Posts Tagged ‘gardening’

In which The Gay Recluse retreats to our garden in Washington Heights. As it has done for thousands of years — and not just in our garden — the hellebore has sent forth the most beautiful, delicate blossoms at this improbable juncture, as if to taunt winter into sending one last storm. (Let’s hope nobody […]


In which The Gay Recluse shares a letter. Robert from Ohio writes: “I saw the article you wrote on the Corsican Mint. I live in North East Ohio, which is just as harsh a climate as NYC. I have planted the mint at several folks’ homes and it does come back every year. Sometimes the […]


According to an article in The Times today, “[h]omophobia directed at the elderly has many faces.” We learn of home health aides who “must be reminded not to wear gloves at inappropriate times, for example while opening the front door or making the bed, when there is no evidence of H.I.V. infection.” We learn of […]


Although it is far from being classified as a specimen plant in the garden of the gay recluse, the firethorn (Pyrachantha‘Mohave’) is valued not only for the depth of its evergreen leaves and the length of its ferocious needles, but for the perfect orange tone of its berries, which provide such welcome interest to the […]