I haven’t always liked hydrangeas. As a child living in the Bronx, I saw a number of houses on our street wirh tiny yards that held a blue hydrangea or two. In spite of the interesting color and flower heads that everyone called ‘snowballs’ I did not like them. Who can explain dislikes? And the things a child takes against are even more mysterious. Though I rarely saw hydrangeas in gardens as a new gardener, over the past…
Last weekend my cousin Jay married the beautiful Juliet in a white garden designed by Robin Kramer, the owner of the house where the wedding took place. A summer wedding could ask no more beautiful setting than a white garden such as this. White gardens seem to have a place all their own in garden literature. I suppose one reason is that there are so many flowers, shrubs, vines and trees that bloom in shades of white…
Pam Oakes assures me that neither her house, nor the lush surrounding gardens existed in 1976. When she and her husband Gordon first walked this piece of land by a pond once used for harvesting ice, they could not even imagine where to place a house until a friend bulldozed a stand of sumac and said “Build here!” They did and she said it is a perfect site. The gardens grew and continue to grow. Oakes said…
Little bulbs are one of the first blooms to show their bright faces in the spring, but as the season progresses it is flowering shrubs and trees that can make an impact. Last year I admired a splash of brilliant yellow in a neighbor’s garden. I was completely puzzled because it was too early for forsythia, but what else could be seen at the back of a big country garden from the road while whizzing past?…