By Lisa Newman, Art Director

Horticulture’s third-annual “Plants We Love” issue hit the newsstands just about the same time that my friend Jeffrey called to schedule our second-annual “tea and seed catalog” get-together.

Jeffrey was already there when I arrived at the local eatery, Elmer's. He was sitting at a table buried beneath a mountain of catalogs. A steady stream of gawkers couldn’t resist a look. Everyone had something to say. Mostly they all expressed the same end-of-January longing for plants, color—the promise that all of the pictures held. (At home, my dog Amos was pining for some garden action, too.)

I ended up with a long, long list and plan on placing my orders today—after some editing, so I don’t overspend or overestimate my ability to actually get all of these planted. Then the next move is space planning, inside and out.

I’ve always wanted a cutting garden, and this year I am determined to get one started. I hope that I can pull this off from start to finish. I’d never really considered starting an entire garden from seeds but here goes.

A sampling of the list:

• ‘Moonshadow’ and dwarf sunflowers
• ‘Apricot Blush’ zinnia
• ‘Glacier Star’ morning glory
• ‘Black Watchman’ and ‘Antwerp Mixed’ hollyhocks
• Dahlias of all varieties
• Mixes of blue-shaded sweet peas

2/1/2008 4:14:10 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]