Blame the Spencers
For the downfall of sweet peas, fragrance-loving gardeners still point an angry finger at Althorp and its longtime gardener, Silas Cole. I, but not my cousin Ben, am descended from the Spencer family of England, and even wear the name. Over the years my dear…
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Red Poppies — Gentling War
The red poppy, and ritual remembrance, numb the realities of war. At the 11th hour of the 11th month of the 11th day, Allied powers signed the Armistice with Germany in 1918, ending World War I. The moment will be remembered November 11 in many…
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Citizen Carnation
For Madrid’s grandest festival, admission is free. But there’s a floral badge to belong. How does a sodbuster become a saint? Like anyone else: with miracles and the pullies of culture. Isidro de Merlo y Quintana (1070 -1130) more than qualified. Supernatural accountants attribute 438…
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A Smoker’s Garden of Delights
A set of beauties protruding from flower heads helped hawk packs of cigarettes. Dimly we remember little coupons inside packets of Raleigh and Old Gold cigarettes, but by the time we took up this fiendish habit in the late 1960s, nobody much smoked Old…
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Infiorata : A Course In Miracles
Genzano, Italy, celebrates the feast of Corpus Christi with flowered carpets, all the way to the church door. Do flowers honor miracles, or is it the other way around? The Italians, who seem particularly well versed in such matters, answer ambiguously, with the spring tradition…
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Apple Day
John Levett tastes tastes, names names. Old varieties like Ribston Pippin recall when the city and the country were more clearly connected. They lead forward, too, in the movement to save England’s allotments. Some years ago BBC Radio 5 ran a Doris Day in celebration…
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