Pith + Vigor

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Pith + Vigor

Your online garden design and planting design tutor. The Garden Design Lab and Planting Design Boot The official page of PITH + VIGOR.

Food, flowers, people, plants, art, design and endless wanderlust from Boston based author and garden design expert Rochelle Greayer. The all-the-time garden party is on instagram (www.instagram.com/pithandvigor).

03/16/2025

Finally!
Does this spring feel long to you?

Ot maybe it’s just news lately.

03/02/2025

Thank you Philly for great (but exhausting)weekend!
So many old friends, new friends and great memories.

01/04/2025

Luna Luna in NYC - if you can see it before it closes, you should.

It was a so inspiring.

“Luna Luna is altogether a wondrous love story that could only come true based on the devoted joy of so many talented people doing instead of talking”
-Andre Heller

12/28/2024

Family time.
So captivated by winter beauty on the cape.

12/05/2024

When I was in garden design school (in London, England) - I discovered and subsequently became obsessed with Garrya Elliptica. (Holiday plant #5)

I saw it at Kew, fell in love and subsequently put it in every design project that had a shady corner or a north facing wall.

One of my professors even had to have a garrya elliptica intervention with me. (kindly he said….“Rochelle, maybe you can find some other choices…”)

I wish I could plant it in New England but alas… not hardy here. But maybe you can grow it where you are.

It is Native to Oregon and Northern California and if you ask me, it is living Holiday tinsel (but even prettier!)

Though I suspect that it might also make the cat vomit.

It is a winter bloomer and in my American Gardener archive deep dive, I even found this great recommendation for a Planting Companion. It does go well with Hardy cyclamen (Cyclamen coum)! Two great holiday bloomers….

Find the whole story in Jan/Feb 2004 issue. (Remember the American Gardener has over 100 years of garden archives free and searchable for AHS members).

Also - what do you think? Should we bring back the planting companion story? LMK in the comments.

12/04/2024

As I am digging through The American Gardener Magazine archives to come up with these 30 days of posts (this is DAY #4) - I am overwhelmed with new ideas for new stories.

I love the curiosity required and encouraged by being a magazine editor!

Here’s some thing I’ve been wondering-

We’ve done stories about how certain plants help certain pollinators (in a very specific way). I wonder if specific birds prefer specific berries or other garden forage. I am sure the answer is yes… but I’m interested to learn more.

The Audubon Society ) has a tremendous resource on their website about planting for birds and I need to dig in and see what I can discover.

Currently my knowledge ends with birds like and need berries - and if you want to encourage the health of birds you can plant their food.

But I’m curious, do you have something special in your garden that special birds really love?
Like if you didn’t have that plant you might not ever see those birds?

I’d love if you could share your observations. (maybe it will even make its way into a story in THE AMERICAN GARDENER magazine).

I’ve linked a post in my bio for some of my personal favorite berried plants. In the magazine - we’ve done countless stories on wonderful berried plants - too many to list.If you’d like practical information about growing more in your garden - get free access to the archives with your AHS membership.

12/02/2024

It day two of our 30 days of plants!

Think winter gardens are all dull greens and browns?
Meet Edgeworthia!
This beauty braves the cold, showing off creamy blooms that smell like citrus sunshine. And it adds life to a snowy landscape.

Want more unique plants? Find them in The American Gardener Magazine! (Free for AHS members) 🌿

Join the American Horticultural Society at the link in bio.

📷: negro gato

11/11/2024

Everything feels wrong.

Trying to decide if I should pick them and make a bouquet (take a win while I can) or let them play out.

What would you do?

They look like plant tags catching an eye in the otherwise stick season brown of New England after the leaves have fallen.

I’m seeing lots of garden/ life metaphors here on instagram this week. I appreciate them but they aren’t working for me. Not even a little.

I only seem to be able to get my bearings if I don’t think too hard about anything.

But meanwhile the water is rising…

10/28/2024

I had an epiphany last week after visiting the Mary May Binney (Polly) Wakefield arboretum in Milton, MA last week.

I need to lean in to what my landscape kinda already begs for… a conifer garden. NEED!!!

I’m so excited to rip out some annoying things to make space for new plants - ones I’m excited to embrace and collect.

This is the arboretum’s inspiring conifer collection. So textural, so colorful, I wanted to touch them all…

If you haven’t been to the Wakefield arboretum- it is well worth a visit. There are hundreds of varieties of Kousa dogwood (among other unique specimens). It’s inspiring to hear the historic story of the garden.

I visited on an AHS members-only tour - are you an AHS member?
If not- you should be!!! - our garden tours and programs give you access to places and people you can’t get to otherwise.

There is a link to join the AHS in my bio (it’s so affordable at $50/ year!!! So much for so little!!)

So yeah…My garden is officially now the home for wayward conifers…

10/24/2024

I’ve always coveted the beautiful heathers (calluna vulgaris ) that Europeans tend to use in fall in winter gardens and florals.

And recently in Italy I was blown away by a garden center display full of these colorful combos.
(though if I’m honest, my favorite is still the solid mauvey pinks and whites… not so much the mixed combos looking like fireworks).

But I just learned why- there is a reason we don’t get these plants in New England outlets- they are apparently very invasive in Massachusetts and the wider region - as well as other places around the country.

Lady bird johnson wild flower center recommends these alternatives…native plants with similar growth habit, such as:

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (kinnikinnick)
Dasiphora fruticosa ssp. floribunda (shrubby cinquefoil)
Gaultheria shallon (salal)
Kalmia polifolia (bog laurel)
Mahonia repens (creeping barberry)
Phyllodoce empetriformis (pink mountainheath)
Spiraea splendens var. splendens (rose meadowsweet)

And ok- some nice options ( though not all hardy here)… but none are quite like this… the velvety deep ground cover that is so rich and warm at this time of year.
Anyone suggest any other alternatives worth checking out?

The closest - Gaultheria shallon Pursh- is the plant I know the least about. Have you grown it?
I’m intrigued…
🤔

09/10/2024

Last night at the British Ambassador’s residence.
An inspiring gathering of the most illustrious and influential gardeners in the region.

I’m loving the new job.

1/ Lutyens (under the tutelage of Gertrude Jekyll) designed the British Ambassador’s home in Washington DC.
2/ John Sonnier is the multi-talented head gardener.
3/ the Warhol is real- as are the editors (David and myself) and board members of the AHS.
4/ The tables were all named for sweet pea varieties
5/ Dartmoor time. ❤️ I want to go to there.
6/ It’s a cats tail orchid - Dendrochilum glumaceum. (We, the apparent experts, had to use 3 different plant if apps to figure it out).

Thank you Dame Karen Pierce and for inviting us. It was a beautiful evening.

07/22/2024

You might have heard some big news about me.

I’m the next Editor of The American Gardener Magazine. 🤗

I started last week and the January 2025 pub will be my first issue.

I’m shadowing the current editor (David Ellis) and working as a Co-Editor until he retires later this year (after nearly 30 years at the helm!! amazing!).

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!

Publishing, Magazines, Design, and helping you make and take better care of your landscapes have been the core of my career for the last 25 years, and this feels like the peak privilege of a job and a life’s work. I’m so honored to be able to do this.

What is The American Gardener magazine?

If you are a member of the American Horticultural Society (AHS) (and you should be!!!), you already receive the bi-monthly publication. (It is not currently on newsstands).

It is a magazine for you - plant lovers, garden makers, horticulturists (from professional to beginner levels), science loving, smart people who care about being good stewards of the land and things that grow from it.

You might also be wondering what the AHS is…

The AHS is the North American version of the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) but having an annual membership is also like buying your National Parks Pass because the $50 membership also grants you free entry into over 360 gardens across North America (plus a whole bunch of other bennies).
It is a steal for $50.

And maybe you have questions about what will happen to my courses, blog, and all things PITH + VIGOR?

Short answer - Nothing is changing. Courses, Blog, Live Sessions, +plus+ sessions, and all of it stays the same. I expect I might need to lean into some BTS helpers a bit more, but you shouldn’t notice a difference.

PITH+ VIGOR has been my sidekick since 2007 - through many business iterations, gigs, jobs, and life changes - it just that now it is run by the next Editor of the AHS magazine, The American Gardener. 👋 😉

What else? Let me know what other questions you might have.

But for now - Let’s celebrate!!!

If you want to join the AHS - the link is in my bio. 😉

Address

1465 BRUSH HILL ROAD
Milton, MA
02186

Website

http://www.pithandvigor.com/

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