The Secret to Growing Perfect Plants
If, before visiting Louise Olson’s private home and garden, you were not a plant lover, you would, in all likelihood, become a plant lover before your visit was over. Olson, retired from a career in ...
Category Archives: Philosophy
Plants Are Like Children
Eight years ago, I planted several ‘Mystery’ gardenias. Today they are flourishing and will be covered with flowers all summer long. But I take no credit for their success. For most of th...
Plants Are Like People
Plants, no less than people, have distinct personalities. Some, such as columbine and love-in-a-mist, are forever merry and bright and it is always a delight to be in their presence. Others, such as ...
Gardeners, Like Plants, Give Without Thought of Reward
Gardeners are among the most generous, least acquisitive people in the world, having absorbed the lesson of “constant giving without thought of reward” from their plants. Yet I do not thi...
Garden is a Last Frontier for Creativity
April may be “the cruelest month,” as T.S. Eliot wrote, especially when it comes to gardening in Los Angeles. It’s the month when we experience our first heat wave of the growing se...
You Can Tell the Health of a Nation by the Health of its Trees
“You can tell the health of a country by the health of its trees.” ”Show me an area without trees, and I will show you an area of unrest.” These statements by Dr. Alex Shigo, ...
Vote for the Garden Party
A reader has chastised me for using this column as a platform for pontification. “Stick to gardening,” I have been advised. Well, I can keep it a secret no longer. Let this column serve n...
10% of our brains, 1% of our plants
For years, accepted wisdom held that we humans normally use only 10 percent of our brains. Recent research on the subject of brain utilization, however, considers this statistic a myth and maintains ...
Deciduous Trees That Flower Before They Foliate
Deciduous trees that flower each year before they produce leaves bring unique drama to the garden. In Los Angeles, more of these special trees come into bloom in February than in any other month. At ...
Moth Orchids
My rabbi often assures me that there is a reason for everything, that there is really no such thing as an accident, that life only presents us with trials and tests that we are meant to pass, and tha...