Living in a city, your gardening options can be limited. So our interest was piqued when a friend shared a video from Plant Traps. In it, a woman hooks a minimalist wire contraption onto a metal railing to create a support for a potted plant. The mechanism was delightfully simple, removable—and it absolutely transformed the space with greenery.
We reached out to Plant Traps founder Deborah Holtschlag to inquire about her ingenious device, and it turned out that we were among several million people who’d recently found her RailScapes Plant Clip. Since debuting her invention last March, Holtschlag has been hustling to create Instagram Stories and TikTok videos to promote it, but it wasn’t until two days after Christmas that one went viral. “The Reel on Instagram that got 100 million views was a blessing, but we also blew through our reserves,” Holtschlag says. (Don’t worry, they’re finally caught up on inventory.)
Above: Each RailScapes Plant Clip can hold up to 15 pounds (25 pounds if at the foot of the railing).
We’re not shocked that Holtschlag found gardeners hungry for her plant support. Often the products sold to hang plants from railings are ugly, require drilling, or only work on certain types of fences. Her version uses tension to sit between railings (rather than draping over the top), and it can be adjusted to fit at a variety of railing widths. Renters can take it with them when they move—and at $20 a piece, it is relatively affordable.
Above: The contraption uses tension to stay in place.
What did come as a surprise was that Holtschlag herself is not a gardener herself. It turns out she invented the product for her gardener husband, whose plants were taking up what she considered to be too much of their precious space patio.
Above: Each RailScapes Plant Clip is $20.
Since launching the RailScapes Plant Clip, Holtschlag says she has been thrilled to see her customers use them in many ways, including on gates, spiral staircases, wood fences with wide-spaced pickets, and, as seen in her second most popular Reel, on an indoor stair railing.
Personally, this writer is looking at the bare wrought iron fence outside her window in a whole new light.
This is Barb Mrgich, Master Gardener from Adams County, Pennsylvania. I have sent in several entries in the past. (Butterflies in Barb’s Garden and Barb’s Favorite Photos ) I love lots of color in my gardens. In January, Joseph did an entry on yellow in the garden, and it inspired me to submit these photos. I really like his description that yellow flowers are “floral sunshine.” A little floral sunshine is never more appreciated than in the very early spring when things are looking rather dull and dreary! Although I like to consider myself a wildlife and native-plant gardener, I still rely on select nonnatives for beauty and color in the early season since I have found that most of my native plants shine better in midsummer and fall. All of these pictures were taken in mid-April in my Zone 6B garden.
If you are interested in adding some bright early accents to your landscape, here are some of my favorites.
This shrub is golden euonymus (Euonymus japonicus ‘Aureo-marginatus’, Zones 6–9). It likes some shade and is quite drought tolerant. A fast grower, it will reach 5 feet tall if you don’t prune it. Some people sheer this plant into a meatball. I simply take my clippers and cut back some of the taller branches. Golden euonymus will hold its leaves and look like this all summer, fall, and winter. It makes nice additions to indoor and outdoor flower arrangements—even in the winter!
A lovely brightHosta(Zones 3–9) has leaves edged with green. I have no idea of the exact cultivar, but there are many to choose from. This one is just getting started. It will get much larger and stay bright in its slightly shaded spot all summer.
These small shrubs areDeutzia‘Chardonnay Pearls’ (Zones 5–8). They do well in partial or full sun. (If in too much shade, they will lose their color.) I have them in front of two dark, red-leaved ninebark ‘Summer Wine’ (Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Summer Wine’, Zones 2–8), and I love the combination. ‘Chardonnay Pearls’ blooms in spring. It should be sheered just after it blooms.
Angelina sedum (Sedum rupestre ‘Angelina’, Zones 5–8) is a bright ground cover that will fill in an area very quickly. It is not at all fussy about anything. It welcomes sun or shade. In the shade it is more green, but still attractive. Drought doesn’t bother it one bit. It is evergreen. It will darken a little in the winter but will still be very much in evidence.
Weigela‘Eye Catcher’ (Zones 5–9) is definitely eye-catching. This one is also just now leafing out. I love its variegated foliage. I like seeing the stand of white daffodils peeking through it.
This is what Weigela ‘Eye Catcher’ looks like a little later, when the leaves are fully out and flowers are opening. Spring is definitely its best season. As the summer wears on, it suffers, and the leaves wither some. It definitely needs a little bit of shade. It would probably benefit from more regular irrigation, but I don’t do that. The blue flowers in this picture are‘Walker’s Low’ catmint (Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’, Zones 4–8).
Let’s not forget the tulips! I love these bright yellow tulips with the red stripe. I brought some into the house, and, of course, the warmth encouraged them to open up wide. These tulips originally came from Hershey Gardens, where they give away bulbs to volunteers who are willing to dig them up and carry them away. These are in the group of tulips called Darwin hybrids, which are some of the best for perennializing. These were planted over 20 years ago, and they are still going strong!
Finally a native plant! This is golden ragwort (Packera aurea, Zones 3–8). It grows in my rain garden as a ground cover. It starts to bloom in April and continues through the month of May. When it is finished blooming, its nice big, shiny leaves cover the soil and do an excellent job of shading out the weeds.
Have a garden you’d like to share?
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
Gardening is, or at least should be, an ongoing learning process. It can include trial and error (and sometimes failure), but for me, the most exciting part is discovering new plants. When I find an unfamiliar plant, it’s pretty exciting, since I’ve grown nearly everything over the years and not much surprises me.
Trying out new plants comes with its risks, especially in our unpredictable northeastern climate. A species native to a dry desert or a cool alpine meadow may not perform as well in our hot and humid summers or cold, damp springs. Yet when a plant suddenly outperforms everything else you’ve planted in a container or garden, that is remarkable. Here are a few of my most recent remarkable plant discoveries. These plants include annuals and tender perennials, but I recommend trying them all as annuals if you live in the Northeast this summer.
‘Solar Fire’ ursinia has bright orange flowers with dark brown centers.
‘Solar Fire’ ursinia
Ursinia anthemoides ‘Solar Fire’, annual
How this plant ever escaped my radar still confounds me, but I believe it is a winner. Ursinia is a rarely grown annual native to South Africa, which gives us a hint about what conditions it loves—heat, well-drained soil, and full sun. I first ordered one of these plants via mail from a West Coast nursery to see if it might do well in an alpine trough that I had. Not only did it bloom like crazy, but it also grew much larger than I had expected, overtaking all of the alpine plants in just a single season.
It did so well that I decided to search for some seeds online, as I knew that it was a plant I was unlikely to find at any garden center in the Northeast. While this is one of those annuals that you will need to sow yourself (indoors, under lights, about 6 weeks before planting out), it’s easy enough to attempt and worth the extra effort.
Ursinia seedlings transplant easily; put them into 2-inch pots first, and after frost threats have passed, into containers or a prepared bed. I set about 6 to 8 plants into 11-inch pots, spacing them about 4 to 5 inches apart for a denser look, and the results were spectacular. Not only did they bloom prolifically (with flowers nearly covering the plant), but I gave some to a friend who lives on a rooftop in the city where the conditions are as harsh as any mountaintop, with blaring sun and relentless wind, and the plants did just as well.
On the downside, ‘Solar Fire’ ursinia has a shorter season than most annuals. My plants bloomed from early June until late July when they were done for the season, but the clouds of tangerine, daisylike blooms with burgundy eye marks above dark stems and ferny foliage made growing them worth the effort.
Ladybird® Lemonade Texas primrose features cup-shaped blossoms that are so bright yellow they almost don’t seem real.
Texas primrose: Ladybird® series
Calylophus cvs., Zones 8–10
When I came across a pot of Texas primroses at the garden center a couple of summers ago, I bought it. I felt it was my duty to trial this plant in my garden to encourage more unusual plants to be sold at our garden centers, and boy was I satisfied. The Ladybird® series of Texas primroses are hybrids that come with features that make them worth the extra cost per plant, including sterility (so that they keep on blooming and never form seed) and a remarkable tolerance for hot and humid weather like we get in the Northeast in summer—which is something that the straight species can’t deal with. Just one of these plants will spread to 20 inches wide, covering the ground or a single container with beautiful foliage and large flowers, blooming until frost. These are short-lived perennials in the Southwest; for us in the North, they are best treated as annuals. Cut them back a bit in late summer for extra vigor if the plants start to bloom less.
You’ll have to look for these plants at garden centers, as the two cultivars—Ladybird® Lemonade Texas primrose (Calyophus ‘WNCYLALEM’, Zones 8–10), which has light yellow flowers, and Ladybird® Sunglow Texas primrose (Calyophus ‘WNCYLASUN’, Zones 8–10), which has darker yellow flowers—are both propagated vegetatively (clonally, from cuttings) and are not available from seed. These plants are drought tolerant; I’d say that hellstrips or large containers are the best places for them.
‘Jelly Bean Betabel’ (left) and ‘Jelly Bean Fiesta Marigold’ (right) are just two of the many colorful selections in this series.
Sticky monkeyflower: Jelly Bean® series
Mimulus cvs.; syn. Diplacus cvs., Zones 9–10
Sticky monkeyflower might not be the most attractive name ever, but once you’ve grown this sensational series of plants you’ll agree that the name is something to overlook. Derived from the native Californian species (Mimulus aurantiacus syn. Diplacus aurantiacus, Zones 7–11), the Jelly Bean® series of hybrids is an exceptionally high-performing group.
Some of the great cultivars in this series include:
‘Jelly Bean Lemon’ (yellow flowers)
‘Jelly Bean Cinnamon’ (dark orange-red flowers)
‘Jelly Bean White’ (white flowers)
‘Jelly Bean Terracotta’ (orange flowers)
‘Jelly Bean Betabel’ (fuchsia-colored flowers)
‘Jelly Bean Fiesta Marigold’ (multicolored dark orange and yellow flowers)
All of these perennials are worth the search. I’ve grown two of them, and both have been extraordinary, each covered with flowers from early spring through midsummer. The dark mauve flowers of ‘Jelly Bean Betabel’ have golden-orange colored throats and are a favorite of hummingbirds. ‘Jelly Bean Fiesta Marigold’ appealed to me with its unusual French marigold-colored flowers. I’m a sucker for strangely colored flowers.
Since the Jelly Bean® series doesn’t come true from seed, all plant material must be clonally propagated. While you are not likely to find these at your local garden center in the Northeast, there are several online sources.
The buttercup-like blooms on this fast-filling plant are sure to charm you.
GoldDust® axilflower
Mecardonia ‘USMECA8205’, Zones 9–11
Mecardonia sounds more like a vacation resort island than an annual flower, but this plant pays off in dividends. The small, yellow flowers of GoldDust® axilflower are super cute and produce in such volume that they nearly cover the plant, continuing to bloom until frost. An annual blooming until frost is something that you often read about in seed catalogs, but it is not commonly experienced. GoldDust® axilflower started filling out my containers so well that by July I had rushed back to the garden center to see if maybe they had more. Sadly, they didn’t.
Native to the Americas, Mecardonia is a genus not often grown as ornamental, but this new hybrid is quite exceptional, and I hope that we see more introductions in the future. If you’re looking for a plant with a dense, mounding habit and one that truly blooms all season long, this is the one to seek out.
A few years ago I ordered ‘Sibella Carmine’ nodding catchfly seeds on a whim. I didn’t pay much attention when I sowed them, but most came up (under lights). After a few weeks I started to pay attention to some stocky, very healthy-looking seedlings that had lush, bushy growth, making me look like a seed-starting genius.
I repotted the seedlings, planting individual plants into 3-inch pots, which promptly filled with roots. I kept them growing under warm LED lights, and once the threat of frost had passed, I planted all of them together in an old whisky barrel where I sometimes planted herbs or a tomato. This is a plant that looks best planted en masse, with plants placed relatively close together (6 inches apart). The closer planting ensures a better show. Within a month, my plants had filled in and begun to bloom, extending until early August.
As Barbie-pink flowers began to pop open over the short 11-inch-long stems, the show was taking over the garden. This annual performs so well that it looks exactly like its picture in seed catalogs, almost as if you asked an AI art generator to create a “pretty pink flower in a container.” When I reread the description in the catalog, I discovered that ‘Sibella Carmine’ had won a coveted Fleuroselect Gold Medal for its great performance, which is totally deserved. You will have to order seeds of this plant and start them yourself, as few, if any, garden centers carry this selection.
Sometimes being uncommon in the trade increases the appeal of a plant, especially when it’s such a spectacular garden specimen. I don’t know about you, but if my neighbors and friends have never heard of something, it makes it all the more desirable to me. Any one of these selections will make a stunning centerpiece to your containers and borders this summer, adding something new that will push your designs to the next level.
Matt Mattus is the author of two books: Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening and Mastering the Art of Vegetable Gardening. He gardens in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Never was there such an aptly named plant. The genus name Calanthe combines “kalos,” which is Greek for beautiful, and “anthe,” which is Greek for flower.
Sometimes known as Christmas orchids, species in this genus are adaptable, elegant, and colorful, with some hardy enough to withstand temperatures at or even below freezing!
They make excellent houseplants, like many orchids, but they can also be used in landscaping in Zones 6 and up.
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I understand why Phalaenopsis orchids are so popular as houseplants, but I’m baffled as to why more people aren’t enjoying Calanthe orchids in their homes and yards.
They’re long-blooming, and some are hardier than your more common species. But they’re every bit as beautiful as moth orchids.
Interested in these glorious plants? We’ll help you master the growing process. Here’s what we’ll go over to make that happen:
Because they generally grow in the earth rather than attached to trees and rocks, Calanthe species have some unique characteristics and growing requirements.
Before we talk about those, let’s understand a bit more about what sets these plants apart.
What Are Calanthe Orchids?
Calanthe orchids (ka-LAN-thee) are those in the Calanthe genus, which comprises about 200 species.
They are mostly terrestrial plants that come in two types, defined by the subgenera Eucalanthe and Preptanthe.
Eucalanthe species are evergreen with a basal rosette of leaves and no pseudobulbs, with a flower stem that emerges from the center of the leaves. They grow in tropical to temperate areas.
Preptanthe plants are deciduous and lose their leaves in the cold winter of their preferred environments. The flower stalks form from pseudobulbs that are typically gray-green.
Evergreens include C. alismifolia, C. sylvatica, and C. triplicata, and deciduous species include C. hirsute, C. rosea, and C. vestita
You can’t breed the two different subgenera, which is one reason that botanists are considering separating the two into their own genera.
The difference is important because it impacts how you’ll grow these plants.
Home gardeners tend to prefer the deciduous types because they have long-lasting inflorescences that can stick around for months.
Regardless of the type, they are all sympodial, which means they produce multiple flower stalks rather than a single stalk. All have pleated or corrugated leaves and many have clusters of oval-shaped pseudobulbs.
They can be found growing wild across the globe in tropical climates in Asia, Australia, Mexico and Central America, the West Indies, and the Pacific Islands. The vast majority of species are native to southeast Asia.
Heads up: lots of orchids are known commonly as “Christmas” because it’s the name given to those that flower in the winter. But not all calanthe orchids bloom in the winter, and not all Christmas orchids belong to the Calanthe genus.
C. discolor and C. triplicata are commonly called Christmas orchids and bloom in winter.
Cultivation and History
The Calanthe genus was first described and illustrated by Georg Rumph, a German botanist, in 1750 in his tome “Herbarium Amboinense.” He used a specimen from Indonesia. The genus was formally established in 1821 by Robert Brown, a Scottish botanist.
Back in the 19th century during the Victorian plant craze, Calanthe orchids were a floral status symbol. Over the years, they have taken a backseat to Phalaenopsis and Cattleya, which is a shame. They’re easy to grow, long flowering, and showy.
One of the first orchid hybrids on record was a cross between C. furcata and C. masuca, bred by John Dominihy, a breeder who worked with James Veitch, who founded the famous Veitch Nurseries in England. It was called C. x dominii.
This was followed by a hybrid between C. rosea and C. vestita.
These days, while they haven’t gained the same level of popularity as their cousins, they are popular in their own right, with lots of hybrids and cultivars on the market.
Calanthe Orchid Propagation
If you’re up for an adventure, it’s possible to propagate orchids from seed.
Note that I said it’s possible, but not easy. It takes some special equipment and a lot of time, but you might be able to breed something exciting and new.
Both types can be divided, but Preptanthe plants actually grow better if you divide them regularly. That’s because two-year-old pseudobulbs die at the end of their second year. When you divide them regularly, you encourage new growth.
To divide, gently dig up a plant or pull it out of the container. Brush away the soil from the roots and locate a natural division in the plant that includes some roots and some pseudobulbs. Use a pair of clean scissors or pruners to sever the largest roots and then tease the plant apart.
If the plant has any back bulbs, which are the older bulbs that no longer have leaves, you can divide these and plant them individually.
Plant half back in the original pot or area of the garden and plant the remaining section in a new area or container.
Epiphytic orchids prefer that their roots be a bit crowded, but you can use larger containers with terrestrial species. Look for a container that’s about twice the size of the rootball.
Transplanting
Most of us purchase our first Calanthe orchids or receive them as a gift.
When you bring your first one home, you don’t need to repot it right away. But if you want to put it in the ground, it’s best to wait until mid-spring.
Prepare the ground by working in some well-rotted compost and making a hole twice as wide and the same depth as the growing container.
Gently remove the plant from its container and loosen up the roots. Lower it into the soil and firm the soil up around it.
The crown should be positioned at soil level or just below it. Don’t plant it more than just slightly below the soil surface or you run the risk of rot.
Gently water and add more soil if it settles too much.
How to Grow Calanthe Orchids
Generally speaking, evergreens should be kept moist to damp year-round, and deciduous types need to be allowed to dry out when the leaves have fallen. Let the medium completely dry out until new growth starts to form.
Both types prefer humidity between 40 and 80 percent.
While this varies by species, most prefer temperatures in the 70s or 80s during the day and around 50°F at night.
Sticking to the cooler end of the spectrum will result in longer-lasting flowers. Evergreens can tolerate cooler temperatures, with most being hardy down to around 5°F.
Most need bright, indirect light indoors, and direct morning light is preferred. Outside, they do best in dappled shade or with an hour or so of direct morning light.
I will say that these plants can tolerate more light than most gardeners realize. Partial sun is perfectly fine for most species, so long as you expose them to the brighter light gradually over the course of a few weeks until they’re acclimated.
As with many houseplants that can tolerate bright light, growers cultivate these orchids in dimmer conditions than what’s ideal in order to acclimate them to the light available in most homes.
Without exception, mine have flowered better when I give them more light. Just avoid afternoon light, which is way too harsh.
Provide Preptanthe species grown indoors with a medium containing sphagnum moss, coconut coir chips, medium-size bark, and perlite. Don’t use a mix that is primarily orchid bark, which is marketed for epiphytes. You want some loam for the terrestrial orchids.
Outdoors, work a lot of well-rotted compost into the soil – the more the better.
The soil must be well-draining. If it isn’t, choose a container or a raised bed so you can control the medium and drainage. Or, if you have heavy clay, work in equal parts compost to the native soil at least two feet down and two feet out.
Either way, these plants prefer neutral soil, but they can tolerate a pH range between 6.0 and 8.0.
If you want to grow Eucalanthe species indoors, they must be exposed to temperatures just above 35°F for cool-growing species and 50°F for tropical species at night for two months to encourage new growth and blooming. That’s why most people grow them outdoors.
Keep in mind that while most Eucalanthe plants can grow as far north as Zone 6, some species are tropical and need warmer climates. Depending on the species, they need to be kept indoors during cold weather outside of Zone 9.
Outdoor plants don’t need a ton of fertilizer. Do a soil test and amend accordingly. Otherwise, you shouldn’t need to add fertilizer.
If you are growing yours in a container, change the soil every few years and fertilize once before flowering with a mild, balanced fertilizer.
Never fertilize a Preptanthe while it’s without leaves.
Growing Tips
There are two types of Calanthe orchids, so be certain you know which you have to provide the ideal environment.
Keep the soil moist but not wet, and allow deciduous types to dry out when they’re dormant.
Provide bright indirect light with direct morning light.
Maintenance
Resist the temptation to remove the leaves when they become crowded and untidy.
They are still providing vital nutrients to the plant, and removing them creates wounds that may expose the plant to viral pathogens. They shouldn’t be removed until they age to yellow and then brown and die off on their own.
Once the leaves turn yellow and collapse, you can remove them. They should just pull away, or you can use scissors to clip them off.
You can remove damaged or diseased leaves at any time.
For tropical types, aim for 50°F at night and 60°F during the day for a month or so to encourage reblooming.
To protect outdoor plants that go dormant, place two inches of mulch over the soil in the fall after the leaves die back. Use an organic mulch like leaf litter, shredded bark, or compost.
In USDA Hardiness Zones at the low end or even one below the recommended range of growing zones for a given species, it’s possible to keep plants alive with a thick layer of protective mulch. Make the mulch pile about a foot deep, covering the orchid and its root zone.
Remove the mulch in the spring when temperatures are regularly above freezing or if you see new growth emerging.
Container-grown outdoor orchids should be brought into an unheated garage or cold basement to overwinter.
Preptanthe orchids should be dug up and divided regularly. The pseudobulbs die after they’re two years old, so regular dividing will keep the plant going strong. Be extra careful when working with them because the pseudobulbs break easily.
Calanthe Orchid Species and Hybrids to Select
It seems like new cultivars are popping up all the time, but you can’t go wrong with any of the species or their hybrids.
Here are just a few of the prettiest and easiest to grow in home gardens or indoors:
Discolor
A popular evergreen or semi-evergreen in colder areas, the leaves of C. discolor can grow up to 18 inches long and form at the base of tall flower spikes dotted with up to 10 brown, white, green, and pale pink flowers.
This species grows indigenously in Japan, Korea, and China. It has become wildly popular as a house or garden plant and is often used as a parent for hybrids.
Kozu
Kozu hybrids are absolutely well worth seeking out.
These hybrids are a cross of C. discolor and C. izu-insularis, and produce flowers in pink, purple, red, white, and yellow, depending on the cultivar.
‘Kozu Spice,’ for example, is an evergreen indoors or in Zones 7 to 9 or semi-evergreen in Zone 6.
It was bred in 1996 in Japan by K. Karasawa, and has large white and purple blossoms.
Nipponica
Native to Japan and Tibet, this species grows in mountainous regions. It has bright green and light yellow flowers on tall stalks.
Each 15-inch stalk can produce up to 10 flowers. A member of the Preptanthe subgenus, C. nipponica can be grown outdoors as far north as Zone 6.
This species was first described by Japanese botanist Tomitarô Makino in 1898, and it has become a popular option for breeding hybrids.
Reflexa
This Japanese evergreen has underground pseudobulbs bearing two or three leaves up to nine inches long and three inches wide at their largest.
Each plant will only develop four or five flowering spikes at a time. These can reach up to 13 inches in height and initially feature nodding buds that eventually open and face upward.
Plants can exhibit up to 25 white and purple, pure purple, or pure white flowers at a time and they may bloom all together or open sequentially, starting in July and lasting through September.
C. reflexa grows in warm areas in wet woodlands or along stream banks, which tells you that this is a plant that needs lots of moisture.
Sieboldii
Hailing from Japan, this hardy evergreen has 18-inch tall inflorescences with bright yellow blossoms.
C. sieboldii is one of the largest plants in the genus and will survive temperatures down to 10°F.
While the flowers aren’t the showiest, they’re eye-catching in their own right.
Combined with the large, pleated leaves that resemble hostas, C. sieboldii is a beautiful garden option.
Striata
With large, heavily flowered spikes of golden yellow blossoms, this hardy type drops its leaves in late summer and perks back up in early spring.
C. striata is a good option for beginner growers because it’s adaptable and tolerant of a wide range of conditions. Those masses of pretty blossoms don’t hurt, either.
Takane
A hybrid cross of C. striata and C. discolor, C. takane is one tough orchid.
It can tolerate cold conditions and will still produce abundant cream, yellow, apricot, and pink blossoms on 18-inch spikes. It’s hardy to Zone 7, with pleated leaves similar to a broadleaf plantain.
This hybrid is a good option if you want something that will gently spread around the garden without becoming invasive.
Tricarinata
This popular, semi-evergreen species has lime-green and brown flowers on upright inflorescences that grow up to 12 inches tall.
Provide C. tricarinata with loamy, rich, loose soil and keep it consistently damp. It should be placed in shade, but a little morning or dappled light is fine.
Vestita
This beautiful species hails from the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Java, and Malaysia, where it is a deciduous epiphyte.
C. vestita requires dappled shade or morning sunlight and a humus-rich, loose, moist growing medium.
Each pseudobulb produces three or four oval-shaped leaves that drop from the plant each fall and regrow in the spring.
One inflorescence with up to 20 three-inch-wide white and yellow or red – depending on the climate and light – flowers emerge in July from each pseudobulb.
Managing Pests and Disease
Christmas orchids are surprisingly tough for such delicate-looking plants. The main problems to watch for are spider mites and root rot.
Pests
There’s one type of pest that plagues these orchids, whether indoors or out, and that’s the spider mite.
Spider mites are itty-bitty tick relatives that use their sucking mouthparts to draw out the sap of plants.
They can cause serious damage to the leaves of these plants, and can eventually kill them, especially young specimens.
Spider mites are so small that you might not notice them at first. You’ll probably see the fine webbing they create, often filled with small black flecks, or the splotchy, yellow leaves they cause.
The first step with eradicating spider mites is to isolate the plant if you can. Then, spray down the plant once a week with a gentle stream of water to knock the pests loose.
Spots on the leaves are one of the most common signs of disease.
The Erwinia and Acidovorax species of bacteria cause leaf spots, as do species of fungi in the Cercospora genus.
Anthracnose, caused by fungi in the Colletotrichum genus, can also cause spots with tan centers and a black margin to form.
These pathogens spread by hitching a ride in splashing water, or in crowded conditions and high humidity. That’s why it’s important to water the soil rather than sprinkling the leaves, and keep plants well-spaced.
The moment you notice spotting, trim off any symptomatic leaves. Then, grab a biofungicide and bactericide combo, such as Monterey’s Complete Disease Control.
Pick some up from Arbico Organics in 32-ounce ready-to-use or eight-ounce, pint, or gallon-size concentrate containers.
Root rot can be caused by water molds in the Pythium and Phytophthora genera.
When these pathogens are present, it can cause black, soft spots on the leaves or roots. Root rot can also be caused by overwatering, which drowns the roots.
If you see unusual patterns and colors on leaves, it’s usually a sign that viruses like Odontoglossum ringspot virus (ORSV) and Cymbidium mosaic virus (CyMV) have made their way into your plants.
There’s no known cure, so you must either dispose of the plant or accept the unusual appearance. If you decide to live with it, know that the virus might spread to other orchids.
Indoors, plants of either subgenus can be potted up and enjoyed. Some gardeners grow Preptanthe species in shallow trays or bonsai pots to highlight the unusual pseudobulbs.
In the winter, when the leaves are gone and just the long pseudobulbs and tall flower stalks remain, species like C. vestita will make a centerpiece that draws comments.
Outdoors, they work well in groups, borders, specimens, or rock gardens, depending on the species.
Winter is a great time to look outside and evaluate the structure of your landscape. It can be easier during this time of year to tell if you need a few more woodies to add structural support. Small shrubs in particular have a lot of utility in gardens. They fit perfectly in beds and borders and can be used in tight spaces where more presence than a perennial is warranted. Here are a few smaller shrubs with impressive foliage that have worked well for us in the Southeast.
Candy Corn® Japanese spirea’s new spring growth is a bright yellow-orange.
Candy Corn® Japanese spirea is so bright and cheerful that it almost doesn’t seem real. Its foliage during the growing season is chartreuse but the orange-red new growth in spring makes it truly spectacular. Once the new growth turns yellow-green, the shrub produces clusters of bright pink flowers. Growing to about 1 to 1½ feet tall and 1½ to 2½ feet wide, Candy Corn® is fairly drought tolerant and sturdy, taking full sun to partial shade. The flowers make it popular with pollinators, especially butterflies. A trim in late summer prompts a flush of fabulous new growth for fall. Best of all, this cultivar is sterile, which allays invasiveness concerns.
The delicate white flowers of ‘Margie Jenkins’ leucothoe contrast well with its dark green foliage.
The dark green leaves and arching stems on ‘Margie Jenkins’ leucothoe are very attractive. This multistemmed shrub can reach 2 to 5 feet tall and 3 to 5 feet wide. It will spread a bit from the base as it produces new stems. ‘Margie Jenkins’ is a selection of a southeastern native species that is resistant to the leaf spot that plagues the species. This shrub tolerates full sun if kept consistently moist but looks better with bright shade or morning sun and afternoon shade. It can also take full shade. Once established, it is somewhat drought tolerant but very tolerant of wet feet. In spring, racemes of white, bell-shaped flowers appear, followed by bronze-colored new growth.
‘Radiance’ abelia features stunning yellow and white variegation on its foliage, which can also be tinted red and orange during other times of the year.
‘Radiance’ abelia has small leaves that are variegated. The cream and green foliage remains for most of the year and turns orange in winter. White clusters of flowers appear in the summer. The light-colored foliage and flowers make this shrub really stand out against darker green plants. The blooms are very popular with pollinators and have a sweet fragrance. ‘Radiance’ is showiest when grown in full sun, but it will also take partial shade. It will grow 2 to 3 feet tall and 4 to 5 feet wide. The new growth that appears in spring and often again after flowering is tinted red.
Cinnamon Girl® distylium’s pretty teal foliage has an intriguing ovate shape.
Cinnamon Girl® distylium features evergreen foliage on branches that grow up and out, reaching 2 to 3 feet tall and 3 to 4 feet wide. The foliage is a lovely blue-green, while new growth is a showy reddish purple. In early spring, tiny red flowers are produced all along the branches. This shrub grows nicely in full sun. It will also take partial shade but will have a looser growth habit. The best thing about it is that it’s tough. Cinnamon Girl® can handle hot summers, drought, and pruning mistakes. However, it looks best with regular watering and yearly fertilizer.
There are so many great plants to choose from out there that it can be hard to narrow down the choices. These are a few compact shrubs that we’ve been successful with in the Southeast, and all have interesting foliage to boot. Any one of these plants will have the neighbors asking about that wonderful bush in your yard.
Since entering horticulture professionally over a decade ago, I’ve noticed a correlation on the Colorado Front Range between wood mulch (also called arborist chips) and water-wise gardens. A beautifully designed garden goes in, with appropriate irrigation and plant palette, and the garden looks great—briefly—before languishing. Plants in these beds never quite take off, or they fail before their natural lifespans are over. I casually refer to this as plant/mulch mismatch, and it’s an issue I see too often, maybe because mulch is anything but exciting to the average homeowner.
To get to the bottom of why these mulch mistakes are happening in the Mountain West, I spoke to expert horticulturists from across the region. I asked the following questions: “What mulch do you recommend to gardeners in your area for use around trees and shrubs?” “What about a ‘classic’ perennial bed?” “What mulch do you recommend for a water-wise or native-heavy garden?”
I gathered the insights below from interviews with Robb Smith, Nich Boynton-Steele, Guy Banner, Lauren Carvalho, Michael Guidi, and Jacob Mares, who practice in northern New Mexico; the Colorado Front Range; southern Wyoming; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Boise, Idaho.
In some areas, mulch selection is straightforward
In a scene you’d be hard-pressed to find on the Front Range, healthy and happy yucca sit under a layer of quality arborist chip in a garden in Boise, Idaho.
Mulch mismatch was least pronounced in Boise, where it seems that all kinds of plantings do well with the quality of arborist chip mulch available in the area. This included everything from xeric, native plants to trees and shrubs. I’ve discussed the absence of mulch/plant mismatch with experts in the area and, frankly, none of us are completely sure why they don’t experience it. Regardless, it makes selecting an appropriate mulch an easy exercise for the Treasure Valley and surrounding areas. Mulch/plant mismatch wasn’t widely noted in Wyoming or northern New Mexico either. This could be due to the fact that inorganic mulches, like pea gravel, are preferred, though for different reasons.
When and where inorganic mulches are recommended
Preliminary evidence in horticulture research at Denver Botanic Gardens suggests not only that inorganic mulches are effective when used appropriately, but that some (like crusher fines—also known as breeze—or decomposed granite) can be used as seeding mulches to develop meadow gardens, with wildflower seeds embedded in the mulch at time of application. Photo: Michael Guidi
In the geologic wind tunnel that is Wyoming, most don’t bother with organic mulches (like wood) because of their tendency to behave like migratory species that quickly disperse from their intended beds and into the “Great Beyond”.
In northern New Mexico, organic mulches were indicated to be so slow to break down that their benefits don’t reliably seem to outweigh their drawbacks, though they are used in some settings—like around shrubs, trees, and in the occasional perennial bed—with respectable results. Instead, pea gravel and expanded shale were recommended for most applications other than tree rings.
Despite its impressive suppression of weed-seed germination, gravel mulch remains a good seedbed for many short-lived western natives that will disappear from a garden if not able to self-sow, like many penstemons and other wildflowers. If this is your desired aesthetic, apply your gravel mulch 2 inches deep instead of 3.
In the Wasatch Front of Utah and the Front Range of Colorado, inorganic mulch should be used for water-wise gardens. In fact, inorganic mulch is so effective for xeric gardens in the region that the Colorado-based water-wise plant-development nonprofit Plant Select® trials new plants exclusively in gravel mulch.
Far and away my favorite implement for weeding gravel is the stirrup hoe (also called a hula or scuffle hoe). Because it slides through the gravel easily, undercutting weeds at their root, I can cover large areas quickly. In cases of coarse gravel, the implement is virtually worthless, so stick to pea gravel or similar sizes of other inorganic mulches, such as expanded shale or scoria (aka cinder).
Why is pea gravel so popular?
Pea gravel tends to be “Fix it and forget it,” needing only one main application of 2 inches and then the occasional refresh after dirt is mixed in during planting. This assumes that your bed has been properly prepared to sit an inch or two below adjacent sidewalks or has been edged to avoid errant gravel grains rolling onto hard surfaces. However, if your bed needs grading, it can be done easily with a flathead shovel.
Pea gravel’s success stems from its tendency to keep plant crowns dry and to warm the soil slightly (valuable for root growth during our chilly shoulder seasons) while insulating plant crowns and roots against extreme temperatures and temperature swings. Like wood mulch, it significantly reduces soil water losses by evaporation and drastically cuts weed pressure. For those in fire-prone areas, rock mulches—including pea gravel, scoria, and expanded shale—are also the safest options, as they’re fireproof.
Where and how organic mulch works
Though pea gravel and other inorganic mulches can achieve great results in the right setting, there are still situations where organic mulch reigns supreme. Applying organic mulch 2 to 3 inches deep yields excellent results for tree/shrub borders and classic perennial beds in the Wasatch Front of Utah and Front Range of Colorado.
Wood mulch can mat, which reduces water infiltration into the soil during light precipitation events, but it is still recommended in these areas for its soil-building qualities and easy acquisition.
Wood mulch delivered directly to your garden is not only convenient, but you can also often get it for free or purchased in bulk for very cheap. Photo: Karen Beaty
Most gardeners in our region can have wood mulch delivered to their driveway for free through third parties that connect arborists with gardeners or, with some shoveling and hauling, municipal programs. An internet search for “arborist/wood chip mulch distribution” is nearly certain to yield results. It’s worth noting that wood/arborist mulch isn’t the same as bark mulch; the latter can leave a waxy coating on the soil, reducing infiltration, and is more flammable than wood mulch.
Keep mixing and matching until you find the right mulch fit
No single trend drove mulch use, except a desire to see plantings do well. But as with most things in life, “one size fits all” does not apply, so the best practices described here should help guide your mulching machinations while you take into consideration the unique situations in your individual garden. If you suspect your garden may be experiencing mulch/plant mismatch, don’t let the dirty topic bring your garden down; consider moving some mulch before your plants move on.
For more Mountain West regional reports, click here.
Bryan Fischer lives and gardens at the intersection of the Great Plains and the Rockies. He is a horticulturist and the curator of plant collections for a local botanic garden.
If your screen usage has hit an all-time high, you’re not alone. From TV to video games to social media, we often turn to these devices for quick entertainment and small hits of dopamine. But it’s not too late to turn things around! As a gardener, your love of the outdoors and all things green can be turned into a highly beneficial dopamine menu.
Nowadays, it’s nearly impossible to get away from screens. Unless you’re doing a digital detox challenge or out in the woods with no reception, you probably have some form of screen(s) you rely on for entertainment daily.
If you’re reading this, it means you’re staring at a screen right this very minute! And since I’ve reminded you that you’re scrolling, please keep reading, as I promise that what I’m about to tell you will be a game changer when it comes to reducing your screen time.
Since my kiddo was little, I’ve tried to keep him away from screens. Which, for his generation, is a tough thing to do. I make sure we read together, play board games, go on walks, cook together, and more to reduce how often both of our eyes are glued to a screen.
Dopamine menus are a relatively new trend and tool that people can use to find new sources of dopamine outside of screens. And because I am a woman whose core being relies heavily on plants, I knew I needed to make a dopamenu for gardening.
Today, I’ll show you how you can make your own dopamine menu for gardening and why you should.
Are Screens Bad for Us?
We get the sense that too much screen time can be bad for our health, but what’s the science behind it all?
Harvard Medical School says that screens can affect how the human brain develops. Young brains are constantly building new neural connections and cutting down any they don’t use often. Screens can affect how our brain builds these connections.
Screens provide simulated versions of what we experience in real life. Essentially, they’re watered-down versions of our experiences, and so the neural connections being built aren’t as “strong.”
“Boredom is the space in which creativity and imagination happen,” says Rich, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. And I think that really summarizes how screens have fulfilled our endless need to be entertained.
Why do you think our best thinking happens in the shower? Or if you’re like me, when I’m out puttering in the garden.
I still have screens in my house, but I try to be aware of my usage.
Screens and Sleep
Using screens at bedtime has also been proven to disrupt sleep. Before bed, our body begins to produce melatonin as a response to darkness. But devices emitting blue light will suppress our melatonin and affect our ability to achieve REM sleep, which is essential for processing and storing information.
This means the next day, you may be more tired and less likely to process and retain new information. AKA, having a good memory.
Screens and Mood
Some studies have also linked screen time to symptoms of depression. And I can totally see why. Beyond the traps of constantly comparing ourselves on social media, many people rely on screen activities as a way to deal with stress. So when we go without screens, our anxiety can rise.
Being outside instantly boosts my mood.
What is Dopamine?
Dopamine is a key factor in why we LOVE screens so much. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that our nervous systems use to send messages. It’s a chemical that spreads within the brain and the body as a messenger for pleasure.
Dopamine works as a reward system. Doing activities you enjoy will release dopamine. How much is released is based on the activity and its frequency.
Many things use this natural reward system, like drugs and alcohol, and yes, our beloved screens. Initially, they give us a big rush of dopamine. But then they diminish the more you use it.
Watching one episode of a show is fun. Binging the whole series? You might feel depleted and groggy afterward.
In response to the diminishing dopamine, we tend to either move on to a different activity to get a new reward or increase the initial activity to try and get more.
Darwin Hybrids ‘Elite Apledoorn’ Tulips
A dopamenu is a tool we can use to help us find new sources of dopamine when we feel like we need a pick-me-up.
Originally developed by Jessica McCabe, it was originally intended to help those with ADHD. It’s believed that people with ADHD have lower dopamine levels and continually need to find new dopamine hits.
A dopamenu has a list of starters, mains, sides, desserts, and specials. Each of these categories has different activities or various lengths that you can turn to when you’re looking for stimulation.
Essentially, it’s a quick customized list of things that you know will bring you joy.
While originally a tool for ADHD, I think everyone can benefit from a dopamine menu. It’s a useful tool to turn to to get away from screens, get outside, and find more sustainable dopamine hits.
And as a gardener, you know I had to make myself a list of things I could do in the garden to get myself engaged with nature. Nature has many many mental health benefits (which I talk about in this post), and trying to do activities outdoors can double up your benefits.
Working outside can have immense benefits.
I highly encourage you to make your own dopamine menu. Over time, fill it with activities you like to do outside and in your garden. Eventually, you’ll have a great list to turn to when you need ideas for how to get yourself up and moving.
Here are a few of my go-to’s that you can use as a jumping-off point for your own dopamenu.
Starters
These are quick, 5-minute activities you can do to take a break and get outside.
A dopamine menu can even be a nice reminder to check on your plants.
Mains
These activities take up more time and are great if you have an hour or more to spare.
Sides
When you’re already outside, these activities make for good add-ons.
Desserts
These are activities that you often default to. It’s best not to spend a lot of time on them, but they are good in small, planned doses.
These activities aren’t your everyday activities. They might be expensive or more time-consuming than others, but they are still worthwhile.
A seed library is a great way to engage with your local gardening community.
What will you put on your dopamine menu for gardening? Let me know in the comments down below so that we can all take inspiration as we make our own dopamenus for gardening.
My six-year-old son and I then packed it full of wood chips and sweetgum seed pods. Then we started up a fire in the fireplace, put in some logs, then put the retort in with them for the night.
In the morning, the fire had burned out so I pulled out the retort. To my surprise, it was really light. Disappointed, I assumed the interior had burned away into ash.
Yet when I opened it, I found it was half-full of beautiful, perfect biochar.
Since almost everything had burned out of them except for the carbon, the char left was quite light.
The sweetgum pods looked amazing.
This is really a clever way to make small-scale, perfect char.
Our next experiment will be to make artist’s vine charcoal for one of my daughters so she can draw with it. We cut a bunch of pieces of wild muscadine vine and put them into a smaller retort made from two “family size” tomato soup cans.
If you regularly run a wood stove, a cooking fire or a fireplace, this is a fun way to make biochar for free. The charcoal is higher-quality than you can get by doing a burn outside and quenching it, plus you can char materials that would just melt away in an open fire.
I’d like to try this with some pecan shells.
As LiveOnWhatYouGrow commented on my YouTube post about our success with his method:
“Because I’ve been making biochar for so long this way I’ve forgotten that leaves, grass, cardboard, paper, pinecones, hair, and other things like that, really can’t be made into biochar in an open fire because they’ll completely turn to ash! In the retort, everything inside turns to char because, at temperatures of over 1200°F, all the volatile compounds in the organic matter expand and turn to gas, but with no oxygen, they can’t burn. So, at those temperatures, all the gasses are driven out of the end hole and the seams where they combine with oxygen and burn outside the retort leaving only carbon inside! The best part is that I get to heat my house for free here in Connecticut while making at least 600lbs (275kg) of biochar each year! I used to make it outside in a pit, but then I had to pay for fuel to heat my house!”
Pretty cool, and a great project to do with kids.
Once you have your char, just soak it in something mineral-rich to “charge” it, then add it to your gardens.
Millions of years of evolution and hybridization efforts by generations of enthusiasts have produced hundreds of magnolia species and cultivars. Our mild Mid-Atlantic climate is conducive for growing a significant majority of them, which makes it quite daunting to select just one perfect specimen. From my long list of favorites, here are a few stellar selections with some of the best traits that this ancient genus has to offer.
Clear yellow blooms bedeck ‘Butterflies’, a compact selection that is a perfect fit for smaller gardens. Photo: Jennifer Benner
‘Butterflies’ magnolia warmly greets spring with sunny blooms
Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; moist, well-drained soil
Small trees with yellow early spring blooms are often hard to come by, which explains my attraction to this lovely little hybrid. Compared to other yellow-flowered magnolias, which tend to have blooms that fade quickly and color that is a bit muddy, ‘Butterflies’ is unique. Its upright, 8-inch, tulip-shaped flowers have a nonfading pure canary yellow hue and a light, lemony fragrance. It is smaller in stature than many other selections, which makes it a suitable choice for smaller gardens.
‘Wada’s Memory’ has a tidy, elegant habit that sets it apart from other deciduous cultivars. Photo: Carol Collins
‘Wada’s Memory’ blooms at a very early age
Magnolia × kewensis ‘Wada’s Memory’
Zones: 5–8
Size: 25 to 30 feet tall and 15 to 20 feet wide
Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; moist, well-drained soil
Many deciduous magnolias develop a very asymmetrical, unpredictable habit with age and maturity, making it quite a challenge to site them in spaces that are not large and open. That is not the case with ‘Wada’s Memory’, which develops and maintains a very symmetrical, pyramidal shape from a young age. It also begins blooming at a very young age compared to other magnolias. The abundant, pure white, 7-inch flowers burst forth before foliage emerges in early spring, filling the garden with a delightful orange-blossom fragrance.
Moonglow® is an outstanding selection from a native species that exhibits attractive characteristics every month of the year. Photo: Doreen Wynja
Moonglow® sweet bay magnolia reblooms throughout the growing season
Magnolia virginiana ‘Jim Wilson’
Zones: 5–10
Size: 15 to 35 feet tall and 10 to 20 feet wide
Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; moist to wet soil
Native plant enthusiasts, this is the magnolia for you. Sweet bay magnolia naturally occurs along much of the Atlantic coast and is very adaptable to a variety of growing conditions, including wet soil. Compared with the straight species, Moonglow® has a more vigorous, upright habit and is more cold hardy. Its glossy, dark green foliage with silvery undersides is retained and remains evergreen during the winter months. Emerging in spring, its pure white, slightly cupped, fragrant flowers are larger than those of the straight species, and it may also produce flowers sporadically throughout the growing season. Bright red seeds in conelike fruits add to the appeal of this excellent cultivar.
‘Ann’ magnolia has a compact habit and luminous, late-emerging blooms. Photo: Jennifer Benner
“The Girls” bloom later than other cultivars, so their flowers are less likely to be nipped by frost
Magnolia ‘Ann’, ‘Betty’, ‘Jane’, ‘Judy’, ‘Pinkie’, ‘Randy’, ‘Ricki’, and ‘Susan’
Zones: 4–8
Size: 10 to 15 feet tall and wide
Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; moist, well-drained soil
Many magnolias bloom very early, so late frosts or freezing temperatures often cause significant damage to their floral displays. The Little Girl series was developed at the National Arboretum in the 1950s to remedy that problem. The project produced eight selections, listed above, that flower two to four weeks later than many of the early-blooming magnolias such as saucer magnolia (M. × soulangiana, Zones 4–9) and star magnolia (M. stellata, Zones 4–8). Each of “the girls” has her own distinct personality. ‘Ann’ has a compact, shrublike, multistem habit and mildly fragrant, deep purple to pink flowers that appear from mid-April to May. Although less abundant than the initial flush, additional blooms may develop throughout the summer months. Others in the series grow in a similar manner, with flower color being the main difference between them. ‘Judy’, for example, has flowers that are red to purple on the outside and creamy white inside, while ‘Ricki’ has reddish to purple blooms with slightly less saturated hues on the interior.
If you have enough space for its impressive habit (left), the evergreen foliage of ‘D. D. Blanchard’ (right) will be a fabulous focal point in every season. Photos: Adam Glas
‘D. D. Blanchard’ southern magnolia provides striking winter interest
Magnolia grandiflora ‘D. D. Blanchard’
Zones: 7–9
Size: 35 to 50 feet tall and 20 to 35 feet wide
Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; moist, well-drained soil
This stately specimen deserves a home in any garden that can accommodate its sizable habit. However, in smaller spaces I have seen it trained as an espalier or pruned into a formal shape with great success. To my eye, the deep-green, high-gloss foliage with rich velvety rust to brown undersides make it far superior to any of the other southern magnolias, with the possible exception of Teddy Bear® (Magnolia grandiflora ‘Southern Charm’, Zones 7–9), which you can read about here. Foliage creates a beautiful backdrop for equally lovely flowers. From late spring to early summer, dinner plate–size blooms produce a spicy, lemony aroma that perfumes the air surrounding this magnificent specimen.
Adam Glas is a garden supervisor and rosarian at the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.
For more Mid-Atlantic regional reports, click here.
Ah, the perks of an indoor garden in winter: Fruit, flowers, fragrance, and…fungus gnats? If you are the parent of any indoor plant, the chances are good that you have already met fungus gnats. These small flies are non-buzzing and non-biting, but an annoyance in large numbers because they are attracted to moisture, even if is from your breath, or around your eyes. Swat, swat. Worse, if you do see a lot of the tiny, winged varmints, it means that their even tinier but much hungrier larvae are living in your pots, eating organic matter that includes the roots of your plants, which they damage.
Getting rid of fungus gnats is a three-step process. This is what has worked for me.
Fungus gnats are a warning sign: They thrive in moist environments, and their presence indicates you might be overwatering your plants. Long-term, this can lead to their slow death. So take the gnats’ presence as a helpful hint, and then banish them. While the adults do not feed on anything, they do lay eggs. And it is their larvae that do the quiet, subterranean damage.
Above: Adult fungus gnats, trapped.
Where do fungus gnats come from? Like scale insects indoors, they seem to materialize from the ether. A possible source of fungus gnats in your home is the new plant you just bought, whether it’s a seasonal poinsettia, Christmas amaryllis, or your kitty’s fresh wheatgrass from the pe(s)t store. The insects are a common pest in professional greenhouses. Because new plants might be carriers of fungus gnats, if it is practical, keep them apart from your established, unaffected plants for a period of three weeks. (The four-stage fungus gnat life cycle is about three weeks, from egg, to larva, to pupa, to adult fly.)
They could also be present in your growing media, in egg or larval form. Most potting mixes are sterilized, but it’s hard to know for sure.
Above: The pros and cons of indoor growing—fruit, and pesky critter control.
Here are the three steps to getting rid of fungus gnats.
Step 1: Do not overwater.
Above: I water my plants when the meter reaches the red zone.
This is a permanent care-protocol in eliminating fungus gnats: Only water your plants (deeply) when they have come close to drying out. I have been an indoor grower now for over a decade and you’d think I’d know better, but I am still prone to overwatering. A moisture meter’s long probe is able to give me a better sense of what is happening in the soil, not just in the top inch or so.
Allowing your pots to dry between waterings helps prevent a fungus gnat infestation, and it also keep your plants healthier: Root rot is caused by overwatering and can be fatal. It’s hard to turn that around, so the pesky gnats are the canary in the coal mine for indoor growers. Unlike the poor canary that keels over in bad air, they thrive in the unhealthy environment.
Step 2: Use yellow sticky traps.
Above: Ugh, but excellent. Forty-eight (cute) yellow sticky traps are $6.98 on Amazon.
Adult fungus gnats are attracted to yellow. Place sticky yellow traps in your pots. The traps effectively sequester the adult gnats, interrupting their relentless life cycle by preventing them from laying eggs in your soil. I choose traps that are the least offensive aesthetically (pretty shapes!) and change them when I can’t stand seeing the bodies pile up. Aside from catching the bugs, the traps are a good indicator of infestation, even when you have controlled the problem. I keep them to warn me of potential fungus gnat re-emergence.
Today we’re visiting with Kim Herdman in Williams Lake, British Columbia. We’ve visited her beautiful garden before (Gardening Through Intense Weather). She’s been going through a difficult time, but her garden has been a source of solace.
The last few years have thrown everything at the garden and life. Michael succumbed to his disease in 2022, which left a hole in my heart. He was my gardening partner and another pair of hands to water, or plan, or enjoy the pictures he so loved to take.
To help fill the void of Michael, I have a new soulmate—Hamish! He is keeping busy ensuring that all manner of life force is not in his territory! He has worn a path by the side of the fence chasing deer and is keeping the ever-growing population of rabbits out. He also ensures that this is a no-fly zone for the birds! Definitely takes his job seriously. I have to accept that the garden is not going to be all I want it to be with him in the family.
I was having trouble keeping up with all the yard myself, so I thought that veggie boxes would be helpful. Some kind friends helped build me three boxes, and I think they are really going to be great as I get into the groove of what to plant in them. Every year it gets harder to know what will cope with the conditions. I did find these boxes easier to water and weed last year. I also think if I have to use shade cloth or netting, the boxes will be much less troublesome for me.The winter of 2022/23 was all over condition wise; there was a long fall with no frost, which helped me to get all the bulbs planted, as I was very slo-mo—still in recovery mode from the blood clots of 2021. One day I was planting tulips and the temperature was 20°C, and the next morning I woke up to –15°C. The abrupt change caused the death of my hand-raised maple that was just starting to offer much-needed shade to the hot yard. Also, the apple tree suffered fire blight, which kept coming back even after pruning. So last summer both trees were cut down.
The void of the apple tree is felt, but the area is still full of flowers.
Every year after the extreme temperature fluctuations we think that there is going to be nothing coming up, and every year the garden shows us how resilient life is.
There are more and more self-seeders that plant themselves merrily everywhere. I am really becoming a fan of the different alliums, which bloom for so long and don’t ask for much (they seem to be very dependable and tough) as well as all the different sedums, which are tough as nails.
Climate change and all its effects keep throwing wrenches. The long summer of drought made it necessary to spend lots of time in the garden watering. After the heat dome of 2021, the soil seems like it has been scorched of all its life, so it has been an ongoing challenge to feed it with compost and horse manure and mulch that never seems to be enough.
But through all the challenges the garden continues to be a source of peace, enjoyment, health, and communion with friends and strangers alike!
Have a garden you’d like to share?
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
There are so many tulips on the market. When I first started researching them years ago for my own garden, I ultimately threw up my hands and just picked the ones that had the prettiest pictures on their packages.
But I’m much pickier now and I know that if I want to fill a specific space, I need to find the perfect species.
When I need a tulip that is low-growing and provides long-lasting interest in the form of foliage and flowers, my go-to is Greig’s tulip, or Tulipa greigii.
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If you have dreams of a field of tulips, this one is a perfect option.
It naturalizes readily without becoming invasive. And it’s perfect as a border plant, to add life to a rock garden, or even for display in containers.
Part of what makes this variety fantastic is that the plants can produce up to three flowers per bulb, meaning you get a dense cluster of blossoms with just a few specimens.
If you live in USDA Hardiness Zones 3b to 8a, you can grow these short queens – and this guide will discuss cultivation details.
Here’s what I’ll cover:
The sooner we get started, the sooner we can start enjoying our plants, so let’s dive right in!
What Is Greig’s Tulip?
Greig’s tulips are plants of the Tulipa greigii species. The plants grow to about a foot tall when in bloom in early to mid-spring.
Each single, cup-shaped flower is held on a long stalk, and they’re typically red, salmon, yellow, orange, white, or a combination. A single bulb can produce up to three flower stalks.
The leaves have a gorgeous variegated green and reddish-purple pattern. These are oblong or lanceolate, alternate, and clasping – which means they surround the stem.
And these patterns vary wildly. That’s because they’re caused by a viral infection. If you purchase a plant with a pattern that you love, you can’t count on it being successfully recreated year after year.
These tulips are smaller than the more common hybrids that most people choose for their gardens.
You might picture Holland when you imagine these flowers running wild, but this species is indigenous to Kyrgyzstan in the North and West Tien Shan mountains.
Sadly, they’re endangered in their native home because of overgrazing and livestock traffic, as well as poaching.
Cultivation and History
Greig’s tulip was first identified in Turkestan and sent to Russia, where it was described by botanist and horticulturist Eduard August von Regel in 1877.
The specific epithet is a reference to Samuel Greig, a leader of the Russian navy and president of the Russian Horticultural Society in the 1700s.
This was the first species of tulip to be introduced into commercial cultivation.
Before planting, prepare your soil. These plants do best in loamy, loose soil, or slightly sandy soil.
They won’t do well at all in heavy clay, poorly draining soil. But if you have soil that is too sandy or too dense with clay, either can be remedied by working in lots of well-rotted compost.
Place the bulbs six inches apart and four inches deep. You can cluster them a bit closer if you want, but further spacing helps to highlight the leaves.
The plants can grow up a foot wide and crowding them together will press the leaves together, impeding airflow.
After you’ve had your plants in the ground for a few years, you can divide them.
How to Grow Greig’s Tulips
Plant your bulbs in full sun. They flower best when they have six hours or more of sunlight per day.
The leaves, which are admittedly gorgeous in their own right, will still emerge in shadier situations, but the flowers won’t bloom.
These plants don’t do well once temperatures climb above 70°F, which is why they won’t thrive in Zones 8b and above.
If you want to grow tulips in warmer regions, such as in Zones 8b and 9, look for bulbs that have been cold-treated and treat them as annuals.
The soil needs to be well-draining and rich, ideally with a pH between 6.0 and 6.5.
And again, this isn’t the plant for extremely sandy or heavy clay areas. If you have your heart set on growing Greigii tulips and you have less-than-ideal soil, grow them in containers or raised beds instead.
The soil should be allowed to dry out a bit between watering. If you stick your finger into the soil, it should feel dry halfway down the length of the bulb. If it’s any wetter, don’t supplement with water.
There’s a lot of information out there about how and when to feed tulips.
Most experts agree that it should be done in the fall, and I find my plants do better when I feed them then. That way, the developing bulbs have all the nutrients they need for blooming in spring.
If you’re growing them as annuals, don’t worry about fertilizing. Similarly, don’t feed the bulbs in the first year after planting.
They have all the nutrients they need built right in when you first plant them, and it’s only in the following years that they’ll need a boost.
In the fall, dress the ground above and around the bulbs with a granular food.
Make life easy on yourself and use a food made for bulbs like Jobe’s Organics, which is available at Amazon in four-pound bags.
Growing Tips
Plant in full sun for the best flowering.
Water when the soil has dried to halfway down the bulb.
Feed in the fall after the first year with granular fertilizer.
Pruning and Maintenance
The flowers emerge in early to mid-spring and stick around for a few weeks. Once the flowers fade, go ahead and remove the flower stalks.
Wait until the leaves are fully yellow or brown in the late spring for removal. Gently pull them away from the plant.
If they resist, leave them a bit longer. The leaves provide nutrients to sustain the bulb, so if you cut them off or pull them prematurely, you deprive the bulbs of nutrients.
Greig’s Tulip Cultivars to Select
There are many cultivars out there, and new ones are hitting the market all the time. I’ve yet to run into one that didn’t grow well for me, but here are a few standouts:
Cape Cod
Apricot petals edged in golden yellow pop up on 10-inch-tall stems in early spring, making for a fiery display.
Like all Greig’s tulips, ‘Cape Cod’ naturalizes readily without becoming invasive, so let it take over a bare patch of the garden.
Easter Surprise
Come Easter time, you’ll enjoy these lemon yellow flowers tipped in an ombre of salmon pink and red.
The plants stay under eight inches tall and sports maroon-tinted leaves.
Oratorio
‘Oratorio’ is on the petite side, growing to about six inches tall or so, so these bulbs are perfect as a low border.
They bloom a few weeks earlier than a lot of cultivars, but before the salmon pink blossoms pop up, you get to enjoy the purple-marked foliage.
‘Red Riding Hood’ has striking scarlet blossoms with just a hint of peach on the outside base of the petals.
Inside, the petals are accented in black at the base. And the reddish-purple leaves act as the perfect accent for the bold blossoms.
Zampa
The creamy yellow petals with a watercolor stripe of orange-red down the outer center highlight a border or stun as a mass planting.
‘Zampa’ stays under eight inches tall.
Managing Pests and Disease
I’ve repeatedly heard the claim that because plants in the Tulipa genus contain some toxic compounds, herbivores won’t eat them. Well, someone needs to tell that to the deer and voles in my neck of the woods.
While herbivores are my biggest challenge, pests and disease can also be a problem. Let’s talk about those hungry herbivores first.
Herbivores
Historically, humans have eaten tulip bulbs during times of famine. So it should come as no surprise that herbivores will target them.
Nonetheless, I’m always surprised by how much the squirrels, deer, and mice will go after the bulbs.
Deer
If persimmons are “deer candy,” tulips are “deer veggies.” Ungulates will devour the leaves, flowers, and even the bulbs during times of scarcity.
I once watched a herd of deer moving through my winter garden, and I marveled at their beauty and graceful movement in the snow-filled dormant garden.
But when they started pawing at the ground and pulling up my tulip bulbs – they weren’t so cute then!
Rodents like mice, squirrels, and voles will devour the bulbs, whether they find them in storage or dig them up from the ground.
Voles will find the bulbs while tunneling underground, squirrels will dig them up, and mice will take advantage of shallow bulbs.
Sometimes, I just chalk it up to the cost of gardening when I lose a few bulbs. But if the rodents start to destroy your garden, the best option is to move your plants into containers.
If you can’t stand the thought of potting up these flowers, you can bury wire mesh under and around the bed. Raised beds make the work easier, but you can do this in the ground, too.
Then, bury the bulbs an inch or two deeper than you normally would. This can be enough to discourage tiny squirrel and mouse paws.
Some gardeners report that repellants work. They never have for me, but in the battle against the four-legged marauders, we shouldn’t leave any tools on the shelf.
Insects
There are two main pests that regularly visit Greig’s tulips. Aphids are less common, while slugs and snails are common foes.
Aphids
If you’ve never dealt with aphids before, it’s only a matter of time. They’re extremely common in the garden, though I don’t find them to be particularly common on tulips.
These insects are small and oval shaped, and they use their sucking mouthparts to withdraw the sap from the leaves and stems of the plant. They typically like to cluster in areas where they can hide, like the base of leaves or right under the flower heads.
Slugs and snails will turn the leaves into lace. They can even kill a plant if it’s young enough.
With large, well-established bulbs, slugs and snails can eat the plant to the ground and prevent it from flowering that year, though it might be strong enough to return the following year.
Greig’s tulips are particularly tough when it comes to diseases – except for the virus that gives them their distinct look. When some of my showier hybrids are flailing, they are still going strong.
These plants can contract a few fungal issues, but this typically only happens when plants are stressed or growing in less-than-ideal conditions.
The primary ailment that you might see with tulips is Botrytis blight.
Botrytis Blight
Botrytis blight, also called tulip fire, is a common disease in the garden. Caused by fungi in the Botrytis genus, B. tulipae is a tulip-specific fungus.
The fungus thrives in cool, wet conditions. A nice, long stretch of overcast skies with plenty of rain and humidity over 80 percent is just the thing this pathogen needs.
But even that might not be enough for the disease to spread throughout your garden. It will sometimes wait for a bit of damage to sneak in – hailstorm, pest damage, or mechanical damage leaves the plant exposed.
Symptoms include twisted, distorted leaves, shoots that don’t unfurl, small spots on leaves and petals, and in severe cases, large sunken scabby areas.
As the disease worsens, you’ll see large lesions on the leaves and gray mold might appear on the lower part of the plant and on the bulbs, causing them to rot – whether in storage or underground.
Avoiding this problem starts with buying from reputable sellers who guarantee disease-free bulbs.
Be extremely careful when planting or when lifting the bulbs for storage to avoid damaging them. If you come across a bulb that looks moldy, dispose of it in the garbage, not the compost.
Avoid overwatering and overcrowding your plants to improve air circulation.
While you’re at it, you might just want to pack up and move somewhere dry and sunny during the spring because – and I hate to be the one to tell you this – there is no cure for tulip fire.
There’s no cure and it tends to get worse year after year. But you can limit the spread by removing symptomatic leaves and stems as soon as they start to fade.
You can soak the soil or spray the bulbs with a fungicide, both as a preventative and to slow the spread.
My go-to is Mycostop, which harnesses the power of the beneficial bacteria Streptomyces strain K61.
Greigii tulips can be grown in containers, lawns, rock gardens, and cut flower gardens, naturalized, grouped en masse, or grown as border plants.
The downside of tulips is that they disappear in the summer, leaving bare soil in their place.
During the dormant months, don’t hesitate to plant something over the bulbs. Shallow-rooted annuals like cosmos, petunias, phlox, sweet alyssum, and zinnias make great picks.
A prized planting for shady sites, lily of the valley makes a beautiful, cool green ground cover with small spires of tiny, bell-shaped flowers and a delightful perfume.
But if they’re not blooming, you’re missing a treat in the spring garden!
An easy care perennial, the pretty creamy white or pink flowers appear readily when just a few specific growing conditions are met: a shady setting, moist soil when the plant is setting buds, and adequate space for the roots to spread freely.
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Give them what they like and you’ll enjoy a beautiful carpet of adorable, fragrant flowers. But if something is amiss, the plant may fail to flower.
Keep reading to learn some easy fixes for lily of the valley that won’t bloom!
Here’s a preview of what’s ahead:
Overall, lily of the valley, Convallaria majalis, is a low maintenance perennial.
Affected by very few disease or pest problems, they spread fast in optimal conditions. The thick, fleshy roots quickly fill in beds and plants come back fuller every year.
If left to grow unchecked, lily of the valley plants quickly form a handsome ground cover that effectively chokes out weeds.
To grow into vibrant plants with plenty of flowers, lily of the valley needs partial shade, consistent moisture, and loose soil with a slightly acidic pH of 6.0 to 6.5.
While C. majalis has a well-earned reputation for being tough and reliable, problems like root rot can arise if they’re planted in overly wet soil – a well-draining environment is a must for healthy plants.
As light feeders, a one- or two-inch layer of compost in early spring meets all their nutritional requirements.
Flowering in spring amid lush foliage, plants go dormant in fall and during winter, but can remain evergreen in areas with mild winters.
They have excellent cold hardiness and are suitable for planting in USDA Zones 2 to 9, but in hot weather the plants tend to shrivel and die back.
If your plants aren’t producing flowers, it’s likely that there’s something amiss in their growing environment. It’s usually easy to solve the issue and they’ll provide you with plenty of blooms next year!
Here are the top five reasons why these plants may fail to bloom:
1. Too Much Light
For an abundance of flowers, lily of the valley needs to grow in the shade.
A few hours of early morning sunshine is fine, but for most of the day it needs the cooler temperatures of shady locations to develop a profusion of blooms.
And when the plants receive too much sunshine, bud set may not happen.
To ensure ample bud set, provide plants with part to full shade from about 10 o’clock in the morning onwards, to avoid hot afternoon sun.
2. Plant Maturity
When new plantings fail to bloom, it could be that they’re simply not mature enough to flower yet.
Generally, after planting it can take new stock up to two years to start blooming.
In the meantime, ensure they have optimal conditions for vigorous growth and be patient, when they’re well-established, flowers will follow.
3. Soil Moisture Issues
Although lily of the valley plants have good drought tolerance once established, they prefer consistently moist soil – and this is particularly important during bud set.
If you’ve had a dry winter or spring, the soil may have become parched, which can negatively impact bud and flower development.
Should spring rains be scant or absent, make sure you water your plants deeply on a weekly basis, providing one to two inches of water. Consistently moist, well-draining soil is key for bud formation.
Lily of the valley has thick, fleshy rhizomes called “pips” that like to spread out, forming dense mats. But when the roots become too congested, blooms can be in short supply.
When overcrowded roots grow into a tangled mat, they can suffer from a lack of oxygen and water, resulting in a loss of vigor – and fewer blooms.
To rejuvenate your lily of the valley, these fast spreaders can be divided every three to five years, splitting them in winter while they’re still dormant.
When replanting your divisions, give them plenty of space to expand into. Space them 12 inches apart when transplanting established clumps and four to six inches apart for individual pips.
5. Compacted Soil
Compacted soil is usually a problem in overgrown beds but it can also be caused by foot traffic or a buildup of compost and plant debris.
The results are similar to overcrowding: not enough oxygen in the soil and poor water infiltration, causing the roots and foliage to struggle, which reduces flowering.
To aerate the soil, in late winter use an aerating tool or your garden fork to revive beds and breathe new life into your plants.
Don’t worry about damaging the roots – the benefits of aerating the soil outweigh any minor damage you may cause, and the roots will grow back quickly.
The Walansee Lawn Spike has 15 sharp iron tines to quickly loosen the soil and is available at Walmart.
Easy Care Flowers
Easy-care lily of the valley is ideal for the shade garden and doesn’t require a lot of attention to thrive and produce oodles of fragrant flowers!
For the best flower production, give them the conditions they love – partial shade and well-draining soil – and keep the soil consistently moist in spring when the buds are forming.
Divide plants when they become overcrowded and aerate the soil if it becomes compacted to safeguard against lack of oxygen around the roots and poor water infiltration.
With just a little adjustment or two to their growing environment, these delightful plants will perform admirably!
Any questions about how to encourage your lily of the valley to flower? Drop us a note in the comments section below.
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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.
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.)
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.
A genus of hardy herbaceous perennials, some of which are useful border plants, the dwarf species are good rock garden plants. Several are natives of the British Isles but those valued for gardens are from Europe, South America, and the Near East.
From the Greek geno, to impart an agreeable flavor, referring to the aromatic roots of some species (Rosaceae). Avens.
Species Grown Today
Geum x borisii, 1 foot, vivid orange flowers, May to August, hybrid.
Geum chiloense (syn. G. coccineum in some catalogs), 2 feet, scarlet flowers, summer. The species itself is rarely cultivated, but from it many cultivars, mostly with double flowers, have been produced. They include ‘Dolly North’, orange; `Fire Opal’, single orange overlaid with red; ‘Lady Stratheden’, golden-yellow; ‘Prince of Orange’, bright orange; ‘Princess Juliana’, golden-orange; ‘Mrs Bradshaw’, pillarbox red; ‘Red Wings’, semi-double, bright scarlet, late flowering.
Geum x heldreichii 9-12 inches, orange-red, summer, hybrid.
Geum montanum, 6-12 inches, yellow flowers, May.
Geum. reptans, 6 inches, yellow, late summer.
Geum rivale, water avens, 1 foot, reddish, May and June, a native; ‘Leonard’s Variety’, with pink and orange flowers, is a cultivar.
Geumtriflorum, 9-12 inches, soft pink, July.
Where to plant and how to propagate
Geums are easily grown in any good, well-drained garden soil. They appreciate the sunshine, but the border kinds tolerate shade and damp conditions. Propagation is by division in spring or autumn or from seed sown out of doors in April or May, or in a cold frame or greenhouse in March or April.
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.
