Category: Home & Garden

MAYBE MORE than any other topic, the use of native plants has consistently figured among the top garden trends in recent years. Just how popular is the movement toward a more ecological focus in the way we design and care for our landscapes?

And how does that effort keep moving forward and growing among those of us who are home gardeners when there can be obstacles, like how hard it can be to find locally appropriate plants at the garden center?

I talked about that and more with Rebecca McMackin, an ecological horticulturist who creates and manages dynamic landscapes, including a new garden she recently made for the Brooklyn Museum. Rebecca is currently the arboretum curator at historic Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, and was a Harvard Loeb fellow in 2023, studying ecological design and the history of native-plant movements. For a decade before that, she was director of horticulture at Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Read along as you listen to the Feb. 19, 2024 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify (and browse my archive of podcasts here).

the native movement, with rebecca mcmackin

 

 

Margaret Roach: Before we get started, I have to ask you, is your dog’s name really Winterberry?

Rebecca McMackin: Yes [laughter]. Yes, it is.

Margaret: It’s like my favorite plant, the native Ilex verticillata.

Rebecca: He’s my favorite dog, so that works well.

Margaret: O.K Yeah, Winterberry. Hello, Winterberry [laughter]. And I also want to say you publish and you do a newsletter that people subscribe to, which I always love. You have lots of links and ideas about native plant-related, ecological horticulture-related topics. Do you do that every month? Is that right?

Rebecca: So my goal is every month. It doesn’t exactly come out every month, but that’s the hope that it comes out on each full moon. But yeah, that would be great. I think this movement, we’re all really learning, and evolving, and changing so much that it’s just a way to gather all the new information that comes out and then send it out to people.

Margaret: So a little backstory: A few weeks ago on the show, I talked with Nancy Lawson, a naturalist who goes by the name of the Humane Gardener, and we were discussing a blog and a social media post she had done about sort of the negative language that people use about naturalistic landscaping, sometimes calling a front yard that’s not mown lawn, that’s like meadow-ish or something, they call it “overgrown” or “messy,” things like that. And how we needed to start thinking and speaking differently.

And you got in touch with me after you heard that conversation. So that’s sort of the backstory of why we’re talking today. I assume it wasn’t the first time you’d ever heard such disparaging remarks [laughter]. Yes?

Rebecca: I mean, language is so central, right? We’re trying to shift people’s perspectives here. And for many of us, this is a whole new way of looking at gardens and landscapes. So, of course, the language has to shift, and I loved that conversation. I thought it was wonderful, for what do we call the aesthetic that we’re going for? If it’s not overgrown, what are the positive words? And there were hundreds of comments on that post.

Margaret: Yes.

Rebecca: Some of my favorites were “lush” and “diverse,” but I was wondering if you had any that you thought really better described that sort of landscape.

Margaret: I don’t know. I mean, there were so many that were like… I don’t know, like, 400 or something people. We asked people to free-associate in the comments on my website. And yeah, it was wonderful. I mean, I just think “alive.” But yeah, there were a lot of good choices.

Rebecca: Yeah, I really loved “natural” and “naturalistic.” I think those are such good terms, but I’m super-nerdy, so I like “ecologically functional,” but I’m not sure that one has broad appeal.

But I think when I was listening to you and Nancy, I kept on thinking about all of the words we don’t have, and how that can really limit what we care about, and sometimes even what we see as well. And it reminded me of this realization that I had this fall when I was working at Woodlawn Cemetery, which, as you mentioned, it’s this 150-year-old cemetery that has maybe one of the best collections of Japanese maples in the country.

And these Japanese maples are these gnarly, century-old beauties. And I was there on this walk, and they were just on fire, in their autumn glory. And underneath each one was a brilliant orange or red carpet of leaves that was scattered around the headstones and offset the canopy. And the carpet added so much to the overall beauty of the tree and the atmosphere. And as we know, those leaves are so important ecologically, because most moths and many butterflies spend a huge portion of their lives in the leaves. And they insulate the ground, and slow water down, and help it infiltrate the soil.

So there are so many reasons to leave the leaves, but one of the ones we never seem to talk about is beauty.

Margaret: Yes!

Rebecca: And I’m thinking of those famous photos of ginkgos with fluorescent yellow leaves all around them. It’s like an aura. And how many native trees we have who do the same thing, like honey locusts and sweetgum, with their brilliant leaf carpets. But we don’t have a name for it. And so a lot of us don’t even see it or even recognize it as valuable. And so I think we need a name for that as well, for that fall leaf carpet.

Margaret: Similarly, actually, now you’re going to get me free-associating off-topic. But a friend of mine, Marco Stufano, formerly of Wave Hill garden in the Bronx, at petal-drop when the flowers would drop off the spring trees like crabapples, for instance, he’d call it a pink puddle beneath the trees, or pink pool. And I think that’s another thing that a lot of times people are like, “Oh, let’s rake it up. Let’s get that out of the way. Let’s get out the blower. Get the mess. Get the mess away.” But it’s not a mess, is it?

Rebecca: It’s absolutely gorgeous. It’s one of the benefits of having these plants in our landscape. And I think hopefully there are Japanese terms for both of these, and maybe we can just find those out and use them as well.

Margaret: Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, the letting go, that’s sort of moment that things have let go. I mean, that’s really an important moment.

So you did a recent talk that I watched for this educational organization, this nonprofit called New Directions in the American Landscape [that talk will be given again Feb. 22, 2024, for Ecological Landscape Alliance]. And in that talk for them, you sort of referred to the effort toward a more ecological approach to horticulture.

You called it a movement, but you had this sort of chart, this background, and there were all these circles of different sizes on it [above], and each circle had a name, and it was like all these, I don’t want to say factions as if there’s warring among them, but different segments, so to speak, each that called itself something.

So this world of ecological horticulture, it’s all these different groups of people. It’s not one movement, or how do you see it?

Rebecca: I think broadly, it’s both. Of course, the answer is always yes. It is both this massive, global movement of millions of people who are trying to foster biodiversity in our gardens and on our land, in response to the ecological destruction that we’re seeing all around us. And that was one of the things that I had the good fortune to study while I was at my fellowship, was to not only study the history and the status of all these movements, but to try and figure out how those of us doing this work here today can cultivate the most impactful, and far-reaching, and diverse gardening movements possible, and so there’s…

Absolutely; I think it’s one movement. I would argue that it’s one movement, but that the multiplicity of the names for each individual movement is actually very helpful. I like the term ecological horticulture. That’s the term I’m most comfortable with. I think it’s accurate. I think it’s fun to say, and it captures the level of sophistication required to do a lot of this work. I’ve also heard critiques that it’s too fancy; that it can be unwelcoming or elitist. And I think that’s a good argument for the term ecological gardening, which is also very popular and seems to be more inviting.

Margaret: And on that chart, as I said, with all these different circles on it in your presentation, there was conservation gardening, and permaculture, and regenerative gardening, and rewilding, and the New Perennial Movement, wildlife gardening, a bunch of other ones. The one that I always say that wasn’t on there, it’s probably not thought of by many people: I think of it as habitat gardening or habitat-style gardening. Do you know what I mean?

Rebecca: I love it. Yeah, I think it’s beautiful, right? And I think there’s a real question of whether or not it helps this movement. I think what we all want to do is grow this movement as big and as robust as possible. Does it help us to pick one term, or is it better to just have all of these terms proliferate so that there can be one term that a community in southern Texas decides to adopt and grow, and then another community in northern Maine can decide to create?

There’s a real beauty in that diversity as well, rather than just picking one movement. And also, I think one of the benefits of having so many different names is that it’s not one singular trend that can then go out of style.

Margaret: Right, right.

Rebecca: I hope that this movement really becomes what horticulture is more than anything. That it’s not just something that we’re all doing right now because hip, and that something else is going to come up in the future.

Margaret: Right. So whatever we do or don’t eventually come to call it [laughter], how big is it, and what’s sort of the reach now? Because in your recent talk, I was very interested to see that you had dug into what data is available out there, and you offered a kind of overview of the research that tries to estimate the scale of this movement. So what were some of the highlights?

Rebecca: Well, I think, honestly, I was completely shocked to find out how popular it is. I think a lot of us have been working for decades to try and communicate to people how important this work really is. And when I dug into the research, I found that we are really succeeding. That right now, according to the National Gardening Survey, 55 percent of U.S. households garden. That’s more than 185 million people. And that’s mostly because there was this huge wave of new gardeners with Covid. There was more than 20 million gardeners who just started gardening for the very first time over Covid lockdown. And they’re younger, and more diverse economically and ethnically, and they’re more interested in organic farming and all of those environmental things that we often think about.

But what they also found in 2021 is that one-third of all U.S. adults had planned to purchase plants to help wildlife, which to me is an absolutely ridiculous amount of people. That a full quarter of the U.S. population was buying native plants specifically. That’s more than 80 million people. And honestly, I couldn’t believe that. But then I found another academic study that put the numbers even higher. They found that 58 percent of gardeners had purchased native plants in the previous year, which gets us to 107 million people, which is literally one-third of the U.S. population.

So it’s mind-boggling, honestly, how mainstream this movement is and how long and how hard it’s taken so many people to get here, but it’s really succeeding, honestly.

Margaret: Yeah. So what you also pointed out in your talk is that supporting pollinators was the top motivator for people to give space to native plants and make other accommodations in their gardens, their home landscapes. And so, a lot of home gardeners, that’s what we’re thinking of when we make a plant purchase, or we change part of our design, or add a feature, or subtract a feature, or whatever: It’s about pollinators. Is there a bigger picture that you’d like us to think about? I mean, as opposed to that, is that too narrow?

Rebecca: I think the attention on pollinators is really wonderful. It’s amazing, and it’s beautiful, especially I love to think about flowers as methods of communication. I love to be able to read flowers and think about who they are calling to and what those relationships are. It’s amazing how much people love pollinators, and it’s such a good way to see and illustrate the importance of native plants.

That said, it’s not just about feeding bees, right? It’s not just about using these plants to feed animals. It’s important, of course, the dynamics between organisms is what this work is really about, but there’s also something critical about the plants themselves, that I mean, they evolved here. They evolved on this land. I see to a certain degree, I feel like I’m on their land, and I feel like we can make space for those plants on our land, whether or not they have those pollinator dynamics or not. I think it’s… We need to bring the plant back to the center of the conversation, as well as the pollinators.

Margaret: So not just the animals, yeah. And it’s one big food chain, so either way, one helps the other. But yeah, I remember years ago interviewing a person who was very expert in ferns, from the former New England Wild Flower Society. And she was saying to me, ferns don’t flower—obviously, they don’t flower—but that doesn’t mean they don’t contribute. They’re enormous contributors to the environment because they, for instance, move into a space that is disturbed, for instance, or damaged in some way. They moved in early. And they hold the ground, and they provide hiding places.

And so, again, I think of habitat. So even though they can’t feed any pollinators, they’re really important plants, right?

Rebecca: I love that term, habitat. I think it’s such a good way to think about it. And I think it’s also just really important to remember that the knowledge that we have about the ways that plants, and animals, and fungi all interact is so nascent, and such a tiny portion of what’s actually going on in the world. And even when I think about this over the last decade, the research that’s been done into the chemistry of nectar and pollen and all of the complicated relationships therein, there’s a form of hubris to think that when you see a bee on a flower that is good enough, that box is checked or we’ve done the work ecologically to take care of this ecosystem.

There’s so much more going on that pollen might not have the right nutrients. It might have chemicals that are harming, literally, that bee that’s collecting on it. And then there might be native plants around that aren’t getting pollinated because that bee is sitting on that flower, so it’s such a… We could never know is the point. We never can say that this is good enough. And so why not default to just looking at the plants that evolved around us, looking at the animals that evolved here, and have relationships with those plants, and trying to encourage those communities?

Margaret: Right. Well, so speaking of nectar and pollen, during your talk, you told some stories about a few native plants. And in fact, you suggested in the talk that—and this was to a group of professionals in the industry—you suggested that telling stories about native plants may help to catch consumers’ attention, and educate, and really connect people more deeply to the plants.

And you told a story about columbine, about Aquilegia, about our native columbine. You told a number of them, but that one especially charmed me. [Columbine above by Uli Lorimer.]

Rebecca: Oh, I mean, I think stories are so important, right? They’re how we learn about our world, and they get stuck in our head, and we can pass them along. And so when I think about the plants that I remember from when I was little, they’re the plants that I heard stories about. They’re like the buttercup that told my sisters if they liked butter, or the Queen Anne’s lace with the central drop of blood in the middle. Those were the plants that I would share that information with other people.

And I think that we have those same stories with the native plants around us as well. In the Northeast, we have jewelweed seedpods that explode in the most delightful possible way. And we have mountain laurel stamens that, when they’re triggered, they spring out from a sticky circus tent to bop bumblebees on the back. These are just incredible stories.

And the one that I really love, that Aquilegia canadensis one, I think, because it again illustrates the beauty of that relationship between animals and plants. And so the way that I like to tell that story is, of course, everyone can picture this cheerful little red bell hanging from a green thin stem. And I think that they’re the most cheerful of our spring wildflowers, but, of course, they’re not flowering for us.

Their bloom heralds the return of the ruby-throated hummingbird, the East Coast’s only hummingbird. After these tiny birds have flown thousands of miles on their migration from Central America to the Northeast, they rely on the sugary nectar of the red columbine to refuel. And they have reason to believe that that flower will be waiting for them when they arrive. The columbine stores their nectar at the end of long spurs, where only the long tongues of the hummingbird can reach it.

As the birds drink the nectar, they pollinate the flower. Both organisms benefit, and in fact, the hummingbird is the red columbine’s pollinator partner. The bird and the flower could not be more charming, but it’s in the dynamics between the two where the real magic resides. Birds have an extra photoreceptor that allows them to see red incredibly well, whereas bees cannot. Flowers have taken advantage of this and use the color red to communicate, which is why nearly every red flower you see is bird-pollinated. So as the ruby-throated hummingbird flies over land on their journey, a wave of red flowers blooms to greet them.

And I think that that is just this little pretty package that really shows this beautiful dance of symbiosis that’s happening all around us, among plants and animals that have evolved together for thousands, if not millions, of years. And how, when we plant native plants, we get a front-row seat to the wonders of the natural world. And I think stories like that, that’s just one, that’s a tiny little story. We can all collectively discover those stories and learn how to tell them, and that really opens people’s eyes to what’s going on in their backyards. And then, of course, how important this work really is.

Margaret: Yes. So, where do I get that columbine [laughter]? So, as I said in the introduction, even those of us who want to re-landscape or rethink some of our place with a more native-centric focus, sometimes it’s not easy because… And especially if you shop at a big-box store and you go in and all they have, as you said in your talk that I watched, cultivars upon cultivars of Echinacea, of coneflowers, but not a whole lot else to flesh out the place that we’re imagining, this—again, habitat is my word. Sourcing can be a real obstacle, and I don’t know how you encourage people to get past that. I mean, I have my crazy methods that I sort of preach, but any suggestions?

Rebecca: Sure. I mean, I think that’s the Number 1 question right now, is how do we take all of these excited, ethical people and move them from these very introductory practices like buying Echinacea cultivars at box stores and doing No Mow May, and how do we help them along a trajectory that gets us all into genuinely ecologically beneficial work, where they might be thinking about replacing portions of their lawn, or using straight species, and native plants that are grown without harmful chemicals?

And I think it’s really about taking care of land more than anything, but it’s a really hard question, because plants are so limited. Finding those plants can be so limited, but there’s fantastic nurseries online. But I think the real question is information: How do we get people the information that they need? And thank goodness, there are so many great people and organizations doing this work like yourself, Margaret, of course.

Margaret: Oh, well…

Rebecca: Seriously, seriously, right? Taking people who are interested in gardening and helping them find the resources that they need to move even further into the practice. Same with people like Jennifer Jewell, and Thomas Christopher, and Joe Gardener [Joe Lamp’l]. They’re using their platforms to educate and inspire people.

I think a lot of us could maybe even take a more active role in mentorship, and community education, and gardening clubs, but just the easy things. I think there’s groups like Wild Ones that were out there, right? There’s chapters all over the country now, and those are people who are also actively doing this work. And not only can you get information, you can actually get plants, right? You don’t need to be buying plants all the time. You can be dividing, and sharing, and starting plants from seed with Wild Ones.

Margaret: Yeah, and I think Wild Ones, if you’re anywhere near a chapter, definitely to avail yourself.

One of my other methods, which is more virtual at first, is that you really find your local organization or your native plant society by going to NANPS.org, which is North American Native Plant Society.org. And they have a list of, in every Canadian province and every state in the country, what the native plant society is, or sometimes there’s more than one. And if you click on the one—if you’re in Illinois and you click on the Illinois one—and then you go to that website for Illinois, one of their navigation buttons on their website, is going to be resources, and it’ll be like seed exchanges among other members, or nurseries they recommend in Illinois, or it’ll tell about hyper-local resources.

So you’ve got to find like-minded people in your area, whether through something like Wild Ones or a native plant society in your area. So I think those are really, really helpful ways to get started.

And then to learn to grow from seed also. That’s really important. And even winter sowing of a lot of native meadow flowers and so forth, if you have seed. So that’s another way.

Rebecca: Absolutely. I think even in researching around, there’s a lot… Not every state but many states have master gardener programs with focuses on habitat gardening as well. So there are I think more mainstream horticulture institutions are starting to focus also on this work, which is the goal. It’s amazing.

Margaret: Yeah. Well, lots to think about, that’s for sure. But I was so glad that you got in touch because, again, I think it’s a conversation we need to keep having, even with some of the difficulties, the obstacles. Because we’re not going to solve them as individuals. We’re going to solve them, as you say, as a movement, so to speak, and find all those resources we need together. So I appreciate it, Rebecca. I appreciate you making time today to talk about this, and I hope I’ll talk to you again soon.

Rebecca: Absolutely.

(Photos courtesy of Rebecca McMackin except as noted.)

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MY WEEKLY public-radio show, rated a “top-5 garden podcast” by “The Guardian” newspaper in the UK, began its 14th year in March 2023. It’s produced at Robin Hood Radio, the smallest NPR station in the nation. Listen locally in the Hudson Valley (NY)-Berkshires (MA)-Litchfield Hills (CT) Mondays at 8:30 AM Eastern, rerun at 8:30 Saturdays. Or play the Feb. 19, 2024 show using the player near the top of this transcript. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or Spotify (and browse my archive of podcasts here).

“Last year I had a lot of work done by Farmside Landscape and Design in Sussex including retaining walls, paver walkways and driveway, re-grading everything and coordinating septic installation with Wantage Excavating. The owners, Miles and Lisa Kuperus were a pleasure to work with and they did an incredible job. I would recommend them wholeheartedly. If you want to see what they did, PM me and we can find a time.”

The growing and collecting of cacti has been a popular hobby in this country for many years. Their varied shapes and colors together with the colored spines make them fascinating and their spectacular flowers are an added interest for the grower. Some of the larger types may not flower in this country owing to the lack of intense sunshine, but many hundreds of other species should flower every year.

Flowering cacti

Some species flower the year after the seed has been sown, while very many more can produce flowers within two years. As the native habitats of these plants are arid regions it is essential that they be allowed all the sunshine possible to enable them to grow at their best. Most cacti come from Mexico and the southern States of the USA, and also from many countries in South America, including Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile and Brazil. A few are found in the West Indies but none in Africa, India or anywhere in the east.

Defining cacti All cacti are succulents but not all succulents are cacti. Spines are found on all true cacti and these spines grown from a small tuft of hair or wool. This is known as an areole and no other plant has it. No cacti have leaves except the genus Pereskia. This plant has areoles and leaves and also a multiple flower, unlike true cacti which have a simple or single flower. The flowers of cacti have no stem or stalk, the ovary being connected directly with the plant. Exceptions to this rule are the pereskias.

The flowers of most cacti are formed at the areole but a few genera produce flowers away from this point. Plants of the genus Mammillaria produce their flowers at the axil, the spot between the tubercles. This genus also makes new plants or offsets at the axil as well, whereas most cacti make offsets at an areole. The flowers of cacti vary considerably in size from 1cm (1/3in) in some mammillarias to 36cm (14in) across in some of the night-flowering types. The larger flowers may not be produced in profusion but some of the cacti with smaller flowers can have rings of flowers all round the top of the plants for months at a time. 3

Cacti are often described as desert plants but this is not quite true. Many are found in prairie type country where there may be a few small trees and shrubs with coarse grasses intermingled. Some are found in good loam while others are found growing on rocks and the mountain side. Some of the best flowering cacti, the epiphyllums, grow in the forests of Brazil, usually on trees. Such cacti are classed as epiphytes or epiphytic cacti.

As cacti vary so much in size from perhaps 2.5cm (1 in) to 10m (30ft) or more there are many species available to the grower to suit almost any situation or condition. Although the best place to grow a collection of cacti is in a sunny greenhouse, there are many kinds which can be grown quite well in a sunny window.

Although all cacti can go for long periods without water, it is essential that they are provided with an adequate supply during the growing period or they cannot flourish.

To grow cacti well and flower them it is imperative to provide them with a porous soil as the roots soon rot if they are wet for days on end. Many types of potting soils have been used and recommended, even different ones for each genus; it is possible, however, to grow practically all types of cacti in one kind of potting compost. The art of growing cacti is in the watering and the amount given can vary according to the type of compost. Plants can only obtain their nourishment in a liquid form and so if little water is given the plant cannot obtain too much food.

Potting composts

A very good potting compost for cacti may be made up from John Innes potting compost No. 1, to which is added a sixth part of coarse sand to make it more porous. Some additions of broken brick or granulated charcoal may be incorporated in the added sand. If it is desired to mix a compost for general use, the following will be found quite reliable.

Take 2 parts of loam, 1 part of peat and 1 part of sharp, coarse sand. Mix well and to each bushel add 21g (3/4oz) of ground chalk or limestone, 21g (3/4 oz) sulphate of potash, 42g (1 1/2 oz) of superphosphate and 42g (1 1/2 oz) of hoof and horn grist. All the globular and columnar types of cacti may be grown in this compost, while for the epiphytes some John Innes potting compost No. 2, may be used, as these plants will benefit from the richer soil. The very spiny types of cacti do not require heavy feeding with fertilizers and as long as they are repotted at least every two years they will grow quite well. If these plants are fed too liberally they will become lush, open in texture, and be very liable to rot off in the winter.

Also it will be found that the spines formed when the plant has been fed with fertilizers may not be as stout and well colored as if the plant had been grown harder. When making up the cactus compost it is very important to find a good loam as a basis for the mixture. An ideal type is the top spit from an old-standing meadow. Unfortunately these meadows are becoming few and far between and the loam is often only the under spit after the top turf has been removed. The peat is not so important but the sand must be very sharp and coarse. Silver sand is useless for cactus compost and the type known as washed grit, or river grit is the best.

The potting compost should not be used immediately after it has been mixed and a lapse of a fortnight at least is desirable before potting. The time to repot varies considerably, being determined by many factors. Some cacti are very slow growers and so may be left in their pots for two or three years while others may need a move twice a year. Many cacti never flower because they have been in the same stale, worn-out soil for many years. With fairly frequent watering during the growing period the roots of the plant use up the nourishment in the soil, and clearly there can be little food value left in it after about a year.

Repotting

The best time for repotting is during the growing period, which with most cacti will be between March and September. Once new growth is seen on a plant it can be repotted. When dealing with a fairly large collection it will be found better to make a start with the larger pots. These can then be cleaned for use with other plants which may need a bigger pot. It is also a good plan to make a clear place in the greenhouse and place all repotted plants there so that none may be missed.

The pots should be clean and well crocked. It is unnecessary to place a large number of crocks in the pot as they will only take up valuable space which would be better occupied by good soil. The best way to crock a pot for a cactus is to cut as large a piece of broken flower pot as will lie in the bottom of the pot. This large crock will then form a kind of platform when the plant is removed the next time. If a stick is pushed up through the drainage hole the crock will force the whole ball of soil up in the pot, whereas if a number of small pieces of crock are used it is possible to damage the roots when trying to remove the plant another time.

Place some of the coarsest particles of compost over the crock and then a little soil. Remove the plant from the old pot and hold it by the root system. Gently work all the old soil away from the roots. If any appear dead they should be cutaway. Now rest the plant in the pot and gradually work in some fresh compost. Because most of the plants are spiny it may not be possible to work the soil in with the hands as is possible with ordinary plants. A tablespoon can be used to insert the soil and it can be gently firmed in with an old table-knife handle. A wooden stick must not be used as it would catch in the spines and break them.

Once a spine is broken it will never grow again. See that the plant is in the same relative position in the soil as it was before. See also that at least 1cm (1/2 in) of space is left at the top of the pot for watering. The plant should look right in the new pot; do not use one too large so that the plant looks lost or yet one so small that there is no room for soil as well as the base and roots of the plant. For the globular kinds of cacti a pot which is 1cm (1/2 in) bigger all round than the plant will do for pots up to 9cm (3 1/2 in) in diameter, but for a larger plant a pot at least 2.5cm (1 in) larger all round must be provided. This will not be sufficient for many of the taller growing types as the pot must be large enough to form a firm base to stop the plant and pot from falling over.

Plastic pots may be used, especially for small plants; they do not appear to dry out as quickly as clay pots. Once the plant is potted it is important to insert the label, and a good plan is to put the date of repotting on the back. This is a useful guide in a large collection. As it is essential that the soil should be able to discharge all surplus water as soon as possible, the pots should not be stood on a flat surface. Some coarse gravel makes an ideal base on which to stand the pots. Any plants stood on shelves must have a saucer containing gravel under them to allow the free removal of surplus water.

Watering cacti

Watering the plants presents the most important part of cactus culture. More plants are lost through overwatering than from any other cause. As has been stated before, cacti will not grow without water but if they get too much they can soon die. Newly potted cacti should not need watering for about a week. The potting soil should have been crumbly moist at the time of moving the plant. If it is too wet or too dry it cannot be firmed in the correct manner. The whole secret of watering can be described in one sentence.

Never water a plant if the soil is still damp. It is not easy to tell when a cactus needs watering. Ordinary plants soon show by drooping leaves when water is required, but cacti cannot show their needs in this way. The condition of the top of the soil will indicate when water is needed. After a hot day the soil may appear dry, but this may only be the top inch. If pots are inspected in the mornings the soil should be of a uniform dampness throughout.

Rain water is better than tap water but if rain water is not available let some tap water stand in the open for a day or two before it is used. Water may be given from a can with a small spout so that it can be directed into any pot. Do not water by immersion except for the first watering after the winter. If plants are watered this way often, all the nourishing matter will soon be washed out of the pot. Cacti may be sprayed in the evening of a hot day. No water need be given from the end of September to early March. Then water when the soil has dried out, not before. The Christmas cactus, Zygocactus truncatus, may be watered during the winter as long as the temperature is not below 50°F (10°C). Other cacti may be left at 40°F (8°C), so that they get a winter’s rest.

Taking cuttings

Propagation is by cuttings, taking offsets or by seed raising. Cuttings taken from opuntias and epiphyllums are removed with a sharp knife and the cut part is allowed to dry in the sun. The cuttings are then rested on a mixture of equal parts of peat and sharp sand (not silver sand). Cactus potting compost may be used to fill three quarters of the pot, with the rooting medium on top. Place in a sunny position and spray occasionally. Too much water must not be given until roots have formed. Tall cuttings will have to be supported by a stick, as they must not be pushed into the medium.

Grafting

Grafting may be done to assist the growth of a small, slow-growing type. A tall type is used for the stock, such as Trichocereus spachianus. The top is cut from the stock where the growth is new and healthy. The scion is cut at the base so that it is about the size of the top of the stock. It is brought in contact with the freshly cut stock and kept in position with two small weights on a piece of string, pressing the scion down firmly. Keep in the shade for a week or two and a firm joint will form.

Raising cacti from seed Some cacti never make offsets and these have to be raised from seed. A small propagating frame can easily be made and heated with an electric cable or even an electric lamp Half-pots of about 10cm (4in) in diameter are very good for sowing small quantities of seed. They can even be divided with celluloid labels if more than one species is to be sown in the pot. Use John Innes seed compost and sieve a small quantity through a perforated zinc sieve.

Place the coarse material over the crock and then top up with ordinary compost, having an inch of the fine soil on top. Small seed must not be buried, but fairly large seeds can be just pushed into the soil. Water the first time by standing in containers of water so that the whole soil can be well moistened. Place in the frame with a piece of glass on top and then cover with dark paper.

The best time to sow is in early spring, in a temperature of 70°F (21°C); seeds will germinate at a lower temperature but will take longer to do so. Once seedlings have appeared, the paper must be removed and the glass should be raised slightly. The seedlings must be kept from the direct sun for the first year but they must have plenty of light or they will become drawn. Do not allow the seed pots to dry out while germination is taking place; watering may be done with a fine spray.

Prick out when the cotyledon or food-bag has been absorbed. Before this the root is so tiny that it can be broken very easily, in which case the seedling would die. The seedlings may be placed 2.5cm (1 in) apart in the cactus compost as described above. Do not pot up too soon into small pots as these dry out very quickly. Boxes made of concrete or plastic are better for the seedlings until they are ready to go into 5cm (2in) pots.

Summer treatment Cacti may be planted out in beds from June to September. If they are removed from their pots it may be quite impossible to put them back in the same sized pots in the late summer or autumn. They may be left in their pots, but the drainage hole must be freed from soil when they are removed. A few cacti may stand the winter out of doors but a very severe winter would probably kill them. If the grower wishes to experiment, he should make sure that any cacti left out during the winter are those which can be parted with, and not specimen plants.

All the spiny types of cacti can stand plenty of sunshine as long as there is plenty of air available in a greenhouse. The epiphytes benefit from shade during the hotter months of the year, and may be stood outside the greenhouse provided no frosts are forecast. Cacti kept in windows of the house must be where they can get the maximum amount of light and they will not flower well unless they can get a fair amount of sunshine.

Most cacti flower in spring, summer or autumn, and it will be found that many flower on new growth only. If the flowers are pollinated many colorful seed pods can be formed. On the mammillarias these pods can look very attractive.

Miniature cactus gardens

Cacti are very suitable for miniature gardens. The bowl need not have drainage holes provided it is not overwatered. Place some crocks in the bottom and only half fill with a porous soil. When the plants are in position the rest of the soil may be added and firmed. If the soil under a flat stone, pressed into the top of the soil, is damp do not water.

Pests

If cacti are grown well they suffer little disease but there are a few pests which may attack a sick plant. The most frequent one is mealy bug. This appears in a small tuft of wool or powder. Scale may also attack some cacti and looks like a small scab. Red spider may be a nuisance if the atmosphere is too dry. All these pests can be killed with malathion, used as directed on the bottle.

Choosing cacti Many species of cacti from the following genera grow well on a window ledge. chamaecereus, echinopsis, epiphyllum, gymnocalycium, lobivia, mammillaria, notocactus, opuntia, rebutia and zygocactus. A few of the smaller types of cereus can be grown and Cleistocactus strausii will also grow for many years before it gets too large. The dwarf types of opuntias, such as Opuntia microdasys, too will be suitable.

For planting in bowl gardens any of the small plants of the above genera will be a good choice but not the epiphyllums unless they are very small. If any of the plants grow too large for the bowl they can be removed and replaced by a smaller specimen. A suitable collection in a bowl can last for many years without it being necessary to change any plant.

There are several important stages in the cultivation of a plant and one of these is the planting of plants in pots. This is known as potting. The move is dictated by the vigor of the plant, especially in its root system. Once it outgrows its original soil area in a pot it is necessary to provide more room for the root development and the plant has to be moved on or potted into a larger pot. If the plant is being raised from seed or a cutting, it will be necessary to give it more root room eventually and the next move is into a small pot.

Although many plants will eventually be planted out into the ground, some will continue their growth and produce their foliage or flowering displays in pots. These must be large enough to provide adequate root room and feeding facilities. It will be appreciated, therefore, that the potting of plants is a progressive and logical sequence of events.

The time to pot plants must depend on what is being grown. Most of the general potting, however, takes place in the early part of each year—usually from February until late May.

Success with potting depends on the use of a suitable soil mixture. Fortunately one formula is all that is required as this contains all the essential ingredients in the correct proportions. This is the John Innes potting compost and it can be purchased, ready made up, from local garden shops.

Soilless composts are becoming increasingly popular with many gardeners. These are obtainable in various proprietary formulations.

Before potting begins it is important to make sure that all pots are thoroughly clean. Now that plastic pots have practically superseded clay ones, this is no problem. Drainage is important and clay pots will require small broken pieces of crock placed over the drainage holes, or special plastic mesh can be used for the plastic pots.

When the crocks are in place, a little coarse soil (the residue from the sieve is ideal) should be placed on top. A small amount of the prepared John Innes potting compost or other mixture follows this. To remove a pot plant for potting on into a pot of larger size, the pot and plant is turned upside down and the rim of the pot rapped smartly on the edge of the staging, bench or other suitable solid surface. If the fingers of one hand are kept over the soil and on either side of the plant’s stem, the loosened soil bulk can be guided out of the pot.

The plant should then be placed on top of the soil in the new pot and more soil should be carefully trickled or poured in around the inside of the pot. Gentle firming is needed and this is done with the fingers, pressing evenly all round but a little way away from the plant’s stem. A final sharp rap of the pot on the staging or bench will settle the soil even further, and any topping up with extra soil can be done afterwards. Make sure that the level of the soil is a little below the rim of the pot to allow for watering.

Where plants are being potted into pot sizes of 15cm (6in) and over, much firmer potting is required. This can be achieved with a short piece of blunt-ended stick. It is used as a rammer (not too hard) to compress the soil between the inside edge of the pot and the plant’s soil ball.

Make sure that the potting soil is just moist. Under no circumstances should the mixture be dry when potting is started. It is a good plan to soak the soil several hours before it is required, and then to allow surplus moisture to drain away. If the potting compost is neither too wet nor too dry, a handful when picked up and squeezed firmly in the hand should retain its shape, but should then crumble when thrown back on the heap of prepared soil.

Once the plants have been potted, they should be given shady conditions to prevent drooping or flagging. Blinds or a little shading spray on the glass will help. Keep the plants watered regularly but apply sufficient only to keep the soil moist. As soon as the plants have established themselves and overcome the slight check to growth which is inevitable with potting, they can be placed in full light.

 

For at least 12,000 years, humans have been clearing brush, digging dirt, planting plants, cultivating, weeding, growing, and harvesting—in a word, gardening! And for almost as long, these same humans have crafted tools to help them carry out each specific gardening function. We have developed tools to help break up and dig soil; gadgets to cut stems, branches, and roots; and devices to remove unwanted plants. The best tools increase efficiency and proficiency, and they are constantly improved upon, evolving alongside gardening and the gardener, and making every gardening task easier to accomplish.

Whether you’re a newbie just embarking on your gardening journey or an experienced horticulturist, you know that having the right gardening tools at your disposal makes tending to your garden and plants a far more rewarding experience. There are thousands of handy items in every garden center or hardware store, all designed to be useful somewhere in the landscape. But with innovations, upgrades, and refinements arriving every year, it’s difficult to know where to start when searching for new or replacement gardening tools.

I live in a fabulous climate where year-round gardening is possible. I’m also fortunate to have been a gardener for almost 40 years. And for this very reason, while recently shopping for replacements for various worn-out, broken, and lost garden tools, I found myself most attracted to those made with ergonomics in mind. The following may not all be brand-new to the market, but they’re recent discoveries for me that I wish I’d come across years ago.

Radius Pro Round Point Shovel

Because it has been a while since I last purchased a round-point shovel, I had never come across an O-handled version. I’m amazed at how much more gripping power there is, how easy it is to push the stainless-steel blade into the soil (and it’s super easy to pull out again), and how the grippy ergonomic handle puts so much less stress on my wrists than previous (admittedly clunky and old) shovels. This well-made tool is the perfect size and weight for my needs, and it comes in a range of happy colors.

Radius Pro Round Point Shovel

Price: $68.74 at the time of writing

#15 Felco Pruners

Although on the pricier side, these pruners are well worth it and so beautifully made! The rotating ergonomic grip moves smoothly as you squeeze, minimizing strain, yet the cutting power is as good if not better than every other pair of Felco pruners I’ve ever possessed. Said to be well-suited for those with smaller hands, these work perfectly with my own not-so-small ones. The signature red handle is so cushiony and comfortable, it makes tidying up my 65-plus roses almost effortless. The product description claims you should only cut branches less than an inch, but I can attest that these pruners easily handle 1-inch-diameter limbs.

#15 Felco Pruners

Price: $85.75 at the time of writing

Fiskars Ergo Weeder

I garden a lot and have abundant weeds consistently threatening to overtake my perennial and vegetable beds—and I love this slim little weeder. It is solid, sturdy, comfortable to use, beautifully balanced for easily levering-out tricky taproots (e.g., dandelions). The slender design is perfect for squeezing into the gaps between my intentionally planted vegetables, annuals, and perennials. It also makes a wonderful mini-dibbler, as it has the perfect girth for planting out onion or leek seedlings.

Fiskars Ergo Weeder

Price: $9.99 at the time of writing

Pulaski Landscaping Axe

The gnarliest landscaping jobs are made much easier when you have this sturdy, stainless-steel landscaping axe/mattock combo at your disposal. At 4 pounds, it’s relatively lightweight, yet it is well balanced and heavy enough to reduce muscle strain. Use it to break up hard clay (with the mattock blade) or to chop through roots (using the axe blade). A cushion grip and a 36-inch fiberglass handle give it extra gripping and swinging power. Pulaski axes are famously known for their firefighting attributes, so yes, you can do that too.

Pulaski Landscaping Axe

Price: $64.99 at the time of writing

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For more on great gardening tools, go here.

For more on Pacific Northwest gardening, go here.

—Fionuala Campion is the owner and manager of Cottage Gardens of Petaluma in Petaluma, California.

Photos: Fionuala Campion

 

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Mostly evergreen shrubs, chiefly from tropical America, belonging to the Pea family, Leguminosae. They grow from 6-50 ft. in height, have pinnate, dark green, glossy leaves, and bear golden-yellow flowers in terminal clusters in summer. Cassia is from the original Greek name Kasia.

Most Cassias are hardy outdoors in the far South only. There they grow freely in light, well-drained soil in full sun. Some kinds, especially Cassia corymbose, a South American kind, are suitable for growing in cool, sunny greenhouses. Others useful for this purpose are Cassia glauca, a native of tropical Asia and Cassia splendida from Brazil.

Greenhouse Treatment

Under greenhouse cultivation, a minimum winter temperature of 50 degrees is required. The best compost consists of equal parts of peat and loam with sand added. In February, the lateral or side shoots on the main branches are cut back to within three buds of the base of the past summer’s growth, and the leading shoots—those at the ends of the main branches—are shortened by half. They are syringed frequently until the shoots break into growth, and are then repotted in larger pots. When established, cooler conditions are maintained and they are exposed to full sunlight to ripen the growth for flower production in summer.

When to Take Cuttings

Propagation is by shoots inserted in pots of sandy peat in March. They are placed in a propagating case in a heated greenhouse and when rooted are potted in 3-in. pots, being transferred later on to 5-in. pots in which they produce flowers the following summer. To ensure bushy, well-branched plants the main shoots are pruned back to three or four buds and the side shoots are treated similarly. The plants need abundance of water during the summer when growth is vigorous, but little from October to March when the plants are resting, although the soil must not be allowed to remain dry for any length of time.

A Hardy Kind

Cassia marilandica is a hardy plant of eastern North America. It grows about 3 ft. high and has semi-woody shoots that die back to their bases in autumn. It has pinnate leaves and bears terminal bunches of yellow flowers in late summer. The plants should, in cold localities, be set in light, well-drained soil in April; the roots should be protected with a layer of leaves or similar covering in winter. Propagation is by division of the plant in spring as soon as growth commences. Seeds of Cassia may be sown in March in pots of light soil in a greenhouse, temperature 55-65 degrees.

Economic Uses

The senna of commerce is perhaps the most important product of the Cassias. It is a drug with laxative and cathartic properties, obtained from the leaves and pods of several kinds. Thus Alexandrian Senna is the product of Cassia acutifolia, a shrub found wild in Nubia and the Sudan; Arabian or Tinnevelly Senna is obtained from Cassia angustifolia, a plant common in Arabia, southern India and other countries; and American Senna leaves are produced by Cassia marilandica, a United States shrub. Pods and leaves are packed separately in bales and large quantities enter our drug markets.

Oxypetalum caeruleum is a South American member of the Milkweed Family which deserves to be better known. A reference to it in an English gardening magazine aroused my interest, and in the summer I sowed a packet of seeds in a flat. They germinated well, and in the autumn the little plants were potted up, and placed in the greenhouse for the winter. By April they were ten inches high and had begun to bloom. Set outdoors in May, in full sun, and in a. fairly rich sandy loam they flowered without a day’s interruption until the end of October when they were again potted and taken indoors. They have retained all their foliage, and now (arid-January) show signs of blooming again. I think it is probable that if encouraged to do so, they would flower eight or nine months out of the twelve.

The ultimate height of Oxypetalum – my garden, at least-is from a foot and a half to two feet. Although described as of trailing or twining habit, my plants have grown upright, with neat stiff stems that need no support. When broken, they exude the milky juice characteristic of the family, and the long pointed seed pods, filled with silken down, are also typical. The foliage is soft grayish-green and of velvety texture. The flowers are star-shaped, an inch or more across, growing in flat clusters over the top of the plant. They last for several days, even under the hottest sun, and are the only flowers I have ever seen which can be truthfully and accurately described as of the purest turquoise blue. This exquisite color is retained until just before the blossoms fade when they change to a pretty mauve.

Last summer the part of the border where my Oxypetalums were planted gave me particular pleasure, and since its charm was largely accidental arid owed little to any cleverness on my part, I may praise it without undue conceit. The edging was of Convolvulus mauritanicus and the low-growing Verbena bipinnatiflda: then came the Oxypetalum plants, with a generous mass of Aster frikarti nearby. In the rear, self-sown seedlings of Salvia France came up so fast that they were blooming by mid-June, and next to them was a large group of the decorative Verbena bonariensis, its tall slender wands crowned with helio-trope-like flowers. The silvery blue of the low-growing Verbena, Convolvulus, Aster, and Salvia, the turquoise of the Petaluma, and the soft reddish-purple of the tall Verbena made a delightfully cool and harmonious combination of color, which lasted in beauty from June until frost.

Oxypetalum caeruleum is not reliably hardy even in the British Isles but should be a good perennial for Southern gardens. Its exquisite color and neat growth, and its freedom of bloom over so long a season certainly make it highly desirable for the summer garden in northern latitudes, and it has been recommended also as a good winter pot-plant for the window or cool greenhouse.

by Antoinette Dwight
caliban.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/mavica/index.html part of www.biolib.de

The almost constant enemies of seaside gardening are wind, salt and sand. Frost, however, is neither so prolonged nor so severe on the coast as it is inland, and seaside gardeners have been able to grow many frost-tender plants in the milder climate of their coastal gardens.

Inland gardeners have little idea how powerful is the effect of coastal wind on the growth of plants, and because none or few trees or buildings present a barrier to soften its effect during windy conditions the wind sweeps continuously in from the sea. Wind stunts and it deforms—one has only to observe the fantastic shapes of trees close to the sea to realise this.

Salt can kill outright. It is carried in the spray, and when the wind catches it, it is often deposited many hundreds of yards inland. Few plants are able to withstand the continual battering of sea wind heavily charged with salt, which is heavily scorching to plants.

Sand-blast is often too lightly regarded by newcomers to the coast, though its effect can be quite as damaging as salt’s. Seashore gardens suffer badly from its searing effect when the wind picks up the sand from a nearby beach. Small seedlings are killed and adult foliage is bruised and blackened.

The only answer to the problem of wind, salt and sand is shelter, and it is not possible to create a worthwhile garden in extremely exposed positions on the coast without it, though where a garden has protection a very wide range of plants will thrive which would not succeed in frosty gardens inland. Many plants will grow only when given adequate shelter at the outset, and the planting of newly-made gardens exposed to the full ravages of gales off the sea is rarely successful without the aid of some artificial wind-screen.

Planting of shelter belts of trees on a large scale benefits from an open fence of a two-bar wooden structure interwoven with foliage of gorse or spruce. For small gardens there is nothing better than a fence of wooden laths, 2.5cm (1in) wide with spaces of similar size, set vertically on a stout wooden framework and posts at either end for driving into the ground. Avoid a solid barricade such as a wall, which causes wind-turbulence on the lee side, since the aim is always to filter the wind rather than obstruct it.

Plants which tolerate salt and wind are nowadays very largely selected from those grown in Australia and New Zealand. As a result of long coastlines and varied climatic conditions more successful seaside shrubs have evolved in Australia and New Zealand than in any other part of the world. Shrubs that successfully resist salt-spray are planted facing the sea. These are often equipped with toughened leaves such as are found in the genus Olearia. 0. haastii and 0. albida stand any amount of salty wind. Others have shiny leaf surfaces. Euonymus japonicus and Griselinia littoralis look bright and glossy within a few yards of the sea. Or the leaves of some may be coated with a gummy secretion as in Escallonia macrantha, enabling them to endure a coating of salt. Yet another form of protection is afforded by a multitude of tiny hairs which cover the leaf surfaces of grey-leaved and silver-leaved shrubs. It is a curious fact that most of these are well adapted to withstand the first brunt of a salty blast. Sea buckthorn, Atriplex halimus, Senecio laxifolius and S. monroi are among the best we have for prominent positions in exposed coastal districts. If sand-blast is a menace, tamarisk will grow with its roots in pure sand and is also useful for adding height to rough banks and walls.

Shrubs for milder maritime areas

Abelia grandiflora

Abutilon megapotamicum

A. vitifolium

Artemisia canescens

Artemisia stelleriana Azara dentata

Artemisia microphylla

Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea superba

Buddleia auriculata

Buddleia globosa ‘Lemon Ball’

Buddleia nivea

Calceolaria integrifolia

Callistemon citrinus

Cassia corymbosa

Cassinia fulvida

Cassinia ledifolius

Cassinia leptophylla

Ceanothus ‘Autumn Blue

Ceanothus impressus

Ceanothus ‘Indigo’

Ceanothus rigidus

Ceanothus veitchianus

Centaurea gymnocarpa Choisya ternata

Cistus crispus ‘Sunset

Cistus ‘Paladin Pat’

Cistus palhinhaii

Cistus purpureus

Cistus skanbergii

Clianthus puniceus

Colquhounia vestita
Convolvulus cneorum

Corokia virgata

Crinodendron hookerianum

Daphne mezereum

Daphne odora

Desfontainea spinosa

Echium fastuosum

Elaeagnus macrophylla

Embothrium coccineum

Erica australis

Erica alpina

Erica lusitanicus

Escallonia hybrids

Eucalyptus globulus

Eucalyptus gunnii

Eucalyptus niphophylla

Eucalyptus pauciflora

Eupatorium micranthum

Fabiana imbricata

Fatsia japonica

Fremontia californica

Fuchsias (large-flowered)

Halimium alyssoides

Halimiumocymoides

Hoheria glabrata

Hoheria sexstylosa

Hebes (in variety to include H. hulkeana)

Helichrysum petiolatum

Helichrysum plicatum

Hypericum moserianum tricolor

Hypericum `Rowallane’

Jasminum polyanthum

Jasminum primulinum

Jovellana violacea

Lavandula stoechas

Lavatera assurgensifolia

Leonotis leonurus

Leptospermum scoparium nichollsii

Leptospermum’Red Damask’

Lippia citriodora

Muehlenbeckia complexa

Myrtus communis

Myrtus luma

Myrtus ugni

Olearia insignis

Olearia x scilloniensis

Olearia semidentata

Olearia solandri

Paulownia tomentosa

Phlomis fruticosa

Phlomis italica

Phormium tenax

Piptanthus laburnifolius

Pittosporum eugenioides

Pittosporum ralphii P. tobira

Polygala myrtifolia

Rosmarinus angustifolius

Rosmarinus ‘Corsican Blue’

Rosmarinus lavendulaceus

Rosmarinus ‘Majorca Pink

Rosmarinus ‘Severn Sea

Rosmarinus ‘Tuscan Blue

Salvia grahamiiinvolucrata bethellii

Sambucus nigra foliis aureus

Senecio cineraria

Senecio cineraria ‘White Diamond

Senecio glastifolius

Senecio huntii

Senecio heritieri

Senecio leucostachys

Senecio rotundifolius

Solanum crispum

Solanum jasminoides

Teucrium fruticans azureum

Yucca gloriosa

Shrubs for colder maritime areas

Amelanchier canadensis

Arbutus unedo

Atriplex canescens

Atriplex halimus

Aucuba japonica

Baccharis patagonica

Berberis aquifolium

Berberis darwinii

Berberis stenophylla

Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea

Easily Grown Flowers for Gardens and Greenhouses

Marigolds (Tagetes ) are annuals of great decorative value during the summer and autumn months. They are natives of Mexico and South America and belong to the Daisy family, Compositae. The name is said to have been derived from a mythological deity, Tages. These Marigolds are quite distinct from the Pot Marigold or Calendula.

The two chief types of Tagetes are the African Marigold, Tagetes erecta, and the French Marigold, Tagetes patula. The former reaches a height of 2-4 ft. and bears large, single or double flowers of orange or yellow coloring; the latter grows from 9 in. to 2 ft. high and the flowers are yellow, or yellow marked with reddish-brown. In recent years hybrids between the African and French varieties have been developed. In addition, two other species of Tagetes are grown in gardens, Tagetes lucida, the Sweet-scented Marigold, and Tagetes tenuifolia (signata).

The African Marigolds are represented by numerous handsome double varieties which bear large, rounded flowers in orange and various shades of yellow, on strong stems. They are extremely useful in garden beds and borders during the summer months. Much effort has been spent in attempting to develop a white-flowered variety and while not yet successful some modern varieties have pale creamy yellow flowers.

In the height of plants and form of flowers, there is considerable variation, and groups of varieties are designated in seedsmen’s catalogs as Carnation Flowered and Chrysanthemum Flowered. There are many other varieties with flowers in many distinct shapes and forms, and some even with odorless foliage. If the plants are well grown they will last in bloom until cut down by frost, and provide brilliant masses of color in the garden in autumn. They are useful as cut flowers.

When to Sow Seeds

The African Marigolds may be raised from seeds sown about 6 weeks before the plants are to be planted outdoors, in a greenhouse in which a temperature of 50-55 degrees is maintained. The seeds are sown in pots or flats filled with sifted sandy soil; they are lightly covered with similar soil and the containers are covered with glass and shaded from sunshine. If kept moist, the seeds will germinate in a few days.

When the seedlings are 1-2 in. high, they should be transplanted to flats 3-4 in. deep, filled with a sandy, loamy compost; they are placed 3 in. apart. They should remain in the flats until it is time to plant them out of doors after danger of frost has passed and the weather is warm and settled. For two or three weeks after transplanting to flats the seedlings should be kept in the greenhouse to assist them to become established quickly. Subsequently, they are grown in a cold frame, and as the time for planting draws near, they are hardened off by ventilating the frame more freely, and finally are fully exposed to the air.

It is also quite practicable to grow African Marigolds by sowing the seeds in the locations where the plants are to remain, but the plants obtained by this method will not bloom quite so early as those raised under glass. The seeds are scattered thinly in a well-prepared seedbed outdoors as soon as danger from frost has passed, and the seedlings are thinned out until they are not less than 10 in. apart.

African marigolds must be chosen in a location fully exposed to the sunshine; they are not successful in shady places. It is a mistake to set them in very rich soil, or they will produce rank, luxuriant growth at the expense of flower production. They should be planted 12-15 in. apart.

The French Marigolds

The varieties of these vary in height from 6-24 inches. The taller ones are useful for grouping towards the front of flower borders and producing cut flowers; the very dwarf ones are commonly used for edging flower beds. There are both double-flowered and single-flowered varieties.

Among the dwarfer varieties Naughty Marietta is popular. It has rich golden-yellow flowers attractively marked with brownish-red. The single flowers of Red Head have a crested center of yellow and maroon and surrounding petals of mahogany, bronze and gold. Sunny has single, bright yellow flowers marked with cerise at the bases of the petals. Ruffled Red has mahogany-red flowers edged with yellow. All these are single-flowered varieties. Of the dwarf double French Marigolds, some of the best are Spry, maroon with bright golden centers; Tangerine, bright tangerine-orange; Lemon Drop, clear lemon-yellow; and Yellow Pygmy, with tiny, light yellow chrysanthemum-like flowers. There are single forms of the tall French Marigolds, but these are not so popular as the dwarf varieties.

French Marigolds require the same general cultural care as that detailed for African Marigolds. They may be started in a greenhouse or raised from seeds sown directly outdoors. If sown directly outdoors the seedlings germinate quickly, provided they are kept moist. They must be thinned out in good time to allow them to develop sturdily.

It is a mistake to grow these plants in too rich a soil, for they will make vigorous growth but will not bloom very freely. Neither is it wise to plant them anywhere except in full sunshine, for in shade or partial shade they become very leafy, and their blossoming is disappointing.

African-French Hybrid Marigolds

A race of hybrids between the African and French Marigolds, raised in America in recent years, are named Burpee’s Red and Gold Hybrids. As yet the strain is not fixed and the plants vary in the color of the flowers they produce. Some are solid red, some solid yellow, others various combinations of red and golden-yellow. Flower colors vary on the same plants at different periods during the season. The flowers are double, 2-3 in. in diameter; the plants are bushy and grow about 18 in. tall.

These African-French Hybrid Marigolds require the same culture as their parent types. They bloom throughout the summer and fall and are good cut flowers. Because the strain is not fixed a few true African Marigolds usually appear among the seedlings. Even while they are very small it is easy to segregate these from the hybrids because the African type has green stems whereas those of the hybrids are red. The African Marigolds normally grow taller than the hybrids and should be planted separately.

Other Kinds of Tagetes

A Tagetes of very distinct appearance and of great charm and usefulness is T. tenuifolia (signata) pumila. In recent years this has been listed under the name of Dwarf Signet Marigold. It is a native of Mexico and forms a broad, bushy plant 1 ft. or less tall. It has finely divided foliage and bears a multitude of single, golden-orange flowers about 1 in. in diameter, each with but few ray florets.

Tagetes tenuifolia variety pumila requires the same cultural care as the dwarf French Marigolds and, like them, is a splendid subject for planting in groups at the fronts of borders, for bedding and for setting out as edgings to flower beds.

The Sweet-scented Marigold, Tagetes lucida, is an attractive species from Mexico that does not appear to be very much cultivated. It grows about 1 ft. tall, has fragrant foliage and carries its golden or orange-yellow flowers in dense terminal clusters. It requires the same cultural care as the other kinds.

In Greenhouses

All kinds of Tagetes are useful plants for growing in greenhouses for winter and spring display. They are elegant pot plants and are also useful as cut flowers. Some seedmen offer special winter-flowering varieties that bloom freely even when days are short and light is less intense than in the summer.

One of the best of these is called Lieb’s Winter Flowering.

For winter bloom, the seeds should be sown in August or September; for spring bloom, sow them in January. The seedlings should be transplanted to flats, or individually to small pots, and later potted in larger receptacles as needed. Pots measuring 5-7 in. in diameter are satisfactory sizes in which to let the plants flower. Good results may be had by growing either one or three plants in each pot.

The soil for Tagetes grown in greenhouses should not be overrich but well-drained. When the plants have filled their final pots with roots, weekly applications of dilute liquid fertilizer will be very beneficial.

At all times these plants must be exposed to full sun and should be provided with airy, rather cool conditions. A night temperature of 50 degrees is ample; on dull days the temperature may rise about 5 degrees and on sunny days 10 or even 15 degrees.

By supplementing daylight with artificial light (either of the fluorescent or incandescent kind) earlier and more flowers can be obtained from Tagetes grown in greenhouses in winter.

I grew up in the north, where my mother’s garden teemed with the intoxicating aromas of lilacs, sweet peas, and lily of the valley. When I moved to Oklahoma, I left these fragrant favorites behind and began the search for new plants to delight the senses. After trying southern classics like gardenia (Gardenia spp. and cvs., Zones 8–11) and summersweet (Clethera spp. and cvs., Zones 3–9) which don’t much care for the Oklahoma heat, I landed on several plants that fair well across many climates.

Nemesia is an unexpected choice for some winter perfume

(Nemesia spp. and cvs., annual)

Though pansies are the go-to annuals for winter color, their scent is delicate and elusive. A more fragrant option for cool-season blooms is nemesia, a lesser-known winter annual native to South Africa. In northern gardens, nemesia is grown as a spring- and summer-flowering annual, but in the Desert Southwest, they make their debut in winter gardens and containers. The flowers of nemesia come in a wide range of colors. Plants tend to stay on the smaller side in hot climates, growing 12 inches tall and wide. They will suffer when the heat of summer sets in and are best treated as winter annuals only, though they are technically a tender perennial and hardy in Zones 9–11. Plant in full sun and moist, well-draining soil.

Korean spice viburnum exudes a sweet, heady aroma in spring

(Viburnum carlesii, Zones 4–8)

When I design garden beds, I like to incorporate plants that bloom throughout the year. The same is true when planning for fragrance, especially in the areas of the garden where I spend the most time relaxing. In my spring garden, few plants compete with the enticing aroma of Korean spice viburnum. The heady flowers emerge in April in my Zone 7 garden, opening pale pink and fading to white. Autumn brings black berries and burgundy foliage to this captivating shrub. Plants mature to 4 to six 6 tall and wide. Grow in average, well-drained soil in full sun to partial shade. This shrub benefits from afternoon shade in hot gardens.

Tuberose puts out an intense scent in early summer

(Polianthes tuberosa and cvs., Zones 7–10)

Living in a hot climate opened the door for me to try plants that could not survive northern winters. Tuberose is one such plant. This tropical bloomer can be finicky to grow, but the blooms’ intense fragrance makes it well worth the effort. My biggest challenge with growing tuberose is my clay soil—these plants prefer a loose, organically rich, well-drained soil. As such, I’ve found container life to be preferable. Tuberoses thrive in full sun, even in warm climates, but require consistent moisture. Give plants a deep drink one to two times per week for optimal bloom. Come midsummer, plants send up spikes of funnel-shaped flowers above the grasslike leaf blades. Blooms reach a height of 30 inches atop clumps of foliage growing 18 to 24 inches high and wide. In colder regions, the tubers can be dug and stored indoors over the winter.

Chocolate flower provides hints of Hershey bars to the midsummer air

(Berlandiera lyrata, Zones 4–10)

In summer, the unusual aroma of native chocolate flower is quite a delight. Growing in dry, rocky plains, grasslands, and roadsides from southwestern Kansas to Arizona and south to central Mexico, this aster develops a long taproot that gives plants excellent drought tolerance. The flowers smell like chocolate—hence the common name—and are most fragrant on warm days in the morning. Provide full sun and dry to medium well-draining soils. Plants grow 2 feet tall and wide and bloom from spring through frost (year-round in frost-free areas).

Abelia gives off a traditional floral fragrance in fall

(Abelia spp. and cvs., Zones 5–9)

Autumn brings with it a surge of abelia blossoms with their jasmine-like aroma and rich nectaries that attract scores of pollinators. The flowers of these shrubs can be white to pink and even yellow, depending on the cultivar. Blossoms cover the plants from spring to early summer with a repeat bloom in September, when they put on an especially brilliant show. The shrubs mature to 3 to 6 feet tall and wide, with many compact varieties available. Abelia is easy to grow in full sun to partial shade, flowering best with more exposure. It also thrives in any well-draining soil. Established plants are drought tolerant. Abelia is excellent for massing on slopes for erosion control or planting as a natural hedge.

Flowers produce a range of fragrances to attract pollinators like bees and hummingbirds. When you plant these and other sweet or spicy scented blooms in the garden, you will likely attract a variety of pollinators that add to the garden’s delights.

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—Kim Toscano is a horticulturalist, entomologist, garden designer, writer, and graphic designer. She previously hosted Oklahoma Gardening, a weekly PBS television program produced by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service.

For more on fragrant plants go here.

Find more information on Southwest gardening here.

 

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I wrote the following eight years ago and found it again yesterday. It still holds up!

Have you ever read through a gardening book and decided to do what it said… only to have everything fall apart?

Your raised beds are too dry, your carefully transplanted tomatoes are devoured by insects and your cucumbers are freakish little yellow things with bumpy green nipples.

That’s the way it goes in the real world, isn’t it? I’m almost convinced that the pictures in gardening books are completely created pixel by pixel by crack teams of graphic designers, just to mess with us.

If you press on despite your failures, however, and keep gardening from year to year, learning as you go – things will change. I’ve shared my thoughts here before on the value of experimentation… but today I’m doing it again!

I started gardening when I was six and killed most of what I planted. By the time I was a teenager, I knew pretty well what I could grow and what I couldn’t. By the time I was in my thirties, I was an expert and felt the time had come to start writing gardening books and sharing what I had learned.

Hardly a year has passed in my life where I didn’t have at least one garden. Even in college I was teased by my friends for bringing home-grown icicle radishes to class.

Yet though I’m a “good” gardener now, I still have failures in every year’s garden. Not only do I expect them – I actively encourage those failures!

No, I’m not pouring rock salt into my beds or trying to grow alpine species in a tropical climate (yet), but I do plant new things all the time just to see what happens. I also plant reliable crops in new ways to see if it will help or hinder their growth.

One year I buried slaughter wastes and raw manure into pits and planted squashes on top of them. (Success: the vines grew like crazy and needed no additional fertilizing.) Another year I tried grafting fig scions onto my mulberry tree. (Fail: though the species are related, they wouldn’t take.) At another point, I decided to mix raw manure, compost and weeds together in a barrel of water to rot for a few months, and then use that anaerobic “tea” to water my greenhouse plants. (Success: nothing was burned and their growth was rich and green.)

These experiments lead to other experiments and sometimes some amazing successes. I’ve managed to grow Key limes, coffee and black pepper vines outdoors in North Florida on the south-facing wall of my house. I’ve also successfully grafted peaches, Japanese plums and nectarines onto wild Florida Chickasaw plums and gotten great fruit.

On the other hand, I killed a few almond and sweet cherry trees I was trying to grow in the Ocala area. I burned my kale badly by side-dressing with hot chicken manure. And my attempt to grow dent corn in the front lawn without fertilizer? Nope!

The best way to become a better gardener is to… garden! Garden with exuberance, not fear. Know that God designed nature as a complex machine and we can only steer it a little bit. The sun, the rain (or lack thereof), the insects, the weeds – many of these are outside our control.

Yet if we learn a little more each year, we’ll get better and our “luck” will improve. Some plants just aren’t suited to Florida and take a lot of work (hello, beefsteaks!). Others grow like weeds, such as the amazing “yard-long bean” from Southeast Asia.

If you try planting pumpkins one year and they don’t work out, don’t give up. There’s always a new variety or species you can try. You might have planted them too early or too late. The soil may have been too sandy or filled with nematodes. That year may have been a bad one for bugs.

What I do is plant a bunch of different things and then see what does well. If a plant fails the first year, I don’t necessarily give up on it. I might try again. If it fails the next year as well, I’m putting it aside for a while. If a plant does great the first year, I’ll definitely plant it again. And I also look for relatives that might do well. If you’re having good luck with kohlrabi, why not try some cabbages too? If you get great cherry tomatoes, plant some peppers the same way!

Experiment. Watch. Learn. Try again.

You CAN have a green thumb. It might take killing a lot of plants first, but you’ll get there. Eventually you’ll be harvesting plenty for the table… and people will be asking you what to grow.

Don’t give up. If you need encouragement, stop by my website or look up “David The Good” to see my entertaining gardening videos on YouTube. I share my successes and my failures almost every day. If I can go from killing almost everything to being a garden author, you can certainly beat the odds and feed your family good produce from a backyard plot.

Spring is on the way – get that garden growing.