The beloved wildflowers of springtime—the trilliums, the mayapples, the Virginia bluebells—are probably gone till next year, but don't despair. Here comes the next cast of players, the wildflowers of summer. The acclaimed naturalist Carol Gracie looks beyond their surface beauty in her new book on the subject, into their life histories and even cultural uses of plants like cardinal flower, lupine, milkweed, asters, goldenrods, and more.
Carol Gracie, a former longtime educator at the New York Botanical Garden who also worked for The Nature Conservancy, has followed her own intense curiosity to become a leading expert on wildflowers. Now her second book, “Summer Wildflowers of the Northeast: a Natural History,” from Princeton University Press, forms the companion to her earlier spring volume.
I met today’s guest, Helen O’Donnell, at a plant sale a couple of springs ago, before the pandemic scuttled most such big public events....
In late winter, we gardeners rev up around sowing those first seeds indoors under lights. But the promise of a bountiful vegetable garden that...
Long Litt Woon Mushrooms: I have only in recent years tuned in to mushrooms really at all, despite much of a life spent engaged...