My last two posts have been about some of the Italian gardens I visited recently while leading a small group of women on a 9-day tour. I still have a lot to write about what I saw, and what I thought of it, but in the Eastern Townships in Quebec, where my garden Glen Villa…
After a month away, it feels good to be home again in North Hatley. I was travelling for four weeks, first in southern Africa and then in Italy where I co-led a group of women through gardens that ranged from the first century A.D. to a contemporary art installation garden that is still very much…
A botanical garden is a special type of place. It’s a garden but it exists for scientific purposes and not for beauty. Yet I think that most people visiting a botanical garden expect to see a beautiful place, a landscaped garden where plants are displayed with artistry. Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden achieves both of these…
South Africa’s national flower is the protea. Most of us are familiar with the king protea — it’s available in florist’s shops around the world. But finding it in the wild is a totally different experience. Wild king protea growing in the fynbos, east of Cape Town. The area around Cape Town, South Africa, is…
For a week I’ve been out of the loop — no internet, no email, no phone. (It’s been frustratingly wonderful.) Instead of posting blogs, I’ve been touring game parks in southern Africa, seeing amazing animals and even more amazing trees and shrubs. Here’s a sample of some of the vegetation — a tasty buffet, as…
I was hoping that on this, my second ‘follow a tree’ post, the Corylus avellana ‘Red Majestic’ would have shed its winter coat. After all, the first week of April is over. But that hasn’t happened. Along with all the individuals I met up with, wandering around Montreal last week, (and wrote about here) his…
In a cold climate, even the trees wear coats. A few days ago, on the 15th day of spring, this elderly woman was putting a brave face on it. Is it just me, or do others see a resemblance to Gertrude Jekyll? These little guys, though, looked so dejected I wanted to give them a…
A few years ago, a huge tree blew down. The tree was at the edge of the lower garden, by what we call the dragon gate — a construction of vertical and horizontal pieces of painted wood that matches architectural elements on our house. The tree and the dragon gate marked the start of a…
Lucy Corrander, an English garden blogger at Loose and Leafy, has invited bloggers from around the world to join her in ‘following’ a tree. Her invitation really caught my attention. It sounded like a great idea … a good monthly discipline and a way to focus on the changes that occur in a tree over…
Worth Avenue defines high end shopping in Palm Beach, Florida. High end appears in a different guise at a junction beside the avenue, where a vertical garden clothes a bare wall. Eleven different types of plants make up this wall. Late day shadows make the wall look less interesting than it is, but a close-up…