I love plants! I love gardens! I love nature! So why not bring it all inside the house? Who can resist those beautiful Calatheas (Prayer Plants) they sell at Home Depot? House plants afford us the opportunity to garden indoors when it’s hostile outside and they beautify a room like nothing else. There is an incredible selection of tropical, subtropical and succulent plants that we can cultivate indoors. Unfortunately house plants fade…waaa (sad). They lose leaves, they endure pests, they wilt, eventually they die.… Continue reading this article “House Plant Basics”
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People and Plants
In this People and Plants blog post we’re taking a look at the German botanist Adam Lonicer.
Adam Lonicer, also known as Lonitzer, Lonicerum, Lonicerus, or Loniceri, was born on October 10, 1528 in Marburg, Germany. He studied in Marburg and Mainz before becoming professor of mathematics at the Lutheran University of Marburg. In 1554 he received his medical degree and he later pursued a medical career as the city physician of Frankfurt.… Continue reading this article “People and Plants”
Wishes for a beautiful, safe, and productive 2022 for you and your gardens!
This week is the end of 2021 and the start of the new year. What a year 2021 has been! Without even talking about politics, COVID-19, sports, or the economy, it was certainly one to remember from the standpoint of weather and climate. No matter where you live, you probably saw some extreme weather during the past 12 months.
Exploding flower bed fireworks, Eric Kilby via Commons Wikimedia.
Extreme weather in 2021
In the United States, the map below shows just the 2021 billion-dollar disasters through October 8.… Continue reading this article “Wishes for a beautiful, safe, and productive 2022 for you and your gardens!”
Haul out the Holly…and a cactus…and a parasite: A review of holiday plants and their traditions
Auntie Mame was on to something when she told her orphaned nephew Patrick to “Haul out the Holly, Put up the Tree Before My Spirit Falls Again” (I just sang this in a concert with my community chorus. I’ve been hauling out the holly since August, so I’m done.)
Plants play a big part in our holiday traditions this time of year. When it comes to decorating for the holidays, needless to say I prefer a simpler, natural approach.… Continue reading this article “Haul out the Holly…and a cactus…and a parasite: A review of holiday plants and their traditions”
Pruning Mature Shade Trees
Very large and old trees don’t often attain size and splendor free of defect and disease. A mature tree may have accumulated some damage, injury or disease along its path to grandeur.… Continue reading this article “Pruning Mature Shade Trees”
People and Plants
Welcome to the first People and Plants GP blog post. These posts, which will be on a random basis, will take a behind the scenes look at the namesake people behind many plant names. This first one will be about Andrew Jackson Downing.
Andrew Jackson Downing was born October 30/31, 1815 in Newburgh, New York to Samuel Downing and Eunice (née Bridge) Downing. His father was originally a wheelwright but later became a nurseryman. After he finished his schooling Andrew worked in his father’s nursery and was soon bitten by “the plant bug”.… Continue reading this article “People and Plants”
“How dry I am “: Four types of drought and how they can affect gardeners and gardens
Linda’s post last week about “drought-resistant” plants made me think about drought and how different types of drought affect gardeners in different ways. In her article, she defined drought as “an unusual lack of rainfall”. This is one of four different kinds of drought that climatologists talk about, and I thought it might be interesting for you to hear about how the four (or maybe five) types of drought differ and how they affect gardeners in diverse ways.… Continue reading this article ““How dry I am “: Four types of drought and how they can affect gardeners and gardens”
Pruning established trees
This month I continue the series on pruning with a look at pruning established landscape trees. These are trees in the prime of life, growing well, starting to shade the garden beneath them and expanding their canopies. Various reasons can prompt the call for tree care professionals.
What reasons would we have to prune a healthy vigorous mid-aged tree? For those we have to examine what may have happened in the past. The fact that a tree is growing well does not always mean it was “selected” well.… Continue reading this article “Pruning established trees”
“Cry Me A River”
I got a Facebook message early this week from a friend in Sacramento CA that said after over 200 days with no rain, she got 4.83 inches in a 24-hour period from the latest extreme rainfall that occurred over northern California. Others have reported up to a foot of rain in three days. If you follow the news, you may have heard the term “atmospheric river” used to describe the torrential rains and flooding that have occurred this week in San Francisco and other parts of Northern California.… Continue reading this article ““Cry Me A River””
Why root washing is important – an illustrated cautionary tale
I’ve promoted root washing of containerized and B&B trees and shrubs for a few decades now. The experimental science is slowly coming along – it can take several years to determine if the practice is more successful in terms of plant survival than leaving the rootball intact. But we know how soils function in terms of water, air and root movement, and we understand woody plant physiology. So it’s pretty easy to predict what will happen when trees, whose roots are held captive in layers of stuff, are then planted, intact, into the landscape.… Continue reading this article “Why root washing is important – an illustrated cautionary tale”