The settlements are just starting – recently a jury awarded a terminally ill man $289 million after he claimed that Roundup gave him cancer. The jury found “Monsanto acted with malice, oppression or fraud and should be punished for its conduct.” Monsanto mounted an appeal and the settlement has been reduced to $78.5 million, but the finding stands.

A few weeks ago a California man who has undergone six rounds of chemotherapy for his cancer was awarded $80 million in a suit claiming that his use of Roundup has given him cancer. This is the tip of the iceberg. I believe that years from now we’ll look back with horror on the pervasiveness of Roundup in our food chain and think “How did we ever let this happen?”

The EPA and the Agriculture Department are notoriously slow to address chemical endangerment of the public: in the l950s my grandfather, uncle and all their farmer neighbors used Malathion insecticide regularly to spray their grape crops. Malathion disrupts the nervous system of insects, but as it turns out it affects the nervous system of humans too. My grandfather, uncle, and many of their neighbors died early deaths of liver cancer, simple farmers who were too busy coping with their cancer to hire a lawyer to challenge a huge chemical company. The federal government thought Malathion was safe – in fact it’s still legally for sale.

Roundup is this generation’s Malathion. Please don’t use Roundup. Tell your friends and neighbors. When you buy produce, ask if it was treated with Roundup while growing. I’ll trade a dandelion or two for a clean bill of health. And there is an upside: we haven’t used chemicals on our garden for years and now there’s clover, violets and lesser celandine growing in the lawn and it’s beautiful and natural. We all have a responsibility to live gently on the land; eliminating dangerous chemicals from our gardening is a good start.

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Every year at this time I happily set off to the floral wholesalers to see what spring bulb flowers have made their appearance. There are dozens of varieties and colors of tulips – fringed, French, pointy-petaled Kaufmania and Greigii, singles, doubles, striped and ruffled parrot tulips. I buy whatever appeals to me, blissfully free of my usual shopping list for a specific kind or color of flower arrangement. It’s like walking into a store and choosing what you love without thinking about what’s practical – a very liberating feeling (even with something as modest as a bouquet of flowers.)

There are delicate lilies of the valley, geometrically-checked fritillaria, and towering agapanthus in both blue and white. The homegrown stuff is pretty fabulous too – pots of narcissus, jonquils, daffodils, hyacinth, little tubs of crocus and a pot or two of pheasant-eye daffodils: white daffs with a yellow-and-red-fringed cup that looks exactly like a pheasant’s eye. There are towering branches of pussy willow, cherry blossoms and quince, and I never leave without an interesting type of greens to be displayed together in an all-green bouquet. This time it was Cordata, with a heart-shaped leaf and the most interesting red stem running up it. The grocery stores are carrying spring flowers now, so it’s a good time to indulge a bit and bring home a bit of this welcome season.

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This is my favorite time of year in the garden. The flowers may no longer be at their best, but the trees and shrubs that have provided their simple green backdrop all summer have changed form and color, letting their berries and fruits deepen into rich autumnal colors of infinite textures and depth. Green becomes gold, or red, or orange; it’s impossible to take a walk without picking up a perfect acorn, a sugar maple leaf of deepest russet, or an emerald magnolia pod studded with shiny red berries.

The components of this arrangement came from the yard – dogwood leaves, viburnum heads, hawthorne berries, sedum, meadowsweet, and branches of crabapple. Our two crabapple trees are so heavy with fruit that I feel compelled to find something useful to do with them – or maybe just leave them for the squirrels to enjoy. There are always elements of nature that can be brought indoors and enjoyed, even if it’s just a sprig of ivy or a branch of boxwood. If you take a look around your neighborhood or backyard you may be surprised at the wealth of fall beauty just waiting to be noticed.

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Petersham Nursery at Covent GardenLovely plantings in front of Jamb in PimlicoPetersham Nursery in RichmondOne of the Petersham flower cartsClaridge’s doorways

Here is a photo essay of some of the other places you might find worth a visit if you’re headed to England. This is entirely subjective and completely fun.

The Design MuseumAlaia exhibit at The Design MuseumVenus Rox in Notting HillHarry’s Bar: A favorite dinner spotFarewell London!

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Tulips are an incredibly versatile flower. They can be as simple as you please, plunked into an old bottle or yogurt jar, or they can be the swans of the flower world, long-necked and elegant, turning toward the sun each morning from inside a gilded vase.

I bought a few kinds of tulips and offer them here for your consideration. (And I couldn’t resist the Lenten roses and hyacinths for good measure.) Part of being happy is knowing how to accept too much of a good thing when it presents itself, and I can never have too many spring flowers!

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