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A Kid’ll Eat Ivy, Too

This Iranian jar is almost 6,000 years old. It depicts the Persian, or Bezoar, Ibex – the ancestor of our domesticated goat. While our modern goats have horns, the bezoar ibex has the largest horns, considered in proportion to body weight, of any animal in the world. The enormous horns, and the characteristic beard (from which we get the word "goatee"), are beautifully represented. The ibex's distinctive form and trophy-worthy horns have made it the object of hunters for millennia. Today, t...

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A Young Gardener

The cultural and political legacy of Thomas Jefferson is complicated, just as the man himself was. The man who wrote that "all men are created equal" kept other human beings as slaves. The man who kept slaves also wrote "The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it." The man eventually elected to lead the...

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Scents and Sense-Ability

One of the reasons I love public horticulture is the opportunity for new experiences. This past Saturday afforded me just that. We had a booking for a private tour for a group with visual impairments. I did my best to prepare for this unusual engagement, but in the end I was left surprised and pleased while wholly out of my depth.  They taught me that bright colors are best. To say "look at your 12 o'clock" instead of "look ahead"  .

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