Plant Profile: Four Angled Sundrop (Oenothera tetragona)
Karen This short-lived perennial is native to eastern North America where it is found in open places and along woodsides. It is a member of the willowherb familiy, Onagraceae, that also…
Book Review: A Journalist’s Book of Wildflowers
Karen Meyers Laura C. Martins’s book, A Naturalists Book of Wildlflowers, provides a fresh, new look at wildflowers. Written to resemble the author’s field journals, the book includes notes, sketches, ideas and…
Meadow Garden: Native Flowering Annuals
Native annuals can be used to enhance the meadow garden in many ways. Most annuals bloom with vibrant colors over a long bloom time and are easy to grow from…
Plant Profile: Hybrid Japanese Anemone (Anemone x hybrida)
Hybrid Japanese anemone is a herbaceous perennial often sold as A, japonica. It is a member of the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae, that also includes delphinium, clamatis, and hellebore. Plants form…
Plants for a Mary Garden: Fuller’s Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) “Our Lady’s Little Brushes”
The association between the the Virgin Mary and fuller’s teasel is tenuous and rests on tradition and folklore rather than on biblical evidence. According to legend, Mary was dedicated to…
Plant Profile: Lebanon Stonecress (Aethionema coridifolium aka A. jacunda aka Iberis jacunda)
Native to the mountains of southern Turkey and Lebanon this evergreen compact subshrub is a member of the mustard family, Brassicacea, that also includes broccoli, cabbage, and asylum. It grows…
Book Review: The American Meadow Garden
The American Meadow Garden by John Greenlee explores the beauty and ecological significance of meadow landscapes in America and guides readers through the process of creating and maintaining meadow gardens…
Meadow Garden: Low Growing Sun Tolerant Native Flowering Perennials
Low growing flowering perennials can add a range of benefits to a meadow garden from aesthetic appeal and biodiversity to soil stabilization and weed suppression. Both flowers and foliage enhance…
Plant Profile: Fern Bush (Chamaebatiavia millefolium)
Also known as desert sweet, this sweetly-aromatic semi-deciduous shrub is native to western US from Oregon to California, east to Idaho, Utah, and Arizona where it grows in scrub, woodland,…
Plants for a Mary Garden : Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) “Our Lady’s Thimble”
The association between harebell and the Virgin Mary is the result of medieval Christian traditions and folklore. Although the Bible makes no mention of Mary’s domestic skills, the veneration of…