This is probably the wrong year to talk about providing water for the birds here in Pennsylvania, since they can find plenty of it in puddles following our recent deluge! In more normal summers, however, our weather often begins to turn hot and dry in July. Read More
Although rehmannia or Chinese foxglove is virtually unknown to U.S. gardeners, it ranks among the top 50 in China-of medicinal herbs, that is! Rehmannia glutinosa, also known as "earth yellow," is the type used for that purpose. Its furry leaves and flowers remind me of gesneriads such as gloxinia. Read More
This is the time of year we all start harvesting or trading seeds for next year's garden. If you are as organizationally challenged as I am, the packets you accumulate could end up scattered all over your house before spring arrives. Read More
Although often considered southern belles, spring starflowers (Ipheion or Tristagma spp.) can shine as far north as zone 5. Since that is my own zone, I planted a few bulbs at the front of a flower bed last fall, covering them with an upside-down daisy tray (a flat with a webbed bottom) to prevent our chickens from scratching them up again. Read More
A cousin stopped by in mid-July to give me a very generous amount of Aztec liliy and Peruvian daffodil bulbs she hadn't gotten around to planting earlier in the summer, due to the death of her mother. Despite it being so late, I was highly optimistic about those bulbs, because I knew from previous experience that they bloom very rapidly. Read More
The plants from which we get flavorings and spices have to rank among the most exotic, since they are the types for which expeditions were once launched and new worlds explored. Columbus actually stumbled across the Americas by accident, when they got in his way as he was seeking a new spice route to the East Indies! It wasn't until after Cortez invaded Mexico, however, that Europe "discovered" vanilla and chocolate. Read More
Sparmannia africana, also known as cape stock rose, is one of those plants that bristles when touched. Actually, only the showy stamens of the flowers move, expanding when something brushes against them. But, if you grow the cape stock rose as a houseplant, it could cause your guests to jump back and squeal, "It's alive!" Read More
These three substances sound nasty and the latter two somewhat chemical. They are all natural, however--as well as inexpensive--and can do wonders for your seed germination rates. Read More
My nodding scadoxus (Scadoxus nutans) bloomed for the first time recently, looking like a somewhat bent orange shaving brush. The poor thing was quite pot bound at the time. However, in its homeland of Ethiopia, it grows on trees and rocks in mountain forests, so it probably isn't picky about how much soil it does or doesn't have. Read More
Being an insatiable flower fiend, I traded for salsify seeds because I liked photos I'd seen of the purple blooms. I was disappointed to discover that they don't appear until the plant's second year, making it officially a biennial, though you can harvest the roots after its first summer. Read More
Although we all welcome the arrival of spring, the new season can bring new sneezin' as well--and not just from allergies! Change stresses our bodies, making us more vulnerable to viruses, especially if we try to hurry our winter-sluggish bags of bones into sudden gardening activity. That's when the herbs called adaptogens reportedly come in handy. Read More
In Herbaceous Perennial Plants, Allan Armitage writes that "Roscoea belongs in the almost-impossible-to-grow-but-I-must-have-one' group of plants, such as Meconopsis." Roscoea comes, in fact, from the same part of the world that the blue poppy does-the Himalayas. Read More
Rock roses aren't actually roses, as is proved by the fact that they lack thorns and require very little water, pruning, or other care. And, being native to the Mediterranean, they actually prefer poor and gritty soils to good ones. Read More
Summer should be one of the best times of the year for taking garden photos. We've got more flowers to photograph during this season than at other times of year, after all, and plenty of daylight in which to do it. Read More
Many plants which become popular healers are thorny ones--perhaps on the theory that if what tastes bad has to be good for you, what feels bad has to be good for you too! All of the following prickly types have been highly touted for medicinal purposes in recent years. I don't know whether or not they really work, and would avoid self-medicating with them until we learn more about their long-term effects. But they are the sort of plants which snag your attention! Read More
Some of you may recall the frivolous article on marked-down Valentine's Day plants that I entered in the write-off earlier this year. Here's an update on the plants mentioned in that article, and a few more serious hints for helping your own discounted darlings survive. Read More
Do you remember the little leather change purses with snap clasps at the top that our grandmothers or great-aunts used to carry? The shape of calceolaria or pocketbook flowers reminds me of the semi-circular appearance of those pouches. Read More
True to the "pan" in its name, pandan is a culinary herb commonly added to southeast Asian cuisine. Also known as dwarf or fragrant screw pine, the plant reportedly has an earthy scent similar to hay, while the cooked leaves smell like caramel corn. The flavor has been described as akin to roasted breadfruit or hazelnut. Read More
I somehow ended up with two very similar-if not identical- types of nolana seeds this year, Nolana humifusa and Nolana humifusa "Little Bells." (That's what happens when you make out a seed order without checking what you've already traded for! ) I was happy to have both, actually, since the South American plants are not well known nor widely available in the U.S. The other species you are most likely to find here are Nolana paradoxa and its cultivars, such as 'Bluebird', 'Snowbird' and 'Cliffhanger'. Read More
It has been my experience that most shade perennials--such as bleeding hearts, lily of the valley, and columbines--bloom in spring. So I was delighted to come across the more unusual false anemone (Anemonopsis macrophylla), which can brighten those shadowy places from midsummer to early autumn instead. Read More
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