Cherished in English gardens for over 400 years, Vitex agnus-castus, chaste-tree or hemp-tree, has been grown with enthusiasm on the Pacific Coast. It is a large deciduous bush, somewhat resembling the tall buddleias, and needing much the same care. It is a native of eastern Mediterranean countries where it is found on the hot banks […]

The French have a way of interpreting certain words that is most delightful; hence, to them the moccasin flower is Sabot-de-LaNierge, or”our lady’s slipper.” In old English it was “our lady’s shoes” and was said to have “knobbie a root creeping in the ripper crust of the earth.” In both the European and American varieties […]

In the harsh, unpredictable climate of the Midwest, the goal of “season-long color” in a perennial border seems completely out of reach. The weather is always going to extremes – too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry. Against such odds any dream of pictorial gardening is hardly more than a mirage. Yet it can […]

I read an article that asked, “What kind of a gardener are you?” and set me to thinking. My gardening started as a hobby, a rest from my work as a seamstress. I began buying flower magazines in 1957 at a Times Square Subway newsstand, usually on my for a fitting. Reading garden magazines gave […]

Last winter I brought one of the frothy egg masses of the praying mantis into the greenhouse. Within three weeks 100 wee mantes emerged from froth, each with an appetite larger than its body. One tackled a sowbug 20 times its size the day it was born. The tussle was intense, but the mantis won. […]

If Sternbergia Lutea had sat for its portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and if its descendents were painted today, the yellow faces would be identical. Gardeners have become so accustomed to new, improved varieties of plants, that it is a surprise to sec a flower that has remained unchanged for more than two centuries. To […]

International friendship gardens, dedicated to international friendship and peace, are situated about 60 miles east of Chicago, near the out-skirts of Michigan City, Indiana. The estate in Trail Creek Valley is about equally divided between the gardens, the amphitheatre and bird sanctuary. These gardens are the result of dreams for world peace and friendship nurtured […]

Holly selections for ornamental uses are propagated almost entirely from cuttings. This is because seed is slow to germinate and young plants are often different from the parents in fruit and foliage. Since rooted slips or cuttings produce young plants with the same characteristics as the parents, vegetative reproduction is employed to perpetuate choice varieties. […]

Plant materials of Ilex species have been entering this country through the efforts of the Plant Introduction Section of the U.S.D.A., since 1898. The first of these introductions was a shipment of seeds of I. aquifolium sent from France by W. T. Swingle, plant explorer for the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Those seeds were […]