Category: Flowers

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How to Celebrate Valentine’s Day with that Special Person

V-Day on Flickr by CCCvrcak
V-Day on Flickr by CCCvrcak

Valentine’s Day is coming up and TheGardenLady is sure that many of her readers are thinking about what to give your girlfriend, wife, mother or significant other.

Roses? How lovely.

Have you thought about giving an orchid this year or at least going to see an orchid show? Take your love to the Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden or the International Orchid Show in Santa Barbara, CA or an orchid show in your area. Give her the tickets on Valentine’s Day and then go to the show when you have the time.

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Caring for Marigolds

Dead Marigolds by blackwilliam1899
Dead Marigolds by blackwilliam1899

TheGardenLady received this question from Anuja.

I have just bought a marigold plant which has a round orange flower. The flower has died in spite of its being kept in a sunny area. What should I do to get the plant back?

TheGardenLady is not quite clear about what died – was it the flower or
the entire plant?

If it was the round orange flower that died, just pinch off the flower. Pinching off the dead flower, which is called dead heading, encourages the plant to force at least one other flower. If you leave the dead flower to dry on the plant, you might not get many more flowers, but you will get seeds.

To get the seeds, you allow the flower to dry ON the plant and when it is really brown and completely dry, clip it off. Then when you want to plant more marigold plants, pull the dried petals out of the dried pod. Each seed is attached to a petal. Plant these seeds and you should get many more plants from all those seeds.

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Watching Plants Do Their Thing

As the winter wears on, many of us dream of spring and the return of flowering plants.  Some of us are lucky enough to have flowers open or opening indoors.  My amaryllis bud is opening and I eagerly await the brilliant red flower.  But if you don’t have flower buds and dream of your outdoor or indoor plants in bloom, you can watch time lapse shots of flowers opening or plants growing on your computer. There are many sites to watch (see here). Or perhaps you can take your own time lapse photos and send them to TheGardenLady (see here). YouTube has a lot of these videos and they are free.  Sit back and enjoy.

A few that I enjoyed are these:

Showy lady slipper – Cypripedium reginae – flower opening

Hibiscus Time Lapse

Time lapse radish seeds sprouting, top and roots growing

Orchid Time Lapse

Or you might want to watch a creative animation of flowering plants opening.  Check out the first video of this post.  It’s called

Plant techno

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Holiday Poinsettias

Read this excellent article by Michelle Gervais on Poinsettias.   According to it, Poinsettias are NOT poisonous to humans and rats. It doesn’t say anything about cats and dogs. It discusses how to choose the best plant, the care of the plant and it gives sites for more information on the plant.

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When to Plant a Magnolia Bush

Photo by Fadadomar

TheGardenLady received this questin from Betty:

When is the best time of year to plant Magnolia bushes?

TheGardenLady never heard of a Magnolia bush; but since there are about 80 different species of magnolia that are native to the eastern United States and southeastern Asia as well as hunderds of named hybrids, there might be a plant that has the common name of Magnolia bush.

One difference between a bush and a small tree, TheGardenLady was told, is the height- a bush is under 20 feet tall and a tree is over 20 feet tall. So you can see how arbitrary the word bush can be in a plant name. That is why it is imperative to ALWAYS give the Latin name of a plant when asking a question about a plant. With the Latin name, the person answering your question knows exactly which plant to talk about.

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Trilliums

                                                Photo by ER Post

Is there anyone who doesn’t love Trilliums?

When I planted one in my son’s garden and it bloomed the next spring, my granddaughter phoned me to ask what the fairy flower was that was blooming. A friend with a wonderful woodland garden told me that it was her love of Trilliums that started her gardening.

Towards finding out more about Trilliums, TheGardenLady recently attended a lecture given by John Gyer entitled “The Secret Life of Trilliums.” It turns out that if you want to plant Trillium seeds and get flowers from those seeds, you have to wait 8 years.  It takes 2 years just to make a first leaf.

So Mr. Gyer studied what was going on during those 8 years in the life of the plant both underground and when it sent up the stems and leaves that finally led to the plant putting forth flowers. If any gardening group would like to hear this fascinating talk, you can contact John Gyer at fernhill@voicenet.com

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Plants for Sale

                              Photo taken by Celine

In case readers hadn’t noticed, this is a great time to buy plants. Most nurseries have already started their sales. One can purchase plants from 25% off the retail price to much more off. Nurseries want to get rid of most of their plant stock so that they can start planning for purchasing next year’s plants. They want to have room not only for garden favorites, but also for the newest hybrids that are going to come to market in 2009 and also for plants that are winners of plant awards, like The Perennial of the Year or the All American Rose. So now smart buyers can reap the benefits.

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Perovskia Atriplicifolia aka Russian Sage

TheGardenLady first fell in love with Perovskia atriplicifolia, Russian Sage, during a summer visit to Chicago when she saw clouds of a lavender mist that billowed in the breeze. Perovskia is such a great specimen plant and when planted in mass makes such a lovely airy floral scene, that TheGardenLady knew she had to have the plant in her garden.

Perovskia is a very easy plant to grow in zones 4-9. TheGardenLady loves easy to grow plants with long – flowering seasons and Perovskia, besides being easy to grow, also has a long season of bloom – from July to October. The plant forms a bushy clump of lacy, fragrant, grayish leaves with spikes of rich lavender -blue flowers that become increasingly brilliant as they open. Perovskia loves hot, sunny sites and can tolerate drought. It is native to the high deserts of Afghanistan but was named by a Russian botanist after B. A. Perovski, a Turkestani governor of one of the Russian provinces. And the plant is not a sage (Salvia) but was probably given its common name from the sage aroma given off when the leaves are crushed. 

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Lagerstroemia aka Crape Myrtle

This GardenLady is absolutely delighted with her Lagerstroemia -Crape Myrtle this summer. Just a few years old it is blooming its head off. It is gorgeous! A showstopper. And this flowering shrub or tree can bloom up to 120 days- from July through September. I don’t think there is a flowering tree or shrub that can beat or even match that kind of blooming period. TheGardenLady is “johnny come lately” to having a Crape Myrtle because she nevever thought the Crape Myrtel would grow in her temperature zone.

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Diagnosing Marigold Problems

 

                           Photo taken by juggzy_malone

TheGardenLady received this question from Liz on her “Caring for Marigolds” post.

I am growing marigolds in tall (3″) pots in a very sunny location of my backyard. In the pots I have also planted white flowering bacopa, ivy and a browny spikey grass (not sure of the name).  Everything in the pots were growing well for a few weeks until recently when I noticed that the bacopa stopped flowering and the foliage and flowers of  the marigolds had turned into a daily meal for something.  I’ve checked in the soil, and around the marigolds both in the day and in the evening but can ft locate any insects other than the one lonely earwig.  I have read that the only pests that will feast on marigolds are slugs but I can’t find any in/around my pots. Can you offer any information on what may be causing my frustrations???

You write that you created a mixed pot of plants that includes bacopa and marigolds. Was it your idea of putting these plants together? TheGardenLady would not recommend combining marigold and bacopa in one pot. My understanding is that bacopa will stop flowering with severe drying out. Bacopa likes part sun. But marigolds like full sun and don’t need as frequent watering.

Not knowing the kind of ivy you have or what the grass is that you have, I cannot tell you the proper culture for those two plants.

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