If he were still with us, my grandfather, Patrick Henry McArthur—we called him Mr. Pat—would have offered a spirited discussion about native grasses. Grasses were the enemy of his vast fields of cotton, tobacco, and soybeans in Wakulla, North Carolina. His field hands spent every summer cropping weeds out of the fields. In rainy years, the grasses often got ahead of the crops.

Along with the cultivated farmland, Mr. Pat also maintained hundreds of acres of virgin stands of long-leaf pine (Pinus palustris). Native grasses were a mortal foe of these pines because they were part of the successional process that allowed oak seedlings to develop and eventually shade out the pines.

So every three or four years, in early winter, the entire area had to be burned to preserve the long-leaf pine as the dominant species in this landscape. The December ritual was always the most trying of days because the fire had to be carefully controlled to avoid damage to farm buildings and the stately trees.

While Mr. Pat was worrying about his fields and pines, my grandmother, Caledonia McDonald McArthur, was growing beautiful flowers such as rain lilies (Zephyranthes and Habranthus species), irises, and roses. Articles in this issue by John Bryan, C. Colston Burrell, and William Quarles, respectively, update and extend our knowledge about these popular ornamentals.

Also in this issue you’ll enjoy garden historian Susan Davis Price’s article on the French naturalists André and François Michaux, whose contributions to American plant exploration are memorialized by many plant and place names. Coincidentally, François named the long-leaf pine P. australis, which—if it had been ruled a legitimate name—would have led my grandfather to believe he was confused about which hemisphere he was in.

Finally, we have a message for those of you who garden in the wide-open spaces of Texas and the surrounding region. Garden writer Lana Robinson describes how the owners of a Texas nursery are using a select variety of drought-tolerant natives and adaptable exotics to create brightly colored, English-style mixed borders that stand up to the hot, dry climate. Despite Mr. Pat’s deep-seated antagonism toward native grasses, he was a practical man. I’m sure if he were alive today he would have a container nursery on his farm, and he would be selling native grasses rather than burning them.

Ever in green,