It’s that time of year again, and there are some interesting winners as well as two brand-new award categories added to this second instalment of my personal garden awards. So, let’s get the show on the road! The Smiley (for surprising success) This ended in a tie between Daphne x transatlantica ‘Eternal Fragrance’ and Edgeworthia…
I have a redbud problem; or, more accurately, a problem redbud. It was already here when I bought the Money Pit in 2013, although – thanks to a late-winter snowstorm – I had no idea what it was. What it turned out to be was a weeping redbud, about three feet tall and with a…
Although Disney characters are hardly the first things that come to mind when one thinks of the Connoisseur of Malvern porcelain studio, there were a surprising number of such designs, all produced during the 1990s. They fall into two categories: the editions based on classic Disney movies, and the series connected to a venture called…
It turns out that my unknown/mystery jewelry maker had a presence (either in their own booth or through on-site vendors) at the 1934 World’s Fair in Chicago. This further establishes the heyday of their manufacturing as having been the mid-1930s. Chicago had previously hosted a precursor to what would later be called a World’s Fair;…
Are you a ruthless gardener? I never used to be one. In past gardens, I’d always somehow find a place for a bonus plant included with an order (regardless of color, size, or growing conditions preferred) because to simply chuck it out would be – in the words of The Princess Bride’s Vizzini – “inconceivable!”…
The original Connoisseur studio created two types of hand-painted porcelain plaques: flat-painted and dimensional. All the dimensional plaques are botanical subjects and were produced in a variety of sizes and editions. They are shown below in chronological order by introduction year. The first Connoisseur plaques were issued in 1981 which was the second year of…
At the end of my post about plant pet names, I mentioned that my little granddaughter had bested me in the creative-plant-nicknames department and promised to tell more. So, without further ado, here’s the story, morning-glory! 😊 Last month, my son texted me a photo of the lilies in his front-yard planting. Very impressive they…
The Chatsworth Lady 