Last week feels like a million light-years in the past. Last Thursday, I told you I would write about rose diseases and insect pests. Last week coronavirus seemed far away, on the other side of the country, across the ocean, infecting travelers on cruise ships anchored off the coast.

Suddenly, the disease hit home. The internet, social media, and network and cable news reported nothing else. Coronavirus topics took over conversations at work, at home, at parties, at restaurants. Then, just as suddenly, people stopped going to parties and restaurants, schools closed, work and shopping hours were curtailed, and panic set in, especially panic shopping for items deemed necessary for survival, like toilet paper. I wouldn’t want to manage without some of those necessities, but I think it is time for all of us to take a deep breath and try to relax.

If you read the “Gardening Corner” every week, I surmise you are closer to my age than that of my 19-year-old granddaughter. That means th...