Gardenia

Do you know your shade?Some shade is total; its dense canopy creates dim spots hospitable to few plants.Partial shade is less exclusive. It lets sunshine leak through thinner layers of leaves or sneak in around the edges for part of the day. More plants are welcome in this dappled environment.And seasonal shade is the protective kind. In summer, leafy trees keep the hottest of afternoon sun off delicate flowers, and, in winter, evergreen trees protect shrubs from scorching morning sun.Shade, of course, is everywhere.

After sifting through 800 audition tapes, producer Brandon Tartikoff has chosen Brianne Leary, niece of '60s LSD guru Timothy "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out" Leary, as host of his new late-night show, "Last Call." (Suggested promo: "Tune In, Tune In.")"She's a total free spirit," says Mr. Tartikoff of the L.A.-based actress-journalist. "Very engaging. Kind of off-the-wall, yet focused enough to be moderator. She's got opinions and has a sense of fun.""Call," a hip weeknight show about news and pop culture, is targeted to launch in national syndication in the fall.

Gardeners are a perverse lot. No matter how appalling the summer, or how welcome the respite of fall, the minute we close the storm windows, we want to start gardening all over again -- this time indoors. There was a time when poinsettias, with their cheerful red and green leaves, were the main horticultural event in winter. But we were hungry for more -- more color, more bloom, more scent, more choice. Plantsmen and women have responded. Now we have a host of things to satisfy the winter palate, several of which can be blooming by Christmas.

That woman in the turquoise leggings. Isn't she someone? Of course she's someone, but isn't she someone?What about the short, athletic man with the flat nose? Or that one, with the incredibly well-cut arms?And that guy in the bagel shop, the one with the expressive features and what appears to be a heavy layer of pancake makeup at 7 a.m. -- he must be an actor, right?Suddenly everyone in Baltimore looks famous to me. Or at least vaguely familiar. It is late summer, after all, time for the Capistrano-like return of "Homicide."

Two ironic moments in the film may tell you all you need to know about "The Tragedy of Flight 103: The Inside Story," an HBO docu-drama movie premiering this weekend (at 9 p.m. Sunday, with repeats Dec. 12, 15, 17, 20 and 23).Early on, a British expert (Timothy West) who has been hired by Pan Am to beef up the airline's security has to ask a top executive (Vincent Gardenia) to explain a term he has just used: "the load factor." Turns out the dehumanized language means ** "passengers."And later, when another Pan Am security official in Frankfurt (Michael Wincott)

Though English poet William Wordsworth was wandering "lonely as a cloud" when he spied "a host of golden daffodils," he never mentioned their fragrance. Must have been too high up to smell them, because daffodils (Narcissus) fill the air with sweet perfume.Although they've been in cultivation for thousands of years, there were only 24 varieties of daffodil listed in Britain in Wordsworth's day (1800). Today, thanks to the busy hands of hybridizers, there are thousands, including hosts of not only golden, but white, cream, and salmon-cupped daffodils, with fragrances that range from spring rain to elusive sweetness to the rich musk of gardenia.

It can feed the soul, stir fears, calm, soothe or invigorate us. But scent is a personal thing: one person's fragrance is another's stench. While I love privet, a perfume that instantly propels me back into blissful childhood, a friend says it's like ... well, never mind. Planting for fragrance takes a little time and thought, but rewards the gardener, (and everyone else in the vicinity) with a breath from the Garden of Eden.PlanningThe first rule of thumb is to plant the scents you love or that flood you with memories -- lilac for the day your grandmother gave you her favorite brooch, the damask rose that was blooming when you graduated.

Three musical revues -- the 1991 Tony Award-winning "The Will Rogers Follies," "And the World Goes 'Round" and "Forever Plaid" -- will form the cornerstone of the 1992-1993 season at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre.The season, which could be described as a year in revue, will also include Tom Dulack's off-Broadway comedy "Breaking Legs," the only non-musical in the lineup so far, although three more shows have yet to be announced.Referring to the four offerings as "feel-gooders," Hope Quackenbush, managing director of the Mechanic, said yesterday, "I'm coming to the conclusion it's really not wrong to escape once in a while and have a good time.

Just when you thought it was safe to go to the Baltimore Museum of Art, they're back.They are the planners of the 22nd annual Baltimore International Film Festival, that yearly orgy of the avant garde and the offbeat and, in some cases, the off guard, which they're set to unleash over four weekends in April."

THE DAFFODILS can't help themselves. Nor the crocuses or snowdrops. Up through the dark earth they come, sprightly and green. The garden would seem a bruised, battered mess but for these tender sprigs. It was a brutish winter, which makes the advent of spring all the more appreciated and noticed. Moss on a roof. The dusky scent of peat. A buzz of mowers. Buds on a bedraggled hydrangea. Squirrels obsessively digging under an oak. And beyond the garden, the season emerges with a cordial familiarity: a girls lacrosse team practices in shirtsleeves and shorts, a vintage Jaguar convertible - with the top down - idles at an intersection, a line forms at the local ice cream parlor.