BotanicalGardening Blog

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Nov 13, 2007, The quick and the dead...fall color in the garden

Heard about "plants that die well"? Learn the true story...

Nov 13, 2007, The Back Bench

Thoughts and musings on the gardening life from BotanicalGardening.com

Nov 13, 2007, Hort Happenings...

If it's happening in horticulture, there's a good chance you'll find it here....

Nov 13, 2007, Cornell Cooperative Extension 2007 Perennials Conference

Mark your calendars for December 5!

Nov 12, 2007, One man's sparrow...

Sputzie's, house sparrows, English sparrows, mice-with-wings ...whatever you call them, Passer domesticus is one of our most familiar birds. Originally brought from Europe to combat pests in the US, many believe it has become one itself. Ironically, in its native England, it has been listed as a species with conservation priority as its numbers decline.

Supremely adaptable, the house sparrow is one of the few birds NOT protected by law in the United States. Despite the fact that they seem to show up magically wherever people live, sharp declines have been noted--without a real explanation for why.

http://environment.independent.co.uk/article216083.ece

Believe it or not, the English are also experiencing declining starling populations (though pigeons seem to be holding their own).

Nov 8, 2007, Martini anyone?

It's November 8 and it's a martini night. EVERYTHING is in the ground. The grand fall push to plant bulbs (around 10,000 this year), leftover perennials, shrubs and trees has been completed--and not a moment too soon for most of it.

The only thing left is my personal garlic patch...which won't go in for another week or two.

Fall is a wonderful time to plant, but you do run up against the "weather clock". Things need enough time with unfrozen ground to get them selves established downstairs. Since leaves are shutting down, it's the rootsystems that are most active in fall--and that's where we want the action. With luck, roots grab hold and execute their "anchoring" function before cold soil slows them to a halt. Then it's off to the races come spring.

When the planting's done, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of....

...oh well, it's martini time...

Nov 7, 2007, Ice the mice

The mice are coming; what to do? What to do?

Nov 7, 2007, Danger! Danger! When plants attack...

Be afraid...be very afraid. When plants attack...

Nov 6, 2007, The Desert Garden

If bizarre and unusual are your thing...you have to grow cacti and succulents!

Nov 6, 2007, Book and Product Reviews

Here's what we think about the latest gardening books and products...

Nov 6, 2007, Vietnam: A Natural History

Vietnam's outstanding plants and animals revealed for the first time in English...

Oct 31, 2007, Start your cold-weather IPM...

Don't wait until you've got an emergency, order your predators and parasites NOW!

Oct 31, 2007, Your Tip of the Week...

A collections of tips and techniques for your gardening conundrums...

Oct 31, 2007, The Tropical House

There's nothing like the bouyant look, feel and smell of a house full of flowering tropical plants...

Oct 31, 2007, Go batty for Halloween--grow Tacca chantieri...

Grow a spooky flower for Halloween...

Oct 25, 2007, The Top Ten Ways to Kill Plants

Problems with your plants? Here are the most common reasons your plants don't look great.

Oct 25, 2007, Killing with neglect...

No-brainer: If you don't take care of them, they die...

Oct 24, 2007, I'm still here...........

...and you thought you'd lost me forever...

I'm just back from two wonderful weeks in Portugal and Spain. You'll learn more about it all as time goes by, but visits to nurseries, gardens, Iberflora; and drives across the not-so-fertile looking, but certainly productive Portuguese and Spanish countryside were highlights.

As I shake the jet-lag, I'll be adding material that's in the pipeline already, and new things from this trip...

Stay tuned...

Oct 3, 2007, Whatever you do...DON'T burn the peppers...

You just can't make this stuff up...

Almost every veggie gardener grows at least one, and some of us even cook with them, but...whatever you do...don't burn your hot chili peppers!

Homeland security has enough on their hands examining all our plant imports to prevent biological terrorism. Let's not have them called out like the authorities in London, where noxious fumes created fear that a terror attack was under way.

Turns out is was a pot of Thai chilis (the Brits have a penchant for spelling it "chilli") being burned for a spicy Thai dip called Nam Prik Pao.

The BBC link has the details--and the recipe!

Oct 3, 2007, Iberflora 2007

Iberflora: the largest international fair of Mediterranean plants, flowers, technology and gardening...

Oct 2, 2007, Oh, Regina...

I want to meet Regina Spektor.

For the unaware, Regina is a singer/songwriter from the Bronx...by way of the former Soviet Union. And she's making waves.

A wonderful pianist (classically trained) and quirky songwriter with an elastic and very playful voice, she's getting a LOT of attention and could be the only singer to include:

"If my garden would have a fenceThen the rabbits couldn't just come inAnd sit on the grass and eat all the flowersAnd shit"

...in a song and have it make perfect sense.

She also happens to be very easy on the ears--songs packed with imagery that you can listen to repeatedly without losing interest.

Come see my garden Regina, I'll show you Cypripedium reginae...the Showy Ladyslipper...

Sep 26, 2007, Consistency with Clivia

Keeping pot size consistent makes care easier...

Sep 25, 2007, Search

Search BotanicalGardening.com and the entire web!

Sep 25, 2007, SEARCH BotanicalGardening.com and the web...

With a little luck my navbar should be featuring a SEARCH button soon that will allow you to search BotanicalGardening.com AND the entire web...right from the comfort of your computer screen.

Cross your fingers!

Sep 25, 2007, A secret language for plants...

We argue about plant names, while entire languages about plants are disappearing...

Sep 25, 2007, CONGRATULATIONS to South Africa: A New Botanical Garden is Born!

A fantastic new botanical garden is started in South Africa...

Sep 25, 2007, Exercise for body, mind, and spirit...

Take a look at your world from a different perspective...

Sep 22, 2007, They say it's fall...

They say it's fall, and although the weather is still murmuring "summer," the first signs of the season's change are upon us. Late season wildflowers are blooming and the dogwoods are beginning to color up...along with a few stressed maples that are a bit ahead of their time.

The real harbringer of autumn was a raucous flock of blackbirds, descending upon the garden's trees like the flying monkeys of the Wizard of Oz. A whirlwind of non-stop cacophonous bedlam venting itself as if it had a bone to pick with the trees they were frequenting.

Then, as quickly as they arrived, they were gone; their just-a-bit-better-than-leaf-blower racket with them. The day returned to its deliberations about whether fall had actually arrived or not...and I, busy with various garden chores, never heard the answer.

Sep 18, 2007, Inventory your hardscapte to plan fall construction...

Fall is construction time in the garden. Take a few minutes now to inventory your needs...

Sep 18, 2007, The Perennial Garden

Come see the flowers...the perennial garden is always in bloom!

Sep 18, 2007, Fall planting in the perennial garden...

If you don't know about planting in fall, read this!

Sep 15, 2007, Enlightened Rabbits Discover Herbal Benefitsof Echinacea

Tuxedo Park rabbits have gone upscale. Although they've never bothered Echinacea purpurea or its older cultivars, 'Magnus' or 'White Swan', they have discovered the herbal charms of E. 'Green Envy' in a big way.

'Green Envy' is the newest addition to our collection of the genus, and for some reason they have find it irresistible. Six plants were added to a new bed, and within a week...reduced a collection of sticks. Flower buds AND every single leaf, gone.

Despite the bristly foliage characteristic of Echinacea, and the presence of far more succulent foliage nearby, they were taken down to the equivalent of wood.

Through the grace of the garden gods, they are already making new leaves and showing life from the base. With luck, they can put on enough growth to feed the roots and thus make it through the winter. I may not see flowers this summer/fall, but there is promise for the future.

Wascally wabbits...I hope all that good Echinacea relieves their stress and heightens their immune systems--they'll need it!

Sep 14, 2007, The Shrubbery

The second tier of your garden plan, shrubs connect the canopy to the ground. Join BotanicalGardening.com to discover the wealth of form and beauty in shrubs.

Sep 14, 2007, Heptacodium miconioides: Seven-Sons Flower

Looking for a late-flowering shrub...check out Seven-Sons Flower

Sep 13, 2007, The World's Best Rock Gardens

The worlds best rock gardens...

Sep 13, 2007, Broccoli Spears steams fans at MTV’s Video Music Awards

Oh Broc, what are you doing?

Sep 11, 2007, Oily Plants: Jatropha as Biofuel

Raising your own fuel? Jatropha as biofuel...

Sep 8, 2007, Have you seed this?

In the I can’t believe they did that department this week, the Royal TNT Post in the Netherlands has issued a new ‘Gift of Flowers’ series of stamps that, in addition to a picture of a lovely flower, have viable seeds attached to them.

In these days of increasing regulation of plants and plant products crossing international boundaries it seems nothing short of amazing that a government would be printing over a half million sheets of the stamps with seeds.

Those of us in the United States have to alert our friends in the Netherlands that their new stamps, with viable seeds attached, cannot legally enter the US unless the recipient has a valid small-lots-of-seed import permit from the regulating authorities here and the envelope bears the appropriate sticker, and first goes to the authorities for inspection.

Why couldn’t they just stick to scratch and sniff? Email is looking better and better.

Sep 6, 2007, A Mountain of Orchids

The Second Scientific Conference on Andean Orchids and its orchid show are coming...want to go?

Sep 6, 2007, How to win when you bring plants in...

Almost time to bring plants in...here's how to win when you do it...

Sep 4, 2007, First Colchicums

Colchicum x agrippinum is in bloom today...the first of the colchicums to emerge. The flowers are a bit squinny--not worth a picture--but it's a stunner when it blooms well. The tesselated petals it is known for are there, but the relatively dry period leading up to flowering, or the first-season status of the planting have obviously played a role in the less than stellar display.

These "fall crocus"--among the most beautiful of the fall-flowering bulbs-- are wonderful, poking flowers out of the ground before any leaves at a time of year when perennials are beginning their seasonal swoon. I'll be looking for more to show their faces in the coming days and weeks.

Aug 30, 2007, On the horns of a dilemma...what's a gardener to do?

Gardeners face tiny little moral dilemmas every day. What's a gardener to do?

Aug 30, 2007, The single most important thing you can do for your garden?

Stop by to learn the most IMPORTANT thing you can do for your garden...

Aug 29, 2007, Driving Missed Daisies...

Today's New York Times has a fascinating article titled, "On Medians Gone Wild, Plant Theories Do Battle." It's an interesting pro-and-con look at the use of native plants on the medians and roadsides. Gardeners will likely respond in an incredulous fashion to some of the arguments...but read it--and see for yourself.

Aug 29, 2007, Sunny Border Open House

Yesterday I visited Sunny Border in Kensington, CT for their annual open house. Great lunch, good company and a great selection of wonderful, clean, healthy plants. (Thanks Pierre, et al).

I picked up only three things (but enough of them to fill up the jeep). First, a wonderful little Euphorbia called 'Bonfire'. It's outstanding characteristic is that it doesn't wait until fall to get dressed for the party. As you know, many euphorbias color up nicely when the weather cools. 'Bonfire' wears its party dress all summer long, resplendent in red finery and its small , rounded habit.

I also succumbed to temptation and picked up one of the new Echinacea purpurea cultivars. I have to admit that I have not been too crazy about all the new colors ('White Swan' one of the oldest and best excepted). The oranges and yellows have been intriguing but, with one exception, they've always seemed to underperform in garden settings. (The one exception: a magnificent display of one of the orange cultivars outside a Chili's Restaurant--I'll take a division of that one!). ANYWAY, Echinacea purpurea 'Green Envy' called like a siren from the benches, luring me into its clutches. Bright green petals around its cone, developing purple around the cone only after flowers mature. I can't wait to get the camera on this one. We'll see.....

The real star of the day, and my pick for the best plant shown: Gentiana scabra 'Zuikorindo', a pink-flowered scabra. The plants were huge, in the pink (no pun intended) of health, and gorgeous. Ironically they didn't seem to be moving well (people weren't buying because they weren't IN BLOOM, can you imagine!), until I cleaned the bench out and loaded up a cart--they had to bring more out and then people started giving them a second look.

I love gentians and G. scabra has been a favorite since the NYBG days when it used to bloom its normally purple flowers at the same time as its leaves colored up for the fall--quite a display. The prospect of a deep pink flowered form was too much to pass up.

You'll be hearing more about these plants as I see how they do in the ground.

Aug 27, 2007, Orchid Names and their Meanings, by Hubert Mayr

A book review of Orchid Names and their Meanings, your guide to understanding orchid names...

Aug 27, 2007, Who Does Your Garden Grow?, by Alex Pankhurst

Discover how many of our favorite garden plants got their names...

Aug 25, 2007, Fall back into summer...

After a few days of early fall-like weather, summer has come back with a vengeance. Mornings in the upper fifties with daily highs in the sixties have given way to nights that don't make it lower than the seventies, days in the nineties and humidity about as high. It is brutal.

The plants, including those that have been watered, are showing signs of heat stress. Their wilt will be cured when the sun goes down. Even the stones are sweating! When I went out for the paper this morning the stone steps were slick with "perspiration" and stayed that way until the sun hit them solidly.

Other parts of the country have had it much worse...and it makes you truly marvel at the plants that grow in our locales and their ability to withstand such extremes.

Aug 22, 2007, Review: Alpine Plants--Ecology for Gardeners

The hows and whys of alpine plants...and what it means for the garden.

Aug 22, 2007, Stapeliads of Southern Africa and Madagascar, by Peter V. Bruyns

A monumental survey of a fascinating plant family...does it hit the mark?

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Copyright  2006- 2007 by Carlo A. Balistrieri.
All rights reserved.