Focus on Flowers

If you have a garden, you probably enjoy displaying your flowers in your home. I have many small vases and bottles with narrow necks, so that I can pop just one or two flowers into them. When I come indoors after my morning walk, I usually bring what I call my "Flower of the Day." It is the flower that has really caught my eye that I want to look at close-up. 

You may like to try drying your end of summer flowers in your microwave. 

The best way to air-dry most flowers is to hang them upside down in bunches in a dry dark place for 1-3 weeks. Take the leaves off the stems and bind 6-10 stems together tightly with rubber bands.

n 1906, Beatrix Potter acquired a farmhouse in the Lake District of England.  Her new house and garden became incorporated into her stories about the famous characters in her books, such as Peter Rabbit and Mrs. Tabitha Twitchet, that still delight children today.  She delighted in the plants that her neighbors gave to her: roses, hollyhocks, and phlox, and the fruit trees and vegetables growing i...

Even as early as the 15th century in England, a time when gardens focused mainly on plants used in medicines and for cooking, there were a few plants grown because they produced beautiful flowers. 

The poem "Glory of the Garden" by  Rudyard Kipling.

Daphne, a shrub with tiny clusters of fragrant flowers, is poisonous as well as having sap that is a skin irritant. Just a few of Daphne's brightly colored berries could kill a child.

I have avoided dealing with some pressing but boring tasks today by reading some amusing quotations about gardens and gardening. Here are some you may enjoy: Barbara Spindel wrote recently, "Gardens have been sites of transgression ever since Eve and the serpent." 

Nicholas Culpeper was the son of an English clergyman, and he studied medicine at Cambridge University in the 17th century. When he began to practice, he gave plant medicines at minimal cost to his impoverished patients. 

In the 1960s, Beth Chatto started her garden on an unwanted wasteland in Essex, England. She was an ecologist and knew how to select plants that are adaptable to any conditions.

During the holidays, it is satisfying to be able to pick a vase of holly with bright red berries to decorate our homes. It is also a welcome gift to present to neighbors and friends. 

Stripped of its lush spring and summer growth, the winter garden nonetheless has a charm of its own. It is all about contours and shapes and the way the ice and snow transform items and add sparkle.

If you are wondering what to buy as a holiday gift for a gardening friend, you can order a shrub now to be delivered next spring. There is a wonderful, scented viburnum that I have in my garden...

If you are looking for a holiday gift for a gardener, now is the time to order online. You will, of course, have a delivery date of next spring when it is safe to plant, but a notification of the spring delivery will be sent to your lucky recipient before the holidays. 

There are so many new varieties of hellebores now available, and these plants make perfect gifts for gardeners. In early spring when there are no garden flowers available, I am so grateful when I look under the leathery leaves of my hellebores and find flowers to pick for the house. It is a wonderful joy. 

If you prefer not to use strong pesticides, there are other ways to get rid of unwanted aggressive and invasive plants.

Many perennials like to be divided in the fall, especially if they have outgrown their space or have ceased blooming well. 

Making potpourri from flowers is an easy dried-flower craft. It smells lovely and makes a great gift and looks pretty in bowls, baskets, and jars, reminding us of summer. 

The Aztecs who first inhabited South America domesticated the plant that we now call marigold many years before any Europeans ever set foot in the area that we now call Mexico.

Since the beginning of time, it seems that humans have ascribed magical powers to flowers. 

Rudbeckia hirta is the botanical name for our bright yellow black-eyed Susans that light up our gardens in late summer and fall. 

One of our native lilies is the spectacular Lilium superb , spelled “superbum,” (but it is not pronounced as it is spelt). Its petals recurve, so a common name is Turk's cap. 

The Latin name “Physostegia” refers to the calyx, which covers their seed pods. “Physa” means bladder and “stege” means a covering. Common names are false dragonhead and obedience part because the stems can be bent up and down and sideways without breaking.  

When goldenrod is in bloom, it indicates that fall is in the air. It does not cause hay fever (That is ragweed!), as the pollen of goldenrod is too heavy to be dispersed by the wind.

The lobelia family is extremely diverse but there are two American natives that are hardy perennials: Lobelia cardinalis and Lobelia siphilitica.