I’ve been AWOL this week with a massive research project (more on that next week). But I want to usher 2011 out with my last podcast, appropriately entitled “Resolutions.”
Hope you enjoy it – have a safe and happy new year!
Author: Linda Chalker-Scott
Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott has a Ph.D. in Horticulture from Oregon State University and is an ISA certified arborist and an ASCA consulting arborist. She is WSU’s Extension Urban Horticulturist and an Emerita Professor in the Department of Horticulture. She conducts research in applied plant and soil sciences, publishing the results in scientific articles and university Extension fact sheets.
Linda also is the award-winning author of five books: the horticultural myth-busting The Informed Gardener (2008) and The Informed Gardener Blooms Again (2010) from the University of Washington Press and Sustainable Landscapes and Gardens: Good Science – Practical Application (2009) from GFG Publishing, Inc., and How Plants Work: The Science Behind the Amazing Things Plants Do from Timber Press (2015). Her latest effort is an update of Art Kruckeberg’s Gardening with Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest from UW Press (2019).
In 2018 Linda was featured in a video series – The Science of Gardening – produced by The Great Courses. She also is one of the Garden Professors – a group of academic colleagues who educate and entertain through their blog and Facebook pages. Linda’s contribution to gardeners was recognized in 2017 by the Association for Garden Communicators as the first recipient of their Cynthia Westcott Scientific Writing Award.
"The Garden Professors" Facebook group - www.facebook.com/groups/GardenProfessors
Books: http://www.sustainablelandscapesandgardens.com
Keeping cozy with the latest podcast
Gardeners are spending more time indoors than out this time of year, so this week’s podcast features an interview with Dr. Rita Hummel. Dr. Hummel teaches a course on interior plantscaping and is also an expert on plant cold hardiness. Here she combines both areas to explain chilling injury on tropical houseplants.
The greenhouse that this plant lives in lost its heating system and is now showing signs of chilling injury.
Comparison of three leaves on the same plant. … Continue reading this article “Keeping cozy with the latest podcast”
Last minute advice about Christmas trees and other fun stuff
The next podcast is up and running for your listening pleasure. I’ve got an interview with Dr. Gary Chastagner, WSU’s Christmas tree expert. He’ll tell you about his latest research and share some tips for keeping your tree happy and your carpet needle-free.
Here are some photos from Gary’s “dungeon” where he’s been comparing needle retention with some new promising conifer species from other parts of the world:
In the dungeon with Gary Chastagner
What dungeon would be complete without a rack or two?… Continue reading this article “Last minute advice about Christmas trees and other fun stuff”
The sorry state of whole plant physiology
Okay, I’m biased: I’m a whole plant physiologist, meaning that I like to study entire plants in their environment, not just their cells or DNA in a lab. I got hooked on plants as an undergraduate in marine biology when I took plant physiology for “fun” (translated: I couldn’t find another biology elective to fill the time slot). Discovering why vines curl around fenceposts (thigmotropism) or how plants sense gravity (statoliths) or why bilaterally symmetrical flowers evolved (to accomodate pollinators) was fascinating, and I finally succumbed to the green side when I entered my PhD program.… Continue reading this article “The sorry state of whole plant physiology”
Winter winners podcast
I got so excited about our live tree hunt (posted yesterday) that I forgot to put up the podcast! So here it is…Winter Winners.
The interview of the week is at the Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle, with Director Dr. Sarah Reichard. We visited the Winter Garden, where she (wearing her taxonomy hat) picked out her favorite plants. They include paperbark maple (Acer griseum)…
(the sun shining through the bark is incredible)
…and contorted hazelnut (Corylus contorta)…
(hard to see, but love the bare twigs)
…and Garrya x issaquahensis…
(these most amazing catkins get longer and longer)
…and Rhododendron strigillosum with the coolest bristly petioles:
(a very tidy rhododendron)
As always, I would love questions and suggestions for future podcasts!
Bert, I’ll see your live tree hunt and raise you one Bulgarian
I just can’t resist telling our Christmas tree hunting tradition.
On the Friday after Thanksgiving, we drive out to Monroe (about 45 minutes north of Seattle) to our favorite tree farm, where we look for the perfect noble fir. Here, Jim demonstrates his dubious taste in trees:
This year, Charlotte brought a tennis buddy home from college. Nasko lives in Bulgaria and wasn’t traveling home for a holiday they don’t celebrate. So he got to experience the Great Scott Tree hunt for himself:
My son Jack (on the left) complained that he NEVER got to choose the tree (Mom retains veto power over all selections), and happily for all of us this year he picked the winner:
Jim does the cutting, and the kids do the carrying:
This tree farm also has hot chocolate and candy canes, which we all enjoy before returning to town (Monroe that is) and having lunch at the local Taco Bell.… Continue reading this article “Bert, I’ll see your live tree hunt and raise you one Bulgarian”
Do plants heal?
I’ve been teaching plant physiology or related courses for a long, long time, and one of the tenets is that woody plants don’t heal. In contrast to animal tissues, when trees and shrubs are wounded the damaged tissues are permanently destroyed. Wounds are compartmentalized and covered with wound wood. Arborists are fond of saying "plants seal, not heal."
That’s all fine and good for woody plant parts, but what about grafts? Since grafting reconnects cambial and phloem tissues, is this "healing?" And… Continue reading this article “Do plants heal?”
Yet another fine podcast
We’re popping out the podcasts like crazy! This week the theme is “Gifts that keep on giving.” Along with the news tidbits and myth busting, I had a lot of fun interviewing shoppers at some Seattle nurseries. I started out with two relatively simple questions about gardening gifts, and you’ll enjoy hearing the responses. There are some great ideas out there!
As always, feel free to let me know if you’ve got suggestions for future topics. … Continue reading this article “Yet another fine podcast”
Another podcast to chew on along with Thanksgiving leftovers
While our US readers enjoy the Thanksgiving holidays, you can all enjoy this week’s podcast, entitled “Leftovers.” We discuss good leftovers (transforming orange peels into useful chemicals) and bad leftovers (fertilizer runoff), and then take a trip to an innovative company (Recovery 1) that recycles building demolition materials:
Huge piles of wood, wallboard, and other materials left over from demolition.
The initial sorting process – metals like nails are pulled out, wallboard is separated into components, and wood continues…
…to the end, where it’s chipped into different sizes to create a recycled mulch product.… Continue reading this article “Another podcast to chew on along with Thanksgiving leftovers”
You say horticulturalist, I say horticulturist
Keith Hansen, an Extension agent in Texas, has proposed a fun discussion topic: horticulturist or horticulturalist? We both prefer the former, though he points out that the introduction to my podcast uses the term "horticulturalist" instead. Both terms recognized as real words and seem to be more or less interchangeable.
But I don’t really think they are interchangeable, and I don’t think Keith does, either. Horticulture is a noun and horticultural is an adjective. Specialty titles, like economist, botanist, or chemist, are based on nouns, not adjectives. … Continue reading this article “You say horticulturalist, I say horticulturist”