Ornamental oregano first caught my eye in my first Logee’s catalog when, as an impressionable lad of 15, I spied Origanum ‘Kent Beauty.’ My interest in all plants Mediterranean had begun to percolate, and it was one of the catalysts. Years later, it wasn’t ‘Kent Beauty,’ but ‘Pilgrim’ I happened upon at a local nursery [...]

Ladies and gentlemen, Buddleia ‘Black Knight’ is in full bloom.

I was GOING to write a scathing entry about my annoyance with Linaria purpurea, but, as they so often do in the garden, things seem to have changed. L. purpurea comes with the Harry Potteresque common name purple toadflax. (That I’ve always liked.) Its nursery tag described its foliage as steely blue, its flowers little [...]

Oh, I see you sitting over there, all smug and thinking you know who’s going to win this one. Well, hold onto your chair. Kolkwitzia amabilis, the beautybush, is the only old skool foundation shrub I love that came with my house. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why the species isn’t [...]

My affair with Pennisetum alopecuroides cultivars ended almost before it began, and for that you can thank Pennisetum orientale ‘Karley Rose,’ in my opinion a more exciting plant in so many ways, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I haven’t yet discerned whether ‘Foxtrot’ (or ‘Fox Trot’) is purely an alopecuroides cultivar or a cross [...]

Pronunciation // I’m ashamed to admit I never grew a creeping sedum until 2009. Unconscionable, I know. I tend to think big when starting beds (and I’ve started far, far more beds than I’ve finished) and top it off with the small stuff. Plus I always figured Sedums would be there, right? I mean, they’re [...]

Pronunciation // I’d planted and marveled at Panicums before, and when I heard the fuss over ‘Shenandoah’ in early 2009, I couldn’t help but get caught up in it. A red Panicum! What more could we ask? It was the answer to everyone’s prayers and the cure for cancer, and it smelled like bacon frying.

Pronunciation // In the fall of 2008, I bought two Baptisia Twilite Prairieblues™ at half-off. I was on a budget AND a mission, as ever, agonizing over what to buy, and I don’t know what possessed me to I buy two –- not one, for specimen planting; not three, for a nice group –- of [...]