MinxterBLOOM

Foliage Plants (1973, revised 1985) - "…like every other author who wishes to be read, I have to be thinking of you even harder than you are of me..."  I use this quote in my advanced composition classes where the true goal is to encourage students to write for audiences rather than themselves.

Of pear trees: "Since there is no fruit to write of, you might feel dismissive, but a good-looking tree is not to be sniffed at." Read his last column (2006), "The Charm of Fruitless Tress," for the Guardian here.

Cautionary tale: Pink is a difficult colour when there is too much blue in it. Sidalceas are a classic example. Watch out if the word rose appears in the name, such as 'Rose Queen' or 'Rosy Gem': chances are there will be a villainous element of blue included in its make-up. The one (as far as I know the only one) to go for is 'Elsie Heugh', which is pink with no element of blue to speak of. Read the entire Guardian article for good advice on color in the garden here.

A quote from CHL. Begin by looking at the National Portrait Gallery photo-portrait of CHL (knight of the realm...caps?  Nah, I am an American).  The image cannot be posted here (I honor intellectual property preferences).

Christopher Lloyd; Fergus Garrett by Tessa Traeger (silver gelatin print, 2001; 11 3/8 in. x 15 in. (290 mm x 380 mm); Commissioned, 2004-02-120

Many gardeners will agree that hand-weeding is not the terrible drudgery that it is often made out to be.  Some people find in it a kind of soothing monotony.  It leaves their minds free to develop the plot for their next novel or to perfect the brilliant repartee with which they should have encountered a relative's latest example of unreasonableness.  ~Christopher Lloyd, The Well-Tempered Garden, 1973

He also grows the lovely purple king of a clemetis, jackmanii. "A column of color," he says, which is a contrast in form to my lounging one. 

CLEM e tis

cle MAT is

Which is right?

Christopher Lloyd, British gardener and writer, would select the first version. Brits place the accent on the first syllable. Most of us on this side of the big puddle accent the middle one.

Here is my 15 year old classic purple Jackmanii clematic smothering the valiant azalea in front of the door.  Wow. the red Crockie sandal misses its mate, hiding about a foot down in the vinca (blech) and the happily shaded roots of the clematis. (faces to the sun; feet in the cool humus)

Now, a moment for Christopher Hamilton Lloyd (not the Taxi/Back to the Future Chris L.): Lloyd wrote, among others,  The Mixed Border  (1957), followed by Clematis (1965), The Well-Tempered Gardeⁿ in 1970, and Foliage Plants (1973). In his nineties, Lloyd was working on a book focused on exotic plants and tropicals in British gardens. When when he died in 2006, his gardening friends and colleagues wrapped up and published Exotic Planting for Adventurous Gardeners, in 2007.

Herzog and the Monsters from Lesley Barnes on Vimeo. Are you afraid of your garden at night?  I still shudder a bit about the dark anywhere.  I recall my first horror story Jane Emily by Patricia Clapp (1969 but re-issued 1993) purchased through Scholastic Books at my school's fair.  The glowing garden ball was the conduit for a vengeful child spirit. I had trouble sleeping for months.

Lesley's characters are droll and mechanized in a whimsical steampunk way. The Penguin books throughout are perfectly placed.

I do now, however, now look at -- and love -- my garden at night.  Paler vegetation, including the lime-margins of the grand Hosta "Frances Williams" glow in the dark.  In my front garden, I love the scent of evening primrose and two species of flowering tobacco.

My friend C.H. plants a night garden, tucking these carefully selected plants within their day-happy cousins.  These choices -- for scent and pale flowers -- reveal themselves in the evening only.  She interplants these choices among the "day flowers," which means that the layers perform make for a day shift -- night shift effect.