Frank La Rosa

The hottest days of summer are almost here, and the tomatoes are setting fruits; it is important now to water, fertilize, and stake the plants so that they will bear over a long period of time. Water is essential, but …

Good gardeners always prepare for what the future will bring them. Now is the time to prepare for those succulent asparagus spears that will appear in the spring. Of course, you can grow asparagus from seed but that will take …

Fall is here and winter is about to begin, so it is time to go a bit inward, and what better way to do so than to grow some Italian herbs indoors. I have chosen mint, oregano, and thyme because …

Plants and gardeners are the vital transmitters of culture throughout the ages. When plants move from one place to another in the world, they bring with them new foods, recipes, loanwords, and even new people. Novelty and the exotic are …

All of us want to preserve and continue our culture, and parts of that culture include the plants that our countrymen knew and appreciated. We preserve our Italian-Sicilian culture through our wonderful art, literature, music, and cuisine, so why shouldn’t …

The scents of Freesias in springtime are like the first kisses of ones life. The scent is fresh, exhilarating, and filled with energy. The scent of Freesias really cannot be imitated perfectly by perfumers, although they are very good at …

There are trees that imbed themselves in our individual imagination as well as in the collective images of our minds. I feel this way about Vincent Van Gogh’s magnificent painting of cypresses. They are the essence and soul of ‘treeness”. …

Walking up the gentle hills to the Villa Borghese one has an immediate recollection of Respighi’s music that evokes images and feelings of the same place. Respighi had the pines of Pincio and the Villa Borghese in the core of …

All great cultures and civilization have one essential thing in common. They all have great road networks. Roads, like rivers, are the viable arteries of life forces that transmit the elements of civilization. Roads carry travelers, armies, wanderers, and true …