Month: November 2011

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Great Gardening Gifts for Christmas

Dear Santa,

The holiday season is approaching fast, so shopping has begun with a vengeance. I know that when I give gifts, I want the gift to be the perfect gift for each person; but I want the gift to be a great surprise. I am hoping those who give gifts will also surprise this recipient with the perfect present. So that is why I am writing to you, Dear Santa, in the hopes that you will whisper in the giver’s ear the exact place to shop or item to buy. I am not dreaming of sugarplums. They are fattening. The gifts I dream of would be for the garden. And no, we dreamers cannot afford to buy these things ourselves. Some of these garden items are only sold wholesale. Santa you know that we gardeners have been nice, not naughty. That is why I write to you. Santa, you have the connections.

Santa, here is my short list. I am hoping TheGardenLady blog readers will have other suggestions:

When I was in West Virginia, I met sculptor Joe Foley willfuly@frontier.com 1622 Oakhurst Drive, Charleston v 25314 (304) 542-6999 and saw his Steel Blooming Metal Flowers (see here) I thought one of his unpainted daffodils would fit into my garden very nicely.

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Protecting Plants from the Wildlife

Family Dinner by anoldent

Once again, this GardenLady has been asked how to protect plants from all the wildlife that visit gardens and think they are their personal supermarkets. Sometimes it seems to me that we, the humans, are in the cage while the animals roam around enjoying the bounty that we plant.

Mostly, we have to learn to live with a certain amount of damage.

One suggestion, of course, is that we can install a fence high enough to keep deer from jumping over and deep enough in the earth from allowing animals to dig under. Some people say that deer can jump over most fences under 9 feet.

But to prevent woodchucks from burrowing under the fence one needs a fence that goes into the earth at least one foot deep or the lower edge of the fence should be bent at an L-shaped angle leading outward and buried 1 to 2 inches below ground.  See here.  And of course, the above ground part of the fence should be such that the woodchucks or rabbits cannot crawl through.

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Squash for Thanksgiving: Appreciation of a Native Vegetable

Thanksgiving Decoration by alasam

Thanksgiving is coming soon and if you are like TheGardenLady, you are planning your festive meal. In contemplating what to serve, it struck me that there is one vegetable that is so tied up with the holiday, a vegetable that one could use as a basis for almost every course in the menu, that we should truly give thanks to the Native Americans who taught the Pilgrims about it. The vegetable I am writing about is the squash, in the genus Cucurbita which includes the pumpkin. So this year I am planning to be a little more creative with my Thanksgiving menu- making the theme of the menu based on squashes. Whether you are vegan, vegetarian or a carnivore, this might be something for you to consider this Thanksgiving.

First, to decorate the table, I think an assortment of squashes can look very festive as a centerpiece. It is a centerpiece that will hold up and last and can be used over the winter. Unlike cut flowers, winter squashes last and do not have to be refrigerated and can be used for months. (The thinner skinned, summer squashes like zucchini will have to be put in the refrigerator after a few days.) I thought I might put the squashes on a base of yellow fall leaves, if I can still find leaves by Thanksgiving and add some curlicued streamers. But one person’s blog went one step further and carved the squashes to resemble flowers.  See here.  I don’t know if I am so ambitious as to cook a full meal for the family and have time to carve my decorations.

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Bob’s Market and Greenhouses

Another person I met at the conference was one of the owner’s of Bob’s Market and Greenhouses. Later he invited a group of us to visit their greenhouses and meet the rest of the family who run this wonderful company. We not only got a chance to learn about this company and ask questions, but we had the opportunity to tour the Greenhouses.

Bob’s is one of the many nurseries that raises the seeds that Ball Horticultural Company creates and produces. Bob’s Greenhouses plant the seeds and creates what is referred to as ” plugs” (little pots with plants) that we buy in the retail nurseries around the US where we shop.

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Anna Ball: President and CEO of Ball Horticultural Company

Anna Ball (Photo from CobraHead Blog)

I wrote how this GardenLady enjoys attending horticulture lectures. I recently attended a horticulture conference where the keynote speaker was Anna Ball, the President and CEO of the Ball Horticultural Company whose headquarters is in Chicago, Illinois.

Blue and Lilac Wave Petunias by Mr.Mac2009

The Ball company is a wholesale company that has introduced some of the most popular garden plants that grow in our gardens today. They have created such plants as the Wave® Petunia and Fiesta™ Double Impatiens. The Ball Company is very concerned about sustainability in gardening. What they mean by this is that they are always striving to bring better plants to market- plants that need less water, energy and chemicals to flourish. This is a company working to bring the best plants to our gardens.

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Great Time of the Year for Bargain Prices on Plants

Plant Sale by jaimekop

This is a great time of the year to get bargain prices on plants. Though the ground in many areas is still able to be dug to enable one to plant, few people seem to realize that one can still plant perennials, bulbs, shrubs and trees. In fact, this is a great time to plant. Besides saving money on plants from nurseries that desperately want to get rid of stock, by planting in the Fall, you are giving your perennials, shrubs, trees and bulbs a head start in root growth. And bulbs need to go in at this time of year so they get that cold snap that produces flowers in the spring.

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Should One Buy or Harvest Seeds?

morning glory seeds by oceandesetoiles

TheGardenLady received this question from someone called the Chicago Urban Gardener:

 I recently read and enjoyed your article on morning glories, in which you describe how you start the plant from seed. I was curious to know, however, whether you buy your seeds or harvest them from the previous year’s plants (I know that morning glories quite often self-seed). If the latter, how does one harvest and store morning glory seeds for planting next season? Do you have any general recommendations for collecting and storing seeds from annuals and perennials?

When I was a child we always collected the marigold and zinnia seeds and a few vegetable seeds. And we were scrupulous in digging up gladiola bulbs to replant the following spring. We were very frugal.

I do collect some seeds but not many. Propagating by seeds is fun, educational and a challenge. But it is not something that I really do. My gardening emphasis is on having flowers, not seeds. Toward that end, I deadhead flowers to force more flowers to bloom. This means I try NOT  to allow many plants to go into seed. Of course, at the end of the growing season you often find seeds even if you were not trying to produce seeds.

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Identifying Shrubs

 

Recently a reader of TheGardenLady asked if I could identify some shrubs that grow in her area. TheGardenLady believes she knows the genus of plants they are but is not quite sure of the species. 

Bridalwreath Spiraea by louisa_catlover

The white flowered shrub is in the spirea family. And I believe the species is Spiraea prunifolia. Check out these two sites to see if the photos look like the plant you have seen. See here or here. 

 

camellia by tamaki

The shrub with the pink flower is in the genus Camellia (see here) which is the largest genus in the plant family Theaceae. One site says that “more than 400 species have been named and published “. I believe the photo you have sent is of a Camellia japonica. But because there are so many, this may not be quite the correct one.  See here. 

Camellia japonica (ヤブツバキ) #5286 by Nemo’s great uncle

Camellia japonica (ツバキ) #5481 by Nemo’s great uncle

If readers of TheGardenLady blog know the correct name of the shrubs, please don’t hesitate to send in your identification.

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The Monkshood Plant (Aconite)

Aconitum columbianum by Eric in SF

By now readers know how excited this GardenLady gets when a flower finally bursts into bloom. To this end I want to let everyone know that my monkshood flowers (aconitum) have finally opened. Books generally say this flower opens in mid to late summer. Mine opens in late September or October.

Wolf’s Bane by helen.2006

I bought this flowering plant reluctantly.

Before I discovered the effectiveness of Liquid Fence to spray on plants to prevent deer from eating everything, I sadly complained to friends that I could not raise flowers or vegetables on my property. At that point it seemed that the deer ate everything. A friend told me to get Monkshood or aconite plants because not only did they have have pretty flowers that looked like the purple hood of a medieval monk (see here), it seemed that deer didn’t touch the plant. Deer aren’t stupid. They seem to know which plants are toxic. I wish I understood how they get this knowledge. And Monkshood plants are toxic.

Because I knew of the plant’s toxicity, I feared having it on my property. In a way, I realize how silly I was because there are a lot of pretty flowering plants that are toxic if eaten. Besides being poisonous when eaten, the Monkshood plant can also cause an allergic reaction to some people if just touched. It is said that Monkshood makes pretty cut flowers, but if you touch the plants while putting them in a vase, you should wash your hands thoroughly. Even though I do not have children living at home, I planted my Monkshood in the back of my house in an area that is terraced and therefore out of the way. Nothing ever steps in its location. And as pretty as the flower is, even though I have never seemed to have an allergic reaction when I touched the plant to tie it up when it flopped, I didn’t bring it indoors for floral arrangements. Why worry that someone may touch it when it is in a vase?

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October Snowstorm

October Snow by Elizabeth Thomsen

I don’t know about my readers who live on the east coast, but I am still reeling over the snowstorm we just had this October. In October!!!!  There was never a snowstorm in this part of the country in October that I can recall- and I won’t tell you how many years I can recall.

As a child when my class sang the Thanksgiving song “Over the River and Through the Woods” and came to the lines,

“The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh
through the white and drifted snow.”

we would giggle.  Snow in November, at Thanksgiving? It had never happened where we lived in New Jersey. It almost seemed silly to sing this song.  And here, in 2011, was snow in October. Unheard of.

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