My Virtual Maryland Garden

With very few exceptions, the images on this blog have all come from my garden. I'm going to make an exception today. The plant sho...

The first peonies of the year began to open yesterday. In most years, Paeonia mascula opens the year quickly followed by P. emodi and P....

When this plant first made its debut in my circle of gardening friends there was confusion about its name. Three names were suggested: Th. l...

The tulip shown above, 'Willem van Oranje' is a member of the double early group. It's a really beautiful bit of color, isn...

If you are just beginning with fritillaries and you garden in a climate like this one, then the plant shown above, Fritillaria acmopetala , ...

Here are some scenes from this morning's walk. It's morel season, and it pays to keep one's eyes open during walks along the...

The flowers in the image above are those of Leucojum aestivum ,the Loddon lily or summer snowflake. This is a plant with lots of name pr...

This is Tulipa 'Fringed Beauty'. The tomato-red, the cheese yellow and the anchovy-dark anthers have me jokingly thinking of it as ...

I've read that this plant is cultivated as a field crop in China for use in traditional medications. Although the flowers are small fo...

Tulipa whittallii is said to be a tetraploid form of the  Tulipa orphanidea group. Perhaps the name should be formatted as Tulipa orphanide...

In a blog entry in April of 2010 I mentioned a rose of some historic importance which was once again growing in my garden after an absence o...

The local common toad, Bufo americanus , is now singing from the garden pond. At this time of year they sing in broad daylight and seem indi...

  The botanical nomenclature of the wild peonies has been dicey for decades as each generation of new botanists takes yet another look a...

My starter corm of Crocus reticulatus arrived in the late summer of 2005. It must have bloomed at least once since then, but there are no p...

I know that there are those who take the attitude "if you can't grow anything else, there are always sedums and sempervivums"....

This is a widely distributed cultivar of Asarum maximum named 'Ling Ling'. I have two accessions of this species; the other one was...

This little charmer is Cardamine quinquefolia , and it made its debut in the gardens of my circle of friends only several years ago. I don...

When my parents bought this house almost fifty years ago I was in my late teens and spent a lot of time exploring the local woodlands. My me...

If you are an inexperienced bulb grower about to give up on tulips as garden plants in our climate, the two pictures above have something...

Steaming bowls of lamb stew and freshly baked soda bread (this time with raisins and caraway) provide a simple yet very satisfying meal for ...