Category: Diversions

It’s Spring-o’clock Somewhere…

We’re supposed to get an inch or two of snow tomorrow.  It was 75 degrees last week. Typical schizophrenic spring weather. But spring was already in full bloom a few weeks ago in Dallas, Texas.  Our group of Virginia Tech floriculture faculty and grad students visited for the National Floriculture Forum, a meeting of researchers and educators. It was organized by Texas A&M and hosted by the Dallas Arboretum, home of uber-horticulturist Jimmy Turner.

The Arb was right in the middle of their “Dallas Blooms” festival – they plant half a million spring bulbs each year for the most amazing show this side of Keukenhof.  I’ve never been a huge tulip fan, but somehow came back with a gazillion photos. You just couldn’t help it. It’s a beautiful display garden; don’t miss it if in the area.


Imagine 60+ acres of this. My retinas were burning. But in a good way.


A cute Fosteriana-type tulip, oddly named ‘Zombie’.
Note the use of pecan hulls as mulch. Results in the biggest, fattest squirrels you’ve ever seen.


I’ve seen some interesting art in public gardens, but this is a new fave.
Probably there’s a deeper meaning behind it, but basically it’s a man and woman snogging in the tulips.


Big squirting toads, with list of safety rules on what one shouldn’t do to/with the toad.


Jimmy said the place would be crawling with brides and babies by afternoon, and he was right. That’s what he gets for creating such a photogenic garden. Couldn’t swing a fat squirrel without hitting one or the other.

Looks like larch!

Great debate on the identity of Friday’s mystery plant! Several of you guessed larch, and this particular one is contorted larch (Larix kaempferi ‘Diane’), a cultivar of Japanese larch:

(As an FYI to a side discussion in the comments, tamarack is the common name for American larch, Larix laricina.)

And the eagle eye award to those of you who saw that YES! WE FINALLY HAVE A SEARCH FUNCTION on the blog! It’s still being tweaked so that the results pages will be a little more sophisticated, but it works. Now you don’t have to sort through hundreds of posts to find that one of Holly’s on pee bales. Or Jeff’s on drunken slugs.

How to get the information out?

Over the last two weeks I’ve been dwelling on the information that people get about gardening from various sources.  I’m not talking about really serious gardeners – I’m talking about the guy  down the block who might grow six tomatoes, two cucumbers, and a head of lettuce.  He’s got 6 trees on his property and he keeps his lawn nice, but not immaculate, by mowing weekly and fertilizing and applying herbicides once a year.  Where is this guy getting his gardening information?  Can we (and by we I mean scientists like the garden professors) do something more than we currently are to reach him so that he’s using up to date information?

A couple of days ago I walking into the place where I get my taxes done – I’ve had the same person doing my taxes for the last 14 years or so and I’ve become friendly with her – and, after we got the paperwork done she introduced me to the receptionist by saying that I speak and write books about gardening.  The receptionist (who doubled as the cashier) wanted to know more so I said “You know Jerry Baker?”  She said “yes, I have a bunch of his books and I just bought a set for my father.”  I said “Oh…Well I’m the guy who tells you that most of Jerry’s remedies don’t work.

She didn’t seem particularly impressed with me (and the cost of filing my return was higher than usual – coincidence?)

Anyway, my question to you is, how do we reach people like that?

Heck, it’s hellebore!

You were too smart for me this week.  Though my husband was convinced that Friday’s photo was not enough to help identify the plant, JRR, Foy, and an unnamed commenter all recognized hellebore:

Always a welcome sight in the spring.  And don’t be fooled by those old wives’ tales that hellebores don’t like wood chip mulches. These beauties have been in wood chip mulches all their lives, and not only do they do great, their seedlings do as well.

Wet trunk – the whole story

We had a flurry of discussion on this over the weekend. The diversity of possible answers shows you how difficult it is to do diagnosis with only some of the information available. That being said, several of you (Gail, Tom, Dave and Jimbo) all had portions of the problem identified. Here’s the whole picture:

As both trunks of this double-leadered tree have continued to expand in girth, they’ve created the perfect conditions for disease to occur in the narrow constriction between the trunks. Though I’m not a pathologist, I would agree with an initial diagnosis of slime flux.

In addition to the poor structure and disease issues, the location of this tree – next to a street, sidewalk, houses, and across the street from a school – simply shouts for removal before it inevitably fails and causes damage or injury.

Nice job – and thanks for doing your homework over the weekend!

Friday puzzle: wet trunk

Another diagnostic question today.  Below you can see the lower portion of a tree trunk whose left half is obviously wet:

What is directly causing the wetness (in other words, what environmental factor), and can you guess what led to this problem indirectly?

I’ll eliminate some of the obvious possibilities:  it’s not from dog pee, nor is it from a directional sprinkler.  And the answer to the second question is not in this close up photo, but will be revealed on Monday.

Why do I torment you like this?  Well, if nothing else, it gives you an idea of what distance diagnosis can be like – which is what we tend to do more and more, thanks to the internet and digital cameras.  Someone will send a photo of a plant problem and expect us to figure it out, but the answer may lie outside the field of view.

In any case, have fun!

The roots of the rhody problem

There were several good shots at analyzing Friday’s unhappy rhododendron.  Mature leaf size can be determined by light levels, as both Lisa B and Tom &  Paul suggested.  Moving a plant from a low to high light environment could cause this change in leaf size.  This rhododendron hasn’t been recently transplanted, however, so we can eliminate light levels as a cause.  (And there was no other impediment to light, such as the presence of shading plants.)

Lack of nitrogen was mentioned as well; but a lack of nitrogen would have resulted in chlorosis in newer leaves as well as smaller leaf size.  In this case, the new leaves are not chlorotic.  (The chlorosis on the older leaves is probably a phosphate-induced iron or manganese deficiency.)

Foy alluded to issues with water…and indeed that’s what I believe is happening with this rhododendron.  Plants that exhibit smaller mature leaves in subsequent years are often limited by water.  Full turgor is needed to force leaves to expand fully; without this physical pressure from inside, leaves fail to expand and once cell walls have lignified, leaf expanion ceases. 

Lack of sufficient water during leaf expansion could be related to irrigation, though in our wet spring climate this is rarely a factor.  More likely is a problem with the roots themselves.  Definitive diagnosis would require digging up the plant to find out whether its roots are still encased in clay and burlap (my guess) or if something else is restricting their ability to grow beyond the planting hole.