MrBrownThumb

The Seed Sharer

2012-01-16T10:48:00.000-06:00

I'm always looking for ways to store seeds I saved from my garden and creative ways to share seeds with other people. When I see a product my mind automatically finds a way that I can put it to use saving and storing seeds. The seed organizer made from a plastic shoe box is one example. Another would be the pocket seed banks made from candy tins. When I saw this container of candy sprinkles for baking I thought it would be a great way to make a gift of some seeds from my garden. After removing all the sprinkles The Seed Sharer was born.

My label on the top of the container is a little crude. You can a nicer label for your Seed Sharer with a printer or by hand if you have nice penmanship. I had neither so I cut out the logo of a seed packet from One Seed Chicago, a greening project I work on that gives away free seeds to gardeners in Chicago.

This Seed Sharer container has five chambers that I filled with seeds. Blackberry lily, Christmas Lima Beans, scarlet runner beans, snack sunflower seeds, 'White Wonder' cucumber, and nasturtium seeds.

I've used a few of these containers to share seeds before and I really liked this particular one because it had two options for the opening that allowed for shaking out small and large seeds.

Besides using these containers to share garden seeds I think they'd be a great option in creating a personal seed bank. This year while updating my seed trade list I realized that I had several seeds that I meant to sow for a school garden's seed library that I'm working on that I never got around to. Keeping them in The Seed Sharer will remind me to sow them this spring because they won't be hidden away in the seed organizer. For more seed saving and seed starting posts see the seed saving page on this blog.

The Real Gardens of Downton Abbey

2012-01-05T21:30:00.000-06:00

Back in October You Grow Girl posted about some issues of Garden News a friend had brought her after a recent visit to England. I commented on the post after visiting the link to GardenNews, a weekly newspaper about gardening, that I wished I was in England because the next issues were about “The Real Gardens of Downton Abbey,” and being a superfan of the show I was really interested in reading them. The next day I awoke to an Email. It was Lindsey Holmes, Editorial Assistant at Bauer Media, which publishes Garden News, asking for my address so she could send me the issues.

Within a few days both of the issues were in my mailbox and were as good as I was hoping they would be. It was interesting to read about the gardens I just knew where there, even if we don't see them during filming. Downton Abbey is filmed in Highclere Castle in Berkshire. The current Lady Carnarvon is in the process of creating gardens that are historically accurate to Highclere, which was designed by Charles Barry, who also designed the House of Parliament at the same time.

Lady Carnarvon and the 8th Earl of Carnarvon took over Highclere 10 years ago. An avid gardener, Lady Carnarvon is eager to turn the gardens into a destination for gardeners, regardless of the castle's connection to Downton Abbey.

The castle sits on 1,000 acres of parkland that was originally designed by Capability Brown at the end of the 18th century. A new arboretum, borders and 15,000 bulbs have been planted by Lord Carnarvon. According to Jim Carter, who plays the butler, is an avid gardeners but says the gardens are out of bounds when Downton Abbey is being filmed. Although, there are hours and tour dates so that people can tour the gardens.

Aside from the parkland and arboretum, the gardens are split into two distinct parts, The Monk's Garden and The Secret Garden.

Lady Carnarvon, who is interviewed for the article, comes across as someone who values tradition and restoring trees and plants that would've been planted when originally landscaped. There are no vegetables grown there, but fruit trees like peaches, nectarines, medlar, and quince trees are grown in the glasshouse.

In the era that Downton Abbey takes place a shift in gardening had occurred that did away with the garish Victorian bedding and mass borders. The preferred landscaping style took advantage of herbaceous borders of shrubs and used perennials and annuals to provide a more relaxed year-round interest in the garden.

Technological and scientific innovations lead to understanding that diseases like potato blight were caused by a fungus. Improvements in greenhouse technology and boiler designs enabled fruit and vegetable production to occur year-round. The artificial fertilizer industry hadn't yet developed for these Edwardian gardeners, but the gardeners at Downton Abbey would've followed a strict fertilizer regiment that used bird droppings, known as guano, from South America. These advances lead to an explosion in the number of mail order gardening companies that supplied seeds, garden tools, equipment and garden furniture.

Besides a tour of the gardens the article also gave some tips on how to achieve the style of the era, but I was particularly interested in the use of houseplants, which the article didn’t cover. So, one week while I rewatched season one of Downton Abbey I made sure to take note of the use of plants indoors. The plants used in the show aren’t much home to write about, most of them are the plants that what is currently in fashion at big box stores. Sansevieria (snake plant, mother-in-law’s tongue), assorted ferns, palms, and maybe a clivia or two. The weight of providing color and interest indoors is carried by cut flowers and a few potted annuals. What I found interesting while playing houseplant bingo was that most of the plants are placed in what I would think to be areas that are too dark for their long-term care. The brightest areas of the house, that we see on television, seem devoid of living plants altogether.

About Garden News
Garden News is a fantastic gardening publication. I wish we had a weekly newspaper in America devoted to gardening. The garden advice is practical and informative without being underestimating the reader's intelligence. The issues I own cover everything imaginable under the category of gardening. From bulbs to giant vegetables. I'm amazed at just how much information and photographs they are able to pack into it. If American gardening magazines were relied less on trends, outdoor rooms and style maybe I'd read more of them.

Downton Abbey season 2 premiers this weekend on PBS stations in America? Are you a fan?

The Best Garden Seed Catalogs

2011-12-28T22:28:00.000-06:00

You can tell a lot about a gardener by walking through their garden, but if you really want to get to know a gardener take a peek inside their mailbox during seed catalog season. Seed catalogs are more than just a listing of the current offerings of a particular seed company, at least the good one are. They’re archives of common names, a seed’s history in gardens, and instruction manuals. Seed catalogs are also passports that allow gardeners to travel to distant lands, and teleport months ahead in time and imagine what the next growing season will be like as they flip through the pages. A handful of seed catalogs will let you know if the gardener prefers heirlooms, vegetables and herbs, or ornamentals and the year’s fanciest hybrids.

Like with so much else in life, technology is displacing the need for printed catalogs because a company can just list their seed selection on their website. Add to that the rising costs of doing business, the consolidation of seed companies, and the pickings can seem slim if you prefer printed seed catalogs. Fortunately, if you know where to look (and are willing to pay a few dollars in some cases) you can still participate in the tradition and escapism that is a seed catalog.

Below is a listing of printed seed catalogs that I recommend. The seed catalogs range from heirloom vegetables and herbs for the traditionalist. Exotic fruits, vegetables, and herbs from around the world for the adventurous gardener. Flowers and grasses that attract wildlife to our garden. This is by no means an all-inclusive list, but rather, a sampling of seed catalogs that I think (based on my experience) you’d enjoy. visit the seed company's website to request a catalog. Some may be free, others may cost a few dollars or only be shipped with an order.

http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net
http://www.rareseeds.com (Baker creek Heirloom Seeds)
http://www.johnnyseeds.com
https://www.superseeds.com (Pinetree Garden Seeds)
https://www.botanicalinterests.com
http://www.highmowingseeds.com
http://www.kitazawaseed.com
http://www.seedsavers.org
http://www.rhshumway.com
http://www.territorialseed.com
http://www.landrethseeds.com
http://www.burpee.com

What does my list of seed catalogs say about me? What kind of gardener do you reckon I am, or wish I was? Are there any printed seed catalogs that you’d recommend for me after viewing my list? Feel free to drop your suggestion in the comments, or share your experience with any of these seed catalogs that you think other gardeners would find helpful.

Note: you can find these seed companies and more listed in my Seed Snatcher search engine. It is a search engine powered by Google that only displays the results that I carefully select. These sources are websites, blogs, forums, and articles about everything related to seed companies, how-to seed sowing and saving articles.

Seed Packs As Stocking Stuffers

2011-12-15T17:04:00.000-06:00

The proverb, “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime” applies to gardeners too. While you can give several houseplants for the holidays, giving a gardener (or potential gardener) a pack of seeds can lead them down a path of self-exploration, garden activism, an understanding of their role as stewards of heirloom plants in the garden, and within their community. Seed packs make great stocking stuffers because they are relatively inexpensive. There are a few seed companies that really produce seed packs that can capture the imagination and inspire a gardener to get their hands in the dirt. Below are four examples of seed companies that create exceptional seed packs that you can stuff a gardener’s stocking with this Christmas.

The Hudson Valley Seed Library’s seed packs are my favorite seed packs. Each seed pack is a unique piece of art created by an artist that enters a yearly call for artists. The mediums used to create the artwork for each seed pack varies from artist to artist. As does how each artist chooses to represent the seeds inside. Sometimes they’re graphics, paintings, or illustrations that interpret of the plant’s name. A handful of seed packs from the Hudson Valley Seed Library is like holding an art exhibit in the palm of your hand.

Botanical Interests seed packs are similarly artistic. The front of each seed pack is decorated with an original botanical illustration by one of a handful of botanical illustrators contracted by the seed company to produce the artwork for the seed packs. On the surface the illustrations may all look alike but after you’ve examined a few seed packs you start to develop an eye for identifying which artist created the artwork for the seed pack.

Renee’s Garden seed packs have been decorated by botanical illustrations since Renee founded her first seed company, Shepherd's Garden Seeds. Mimi Osborne, a botanical illustrator, has designed every seed packet for Renee's Garden. Mimi's illustrations of plants, flowers and vegetables have graced the seed packets for over 25 years. Renee decided to use illustrations instead of photographs before it became stylish for modern seed companies because she believed that sometimes the stock photos could be misleading to the gardener.

The Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company has two types of seed packs. The light seed packs are usually an illustration, while the black seed packs, like the one pictured above, use photographs of the fruits or vegetables. Both seed packs are larger than standard seed packs but the black ones are my favorite because they’re so striking and not as feminine as say the art for Renee’s Garden or Botanical Interests.

Tips on Buying Seeds.
Around the holidays Renee’s usually has sale and the sale’s coupon code is posted on her online seed catalog. Botanical Interests includes a free desk calendar featuring botanical illustrations with online orders during specific dates in December. If you are buying seeds for a gardener and don’t trust your tastes to match up with those of the recipient you can give them a gift certificate to one of the companies or a membership, in the case of the Hudson Valley Seed Library, and let them choose the seeds they want to grow. If you’re on a budget save on shipping by buying Renee’s Garden, Botanical Interests and Baker Creek Seeds at finer independent garden centers near you.

There are many fine seed companies that carry heirloom seeds that you can buy from to fill stockings with during Christmas, these are just some of my favorites because their seed packs are beautiful. For a more personal touch you can gift gardeners seeds you saved from your own garden and create your own unique seed packs. What’s important in the act of giving seeds is that you’re passing on history and inspiration to a fellow gardener. Substituting candies and chocolates with seed packs in the stocking of a child can teach them the benefits of healthy eating and an appreciation of nature. Using seeds as stocking stuffers can demonstrate that you're paying attention to a gardener's interest by gifting them something they actually want and need.

Do you give seeds during the holidays? What are your favorite seeds to include in stockings?

Houseplants to Grow or Give on the Holidays

2011-12-04T18:00:00.000-06:00

Houseplants are great any time of the year, but the holiday season gives us an opportunity to buy a plant to decorate a corner of the home or office. Commercial plant growers and garden retailers realize that the allure of a green or flowering plant this time of year is too much to resist. A handful of houseplants make popular gift ideas for gardeners and party hosts, because they're affordable and considered disposable after the holidays. With some knowledge you can select a good houseplant for yourself or one you can give as a gift to a gardener. Below are some of the more popular holiday houseplant options and some information on how to grow and care for them.

Norfolk Island Pine
Araucaria heterophylla is the botanical name for the Norfolk Island pine. The common name comes from Norfolk Island where it was discovered in the South Pacific. It may look like a pine tree growing outdoors but this plant wouldn't survive a real winter outdoors. Plants available during the holidays can range in size from a few inches to a couple of feet in height and resemble Charlie Brown's Christmas tree. You'll often find them festooned with Christmas decorations at garden centers during the holidays. They thrive in bright light with only a couple of hours of direct sunlight a day. Ideal temperatures indoor range from 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit with high humidity. Dead branches and dropping needles are a sign of dry air, poor circulation and too warm a location in winter. During spring and summer, and fall keep the plant moderately damp. Keep drier in the winter months

Mediterranean Cypress
Another popular plant around this time of year because of it's Christmas tree-like appearance. The general consensus arrived at after consulting with a group of garden center owners is that there are several varieties and cultivars in the genus Cupressus available as holiday houseplants. Whatever cypress made to look like a miniature Christmas tree you buy; the one constant for them is that they're non-winter-hardy varieties. Like the Norfolk Island pine they like bright light but cooler temperatures ranging from 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit. Because of this ideal indoor temperature range cypresses don't make good indoor plants. Yes, they look like cute miniature trees, but they'll easily dry out and die in a warm home environment. If kept warm during the winter keep the soil moist to prevent it from drying out. If kept cool water sparingly and keep uniformly damp.

Rosemary
The popular garden herb, rosemary, is another shrubby plant sold during the holidays. The majority of these plants may clipped and shaped into triangular shapes or grown as standard topiary or clipped to look like conifers. While it may thrive in the hot conditions of the summer garden that emulate its Mediterranean origins, indoors those same conditions are a death sentence for this plant. When overwintering rosemary indoors it prefers a bright, cool location with good air circulation. The only time I've successfully overwintered rosemary I did so in an unheated room where temperatures stayed around 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit. If you keep your rosemary in a warm location the soil should remain evenly moist and prevented from drying out.

Amaryllis
The genus Hippeastrum is most commonly known as Amaryllis. These bulbs are native to central and south America and are non-hardy. You'll find them available as bare bulbs, as Amaryllis bulb kits with a soil disk, or with a vase and stones that you're suppose to add water to. The Amaryllis pictured above is 'Minerva' but you'll find many cool cultivars like 'Charisma.' The soil disks that come with the bulb kits are usually made from cocoa coir. You can use this as a potting medium or opt to plant the bulb your favorite potting soil mix. When blooming the bulbs are usually too heavy for the plastic pots that come with the kit. Plant your bulb in a heavier pot to keep it upright. If the light from your window isn't bright enough the scape (flower stalk) and leaves will lean or flop to the sides. When the bulb receives plenty of sun the scape and leaves are a deep green color and remain upright. If the bulb isn't getting enough sun the leaves and stem will be a light green and the scape tilts towards the light source and leaves will splay. When you get your bulb plant it in the potting mix of your choice and place it in a warm location to break the bulb's dormancy. Fertilizing new bulbs isn't a necessity when you buy them as they come prepared to bloom when you buy them. See the link for 'Charisma' for video instructions on planting your bulb. In my observation the flowers last longer when they're kept cool and 60 degrees Fahrenheit seems to be an ideal temperature to prolong the life of the flower. After the bulb has stopped blooming you can move it to a warmer location and treat it like the rest of your houseplants.

Schlumbergera
There are a lot of options available in the "Holiday Cactus" department this time of year. Whether it's a Christmas Cactus or a Thanksgiving Cactus the care for them are pretty much the same. The Schlumbergera genus is native to South America where these epiphytic plants grow on trees or rocky crevasses in areas that are humid and shaded. A bright window in a cool room ( 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit) where the plant doesn't get much direct sunlight is an ideal location to prolong the blooming period. If you move a plant that's setting buds into a room that's very warm the plant may drop all of its buds. If you forget to water your plants for a couple of days the plants themselves are very forgiving, but you may lose all of your flowers or some stems may fall off the plant. You can propagate your "Holiday Cactus" by planting these segments and whole stems that fall off.

Bulbs for Forcing Indoors
Alongside the Amaryllis kits you may find kits for bulbs like tulips, hyacinths daffodils and potted cyclamens. The tulips, daffodils and hyacinths are all outdoor bulbs that bloom in the spring but have undergone an artificial cold period to prepare them for indoor forcing during the winter. These bulbs either come bagged in or as kits with a vase and stones you add water too and place the bulbs in. They're not meant to last longer than the couple of weeks it takes the bulbs to sprout and flower. After the blooming has occurred they're usually tossed in the garbage or compost pile because the bulb has used up its energy during blooming. Although, if you manage you keep the bulbs alive until spring you can attempt to plant them in your garden where they may or may not recuperate and bloom the following year. For the best results with these blooms emulate the conditions of spring indoors and keep them in a cool location (50-60 degrees Fahrenheit) where they get bright, indirect sunlight. A warm location will cause the bulbs to grow rapidly and flop over. Warm temperatures will also cut the blooming period by as much as half. Too much direct sunlight will encourage algae in the water, but not enough sunlight will and the flower stem and leaves will be light-colored and weak.

Florist cyclamen are another popular plant available during the winter months. The flat tubers come potted and prepared for blooming. Choose a plant that hasn't opened up all of its blooms yet and keep it in a cool location. If the room you place yours in is kept at temperatures higher than 70 degrees Fahrenheit your cyclamen will not be very happy. They like bright winter light indoors and consistently moist soil- too wet and the tuber will rot. Avoid watering the center of the tuber by sitting the pot in a saucer of water so that it soaks up water from the bottom or water along the edge of the pot. After blooming the leaves will turn yellow, this is a sign of the tuber going dormant. Most people toss or compost the plant at this point.

Poinsettia
Ugh. Just don't. Poinsettias are ugly plants. If someone gives you a poinsettia during the holidays take it into another room and toss it out the window into the cold, freezing air and allow it to die. Alternately, you can wrap it gift wrap in the other room and hand it back to the poinsettia-giver to take home as they walk out the door. If you insist on keeping a poinsettia (and I don't know why you would) you'll need to provide temperatures between 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit and very bright light. Low light will cause the lower leaves of the plant to drop until you have only a few leaves at the tip of the plant. If the plant is exposed to drafts from either the outside or heating vents the leaves will also fall off. Check the soil daily and when it is dry to the touch give it a good drink of water. Unless you've pampered your plant once spring rolls around you'll have a leggy, leafless plant that barely resembles the full and colorful bush you received for Christmas.

Whichever of these holiday houseplant you choose to buy or give during the holidays the most important thing to consider is the temperature of the room. Provide cooler temperatures and your houseplants will grow slower, extend the life of the blooms and you'll water a little less. The second most important thing to consider is removing the foil wrappers that many of these pots come covered in. They may make look holiday houseplants look more attractive but they will collect water which could lead to root rotting and wetter soil that gnats will thrive in. Finally choose a holiday houseplant based on gardener who will be growing it and the conditions they will be able to provide. Forced bulbs and poinsettias may be good candidates for gardeners who don't want to make a commitment to a plant for longer than a couple of months. Indoor gardeners with limited space may appreciate one of the Christmas or Thanksgiving Cactus plants available or an Amaryllis bulbs. While an indoor gardener who also has outdoor space may be able to give a rosemary topiary, Mediterranean cypress or Norfolk Island pine a sunny spot outdoors in the spring and summer.

Radical Gardening and #OccupyGardens

2011-11-22T15:04:00.001-06:00

Once while riding in a car I saw a ‘Keep Your Laws Off My Body” bumper sticker and inside my head I shouted back “Keep Your Politics Out Of My Garden!” I surprised myself because in my youth I’d been anything but apolitical. I’d participated in rallies, marches, protests, voter registration drives and volunteered on a political campaign before I was old enough to vote myself. Perhaps I was burnt-out on politics after being immersed in it at an early age. The last place I thought politics belonged was in the garden.

Recently I came across a mention of the book Radical Gardening: Politics, Idealism & Rebellion in the Garden by George McKay. Intrigued by the title and cover I sent off a request to the publisher for a review copy which they granted me. After reading this book I’ve come to the realization that my opinion that gardening should be free of the political is myopic to say the least. Gardens and the gardened landscapes are deeply rooted (ugh) in the political. George McKay uses historical examples to illustrate an "intimate relationship between politics, social change and landscape or garden" many of which mirror those taking place today.

The chapter on green and open spaces and their uses in protests reminds me of the #OccupyWallStreet movement. Victorian public parks were intended to "improve" the park users and to encourage local pride and patriotism. The parks weren't about public health, as much as public order. Statues of the Queen, Prince Albert, local dignitaries and benefactors stood high above parks so they could be looked up to physically and metaphorically. The parks were seen as a place where the affluent and the working class could mix and hopefully the contact with the affluent would rub off on the working class. Ironically, while public open spaces were seen as a way to civilize the working class, their nature allowed them to be used for demonstrations and civil unrest.

When #OccupyWallStreet took "Zuccotti Park" in Lower Manhattan issues of the park’s ownership, the effect of the protesters on safety and public health were raised echoing the same complaints raised in the book about demonstrators using Hyde Park.

The violent reaction to 'Occupy' events across the country have a striking resemblance to the reaction against the People's Park at the University of California at Berkeley in 1969 discussed in the book.

Pepper Spray Cop Visits My Garden

On October 8th I started the #OccupyGardens hashtag on Twitter as a tongue-in-cheek way to motivate me to do fall garden cleanup and save seeds from my garden. The more I thought about it I started to wonder why the ‘Occupy’ movement didn't address the issues of public spaces, vegetable gardening and seed saving as a means of self-sufficiency. 'Growing a garden has become-at least potentially-an act of resistance. But it's not simply a gesture of refusal. It's a positive act. It's praxis,' explains George McKay.

Since I started using #OccupyGardens as a way to express that we need to spend time outdoors, rethink what we personally, and a society, value I've seen two instances of gardens and gardening being incorporated in 'Occupy' demonstrations and I'm glad that people are realizing there's a connection between gardens and what the 'Occupy' movements across the globe want to achieve.

After Arizona passed SB 1070 I joined the boycott of the state. This year in the garden I grew several vegetable crops that the state exports as part of my boycott. I haven’t mentioned it to anyone because I thought a ‘protest garden’ as small as mine is was silly. When I read the 'Planting as a form of protest' quote by Paul Gough in Radical Gardening it gave my idea validity and I understood that next year it has to be bigger. Gardens have never been apolitical...

'If I sowed, planted or dealt in seeds; whatever I did had first in view the destruction of infamous tyrants.' William Cobbett, 1819.

... my instance that they be came from a "parochial or suburban or landed versions of garden understanding." Gardens don't have to be a place of repose to forget the realities of our lives and society. If gardens are extensions of our homes and ourselves then they too can embody the politics of our existence.

In the forward to the book George writes: “My hope is that you will find something new here, thought-provoking, inspiring, and that you will experience the sense of excitement I did on learning about the ways the generous space of the garden can have political resonance.” Radical Gardening has done just that for me. It has opened my eyes and given me new insight into what a garden is and what it can mean, celebrate and how it can be approached. I can't recommend Radical Gardening more, it is a fascinating look at the way gardens have shaped people, communities, policies and land use. It explores areas such as public parks, Utopian societies, organics and permaculture, community gardens and garden design.

George McKay is a leading British author on aspects of alternative culture through music, protest and lifestyle. He is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Salford. You can visit his website (where he regretfully doesn’t blog about his garden) and you can buy his book Radical Gardening on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Edit: Over on Google+ someone shared one of the #OccupyGardens images I posted that reads The only banks that have your best interests in mind are seed banks. A person asked "who controls the seed banks?" The truth is that we can control the seed banks by creating personal seed banks, seed lending libraries and saving our own seeds, and hosting seed swaps in our own communities.

"Christmas Cactus" Blooms, Care and Identification

2011-11-16T18:17:00.000-06:00

November is the time of year we start to complain about how early Christmas music and decorations show up all around us. In the indoor garden it is the time when gardener's thoughts turn to Christmas & "Thanksgiving Cactus" blooms, or why your Holiday Cactus is not blooming. If your "Christmas Cactus" is setting buds or blooms right now, you may not have a true "Christmas Cactus" at all. So, how do you know which of the Schlumbergera you're growing? How do you make your "Christmas Cactus" bloom? And Can you grow more plants from cuttings of your "Christmas Cactus?"

"Christmas Cactus" or "Thanksgiving Cactus?"
Before trying to under why your "Christmas Cactus" isn't blooming or figuring out how to force your plant to bloom you have to identify which of the Schlumbergera you're growing. Do the leaves of your "Christmas Cactus" have pointed edges? Do the flowers of the cactus droop down from the ovary like in the picture above? Is it setting buds or flowering in early to mid November? If you answered to all of these questions then you can say with 99% certainty that you are growing Schlumbergera truncata, also known as "Thanksgiving Cactus." As explained in the post, Not Your Grandmother's Christmas Cactus, the true "Christmas Cactus" is Schlumbergera x buckleyi and usually isn't found in big box garden centers and greenhouses for sale around the holidays. It's easier for commercial plant growers to propagate, grow and prepare Schlumbergera truncata to bloom in time for holiday sales. They may even come with a generic "Holiday Cactus" label. A "Christmas Cactus" is easily identified by the segments of the leaves because it doesn't have pointed edges and the blooms don't curve down from the ovary like the "Thanksgiving Cactus."

How to Make Your "Christmas Cactus" Bloom.
The post, How to Make Your Christmas Cactus Bloom, covered the methods indoor gardeners can use to make their Christmas Cactus bloom in time for the holidays. In short: blooms are triggered by the cooler temperatures and longer nights. If you grow your "Thanksgiving Cactus" outdoors during the spring and summer it should naturally start to develop flower buds as summer ends and autumn arrives. If you brought your plant indoors too soon or kept it indoors all year you may still be able to trigger a flowering period in time for the Christmas and New Years. Place the plant in a cool location where the temperatures are around 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit. This could be in a separate room, an enclosed porch, a garage, a cool windowsill or a basement. The plant will need darkness for about 12 hours to set blooms, you may have to put your lights on a timer or avoid turning on the lights in the room from the hours of 8pm-8am if it is in a room you use. If the only light your plant receives is natural sunlight from a window the longer night period will happen naturally. Once the flower buds have set on your plant keep it in the same location until they begin to open up. If you move the plant to warm location to enjoy it before the buds have opened the plant may drop all the flower buds and all your work will have been for nothing.

"Christmas Cactus" Cuttings and Pollination.
Propagating succulents is easy-anyone can do it. You can propagate succulents from leaf cuttings and from stem cuttings like I did with the Jades. Schlumbergera being succulents are just as easy to propagate from a cutting you take or from the stems and branches that may naturally break and fall off the plant. Once you have a leaf segment or a stem set it somewhere for a couple of days and allow the cut end to dry and insert it into a pot with a well-draining potting soil mix like in either of the examples linked above. While cuttings are the easiest way too make more plants from your "Christmas Cactus" you can also pollinate the blooms of your "Christmas Cactus" and save and sow the seeds from the fruit that develops.

Even though Schlumbergera truncata is passed off as "Christmas Cactus" by big box retailers and a lot of the times just given the "Holiday Cactus" moniker it is still a nice plant to have around. In my experience these plants take a lot of neglect and still manage to produce beautiful blooms just as we need them most during the early, dark days of winter. You can extend the life of the blooms of your Schlumbergera by keeping the potting soil evenly moist and the temperatures of the room it is residing in on the cooler side. Let the plant dry out too much while it is setting buds or flowering and the buds and flowers may fall off. Don't worry about a few leafs or stems that may fall off of your plant. Take advantage of these pieces of the plant to propagate more plants. If you need an indoor gardening project to take your mind off of winter try your luck at hand-pollinating the blooms.

Smart Pots for Smart Container Gardening

2011-11-13T19:32:00.000-06:00

As a frugal urban gardener who often creates container gardens from buckets and other items I have a hard time recommending gardeners buy pots because they're so expensive at garden centers and nurseries. But after trying some Smart Pots in the balcony garden this year I've discovered some pots I'm happy to recommend. I met one of the men behind Smart Pots this past winter at the Mid-America Horticultural Trade Show who convinced me to try some Smart Pots after I told him I didn't believe in buying pots. When I saw him again this summer at the Independent Garden Center Show and he inquired about the Smart Pot samples he gave me, I had to admit he was right. Smart Pots are a smart solution to container gardening.

What are Smart Pots? They're soft-sided, fabric containers that feel a lot like felt, but aren't made of felt-it's a polypropylene material. The photo on the left was taken on 6/13 after I planted two purple tomatillo starts, four bell pepper starts, three eggplant seedlings and sowed lots of basil seeds. The photo on the left was taken on 9/13 and as you can see this vegetable container garden was a bit wild. Did I mention that the pot is only 7 gallons? I don't recommend planting that many plants in a 7 gallon pot, but I like to really push garden products I'm given to review. If I have a successful experience with a garden product knowingly abusing it then I fell like a gardener who follows the manufacturer suggestions can get good results too.

Since Smart Pots are made from a permeable material plant roots don't circle the pot and eventually become rootbound like in traditional containers. The root tips emerge outside the fabric only to be "pruned" by being dried out by the air-causing the plant to send out more roots at the root ball. This is called "air pruning." The result are stronger, healthier plants.

These pots are good solutions for container gardening because they're reusable, weigh less than terracotta, stone and metal pots; even less than their alternative fiberglass pots. Their light weight also makes them ideal containers for older gardeners, gardeners with mobility issues, balcony gardeners and rooftop gardening.

The garden at the Smart Home at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago features Smart Pots; demonstrating that they'd be good pots in school gardens and community gardens, because they're more affordable than building raised beds and they're portable. Similarly, Smart Pots could replace the need for urban farms and urban agriculture projects to build raised beds on asphalt and concrete . They're also pretty affordable and within the means of groups and organizations gardening on a budget.

While I used my Smart Pots to grow vegetables they're also applicable in ornamental container gardening. Even though I over-planted the pots I still managed to grow a nice crop of healthy vegetables. My one problem-if I can call it that-is that they're round pots. Round container take up too much space when you're gardening in a square or rectangular location like a balcony or porch. While the pots come in a variety of sizes, but it would be nice for urbanites with gardens in small spaces to have rectangular pots as an option. I received two Smart Pots for free for the purposes of trialing and reviewing them. I used one of them in my container garden on the balcony and the other to grow potatoes.

Fairy Gardening is Bringing Miniature Plants Back

2011-11-03T23:48:00.000-05:00

In investments and information technology circles the 90's will be remembered for the dot-com bubble burst, but that same decade another bubble burst that I didn't think many people noticed. In the late 90's I was at the height of my fascination with all things bonsai. My interest in bonsai lay primarily with shohin and mame bonsai. Because of their miniature status it is hard to find accent plants that help sell the illusion of their size. So along with a bonsai obsession I also developed one for miniature plants. Miniature plants that the recent fairy gardening trend is helping bring back into popularity.

Around 2003 I noticed that it was harder to source miniature plant material when I wanted to get back into the bonsai hobby after abandoning it for a few years. A year later I noticed that it was even harder to find small plants when I wanted to create a terrarium and a vivarium. It used to be that you could walk into a garden center or nursery like the now defunct Frank's Nursery & Crafts and walk out with enough small plants to fill miniature gardening needs. Plants potted in pots not much larger than you thumb could even be found next to registers at convenience and drug stores as impulse buys. Some of the plants you could find were indeed dwarf varieties of larger plants, but some were just cuttings of larger plants growing in a florist foam-like medium. It was a great time to be alive if you were into miniature gardening.

Then one day all of these small plants went away and you had to buy them on the Internet from specialty growers.

This past summer at the Independent Garden Center Show I noticed that there was a large variety of miniature plants and accessories for fairy gardens. There were almost as many vendors that appeal to fairy gardeners as there were vendors that sell full-sized plants and gardening tools. I spoke to one of the vendors about why there were all of a sudden so many miniature plants available this year. We talked about how the market for her miniature plants dried up around ten years ago. She had no explanation as to why the miniature plant bubble burst-it just did. One day retailers just didn't want to carry her plants and the orders stopped coming. But the recent trend of fairy gardening, and the terrarium fad to a lesser extent, are changing all of that and she can barely keep plants in stock.

Fairy gardening is serious business now.

It isn't just kooky gardeners in billowy clothes creating fairy gardeners either. Parents are using them as gateway gardens to get kids interested in gardening. Fairy gardens are even draws on garden walks. The fairy garden pictured here was highlighted on this year's Lincoln Square Garden Walk in Chicago as an example of urban gardening.

Yes, fairy gardens are urban gardens too. And why couldn't they be when you consider that a full-sized garden is out of the question for people with small spaces or those who don't have time to tend to a garden? You can achieve the same effect and reap the benefits of creating a garden in something the size of a bird bath. This fairy garden was created with a few miniature hostas, ferns and plants you can pick up in the greenhouse of just about any big box garden center. Moss, stones and miniature garden furniture and accessories complete the look.

I for one welcome this fairy gardening trend and the miniature plants it is bring back into popularity. I just hope it sticks around long enough so that I can plant the bottles, aquariums and bonsai pots that have been gathering dust these past 10 years as I waited for these plants to make it back onto the shelves of my local garden centers and nurseries.

What Would Luther Burbank Do?

2011-10-24T10:00:00.000-05:00

The Smithsonian Institution maintains an online collection of vintage seed catalogs of about 10,000 seed and nursery catalogs dating from 1830s in their archives. Many of the catalogs were part of the Burpee Collection donated to the Horticulture Services Division by Mrs. David Burpee in 1982. The impressive collection maintained by The Smithsonian includes seed catalogs from Burpee its competitors and smaller companies like those of Miss C.H. Lippincott.

Vintage seed catalog examples from the Smithsonian Libraries.

On January 3, 2011, Mindy Sommers an artist who sells items on Etsy offered for sale a product named Vintage Seed Catalog Digital Collage Sheets Five for $9.95 that featured a 4500 pixel wide reproduction of covers of the catalogs by D.M. Ferry & Co, J.M Thornburn & Company, and the Henry A. Dreer companies. The work produced by Mindy Sommers consists of these catalog scan uploaded by The Smithsonian with some retouching.

Screengrab of Etsy page in question.

Just a month later, on February 4, 2011, Mindy received a “take down” notice from Erin Rushing who handles rights and reproductions for the Smithsonian Libraries. According to Public.Resource.Org, who founded What Would Luther Burbank Do? the notice reads:

“My name is Erin Rushing and I handle rights and reproductions for the Smithsonian Libraries. It has come to our attention that you have been selling commercial products based on our images.
This vintage seed catalog collage features several images that are identifiable by unique tears, etc. as being from our collection. Unless you have previously contacted us for a high resolution copy of the image, it is unlikely that what you are selling is true high resolution or high quality digital file.
We request that you either take down the works that feature our images or follow the proper rights and reproductions channels (www.sil.si.edu/imagegalaxy/imageGalaxy_UseFees.cfm)
For more information about the appropriate use of Smithsonian images, please see the Terms of Use:www.si.edu/Termsofuse
Thank you for your attention to this matter. Please feel free to email me at rushinge@si.edu if you have any questions."

In response Public.Resource.Org formed What Would Luther Burbank Do? to request an injunction against the Smithsonian Institution to be instructed to “cease and desist all further “take down” notices until this matter has been thoroughly investigated. In addition they want the Smithsonian Institution to work with the community to create high-resolution scans of the seed catalog source material that is currently not under copyright by external, non-governmental entities and that such high-resolution scans are released on the Internet with no restriction on use. At the What Would Luther Burbank Do? page you can join the complaint against the Smithsonian Institution as “amici atticus.”

In solidarity with Mindy several actions are being undertaken to raise awareness about the complaint and to disseminate information on the Smithsonian Institution’s collection of seed catalogs. Someone has harvested 329 seed catalogs made available online by the Smithsonian and planted them on Flickr. There are triptychs, postcards, beer steins and coffee mugs made from these same catalogs available for sale. You can even follow the @LutherTweets account on Twitter the group has started.

As a gardener and someone who fancies himself a “content creator” I can’t decide who to root for in this case. On the one hand you have the Smithsonian Institution copyright trolling over vintage seed catalogs whose copyright has long-ago expired. Based on my layman’s interpretation of copyright law I’m willing to grant them that they own the copyright of the digital scans they created. Digital scans are not that much different than photographs that are protected by copyright law. But the seed catalogs themselves are now in the public domain. As a gardener that starts plants from seeds, saves seeds and has an interest in the history of America’s seed companies I can support the efforts of Public.Resource.Org to bring the Smithsonian’s seed catalog collection out into the public’s view and use. On the other hand, you have Mindy Sommers who took images (digital scans) created by the Smithsonian Institution, that are being argued belong to all of us, slapped her watermark on them and is profiting from sales of what really belongs to all Americans. By adding her watermark to the images on her Etsy page she’s in essence claiming ownership over something she had little to no involvement in creating and doesn’t even own. Isn’t this basically the grounds for the complaint against the Smithsonian?

Luther Burbank image via Wikipedia

I find invoking Luther Burbank’s name and the question posed by What Would Luther Burbank Do? more than a little puzzling and naive. What Would Luther Burbank Do? is a play on What Would Jesus Do? the phrase used by Evangelical Christians to remind themselves to live their lives in a way that adhere to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Luther Burbank was a great man in many respects. His greatest accomplishments in life were in the field of agriculture, and he developed many new plants that transformed the business and our country. Among his more than eight hundred new varieties of fruits and vegetables, flowers, nuts, and grains are: the Burbank potato, Burbank rose, Shasta daisy, and spineless cacti. The use of his name and likeness in this campaign implies that Luther Burbank would side with Public.Resource.Org and Mindy Sommers against the Smithsonian. A casual examination of the plant breeder’s life would shed some insight into the answer posed by the group’s campaign.

To attempt to answer the questions What Would Luther Burbank Do? I turned to Jane S. Smith, author of The Garden of Invention, and asked her who she believes Burbank would side with based on her years of research into the plant breeder's life for the book. She writes:

Luther Burbank regretted that he never had any intellectual property protection for his creations during his lifetime.
Two of his perpetual torments were
1. sellers who took his plants, multiplied them in their own nursuries without authorization, and put them on the market in competition with his approved dealers.
2. sellers who simply attached his name to whatever they were marketing introducing inferior products and tarnishing his hard-won reputation.
Burbank's frequent comments on the injury to plant inventors from those who "steal" their work were cited in the successful campaign to pass what became the Plant Patent Act of 1930, six years after his death. One might argue that Burbank's own plant inventions grew (so to speak) from his creative alteration of existing material, but I don't recall any instance of his making unauthorized use of explicitly protected objects.So, it seems to me Burbank would side with the owners ( the Smithsonian), and against the Etsy seller. I have to add, though, that Luther Burbank was all too prone to give opinions on issues on which he wasn't really informed. Hope I haven't followed his example.

Given that Burbank never profited from his plant introductions in a manner that was equal to their importance and popularity and that he constantly complained about this, I’d say Luther Burbank would probably side with the Smithsonian.

The WWLBD page lists the price of the image in question as $9.95, but at the time of my screengrab it is listed as $19.90. If you've liked to join the WWLBD? campaign visit the webpage. To learn more about Luther Burbank I recommend reading The Garden of Invention by Jane S. Smith. Her forthcoming book, In Praise of Chickens, will be published in December by Lyons Press.

The Art of Instruction, Plant and Animal Anatomy Prints

2011-10-21T19:00:00.000-05:00

Wall charts were first introduced in primary schools and would quickly find their way into high schools and universities. These wall charts became important teaching aids as populations increased and the numbers of students increased with it making circulating picture books, loose engravings and biological specimens impractical. According to Katrien Van der Schueren, author of The Art of Instruction, these educational wall charts originated in Germany around 1820. During the decade between 1990 and 1890 German printers alone published more than twenty thousand distinct charts that were sold and distributed around the world.

When charts on specific subjects weren't in production teachers, university professors and scientist would create their own hand-drawn charts or work with artists who specialized in scientific illustrations.

These wall-sized charts have become relics of artistic, scientific and educational progress due to their ephemeral qualities. The charts were not cataloged by the companies that created them or by the institutions that employed them in education. The attention to detail in the prints of these plants, seeds and flowers is outstanding.

As a gardener I'm particularly interested in the wall charts that illustrate the parts of plants, bulbs, flowers and seeds. They're beautiful and sometimes unsettling at this size. I can only imagine the kind of thoughts these wall-size prints elicited in small children of the time.

The plates in the book are beautiful and would make a great holiday gift, or turned to the right pages-a great Halloween decoration for your coffee table.

Given their origins in education, the prints in the book are ideal study tools for gardeners who are interested in seed saving and plant propagation because you get to these parts of plants and flowers up close and in great detail. The Art of Instruction is a unique coffee table book that features vintage educational charts of plants and animal anatomy from the 19th and early 20th centuries. These charts that were originally used in classrooms across Europe and today are coveted wall art. The Art of Instruction is compilation of Katrien’s her personal collection of educational wall charts.

I received a free PDF copy of The Art of Instruction for the purposes of this review. The book is published by Chronicle Book and you can purchase a hardcopy from Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Transplanting Oriental Lily Bulbs

2011-10-17T16:35:00.000-05:00

A few years ago I planted two bags of Oriental lily bulbs in my garden after I found the bulbs on sale and couldn't pass up a discount. Over two years the bulbs established themselves, grew taller and produced more blooms per stem. One evening while the clumps where at their peak a stranger walking past the garden stopped and asked me what I had sprayed in the garden to get it to smell so good. Then a day later a family member asked me the same question. Both of them where referring to the scent emanating from the lily blooms that is downright enchanting on a humid summer day. When another family member asked me to help start a garden the first plant I thought to share where some of my Oriental lilies. So I set about transplanting Oriental lily bulbs from my garden to this new garden.

I knew the bulbs would benefit from transplanting because the clumps had expanded beyond the small space I had allocated for them. The blooms were opening on stems reaching 6 feet tall and it was clear that when I planted them I chose a location too close to the edge of the garden path. When I planted these bulbs I didn't bother to read the information on the package and didn't realize they'd grow so tall and block shorter plants behind them.

Whether you're transplanting Oriental lily bulbs to make room expand your planting or to share bulbs with garden friends the easiest way to do this is to remove the bulbs that grow long the stem just below the soil line. The new bulbs produced are smaller than the original lily bulb and cluster along the stem near the surface of your garden soil as illustrated by the picture of Oriental lily bulbs above. These bulbs can be easily collected by excavating a few inches of soil with a garden trowel and planted in a new location. The best time to harvest these baby bulbs is in the fall after they develop the beginnings of their own root systems that can support them. Transplant these bulbs into a new location in the garden, or a large pot, where the soil is loose and fast-draining.

If you have a large clump of Oriental lily bulbs dig a hole that’s wider than the stems above ground to avoid accidentally damaging the grouping of bulbs below ground. After a few years a single bulb can produce a decent size clump of bulbs like the one lily bulbs pictured above. This clump developed from a single bulb that I planted in my garden four years ago. You can plant the whole clump in a new location or separate the bulbs by pulling them apart.

How deep you should plant your Oriental lily bulbs when transplanting them in your garden depends on their size. A good rule of thumb to refer to when planting bulbs is to plant them 2-3 times as deep as they are tall. If you’re the kind of gardener that needs specific measurements: plant the bulbs 6-8 inches below the surface of the soil. Unlike with iris rhizomes I haven’t found that planting them too deep will affect their blooming.

There really isn’t much to transplanting Oriental lily bulbs in your garden. Before heading out to the garden decide how much work you want to put into it. Choose a sunny location in your garden. Gathering the baby bulbs that grow along the stem is less time consuming and less messy, but those bulbs will not bloom for a couple of years until they reach maturity. For instant gratification take larger bulbs, just make sure you don’t damage the bulb in the process by accidentally cutting it in half with a spade or shovel. A garden fork works better than a shovel for this job. If your soil is not fast-draining amend the area with top soil or by mixing in some sand. Transplanting your bulbs into an area of your garden where water stands is a good way to rot your bulbs and miss out on some spectacular fragrant blooms.

Ornamental Sweet Potato Vine Layering Propagation.

2011-10-12T16:27:00.000-05:00

Propagating your ornamental sweet potato vine to expand your plant collection, or to overwinter your plant to grow again next year is really easy. You can take cuttings of your ornamental sweet potato vines and root the cutting in water. But using a simple layering method or (tip layering) is just as easy and saves you the repotting step of rooting in water because the vine will root in a pot with potting soil as it grows.

I find layering propagation of ornamental sweet potato vines is faster when you select the tip of a growing vine like in Figure 1. Take the tip of your sweet potato vine and begin to wrap it along the inside of a pot with your favorite potting soil as seen in Figure 2 and wind the vine making sure to bury the vine with potting soil as you go around. You can secure the vine in place as you wind around your pot by using some U-shaped pins like in Figure 3. This will help keep the vine below the soil level where it is dark and moist; encouraging root to form from the leaf nodes along the vine.

If you don't have any U-shaped pins you can quickly MacGyver some out of a piece of wire from your tool shed or from a paperclip as demonstrated in the image above.

After a couple of weeks your ornamental sweet potato vine will be fully rooted inside the pot you layered it. As your vine is rooting make sure to keep it moist and don't allow the soil to dry out. The moist soil will encourage your vine to root and the roots drying out at this stage could keep your vine from establishing. Once you're happy with the root formation inside the pot and you notice lots of new growth you can separate your vine from the parent plant but cutting somewhere along the line illustrated above in the picture of the ornamental sweet potato vine in my garden.

Whether you choose to root your ornamental sweet potato vines in water or decide to propagate your vine by using a layering technique is a matter of preference. Sweet potato vines are easy to root whether you want to make more to plant in your garden, or you're looking to overwinter some indoors to save you some money the following growing season.

Mobile Garden on the CTA

2011-09-30T15:43:00.000-05:00

For the past couple of years I've been following Joe Baldwin's dream of installing a flatbed garden on a CTA train that would traverse the city for a month. His idea is rather simple. Build a raised bed that's attached to a Chicago Transit Authority train and plant it with native plants and let the train carry the garden throughout various Chicago neighborhoods. You'd think such an idea would be either really easy to implement or impossible to given the bureaucracy of a big government agency. The truth is that his dream is almost on track and the only thing holding him back is money. The CTA and the USDA have given the idea their blessing, all he needs is a big corporate sponsor to underwrite it. But for five hours in August of 2010 he gave Chicago a glimpse of what a mobile garden would look like during Art on Track.

A few days before Art on Track Joe contacted me and asked if I'd be interested in volunteering helping install the garden and of course I said yes. How could I possibly say no to being part of installing a garden in a space Chicagoans had never seen before? The morning of the event a handful of volunteers turned up and transformed this standard L cart into a garden in just a few hours. Prepping involved covering every part of the train that would be "planted" with a plastic tarp.

Three hours and one lunch break later the CTA cart looked like a tropical jungle. It took 400 square feet of sod to cover the floor and seats.

In the middle of the project Joe got word that the owner of Tu Bloom Designs in Chicago had heard of the project and wanted to donate plants. Soon there were even more plants and flowers filling out the garden. The gardeners at Green Roof Growers provided and example of a self-irrigation planter made out of plastic buckets, the Morton Arboretum provided some perennial grasses, Joe's friends and family donated plants. The mobile garden this day exemplified the way "real" gardens grow. Friends, family and people you hardly know hear that you're starting a garden and all of a sudden you have helpers and plants for your garden.

The mobile garden circled the Loop in Chicago and for five hours attendees of Art on Track boarded the train along with passengers who were surprised to see a garden pull into their train station. People sat on the sod seats, took photos, and were amazed by how much cooler the inside of the planted train was compared to the rest of the carts. There were also lots of comments about the earthy smell created by the sod and plants.

Left: Planted Mobile Garden Seats: Right: Self-watering container

Left: Planted before passenegrs. Right: Mobile Garden Filled with riders

Plants used included: Sod, native grasses, tomatillos, ornamental sweet potato vines, ivy, spider plants, kale, zinnias, rubber trees, coleus

The mobile garden even displayed mock ads for supports of the garden. Does the logo in the ad on left in the picture above look familiar?

Here's a video of garden that I filmed on my cellphone. Yes, the quality isn't the best, but I was trying to mimic the look and feel of viral videos of people being less than civil on public transportation. Perhaps you've seen videos of amorous couples, bigotry, and violence on YouTube that take place on trains and buses. Well, this is a part of people you don't regularly see in those videos that take place on public transit. Happy, civil people; transported to another time and place where conversations, laughs and sharing positive experiences with strangers was normal. That to me was the most impressive thing about witnessing the mobile garden circle downtown Chicago for five hours.

While building the mobile garden on the CTA train cart Joe commented on how he's been living with this project for three years. It sounded as if he'd decided if the garden wasn't a reality by 2011 he'd have to move on. His non-profit, NoisiVelvet, is an arts advocate and a lot of his time these past couple of years has been devoted to this idea of a garden. At the end of Art on Track I overheard him telling someone that watching people ride and interact with the mobile garden had given him a new sense of urgency to keep going. I hope he does and that a corporate sponsor comes forward. I don't know if gardens make better people. I do, however, have first hand knowledge of gardens make for nicer commuters. To learn more about Joe's idea for the mobile garden visit his website TheMobileGarden or visit NoisiVelvet for information on arts advocacy projects.

OSU Blue Tomato

2011-09-26T08:30:00.000-05:00

Over the winter Colleen from In the Garden Online offered me OSU Blue tomato seeds. Having never heard of this tomato variety and seeing how cool the fruits looked I figured I’d give them a try. Yes, there is a blue tomato and it is as unusual a tomato as you imagine and will see below. My first experience with these tomatoes was trying to get the seeds to germinate, a task that seemed so daunting I was about to throw them away before I noticed the seeds had sprouted. This blue tomato was developed by Jim Myers, OSU's Baggett Frazier professor of vegetable breeding and graduate students Carl M. Jones and Peter Mes. The first thing you should understand about the OSU Blue tomato is that it wasn't developed using genetic engineering, but using traditional plant breeding techniques.

Garden helper holding OSU Blue Tomatoes.

When ripened, the fruits of OSU Blue range from purple, blue to a dark, almost black color. Probably the closest to black and purple you’ll ever see in a tomato. ‘Black Prince‘ and ‘Purple Cherokee’ tomatoes have got nothing on OSU Blue tomatoes in terms of color. Professor Myers and his students crossed a domestic tomato plant with the genetic stock of a tomato that included a gene incorporated from a wild relative with anthocyanin-containing fruit to produce a healthier tomato. Anthocyanins are the same class of compounds that produce the healthy pigments in red wine that work as antioxidants. According to Myers, domestic tomato varieties grown and consumed in the United States do not normally produce fruit containing any anthocyanin. Anthocyanins are the same class of compounds that produce the healthy pigments in red wine that work as antioxidants. While other fruits have higher concentrations of anthocyanin (think blue berries); the thinking behind adding them to tomatoes is that more people will be exposed to them. Tomatoes are second only to potatoes in consumption of fruits and vegetables. Americans eat about 90 pounds per person per year of fresh and processed tomatoes according to Peter Boches and Jim Myers, Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University.

Green side of OSU Blue tomato not exposed to sun

Anthocyanin is only produced in the fruit in areas that are exposed to sunlight. If the fruit is shaded by a leaf, stem or calyx that part of the fruit will remain green. I noticed that the blue pigment only developed in the top half of tomatoes growing lower on the vine. Intense sunlight lead to the most beautiful purple color; since only the part of the OSU Blue exposed to sun turned purple I would bend the stems in half so sun would reach the bottom half of the tomato. Late in summer there was a dip in temperature that also intensified the color.

OSU Blue tomato: purple on the left and red/purple on the right.

The parts of the fruit that weren't exposed to direct sunlight remained green until the fruit passed the ideal ripe stage and then the green skin turned a red-orange color as illustrated by the picture of the OSU Blue tomato above. According to Boches and Myers, the genes involved in producing the OSU Blue tomato, Aubergine (Abg), Anthocyanin fruit tomato (Aft) and atroviolaceae (atv), are genes introgressed from the wild species Solanum lycopersicoides, S. chilense, S.cheesemanii, respectively. Honestly, I don't know what any of that means, but I can tell you that when OSU Blue tomatoes are at the purple stage pictured above they look similar to the purple tomatillos I grow in my garden.

OSU Blue tomato compare to purple tomatillo

Unlike the OSU Blue tomatoes grown by Gayla Trail last year my OSU Blue tomatoes didn't produce purple stems and foliage. It seems like a lot of tomato growers are growing this tomato, sometimes known as P20, and doing some experimenting with crossing it with other tomatoes.

Here's a video of the OSU Blue tomatoes at the end of the season in my garden.

Overall OSU Blue may be the most unusual tomato I have ever seen The color is absolutely beautiful and unlike any tomato I've ever grown before in my garden. The flesh of the tomato isn't as dark as the skin and the over-ripened tomato you see pictured above had red flesh when I cut into it. Other OSU Blue tomatoes ranged from green to purple depending on their ripeness. While these tomatoes may be healthier their taste leaves a lot to be desired. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. I'd grow these tomatoes again just for their looks the blue tomatoes ripening to an almost black color are certainly conversation pieces in the garden. Unfortunately, my batch of OSU Blue tomatoes weren't very seedy and I didn't manage to save seeds from them which is disappointing. If you're new to tomato seed saving see my post on How To Save Tomato Seeds.

Sources: OSU researchers add potential helth benefits to tomatoes/OSU Blue tomato FAQ (PDF).

Urban Farms Are a Threat To Garden Hegemony

2011-09-16T13:07:00.000-05:00

If you read some gardening blogs you may come away with the impression that the biggest gardening trend is vertical gardening or removing lawns and creating garden designs that are more sustainable. Open a newspaper and you’ll read about how vegetable gardening continues to rise in popularity in 2011 due in large part to a fallow economy and our feelings of uncertainty. Stories of cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Decatur, Ga., embracing the trend of urban agriculture and rewriting laws to encourage and protect community gardens and urban farming are as common as orange daylilies. People want to grow their own food and they want to grow it close to home; in their front yards and their backyards, side-by-side with their neighbors. Yet there’s this segment of the population that sees this progress and is deciding to double-down and fight back against the tide by legislating away expressions of urban agriculture.

The most famous example this year is that of Julie Bass of Michigan whose plight was made popular after Colleen Vanderlinden wrote about it for TreeHugger and the internet descended on the story forcing lawmakers to backdown. For this trailer park homesteader the possibility of the property manager ending up on the six o’clock news was enough to allow her to keep her garden going.

Photos Adam Guerrero's Facebook page.

This week Adam Guerrero, a math teacher at Raleigh-Egypt High School in Memphis, TN., along with three students became lawbreakers after they continued to tend to a garden after it was deemed a neighborhood nuisance. Guerrero was citied for violating city ordinances 48-38 and 48-97. His crime, as reported by the Memphis Flyer, consists of failure to maintain "a clean and sanitary condition free from any accumulation of rubbish or garbage" at his Nutbush home. The citation was upheld by Shelby County Environmental Court judge Larry Potter who ordered him to trim overgrown vegetation that includes 7-foot-tall sunflowers.

When Guerrero asked the judge to define what a nuisance was he was told that if it generates a complaint, it's a neighborhood nuisance. The Memphis Flyer reports that there's no visible trash or garbage and that plants are kept off the sidewalk and driveway. While the garden is on personal property Guerrero says he uses it as a school garden of sorts. A place where three neighborhood youths learn to make biodiesel; the glycerin by-product is used to make soap and the youths harvest honey from beehives behind the garage.

I can see how three young men learning to make soap, biodiesel, farming bees and learning to put math skills to use building worm bins, beehives and small greenhouses with recycled materials can be considered a nuisance. Instead of spending their time on the street three young men have a safe place to spend three to four days a week at when school is not in session.

"I don't understand why it's a problem if it's in the backyard," says one teen involved in the garden. "We like coming here. We don't want it to go away."

They’re a threat to hegemony. Isn’t there a nice, quiet street gang they can join instead of playing in a garden?

A group of concerned Memphis residents are planning to show their support for Guerrero and the three students by holding a peaceful protest on Saturday, September 17. You can find more information at this Facebook event including contact information for Judge Larry Potter where you can respectfully express your support for Guerrero and his teaching garden. If you don't like Facebook, or don't have an account, there's a Change.org petition you can sign.

Update: Adam has responded in the comments of the Memphis Flyer and he's basically invited the community to go see the garden for themselves. The comment reads,

"Hey all, my name is Adam Guerrero. I would first like to thank everyone who shares a sense of disbelief, disillusionment, and frustration with me. I would invite anyone and everyone to come by and see for yourself the state of affairs. My address is 3713 Townes Ave. 38122. Please be kind and keep in mind that it is nearly the autumn of the year, and although my front yard garden is still lush, it is showing signs of slowing down. I have a deep respect for nature and its wisdom in handling its own affairs. The tomatoes in my yard, in fact, return year after year without me doing a single thing outside providing them a nurturing nutrient environment. I am not a native Memphis, although I have lived here for 10 years and have been a teacher for 6. I see many great problems in our city and society. I have set aside the talk and demands for "someone" to act and have taken it upon myself to do what little contribution I can. If I can provide a sense of stability for some young men, I will. It may not be ALL young men, but the one's I work with an enabled and empowered, and that's the point. Again, I am home around 4pm till bed, and am happy to entertain questions, concerns, opinions, etc. but please be kind and decent. Thanks."

Bravo! This is how it's done.

Update #2: Here's a photo gallery of Adam Guerrero's garden.

Update #3: Here's a blog that's been set up by supporters and a way to donate to the cause.

Update #4: Today, September 23rd, Adam Guerrero appeared before Judge Larry Potter. Here is an update As reported by @Saylehan:

Court order stands but judge applauds Adam's progress made and advocated finding a larger space for him to compost, collect rainwater, and educate. Judge says pond can stay as long as bubbler is installed and mosquito-eating fish are introduced. Judge asked to cut back on the number of worm bins and rain barrels. Cover rain barrels with mesh to keep out mosquitors. The court says it never intended for garden to be destroyed, just kept up. It's concerns were rain barrels, worm bins, ponds, etc. The most promising quote "We're going to work this out," says Judge Potter.

Memphis Flyer Via @AliceTruong.

'Coconut Ice' Sunflower

2011-09-13T11:42:00.000-05:00

Like with most other plants I like my sunflowers to be on the usual side. The ones I've previously grown have been either sunflowers with dark petals like 'Cinnamon Sun' or they're giant sunflowers like 'Titan' and 'Mammoth.' This year I was offered 'Coconut Ice' seeds by Burpee and really liked the pictures I saw of this sunflower on the Internet, even if it wasn't so weird, so I decided to give it a try. The petals start off a creamy yellow fading to a nice white with a black center. In the promotional picture for this annual the effect of the dark center and white petals is quite striking.

'Coconut Ice' is an F1 hybrid. F1 stands for Filial1, it is the first filial generation of an offspring resulting from a cross of two different parent plants. As I learned from growing 'Black Cat' petunias this sometimes leads to some veriation in the plant. This sunflower is suppose to grow between 3-5 feet tall. This, along with being a new introduction, is what I attribute to my blooms not looking exactly like the blooms on the Burpee seed catalog's website or even on the National Garden Bureau's entry for 'Coconut Ice.'

The other factor that could explain my sunflower's lackluster blooms could be cultivation. Aside from rainwater there is no other source of water for plants in the garden. In the early spring I'll direct sow seeds as the rainy season gets here and leave the plants to fend for themselves throughout summer. Perhaps my blooms didn't grow as large because they didn't get the necessary water. The height of my sunflowers fell right in the middle of the estimated height so there's no complaint there. One thing that is interesting to note is that my plants had several blooms per plant growing along the stem. That's not something I noticed in the description of this sunflower online.

'Coconut Ice' may not have been a very impressive grower in my garden but it was a nice addition to the coneflower bed. It's height made it a good candidate to grow between the taller plants in the back of the bed and the shorter daylilies in the front and really helped to brighten up the area. I'll sow the rest of the seeds that Burpee sent me next year and give them more water and see if that makes a difference in the size of the bloom. Growing this sunflower reminded me of growing sunflower 'Jade' and makes me want to see if that hybrid su is still around.

Did you grow this sunflower this year? What did you think of it? Were you blooms as large as the pictures in Burpee's catalog? If you have any recommendations for sunflowers to try leave them in the comments. I'm always looking for weird and unusual annuals to add to the garden. They're the cheapest way of experimenting with color in the garden.

Cucumber 'White Wonder' From Burpee Seeds

2011-09-03T19:15:00.000-05:00

When selecting vegetables to grow in my container garden the first thing I always consider is the color. While flavor and productivity should be the most important I can't help but to be drawn to the unusual, be it color or shape and texture, fruits and vegetables. That's how I came to grow Burpee Seeds' 'White Wonder' cucumber this year. In the 2011 seed catalog there was an offer for a free pack of these seeds with an order. 'Long White' and 'Albino' are synonyms for 'White Wonder' which Burpee introduced in 1893 after receiving the seeds from a customer in western New York.

The color of 'White Wonder' is usually described as white to ivory, but it turns a little yellowish as the fruit matures. At maturity the fruit can be 6-8" long, and as you can see from the picture it is almost as big as my hand. It's a good heat producer that really took off when I planted it in one of my self-watering containers on the porch which gets full sun.

The fruit of this particular cucumber was a little on the yellow side and seedy because I'd let it get a bit past maturity because I wanted to make sure I could save seeds from it. There's a correlation between the size and shape of the fruit and the number of seeds produced by pollination. Each seed of a cucumber requires one or more grains of pollen to be formed. As you can see from the photo above I did a pretty good job of hand pollinating this cucumber bloom.

Why has 'White Wonder' been around since being introduced by Burpee in 1893? Do gardeners grow it simply for the novelty of the white skin? While the coloring is a great conversation piece I would attribute its popularity to the taste and texture. Crisp, clean and crunchy is how I'd best describe it. This heirloom cucumber is suppose to be good for pickling and I wouldn't know about that because none have made it indoors without being sliced up either to be eaten or for their seeds. I should note for any vegetable gardeners who come across this and want to try it that the skin of 'White Wonder' can be a little tough when mature, you can avoid that by harvesting your cucumbers when they're younger.

Invincibelle Spirit Hydrangea: Past, Present, and Future.

2011-08-26T12:10:00.000-05:00

The following is a guest post by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. They've answered my call for donations to the Garfield Park Conservatory repair efforts. In exchange for the donation to help repair the storm damage to the Garfield Park Conservatory, I've invited them to write about the history of 'Invincible Spirit' and how this garden shrub is helping raise money for a cure for breast cancer.

Imagine a plant breeder – what comes to mind? Some nervous, bespectacled individual wearing a white coat in a gleaming laboratory, surrounded by beakers and flasks and the flowers of some obscure genus? Plant breeding is less mad scientist than you might think. Luckily for us, most plant breeders are plant lovers themselves, gardeners in their own fashion who are acutely aware of what types of plants are missing from the gardener’s palette and dedicated to using their time, passion, and know-how to filling those gaps. It was that kind of plant breeder that developed Invincibelle Spirit, the first pink ‘Annabelle’ hydrangea:

'Invincibelle Spirit' hydrangea photo courtesy Proven Winners Color Choice

‘Annabelle’ is arguably the most widely grown hydrangea in North America, and for good reason: it is hardy, reliable, and beautiful. But its flowers – lovely as they are – are a creamy white, fading to green as they age. Absolutely delightful, but not exactly extraordinary, which is why plant breeders have long wanted to get some color into its flowers. Despite the occasional discovery of a pink-flowered form of its species, Hydrangea arborescens (one of our many amazing native plants), nothing garden-worthy had come out of any breeding attempts until 2001.

That summer, Richard Olsen, a graduate student at North Carolina State University, found a pink flowered Hydrangea arborescens while hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Thankfully, he knew a good thing when he saw it, as few others would think 'Wesser Falls' was anything remarkable. Working with Dr. Tom Ranney at the NCSU Mountain Horticultural Crops Research Station, they crossed this plant (which Olsen named ‘Wesser Falls’ for the area where it was found) with ‘Annabelle.’ Five years and several thousands of plants later, they had precisely one pink-flowered individual that merited introduction - that was Invincibelle Spirit:

'Invincibelle Spirit' hydrangea photo courtesy Proven Winners Color Choice.

Invincibelle Spirit shares the hardiness, beauty, and easy care of ‘Annabelle,’ but in addition to its pink flowers, it does it one better: it reblooms in the garden, continuing to flower up until frost. Clearly, a plant this extraordinary deserved a grand introduction to the gardening public, so we at Proven Winners ColorChoice Shrubs enlisted its power and appeal to raise money for an important cause. Pink flowers made breast cancer research a good fit, but coupled with the dismal fact that 1 in every 8 women will be diagnosed with the disease, it became the obvious choice. One dollar of every Invincibelle Spirit hydrangea sold is donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, one of the highest rated, most effective charities in America.

To get more gardeners behind the cause, we started Pink Days, fundraising events organized by garden centers to raise money for BCRF or a local breast cancer charity. Close to $220,000 has been raised by garden centers and sales of Invincibelle Spirit in just one season on the market! We’d love to make you a part of the campaign as well – invite Invincibelle Spirit into your garden (here’s how to care for it). Find a Pink Day at a garden center in your area, and if there aren’t any planned, please approach your favorite nursery about hosting one.

Whether you’re taking in the festivities at your local Pink Day or sitting at home enjoying Invincibelle Spirit in your garden, please take a moment to consider the story – the characters, setting, and plot – that led up that moment. It is a shrub with a past and future every bit as vibrant and exciting as its present!

Salvia 'Black and Blue'

2011-08-23T20:00:00.008-05:00

As a gardener who is always seeking out dark flowers and plants I can’t believe that salvia ‘Black and Blue’ has escaped my notice all these years. The salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’ cultivar is remarkable for the bright blue flowers, dark stems and almost black calyx. Unfortunately, ‘Black and Blue’ is hardy USDA Zones 8-11, and here in Chicago it would be grown as an annual. I encountered it by accident after brushing against the leaves of the plant growing in a public planter and released the most wonderful scent and discovered why one of the common names is ‘Anise Sage.’

The scented foliage, which I stupidly didn’t photograph, is darker than other salvias. The plants I came across were only about three feet tall but the plant has the potential to grow 6 feet in height provided conditions are right. A search of Google for Gardeners indicates that salvia ‘Black and Blue’ doesn’t like to be over watered and cold and wet conditions will rot the underground tuber out. I suppose in Zones where the plant is not hardy the tuber could be lifted like the tubers of ornamental sweet potato vines and and the rhizomes of cannas and stored indoors until spring.

The bilabiate blooms of salvia are perfectly shaped for humming birds, but as you can see from the picture above they’re also attractive to honeybees who visit for the nectar while the flower deposits pollen on their back.

While I was photographing these salvia plants I noticed that bumble bees didn’t quite fit into the bloom like the honeybees did. Bumble bees were dipping their head’s into the calyx of the flower and I figured it was because they were too fat and could only reach the nectar inside by using the side entrance. But then while editing photographs I noticed that some honeybees were doing the same. Perhaps these bees aren't eschewing their end of the pollination bargain and are just drinking rain water or morning dew from inside the calyx. Whatever it was they were doing it was interesting watching pollinators behaving in a way I wouldn't have expected.

Have you ever grown Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue' before? What's your take on this plant? Would you recommend growing it as an annual since it isn't hardy to my Zone or should I overwinter tubers of the plant this year and plant it the next growing season?

Seed Lab at Ball Horticultural Company

2011-08-14T11:10:00.004-05:00

Even though the average home gardener, like myself, isn’t a direct customer of the Ball Horticultural Company many of the packaged seeds and plants we buy at garden centers and nurseries were developed by Ball Hort. An example being petunia ‘Black Cat’ which is the world’s first black petunia. Recently, I was invited on a tour of the gardens at Ball in West Chicago, Illinois., which include container gardens, a seed lab, example gardens for vegetable and shade gardening, and a trial garden where Ball Hort plants are grown alongside competitor’s plants. If you’ve read this garden blog with any regularity you may have noticed that seeds are regular topics so I jumped at the chance of touring a seed lab. Below are a couple of pictures from the seed lab that I thought other seed-obsessed gardeners may find interesting.

The seed lab within Ball Hort’s newly built, LEED-certified facility, is state-of-the-art for the seed business, but it was reminiscent of sets for the Batman television series or something out of Doctor Who. This isn’t a knock, just an observation and an example of how my overactive imagination works. This is the seed coating room where seeds like: marigolds, geraniums, zinnias, gazania, ranunculus, anemones, and dahlias are coated with something called Ball Controlled Growth, Slick Coat. Employees stand in front of those tubes and pull levers all day long as a supply of seeds and the seed coating mixture is mixed inside. Among other things, the seed coating increases the visibility of seeds for the person sowing them, and makes them heavier so seeds can’t easily fly away. Behind us were seed sorting machines that separated the very lighter seeds that may be duds and not suitable for sowing.

The seed pelleting room where seeds are mixed in the large seed mixers pictured at right. I never understood why it was necessary to pellet seeds until I sowed petunia seeds I saved from my garden. Pelletted seeds are easier to handle and sow in seed trays. If you've grown the SimplySalad mix this is where the seeds were pelleted. Another reason for pelleting seeds is that it makes combining three different seeds in one pellet that makes growing plant plugs easier. These plugs are used for planting those lush and full hanging baskets you may see hanging from lamp posts around your city or town. Pictured at left are pelletted: begonias, dianthus, marigolds, impatiens ornamental millet and tomato seeds.

The germination testing room is probably the best example of the use of technology in the seed growing process. Seeds are placed on these pads (1) where they are suctioned into tiny holes that keep them in place while the (2) technician sows them into the cells. Imagine having one of these to help you sow seeds into your seed starting trays? The seeds are sent away into other rooms to germinate and when they're brought back they're placed under a camera (3) where a computer program counts the cotyledons, first set of leaves to emerge from a seed, the rate and total germination to eliminate weaker seed lots. There's another machine in the room that scans plugs and conducts even more tests on the seedlings. Definitely a lot more high-tech than the seed germination tests you can do at home.

One of the rooms the seed trays are sent to, before the germination testing is done, is this misting room. Pictured above is a seed misting room where seedlings are grown under flourescent lights. You may be able to make out the yellow coil in the back of the picture. That's the misting mechanisim that travels across the seed flats misting the seedlings. How much easier would your seed starting season be with one of these rooms?

There are other rooms and sections not pictured here for the sake of brevity. There was one room where batches of seeds are brought to the brink of germination and then stopped at just the right time. This priming of the seeds makes for higher, faster and more uniform seed germination, and allows seeds to germinate at a wider range of temperatures. Another room I left out because I didn't want to enter it was the humidity room. As you might imagine the humidity of this room is set rather high-kept at a constant 100% humidity. The humidity room is my idea of hell on earth. As much as I like seeds and wonder what it would be like to work in a seed lab I wouldn't want to have to deal with that room.

While Ball Hort sells primarily to plant growers and retailers there is a section of website for gardeners where you can learn about the various plants they bring to market. A lot of the public landscaping around Chicago is done with plants from Ball Hort and when I see a new plant variety that I'm not familiar with I poke around their website to find the name of it. The same may hold true for plants used in planters and streetscaping in your town or city.

Update: Someone in the comments asked how one gets a job in the seed lab at Ball Horticulture and I wanted to add something. The day I toured the seed lab I noticed that a lot of the employees had accents and wanted to point this out in the original post, but didn't for fear that the observation may be misconstrued. As luck would have it I was at a dinner that included Becky Boonman, wife of Ball Seed President Cornelis Boonman, and I managed to ask her about the employees in the seed lab. She explained that Ball Seed hires just about all of the advanced degree graduates in agriculture in the Midwest, but that they have to bring many from overseas to fill their need. So, if you're wondering how you get a job in a seed lab the answer is education. ;0)

Lettuce 'Sea of Red'

2011-08-07T16:27:00.003-05:00

Up until recently I'd never been the kind of gardener who thought of vegetables as beautiful. Sure, I believe that vegetable gardens as a whole can be beautiful, but taken individually the plants in vegetable gardens never struck me as beautiful. Does it even matter if your vegetables, fruits and herbs are beautiful? Don't they all end up looking the same after they've served their purpose? When I knew I would be growing petunia 'Black Cat' in my container garden this year I went in search of other things, primarily vegetables and herbs, I could grow around it that would compliment the dark hues of 'Black Cat.' Lettuce 'Sea of Red' is one of those vegetables with style.

'Sea of Red' actually gets a lot bigger than this photo would indicate, but I've been growing it as salad greens. Throughout the summer I've added it to sandwiches and sprinkling some into salads to give them some color. Yes, this lettuce has been grown throughout summer in my full sun container garden. I've provided it some shade by growing it in a small pot that I nestle below larger potted plants to help it endure the heat. Being a cut and come again lettuce variety after harvesting you can get more leaves from the same plant. I cut some leaves and let the plant recuperate and send out new leaves. The leaves start out green, turning a nice red color, but when exposed to full sun they develop this rich mahogany color. The more sun the plant receives the darker the leaves get; making it more interesting to look at in your salad mix. The seeds for 'Sea of Red' came from ReneesGarden as part of samples for garden writers and were provided for free. Although, now that I've grown this lettuce and know that it can survive the hot summer in my container garden I'll have to purchase more seeds to grow next year.

Pollinating Cucumber Flowers

2011-07-28T13:30:00.002-05:00

Cucumber plants are usually monoecious meaning the plants have separate male and female flowers on the same plant. The same is true for their relatives, squash, cantaloupes, and watermelons. The flowers on cucumbers are usually pollinated by insects, but in their absence you can hand-pollinate the female cucumber flowers yourself. In the illustrated guide below I'll show you how to identify the female cucumber flower and pollinate cucumber plants in your own garden.

The female cucumber flowers grow on a slender stem off of the main vine. At the base of the female flower is a large ovary that is fertilized by the pollen from the male flowers and develops into the fruit.

The difference between male and female cucumber flowers (aside from their sexual reproductive parts) is that male cucumber flowers develop in clusters along the main vine. Male flowers are shorter and do not develop the small fruits below them like the female cucumber flowers do.

To collect pollen from the male cucumber flowers you can use a small paint brush. Insert the tip of the paint brush into the center of the flower and vigorously twirl it around to load pollen onto the brush.

You could also use a cotton swab to collect pollen, but I find the dark fibers of the paint brush to better suited for the job. Pollen is light colored and easy to recognize on the tip of your brush.

After you've loaded the brush with pollen from the male cucumber flower, pollinate the female cucumber blossom by twirling the tip of the same brush in the center of the female flower. The three lobes of the stigma do not necessarily need to be coated evenly to ensure pollination, but you'll get better results if you repeat the process with pollen from several male flowers. That's all there really is to female cucumber flower pollination in your garden.

No Female Cucumber Flowers.
In monoecious cucumber varieties male flowers open about 10 days before the male flowers open up. Male flowers also greatly out-number female flowers at rates of something like 10 to 1. Cucumber vines are veritable sausage fests during this time.

Cucumber Fruits Falling Off.
The poor pollination of female cucumber flowers is one of the main causes poor fruit setting, fruit abortion, and misshapen fruits. Because of this it is a good idea to transfer pollen from several male flowers onto the female cucumber blossom to ensure the bloom has been well pollinated.

How Many Cucumber Plants Do You Need?
You really only need one cucumber plant, cucumbers are self-fertile meaning the male flowers can pollinate the female flowers growing on the same vine.

Cucumber pollination is usually handled by bees but I had to resort to hand pollinating the female cucumber flowers on my plants because bees haven't discovered the garden on the back porch. Being efficient foragers, bees will focus on visiting flowers that are available in great numbers. The handful of cucumber flowers on my porch aren't enough to draw their attention so my cucumber flowers were not being pollinated. The other reason I pollinated the cucumber flowers myself is because this cucumber is an heirloom and I'm trying to ensure the seed stay true to type. With some luck I'll have 'White Wonder' cucumber seeds to add to my seed collection along with my lemon cucumbers.

Related:
How to Pollinate Strawberry Plants.
How to Pollinate Thanksgiving Cactus.
Amaryllis Pollination.

Petunia 'Black Cat' The World's First Black Petunia

2011-07-22T10:32:00.001-05:00

I have loved black plants since I discovered gardening. More time has been spent day dreaming of being a Victorian or Edwardian gardener than I care to admit. If last year you had given me access to a TARDIS and allowed me to go back in time and experience gardening then- I would have jumped at the chance. It's a good thing that nobody showed up with a TARDIS last year because I would've missed out on the opportunity to grow petunia 'Black Cat,' billed as "the world's very first black petunia" by W. Atlee Burpee & Co.

Earlier this spring Burpee sent me a box of three free petunia 'Black Cat' plants to grow in my garden. After acclimating the plants and placing them in the container garden I noticed that they looked more purple than black when they started blooming. I chalked this up to a mistake in shipping or labeling, but was happy enough with the free plant samples. Some things had to be moved around the porch garden and I moved the petunias purported to be 'Black Cat' to a spot where they got shade from the harsh full sun of the porch garden.

The subsequent blooms of petunia 'Black Cat' began to unfurl and they were black. Like, really, really black. Wow, they have indeed bred the world's first black flowering petunia.

Here's another 'Black Cat' flower produced when I moved them to get more shade. Do the hues of these two flowers look darker than the picture at the top to you? Once again I moved the plants to full sun and noticed that they were again producing blooms that looked more purple. So I contacted Burpee and asked if it was my imagination.

"I have noticed also that the color sometimes appears to be deep purple, but on my observations it happened in low light, and they are more visible on the back side of the petals," says Venelin G. Dimitrov, Buyer/Product Manager- Flower Seed W. Atlee Burpee & Co.

I agree with Mr. Dimitrov that the purple coloring is more noticeable on the back side of the petals, but in my observation it has happened when I exposed the plants to full sun. Not a big deal really, I just find this interesting.

This week a heatwave hit Chicago and some of my 'Black Cat' petunias started to display the yellow streak in the leaves that's characteristic of petunia 'Phantom.' I guess there's some 'Phantom' in the lineage of 'Black Cat.' Also note how the underside of the leaves is a lot more purple than the pictures above.

Petunia 'Phantom' at the Mid-America Horticultural Trade Show

Again I turned to Burpee for insight into the yellow streak developing in my 'Black Cat' blooms.

"We also noticed that some yellow will appear, but that happens only when the plants are stressed by heat or lack of water. Variations are common in new colors," says Dimitrov. "I will observe the plants this summer, through future selection this reverse will be avoided completely."

I wasn't really surprised by 'Black Cat' reverting, I'd read reports by other gardeners online and was expecting it to happen with my black flowers too. Can you imagine turning into your parents when you're under stress? Genetics are a strange and wonderful thing.

Petunia 'Black Cat' certainly is the blackest flower I've ever seen in person, I have to feel bad for all those Victorian and Edwardian gardeners who dreamt of black flowers like this and never got to experience them. Whether you're a Goth gardener or are just looking for an interesting annual to add to your garden I can't recommend petunia 'Black Cat' enough. It has blended well with every color I've paired it up with in the container gardens this year. You may come across petunia 'Black Velvet' in catalogs or at the garden centers, it is the same petunia as 'Black Cat' sold by W. Atlee Burpee & Co. This batch of black petunias where developed by Jianping Ren at Ball Colegrave in the UK, which is part of the Ball Horticultural Company based in West Chicago, Illinois., by crossing various petunias until the dark color was achieved.

TL;DR Burpee's petunia 'Black Cat' really is the world's first black petunia, may revert to petunia 'Phantom' due to heat or lack of water; is the same petunia as 'Black Velvet' sold by the Ball Horticultural Company. I'll still take a ride in a TARDIS though.

What's the Benefit of Having Spiders in the Garden?

2011-07-19T15:29:00.006-05:00

What is the benefit of having spiders in the garden? That is a rhetorical question, I am not really asking. As a gardener, I know the benefits of having a predator live in my garden. Making the garden hospitable to spiders, and allowing them to biologically control garden pests, is all part of gardening chemical free and being as natural as possible. I am not a hippy or anything like that; I wanted to have bugs in my garden to photograph so I decided I would stop using bug sprays, and just let nature take its course. For the most part, it has worked out fabulously and I have no regrets. Although, nothing challenges my commitment to natural methods of pest control more than seeing the garden covered in spider webs during the summer. Spider webs like this one I took in the garden recently. If you have a fear of spiders close your eyes for a second and think of England as you scroll down past this picture of a spider and its web.

Still here?

Spiders can be good for your garden. Nothing eats as many garden pests as spiders do. Their appetite is voracious and observing one in the garden is both thrilling and meditative. These little creatures can spend all day rebuilding a web after it has been damaged in the hopes of catching yet another meal. I cannot help but cheer watching a spider catch a wasp or an earwig. Yet nothing makes me feel stabbier than when one catches a ladybug, honeybee or butterfly. Spiders do not discriminate- someone should put them in charge of rental properties, human resources and airline security-they will eat anything!

Because of their very nature, having too many spiders in the garden is a bad thing. They will quickly colonize a suitable environment and do away with all bugs, good and bad. What makes a garden suitable for spiders? Tall plants like the purple coneflowers in the background of the picture above made good places for spiders to build a web. Also popular are the fence, trellis and perennials planted too close together. I have found that the underside of broad leafed perennials like hostas make good spaces for smaller spiders who will lay eggs were the leaves meet the stems. Leave a terracotta pot laying on its side in the garden and spiders will build a web or nest and catch some of the pests that crawl around the garden.

Even though the spiders in my garden and I have an understanding that does not mean they do not creep me out. I have been known to collect a spider or two on a yard stick and fling them out into the sidewalk if they are too close when I am weeding or watering the garden. I’m all about natural methods of pest control, but even I have my limits. What is the benefit of having spiders in the garden? That's not really a rhetorical question. It's a mantra I have to keep repeating to myself every time I feel creeped out by spiders to remind me that they're good to have in the garden.