The Mysterious Garden Muse

This month, in addition to moderating the Garden and Mystery Book Clubs at BN.com, I am moderating a discussion of Nicholas Sparks' new book, The Choice. The discussion group kicked off on October 1st -- please join us! In November, the Mystery Book Club is going back to Agatha Christie -- this time a Miss Marple mystery: Sleeping Murder. In December, the Mystery Book Club will be talking about the new Christmas release by Janet Evanovich: Visions of Sugarplums. The Garden Book Club is more general discussion and book recommendations than discussions of individual books. Sometimes we do have an author visit, though, as when Bill Alexander joined us to talk about his great book, The $64 Tomato.

In October, the Mystery Book Club at BN.com will be talking about the Ira Levin classic (and his first book) A Kiss Before Dying. It has been made into movies twice, once in the 1950s, starring Robert Wagner and Joanne Woodward, and once in the early 1990s with Matt Dillon and Sean Young, so we'll probably talk about those, too. For those of you who aren't familiar with Ira Levin, he went on to write Rosemary's Baby and other classics. Looking ahead, our featured mystery in November will be Agatha Christie's Sleeping Murder (a Miss Marple) and in December we will feature Janet Evanovich's new Stephanie Plum, Visions of Sugarplums. Starting in either November or December, I'm not sure which, I will also start moderating a stand-alone book club featuring the new Nicholas Sparks book. In the meantime, we are still talking about Ruth Rendell's eerie book, The Water's Lovely, if you feel like joining the conversation!

This is a little advance notice for those of you who are following the Mystery Book Club at BN.com. We will be kicking off the discussion of Agatha Christie's classic, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd on Monday, August 6. We've also just made the selection for our September mystery book feature: Ruth Rendell's new non-series mystery, The Water's Lovely. Right now it's only available in hardback form but it will be published in paperback form later this month. Rendell is a great British mystery author, I think she was recently made a Dame of the British Empire (like Agatha Christie was) but her books are much darker and more complex. Join us in September if you'd like to discuss this book!

It's one day and counting until the new Harry Potter book comes out. The publishing world has never experienced anything like this and since this is the last book in the series, I'm sure they are going to milk this for all it's worth. I've read all the Harry Potter books and I've seen all the movies except the one that just came out (my kids have seen it and they loved it). I prefer the books to the movies but my favorite has to be the first book in the series. It was so much fun to meet Harry and his friends for the first time, in that magical world. I've preordered my own copy from England, but both of my kids will be at Barnes and Noble in Orlando to get their copies at midnight tomorrow night. They may even dress up for it -- I wouldn't put it past them. Oh, and did I mention these are college kids? Apparently dorkiness is an inherited trait. (Sorry, kids.) I may go to my local bookstore at midnight just to join in the fun. Anyway, stop in to the book cl...

Starting in August, the Mystery Book Club at Barnes and Noble's website (www.bn.com, click "Book Clubs") will be featuring The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, the Agatha Christie classic. While it's not my favorite Christie, it is -- along with Murder on the Orient Express -- her most controversial book. A new hardcover of the book has just been published and we are using that as an excuse to get this discussion going. I'm a diehard Agatha Christie fan -- read my first one, Funerals are Fatal, at age 15 and I've been hooked ever since. I'm still moderating the Garden Book Club at BN.com but that site is quiet at this time of year -- gardeners are out in the garden in the summer! Except for me -- between writing and traveling this year, I've barely had time for my yard at all. It is unusual for me to travel this much but I figure it goes back to that "to every thing there is a season" and this year it is apparently my season to travel rather than to ...

With the chill of winter fresh in our memories, it may seem like summer with its shimmering heat is taking forever to arrive. May and June will soon be upon us, though, ushering in the seasonal craving for brightly colored flowers that seems ingrained in us all. Garden centers will soon be selling everything in bloom as fast as they can set it out, and landscape contractors will have their hands full filling beds, borders, containers and window boxes with foliage and flowers. After the grays and browns of winter, not to mention the mud-spattered, once-white snow, all a plant needs to sell itself is color, color, color. Take advantage of this seasonal madness by heating up the color palette in your plant installation and design. Crank up the heat with vivid scarlet, flaming orange and glowing yellows, whether you focus on annuals or perennials, and whether you are working in beds or containers. Perennial flowers tend to have a short bloom period but they also have the benefit of re...

I had a stopover in Dallas on my way home from McAllen. The combination of a big storm and Memorial Day weekend meant that I was stuck in Dallas for a couple of days. Luckily, I have friends and relatives in that area so it turned out to be a fun opportunity for some unplanned visits. I spent one night with my aunt and uncle in Carrollton. They have done wonders with their garden/landscape. I'm attaching some pictures of their yard. (More pictures to follow -- I have to reformat some of the best ones.)

In May I spent some time in McAllen, TX with my sister -- she's been there for several years but this was my first visit. I've been to Texas many times but never to this part of the state. McAllen is right on the border with Mexico, further south than Corpus Christie, and for some reason I was expecting it to be desert, sage-brush country, something like Amarillo. Instead, I found it very flat -- reminiscent of the part of the midwest where I grew up, in that respect -- but the plant life is actually sub-tropical. It wasn't all that different from Orlando, which really surprised me. My sister lives across from a gated estate that is beautifully landscaped. One of the residents of the estate, Mr. Larry (that's his last name, I'm not sure I've spelled it correctly), gave my sister and me a guided tour of the estate and several people let me take pictures. I'm posting a selection of them, including one of my sister and Mr. Larry. It was hot as blazes when we we...

My daughter lives in Orlando and works for Disney. I try to get down there every year for the Epcot Flower and Garden Show which runs from early April to the beginning of June. I love Epcot anyway, and the flower show is just icing on the cake. I have so many pictures from this event, it might take more than one post to show even a small sampling.

The Cincinnati Flower Show is the only flower show in the United States that has the endorsement of England's Royal Horticultural Society. Under the leadership of Mary Margaret Rochford and the Cincinnati Horticultural Society, this show draws thousands of people from all over the U.S. -- even some from around the world. I have had the privilege of working with the show for about a dozen years. I am going to attach some pictures from this year's show. Enjoy!

Another of my favorite haunts in Cincinnati is Rowe Arboretum on Muchmore Road in Indian Hill. If you go there, it's a very windy, hilly area with lots of deer. I got to know Rowe Arboretum, in a way, because of the deer problem. Chris Daeger is in charge of the grounds and pretty much everything else at Rowe Arboretum. I met Chris originally at a meeting of the American Conifer Society when it had a rare meeting in Cincinnati. Since then, I run into Chris pretty regularly when we both work on the Ask the Experts panels at the Cincinnati Flower Show. When I first met Chris, though, he was giving a talk to the Conifer Society on his problems dealing with deer at Rowe Arboretum. He made his point quickly and effectively by plonking a huge, dead shrub on the podium -- a shrub that had been killed by deer. Since then, Chris has become the person I always check with first when I'm writing about deer, because he always knows the latest deterrents -- what works, and what doesn't. ...

One of my favorite places to visit every spring is Krohn Conservatory, up by Eden Park, the art museum and Playhouse in the Park. Actually, there is something to see at the conservatory no matter what time of year you visit. Spring is my favorite because the magnolias and crabapples around the museum are in bloom then, and there are all kinds f blooming bulbs. If you go later in the year, be sure to catch the hot air balloon show at the mirror lake at Eden Park. I'll attach a photo taken by Devon Upton -- the balloons were shot by Devon, I took the plant pix. Back to the Krohn: in addition to their seasonal features, they always have a tropical rain forest in one part of the conservatory, while in other areas you can view bonsai trees, orchids, cacti and succulents. The conservatory is free to residents -- in fact, I'm not positive, but I think it's free to all visitors now.

Hi! I'm back after a long gap, as you can see. I've been traveling a lot in the last few months, and I've still got more trips coming up. So far this year I've been to Robinson, IL, Chicago downtown/suburbs - more times than I can count, Orlando, Las Vegas, McAllen/San Antonio/Dallas, TX and next the Bahamas, then Chicago yet again. We may also squeeze in a leaf-peeping visit to New York/Mass/Vermont in the fall, but that's not definite yet. The big traveler in the family right now is my son, who is getting ready to join his girlfriend in Beijing, China for a week in August, and then they are going to tour Tibet. He keeps telling me about the roads they'll be taking up into the Himalayas, and bridges over 17,000 ft. gorges. Not for me, thanks very much. Anyway, back to the blog. I'm still at Barnes and Noble, moderating the garden book club. Starting in July, I will also be moderating the mystery book club. We are kicking off by featuring a book called The P...

My dog Maggie died this afternoon. She was my first and only dog -- I'd only had cats and rabbits in the past. Maggie was a mix of Lab, German shepherd and chow, pure black when we got her and looking like a lab puppy. Her full name was Maggie Shannon (we voted on her name when we got her) but we called her everything from Maggie May to Maggity to Maggally to Maggie Bean to Ziplock Maggie. My son had been pushing us to get a dog for a long time, but it was hard when I was working outside of the house. I remember when we took our cats to the vet once, Jonathan picked up a bunch of brochures. I woke up the next morning with a brochure about dogs laying open over my face, with a note from Jonathan saying he wanted a Bassett hound! When we went to a picnic with my husband's coworkers, Jonathan spent the whole time playing with a puppy someone brought with them. When we moved to Cincinnati, I started working from home so we talked about getting a dog. I don't remember what final...

If a landscape is very formal in design, does that mean it inevitably has a stiff, sophisticated ambience? Does a more natural design automatically create a more relaxed effect? The ambience or “mood” of a landscape or garden design can certainly be influenced by the types of plants selected and the way the plants are arranged, but the effect may vary with the seasons. Hardscapes and artistic motifs can be used to create a unifying theme between the architecture of the home and the design of the landscape. If the house is of a distinctive architectural period, or if the hardscapes and garden structures feature prominently in the landscape design, those features alone could conceivably create a mood. The type of ambience would largely depend on the style of the house -- a plantation-style house surrounded by live oaks and magnolias would only need a tray of mint juleps to recall the old South. A house incorporating native stone, and repeating native stonework in the outdoor hardscape...

There is something about daffodils that seems to inspire poets, most famously Herrick and Wordsworth. Tulips have brought out completely different reactions over the years, most famously “Tulipomania”. Daffodils and tulips are far and away the most popular flowering spring bulbs, so why does one seem to push buttons with collectors while the other brings out the muse? Maybe it is just because the sunny yellow flowers of daffodils (Narcissus spp.) are such a change from the drab colors of winter. Also, when the daffodils bloom it means that warmer days are just over the horizon. Whatever the reason, it’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t like daffodils. What’s not to like? Unlike fussy tulips, daffodils will live and multiply for many years after planting, if the conditions are suitable. And while critters might dig up daffodil bulbs, they don’t eat them -- the bulbs are toxic to most animals. Even the nicest daffodils are relatively inexpensive and easy to find. Nearly all daffodil sp...

Aromatherapy has been a hot topic for some time now, but it shows no signs of fading away. Far from it – scented candles have pushed other merchandise off the shelves in malls across the country, while our television viewing is interspersed with ads for scented air fresheners in liquid, solid or oil forms, plug-ins, machines that shoot puffs of fragrance into the air, even CDs that “play” different fragrances throughout the day. Since many of these synthetic fragrances are meant to convey images of the great outdoors, fresh cut grass as well as floral fragrances galore, many people assume that just by planting flowers, a fragrant garden is sure to follow. Those who have more experience know that while many flowers are virtually without scent, the needles of some conifers, the bark of some trees and the foliage of numerous plants can often compete with the fragrance of the most valuable perfumed flowers. Think perfume and many people instantly focus on roses, lilacs or mock orange bloss...

At the moment I am moderating the Home and Hobbies book club at BN.com (and I visit a lot of the other clubs on a regular basis). The Home and Hobbies club is about to be revamped so topics like knitting will have a different moderator, and there will be a new book club, that I will moderate, discussing four or five gardening books each month. I've given the powers-that-be some suggestions for books to discuss including several soon to be published titles and a couple of classics. We may also include a "board" to discuss gardening mysteries, since there are a lot of those available now. The book clubs are free and now that people are becoming more familiar with the new format (as opposed to the old online university classes), the message boards are getting busy again. Stop by BN.com to say hi, and to talk about new and interesting books on garden topics. By the way, the photo has nothing to do with the topic of this post. I just wanted to see some summery flowers -- I...

Short of dropping Chicago smack into the middle of the Mohave Desert, it may be hard to conceive of cacti and succulents growing in this area. If Midwest gardeners have grown these plants at all, they were most likely grown as houseplants or greenhouse specialties. Certainly, in order to survive a Chicago winter, the great majority of cacti and succulents would need to be overwintered indoors. But with exotic gardens and distinctive container plants attracting more and more interest, these fascinating plants are escaping the confines of the house, if only for the summer. Since cacti and succulents tend to be desert plants, the soil and weather conditions in Chicago are a stretch. Luckily, one of the best things about container gardens is their flexibility. If a plant needs well-drained, sandy soil conditions, those conditions can be made to order in a container. If a plant needs plenty of sun but shelter from the wind, containers can be sited in exactly the right spot. And if the su...