I’m sorry. You are probably thinking dude-it just turned fall like 30 seconds ago, and I’m busy thinking there are still some sunshine miles left on this year, and here you are talking about snow. But I promise, the reason I started this thing was actually about summer. About saving a little piece [...]
Content
things and places for homes and gardens
File: September 2009
Nothing quite matches the thrill and adventure of coming across an unfamiliar plant at a sale, finding practically non-existent, sketchy information about said plant on the internet, and having to rely solely on the plant tag that was written to try sell you the plant in the first place, then planting and watching the unexpected [...]
Okay, time to come clean. I did not only come home with one plant from the sale last weekend, I came home with a couple good boxes full, but it was a small load. Usually I fill up the back of the car, so either I’m learning to ease up, or there weren’t as many [...]
One of my pickups at the sale last weekend was a plant I’ve coveted from afar, never having seen it in person. Syneilesis not only have this fantastic palmate foliage held atop their stems like an umbrella, very reminiscent of Podophyllum, but they emerge in spring as these silky fuzzballs, almost like furry mushrooms. They [...]
I haven’t stopped thinking about these Licorice Fern logs since I saw them at the HPSO sale this weekend. I didn’t even take note of the nursery that had them, so they’ll probably go on my wish list until I come across them again. They’re really quite beautiful for a shady woodland spot [...]
The 90 degree forecast for next week does not get me in the mood for the Hardy Plant Society sale this weekend. When I say I am a fan of fall planting, this is not what I have in mind. What does get me up for it is looking back on past sales. I had [...]
Who knew there could be so many leaf variations on a single variegated lacecap hydrangea?
This is what the typical leaf looks like.
What? Green leaf? What are you doing here?
One of my few and favorite garden newcomers this year was Luzula nivea. Grassy and furry, it looked like a sun plant to me, so I did a double take when I found it in the shade section, but the tag confirmed it:
“Woodland evergreen, foliage clad in soft hairs. Forming multiple rosettes, in time will [...]
I was up at my friends’ place where they’re redoing their garden and they let me do the plant shopping, and since I’d last seen it, this gorgeous pennisetum bloomed, with these amazing blackish purplish flowers. First I was patting myself on the back for picking out such a good plant, then I was kicking [...]
If I lived in New York, I think I’d have to be a regular at Chris King of Foliage Plants. It was always closed when I walked by, but how I wanted to find a way in to that steamy tropical rooftop. Imagine living in one of those apartments with windows looking out on this [...]