A noun. A verb. A blog.
Our neighbours G. and W. got a blank slate when they purchased their corner property: a sunny blank slate once their towering Norway maple was devoured by carpenter ants (not all of it, just enough to make removing it a better, safer idea). Look what a dramatic garden they’ve created in place of the old […]
As it’s growing in challenging conditions, the round boxwood (Buxus) planted by my front door has always been plagued by boxwood psyllids (Psylla buxi). They’re the tiny sucking insects that cause the tips of boxwood leaves to deform into cups. Unless you looked closely at your box foliage, you might not even realize that this […]
Let’s call the whole thing … a really splendid harbinger of spring. Actually, most people say “fors-i-thia” when we’re talking about Forsythia. But I always see Mr. Forsyth’s surname fossilized in there. He was the royal gardener who introduced this Asian native shrub to the west, around the time when Jane Austen was a girl. […]
You’d be right in thinking this looks a bit of a mess. Poor Annabelle! This is her equivalent of a bad hair day. The ‘Annabelle’ Hydrangea arborescens is one of the best flowering shrubs for a small city garden. Compact and somewhat shade tolerant, it performs well in an urban setting, producing a load of […]
As I drove back from a meeting today, this little fountain of sunshine rose up from all the mousy brown blanketing the city. Had to double back with my camera. This is the witch hazel, Hamamelis, so valuable for its splash of colour (and, in many cases, perfume!) at one of the most drab and […]
Drat this vacation. The maniacal rush to get things done before taking a break is screwing up my garden. Next spring, I’ll probably regret not having deadheaded those tarda tulips. Hopefully, all their energies didn’t go into making seed. Just popped out now and sprinkled the seeds over some new ground. Don’t know if this […]
Too bad this invention doesn’t exist, as this post about garden plants whose smells I love would be a lot easier. How to describe smells? Almost impossible. I suppose there should be some way of doing it, like the way wine experts use descriptive terms to describe the flavour of wine. When I read those […]
When you find a shrub that will grow in fairly consistent shade, and has interesting foliage, and will flower, and on top of it all will flower fragrantly, you need to crow about it. Hence this homage to Daphne ‘Carol Mackie.’ I was first introduced to ‘Carol Mackie’ in a fantastic garden during the Riverdale […]
I’d intended to write on another subject tonight. But, at the moment, my living room is filled to overflowing with the scent from a massive bouquet of lilacs. So guess what is top of mind. Sarah’s little schoolhouse in the country sits in a near-forest of lilacs that bloom later than ours. In two weeks, […]