In keeping with the upcoming holiday season, enjoy this floral candy cane:
What is it?
Answer and another photo on Monday!
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
The decline of Extension and the increased need for science-based information
I hate to be the downer this week, given Bert and Holly’s inspired posts, but reality continues to hit – or bite. The budget crises in Washington state continues to gut higher education, and one of the hardest hit areas at WSU is Extension. Land-grant institutions have a federal mandate to provide Extension services, and this sets WSU and similar universities apart from other state schools. Unfortunately, Extension generates relatively little in terms of outside grants and contracts. … Continue reading this article “The decline of Extension and the increased need for science-based information”
Trunk teaser untwisted
Good guesses over the weekend on what caused the twisty looking trunk structure in Friday’s puzzle. Here’s a larger photo:
Nancy and Paul both got this one – it’s two trunks fused together. I have no idea whether the production nursery grew two saplings together on purpose or accidentally, but here’s one reason that this tree might be a problem down the road:
This area is ripe for disease, as water will collect in the crotch. … Continue reading this article “Trunk teaser untwisted”
Trunk teaser
Here’s the trunk of a Japanese maple I photographed last month at a big box store in Seattle:
Why does the trunk look like this? Answers and more photos on Monday!
Potted plants…really potted
A week or so ago my new friend Doug wondered about some gardening advice on the radio: would adding vodka to paperwhite narcissus make the flowers less “floppy?” The explanation he’d heard was that alcohol would burn the roots and reduce stem growth. Then today I received an email newsletter with the same intriguing information. This newsletter referred to a 2006 article that appeared in HortTechnology as the source of this information.
The study by Miller and Finan has generated a lot of interest in the gardening community, especially this time of year as people get ready to force bulbs for indoor blooms.… Continue reading this article “Potted plants…really potted”
Want more bird visitors? Nonnative plants may be the answer
We’ve posted before about the native vs. nonnative conundrum, especially as it relates to invasive species. So let’s complicate the issue a bit more by considering how birds are affected by our landscape choices.
About 10 years ago my UW colleague Sarah Reichard and I collaborated on a literature review on the interaction between birds and non-native plants. While we know that invasive plants can displace native plants and create less biodiverse environments, the resulting impact on species like birds is not so cut and dried. … Continue reading this article “Want more bird visitors? Nonnative plants may be the answer”
Mysterious glowing object identified!
Ed, Wes and Paul all correctly identified Friday’s flower as a morning glory, probably an Ipomoea spp. (They also made me feel rather soiled for pedaling flower porn. Sheesh.)
What I find fascinating about these flowers is the unearthly glow at the center. They’re pollinated by bumblebees among other species, and bees see best in the blue-violet-ultraviolet range. If we were able to see this flower under UV light, you’d see those white areas become completely dark, creating a bullseye for bee approach.… Continue reading this article “Mysterious glowing object identified!”
Glowing mystery
Here’s a snippet of a photo I shot this summer:
What is this mysterious glowing object? (I did not manipulate this photo in any way other than to crop it) Answer Monday!
By the way, Lynn asked if we could do a posting on how to make our landscapes more wildlife friendly. We’re doing even better than a posting – we’re doing a whole week’s worth of blogs on the topic! Thanks for the suggestion – and the rest of you feel free to suggest topics as well.
Newsflash: trees will die if their roots can’t establish
I’ve blogged before about the importance of getting tree roots in contact with the landscape soil during transplanting (you can find those posts here, here, here, here, and here). My advice to bareroot woody species upon installation is often ignored in favor of the quick-n-easy methods so often showcased on HGTV (“A complete landscape makeover in a weekend!”). And of course everything looks great…for a while. Let’s see what happens after a few years.… Continue reading this article “Newsflash: trees will die if their roots can’t establish”
Tricky tricolor leaf
Well, this was a tricky puzzle! Here’s a more complete picture of this interesting plant:
This, believe it or not, is a weigela – specifically, a patented cultivar named Kolmagira. You can see part of a tag in the lower left part of this photo:
As the patent description reads, this shrub possesses “…yellow green and dark green variegated leaves with purple-colored margins…”
Some of you guessed that the leaves might be variegated due to fall senescence, or disease, or drought stress – all very good guesses.… Continue reading this article “Tricky tricolor leaf”