Gardening in the American Southwest (SW) is an extreme sport. Not only are gardeners challenged by geographic extremes from tropical deserts to subalpine locales, they must also deal with a wide range of climates. Winter in the mountains and higher regions means heavy snows, frozen soils, and temperatures that can dip below zero. In contrast,…

To the individual, garden areas link to the natural world, offering solace, refuge, inspiration, and purpose. To a low-income neighborhood, where often the only greenery sprouts from between cracks in concrete, their impact can be monumental, signaling sustainability, beautifying, attesting to value and worth--even prompting civic change. A 2000…

Exotic, captivating, and seductive, orchids have long fascinated plant lovers. They first attracted the attention of Westerners in the 17th century, when explorers brought back samples from South America and Asia. By the mid-1800s, orchid collecting had reached a fever pitch, not unlike that of the Dutch tulip craze of the 1630s, with rich (and…