Bruce Crawford

During my drive to work, I pass a number of homes whose landscapes mostly consist of a tidy row of shrubs paired with a neatly trimmed lawn. The spring may offer some floral enhancement, but by-and-large, the landscapes remain a steadfast green. Few homeowners consider replacing some of those shrubs and the lawn with a stylized meadow featuring sweeps of various flowering perennials and grasses. This style of design provides color, texture and a much-needed habitat for our insects and...

In this age of readily disseminated literature and specialty nurseries delivering novel and little-known plants to your doorstep, logic would have it that all the intriguing and easily grown plants would be well-known and readily available for purchase. Should a gardener needed to evaluate a plant further, they would need only visit their local public garden where they could see these unique gems firsthand. However, some very good plants have managed to sidestep public gardens and literary...

I am not certain if it is forgetfulness or simply a lack of patience, but I am always astonished at the number of times I have grown a plant unsuccessfully and opted not to try it again until many years later. A case in point is Bowman’s Root, botanically known as Gillenia trifoliata (as seen below in late May with a backdrop of Physocarpus Coppertina®). I remember exactly where I planted it in 1987 at a garden in Hawthorne, NJ and I did not give the plant much consideration again until...