Plant Profile: Sweet Birch (Betula lenta)
Karen Sweet birch is a deciduous tree also known as black birch, cherry birch, mahogany birch or spice birch, and is native to eastern North America from southern Maine and Ontario,…
Beneficial Insects and How to Attract Them: Big-Eyed Bugs (Geocordiae spp.)
There are over twenty five species of bug-eyed bugs in North America some of which live coast to coast in the US. They are tiny but very abundant and considered…
Plant Profile: Hairy Garden Pink (Dianthus knappii)
Hairy garden pink is a short-lived herbaceous perennial native to eastern Europe where it grows in grassy places and scrub. It belongs to the carnation family that includes baby’s breath,…
Botanical Latin: Crispus
CRISP us: from the Latin crispus meaning wavy or curly Crispus is a specific or varietal epithet usually used for plants that have leaves with wavy or curly edges but…
Plant Profile: Bigtooth Aspen (Populus grandidentata)
Big tooth aspen is a deciduous tree native to eastern North America from Newfoundland and Manitoba, south to Virginia, Kentucky, and Iowa where it grows in open woods, edges of…
Invasive Plants and Their Native Alternatives: Chinese Tallow Tree (Sapium sebiferum aka Triadica sebifera)
Chinese tallow tree is a deciduous tree growing up to 40’ tall and native to China and Japan. It was introduced in the 1700s as an ornamental valued for its…
Plant Profile: Rhone Aster (Aster sedifolius)
Rhone asters are herbaceous perennials native to southern Europe. They belong to the Asteraceae family that also includes daisies, sunflowrs, and lettuce. The multi-stemmed plants have a bushy habit with…
Book Review: Pure Food
Motivated by a desire to find healthy organic snacks for her children, author Veronica Bosgraaf decided to create her own and started on a journey to make her cooking and…
Plant Profile: Flowering Ash (Fraxinus dipetala)
Flowering ash, also called California ash and two-petal ash, is a deciduous small tree or large shrub native California, northwestern Arizona, southern Nevada, Utah and norther Baja California where it…