Susan Harris of Garden Rant talked about trends for the year, including a link to Slate about roses. The thrust of the article was that it doesn't necessarily take a lot to get roses to thrive. I can speak to the hardiness of old shrub roses, albas and gallicas, and rugosa roses including the newer hybrids. The trick to growing roses, as it is for any plant, is the right rose in the right place and some care…
I have two strong associations with the name Viola. First it was my mother’s name. Growing up I never met anyone else named Viola and wondered whatever had possessed my grandmother to choose such an unfashionable name.When I got to high school I was amazed to find one of Shakespeare’s brave and passionate heroines named Viola. During a shipwreck she is separated from her twin Sebastian, and unbeknownst to both they wash up on the shores of Illyria.…
This is my first Bloom Day! I couldn't help getting a little headstart on Sunday with my previous post about my abutilon. See my previous post - and the blooms in back of the Christmas cactus. I don't have much in the way of houseplants. There is so little room in our house which is fairly cool in the winter. However, I cannot give up my Thanksgiving and Christmas cactus. This is the larger of my two Christmas…
My parlor maple (abutilon or flowering maple) is a delight all year long. There is rarely a time when it is not in bloom. Another of its gifts is that it is happy in a cool house. Abutilons are happy with temperatures down to 40F and some even a bit cooler, down to 35F.And for all its floriferous abandon it does not need much care. It needs full sun. Mine sits in front of an east window, but…
Drew is my 9 year old grandson who now lives in Texas, near Houston, with his older brother Anthony, his mother (daughter Kate) and father, Greg. This week he had to write a story at school. A story that every grandmother hopes to hear.Granny's House by Drew LawnI love my Granny’s house! Of course it has Granny and Major. She has three very nice cats and one is shy and very hard to spy. The cats are hard…
Over the years we have become more conscious of the waste in our American life, and have gradually made changes in the way we run our household. In the past year we replaced at least half the light bulbs in our house with CFL (compact fluorescent lights) which use a fraction of the electricity as incandescent bulbs, we used LED lights on our Christmas tree, and put our computer and TV on a power strip so that they…
The United States Postal Service honored pollinators this year with a beautiful set of stamps showing bees, butterflies, bats and hummingbirds going about their vital duty, turning lovely flowers into seeds, fruits, berries and vegetables. Of course, those are just a few of the pollinators that play such an essential part in providing food for us humans and other animals. Did you know that bats alone pollinate more than 300 kinds of plants that humans use?I was browsing…
My ancient, I don't even remember how old, jade plant has burst into bloom. This isn't the first time I have seen such a phenomenon, but it surprised us! Why? Who knows. I can't think that we have done anything different. It sits in a west window in a bright room with big south windows, and I water it when I think of it. I do check th firmness of the leaves so they don't get too withered.…
Once the perennial gardens filled with dozens of irises, hemerocallis and every other flower are put to bed, Kathy Puckett find she starts sliding into a funk. It isn't only the short days and long dark nights. She misses Flowers! Three years ago she decided the only cure was winter blossoms. Thus she began collecting orchids, tiny orchids, orchids that need a morning shower every day, some with an intense fragrance that is released only at the time…
My friend, B J Roche says she is too busy to blog, but she maintains a website for her journalism students at the University of Massachusetts, and all the rest of us who want to read what she has to say in a whole variety of publications including the Boston Globe and Commonwealth Magazine. However, she is not strictly speaking the truth. Her website includes a link to her chicken blog, The Chicken Whisperer, "because let's face it,…