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1 month ago | 
gardenrant.com | Elizabeth Licata
Trees and forests are always subject to political winds of change, whether they’re blowing from the left or from the right. This time, efforts to improve urban tree cover are the ecological pawns in a backlash against any policy that admits to America’s history of racism. Susan recently posted on our Facebook page about a Black organization in the city of New Orleans losing funding it had been promised to restore tree canopy decimated by Katrina.
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2 months ago | 
gardenrant.com | Elizabeth Licata
Last time I wrote about local florists and the Slow Flowers movement, I got a comment from a reader, Sheena, who said, “I did smile when you described Canada as ‘local.’” She was right to smile. Canada goes well beyond what I think of “local” when it comes to its garden and floral-related exports to the United States. We are by far the largest destination for Canada’s floriculture and nursery-related exports.
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2 months ago | 
gardenrant.com | Elizabeth Licata
The Slow Flowers movement has finally arrived in Buffalo. I never thought it would happen. We love our gardens and our flowers here, but have always had a fairly traditional line-up of florists, who make nice but not particularly envelope-pushing arrangements and don’t seem to prioritize local sourcing and organic culture.
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Jan 31, 2025 | 
gardenrant.com | Elizabeth Licata
Guest Rant by Kamryn EverettTwo years ago in February, I walked into a local branch of a big box retailer and was taken by surprise when I saw a large display of blooming hydrangeas for sale. The gorgeous blue, pink, and purple plumes of flowers sat glowing in the middle of the sales floor like rays of warm summer light piercing the icy shield of winter’s gloom, beckoning to all impulse buyers alike.
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Jan 10, 2025 | 
gardenrant.com | Elizabeth Licata
Trustworthy information is worth paying for, but that’s not the only reason to respect the need for publications and websites’ to put up paywalls. Writers, editors and designers – just like all of us – need to pay their mortgages and put food on the table. It seems obvious, but indignant reactions – when a site that didn’t charge before starts to or a link to a newspaper requires a subscriptions – persist. There is still a tendency for people to think everything on the internet should be free.
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Jan 1, 2025 | 
gardenrant.com | Elizabeth Licata
This year, instead of gardening resolutions, which I never have and wouldn’t keep if I did, I have a list of gardening wishes. They are also unlikely – if not utterly impossible – to become reality, but there’s less guilt, this way. It’s definitely an aspirational time. Though I never plant seeds, I am getting those catalogs, as well as catalogs for summer bulbs and annuals. Old-fashioned annuals are a big weakness of mine.
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Nov 12, 2024 | 
gardenrant.com | Elizabeth Licata
I actually enjoy my garden at this time. I look around and feel a sense of accomplishment. There is nothing more for me to do here. The bulbs are in the ground, in garage pots or in root cellar pots. Everything that needs to be covered is covered – now it’s just a Japanese maple in a tree stump and another in a big pot. I used to heap bags of leaves around my old-fashioned macrophylla hydrangeas, but now I find I’m just breaking branches more than anything else. Winters just aren’t what they were.
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Oct 15, 2024 | 
gardenrant.com | Elizabeth Licata
Time spent just sitting in the garden is not only enjoyable, it’s part of the work. It’s productive. And this is the time of year when my hours of goofing off pay their dividends. Because I’m not just sitting there lost in admiration of what I’ve accomplished. Far from it. I’m thinking about how I can possibly continue to put this garden on public tours without making major improvements. That is where the sitting and staring comes in. I target micro-areas where a few changes would do some good.
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Sep 25, 2024 | 
gardenrant.com | Elizabeth Licata
What does “overgrown” even mean when discussing a purposely cultivated outdoor space? I understand when things are aggressive, but that’s different. My friend Kathy calls this “plants that like to romp.”I like romping. I may also like overgrown. Gardeners in my local Facebook group are now voicing concerns that their gardens are “overgrown.” Are the plants too tall? Too many leaves or flowers? Are they attacking the house? It all sounds like too much success to me.
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Aug 27, 2024 | 
gardenrant.com | Elizabeth Licata
Is it possible to get sick of hydrangeas? Apparently not. If, like me, you can withstand a 4-day garden tour in the Pacific Northwest followed – two weeks later – by a six-day get-away in Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, in which every private garden and every piece of public landscaping was dominated by billows of this shrub, you’re immune. You may even be addicted.
