Serenity in the Garden

rose hips photo by Jan Johnsen  Allow your roses to form hips.   Did you know that, like  many plants that produce fruit, the formation of rose hips is a signal to the rose to go dormant for the season? from Monrovia - Japanese rose  Rose hips provide wonderful color in the garden and are a good source of vitamin C for birds in the fall and winter.  They are one of the highest plant sources of Vitamin C. 'Cherry Pie' Rose makes great rose hips: Oso Easy Cherry Pie Rose -from May Dreams Garden Blog  You can eat them too. Rose hips are used for jam, jelly, syrup, soup, beverages, pies, bread, and wine.  They can also be eaten raw if care is used to avoid the hairs inside the fruit.   The redder they are, the softer and sweeter.   source: live by the sun blog  for more info on roses go to Chris Van Cleave - click here . 

Gaudi’s Curves The visionary Barcelona architect of the early 20th century, Antonio Gaudí, studied the spirals and curves of nature and utilized them in all his projects.   Gaudi, unlike other architects of his time, did not rely on rigid shapes. Consequently his buildings feature columns spiraling up like trees and ovoid windows peering out onto the world.   They are remarkable in their organic glory. Looking up in the Sagrada Familia cathedral. source- wiki commons. Gaudí’s love for curves is on full display in his Parque Güell, a municipal park on the outskirts of Barcelona. Here, he incorporated twisting paths, imaginative colonnades and naturally formed staircases into a steep hillside.  I took this photo of his famous colonnade there - based on a wave's action.  Gaudi copied Nature.          photo on left - Jan Johnsen The large open public area at the center of the park is surrounded by a long, curving wall and a bench covered wi...

In one of my earlier blog posts I wrote about the Native Americans' Three Sisters Garden (corn, beans and squash )  but I neglected to tell you of the Fourth Sister ...a very important member of this family! This is from Hubpages :  "Fourth Sister, didn't look anything like her other sisters, although she was as tall and as slender as First Sister (corn) . That seemed fair to all, because Third Sister and Second Sister shared similar but different features. They could climb and run, while their other two sisters were forced to stand tall and proud." Mother Sun explained that each sister had her job and each had to benefit from and protect one another.  But Fourth Sister's job was most important of all -- for she was the guardian of the North , planted firmly, to protect others from the robbers who soon would come. The fourth sister was the elegant sunflower. The Sisters are known to the Native Americans as the “mothers...

  Montrose White Calamint from Rare Roots I wrote this post years ago and now, in 2021, Lesser Calamintha has been named 2021Perennial Plant of the Year...  So here is my post on it and my prediction that - someday - it will be recognized.  #prescient    The thing to do is PLANT FOR THE BEES .   So if you join me on that important bandwagon I suggest you plant -  Dwarf Calamint 'Montrose White'   ( Calamintha nepeta spp nepeta 'Montrose White'). Calamintha is an herb that's native to Europe and is used in cooking in Italy under the name nepitella. This plant, I predict, will be a  'Perennial Plant of the Year'.  Why? because it is a hardy (to USDA zone 4) and delightful flowering perennial plant that is  deer resistant.   YAY! Photo from Nursery Management  Calamintha nepeta spp nepeta 'Montrose White'  was named by Mike Yanny of Johnson’s Nursery in Menomonee Falls, Wis.  Yanny’s wife purcha...

Last week I was interviewed by Christy Wilhelmi on her podcast for Gardenerd. She has a great website and says that  Gardenerd is designed for people who have a healthy sense of humor about their obsession with organic gardening, and who have a thirst for knowledge.  Christy Wilhelmi - host of Gardenerd Her audio interviews feature  a wide variety of garden experts and are quite wonderful. I am honored to be among her guests!  If you want to hear our conversation about gardening tips  please click here : My  Audio  Interview with Gardenerd

'Elizabeth' Magnolia was bred by Brooklyn Botanic Garden in Ossining, NY.   I love yellow-flowering magnolias. The cover of a Garden Design Magazine features one and it makes my heart skip a beat. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden introduced the yellow-flowering magnolia to the world. BBG  launched the breeding program in 1953 at its R&D facility, the Kitchawan Research Center, in Ossining, New York (the town next door to me). They bred eight magnolias before the program shut down at Kitchawan in 1991. These BBG hybrids are still available today. These beauties flower between mid-April and mid-May. Magnolia  x ‘Elizabeth’ One of my favorites is  Magnolia  x ‘Elizabeth’  which was introduced in 1977. It is a cross between  M. acuminata  and  M. denudata.  Dr. Evamaria Sperber, who helped start BBG’s breeding program bred this tree. It is valued because it flowers before the leaves come out which makes an elega...

My new book Floratopia is out! I am so happy to finally be able to share flower garden design ideas with everyone. I have been working with annual and perennial flowers in all my landscape projects for decades and yet I wrote about everything but flowers.  Odd. Well, that has now been corrected. I have amassed a collection of flower tips accompanied by my photos and categorized them in 6 sections in the book.  Osteospermum Serenity Series Why did I write this book? Here is an excerpt from my introduction: "Flowers are such an important part of our living world—offering food and habitat to our threat-  ened pollinators such as bees, birds, butterflies, and more. That is why I chose to write about  flowers and flower garden design. I have worked with flowers as a landscape designer and  horticulturist all my adult life, and I know how wonderful it is to open the door to the sight of  colorful blooms in the garden. More important, I believe we need flower gard...