263 Results

Open any one of William Cullina's books and you'll get a good idea of the sort of person he is (our kind) and if you're me, you'll read cover to cover and learn something new on each page. Invite him to speak, and you'll have the pleasure of meeting ...

Whoever says that gardening is a completely stress-free (a)vocation must never plant anything let alone those plants that come with their own set of instructions. Like dahlias. For starters, dahlias are generally sold as tubers that resemble nothing ...

I know I'd be complaining bitterly right now if we had had a frost or (heaven forbid) a snow but it would be so much easier to let go of the gardens if they looked melted and awful. The title I chose for this post is misleading - I can't begin to ...

I have been reluctant to call it fall yet probably because we were a little (a lot) gypped by summer. But regardless of how I feel about it, the asters and Jerusalem artichokes have started to bloom, the tupelos have way more than one red leaf by ...

It's not my intention with this post to brag but we've still got a lot of color in the gardens. So many visitors seem surprised by that - and as shocked as if we were caught wearing white right about now. I've that heard the rules of fashion have ...

Some plants provide entertainment for the whole season and others just don't and I sometimes have to try very hard to remember why we give clunkers space in the gardens. Campanula lactiflora or Milky bellflower is one of those plants - winner of the ...

Yesterday's sky was dusted with those high flying cirrus mare's tails and mackerel's scales that precede a storm and the news is full of a tropical storm named for one of our groundsmen. As I write this, we still don't know yet if we'll be smacked ...

I'd like to take just a moment to fulfill my duty as a New Englander and complain about the weather. For the past week or two it's been hot. And not only has it been hot but the humidity has been in the 70 to 90-something percents (scientifically ...

Being in the garden every day teaches a valuable lesson in paying attention to the subtle changes but go away for a week or two and the changes will practically hit you over the head. Or they did me anyway. I had been waiting-waiting, mostly a ...

I think it's because I work here year-round that I tend to forget that Blithewold was built as a summer retreat. The Van Wickle/McKee family came up from Pennsylvania and later down from Boston and spent the entire summer here, from late May to ...