-By Lynsey Grosfield- There are a few Christmas plants that consistently hit the stores every year, and they couldn't be more different from one another. Here is the low-down on taking care of the three most popular seasonal botanical all throughout the holidays. Poinsettias ( Euphorb ia pulcherrima) are native to Mexico, where they have been used as both a dye and as a symbol of Christmas since the 16th century. Poinsettias aren’t grown for their flowers but actually for their bracts—which are a specialized form of leaf—that stop the show, they...

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-By Lynsey Grosfield- A perennial plant is a gift that keeps on giving in a variety of ways: firstly, it graces the garden with blossoms and foliage year after year, and secondly, it grows beyond the margins in which it was originally planted, often making copies of itself and forming a clonal patch. While the lateral spread is often a welcome attribute in a garden where there is still bare soil to colonize, some gardeners prefer to keep perennials growing in a circumscribed area, either for aesthetic reasons, or to...

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  -by Lynsey Grosfield- In Voltaire’s Candide, the source of true happiness is famously found in the sentence “il faut cultiver notre jardin” (“we must cultivate our gardens”). In many ways, Voltaire was a man ahead of his time: now, there is ample evidence to suggest his more figurative meaning should be taken literally.  Gardening or horticultural therapy is a recognized form of intervention for several conditions: from mental health challenges like depression, to degenerative conditions like dementia, to developmental conditions like autism. Further, it can be used as a...

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-By Lynsey Grosfield- When it comes to noticing the beauty of native wildflowers, it’s a case of the maxim, “the slower you go, the bigger your world gets.” Cultivating a sense of appreciation for the form of local plants can come a bit more naturally once their function is understood. Biomes--local environmental systems--are unbelievably interconnected. The plants, insects, animals, and fungi of an area have all evolved together, and often have mutualistic relationships. This is partly how invasive species can be so disruptive to an ecosystem: the local life web...

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