Monday, December 23, 2013
Walking towards home this evening, I was slowly aware that an uncharacteristic stillness seemed to be falling all around along with the early darkness still so close to the winter solstice. Perhaps it was just me, and wishful thinking...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — christmas | holiday | new york
Friday, December 13, 2013
The final cleanup of fall always seems to take me by surprise. Especially when the weather has had that golden crispness that usually settles in sometime during autumn here, when the summer’s heat and humidity have fallen back south. The City comes into its own then...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fall | hortulus fuchsiarum | winter
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Out front, on the street, the ginkgo leaves have finally fallen. They turned bright saffron-yellow and gold over the last week or two. Then suddenly, and seemingly all at once, they fell together...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botany | new york | history | plants | streets
Monday, November 11, 2013
If you’re like me and go crazy for kiku every fall, one of the best displays is at Longwood Gardens. Don’t dawdle. “The Miracle of a Thousand Blooms” is worth the visit alone...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanical gardens | fall | greenhouses | horticulture | plants
Thursday, November 07, 2013
Alfred Russel Wallace was one of the most brilliant scientists of the 19th century. A naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist, Wallace independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanists | botany | history | science
Tuesday, November 05, 2013
Fall comes slowly to this sheltered garden. When other spots are past their peak, the leaves on the nearby trees seem to equivocate a bit longer here before they finally decide to turn their attention to the coming winter...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fall | hortulus fuchsiarum | plants
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Over the last couple of weeks, as fall has been slowly turning down the heat, I’ve become increasingly aware that something else is turning up. First the pumpkins and the mums...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — holiday | new york | streets
Monday, October 07, 2013
Elephant ears, Colocasia esculenta, lives up to its name. It’s leaves are indeed big and floppy—positively brobdingnagian sometimes—and corms from some cultivars...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanical gardens | ornamentals | plants
Tuesday, October 01, 2013
Every year, as the weather cools and the garden’s summer green slowly fades to gold, I’m surprised again and delighted by how fall plays out even in this small urban space. The first performer is my potted purplebloom maple...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fall | hortulus fuchsiarum | plants
Monday, September 23, 2013
The autumnal equinox in the northern hemisphere, that fall tipping point into winter when the length of the night already equals the light of the day, usually slides by unnoticed by most. This year...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fall | new york | seasons
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Something funny happened in the garden this morning. No, the squirrels didn’t leave a fruit basket on the back step with knock and a nice note apologizing for having gnawed off the lily buds...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — cultivars | fuchsias | hortulus fuchsiarum | propagation
Saturday, August 31, 2013
”
Friday. Early evening. The Conservatory Garden in Central Park. Check out the late-summer flowers. Take a few pictures…” But on this particular Friday the garden was buzzing not with bees…➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — central park | new york | parks
Friday, August 30, 2013
Friday. Early evening. A Long Day in the City so thought I’d have a quiet sit in the secret Conservatory Garden in Central Park. Check out the late-summer flowers. Take a few pictures….➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — central park | new york | parks
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
I’m in love with the greenhouses at Longwood. Have I said that enough? Well, maybe. But let me say it again anyway! I’m in love with the greenhouses at Longwood. Especially in the summer…➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanical gardens | fuchsias | greenhouses | summer
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
”The botanick fire had set in me such a flame as is not to be quenched untill death”. Born in 1699 into a Quaker family in colonial Pennsylvania, John Bartram was to become...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanical gardens | botanists | history | philadelphia
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Summer is now almost on us here in the City. Certainly the dew point is almost sixty-five degrees this misty morning. That’s a sure sign that our often humid, southern-flavored summers are...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanical gardens | greenhouses | long island | ornamentals | plants
Wednesday, May 01, 2013
Happy May Day everyone! In the spring, the four-acre Shakespeare Garden in Central Park becomes an absolute floral tapestry, just bursting with color. This landscape dates back to...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — central park | new york | parks
Saturday, April 27, 2013
It’s firmly spring now but just a mere month ago it seemed like winter would never move out. What to do? Visit more conservatory greenhouses, of course! Especially if they hold two of the finest…➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanical gardens | history | long island | spring
Monday, April 15, 2013
The urban fuchsias live in the City. In a small garden. In a small apartment garden. With no greenhouse and precious little space to overwinter plants indoors, lots of them have to be sacrificed to reality...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | hortulus fuchsiarum | spring | summer
Monday, April 01, 2013
The dazzling floral displays inside the Main Conservatory of Longwood Garden’s huge complex of greenhouses changes seasonally so any visit there is likely to be met with…➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanical gardens | greenhouses | spring
Thursday, March 21, 2013
The Estate Fruit House, part of the vast West Conservatory Complex at Longwood Gardens, is a carefully heated and ventilated greenhouse used for forcing crop plants...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanical gardens | fruit | greenhouses | winter
Friday, March 15, 2013
After visiting the Philly Flower Show last week, I wandered over to Longwood Gardens to check out what’s blooming in the Conservatory. It took awhile because the siren winter witch hazels…➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanical gardens | plants | winter
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Lucky for me, the Philadelphia Flower Show is just a couple of hours from home so I’ve been able to schedule a visit most years of the past decade and more. It’s been fun to...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — flower show | philadelphia | spring
Friday, March 08, 2013
Every year the best and most compelling section of the Philadelphia Flower Show always seems to me to be the simplest one. The PHS Hamilton Horticourt is where…➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — flower show | philadelphia | spring
Wednesday, March 06, 2013
There are so many worthwhile exhibits to see every year at the Philadelphia Flower Show. Bring your good hiking shoes. Zigging and zagging back and forth, and back again...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — flower show | philadelphia | spring
Monday, March 04, 2013
Beyond this year’s Philadelphia Flower Show’s “Brilliant” theme are again the many creative exhibitors who make the whole event so interesting every year. My personal favorite...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — flower show | philadelphia | spring
Saturday, March 02, 2013
“Brilliant!”, this year’s British-themed Philadelphia Flower Show, opened this week and runs from Saturday, March 2nd to Sunday, March 10th, 2013 in the Philadelphia Convention Center…➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — flower show | philadelphia | spring
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Coming back from a late winter’s jaunt to Texas, I took the opportunity to stop off at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden to check for signs of spring. I wasn’t disappointed...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanical gardens | spring | travel
Friday, February 15, 2013
Blizzard Nemo passed through the City overnight and fairly quickly. By 8:00 am the next morning the skies were clearing rapidly. By 9:00 am they were brilliant blue...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — new york | parks | winter
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Blizzard Nemo was billed as a snow storm of historic proportions well before it got here late on Friday night. It was certainly epic. Just not within New York City. The great blizzard of 1996…➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — new york | parks | winter
Friday, February 01, 2013
The third week of January was cold in the City. Very cold. With temperatures that dipped down to fifteen on a couple of nights even in my sheltered garden, and that went yet lower still... ➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanical gardens | flowers | greenhouses | new york
Monday, January 21, 2013
Most mornings might seem too short before it’s suddenly time for lunch, but the days of high summer are long. Near the garden’s restaurant is an extensive collection of daylilies...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — botanical gardens | flowers | new york
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
On warmer days and nights that don't go below breezing, I sometimes set some of the plants back outside to take in the spa of cool, refreshing air. Right now...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — fuchsias | hortulus fuchsiarum | winter
Monday, January 07, 2013
The winter sky was clear and the sunset looked to be promising so my friend and I couldn’t resist a detour on the walk home to take a stroll along the High Line before...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — new york | parks | winter
Tuesday, January 01, 2013
It's the beginning of January right now. Despite the incredible loop we were thrown by Hurricane Sandy just before Halloween last October, the weather this past fall has been a...➤ Read MoreThe Fuchsia+Blog Tags — hortulus fuchsiarum | winter