Antsy About Ants on Your Peonies? Have No Fear

“The Ant King Palace opens its carmine door: Peony in bloom.” ~Yosa Buson (1716-1784)* It doesn’t take a scholar of 18th-century Japanese haiku to know that Peonies and ants often go together. Some of us encountered ants crawling on the rounded buds of Peonies when we were little, when bugs were “cool.” (In fact, this plant-critter connection was so fascinating to one precocious youngster that she became an entomologist.**) More of us, alas, approach the subject having experienced struggles removing the insects from our kitchen countertops. The idea of ants inhabiting one of the showiest of all garden flowers may,…

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Month November 2018

Amaryllis: Trumpets of Winter

Written by Tovah Martin Illustrations by Michelle Meyer Reprinted with permission, excerpted and adapted from the December 2001/January 2002 edition of The Gardener magazine. Gardening is not, in general, overburdened by foolproof flowers, but Amaryllises are as  close as you’ll come…

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Front Door Decorating

Share the joy of the season with family, friends, and neighbors when you decorate your front door for the holidays. Using beautiful evergreen wreaths and garlands, you transform your front entrance into a beacon of holiday cheer. Annual planters also…

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