much of gardening is a struggle against the fecundity of Nature.

Life is like a field, where we must gather what we grow, weed or wheat... this is the law, we reap the crop we sow.

If you want good roses, sharpen your knife and harden your heart.

In looking back we remember only the triumphant consummations of each season. Failures and frustrations are forgotten; garden-memories are as perfect as garden-hopes.

In a garden you can find, quiet thoughts that calm the mind.

I thought I had finished with romantic adventures, but half-way through life and well past the age for losing one's heart, I was suddenly swept off my feet by a new love, a passionate, tyrannical, all-absorbing emotion: the love of a garden.

Every noble achievement is a dream before it is a reality just as the oak is an acorn before it is a tree.