Perhaps Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., saw the legendary sycamore tree standing in the rear of Corby Hall, at the University of Notre Dame du Lac (Our Lady of the Lake), in 1842? Planning his landscape to build a Catholic University, some 500+ acres...
Whenever I think about Bald Cypress, Taxodium distichum, it always conjures up memories of Jerry Lewis and the MDA Labor Day Telethon’s he did. Raising money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Mr. Lewis would often perform the Radio Announcer’s Test, a complicated tongue-twister...
Given the gift of travel at a very young age, I was fortunate that my parents took me everywhere growing up. Now, almost at the end of my forties, my wife and I share our love of travel with our daughter. This past...
The first recorded use of the phrase penny-wise and pound-foolish was by Joseph Addison in his daily publication The Spectator (1712): “I think a woman who will give up herself to a man in marriage, where there is the least room for such...
One of my favorite children’s books is The Lorax written by Dr. Seuss. “It chronicles the plight of the environment and the Lorax is the titular character, who “speaks for the trees” and confronts the Once-ler, who causes environmental degradation” (Wikipedia). The story...
I love my work! One of the things I sometimes do on my day off is visit other Independent Garden Centers. Always trying to be better at my craft, I gain perspective, get inspired, sometimes steal ideas and look and listen at what others...
Last summer, I was approached by a very good customer to solve a problem at one of her commercial properties. It seems, over the years, attempts to have a colorful, durable plant survive being embedded within Belgian Block, concrete and surrounded by steel fencing had...
Last summer, the weeding around our home got ahead of me. Despite my best efforts, trying to keep our landscape beds and container plants weed free, the weeds prevailed. Perhaps it was all the rain that kept me from my responsibilities? There was one...
There is a plant, that no matter where I was this winter, it seemed as though I could not escape it. Whether it was snowplowing, traveling to Mexico or watching a play at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey, there it was. A...
Recently I returned from the Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show (MANTS) in Baltimore, Maryland, one of the nation’s largest trade shows for the Independent Garden Center. More than 11,000 registered attendees came from 48 states and 16 countries to visit 956 exhibiting companies all there to...