My daughters have been trained killers since the ages of three and four. Weapon of choice? Dish soap. It was fun and made mommy happy. I sound like Joan Crawford in the garden. But a few weeks ago, my oldest, Emma, who will be 18 in a few months, told me it wasn't until recently that she realized her childhood memories were slightly different from those of her friends. I cringed as I waited for her to elaborate, my mind Rolodexing for any moment that may have left a mark. The tale she shared with her friends involved death, roses and soap. Desperate Times, Desperate Measures It was late June and the roses were opening. At the time, I had three Frau Dagmar Hastrup rugosas planted beneath my family room windows. Their scent is heavenly. No sooner would a bud open then the Japanese ...
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Why Rugosa Rose Is A Lazy Gardener’s Dream
I was doing a live chat on Instagram a few months ago with my friend Erin, you know her as The Impatient Gardener, and we briefly touched on roses. Our conversation turned to them when I asked her about a plant she was over. She thought for a moment and replied "roses." Too much work, too needy, too demanding. I get it. All valid points. Erin lives in Wisconsin, a stones throw from lake Michigan. Winters are harsh, the season short. We didn't really dig into her response but immediately after she said it, I resisted the urge to argue the case for the rugosa rose. My rugosas are the Rosie the Riveters of the rose world, full of beauty, brawn and multi-season interest. After all, rugose means rugged or rough, which relates to the overall appearance of their thick toothy leaves, but ...
Going Native One Plant at a Time in My Backyard
I've partnered with the National Wildlife Federation's Garden for Wildlife program for this post. All thoughts are my own. If you asked me 20 years ago what a native plant was, I probably would have said it was anything I couldn't kill. Which pretty much summed up my awareness. In the beginning, I was like a kid in a candy store with little plant knowledge but wanting one of everything. It was purely superficial and based solely on flowers. I quickly learned that the one of everything approach results in something more like a weed patch and less like a garden. I'm still trying to control that impulse, but I've also learned that my tastes have shifted. I still want beauty, but my definition of it has changed. For me, beauty encompasses all that my garden attracts. From the tiniest ...
Letting Go of “Tidy” Spring Garden Cleanup
I'm all for a spring garden cleanup that saves me time and money. Toss in the added bonus of increased organic matter and improved soil health and I'm sold. Several years ago while working at the Chicago Flower and Garden Show, I was chatting up my friend Scott Stewart who, at the time, was at the helm of Chicago's Lurie garden. It was mid-March and I mentioned that their compost bins must be overflowing with all the debris they were cutting back. What he said changed my approach to spring garden cleanup forever. You know the drill. Cut, rake, bag it, haul it to the curb, repeat. The curb in early spring used to look like a skirmish line of lawn bags waiting for the garbage truck to haul them away. It bothered me to think that all that garden goodness would benefit someone else. I ...
Autumn Leaves are Lovely, But Acorns Fill My Heart
A few days ago, I was listening to a podcast and the conversation touched on the change of seasons and the way each is marked by the things we associate with them. Winter snow. Spring daffodils. Summer tans. Autumn leaves. While colorful leaves are the quintessential poster children of fall, it is the acorn that marks the arrival of autumn. Something about that little brown oak seed with the tan beret takes me to another season of my life, the one marked by the frenzy of small children. When my girls were small, keeping them occupied was challenging. Never one to plop them in front of the TV for hours, I looked to the outdoors for entertainment. That's not to say I wasn't grateful for the respite that a Disney movie offered from time to time. We played in the rain, built snowmen with ...
Perennial Hibiscus: Bridging the Gap Between Summer and Fall
I discovered perennial hibiscus almost two decades ago when I spotted Lady Baltimore's enormous pink blooms from across the parking lot of a local home improvement store. I wasn't looking for her, she just found me as most plants do. That happens a lot. At the time, I knew nothing about perennial hibiscus (Hibiscus moscheutos) other than I had to have this tropical looking beauty in my garden. She met her end that next spring when I assumed she was dead and dug her out, only to discover hibiscus is late to rise and often doesn't show signs of life until well into May here in my zone 5 garden. Oops. Perennial hibiscus resumes growth in the spring when soil temperatures reach 70 degrees F and is hardy in zones 4-9. For gardeners in colder climates, this might mean that your plant doesn't ...
