Crocuses and Snowdrops

Crocuses and Snowdrops

books bulbs spring

I'm still on the look out for a good chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting, one that is good enough to spend the time, money, and calories on.

But alas, the garden calls with more warm days in February than I ever remember, and I am of the firm belief that one ought to answer any call from one's garden. Therefore, the idea of the cupcake is on hold for now.

My snowdrops are blooming. I

Getting ready for... February!

Getting ready for... February!

books gardening winter

Snowdrop bud

I've heard some rumblings from a few people concerned about me getting bored as we begin to walk through that big valley of winter called February.

No worries. I'm all set. Ready to go. I've got plans. I've got seed catalogs and books. I've got little snowdrops I check on daily when I am out filling up the bird feeders, which I do on a near daily basis.

I've got ideas

Dear Garden Blog...

Dear Garden Blog...

Blogging books Humor

Hellebores, what would winter be without them?

Dearest Garden Blog,

I'm writing to offer my apologies for neglecting you for over a week. It was not my intention to leave you with no new updates for such a long time but time slipped away from me.

Rest assured, of course, that I have not been blogging elsewhere. I would never do that to you, my faithful blog who has been with me for well over

The Exciting Conclusion of a Tale of Two Plant Catalogs

The Exciting Conclusion of a Tale of Two Plant Catalogs

books

And now, the exciting conclusion of a tale of two plant catalogs.

To catch you up, dear readers, we begin a ways back when I fell into a rabbit hole of old plant catalog references, which resulted in my desire to hold the catalogs in my own hands, to read them and find out for myself if Hennessey was a really a bully and if Houdyshel was really a sweet, nice man.

First came the Hennessey

Old plant catalogs

Old plant catalogs

books gardening

I was quite pleased to recently purchase a copy of Roy Hennessey's 1961-62 Rose Catalog after reading about it a few days ago in a book of letters between the writers Eudora Welty and William Maxwell.

After I got it, I read bits and pieces of it.

Welty and Maxwell were right about Hennessey's writing. He does not hold back his opinions and he is not one bit shy about writing exactly what he

Hennessy leads to the search for Houdyshel

Hennessy leads to the search for Houdyshel

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Knock Out Rose, I don't think Hennessey would approve

I found Roy Hennessey unexpectedly the other evening while reading What There is to Say We Have Said: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell.  While most of the letters are about writing and publishing and family, there are a fair number of gardening references, especially about roses.

Maxwell wrote to Welty that he had

Summer Reading - The Squabbling Garden

Summer Reading - The Squabbling Garden

books

The Squabbling Garden, 1934

I love summertime reading.

Every summer, I think I'll discover some new-to-me old garden writer.  I live for that possibility. I search for old garden books in antique malls and bookstores and online, knowing I'm really searching for old garden writers, kindred spirits from the past, from another era of gardening.

I always remember it was summertime when I