My mom once asked me which sense I’d give up if I had to, sight or hearing? A teenager at the time, I wondered if it was a trick question. I thought about the blind people I’d seen tapping their canes along the sidewalks, and answered, “Hearing”. She told me she’d give up sight. I didn’t believe her. It was a kitchen table time-waster, but she went on for a… Continue reading | 1 Comment

Sometime in the mid 70s, I celebrated a party with friends at a then-landmark French restaurant in Chicago—the first of the “nouvelle”—called Le Perroquet. (There I tasted my first “mesclun” salad.) As we talked and dined I discerned, through the wine haze, that the place was utterly unique. Outside New Orleans, New York or San Francisco, no place like it existed, since fish was the focus. Thirty years ago, old… Continue reading

During the mid-nineties I shuttled between Philadelphia, Chicago, Frankfurt and Cairo at least a dozen times. For pleasure, Cairo won hands down. From ’94 to ’97 I spent about four months in and around Cairo trying to launch a vegetable division of a corn seed company. Alas, without success. However, I became acquainted with some of the most interesting and friendly people on earth. Nothing beats a European education, and… Continue reading

Six to ten footers make a garden tingle. Here is a selection of vigorous and widely adaptable perennials, shrubs, grasses—and even a five foot fern. All do well nearly everywhere in the U.S., feel huge and add great drama to the garden.

Name
Zones
Height

(Plants)

Delphinium elatum ‘Blue Lace’
3-7
6 feet

Lilium pardalinum
5-8
7 feet

Cephalaria gigantea
3-7
8 feet

Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’
4-9
8 feet

Thalictrum ‘Elin’
5-9
10 feet

(Shrubs)

Weigela florida ‘Versicolor’
5-9
8 feet

Paeonia lutea var. ludlowii
5-8
8 feet

Rosa

After 30 days of sales, since our catalogues arrived at gardeners’ homes in late December, we can reveal the following “top 5″ breakdowns. Very interesting! We’ll post again after 2-3 months.Top Conifers

1. Abies koreana ‘Horstmann’s Silberlocke’
2. Taxus baccata ‘Bean Pole’
3. Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Gracilis Aurea’
4. (Tie) Thuja plicata ‘Holly Turner’
4. (Tie) Taxus baccata ‘Repandens Aureomarginata’
5. Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Habari’

Top Ferns

1. Adiantum pedatum
2. Athyrium filix-femina