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| Tasha's front porch |
Like
most gardeners, late winter was the time when Tasha perused seed and nursery
catalogs. And because I usually visited during February, our conversations
rambled off to our favorite heirloom roses, the heady fragrance of scented
geraniums and our favorite colors of hollyhocks. Tasha also confessed her habit
of now and then, taking a cutting or a seed pod while strolling through a
famous garden. If I remember correctly, her boxwood plants were cuttings from a
plant at Mount Vernon. She nurtured the same habit in me by giving me poppy seed
pods so that I could splash their seeds around my garden. Every year, their
lavender or pink flowers shimmer between the dianthus and clumps of thyme.
When
I voiced my frustration over primrose seeds from seed companies that failed to
germinate, Tasha explained that the freshest seeds came from the American
Primrose Society. She encouraged me to join the group, and described the proper
steps for germinating primula. Later that spring, I opened a birthday package
sent from Tasha and there glowed a silver-green primula with delicate yellow
flowers that I had admired in her greenhouse. Whenever I spy primroses as a
nursery, I think of the many different varieties that bloomed in her garden and
the small pots decorating her kitchen windowsill.
For
Tasha, gardening was another art form with a three dimensional pallet of
textures, colors and scents. With her imagination and penchant for design, she shaped
flowerbeds that linger in her illustrations and inspire gardeners around the
world. |
| In her greenhouse, Tasha and Carol Lueck |
