Saturday, June 20, 2020
Even before the first fuchsias came to the attention of European botanists and explorers, Fuchsia boliviana was well known to the native peoples of the Andes. The Incas of Peru and Bolivia cultivated it for its edible berries from at least the beginning of their empire in the Twelfth Century….➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — heraldry | history | species
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
I’ve been saving these three little works of art and craft for the new garden. They’ve come out now. For some reason, though, I’m now feeling the urge to hang them at the fireplace like trophies in a medieval castle….➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — garden | tools
Sunday, January 05, 2020
The Twelve Fuchsias of Christmas
🎼 On the first day of Christmas
🎶 My true love sent to me….➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — christmas | holidays
Wednesday, January 01, 2020
Fuchsia fireworks from Fuchsia arborescens to usher in 2020. Having left NYC behind, it's a new garden and new start for me at the new Fuchsias in the City here in PDX. I've got a bunch of planning to do and I'm looking forward to what the next year will bring. There's already a bunch of new starts waiting….➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — holidays | new year | species
Monday, November 11, 2019
The fuchsias were brushed by frost a few days ago. Ordinarily this might be the end but I was struck by the faded beauty of the blossoms, muted by the cold with shades of their former selves. Some have taken on almost gem-like translucent tones of amethyst….➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — autumn | fall | flowers | fuchsias | winter
Wednesday, October 02, 2019
October 2nd. 6:00 am. The dawn was finally here. I had hardly slept. Three months of packing up the apartment in New York, dealing with movers, closing down my beloved little city garden a couple of decades in the making, and generally wrapping up….➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — road trip
Friday, August 30, 2019
Over the course of the year, I do four different seasonal arrangements in the window, as well as the four large planters in the garden. Spring, summer, fall and winter. It's the last of its kind since I'll be heading for Portland in October. I'm really pleased….➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — garden | ornamentals | plants | seasons | summer
Thursday, August 01, 2019
This is the last summer of the Fuchsias in the City. This City, anyway. Yes, we're leaving Manhattan! And not just to another outer borough. Or Long Island, or up the Hudson, or even across the river to the former Garden State, New Jersey. This move's serious and bi-coastal….➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — garden | fall | new york | urban
Saturday, March 02, 2019
It was full-on Flower Power at the 2019 Philadelphia Flower Show this year. Step into the Entrance Garden this year and the design immediately enfolds as the Power of Flowers pulls you further and further into its floral heart…. ➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — flower show | philadelphia | spring
Thursday, January 24, 2019
A brief visit to Cleveland. You've long wanted to take in its botanical garden. The perfect opportunity. But it's not summer. It's the middle of January. And a blizzard has just swept through two days before dropping almost two feet of snow….➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — botanical gardens | parks | greenhouses | seasons | winter
Sunday, January 20, 2019
As winter storm Harper spread snow, ice and rain throughout the Northeast, the orchids were standing tough. Well, inside the Rutgers University's Douglass Student Center in New Brunswick, NJ anyway. It's the North Jersey Orchid Society's annual show and sale this weekend….➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — flower show | flowers | orchids | plants | winter
Monday, December 24, 2018
A Happy Christmas and an even Happier New Year!
Wishing everyone, everywhere, all the peace, love, and joy of this festive season….➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — christmas | holiday | seasons
Thursday, November 15, 2018
Well…. What can you say? What was supposed to be simple rain is now a full blown snow storm! This is, of course, quite a bit unseasonably early for New York. It's still Fall. The leaves are only just starting to turn. It's also the outer, early edge of a first frost. Who's ready for this….➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — winter | seasons
Thursday, November 01, 2018
A time for remembering. The Fuchsias in City have gone a bit Día de Meurtos for All Saints….➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — autumn | color | fall | holiday
Monday, October 15, 2018
We're in the throws of an annual migration. Birds and butterflies, and assorted condo dwellers with second homes in Florida, hurry south to escape the coming cold. But squashes of all sorts are leaving their summer homes in the fields and farms of the region and migrating into the City….➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — autumn | color | fall | ornamentals | produce | vegetables
Saturday, October 06, 2018
Ex aequatoria aliquid novum and this time it's a new hummingbird. A little stunner newly named Oreotrochilus cyanolaemus, or the blue-throated hillstar, was only just spotted in 2017 in that hotbed of biodiversity and speciation, Ecuador….➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — fuchsias | hummingbirds | science | species
Saturday, September 15, 2018
Édouard André (1840-1911) was a noted French horticulturalist and one of the most prominent and celebrated European landscape designers of the second half of the 19th Century. Born in Bourges into a modest family of nurserymen, he received his early training and invaluable gardening experience….➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — botanists | horticulture | history | species
Friday, April 20, 2018
Many visitors to New York City know Central Park. It’s big. It’s beautiful. It’s hard to miss. Manhattan’s Fort Tryon Park, on the other hand, might well be on another planet for its lack of recognition. Yes, even to many New Yorkers. Located along the Hudson River almost at the top of the island….➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — gardens | horticulture | new york | parks | spring | urban
Sunday, December 31, 2017
It’s a world full of Happy New Year. Gelukkig Nieuwjaar! Laimingų Naujųjų metų! Manigong Bagong Taon! Gëzuar Vitin e Ri! سنة سعيدة! Yeni iliniz! Heri ya mwaka mpya! Buon anno! Bonne Année! ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!…➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — holiday | new year
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house. not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that Fuchsia ‘Santa Claus’ soon would be there…➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — christmas | cultivars | holiday | seasons
Sunday, November 05, 2017
What’s autumn without the chrysanthemum? Little it seems these days. But beyond the generic and ubiquitous mum balls that appear on every corner and outside every front door is the superb artistry and aching perfection of trained chrysanthemums, the Japanese kiku...➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — autumn | botanical gardens | flower show | greenhouses | holiday | plants
Wednesday, November 01, 2017
November. It’s the last gasp of the growing season in the garden. The potted fuchsias are still alive and even blooming in the waning sun. Jack Frost’s chilly breath is falling down your neck, though. It’s coming, Winter’s coming. Forecasts of cruel freezes are coming in from the weatherman. Reality. Denial won’t keep it way. What to do…➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — fuchsias | gardening | horticulture | seasons
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Fuchsia ‘Venus Victrix’ has small white-tubed flowers with white sepals tipped in an apple green. Almost tiny flowers compared to most other fuchsias. Not bad looking but ‘Venus Victrix’ is also a very finicky plant. Hard, yes. Yet the Fuchsia ‘Venus Victrix’, true to its name, is a classic….➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — fuchsias | history | spotlight
Monday, October 02, 2017
I started #FuchsiasFacts for a bit of fuchsia fun on Twitter. It was a little hard to reduce the text down to Twitter’s old 144-character limit without leaving some, if not most, of the fuchsia fun behind. Twitter’s new standard of 280 characters is not a lot better. Something had to be done….➤ Read Moreurban fuchsia + blog tags — fuchsia facts | history
