Plant Profile: Rosa ‘Dainty Bess’
Karen Beloved by Bob Hope, ‘Dainty Bess’ loose clusters of 3-5 single flowers on long stems in flushes throughout the season. Each flower has 5-6 pale pink ruffled petals with a…
Plants of the Bible: Cumin (Cuminum cyminum)
Cumin is a herbaceous annual native to the eastern Mediterranean east to India and has been known from ancient Egyptian times. Although there have been many claims about the medicinal…
Old Time Recipes for Home Made Wines: Currant Wine
True currants are deciduous shrubs in the genus Ribes and are related to gooseberries. They are are found in northern climates where winters are cold an summers are warm. The…
Plant Profile: Purple Beach (Fagus sylvatica f. purpurea)
Purple beech is a deciduous tree resulting from a natural mutation of European beech (F. sylvatica), that is native to most of Europe from southern Sweden to northern Sicily and…
Poisonous Plants: American Liverwort (Hepatica americana aka Anemone americana)
Known as one of the earliest flowers to bloom in the spring, American liverwort is a herbaceous perennial and member of the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae, that also includes columbine, hellebore,…
Plant Profile: Chilean Bellflower (Lapageria rosea)
Native to damp coastal woodlands of Chile and Argentina, this twining evergreen vine is a member of the Philesiaceae, a small family endemic to Chile. The plants grow over 30′…
Plants of the Bible: Apple (Malus domestica aka M. pumila)
The domestic apple is a deciduous tree native to central Asia and has been grown for thousands of years in Asia and Europe. The trees grow 6-15′ tall in cultivation…
Edible Mushrooms: Common Puffball (Lycoperdon perlatum)
Also called devil’s snuff box and gem studded puffball, this fungus is found in groups growing in woods on buried leaf litter and decaying in especially in the fall. It…
Plant Profile: Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica)
Japanese honeysuckle is a deciduous to semi-evergreen perennial vine and a member of the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, that also includes snowberry, weigelia, and abelia. It is native to eastern Asia…
Gardens in Art: Medieval Garden in Songe du Vergier
A miniature from a 15th century French illuminated manuscript shows six people in a garden. The manuscript, Songe du Vergier, is a treatise on the rules of succession to the…