The improbable hero of Orczy’s adventure novel took cover behind a common roadside weed.

Which side of the French Revolution (the 1789 one, we mean) are you on?

In the anti-monarchical U.S., we tend to side with our fellow Revolutionaries, acknowledging that sometimes a few

Evening primroses can open the Bible, kick off a party or alleviate PMS.   ‘How can this be?’

Evening primrose, Oenothera , comes into bloom in early summer across much of the central U.S. and flowers on for weeks. As its name gives away, it’s one

Child’s play became political weaponry with a notorious attack ad from 1964.

Probably the first political attack ad was painted on a cave wall somewhere in France. But the one we first remember was aired on U.S. television September 7, 1964, during Monday Night at

What happens when you turn cold cash into a faux-floral tribute? 

Giving gifts is a gift. Giving money is a contribution. So what is giving a money bouquet?

In Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, and Nigeria, it’s illegal.

And it has been for several years. Around

A painter moves past the mirrors of Surrealism to invent flowers all her own.

Several months ago we came upon this work—” Eine Kleine Nachtmusik ” (“A Little Night Music”), from 1943 by Dorothea Tanning. Who wants to venture in–presuming to explain these tense, swooning

Pity (or admire) anyone who can switch languages using the common names of flowers.

Our friend Audrey Wick, author and English professor of La Grange, Texas,  gave us a head-scratcher a few years ago, declaring this flower “a buttercup.” How’s that? We grew up in