...it is not generally realized by the amateur gardener how many shrubs and climbers will lend themselves happily to layering. It is possible to obtain quite a nursery of young, rooted stock in a short time, at no cost and for very little trouble. Honeysuckles sometimes layer themselves of their own accord, so avail yourselves … Continue reading Honeysuckle Fireworks
Tag: plants
Garden Of Roses…
Indeed, I think you should approach them as though they were textiles rather than flowers. The velvet vermilion of petals, the stamens of quivering gold... -Vita Sackville-West In Your Garden May 28, 1950 I have been waiting all year for this. Waiting for the perfect opportunity to purchase my roses. They will be the … Continue reading Garden Of Roses…
Paved Paradise…
...as you grow more ambitious, the blue poppy Meconopsis baileyi, which is the dream of every gardener, will all take happily to a shaded home, especially if some moisture keeps them fresh. -Vita Sackville-West A Joy of Gardening; 1958 The other day, my Grandmother told me one of her favorite memories... When paying her one … Continue reading Paved Paradise…
Snatching Velvet in the Night
Their beauty is beyond dispute. No velvet can rival the richness of their falls; or, let us say, it is to velvet only that we may compare them. -Vita Sackville-West In Your Garden June 26, 1949 I have thought of planting Iris for a long time, but they are rather expensive. Out my kitchen window … Continue reading Snatching Velvet in the Night
Garden Tour: Memorial Day Weekend
And now, at last, she was seeing daylight; the obstacles were clearing away; things were really beginning to move. -Vita Sackville-West Saint Joan of Arc, 1936 Thank God we made it through another winter and an unpredictable spring. I realize spring is not officially over until June 20th, but the swimming pools are open this … Continue reading Garden Tour: Memorial Day Weekend
A Rose That Spoke
They may roughly be described as roses which should be grown as shrubs; that is, allowed to ramp away into big bushes, and allowed also to travel about underground if they are on their own roots and come up in fine carelessness some yards from the parent plant. -Vita Sackville-West May 28th, 1950 In Your … Continue reading A Rose That Spoke
Short and Sweet Woodruff
CURE FOR EMPTY SPACES IN YOUR GARDEN AND YOUR WINTER BLUES...
To Fidget: A Garden in Miniature
The rheumatic, the sufferers from lumbago, and the merely elderly, would all be well advised to try a little experiment in sink or trough gardening...raised to hand-level on four little piers of brick or stone, may provide in this their second life a constant pleasure and interest to those keen gardeners who for one reason … Continue reading To Fidget: A Garden in Miniature
Salvia: A Variety That Should Be Forbidden
The sage is altogether an amiable plant; indeed, its Latin name, Salvia, comes from salvere, to save, or heal, and one of its nicknames is S. slavatrix, which sounds very reassuring....The garden sages are useful for the herbaceous border. I do not mean that half-hardy bedding-out plant beloved of the makers of public gardens, S. … Continue reading Salvia: A Variety That Should Be Forbidden
I Hate Hostas, Don’t I?
It took me years of gardening to appreciate the pale beauty of its leaves and flowers, but now that I have learnt to look at them in the right way I can begin to see what other gardeners meant when they extolled the merits of the Funkia. One has a lot, an endless lot, to … Continue reading I Hate Hostas, Don’t I?










