All over America, the goldenrod is in bloom. You may call sneeze-weed if you blame it for hayfever, pestilent weed if it invades your pasture-land, or plain weed if it is too common to have any significance for you. But the children of Alabama love it well enough to have chosen it for their state … Read more
Sixty years ago, in “The Illustrated Strawberry Culturist,” Andrew S. Fuller chided Americans for doing nothing to improve our native strawberries until after English gardeners had imported American species for an experiment in the early 1800s. Even then, for perhaps a half century more, “our fruit growers were content to import varieties from abroad instead … Read more
Do you want a spot of brightness in your garden during the “midsummer slump”? Do you want a different perennial that will draw the attention of your visitors? Then you want Lythrum. Lythrum, Shakespeare’s “long purples,” has several varieties worthy of a place in the hardy border. They all have willow-like leaves, square stems, and … Read more
If you are looking for something just a little bit different for your hardy borders or a corner with part shade, the spotted beebalm (Monarda punctata), will interest you. Spotted Beebalm Features This dainty, pastel plant has rather prim but changeable foliage. It begins the season as a dull green. Then, when the square stem … Read more
Goldenrods — weeds or beautiful wildflowers? Regardless, were the myriads of golden wands suddenly vanish from our autumnal fields and meadows, they would be sorely missed. American fields, like American woods, are the world’s most colorful in the fall. A host of brilliant wildflowers—asters, ironweeds, thoroughworts, sunflowers, blazing stars, coneflowers, lobelias—all contribute to this color. … Read more
Along the Tamiami Trail at the southern tip of Florida are expanses of pickerelweed with myriads of black swallowtail butterflies hovering over the blue flowers. Similar blue flowers in swamp areas in the north raise their club-like spikes above the water. Pontederia Cordata The species best known is Pontederia cordata which grows from Nova Scotia … Read more
Hypericums or St. John’s Worts are among the most gratifying plants for the summer effect—valuable both for their quantities of yellow flowers produced over a long period and for their adaptability to various growing conditions. They are singularly untroubled by plant diseases and insect pests and thrive in nearly any situation offering a porous open … Read more
I have read Mrs. Ruth D. Grew’s article on a cardinal flower in Horticulture with interest, appreciation, and complete agreement except for one point: I would be less cautious and more enthusiastic in giving directions for growing cardinal flowers in captivity. That any wildflower so beautiful could establish itself in the garden with the exuberance … Read more
The little pond is one of the wild garden’s greatest attractions. Bayberry shrubs, pickerel weed, arrowhead, and golden clubs grow on its banks. A quiet haven for nature lovers, particularly those interested in our native flora, is the wildflower area of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. While there, enjoying its peace and beauty, it is hard … Read more
The white baneberry, Actaea alba (pachypoda), grows wild in moist, rich woods from Canada to Georgia and west as far as Oklahoma. The plant is also known as snakeberry, necklace berry, doll eyes, and white cohosh. The fuzzy, white flowers appear in May and June. They are not particularly showy, but the central masses of … Read more