If you didn’t get a seat on the bus, we apologize. The Brandywine Wildflower Journal got the last one, thanks to staff gardener Nora Sadler, who feverishly worked the phones and pulled some spectacular strings and then marched us promptly over to Becky Bucci’s office high above the Brandywine River Museum of Art to procure us a seat and a coveted ticket to this year’s Philadelphia Flower Show. Whew. Everyone made us feel so special during that whole process that we offered to pay full price for everything. Well, in the spirit of full disclosure, we sort of had to open our wallets in order to go on the trip.

Astute readers of the Brandywine Wildflower Journal (and aren’t you all astute?) already know that the photo below contains Ilex glabra that once threatened to overshadow the Charles Parks sculpture at the entrance of the Brandywine River Museum. The native inkberry hollies had gotten a little leggy and received a much needed renovation pruning this year. They’re happier and bushier and much tidier now. These evergreens (the green can be seen around the base of the sculpture) make a great alternative to boxwood and look good in any garden, native or not.

You have to hand it to Chas. What a champ. When summer fades into fall, this great little native grass always comes out swinging and swaying in the gentlest of breezes. A garden might be incomplete without it...