Trees A Visual Guide

Bookshelf space is precious ground for gardeners so I choose my volumes carefully.  Trees, is a reference book supremely worth the full inch it requires!  Every photograph is worth framing and clearly connected to the interesting and informative text provided alongside.  The book is divided into sections including: Form & Function, Diversity and Design, Communities of Life, Trees and the Human World and the Indispensable Resource of Trees....   Continue Reading

Pottery in the Garden

Water is essential for life; on two different occasions, once in May the other in August,  I’ve found in my garden two perfectly formed tiny mud pots. These were made by a 1/2” long Microdynerus arenicolus, or the Antioch Potter Wasp. A potter’s wasp  will lay its eggs inside. The female wasp gets a MOUTHFUL of water, finds some soil to mix in her mouth and builds the pot from the bottom up one mouthful at a time. Can you imagine the size of a wasp’s mouth? This variety of wasp is found in the southwest,  ...   Continue Reading

An Island of Flowers

In Bavaria, a land of fairytale castles, there’s a fantasy island of flowers. Mainau Island of Flowers is located on Lake Konstanz, a body of water spanning the borders of southern Germany and Switzerland. This temperate climate provides ideal growing conditions for this garden of floral beauty, fanciful creations, and unique features....   Continue Reading

“A not good enough garden” Linderhof Palace

Linderhof Palace is nestled in the Bavarian Alps in southern Germany. King Ludwig II’s love of Versailles inspired the formal Baroque-style gardens surrounding the small palace. Versailles exerted enormous influence over European garden design, and Ludwig was determined to create his own majestic garden.  ...   Continue Reading

Floriade 2022–Hope for the Planet

Returning to Floriade this year was the culmination of a ten-year goal.  The last one was so exciting, so beautiful, and inspiring I was determined to return. ...   Continue Reading

Floriade 2022, Horticulture Celebration,The Netherlands

Once a decade, the Netherlands Horticulture Council organizes an exposition celebrating and highlighting horticulture’s contribution to life. The event is a World’s Fair of horticultural products, innovations in food production, and the beauty of plants in all forms. Participants from around the world showcase their garden style and their premium exports from their part of the planet....   Continue Reading

Tulip Fever, Can you pick just one?

am recovering from a fever. Tulip Fever. Seduced by their charms and captivated by their colors, petals, fringes, and the brief burst of beauty heralding the arrival of spring, I despair from the longing to possess these flowers in my garden. ...   Continue Reading

Let’s Celebrate! Fredrick Olmstead made everything better

Let’s Celebrate!

Here’s something worth celebrating, and it’s not National Walk to Work Day (April 1) or Lima Bean Respect Day (April 20). Instead, it’s a yearlong celebration of the first American Landscape Architect, Frederick Law Olmstead....   Continue Reading

Celebrating Flowers

“When it is Spring, it is best to believe in something,”* and I believe in celebrating flowers.

Fortunately, I am not alone in this belief. All around the world, flower festivals, home garden tours, and flower shows offer an immersive experience in color, fragrance, form, and design, all in celebration of flowers. I’ve been seeking out these experiences for years, I encourage you to set out on travel adventures to experience these extraordinary events celebrating flowers....   Continue Reading

From a Flower to Your Heart

Valentine’s Day is my favorite celebration, and yes, I know it isn’t a holiday, it is a marketing event. While it seems so commercial today, I am surprised to discover it has always been about marketing! In the late 1800s, Richard Cadbury needed to sell more chocolates to use his company’s cocoa butter surplus. Victorians were great fans of Valentine’s Day; they expressed their love in elaborate greeting cards (postage was affordable.) Chocolate became available to the masses (sugar had become cheaper), so Cadbury created a moment of marketing magic, the heart-shaped chocolate box. This beautiful box was sold as a dual-purpose gift because after your sweetheart ate the chocolates, she could use the heart-shaped box to store love letters and romantic mementos.1 In the US, Hershey chocolates made their famous kisses in 1907 continuing the romantic alliance.2...   Continue Reading