Chinese paperbush

Conversations about the weather are just about to wear me out. I find that I repeat myself a dozen times each day, and with slight variations I’ve had the same conversation for the past three months. Yes, the warm temperatures through the winter were unusual, and two weeks of seventy degree temperatures in March are odd….

The scent of the late winter garden

I have a terrible sniffer. I can barely discern all but the strongest scents, but this afternoon the garden was filled with sweet fragrances. The blooms of the vernal witch hazel (Hamamelis vernalis, below) are beginning to fade after six weeks, but its scent was evident from halfway across the rear garden. Perhaps it would…