Author Archives: talesofanashvillegardener

This past September, on a visit to Cape Cod., I had dinner with a cousin I last saw almost 60 years ago at a family picnic in Chesterfield , Massachusetts. I was 12 then and babysitter to a mob of cousins and siblings, all younger than I. This cousin was son to an uncle whoContinue reading “The Chambered Nautilus”

The other day I moved a narrow second hand desk to the dining room and put it by the window . The window faces southwest, and looks out into my dooryard and out across the road to an old field. The huge trees in the photo are sugar maples, which my landlord taps in lateContinue reading “Idling”

Not five minutes after I posted a photo of the Great Blue Heron I looked out the window. He was back- within 3 feet of the platform birdfeeder. He was frozen in strike position, eyeing two oblivious gray squirrels on the ground. When I banged on the door, he flew up to the lawn byContinue reading “Return of the Great Blue Stalker”

Heavy rain over the last few days has made the river rise and Gregg Mill Pond swell. The fish must be too deep, and fishing too hazardous, for after I filled the courtyard bird feeders this morning, and the squirrel and chipmunk mob came running, this hunter came stalking into the yard. Perhaps he thoughtContinue reading “Something Astonishing”

Above is the Japanese Spurflower- Isodon effusus, along with Fuschia “Gartenmeister” and Plectranthus “Longwood Silver”. In the South the gardening year never ends. Seedling Bachelor’s Buttons, Larkspur germinate in fall. Rarely does snow cover them. There are myriad berries, spears of the coming daffodils, and in February one finds the leaves of Spring Beauties. ButContinue reading “The End of the Gardening Year 2021”

This is the Franklin Tree-Franklinia alatamaha, found in Georgia by the Bartrams centuries ago, and since then, never found again in the wild. It lives in captivity now, rare and hard to grow. This one pictured is in the Heritage Gardens on Cape Cod. I had never seen one before. Seeing it was like seeingContinue reading “A Unicorn Tree”

Heritage Gardens in Sandwich, Mass. has a riveting collection of hydrangeas of all persuasions- from blue mopheads to lace caps to paniculatas, and to exotics I did not know existed. Even in early October there were blooms to see. My sister and I were in Eastham for a week, just south of Coast Guard BeachContinue reading “The Hydrangea Trial Gardens at Heritage Gardens on Cape Cod”

Aster Cordifolius, the “Heart- leaved aster”, is blooming now. Along partly shaded roads. In the verge behind the Sully’s grocery in Goffstown. In old cemeteries. My sister’s garden in Bow has it foaming over the hostas in her front yard. I have it here in New Boston, though the relentless, repeated attacks by the woodchucksContinue reading “Heart-Leaved Aster”

The strange seedpod I photographed for my posting on The Fells visit belongs to the Japanese Woodland Peony. No one at The Fells replied to my query, but as I went searching through Ruth Clausen’s “Essential Perennials” I saw the seed pod pictured.