Every garden needs a showstopper—something with real presence, something that hums with life and story. For me, that’s Monarda didyma, better known as red bee balm. Sure, the purple varieties are nice (I grow those too), but the red? The red makes me swoon. It’s electric. It buzzes—visually and literally—with pollinators, color, and energy. This […]

Many of you might recall the ongoing saga with our neighbors—the ones who hired (and I use that term loosely) a so-called logger to clear-cut their property and, in the process, take down 15 of our trees. It was brutal. The woods, once a natural boundary, were suddenly gone, and the landscape changed overnight. Even […]

A few years ago, I planted an Aralia cordata ‘Sun King’ in our shade garden, and ever since, I’ve been wondering why I didn’t do it sooner. This plant is one of those hidden gems—something you don’t see in every garden center, yet once you plant it, you wonder how you ever gardened without it. […]

During 2015 at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, we are preparing to focus our educational programming around the theme of Myth, Magic, and Medicine of Plants. Over the past couple of weeks, our horticulture staff has been researching plants to support this theme. As part of that effort, I dove into the plant listings from some […]

This is the first year of school for our kids in New England. My wife grew up in Pennsylvania, and I grew up in North Carolina. During our school years, we became accustomed to a week-long Spring Break, usually around the Easter holiday. In New England, we learned, our kids get two week-long breaks after […]