A growing record of the plants in my garden and the lessons they offer. Each profile begins with what caught my attention and follows through how it lives, behaves, and interacts with its neighbors. These are working notes on beauty, function, and surprise — practical details anchored by observation and care.
Opening Observation Loropetalum was one of those plants I first admired from the sidewalk. When we lived in Georgia, I noticed it in front yards all over the neighborhood—rounded shrubs with deep purple leaves and those frilly, pink, firework-like flowers that seemed to appear right around the Fourth of July. I wanted one but didn’t […]
Plant Profile: Dwarf Loropetalum Read More »
Opening Observation Hydrangeas are the comfort books of the garden. Everyone knows them, and yet each type tells a different story: bold mopheads, delicate lacecaps, stately panicles, dramatic oakleafs. They can be showy or subtle, but always familiar. Hydrangea macrophylla, the bigleaf hydrangea, has always been my favorite. It is generous and moody, sometimes both
Plant Profile: Bigleaf Hydrangea (Deep Purple) Read More »
Opening Observation I first learned about Tuff Stuff while designing a shade garden for a neighbor who wanted to surprise her parents with something beautiful, fragrant, and low-maintenance. She sent me inspiration photos filled with layered, flower-heavy beds, the kind that look lush and lived-in. Hydrangeas were everywhere in her examples, but the space she
Plant Profile: Mountain Hydrangea ‘Tuff Stuff’ Read More »
Opening Observation I had admired panicle hydrangeas for years without realizing what they were. From a distance, the cone-shaped blooms looked like a cross between hydrangea and lilac, familiar but not quite. I would see them in the neighborhood, pale and upright, some bright white, some tinged green, some fading to pink, and think they
Plant Profile: Hydrangea ‘Berry White’ Read More »
Opening Observation I found Clethra while looking for something else. I had a list of reliable evergreens—Sweet Box, Pieris ‘Little Heath,’ a few other steady choices meant to hold shape and color year-round. Summersweet was only on the list as an option, a maybe. But the moment I saw it, compact and quietly elegant, I
Plant Profile: Clethra alnifolia ‘Hummingbird’ (Summersweet) Read More »
Opening Observation Artemisia ‘Silver Mound’ was the first plant that taught me about companion planting — even before I knew that was what it was called. I found it years ago in Better Homes and Gardens’ Gardening Naturally (1993), a book that introduced me to the idea that some plants could quietly protect others, deterring
Plant Profile: Artemisia ‘Silver Mound’ Read More »
Spiraea ‘Magic Carpet’ came to me through my landscaper, but it wasn’t new to me. I’ve admired it plenty of times before, that bright chartreuse foliage and those soft pink blooms, and each time I’ve told myself to remember it for next time. And then, of course, I forget. It’s a plant that hides in
Plant Profile: Spiraea japonica ‘Magic Carpet’ Read More »
Opening Observation When my landscaping expert suggested oakleaf hydrangeas for the new front beds, I had to look them up. Hydrangea? Absolutely. But oakleaf? That was new to me. He had just returned from an architecture tour in Chicago and mentioned that the tour guide described oakleaf hydrangeas as a designer favorite for their structure,
Plant Profile: Oakleaf Hydrangea ‘Munchkin’ Read More »
Opening Observation I am still deciding how I feel about Wine & Roses Weigela. I like the idea of it more than the current reality. The deep purple foliage is striking, and I love the way it plays off the purple tones of the bigleaf hydrangea nearby. On paper, it is exactly the contrast I
Plant Profile: Wine & Roses Weigela Read More »
Opening Observation I needed an evergreen shrub for the shaded space around my chimney. It had to stay near three feet so it would not block the low windows. Flowers were on my wish list, and fragrance would be a bonus. ChatGPT recommended Sweet & Lo™ Sweet Box (Sarcococca hookeriana var. humilis ‘Sweet & Lo’).
Plant Profile: Sweetbox ‘Sweet & Lo’ Read More »
Opening Observation When I first started planning the chimney garden, I was looking for traditional evergreens, something structured and familiar, like a holly or a compact pine. It never occurred to me that an evergreen could also flower. Technically, boxwood and holly do, but I have never thought of them that way; their blooms are
Plant Profile: Pieris japonica ‘Little Heath’ Read More »