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Articles from Francis Rosenfeld | Selfgrowth.com
- Valerian - by Submitted on May 19, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldThere is a whole list of plants I feel like I know well because I encountered them in literary works, but most of which I haven't actually seen until recently: hyssop, heliotrope, verbena, wallflower, camellia, primrose, jasmine, heather, wolfsbane. The list is actually much longer, but I'll ...
Views: 12 - Sweet Cherry Pie - by Submitted on May 13, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldI have become very fond of vintage cottage garden flowers in the last few years, a sentiment which stemmed from the realization that my idea of a cottage garden is significantly different from my grandmother’s. Sure they share some staple plants, without which neither a modern nor a vintage ...
Views: 27 - Pretty Wild Things - by Submitted on May 05, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldOk, I didn’t actually plant fleabane, but so what! It’s here, it’s blooming and it blends beautifully with the orange daylilies. There is a long list of wild flowers that earned their rightful spot into the flower border, many of which have been bequeathed to us as components of the vintage ...
Views: 42 - A Celebration of the Sun - by Submitted on Apr 30, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldThere are many traditions, myths and folk tales associated with the summer solstice, many of which involve the herbs and plants that bloom around this time and whose medicinal and aromatic properties are said to be enhanced when gathered on the eve or morning of the solstice. I remember an ...
Views: 39 - The Glow of Late Afternoons - by Submitted on Apr 21, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldEverything looked radiant in the glow of the golden hour, before the sunset dimmed it to violet and blue. This surreal light quality created halos around everything, lighting up the late daffodil blossoms from inside like so many tiny lanterns. I stayed outside for as long as I could and ...
Views: 52 - Vintage Cottage Gardens - by Submitted on Apr 14, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldI have become very fond of vintage cottage garden flowers in the last few years, a sentiment which stemmed from the realization that my idea of a cottage garden is significantly different from my grandmother’s. Sure they share some staple plants, without which neither a modern nor a vintage ...
Views: 76 - A Celebration of the Sun - by Submitted on Apr 09, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldThere are many traditions, myths and folk tales associated with the summer solstice, many of which involve the herbs and plants that bloom around this time and whose medicinal and aromatic properties are said to be enhanced when gathered on the eve or morning of the solstice. I remember an ...
Views: 46 - The Delightful Aromatics - by Submitted on Mar 31, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldAromatics come in two flavors: kitchen herbs and medicinals. A few herbs cross over from one category to the other, rosemary and lavender would be good examples of that, although using lavender for cooking is a bit of an acquired taste. Almost everybody has grown kitchen herbs on a sunny ...
Views: 58 - Planters - by Submitted on Mar 24, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldThe planters get a little tired and overgrown by the end of the summer, when the ideal combination of colors, heights and textures or their original design gives in to the whims of nature. There is beauty in that disarray, the beauty of the natural hierarchy that establishes itself outside of ...
Views: 50 - Fall Perennials - by Submitted on Mar 23, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldBy the time sedum starts to bloom autumn is not too far behind, and since every year I have the same problem, which is that the fall landscape turns into a sea of mums in every color known to man, I made a list of other perennials to get a little variety during the cooler months. Between the ...
Views: 60 - Garden in Bloom - by Submitted on Mar 18, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldThe one good thing about a cold spring is that the tree bloom lasts long enough to enjoy. The cherries, the dogwoods and the early magnolias covered the whole landscape in pink and white veils for over two weeks, it's very poetic. Now that good weather is finally here it brought with it the ...
Views: 57 - Garden Color Theory - by Submitted on Mar 11, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldThe most common harmonies in the garden are derived straight from art color theory: monochrome, complementary, triadic, and analogous. The monochrome scheme is pretty straight forward. Same color, same hue. Everywhere. The complementary scheme is one of the most used in professional ...
Views: 55 - Gardening Superstitions - by Submitted on Mar 03, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldWhen you grow up around gardening activities you're sure to internalize a few old wives tales. Some of them are backed up by science, but most are just taken on faith and passed along from one generation to the next without any reason or explanation. Here are a few. If you want a plant ...
Views: 53 - Preparing Vegetable Beds - by Submitted on Feb 25, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldMost vegetables are annual, which makes the gardener’s work to prepare their beds significantly easier. There are no roots to disturb, no bulbs to accidentally dig up. Early in spring, preferably before the vegetation starts reemerging, turn the soil to a spade’s depth, which is about twelve ...
Views: 69 - Daffodil Gardens - by Submitted on Feb 19, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldI’ve only seen daffodil gardens in public parks and plant conservatories, gardeners usually grow these lovely spring bulbs in mixed borders, where their fading foliage can be concealed by the fresh growth of the summer perennials after they are done blooming. The basic layout of a daffodil ...
Views: 74 - Perennial Borders - by Submitted on Feb 13, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldOne of the myths of gardening is that once you planted a perennial border it is set in stone and it will come back, year after year, exactly the same. That is not true at all, I look through pictures of my garden through the last few seasons and it is almost unrecognizable from one year to the ...
Views: 89 - Charming Tangle - by Submitted on Jan 25, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldIf you want a real cottage garden, don’t tame it, it is supposed to be wild, messy and overgrown, sort of jumbled together without too much focus on height hierarchy and perfect color schemes. Many of its traditional plants are tall, broad and thick and spill over railings, fences, trellises ...
Views: 81 - High Drama - by Submitted on Jan 20, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldIf you want to create drama in your garden, by all means, pick all white flowers. People don’t usually crave intensity in a cottage garden, which is a care free collection of gregarious annuals and perennials suited to comfort the spirit rather than stir it up. Most of the cottage garden ...
Views: 97 - The Garden on the Window Sill - by Submitted on Jan 13, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldWith not even half of the winter behind me I have no choice but to concentrate on the miniature garden on the window sill. Fortunately for me, the indoor plants are generous with their flowers. The African violets, the lovely ruffled cyclamens, the amaryllis, the dark begonia, even the Christmas ...
Views: 86 - The Magic Hour - by Submitted on Jan 05, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldToday I was out in the garden before dawn and I watched the crescent moon fade slowly into daylight as carpets of clouds moved very fast across the sky. Slowly the birds and the moths started to emerge from their nightly hideouts, eager to catch an early meal before the morning rush. The ...
Views: 91 - All Things Lucky and Green - by Submitted on Dec 28, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldIt seems fitting, now at the end of the year, to make a list of plants that bring luck, you know, just in case. Let’s start with the classics: lavender and roses. No garden should be without them - lavender for luck, roses for love. Honesty and sage attract prosperity to the household. It ...
Views: 130 - Cooking with Roses - by Submitted on Dec 21, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldWhere I grew up, roses belonged in the pantry. Between the rose preserves, the rose syrups, and the rose water in pastry dough, the aristocratic flowers doubled up as bona fide cooking ingredients. What do roses taste like? They are a bit of an acquired taste. Rose preserves are extremely ...
Views: 110 - Bells of Ireland - by Submitted on Dec 17, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldHave you ever had this sinking feeling, when you want to try a plant you’ve never grown before and you look at the beautiful photos on the seed packet, that there is absolutely no way this botanical wonder will ever grow in your garden? I’m not one to dismiss instinct, it is usually based on ...
Views: 95 - Medicinal Herbs - by Submitted on Dec 08, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldThe first time I saw an herb garden in a public park I asked myself what was the point of it? The fact that it occupied a small nook in the middle of the rose garden, at a time when all the roses were in bloom, didn’t help its cause very much. I know better now. Of course, I selected the ...
Views: 123 - Crop Rotation - by Submitted on Dec 02, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldCrop rotation requires a lot more space than is usually available in a backyard, but I can discuss it in concept. It is a natural gardening method that allows the soil to maintain its balance, so it doesn’t get depleted over time due to the repeated cultivation of a crop that makes heavy use of ...
Views: 106 - The Dormant Garden - by Submitted on Nov 26, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldIf you were wondering what happens to your perennials during their winter hibernation, here goes. At the approach of winter they transform the sugars developed through photosynthesis into starch, which they can store inside their roots long term and use during the winter in the same way ...
Views: 97 - Bulb Propagation - by Submitted on Nov 20, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldIf you love root division you’ll be happy to know that it works for bulbs too, via scaling, slicing, scooping and scoring. Scaling is a propagation method that seems almost custom designed for lilies, whose bulbs “bloom” naturally, turning them into tiny clusters that look like artichokes. ...
Views: 114 - Propagating Plants from Cuttings - by Submitted on Nov 12, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldStem, root or leaf cuttings are the nursery standard for the propagation of perennials, especially those whose clumps grow woody with time. The benefit of this method is that the young plants are true clones of their parents. Leaf cutting is the simplest and most miraculous of the methods. It ...
Views: 121 - White Fragrance - by Submitted on Nov 04, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldYou would think that the white fleshy flowers that have a heavy, almost overbearing fragrance would be the easiest to extract perfume from, but it is the very opposite: lilies, gardenias, lily of the valley, tuberoses, honeysuckle, and jasmine are notoriously difficult to pin down scent wise, as ...
Views: 116 - What Plants Need to Thrive - by Submitted on Oct 29, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldIf you ever drove by a flower meadow in the middle of summer, you must have realized that plants handle themselves very well without human assistance, as they’ve always done. The gardener is only there to cheer them along. A plant needs three things to thrive: sunlight, water and a proper ...
Views: 112 - Magic Hour - by Submitted on Oct 22, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldToday I was out in the garden before dawn and I watched the crescent moon fade slowly into daylight as carpets of clouds moved very fast across the sky. Slowly the birds and the moths started to emerge from their nightly hideouts, eager to catch an early meal before the morning rush. The ...
Views: 135 - The Moon Garden - by Submitted on Oct 14, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldOk, I know everybody is busy and strolling through your garden at night is not the first thing that comes to mind at the end of the day, but if the spirit moves you to create one, a moon garden can be just as lovely as a bright patch of colorful flowers in the sunlight. As is the case with ...
Views: 109 - All the Flowers of Spring - by Submitted on Oct 08, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldUsually around this time of year I start to panic, look around and wonder where everything went? Where are the flowers, where is the order, how am I ever going to dig myself out of the mountain of debris that becomes the fall garden. This is when I find it useful to revisit pictures from seasons ...
Views: 123 - Mushrooms - by Submitted on Oct 01, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldEveryone is familiar with this weird characteristic of mushrooms: they spring out of the ground overnight, fully grown, whenever they get a good rain and enough warmth to trigger their development. You go to sleep with a lawn and wake up to a mushroom hatchery. The good news is that mushrooms ...
Views: 175 - Fall Textures - by Submitted on Sep 24, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldThe best way to describe the September garden is a charming mess. The summer plants don’t know whether it makes sense for them to keep going, and when they do bloom they do so in bursts and spurts that have a jarring effect on the fall landscape, which is of a completely different ...
Views: 126 - Harvesting Seeds - by Submitted on Sep 17, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldCleome is a prolific self seeder. I gathered close to half a pound of seeds off of it last summer, and it still managed to populate the flower bed for the following year. It is beautiful, even though its flowers are a lot more subdued this year. Here’s the drawback: the original plants were ...
Views: 147 - Garden Textures - by Submitted on Sep 10, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldThe difference between planting and landscape design comes from paying attention to seemingly unimportant details and one of them is texture. Its impact is even greater in the shade, where very few plants bloom. A well balanced shade border will have all of the following: Broad leaved ...
Views: 145 - Morning Glory - by Submitted on Sep 01, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldI plant morning glory every year. Always in the same spot, always the same variety - Heavenly Blue. I forget about it after I plant it, it is slow to start in spring and its foliage gets lost in the jumble when the mid-summer growth takes over the flower beds. Come August, its growth ...
Views: 181 - Bee Trivia - by Submitted on Aug 26, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldThere must be a hive somewhere in the neighborhood, because bees visit my garden very often, to gather nectar from their favorite flowers. Sedums produce an abundance of it, and their small flowers make an insect's work a little easier. Did you know that a worker bee lives just forty days over ...
Views: 166 - Garden Phlox - by Submitted on Aug 20, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldGarden phlox makes a big impact in the garden, it grows over five foot tall and its clumps get larger as it becomes established. Even one or two of them can brighten up a garden, especially when nothing else is in bloom. This feature is particularly valuable towards the end of summer, when the ...
Views: 145 - August Flowers - by Submitted on Aug 14, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldThere is not much going on in the garden after mother nature rained and stormed and puffed the flower beds away. I spent the most part of yesterday cleaning up broken branches as thick as my arm that were strewn about the lawn, blocking access to my favorite spot in the back yard and ...
Views: 155 - Surreal - by Submitted on Aug 06, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldThe middle of July brought its favorites - the lilies, the phlox, the daisies. I'm not sure whether cone flowers really are supposed to grow five foot tall. There is fierce competition in the sunny border for the land and the light. I can barely make my way through the bee balms and the ...
Views: 142 - Black Cohosh - by Submitted on Jul 30, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldBlack Cohosh has everything a shade gardener can dream of. It grows six to eight feet tall and produces these almost surreal wands of rosy white fuzzy flowers that smell like honey and bloom abundantly against the background of its strikingly dark foliage in full shade from mid-summer to the end ...
Views: 151 - June Tangerine or How to Care for Daylilies - by Submitted on Jul 23, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldThe day lilies came with the house and they were already established when we moved in, so I didn’t pay much attention to their care. It showed. I used to take day lilies for granted because they are so ubiquitous in public and commercial outdoor spaces people see them as care free. That they ...
Views: 173 - Solar Eclipse - by Submitted on Jul 16, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldLike so many people, I too stared at the sun for a couple of hours, to watch it turn from a ball of fire into a thin crescent of light. We were not in the total eclipse zone and because of that, sunlight shone through the entire time. I could only see the moon’s shadow through special glasses, ...
Views: 244 - Beautiful Flowers to Plant in the Shade - by Submitted on Jul 09, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldThe shade border rests at the end of summer, when it gets too warm and too dry for its taste. Since this summer was cool and rainy, the plants maintained the exuberant growth of early spring. The hostas are lush and full, the begonias are in full bloom and the toad lilies have doubled in ...
Views: 193 - Garden Textures - by Submitted on Jul 02, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldThe difference between planting and landscape design comes from paying attention to seemingly unimportant details and one of them is texture. Its impact is even greater in the shade, where very few plants bloom. A well balanced shade border will have all of the following: Broad leaved ...
Views: 204 - How to Attract Bees to Your Garden - by Submitted on Jun 25, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldI love watching bees swarm the stonecrops on nice sunny afternoons. If a garden is thriving, the bees will come to visit, but if you want to entice them further, here are a few pointers. Avoid using insecticides, pesticides or harsh fertilizers. Bees like tiny flowers that make it easier ...
Views: 203 - The Three Years Rule - by Submitted on Jun 18, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldThe peonies would have bloomed by now, the buds have been ready to burst for more than a week, but it is so unseasonably cold, weird May weather! Temperatures in the fifties, I almost have to question the wisdom of moving the basil outside, it looks miserable. Peonies are the object lesson ...
Views: 177 - What's an Eggplant Worth? - by Submitted on Jun 11, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldI’ve been growing vegetables in my little garden for over ten years, and one may wonder what is the benefit of waiting four whole months to get an eggplant when there is a whole stand of them at the grocery store all the time, even in the middle of winter. What happens is that every year, ...
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