I subscribe to Digger magazine, the industry publication from Oregon Association of Nurserymen. I am always curious about trends in the nursery industry and this magazine is a good way to find out what home gardeners are buying.
The cover feature of the May 2010 issue is on topiary. While I can appreciate topiaries in formal gardens – with dozens of gardeners to keep them shaped up – I think they are poor choices for most home landscapes. … Continue reading this article “Shear lunacy”
There were a few brave souls who ventured to ID the mystery plant – a trunk shot is not particularly helpful, I know. But I was hoping that its contorted nature might help a little. (It wouldn’t have helped me at all, but you all know by now that I am NOT a taxonomist.)
So our mystery tree is a curly willow (Salix matsudana):
…which may or may not be synonymous with Salix babylonica.… Continue reading this article “Mystery photo uncurled!”
In addition to the cool Poison Plants garden, I also found this curious trunk – what tree might this be?
This question will appeal to collectors of plant curiousities. Answer and more photos on Monday!
I missed my regular posting on Wednesday since (1) I’m on vacation and (2) I hadn’t had time to find anything sufficiently worthy of posting. (Of course I have a compost barrel full of snake oil products I could rant about, but even I get tired of that. Especially on vacation.)
Note the strategic head placement
But yesterday we visited the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens just north of Niagara Falls. We didn’t have nearly enough time to see it all, so I’ll share just one special corner.… Continue reading this article “A nifty garden to visit”
I spent yesterday flying from Seattle to Buffalo and didn’t get a chance to post the answer to the puzzle on Friday. This was an easy one for our readers – the shrub is (was?) a mesquite, and the bushy growth in the photograph is mistletoe (as identified by Bob and seconded by Ginny and Jimbo).
I am pretty sure this mesquite was dead, as it had been a wet spring and everything was leafing out. … Continue reading this article “Friday puzzle solved – better late than never!”
My not-fan Justin has emailed me again with some more substantial comments of my criticisms of compost tea. I’ve posted his email here, along with my responses in a point-counterpoint format:
1. “Compost teas do vary from batch to batch, the same way galaxies vary. Without the complexity and biodiversity present in the tea, you might as well just be using water.”
Yes, they do vary, and this is why it is so difficult to conduct replicated and repeatable studies on the efficacy of compost tea. … Continue reading this article “Compost tea…again”
While looking over photos from my California desert trip this spring, I came upon this curious plant:
You can see most of the plant is dead (white branches), though there are two clumps of vigorous growth, shown up close here:
What’s going on here?
Answer Monday!
Below is an email I received this morning. I’ve apparently made Justin really angry. So as he’s requested, I’m giving him the chance to debate me.
"LISTEN HERE DR. FACE
Who owns you Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott?
You are a cheap mouthpiece and I don’t believe a word that you say. I’d debate you right under the table.
Any day, Lady.
Why don’t you just bring it on sister girl and first describe how vegetation thrived on this planet for millions of years before the phony baloney chemical crap that you use.… Continue reading this article “Fan mail…NOT!”
Apparently I don’t talk to the right people; I’d never heard of this product until newbie gardener and longtime skeptic John emailed me about Eleanor’s VF-11 plant food.
Upon visiting the website, this is what I learned about VF-11 and roses (the rose aficionado market is apparently a lucrative one for snake oil salesmen):
Point: “VF-11 Plant Food is not a ‘push’ like other fertilizers…think of it as a strength and health builder.”
Counterpoint: It certainly is not a fertilizer.… Continue reading this article “Here’s the plant food everyone is talking about!”
As Jason rightly guessed, this is a Schlumbergera species, specifically S. truncata, also known as the Thanksgiving cactus (which has toothed edges as shown). It’s related to the Christmas cactus (S. bridgesii – scalloped edges) and the Easter cactus (S. gaertneri, whose segments are three-sided rather than flattened). [Disclaimer: the nomenclature of this genus and its species is a mess. Even the university websites disagree on whether it’s Schlumbergera, Hatiora, or Rhipsalidopsis.… Continue reading this article “Morphology quiz answers”