Marianne Willburn appreciates the bold and often vertical element that some favorite tropical plants add to her temperate garden. But maybe best of all are the ones that also provide that something extra: ingredients for cooking, which is her other passion besides gardening. I talked to Marianne about growing tender edible ornamentals, from turmeric and gingers to lemongrass and more.
Marianne, a longtime garden writer who gardens in Virginia, is a contributing editor to the collaborative blog Garden Rant, and is also the author of the 2021 book “Tropical Plants and How to Love them: Building a Relationship with Heat-Loving Plants When You Don’t Live in the Tropics.” I’m so glad she’s here today to guide us on which of all those tempting tropicals at the garden center to indulge in for visual and culinary enjoyment.
Environmentalist and best-selling author, Jonathan Drori, says that for him, plant science is fascinating, but it’s truly enlivened when it’s entwined with human history...
Author Marta McDowell, a gardener and landscape designer in contemporary New Jersey, has an enduring passion for digging into history, particularly into noted authors...
Designer David Culp sees the garden in layers, but not just the most obvious landscape ones most of us do—meaning the canopy, the shrub...
