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Her style is part botanical, part geographical, and part philosophical, which makes for a constantly changing perspective on the fictional events which unfold in the story. The characters are believable, intelligent and complex; the situations in which they find themselves, while not wholly unique, take on intriguing facets as they develop. The main character of Alexia undergoes such a gradual metamorphosis from tragic victim to strong, capable survivor that one is hardly aware of the journey's progression until the end of the book - that's how deft Ms. Ogilvie is at carrying a storyline.
I found this book to be totally engrossing, magical, and multi-layered - it made me want to travel to Maine and experience the world about which Ms. Ogilvie writes. The book is over thirty years old, but it still captures the imagination and the interest of the reader without seeming "dated." It's the perfect read for a rainy day, or any day.
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Sheldon once gardened properly, in white, silver and pale yellow or grey and pink, lavender and lime. Then she gardened flamboyantly, in hot-colors. Next, she border gardened, with purple flowers and leaves. That took her garden full circle. In fall, purple looked so good, with Lespedeza thunbergii 'Pink Fountain', 'Ballerina' rose and Dianthus; dwarf sage, grey 'Hidcote' lavender, and helianthemum; and white-leaved prickly poppy.
Just as with color combinations, plant dislikes and likes change. Hot-color gardening got Sheldon to plant dahlias, marigolds, petunias, and zinnias. Border gardening in sulphur and wine let in yellow-leaved plants.
So gardening might well leave the gardener with "nothing to hate." But it won't always grow better people or weed out curmudgeons. For example, on a cold winter night, nineteenth-century gardening know-it-all William Robinson opened windows and put out stoves in a hated former employer's greenhouses.
In large part, though, Sheldon finds gardeners "exceptionally" gentle, as students of humbling lessons. In the second part of her book, she therefore shares gardening trials and errors, in central New York. There, on a Cayuga Lake area farm, her garden shows its age. How can it do other than sicken and die along with, or shortly after, her? It's the only way, what with the three "b's" of bad weather, beasts and blunders.
It's blundering over trees Sheldon regrets. To her, they were thirsty rivals to plants for nutrients and water. Now in her 80s, she wishes that she had long ago set aside one of her fields as an arboretum. It's not just because of what trees do, for air and dirt. It's also for color and looks. What can beat the year-round "silky" grey bark of European beeches, the ruby red of sour gum in fall, and the flaming torch patterns of apricot-, crimson- and flame-colored Korean maple leaves against the sky?
Sheldon's practical lesson-learnings are helpful and well-written, with excellent examples. They cover all bases, from seed collecting and growing; through plant breeding; to shady and woodsy gardening and mixed shrub and tapestry bordering. But it's the ending sections, on favorite plants and history-making gardeners, that stay with me.
Plants that pass Sheldon's test of time are astilbe, border clematis, chrysanthemum, columbine, gaura, lysimachia, and nepeta. If she lived more southerly, she might favor the pale lemon or white marguerite. Up north, though, Dianthus caesius (gratianopolitanus) is where she hopes to end her days.
Finally, her five history-making gardeners are Gertrude Jekyll, Jane Loudon, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Alexander Pope and Horace Walpole. Not surprisingly, something Miss Jekyll once said perfectly sums up Sheldon's book and gardening. Never let an idea get in the way of beautiful plants and combinations.
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