As I think of the beauty and joy that your work has brought to prairie people, prairie homes and prairie yards, I wonder about the synchronicity of events in your life. How did a boy, born in a Scottish fishing village, nurture and grow his innate passion for plants [...]
Search larches on social media and you’ll find all kinds of pictures of beautiful golden foliage. People drive and hike miles to see them in all their fall splendor. Whether you are an outdoor enthusiast, a botanist, a forester, a nature ‘nut’, a kid or just a kid [...]
This is a memory jar. It came to me in the 1970s and has been filling up with memories for almost 50 years. I have even dug up and stored some older memories in this jar. Memory Jar - holding my memories since 1975 It came to [...]
In the late 1990’s I wrote a short story from a vague memory that I had of my father’s last years. My mom, Helen Skinner’s response when she heard this story was “That is not how it was.” And she was right. "The Gardener" was the way I visualized [...]
Although I can’t imagine why Frank Skinner would have thought he should make a big lawn and I can’t imagine what happened on the big lawn before the 1950’s, the big lawn is a very central part of the Arboretum and of my childhood memories. I would love to [...]
Frank Skinner collected, developed and introduced many plants at Skinner’s Nursery the home of Dropmore Hardy Plants. From the 1920’s through to 1967 so many people, immigrants and locals (as employees) and horticulturalists from many countries, helped Frank to realize his visions. We have so many fond memories and [...]
I remember Frank Skinner as an old man. He was my father. In the late 1990s, I wrote a short piece of fiction using some of my vague memories around his birthday, May 5. This is the story: The Gardener The old man lay in the narrow bed pushed [...]
