As more people want the freshest produce possible, interest is growing in growing food in the home garden. Some people have gone so far as to turn their property into and edible landscape but that is not necessary, as Charlie Nardozzi shows in his book Foodscaping. Nardozzi takes a milder approach and offers suggestions for integrating edibles into the garden without sacrificing beauty so you don’t sacrifice anything. [click to continue…]
Picking the “best” roses is an objective process and in this case, the ratings of the American Roses Society have been used. Every year the American Rose Society enlists the help of people all over the country to evaluate the roses they grow. Each rose cultivar is evaluated on a number of characteristics including garden performance which considers such factors as vigor and growth habit, number of blooms, how quickly the plant repeats, the beauty and lasting quality of the blooms in the garden, fragrance, resistance to mildew, blackspot and rust, winter hardiness, and quality of the foliage. The results of this survey are published in an issue of American Rose and ratings are published in the ARS Handbook for Selecting Roses. [click to continue…]
Hollyhock mallow is an herbaceous perennial native to Europe and southwestern Asia. It is a member of the mallow family (Malvacae) that also includes hibiscus, hibiscus, cotton and okra. Stout branched stems carry downy, light green leaves that are rounded, up to six inches long, and have toothed margins and five shallow lobes. The pink to light rose-purple flowers have five notched, two-lobed petals and bloom over four to six weeks beginning in early summer They are two to three inches wide and are carried both along the stem and in terminal spikes. Plants do best in zones six and cooler, as they are susceptible to a bevy of insects and diseases in warmer climates. [click to continue…]
Rabbits can devastate a garden as they eat their way through the summer. No mater how much you like to see the fury darlings hopping across the grass and darting into the beds, the damage they can do can be sobering. There is no sure way to prevent rabbit damage but avoiding plants that rabbits love and selecting ones that are known to be unappealing is a good way to start. Here are seven annuals that are commonly found in garden centers, easy to grow, long blooming and are not attractive to the average rabbit. All like full sun, moderate moisture, and well-drained soil. [click to continue…]
Named for the famous rose garden, Uetersen, near Korde’s nursery in Holstein, this shrub type climber produces large clusters of dark pink flowers that have an old-fashioned form, an abundance of petals, and are loosely quartered. The ruffled petals are silvery pink on the underside and fade slightly as they mature. The flowers are produced in profusion in spring and intermittently after that. The large leaves are mid-green and glossy. The plant can be grown as a shrub or trained as a climber.
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Alice Waters, owner of the famous restaurant Chez Panisse and early advocate of organically grown,, fresh, local produce, shares the stories of the culinary adventures her daughter, Fanny, in France. Written in the voice of the young Fanny, the stories give a homey picture of the everyday experiences especially cooking that Fanny shared with French families and friends. The second half the book presents forty one of Fanny’s favorite French recipes. [click to continue…]
This herbaceous perennial is a sterile hybrid from N. racemosa and N. nepetella and although variable in habit is usually upright and billowy. The narrowly ovate leaves are 1.5 inches long, wedge-shaped at the base, aromatic, and gray-green in color. The lavender-blue ½ inch flowers are carried in large clusters on well-branched n stems well above the foliage in spring. As the common name implies cats love to roll in the plants so keep the cats away unless you are OK with squashed Nepetas. The plants are often cited as a good companion plant for roses and they serve well in this regard in both the garden and vase. They are a good choice for background material for many arrangements that can use the lavender blue color and the air of delicacy. [click to continue…]
This herbaceous perennial is native to Corsica and Sardinnia where it grows shady, rocky places and is particularly abundant after forest fires. It is a member of the borage family, Borginaceae, what also includes Virginia bluebells, forget-me-nots, and lungwort. The stems are branched and may be creeping or ascending. They have backward-pointing bristles and carry 0bvate to oblong leaves. Coarse basal leaves are four to six inches long and are coarsely hairy. The nodding pale blue flowers appear in late spring and persist for about a month. They are bell-shaped, 3/4″ inch across, and carried in loose racemes. Plants readily self-seed. A good choice for a wall or rock garden. The specific epithet, laxiflora, comes from the Latin words laxus meaning loose, and flora meaning flower, and refers to the inflorescence. [click to continue…]
Bidens (BI’ dens) from Latin bis meaning two and Latin dens meaning tooth.
Two teeth refers to the two sharp structures (pappi) on the fruit. The fruit is usually mistaken for a seed because it is dry and only holds one seed. The teeth cling onto fur, feathers, and clothing and are thereby dispersed over a large range.
Bidens is the generic name for a group of plants in the aster family, Asteraceae with common names such as tickseed, Spanish needles, shepard’s needle, stickseed, beggarticks, and burr marigolds. They look very much like the American genus Coreopsis that are also called tickseeds. Most Bidens’ are found in America, Africa and Polynesia although some are found in Asia and Europe. [click to continue…]
Pin oak, also known as swamp Spanish oak, is a deciduous tree native of Eastern and Central US where it grows in areas with moist acid soils such as floodplains, river bottoms, and along streams. It is a member of the oak family, Fagaceae, that also includes beeches and chestnuts. The trees grow in a pyramidal shape with the highest branches upright, the mid-level branches horizontal, and the lower branches drooping downward. The trunk is straight and has smooth, light to dark grayish brown bark with shallow, scaly ridges. The simple alternate leaves are four to six inches long by two to four inches wide and are deeply cut into five or seven bristle tipped lobes. They are glossy dark green in the summer turning to red in the fall. Insignificant greenish yellow male and female flowers appear in catkins on the same tree in spring as the leaves emerge. Acorns ½ inch long with shaped cups that enclose one third of the nut appear in fall and mature in the second year. Pin oaks are very popular street and landscape trees due to their handsome appearance, ease of transplanting, relatively rapid growth, and pollution tolerance. The genus name, Quercus, is the Latin name for oak tree. The specific epithet, palustris, comes from the Latin word palus, meaning marsh, and refers to the natural habitat of the tree. [click to continue…]
