Horticulture

ABOUT 30 YEARS AGO, we went to an estate sale and found a group of ceramic bonsai pots. A shallow rectangular tray looked particularly nice, with a beautiful shape and subtle dark gray surface. It had drainage holes in the bed and four short, round l

I WILL ALWAYS BE grateful that my treatment for advanced stage cancer ended in the early spring. After chemo, radiation and two surgical procedures, I was very weak and physically diminished, but I had enough oomph to shuffl e across my bedroom every

JALAPEñOS OFFER a heat that’s neither too hot nor too mild. In fact, it’s just right, which makes jalapeños an essential ingredient in many dishes. On the Scoville scale, which determines the spiciness of chili peppers based on capsaicin concentratio

Plant!› By the time May arrives planting season is in full swing in my garden. I’m sowing seeds and tucking seedlings into my garden beds, polytunnel, straw bale beds and the pots on my sunny back deck. As early-spring crops like arugula, radishes an

ADDING COMPOST to a garden is a good idea. But is it best to do it in moderation, like most things in life? To answer that question, you need to understand what you are adding and why. Compost benefits both the soil and the plants growing in the gard

THOMAS CHRISTOPHER is a garden designer and writer based in Connecticut. For more information about the Ecotype Project, go to Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Growing Greener podcast, at https:// www.thomaschristophergardens.com/podcasts/sefra-alexandra

NANCY BULEY is Communications Director at J. Frank Schmidt & Son, an Oregon wholesale nursery that supplies trees to garden centers across the United States and Canada. The company also develops new cultivars. In this interview, Nancy gives a glimpse

Gardens walk a fine line between design and nature. They’re composed of natural elements, yet they’re inherently artificial. Most of us have learned gardening involves first clearing the land, then amending the soil and finally choosing and placing p

When the grounds at Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum were laid out in the late 1890s, designing with plants from around the world was the horticultural fashion of the day. If the landscape were to be redesigned today, the plant choices most ce

Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum is a historically significant 19th-century estate in Bristol, R. I. It was the summer residence of Augustus Van Winkle, a prominent industrialist of the era, and his family. At its center is a 45-room mansion,

You needn’t be a botanist nor even a studied gardener to know a hydrangea when you see it. The large, rounded flower-heads and straight stems of bigleaf hydrangea (H. macrophylla) cultivars are instantly recognizable, and the confusion over when to p

Hiking through the mountains of Montana, we keep an eye out for saskatoons, a prolific, slightly sweet fruit that resembles a blueberry and hangs heavy on bushes from mid- to late summer. But nowadays foraging isn’t the only path to this tasty wild f

Cultivated saskatoons are still finding their footing in the United States market, but there are a few varieties that can be found from nurseries, along with the species Amelanchier alnifolia. ‘Regent’ is the most common cultivar in the U.S., but it

Foliage burnished with gold, silver, bronze and copper can be a valuable asset in the garden. With careful placement and the right companions, these elegantly colorful leaves can outshine the brightest flower. Gold leaves are eye-catching no matter w

HUMMINGBIRDS WILL VISIT flowers of any color, but red seems especially attractive. The reason is less that hummers see red well than that bees can’t see it. Since bees gravitate to blues and purples, the birds are likely to find more nectar within re

I’VE BECOME INCREASINGLY DISTURBED at how profoundly a love of plants hinders a person’s ability to enjoy ordinary life like normal people do. I’ll share my own sad example. Any eagerly awaited road trip becomes an exercise in frustration as soon as