The garden’s hydrangeas and roses bloom off and on from late spring through the summer into early autumn. Other blooms last for weeks, and some only days. ‘Jane’ magnolia flowers early in the spring so that occasionally blooms are damaged by late freezes, but it also flowers sporadically through the summer (above). In July the…

Hiking trails crisscross the southern edge of Bull Run Mountain, an area that includes the ruins of Beverley’s Mill (below) and the site of a Civil War skirmish. The 800 acre preserve is maintained by the Bull Run Mountain Conservancy. Bull Run is more a tall foothill than mountain, and the most difficult hikes are only…

At the start of July the hydrangeas are most prominent in the garden, and one or the other will flower into late September. The large blue, pink, and white blooms demand attention, but there are other splendid flowers equally deserving, though for shorter periods. Daylilies (Hemerocallis, above) are quite common, but longed lived perennials that…

What a marvelous weekend!  A bit cloudy, but a pleasant break from the recent heat. I summoned enough energy Saturday to plant a few hydrangeas that had been waiting patiently on the driveway, and a few odds and ends were transplanted Sunday to make room so that the large agaves that are overwintered indoors could…

Through the spring my wife has been occupied with her studies so that she seldom ventures out into the garden. This is both good and bad. She is the one obstacle I have to an unfettered planting budget. Now, I’ve been able to plant without interference, though I suspect that her opinion (that there are…

I hadn’t thought about it until a few days ago, but ‘Moonbeam’ coreopsis is gone without a trace. Vanished, as if it was never planted, which is just as well. I believe that I’ve seen Moonbeam coreopsis (Coreopsis verticillata “Moonbeam’, below) listed as a “can’t fail” perennials, and now I’ve killed it twice through the…

Occasionally I hear complaints that such and such did not bloom this year, and could I please explain why? Of course there are times when a plant is sited improperly so that it doesn’t get sufficient sunlight, or a tree is over fertilized so that it grows an abundance of foliage at the expense of…

Once the dogwoods and cherries, azaleas, and camellias are past bloom, what else is there? Summer is too hot, so why bother with the garden. Nothing will bloom in this infernal heat. Right? Well, the white Natchez crapemyrtle is just beginning to bloom, and in several weeks it will be joined by five or six…

Touring nurseries and buying plants becomes a bit ho-hum after you have seen the same hollies and azaleas for thirty years. Not actually the same plants, of course, but squared off blocks of hundreds and often thousands of the same plant, one row after another for hundreds of acres. A field of a hundred thousand…