Saturday, April 19, 2025 at 2:15 AM

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The early butterfly gets the verbena

The early butterfly gets the verbena

Swallowtails were early at The Garden Guy’s house this year. Thank goodness I had Superbena verbenas in full bloom. It is as if they had been given the task of announcing the arrival of spring and the butterfly season. March 22, I photographed an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on Superbana Royale Chambray verbena. 04/21/2022 12:00 AM

Dripping Life

Texas was hardest hit by the polio outbreaks of the 1940s and early ’50s. As scientists raced to find a vaccine, local officials, celebrities and ordinary people came together to raise funding for the desperately-needed research. 04/21/2022 12:00 AM

Dripping Life

Small children fear darkness, crying at the possibility of bad guys hiding under the bed or monsters in the closet. These imaginings are usually erased by hugs, reassurances and under-thebed inspections. When my boys were small, I used room spray to banish bad guys and monsters. In some cases, an invitation to spend the night in mom’s and dad’s room calms the frightened child…or perhaps a warm place in the parents’ bed was the goal all along. 04/14/2022 12:00 AM

Dripping Life

Before you read this week’s humble offering, please know – this is not a statement on anything as controversial as political ideology, critical race theory or even your picks for this year’s Oscars. Conversations regarding what has become “The Slap” have gone on, ad nauseam…and perhaps these conversations were needed and necessary. But this column is written for all of us to think about “the human condition.” No hidden agendas. No political or racist undertones. 04/07/2022 12:00 AM

Dripping Gardening

Dripping Gardening

Today, which as I write is April 3rd, and the day the Ruby-throated hummingbirds returned to my house. Oddly it was a feast of the Superbells calibrachoas. This story, however, starts the first week of October which is when I planted them. 04/07/2022 12:00 AM

Diamond Snow Euphorbia: A garden game changer

Diamond Snow Euphorbia: A garden game changer

Diamond Snow has dramatically changed how we look at euphorbias or that not so glamorous common name of spurge. We all fell madly in love with its sibling Diamond Frost and subsequently gave it hundreds of awards in university trials. Diamond Snow however is a game changer. 03/23/2022 04:00 AM

Helen Churchill Candee: Titanic Survivor

Helen Churchill Candee: Titanic Survivor

Helen Churchill Candee (October 5, 1858 – August 23, 1949) was an American author, journalist, interior decorator, feminist, and geographer. Today, she is best known as a passenger on the first and only voyage of the RMS Titanic in 1912 -- and lived to write “Sealed Orders” about her experience in rowing Life Boat 6 with a woman who became known as “The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Candee also is known for her later work as a travel writer and explorer of southeast Asia. Helen was born Helen 03/23/2022 04:00 AM

UT’s Andrews Hall named for first female graduate

UT’s Andrews Hall named for first female graduate

Ask any UT freshman. Those first few weeks on the Forty Acres are eye openers, to say the least. There’s also much to be learned, which isn’t listed in any class syllabus and isn’t charged for in the tuition. 03/17/2022 12:00 AM

Petunia’s Hearts: paving the way for Blind Love

Petunia’s Hearts: paving the way for Blind Love

The past couple of years there has been a lot of love in the world of petunias, thanks to one very unique variety by the name of Supertunia Lovie Dovie. We have all seen petunias, with stripes, some stars, others halos and blushes, but there is a special one with hearts. 03/17/2022 12:00 AM

March is Women’s Month: Meet America’s first vegetarian

March is Women’s Month: Meet America’s first vegetarian

From time to time, I like to include historic personalities in this column, men and women never mentioned in my history classes, grade school through grad school. I have only heard about, read about and researched these folks within the last decade. Yet, in my humble opinion, many were differencemakers in their time. I’ll begin this Women’s Month’s series with one of Washington’s early social arbiters who wielded amazing power in the nation’s capital during her lifetime. Her name: Mary Foote Henderson (1841-1931). 03/10/2022 12:00 AM

New Chicklet Orange will delight hummingbirds, butterflies

New Chicklet Orange will delight hummingbirds, butterflies

The Esperanza is one of those shrubs that brings about hope and anticipation for the growing season. Actually, that is what Esperanza means in Spanish. As a gardener who got his horticultural roots in Texas, I can tell you the Esperanza is a plant to be treasured and even more so with the debut of Chicklet Orange in 2022. 03/10/2022 12:00 AM

Dripping Life

I wanted to share this story as we end another Black History Month: 03/03/2022 12:00 AM