At some point in recent years, the wreath took a leap. It jumped from boilerplate purchase of holiday decor to an ecstatic swirl of seasonal plants. Wreaths became something to make yourself and admire year-round. Local doors have never looked so good. If you’re as excited...
In terms of landscape juju, the iconic California canyon home occupies a wavelength all its own. Its mystique is tied to the idea of backyard as wildlife theater, and to the feeling you get there — a gravity-defying feeling that is, somehow, also very down-to-earth....
Wildflowers. They're sweet alyssum, they're art, and they're also a state of mind. I didn’t fully understand the latter until I met my friend Tanwi Nandini Islam, the Brooklyn-based writer whose debut novel, Bright Lines, will be published by Penguin in August 2015. We first met...
Modeled after the gardens of the Ming Dynasty, Portland’s Lan Su Chinese Garden is — with its smudgy florals, sharp stone edges and tastefully placed calligraphy — a bit like wandering around an illustrated scroll. The garden was our second stop during our trip to Portland,...
I was back in Brooklyn and Manhattan earlier this month, which is my favorite month to be in/live in/visit the city. It was a quick trip, during which Ryan was back in California working on a top-secret project that will be unveiled soon. In between...
No matter how much we fawn over our intergalactic passion flowers and the sultry party dresses of our fuchsias, our hearts will always somersault at the sight of a romantically formed garden rose. That’s why our recent trip to Portland’s International Rose Test Garden was like...
Earlier this month we decided to redo our flower beds/“stadium garden," where we normally rotate blooming annuals and perennials. After storing the tuber of our Impatiens flanaganae, which enjoyed a powerful summer bloom, and saying goodbye to our last dahlias, we realized our garden bed could use...
You know how they say, “Say it with flowers”? If the lipstick plant — which is now blooming at our place — could talk, it would say, “I'm here to bring some flair to your shaded areas.” (Or something like that. We try not to...
The 1990s and early 2000s were not kind to the carnation. Maybe it’s all the unholy dye jobs, or their association with homecoming boutonnieres, or their street-corner ubiquity that turned the pedigreed Dianthus caryophyllus into a pop culture punchline. The plant was famously maligned on Sex...
We believe that if you love something, rather than let it go, you should take that thing and wear it on your head. Flowers are a leading example of this. I wear them any chance I get — including the antique wax orange blossom headpiece I...