Invasive Plants and Their Native Alternatives: Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes)
Karen Common water hyacinth is a floating perennial native to the Amazon River Basin where it grows it wet habitats but was introduced into the US in 1884 at the World’s…
Plant Profile:Horsefly Weed (Baptisia tinctoria)
Horsefly weed is a shrubby herbaceous perennial native to eastern US from Maine to Minnesota south to Georgia and Iowa where it grows in dry meadows, fields and open woodlands.…
Book Review: The Vegetables We Eat
Gail Gibbon’s book, The Vegetables We Eat, is both an introduction to the different kinds of vegetables and a mini botany lesson. Gibbons begins with the concepts of perennials and…
Shakespeare’s Garden: Aloe
Aloes are succulents in the Asphodelaceae family that also includes daylily (Hemerocallis), red hot poker (Kniphofia), and foxtail lily (Eremurus) The genus includes over 500 species in that are native…
Plant Profile: Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea)
This herbaceous perennial is native to dry sandy soils in North America and parts of Asia, and is a member of the aster family (Asteraceae) that also includes daisy, yarrow,…
Growing Plants from Seeds: Annual Poppies
Corn poppies (Papaver rhoeas) and opium poppies (Papaver somniferum) are spring blooming annuals with large flowers of papery petals. Corn poppies have many common names including Flanders poppy and has…
Plant Profile: Queen of the Meadow (Filipendula ulmaria)
Also called meadowsweet, mead wort, and bridewort, this herbaceous perennial is a native of Europe and western Asia where it grows in damp meadows and along stream and river banks,…
Plant Profile: Pyrenean-Violet (Ramonda myconi)
Also known as rosette mullein, this evergreen perennial is native to rocky soils in the Pyrenees and north eastern Spain. It is a member of the African violet family, Gesneriaceae,…
Old Time Recipes for Home Made Wine: Hop Beer
My paternal grandmother, Helen S. Wright, included the recipes for several beers including this on in her book Old Time Recipes for Home Made Wine. Although I don’t know if…
Plant Profile: Butterfly Bush (Buddleia davidii)
Also called summer lilac and orange eye, this deciduous flowering shrub is native to the mountains of central China and Japan where it grows in thickets and forest openings, and…