Celandine: Sweet Young Thing
One of the best things about writing a blog is that it gives you a reason to look at everything with new eyes.
Read MoreBee Balm: A Good Bet
I admit it. It’s an addiction. The first step is admitting it, right? Much as I love nature and wild things, I just can’t pass up a greenhouse. There’s something about all those plants, spread out in a wild crazy quilt of color. The sheer gorgeousness of the exotic blooms. This is Gade Farm on Route 20 in Guilderland. I park the car and walk inside, vowing not to buy one more plant. Usually, in twenty minutes I’m staggering back to my car loaded down with petunias or what-have-you. But this year I drifted away from the magenta and purple and scarlet of the annuals, and checked out the...
Read MoreAll Roads Lead to Dandelions
No matter where you go, it seems there’s a dandelion at your feet–or under your feet. This is a cobbled pathway in Central Park, New York City. The dandelions don’t content themselves with growing on the lawn, they invade the sidewalk, too. The flower and leaves manage to survive in the spaces between the stones. Just a few small crumpled leaves. Getting walked on all the time. How on earth can they do it? The secret of their success is in the root. Dandelions are perennials, coming up year after year, for five years or even more. So the root has time to get big. Even if...
Read MoreViolet: A Spark of the Divine
The cathedral of St. John the Divine. This is the chapter house, a smaller building next to the immense cathedral, one of the largest in the world. It’s a magnificent building, like a medieval fortress. But nature manages to sneak in somehow, finding a crack in the most impressive monuments. One little spark of green in the corner–a spring violet. Violet is a genus, not a species–it’s like saying, “Oh, look, there’s a duck.” But is it a mallard, a wood duck, a black duck? There’s a zillion kinds of ducks. There are hundreds of species of...
Read MoreEarth Day
Stand up for the Earth! “Green” isn’t very much in the news these days, and other–very worthy–causes grab more headlines. But stay green. Even if you’re the lonely voice in the crowd, keep on telling people–we need to care for our planet. Thanks to Wells Horton for this wonderful photo. http://wells-horton.smugmug.com/
Read MoreDandelion: Grow Anywhere
A walk down 125th Street in Harlem, New York City, on a cold spring afternoon. Cement, blacktop, cars. Bare branches. Not much green. Nothing in bloom. But a closer look revealed a spark of color. This was my first sighting for the year of my favorite botanical sight: the yellow petals of a dandelion. One of the countless reasons I love dandelions is that they can make themselves at home anywhere. Anywhere on Earth, it seems. They grow on every continent except Antarctica (and I’m sure they’ll be blooming there before long.) They grow on mountaintops, in sand dunes, along...
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