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An Unknown Seedling In My Garden.
This visitor has made itself at home in my garden for the past two years. It has been sprawling about, making itself comfortable among my azaleas. It looks like a China rose of some kind. This is the first year it has bloomed. Should I let it stay?
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Was it snowing in Nacogdoches this Easter morning ?
No, No, No ! It wasn’t snowing but it sure looked like it. This was the view from the upstairs window in our study. Chinese fringetree (Chionanthus retusus) is a true beauty! …looks like a tree full of snow. There is a native version (Chionanthus virginicus) we call “Grancy Greybeard“. The two are cousins, horticultural…
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“Coco” Chanel and a British lover…
Being warned by several weather apps on my phone that an arctic blast from the frozen north was barreling down on my unsuspecting garden, I faithfully got out this week and started covering the cold-sensitive plants. In preparing my garden I found a beautiful bloom hiding itself deep in the luscious green foliage of a…
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Spent! #2
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth…Isaiah 40:8
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A Christmas Rose
We Southerners often have the blessing of roses blooming in our gardens during the Christmas season. When we see them blooming on balmy winter days, they seem to be begging us to bring them inside and put them in a vase. The rose ‘Duchesse de Brabant’ is a perfect example of such a rose. Many…
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Stop Crape Myrtle Mutilation
I noticed the other day that people, even at this late date in spring, are still topping their crape myrtles. As readers of this column know, I have long abhorred this practice, so I thought I would revisit a past column written more than a decade ago. I’m also reinstating an organization formed by crape…
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They are a self-authenticating glory!
It is only right that we love our azaleas. One would need to be wicked not to like them. It would be like not believing in Santa Claus. Or despising him because he brought children presents only at Christmas. Azaleas are Christmastime, in the spring. When they are in bloom across the American South, they…
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“A Greek Chorus”
For the last couple of weeks we have been considering the harbingers and heralds of spring, plants which foretell, predict, and prophesy springs soon rival. These are plants that bloom in late winter, well in advance of spring, but tell us that its arrival is just at the door. This week let’s consider a…
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Harper Lee’s ‘other’ novel, by Leabeth Abt
July 14th saw the release of Harper Lee’s ‘other’ novel, and Go Set a Watchman has caused a flurry of activity in the literary world, especially among English Teachers, that iconic group who love to intersperse their daily conversations with quotes anywhere from Shakespeare to Stephen King (depending on their personal proclivities). I must…