What is marcescence? Well, apart from sounding like the answer to a Jeopardy clue that Alex Trebek might spring on unsuspecting contestants, it’s a botanical term to describe a phenomenon that occurs when a normally deciduous hardwood tree stubbornly retains its dead leaves through winter. It is a fairly obscure word and not exactly something […]
My gardening gene is itching and making me long for the smell of earth and colours other than grey and while I’m sure seed companies know this because it’s just about now that the catalogues start pouring in. Bright pictures and tantalizing descriptions of “wonderful new variety,” “glorious mass of tropical-looking flowers,” “excellent, heavy-yielding and […]
