July/August 2019

Horticulture

Horticulture Magazine

Horticulture2 min read
Editor’s Note
AMONG THE FEATURES in this issue of Horticulture you’ll find two visits to private gardens. These gardens are essentially quite different. One, the garden of Fred and Linda Lipton of Salem, Mass., employs subtly repeated shapes and a strict color sch
Horticulture3 min read
Simple Saffron
CONSIDERED THE WORLD’S most expensive spice (by weight), saffron is surprisingly easy to grow in a home garden. Saffron is produced by the saffron crocus, an autumn-blooming plant with showy lavender-purple flowers. Each flower yields just three oran
Horticulture3 min read
Black Currants
THE BLACK CURRANT (Ribes nigrum) is chockablock with welcome features, making it like the botanical equivalent of a shmoo. (Don’t know what a shmoo is? You have a treat coming if you Google it.) A black currant has loads of rooting hormones, so cutti
Horticulture1 min read
Ribes Restrictions
If your state is not listed here, there are no restrictions on the planting of any of the Ribes species in commerce: black and red currants, gooseberries and jostaberries. Delaware—Black currants are prohibited; a permit is required for all other Ri
Horticulture6 min read
To a Tea
WHENEVER I TRAVEL I always take an interest in the flora of the visited area. Sometimes I merely affirm that what I see growing is pretty much what I see growing at home. But more usually I take pleasure in observing individual specimens or learning
Horticulture2 min readEarth Sciences
Rain Checks
IF IT SEEMS TO YOU that commercial or residential real-estate development projects in your community are incorporating more features related to storm-water management than older developments did, you’re not mistaken. Retention basins, rain gardens, c
Horticulture2 min readNature
Uncommon Milkweeds
IF YOU HAVE ANY interest in outdoor things—plants, insects, the environment—you’ve probably heard that monarch butterflies are in trouble. Their larvae only eat milkweeds, plants in the genus Asclepias. There aren’t as many milkweeds as there used to
Horticulture5 min read
A FLY-BY-Night Garden
When we think about garden flowers, we typically picture diurnal, or day-blooming, plants. Unless we’re designing a moonlight garden, we overlook night bloomers, which are generally undermarketed. Of course, it’s for good reason—after all, gardeners
Horticulture1 min readEarth Sciences
Giving Moths Meaning
While we tend to covet butterflies for our gardens, we sometimes view their relatively drab brethren, the moths, as nighttime nuisances that circle outdoor lights and flutter too close for comfort to our heads. Statistically, moths outnumber butterfl
Horticulture2 min read
Expanding Cosmos
Garden cosmos are annuals derived from several Cosmos species native to Mexico and other areas of the North and South America. They have long been treasured for their simple but profuse flowers, which can occur throughout summer and into autumn, and
Horticulture5 min readGardening
A Pint-size Paradise
The first things you need to know about Fred and Linda Lipton: They’re sworn do-it-yourselfers and their outdoor space is a number-one priority. “When we were looking at this property,” Fred says of the historic Salem, Massachusetts, house they bough
Horticulture3 min readArchitecture
Visual Art
A glance at the garden of Joan Moyers tells you an artistic, creative person lives in the storybook cottage behind the exuberant flower bed. On a street lined largely with nondescript landscaping, this yard stands out. Joan is a graphic designer and
Horticulture4 min read
GOING Organic
At the landscaping company where I work, our clients sometimes ask about changing to an organic lawn-care program. I can spot two assumptions by the way they phrase the question: They think it’s simply a matter of swapping out traditional (synthetica
Horticulture4 min readEarth Sciences
City Living
Gardening is very much an activity for those who reside in a city. Indeed, urban gardening is nothing new. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon date to 600 BC, and other urban gardens are known to have existed within the cities of Mesopotamia. Ancient Egyp
Horticulture3 min read
Plants We Love
We love culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum) for its tall spikes of white or purple flowers that begin in early or midsummer and can continue until autumn. This US-native perennial attracts butterflies and bees. Small, tube-shape flowers line lon
Horticulture3 min read
Annie’s Annuals
“WHERE DID YOU get that?” I query. “Annie’s Annuals,” I am told. How many times have I heard the same response? And the likelihood of that answer seems to increase with the desirability of the plant in question. From its rather amorphous start in the
Horticulture2 min readArchitecture
Time For A Grexit
FOR TOO LONG American gardeners have struggled under the repression of British garden writers, and it’s about time we overthrow this tyranny. Yeah. That’s right. Your time has come, Christopher Lloyd. Better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone

Horticulture

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