Sometimes, just sometimes, I wish I wasn’t a plant slut dragging myself down the streets of horticultural whoredom searching for another roll in the beds and borders. Life would be easier. There wouldn’t be that constant lusting after just about everything new on the market. You’d think I would have learned by now. Because frequently, way too frequently, the new love turns out to really just be a one-season stand, not even worthy of being introduced to the perennial family.

At least with experience I am able to spot some of the n’er-do-well types before they break my heart – “Oh. You again. Go throw your piddly-assed blooms in somebody else’s flower bed. Just seeing something like you again makes me want to go right out and buy a 50 gallon barrel of RoundUp.” That can be especially true when I can see it’s just the straight species that somebody has tarted up with a cultivar name or a trademark like a bunch of cheap make-up from the Village Pantry. C’mon! Who the hell you people think you’re dealing with here?

But all that said, I still get all excited when the catalogues come out or somebody introduces a plant at PPA’s New Plant Forum. My cynical side is forever at war with my everything-is-roses-and-clover side. A battle of epic proportions. “This plant really could be different!” I really do believe it, at least until I fully process the info. Wouldn’t you rather think it was new and improved and impossible to live without? Ah, infatuation. Maybe it will develop into truly perennial love? Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Horticulture

Now that there can be no doubt that we are in the clutches of the evil Wanda Winter, I feel the strong pull to immerse myself into the new plant and seed catalogues and in the process actually escape and embrace winter.

“Both escape and embrace winter?”, you ask. My, you are a nosy one. I’ll be nice and not tell you to mind your own damn business. For me searching through the catalogues this time of year really is an escape and an embrace of winter. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Horticulture, Musings

Well, I think winter may have finally arrived, perhaps not on the calendar but in pretty much every other way.

Icy roads. Short days. Bitter winds. Freezing temperatures. The bloody freaking temperatures absolutely scream winter. It’s especially a slap in the face after the extremely long beautiful autumn. But that was then and this is now and winter will be what it wants to be. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Horticulture, Musings

As a Horticulturist and a plant slut I am always looking for new plants to try. The fact that some, technically, are not hardy is of little concern. The catalogue may say zone 6 but it really means 5 I’m sure. If a plant is listed as a zone 7, well, lots of time we have zone 6 winters so really 7 is just one zone off. Close enough. I’ll take one.

Lycoris chinensis

I am not alone in this desire to push the limits of hardiness. I know a lot of people with Zonal Denial. Virtually all my coworkers and many friends as well are afflicted. I’ve long said that if I was gardening in the tropics I’m sure I would be trying to grow maples and beeches. It must be the I-can’t –have-it-so-I-want-it-even-more syndrome. Before I can even tell you about some successes I must confess some failures (it’s the recovering Catholic in me).

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Filed under: Horticulture

When I wrote the intro to Geoff’s blog a couple weeks ago I told you I was prostituting myself for plants at the Perennial Plant Symposium. There is some truth to that.

Image from slantmouth.com

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Filed under: Horticulture