Plant of the Day began in October of 2005 when I moved to Oregon and began absorbing all I could about the fascinating variety of plant life in the Pacific Northwest. I wanted to write about not just the species that grow here in gardens and wild areas, but also about how plants surround us, feed us, cloth us, befriend us. How they inform our language and traditions, pervade our memories, ease our pain and mark our celebrations.

Mostly, however, what I have written about is facts and how I use plants in my work as a landscape designer and painter.

I’ll ask the gardeners what they call
the many flowers, so that in the small crocks
of their lovely proper names I can bring back
remnants of the hundred fragrances.

-Ranier Maria Rilke 1875-1926
from Requiem for a Friend, 1909

With understanding, those we love will certainly flower.

-Thich Nhat Han