When I need to be precise about a plant, I use its Latin name, even if my nongardening friends sometimes look at me a little funny for using big words in a dead language - or in the kind of horticultural Esperanto that botanical names make up. Allen Lacy More Quotes by Allen Lacy More Quotes From Allen Lacy Show me a person without prejudice of any kind on any subject and I'll show you someone who may be admirably virtuous but is surely no gardener. Prejudice against people is reprehensible, but a healthy set of prejudices is a gardener's best friend. Gardening is complicated, and prejudice simplifies it enormously. Allen Lacy gardening healthy people The gardens I love best are those that are still affectionately tended by the people who own them and who made them - who planned and planted and replanned and replanted them, who dug in the dirt and moved hoses and watched the gardens change with the cycle of the seasons and over the passage of years. Allen Lacy garden love-is years Gardening transcends everything that otherwise divides us. Allen Lacy divides gardening I cannot walk into our garden without constantly being reminded of the friends who have shared their plants. Allen Lacy plant garden walks Insects leave (Madagascar periwinkle) Catharanthus roseus out of their diets. So, for that matter, do deer. The reason is that the plants are loaded with alkaloids so potent that they are the source of vincristine and vinblastine. These are drugs important in routines of chemotherapy for treating Hodgkin's disease and certain forms of leukemia. Allen Lacy madagascar drug important Plants are the original chemists. Their sophistication makes DuPont and Monsanto look like little kids with chemistry sets. Allen Lacy littles kids looks In addition to all its rich offerings to the body and its five senses, gardening engages the mind. Allen Lacy gardening offering mind In a well-made garden every day is new. Allen Lacy wells garden made A powerful hand lens [Eschenback Leutchlupe] with a focused beam of light opens up an entire world below the threshold of the ordinary experience of seeing. Allen Lacy powerful light hands One becomes a gardener by becoming a gardener. Allen Lacy gardener becoming Gardening is in large measure a phenomenon of attention. Allen Lacy phenomenon gardening attention We can plant to suit the needs of the birds and other wildlife that find a haven and a habitat on our home ground, and we can understand that to do so is a moral dictate, not a personal whim. Allen Lacy home bird needs Democracy is fine in politics. It should stay there, and we need more of it. But its political virture is no reason to practice it in the garden. Allen Lacy garden practice evil An angel, legend has it, took pity on a little shepherd girl who had nothing to give to the Infant Jesus in his manger. The angel handed her a weed, but first transformed it into this beautiful flower of winter. Allen Lacy weed girl beautiful Am I accurately reporting what I see in such a blossom? The answer is no ... and yes. Allen Lacy accuracy answers All gardeners need to know when to accept something wonderful and unexpected, taking no credit except for letting it be. Allen Lacy creativity garden imagination Of course, the character of my garden is also determined by things beyond any human decision, mine or anyone else's. Allen Lacy garden decision character Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII of France, had such an aversion to roses that she could not stand seeing one even in a painting. Allen Lacy austria wife rose Not knowing where your food comes from is a primary form of alienation. Allen Lacy alienation form knowing But there is one place where a person can make choices that will lead in a small way toward greater sanity in dealing with the natural order. That place is the private garden. Allen Lacy garden choices order
