Johanna Dominguez behind the counter at Put a Plant On it (summer photo) While it’s widely acknowledged that gardening exploded during 2020—as much a result of the safety and satisfaction of being outdoors creating beauty (or trying to) as any stay-at-home order—another plant-related trend also burgeoned during the pandemic. People found that bringing plants inside … Read more
It’s the holiday season and our feeds are currently stuffed with gorgeous filtered photos and fifteen second videos warmed with soft music – all with one clear and focused goal: to make us buy and follow, follow and buy. Keep your wits about you. It’s a tricky season in the best of years, but at … Read more
Bob Hill is back and overcome by impulse. Problem No. 1 was I left my reading glasses in the car. Problem No. 2 was I was out foraging box-store garden centers in frosty December for whatever was left. Problem No.3 was that in having approached eight full decades of life I have taken a solemn … Read more
Johanna Dominguez of Put a Plant on It, planted this terrarium for me, my second. Happy new year! I’m celebrating by embracing a new terrarium. I’m somewhat confident because I have one already that I’ve kept going for more than a dozen years. I say somewhat because I personally did not plant either of the … Read more
Tony Avent’s beloved garden and his Plant Delights Nursery in North Carolina have many mentions here on GardenRant, all favorable. We’ve reported on visits in person, and we were thrilled to be included in the cover of the 2013 catalog (the four original Ranters are in the upper left). So no one here takes pleasure … Read more
Breaking a 191-year-old tradition—necessitated by the current pandemic but long overdue in this gardener’s opinion—the Philadelphia Flower Show (PFS, shown above) will, this year, be held outside. It would seem natural to hold a flower show outside, but, in the US, it is not the norm. Seattle, Sacramento, Chicago, Boston, and even South Carolina all … Read more
Guest rant by Jack Kramer Guess you could say I started gardening at about age four when I planted onion sets in my sandbox. That means I now have seventy-eight years of gardening under my belt. But I’m still learning. Each year, I buy plants from local nurseries, avoiding the often-drooping stock at big box … Read more
By C.L. Fornari Sparky, a Sato, wonders why he’s being asked to sit next to a Hydrangea, tentatively identified as a H. macrophylla ‘Sandy Summer’ I went to the grocery store recently, and when I checked out, my cart contained the food I needed and a Hydrangea that I didn’t. The store was filled with … Read more
Drew Barrymore Sells Lawn Care Suddenly my social media feeds are showing me videos of Drew Barrymore ecstatically hugging bags of grass seed and telling us to Lawn Differently with “Choose Instead,” Bag-hugging aside, I’m totally open to celebrities being hired to sell products if they’re good ones and the message to consumers is … Read more
It’s better to be outside. That is surely one of the central takeaways from the past year. Rather than simply cancel its annual late winter event, which has been held for 193 years, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society decided to hold its 2021 flower show later, outdoors, at Olmsted-designed FDR Park in South Philly. The show … Read more