised the renovation of the garden over the past…
Now that Thanksgiving has been celebrated in riotous style (23 for dinner!) it is time to move on to the next celebration. On December 6, 2007 I asked myself the question, as posed by another blog, whether I was too old to blog. The only way to find out was to begin the commonweeder.com, and I guess the answer is no, because I am still standing. Or kneeling, bending, stretching, digging, weeding, in the garden and sitting at the computer.…
My Thanksgiving cactus has been budded for weeks and I thought she would be blooming right on time. But right on time is tomorrow! I'm inviting her into the warm room of the house today. I should have thought of that earlier. There is no question that this calendar will prompt me to get everything done on time. This beautiful calendar prepared by the University of Massachusetts Extension Service has 12 gorgeous photos of plants, exotic, common and…