Before You Garden...

2014-03-17

Tommie crocus shocked by a St Patrick’s Day snow

Even though Spring is only a few days, away an early morning snow shower surprised the Tommie crocus (See yesterday’s post). Luckily the early spring blooming flowers are adapted to changing environmental conditions as the mostly come from mountains where the weather changes rapidly. The flower is closed tightly to shed the falling snow. Photo…

2014-03-16

Crocus tommasinianus (Tommies)

At only two and a half inches tall, this fragile ephemeral beauty is commonly known as a “Tommie” crocus (Crocus tommasinianus). The great English horticulturist, E. A. Bowles, called these crocuses “Tom” for short, but I am more inclined to call them the more feminine “Tomasina.” Bowles described the “chief charm” of a Tommie, as…

2014-03-14

It will be spring in a week!

Happy Spring! The Winter Aconites (Eranthis hyemalis) are out at long last. The bees are collecting the pollen in the pollen baskets on their legs. What a sunny color. (Plus one random crocus top right). I hope that the rest of the snow will melt soon.

2014-02-20

“In February if…

In February if thou hearest thunder, thou wilt see a summer’s wonder. Entry in My Kalendar of Country Delights by Helen Rose Anne Milman Crofton in 1903. We had thunder yesterday that blew out windows in Roxborough. Here’s hoping for a ‘summer’s wonder’.

2014-02-09

Maple trees glistening with ice – beautiful to look at but a hazard to power lines.

Power just restored after 10″ of snow and an ice storm. The weight of snow and ice on trees and shrubs has broken tree limbs and brought down trees on power lines. The trees get blamed but shouldn’t we put our power lines underground? Here at Northview gardens we will not know what needs cleaning…

2013-10-28

“Horticulture a…

“Horticulture as a means for women to make a living appeals to me very much, and I believe that women will make better horticulturists than men, and that the bread-winning in many homes will be vastly improved if the men remain at home to mind the baby and let the wife attend to the garden and horticultural work” 1914 Gave a lecture today on Women in Horticulture at the Litchfield Historical Society. Great day on the Colonial Revival with Judith Tankard, Mac Griswold and Susan Williams. Lots of fun and lots to learn. Thanks to all who organized the day!

2013-10-28

Virginia Creeper climbing up an old oak tree at Northview

Fall leaves bring vibrant color to an otherwise bleak frost-devastated garden

2013-10-28

Japanese Maple leaves

Fall colors captivate the mind with the intense red color of the Japanese Maple leaves.

2013-10-23

Windfall Apples

Growing up in the middle of the English County of Kent, known as the “Garden of England”, we took abundant and varied apples for granted. Our first garden in East Malling was too small for apple trees but we went, as a family, up Chapel Street to Miss Parr-Dudley’s orchard; picked some for her and…

2013-10-05

Monarch Butterfly at Cape May Point State Park

These fleeting orange and black beauties are on their migration route south to Mexico. I am worried that I have seen fewer butterflies in general this year and very few Monarch butterflies. I will never forget being in Erie, PA, on the shore of Lake Erie as clouds of Monarch butterflies floated dreamily across the…