Even botanists can be surprised at the sheer variety of a houseplant often known only for being indestructible.

Longtime garden writer Margaret Roach‘s list of accomplishments is long and illustrious: She was once fashion writer for ...

a Mary Roach in Lancashire, England, and a Margaret Laffin, the wife of John Laffin, who lived in Murntown, Wexford County, Ireland. Through these clues, Roach’s early life can pieced together.