To fit into any society, a person needs to reflect what is important to the culture at that time. In the case of the Elizabethan gentleman [below] there were certain expectations that society at that time demanded. Robert Dudley, the…
A book that I am currently reading is by Margaret Willes, called The Making of the English Gardener: Plants, Books, and Inspiration 1560-1660. The main idea is the influence of words and images in garden publications from the sixteenth century.…
How I remember the day we received the Christmas cactus as a gift. It was 1986 and a sunny June Sunday afternoon. Rita Mae and I were having a party in the back yard to celebrate our wedding . We…
I am at that point of the New Year where I search out flowers that can grow in shade in the summer. My balcony is mostly shade for the whole day. Perhaps an hour or two of sun in late…
Yesterday I participated in a Zoom session on Container Gardening. It was very informative. But what I heard about geraniums was a surprise. People hate geraniums. Yet they were the Number One flower for the garden in the nineteenth century.…