My Virtual Maryland Garden

Paeonia 'Yellow Crown' Paeonia 'Bartzella' in a neighborhood garden  Several months ago, intending to wri...

On the left, 'Cox's Orange Pippin' on the right 'Cox's Pomona' 'Gala' apples, a grandchild of ...

Berberis julianae C. K. Schneider Once again I’m amazed at how much information can be derived from a botanical name. And I’m caug...

Hypericum frondosum  Hypericum frondosum Flowers of Hypericum kalmianum (left) and H. frondosum (right) The multitudi...

Magnolia ‘Caerhays Belle' Photo W. Crist Magnolia ‘Caerhays Belle' photo W. Crist Magnolia ‘Caerhays...

It seems that March this year came in not as a lamb, not as a lion, not, as expected last night, as a snow leopard, but rather to the str...

A magazine to which I am subscribed ran an article on the times when different species of birds in central Europe begin singing each mo...

If you read this post before today, January 8, 2019, you read an earlier, somewhat truncated version. After reading that ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oI-laqdgCE&feature=youtu.be Because so many of them are found in houses, spiders of the fami...

When I was a kid I was intrigued by the popularity of certain flowering house plants which in northern Europe seemed to be hu...

I really didn't do this, but I was so tempted. Back in July, I was diagnosed with diabetes 2. I was tempted to put this little  h...

Pinewoods have a distinctive flora, and when I was a kid I lived near a block of remnant pine growth. There I got to know some of t...

It was probably fifty years ago when I first read Konrad Lorenz's King Solomon's Ring. The image above provoked a memory of one...

When I stepped out onto the front porch the other day, I saw this draped over the front steps. It's a black rat snake, our largest l...

You'll probably have no idea how happy this makes me. It's been years, many years, since I've seen a live box turtle in thi...

While absentmindedly staring out the bedroom window the other day, this bit of gorgeous blue caught my eye. It was only about eight feet aw...

Yesterday Wayne and I went down to the National Gallery to see the exhibit VERMEER AND THE MASTERS OF GENRE PAINTING. It was time well and ...

My bedtime reading last night was from Richardson Wright's 1933  Anothe r Gardener's Bed-Book. In the opening chapter he notes that...

Tessellation in Colchicum 'Beaconsfield' Colchicum 'Rosy Dawn' a massive but untessellated cultivar. The two im...

Six large-flowered hybrid colchicums I suspect that only those with a high tolerance for nomenclatural instability will persist long in...

 PizzaCS's Margherita pizza Jim's favorite part  Last night Wayne and I went for pizza. There are several top-notch ...

Mid-September daylilies with companion plants Here are some late blooming Hemerocallis combined with others plants also blooming no...

Colchicums with companion plants.  Colchicums have been blooming for about two weeks now: some of the earliest ones are already over fo...

Sinningia trio I've grown to like these tall, lanky Sinningia . So far, the best way to use them in the garden has eluded me. They...

Smilax laurifolia  Smilax laurifolia The light green growths you see in this image are this year’s new growth on Smilax laurifol...

Huernia keniensis My track record as a champion house plant killer notwithstanding, this little plant has survived here for over...

Gloriosa modesta Gloriosa modesta Long known as Littonia modesta, this little charmer from southern Africa at first glance hard...