Third installment in my series 10 Ways to Beat Garden Withdrawal in Winter…

#8: Visit a conservatory to see gardens under glass. Unfortunately, Boston is lacking a large botanical conservatory.  (It had a chance with the Darwin Project, but that project fell through.)  But there are a few smaller indoor gardens in the area that are worth a visit during these cold and grey winter months.

Tower Hill Botanical Garden in Boylston, MA: Their orangerie is a lovely spot to find yourself in the winter with lush palms and flowering citrus. Worth the 45 minute trip from Boston, especially when combined with cross-country skiing around nearby Wachusett Reservoir.

Wellesley College Botanical Garden in Wellesley, MA: A small collection, but worth the free visit if you are in Wellesley.  The fern room is splendid.

Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum in Boston, MA: Everyone loves the courtyard in this place, but it drives me nuts that you can’t actually walk into the space to experience it from within.  I am sure this is for good reason (crowd control or conforming to Isabella’s rules), but it destroys the potential for plant-human interaction that make spaces like these so enjoyable.

104 days until 2010 planting begins….

Second installment in my series 10 Ways to Beat Garden Withdrawal in Winter…

#9: Order free seed catalogs. And then fall asleep with them in bed.  And dream about parts of the world where people are lucky enough to garden all year.  And wake up feeling OK about the fact that it is so cold outside it might hurt.

120 days until 2010 planting begins….

First installment in my series 10 Ways to Beat Garden Withdrawal in Winter…

#10: Buy tropical plants for inside the house. Like this lovely orchid (x Miltassia Charles M. Fitch ‘Izumi’) that I just got from Mahoney’s in Allston.  If only we could heat the house better so it would feel a bit more tropical.