Welcome, visitors from Hayefield and Gardening Gone Wild!
I live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, about 40 miles north of Philadelphia (mid-Zone 6 to lower Zone 7, depending on whose map you use). Under the supervision of my two alpacas, Duncan and Daniel, I garden on four acres in full sun: about two acres of managed meadow, one acre of pasture, and one acre of intensively planted and open shrubbery areas. This garden is entering its seventh year in 2008.
My previous place, just north of here, was just a fifth of an acre, and mostly shaded. Besides the garden and greenhouse, it was home to Pendragon Perennials, a tiny rare-plant nursery that I started in 1995 and closed in 2000, when I ran out of gardening space and sold that house.
I’ve had a lifelong love of plants, but it didn’t develop into a full-blown obsession until my late teens. I earned a B.S. degree in Agronomy and Environmental Science from Delaware Valley College of Science and Agriculture in Doylestown, Pennsylvania (spending the summers working as a gardener on various estates in the Philadelphia area), then ended up at Rodale Press Garden Books. After five years, I left there in 1995 to work as a freelance garden-book writer and editor. Thirteen years later, I’m currently working on my twelfth gardening book (and my fourth collaboration with photographer Rob Cardillo), The Perennial Care Manual, due out in July of 2009.
I consider myself an equal-opportunity plant geek, but my current “thing” is colored foliage (specifically, variegated and chartreuse leaves). And ornamental grasses. And meadows. And herbs. And vegetables. Oh, and shrubs, too. And annuals, of course. Um…just about all kinds of outdoors plants, actually. I also enjoy raising plants from seed. That’s how I ended up starting a nursery at my last place. (When you’re growing from seed, it’s just as easy to pot up three dozen seedlings as it is to pot up three, you know.) Here, I’m never at a loss for places to put new plants!
Below are some books I’ve worked on, if you’re interested. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at ondra at verizon dot net.
Thanks for stopping by!
Foliage: Astonishing Color and Texture beyond Flowers
Grasses: Versatile Partners for Uncommon Garden Design
The Perennial Gardener’s Design Primer
Taylor’s Guide to Roses: How to Select and Grow 380 Roses
Taylor’s Weekend Gardening Guide to Soil and Composting
Taylor’s Easy Plant Propagation
Photo at top by Rob Cardillo, 2007.
In your book, Foliage page 100 has a picture from VanDusen botanical garden. There is a purplish plant with no name or I could not find it. I even looked at Vandusen website for that picture. I thought it was Tradescantia pallida Purpurea but I think it is too tall. I wish I knew the name of that purplish plant.
Hi Scott! You are right: It is Tradescantia pallida ‘Purpurea’ (or T. pallida ‘Purple Heart’, or Setcreasea pallida, or S. purpurea, or whichever name you prefer). I have the height listed as 8 to 10 inches, but it can appear taller if it has taller companions to lean on.
-Nan
Hi Nan,
I’ve enjoyed your website and would love to be able to add you to my “favorites!” However, when I follow your name, I don’t get your web address. Can you help me?
Thanks, Shady! You mean the address for this blog, Hayefield? If so, it’s http://hayefieldhouse.com/
If you’re looking for something else, please ask again!
-Nan
Hi Nancy,
I did a search for Diervilla Cool Splash and found your comments from the flower show! I was responsible for getting those in the show. My friend Peter Podaras selected it from a seedling. I can e-mail you a history of it and some better pics(it’s near impossible to get good pics at the show) if you want. I’m trying to help Peter make some money- it’s tough trying to be a plant breeder! Peter forced those plants in his research greenhouse at Cornell. I drove all the way up there to bring them to the show. Got your foliage book, love it!
Still have the variegated mock orange I got from your Pendragon days.
Ron
Hi Ron!
Oh, how neat that you had a hand in getting that diervilla in the show. I’m not surprised that you’d appreciate it too. I’d love to have some better pictures; I’ll get in touch via e-mail.
-Nan
Nan! Awesome to see your site. I’m headed to Black Creek tomorrow and it was cool to see your page on it. My car looks like yours when I’m through there every year. Never started on the right though….might do that this year but fear I’ll have all my carts full of trops before I even hit the annuals.
Hi David! It’s been too long. I’m glad you found me again. Have fun at Black Creek!
-Nan
Gary and I were up to Hitch Lyman’s enchanting Snowdrop event and noticed your link on Ellis Hollow website - the mysterious man lurking in the background taking pics. That same evening we got back and noticed the pics, including me bending over gazing at a specimen, on the web. How small a world gardening is! Great to see your site and hope to see the real you soon!
Hey, that *is* you! Small world indeed. I was just thinking of you: The peony you brought me last year has one bud ready to open, and those orange bearded irises have doubled in size since last year. Do come to visit them soon!
-Nan
Hey Nancy- I couldn’t believe I came across your blog. I miss your presence in the Lehigh Valley & our occasional “visits” Glad to see your latest endeavors and how well you are faring.
Do you ever do garden tours? I may be teaching at LCCC and am always looking for “tours” .
Have made good use of your Grasses books thru the years too- as I’m sure this website. Keep up the good works.
Priscilla
Hi Priscilla! How wonderful to hear from you. I’m glad to know that you’re still doing well. I probably won’t be opening my garden this year except for the Perennial Plant Association’s annual conference at the end of July. I’ve gotten involved in a new gardening project elsewhere, so my own garden isn’t my focus at the moment.
-Nan
Hi Nan
I had the pleasure of meeting you at Linden Hill Gardens yesterday with the PHS group. I thank you for autographing your book, Foliage (which I thoroughly enjoy). In your opening remarks, you mentioned Sandy White. Since moving to Skippack 3 years ago, I have become a steady customer at Floral and Hardy. I was saddened to see that she has sold her business, but once an avid gardener, always an avid gardener. I enjoyed her enthusiasm and extreme knowlege of the plant world. I shall miss her, but I’m glad she has good friends like you. Once again, thanks for the pleasure of meeting you and Jerry yesterday. A most wonderful day at Linden Hill Gardens. Lynn
I’m so glad you visited me here, Lynn. Yes, it was a lovely day at Linden Hill for us too. I’m delighted that you’re enjoying the book. I’m stunned to hear about Floral & Hardy, though; I had no idea it was sold. How very sad!
-Nan
Nan, Somehow I’ve missed my listing for Gardening Gone Wild topics!!! Can you help me? Thanks!
Hey, Shady! I’m not sure I understand your question, so I sent you an e-mail directly. This month’s topic is Decks, Porches, and Patios, if that’s what you’re asking.
-Nan
Nice article about you and your garden in the NYT! I saw a link on GGW but you need one here, too, for your many fans!
Hey, El Deb! Thanks for stopping by. Ok, ok, here’s a direct link to Anne’s article Where Foliage Eclipses Flowers.
-Nan
Hi, Nancy,
I like your book about Grasses : versatile partners for uncommon garden design - A Chinese editor of Journal of Chinese Horticulture and Landscape in Beijing invites you wrote a review paper about ornamentam grass for their journal - your any reply are much appreciated, and thank you in advance.
I am Jinshuang MA, a research taxonomist at Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Brooklyn, NY 11225.
Thank you so much for the message. I will contact you directly by e-mail.
-Nan
Hi
I just found your site as I was trying to locate “wild or perrenial potatoes”. Great Site!! I will be a regular visitor for sure. And if you happen to know of the type of potatoes I am looking for, any info will be greatly appreciated. Thanks Kenneth
Welcome, Kenneth! Apparently it’s not unusual for potato tubers to overwinter in the garden in Zone 7 and south - or so I’m told - so technically, I guess you could say they are all tender perennials. So far, I don’t know of any sources for “wild” seed or tubers. Sorry I can’t be more help.
-Nan
Thanks for the tour.
Thanks to you for stopping by!
-Nan
Love your books. I have a question for a column I’m writing on fall flowers and you’re the brainy one that might have the answer. Botanically speaking, what is the advantage for a plant to bloom so late in fall? Why does that work them as opposed to spring or summer?
In other words, what’s in for them?
Hmmm…I think about that and get back to you via e-mail, Cindy.
-Nan
Ohhhhhhh, you’ve got llama’s. How wonderful. I am surrounded by sheep and wish I could wave a magic wand and turn them into llama’s or vicuna’s.
Eight acres to care for. I know what that feels like ;-)
Wow, fields full of vicunas - that *would* be something to see!
-Nan
Nancy,
I just put a review of Fallscaping up on my blog, http://www.commonweeder.blogspot.com. It also ran in my weekly column in The Recorder in Greenfield, MA. I will shortly get the cover art up. I loved the book and your blog. You are so knowledgeable!
Wow, Pat! Thanks ever so much for the thorough and enthusiastic review. I’m glad you enjoyed the book!
-Nan
Nancy,
Couldn’t find an email address, so post my general comment here (but feel free to remove).
So many bloggers have these huge pictures, which I am afraid to open as it takes 30 mins to appear on my dial up, and I rarely want to see them anyways.
But yours….. so gorgeous, and so small :-(
Could you see your way clear to have the separate page picture a touch bigger from time to time? Especially the breathtaking ones on bloomdays?
Thanks for your comment, Joco. I’ll see if I can figure out how to do that!
-Nan