I am currently reading Michael Waters' book The Garden in Victorian Literature. This title fits into my general area of interest, the history of the garden. In this case I am looking at how novelists and poets wrote about the…
The petunia, first brought from Argentina to England in 1831, provides a powerful example of the importance of hybridizing in the garden industry. We continue to grow petunias, and, in fact, they are among the top sellers each spring. It…
Along our driveway a large section of granite rock gradually rises to almost four feet in height. There in a crevice you will find the spring blooming bergenia. I planted it many years ago. Bergenia in a crevice in the…
This is the time of the year the purple flowers of the wisteria vine put on their show. America's most famous wisteria has to be the one that climbs thirty feet up the side of President John Adams' house, part of…
In the Victorian era in order to create the flashy flowerbeds called carpet beds or ribbon beds, a gardener had to employ an array of colorful plants, usually annuals. Luckily, thanks to plant hunters, there were annuals arriving from Asia,…