The fruits of hybrid ‘Barbarella’ are rounded with deep pleats like an heirloom tomato. The glossy skin has a magenta blush under the calyx that shades to deep purple.
Early-maturing hybrid ‘Beatrice’ is ready to pick in about 62 days. Appreciated for its high yields, this egg-shaped variety produces four- to six-inch violet fruits.
Tender skin you don’t have to peel, and a mild, creamy flavor characterize this variety.
4. Dancer
The cylindrical to teardrop-shaped fruits of ‘Dancer’ are magenta and measure seven to eight inches long. Expect maturity in 65 days from this high-yielding variety.
Firm enough to grill, ‘Dancer’ has creamy white flesh that cooks up tender and mild.
5. Long Purple
With violet cylindrical or teardrop-shaped fruits measuring eight to 10 inches long, the name ‘Long Purple’ suits this tender and tasty choice.
Also known as ‘Early Long’ or ‘Italian Heirloom,’ this heirloom variety has a mild flavor and thin skin.
The egg-shaped fruits of ‘Paloma’ are white and lightly ribbed, with a length of up to four and a half inches. They have tender skin and flesh, a sweet taste, and a creamy mouthfeel.
This robust hybrid variety produces an abundant harvest in 65 days. Take care not to bruise the skin when picking.
8. Pianta Delle Uova
The quintessential “eggplant,” ‘Pianta Delle Uova’ produces two- to four-inch egg-shaped fruits with tender white to tan skin and sweet, creamy flesh.
Also known as the “tree of eggs,” this heirloom variety is appreciated for its prolific fruit production and ornamental appeal. Expect maturity in 70 to 80 days.
This early-maturing, heirloom variety is ready for picking in about 60 days.
‘Shooting Stars’ seeds are available from Burpee in packages of 30. Single starter plants or a three-plant mix and match combination are also available.
13. Snowy
Open-pollinated ‘Snowy’ features white, cylindrical fruits measuring up to seven inches long.
They have a mild flavor, meaty flesh, and firm skin, making them suitable for your favorite slow-cooked dishes.
The six- to eight-inch oblong fruits of ‘Traviata’ are glossy and deep purple, almost black. The skin and flesh are firm for use in a variety of dishes.
The glossy, rounded purple fruits of heirloom ‘Violetta di Firenze’ are splashed with white. The deep pleating is like that of an heirloom tomato. They measure five to six inches around.
With 15 Italian eggplant varieties from which to choose, it’s time to take out your garden planner and decide where you’re going to put your favorites.
When your first harvest is in, jump over to our sister site, Foodal, for delicious eggplant recipes.
Small, sweet, and tender Italian eggplants with few seeds are sure to please the diners around your table.
One final note: As you shop for seeds, notice descriptions like “heirloom” and “non-gmo.” Some varieties are hybridized for greater disease resistance and productivity, particularly in commercial settings.
Others are genetically modified and parthenocarpic, which means that they can set fruit inside a greenhouse or poly-tunnel without pollination.
Growing ‘Costoluto Genovese’ tomatoes is one way to experience a taste of Italy without a passport or plane ride.
This heirloom tomato variety hails from Genoa, a Mediterranean port city in northwestern Italy. Its flavor is intense and highly acidic, so it’s a natural choice for authentic sauce recipes and canning.
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What really sets ‘Costoluto Genovese’ apart are its looks. The fruits are attractive, bright red, and have deeply pleated flesh that produces scalloped edges when they’re sliced.
If you enjoy growing vegetables with an unusual appearance, this one definitely fits the bill.
But don’t make up your mind about ‘Costoluto Genovese’ just yet.
I have a bit of background and a bunch of growing tips to share that will help you decide if this heirloom tomato will suit your home garden.
Here’s everything I’ll cover up ahead:
What Are ‘Costoluto Genovese’ Tomatoes?
Like all of the tomatoes we grow in our gardens, ‘Costoluto Genovese’ is a cultivar of the Solanum lycopersicum species, which originated in South and Central America.
As is typical for tomatoes, it is not at all frost hardy, but can be grown as an annual in USDA Hardiness Zones 3 to 11 or as a tender perennial in Zones 8 to 11.
It’s an indeterminate variety, which means it produces fruit that ripens throughout a prolonged harvest season rather than within a two- or three-week window.
Most people categorize this variety of tomato as a beefsteak, due to its rounded fruits that can weigh six to eight ounces and taste good sliced for sandwiches and salads.
But it’s also one of the few vining varieties that produces large fruits while still being considered a canning tomato.
In other words, this variety has a trifold appeal for fresh eating, cooking, and preserving.
Its meaty flesh and tart flavor profile lend themselves to Italian cuisine, so it’s no surprise to learn this heirloom was bred in Genoa near the turn of the 19th century.
Known to have traveled extensively in Italy in 1787, Thomas Jefferson grew the tomato in his gardens at Monticello, starting in 1809.
It’s not a particularly common variety outside of Italy, but it does have lots of fans among foodies, chefs, and preservationists.
For example, the folks who planted the 1812 Garden at Historic Fort Osage in 2009 in Sibley, Missouri, included a variety they refer to as “Thomas Jefferson’s 1809 ‘Costoluto Genovese’” in their plot, demonstrating the daily practices and lifestyle of a bygone era with a nod to the historic garden of the third US President.
An open-pollinated heirloom, it’s one of the parents of the popular hybrid ‘Genuwine,’ the other being ‘Brandywine.’
Its vines can reach six or seven feet high and require staking. The plants produce those half-pound fruits starting about 75 days from transplant.
These are the distinguishing feature of ‘Costoluto Genovese,’ with heavy lobes, flattened, pinched tops, and bright red skins.
Can’t you just taste them? Let’s get closer to a possible harvest with some tips for growing.
Propagation
Because they’re not widely available as live starts, it’s important to plan ahead if you intend to grow ‘Costoluto Genovese’ in your home garden.
You’ll most likely need to sow the seeds yourself.
To give the plants the required 75 days to reach maturity from transplant, sow the seeds indoors about six weeks before the time you anticipate being able to transplant them into the garden.
Shoot for starting them four weeks ahead of the average last frost date in your area. That should give them enough time to sprout, grow several sets of true leaves, and harden off ahead of planting outside.
Don’t use ordinary garden soil for this project. Instead, sow the seeds in a specially formulated seed-starting mix.
Sowing them a quarter of an inch deep, plant one seed per one-inch cell, or plant multiple seeds two inches apart in a shallow tray with drainage holes.
Be sure to nestle the cells or tray in a second tray without drainage so the soil will stay moist without spilling excess water on your workspace.
Cover the tray with a clear humidity dome or plastic wrap, and use a spray bottle of water to keep the soil moist but not wet until the seeds germinate.
Keep the temperature at 70 to 75°F until you see sprouts, which usually takes about seven to 14 days. You may need a heat mat if your house is not that warm – I know mine isn’t!
After the seeds germinate, move them as quickly as possible to an area exposed to a strong source of light, be that a grow light or a sunny windowsill.
Then keep them moist and in the temperature range of 60 to 70°F until it’s time for them to graduate to bigger cells, or to be hardened off and transplanted outdoors.
While this method doesn’t come up often, it is also possible to start ‘Costoluto Genovese’ plants from cuttings, particularly if you live in a warm region where tomatoes may be grown as perennials.
If you’re able to locate full-size plants to provide cuttings for rooting, and if you have time to successively plant additional starts of this variety in the course of the growing season, keep this option in mind.
Basically, you would need a six-inch tip cutting from a healthy tomato plant for each new start – a stem that hasn’t started setting fruit.
Snip off any flowers before you try to root the cutting, and strip the leaves from the bottom of the stem until you only have two leaves left at the top.
Fill a four-inch container that has drainage holes with about three inches of dampened all-purpose potting soil.
I prefer to use biodegradable pots so I can transplant the starts pot and all, but repurposed milk cartons or other pots you have around are fine too, as long as they’re clean and have been sterilized with hot soapy water or a diluted bleach solution.
Use a table knife to make a hole to insert the stem into, stopping just half an inch from the bottom of the container.
Holding it upright, place the stem into the hole. Tamp the soil, then firm more soil around the stem until all the nodes that you removed leaves from are covered.
Place the container on a saucer or plate to catch any water that leaks out, and place it in a protected spot with a temperature around 70 to 75°F.
A windowsill with indirect light is best, or a spot near a wall on the patio may work if the weather’s consistently warm enough.
Keep the soil moist but not saturated, using a clean spray bottle of water.
The potted cuttings need to stay out of the direct sun at first, but after a week you’ll want to move them into spots with progressively stronger light until by week two they are growing in full sun.
At that point, check for roots. You can transplant the rooted cuttings following the same process you would with ‘Costoluto Genovese’ grown from seed indoors.
How to Grow
Growing this heirloom tomato with its heavy fruits takes extra-nutritious, well-draining soil, full sun, and regular watering.
You’ll want to amend the soil with plenty of aged manure or other composted organic material, and also check the pH with a soil test.
You want a pH between 6.0 and 6.8, and the earlier in the season you can start amending soil that’s out of that range, the better.
If your garden patch is more than 0.1 points out of that pH range, you may want to start out with a raised bed you fill with suitable soil, and concentrate on building a better pH for the following year.
You can plant ‘Costoluto Genovese’ in containers, but it wouldn’t be my first choice. For one thing, this plant grows as tall as six or seven feet and produces half-pound fruits, which means it can topple over easily.
It also is a heavy feeder and needs lots of water, and all that fertilizing and watering can be hard to keep up with for container-grown tomatoes.
But if you’re sold on this variety and don’t have a suitable garden site or raised bed, go for it! Just be sure each plant gets its own pot that holds at least seven gallons of soil formulated for container-grown vegetables.
Vining, indeterminate tomatoes like these also need substantial support from a trellis, tripod, or post at least six feet tall.
For tomatoes this tall, I usually use an upended eight-by-four-foot cattle fence panel with two-by-four-inch openings, supported by wooden posts. It’s large enough to support two or three plants on each side.
It may feel odd at the time, but you must insert your intended supports when you transplant the seedlings. If you wait till later, you may disturb their roots trying to install support.
Don’t be too hasty about planting your tomatoes. Wait until all threat of frost has passed.
Transplant only once the air temperature is consistently above 55°F and the soil is at least 65°F.
Once your plants are established, completing a few chores will help keep them healthy throughout the rest of the season.
When they’re a few inches tall, you’ll want to layer two inches of mulch around the seedlings to conserve water and suppress weeds.
Be sure to leave a couple of inches around the stems of the plants unmulched. Straw or grass clippings from a lawn that hasn’t been treated with herbicide or pesticides are good choices, as is mushroom compost.
Speaking of rain, if you don’t get at least an inch per week during the prime growing season, be sure to supplement.
Your goal is to provide a steady supply of water aimed at the soil level, not sprinkled above the plants. Consider using drip irrigation or soaker hoses, so you don’t get the leaves wet. Lingering moisture can promote certain waterborne diseases and invite moisture-loving pests.
Once you notice that your plants are setting fruit, you’ll want to fertilize them every few weeks.
One option I like is the organic Jobe’s Vegetable and Tomato 2-5-3 (NPK), which is available in four-pound bags from Home Depot.
Throughout the season, watch out for insect pests like aphids and hornworms.
Our guide to growing tomatoes has a full rundown on potential pests. Be sure to look at it since so many pests can be deterred with smart garden practices, and so many vegetable garden diseases are transmitted by bugs.
Some of the dozens of potential tomato ailments you may encounter include physiological issues like catfacing and those caused by fungal pathogens such as anthracnose and black mold.
You can prevent most of these issues by judiciously rotating your crops, spacing your plants so they receive ample air circulation, destroying diseased plants, and removing plant debris at the end of the season.
These tomatoes can take a couple of weeks longer to produce ripe fruits than some more modern-day hybrids of a comparable size.
The harvest starts about 75 days from transplant, unless high temperatures delay fruit set.
You’ll be able to keep picking from that point until it gets so cold the plants can no longer produce, with a harvest window of four to eight weeks, depending on how early you were able to plant.
It’s a good idea to count the days from transplanting and set a reminder on your cell phone or make a note in your gardening journal to start monitoring the fruits for ripeness around that time.
Here’s where you’ll need to recognize the characteristics of large-fruit heirloom tomatoes. They will be juiciest and most flavorful if you let them ripen completely on the vine.
For ‘Costoluto Genovese,’ you would wait for the bright red color to fully develop and for the skins to yield slightly when you gently press them with your thumb.
At that point, you can easily pluck them from the stems or cut them away with clean scissors.
Be careful not to stack them for their journey to the kitchen or they might bruise. And skip refrigeration – It destroys the texture and robs them of flavor.
Wait to wash until right before you eat them or cook with them. And if they’re going in a salad after washing, make sure to gently dry the whole tomatoes with a clean dish towel, so they won’t make the dressing watery.
Like most heirloom varieties, they won’t last more than two or three days on the kitchen counter before they start to rot. You may have to pick them a little prematurely if you need a couple of extra days of storage between harvest and consumption.
This won’t produce the optimal flavor, but they’ll still be juicy and tasty picked three or four days ahead of full-color ripeness.
This brings me to the only negative I can think of with these sauce tomatoes:
Unlike commercial tomatoes that have been bred to withstand shipping and can sit for days waiting to be selected from grocery store bins, these fruits are thin-skinned and don’t travel or store well.
So you can’t load up the car with a peck of them and drive three states away to share them, and you must consume them within a couple of days of picking.
Good thing they taste so great in sauce and multitudes of other dishes, hmm?
And you can readily preserve any excess. In fact, some home gardeners grow these tomatoes so they’ll have big batches of sauce to enjoy throughout the winter, with nary a thought of slicing them for salad.
Whichever approach you’d prefer, you’ll find some tips in the next couple of sections.
Preserving
Stocking up? These sauce tomatoes are invaluable for the home preserver.
The pleats make them a bit more difficult to peel before canning or freezing, but that authentic Italian taste makes the chore well worth it.
Or you can skip it and freeze ‘Costoluto Genovese’ chunks without peeling them first.
Don’t overlook salsa and jam! Use any crunchy green tomatoes left at the end of the season in place of tomatillos for this salsa verde recipe from our sister site, Foodal.
The ripe fruits are delicious in Foodal’s scratch-made tomato jam, which can be popped into the freezer in canning jars or airtight containers. It’s also suitable for water-bath canning.
Photo by Meghan Yager.
Foodal features a recipe for homemade ketchup that will be extra tangy made with ‘Costoluto Genovese,’ too.
Recipes and Cooking Ideas
Once the harvest begins, all your hard work starts to pay off, and I hope you will fully enjoy the fruits of your labor!
Start easy, serving lightly salted slices alongside home fries and scrambled eggs for a leisurely summer breakfast, or slide them atop burgers or into BLTs.
You can also toss chunks into pasta or green salads, or use thin slices as a pizza or flatbread topping.
Fresh tomato sauce or gazpacho is sublimely piquant when made with these extra-flavorful, tart fruits.
Foodal’s recipe for the raw soup is one you can personalize to your own taste and prepare throughout the harvest season.
Photo by Fanny Slater.
Or use these heirlooms for homemade tomato paste or any number of cooked sauces. Foodal’s oven-roasted tomato sauce is a tasty basic option to cook on repeat.
When you have a fresh harvest coming in over the period of six to eight weeks, you’ll have plenty of tomatoes to experiment with, so enjoy!
Even with a blindfold on, you’ll love the acidic, intense flavor of these tomatoes. Their appearance is a bonus!
The charming scalloped edges are evident when you cut ‘Costoluto Genovese’ for open-face sandwiches or a Caprese salad – or place them on a platter beside the grill with some buttercrunch lettuce, awaiting fresh burgers.
What about you? Do you have any growing, serving, or preserving tips to share with our readers in the comments section below? Please do, and feel free to ask questions about any aspect of ‘Consoluto Genovese’ care there.
PinYellowing leaves on Dracaena Marginata | Image-PlantCareToday.com
Dracaenas like:
Consistent, moderate humidity
Moist soil (not wet)
Bright indirect sunlight
Monthly fertilizing from early spring through mid-autumn
If any of these conditions are lacking, your Dracaena may suffer.
This article will look at the causes of brown or yellow leaves in Dracaena plants. We share 9 tips to help you diagnose and deal with these common problems.
Older Leaves Turn Yellow Naturally
One very simple reason why leaves turn yellow and fall off is age. As a plant like a Dracaena fragrans matures and grows taller, the lower leaves naturally mature and drop off.
When this happens, use sharp scissors to trim them off trim or pull them away. Fresh new growth replaces the old leaves at the top of the plant.
Dry Air Damages Leaves On A Dracaena Plant
If the air is too dry, you will likely see browning leaf tips and yellowing margins in the new foliage of your Dracaena plants. Loss of leaves is sure to follow.
You can deal with this problem by putting your Dracaena or corn plant on a pebble tray filled with water.
Set the plant on top of the pebbles
Be careful not to let the water touch the bottom of the pot
As the water evaporates, it increases the humidity level surrounding your plant.
Besides the use of a pebble tray, you can mist your plant on a daily basis. Setting up a humidifier in the room will also help.
Dracaenas Do Not Like Sudden Temperature Changes
Another big cause of leaves turning brown or yellow in Dracaena plants is exposure to cold drafts. Dracaena likes a consistently warm temperature of 70° to 80° degrees Fahrenheit at all times.
In the spring and autumn, nighttime temperatures can drop significantly. Your plant may be happy near an open window through the summertime.
But you may want to move it away or close the window at night during cold weather.
Pin
Cold, Soggy Potting Mix Causes Leaves to Die
Chilly temperatures combined with overwatering tend to encourage bacterial and fungal diseases. These conditions can lead to brown leaf tips or yellow leaves.
If your plant is suffering from an infection, you may notice damp, mushy areas on the leaves. In some cases, blisters may develop. These are all signs of a malady known as a leaf spot.
You can address this by pruning away damaged parts of the plant. You may want to repot in fresh soil as a last resort. Be sure the container has ample drainage holes.
Move your Dracaena marginata plant (dragon tree) to an area with the following:
Better lighting
A higher temperature
Improved ventilation
Keep the potting mix slightly moist
Avoid allowing the potting medium to become very dry or soaking wet
Overwatering Causes Fungal Infections
Overwatering is the most common cause of houseplant problems across the board.
Overwatered plants generally:
Become droopy and yellow
Tend to have a wilted, soft appearance
These are all signs of stem and root rot, which is a fungal infection.
The most common fungus to affect Dracaena leaves is the Fusarium leaf spot. This fungus likes the same circumstances that Dracaena likes. It thrives in warm, moist settings.
To prevent this fungus from taking hold, avoid getting the leaves wet.
Water your Dracaena from below rather than pour water over it.
Use of a preventative fungicide may be needed from time to time.
If you find your Dracaena infected with Fusarium leaf spot:
Isolate the plant
Remove the plant from its pot
Shake all potting mix loose from the roots
Trim away all affected leaves, stems, and roots
Treat the entire plant with a fungicide
Repot into a new or sterilized pot with a clean, fresh potting medium.
Keep the plant isolated in a warm, well-lit, well-ventilated area. Water sparingly.
Underwatering Causes Crispy Leaves
What does underwatering your Dracaena look like?
Look for Dracaena leaves to display brown spots along with crispy, brown leaf margins.
Another sign of underwatering problems may appear along with curling stems and leaves. [source]
To solve underwatering issues, establish a regular watering schedule.
Many plants like a drench-and-dry schedule. This is where you water thoroughly and let the soil dry out almost completely.
Dracaena plants like the soil to be slightly moist at all times.
Remember that low humidity levels can cause dracaena leaves to turn yellow or brown.
When watering, try not to use tap water. It is often treated with chemicals such as fluoride and chlorine. Dracaenas are sensitive to both of these chemicals.
It’s best to use distilled water, rainwater, or bottled water.
You can use tap water, but let it sit out in the open air for one or two days before using it. This will allow the chemicals to dissipate.
Dracaena is especially sensitive to fluoride.
If your tap water is treated with fluoride, it will buildup in the soil and begin to poison your plant. When this happens, the leaves will begin to turn yellow and brown tips emerge.
Fertilizer salts may build up in the potting soil with fertilizers containing superphosphate. Be aware that this substance is in potting soils containing perlite. Avoid using potting soil containing perlite when planting Dracaena.
Choose a balanced liquid fertilizer. Use it only during the plants’ growing season (i.e., early springtime to mid-autumn).
If you believe that fertilizer salts have built up in the soil, you can try flushing them out with fresh, pure water.
Pour the water through the soil. Allow the excess water to run out of the drain holes until it runs clear.
Pest Infestation is Common with Yellow/Brown Leaves
Dracaenas are more likely to attract and harbor pests when:
A poor watering schedule has weakened your Dracaena
Growing conditions are not helpful to good plant health and well-being
Spider mites, mealybugs, and plant scale can move quickly if your plant weakens. Infestation by these sap-sucking pests is yet another cause of yellowing leaves, as they can drain the plant’s moisture. More on What Pests or Bugs Attack Dracaenas?
If you find your Dracaena attacked by pests:
Give it a rather forceful shower to knock off as many of the pests as possible
Prune away damaged leaves and stems.
Treat with insecticidal soap, a Neem oil solution or a weak permethrin solution
Isolate your plant in a warm area with good lighting (no direct sunlight) and ventilation. This prevents pests from moving to other plants.
Examine plants thoroughly and often. Deal with any resurgence of pests as needed.
Sansevieria, also known as the snake plant, is one of the easiest indoor plants from home. According to NASA research, sansevieria plants remove toxins from the air and continue to produce oxygen.
PinRepotting snake plants | shoovy-DepositPhotos
Best of all, snake plant care is easy. They come in a variety of species and cultivars. Different leaf colors and shapes have led to nicknames – mother-in-law’s tongue and bowstring hemp.
These succulents thrive in a range of light conditions. All with equal ease, from full sun, bright indirect light, or low light.
Their beauty and effect on air quality aside.
Is there anything you can give these wonderful low-maintenance indoor houseplants in return for their hard work?
The good news is – Yes! The best soil will help keep your snake plant healthy. It may help plants recover from accidental overwatering or damage.
What Kind of Soil Does the Snake Plant Need For Best Plant Growth?
As a succulent plant, the snake plant is vulnerable to root rot. This means having a well-draining soil mix is best for snake plants.
If you notice your snake plant leaves turning pale or yellow, it’s a sign that the soil is too dense and not draining properly.
Choose a pot with drainage holes to ensure the excess water drains out. Select one of the commercial premium potting mixes made for cacti and succulents, or make your own.
While a plastic pot is fine, a terracotta pot tends to include the perfect amount of drainage.
There are some excellent snake plant soil choices out there for great pre-made soil mixture, but three brands tend to stand out:
Miracle-Grow
Made by one of the most famous names in plant care, Miracle-Gro.
Their cactus palm and citrus potting media blend perlite and sand with various woodland-based ingredients.
This makes for a fast-draining and nutritious planting medium.
Ramsey Succulent Potting Mix
Seaweed is the key ingredient in the Ramsey succulent soil. The mix also combines part perlite and sand to create an indoor potting mix with great drainage and high nutritional values.
rePotme Cactus Soil Mix and Succulent Soil Mix
This succulent soil mix is a rich, hand-made mix. It includes tiny pieces of bark, pumice, stalite, and diatomaceous earth.
The latter provides this mix with an excellent means of natural pest control.
Can You Add to Commercial Soil To Make Snake Plant Potting Mix Better?
Plants are like children. Two similar plants have their own unique personality and preferences.
As a result, you may want to tweak the recipe for the right soil mix a little. Add a little extra to a commercial mix if you find your snake plant isn’t happy.
Drainage issues are still possible. Adding some gravel at the bottom of the pot is a great way to improve the water flow.
Consider adding pumice, coco coir, or perlite to a mix that isn’t draining well.
You can add a small amount of rich potting soil (no more than ¼ of the final mix) to add nutrients to the potting soil.
Snake Plant Soil Recipes
The great news is you don’t have to buy a special mix to create the perfect medium for your snake plant soil.
An easy mix requires:
2 parts of coarse sand or perlite
1 part peat moss or coconut coir
1 part garden soil or potting mix
NOTE: Do not use garden soil on plants growing indoors. Natural organic ingredients are great for plants growing outdoors.
When making your own best soil for snake plant mix, remember:
The soil must be well-draining
It must be loose enough that repotting snake plants requires minimal effort
If your snake plant has root rot, it can be salvaged.
Removing the root ball
Trim away the diseased roots and leaves
Repot in a fresh potting medium
A granular, soil-free potting medium is ideal.
Peat moss is great at absorbing excess moisture. It is also the only soil component that can go bad over time
Consider using coconut coir or pine bark as a substitution when mixing your own snake plant mix.
Snake Plant Soil Questions and Answers
Can I use succulent soil for the snake plant?
Yes, succulent soil mixes or snake plant soil mix work great for Sansevieria (Dracaena trifasciata) plants.
Do snake plants like coffee grounds?
Coffee grounds (as a fertilizer) are good for acid-loving plants. Adding coffee grounds to your compost heap is a good idea.
But stay away from using them on your snake plants.
First of all, Epsom salt is not salt. It is NOT the table salt you put on your food!
It’s actually a compound called magnesium sulfate that occurs naturally. It’s made of magnesium, sulfur, and oxygen.
The name Epsom is a nod to a saline spring found in a part of England by the same name.
Magnesium sulfate is known for providing wonderful benefits when growing tomatoes, functioning as a plant fertilizer to help with magnesium deficiency.
Magnesium is critical for the production of chlorophyll, seed germination, photosynthesis, and fruit development. In contrast, sulfur aids in the production of proteins and enzymes.
Continue to learn how to use Epsom salt for plants.
Incorporate Epsom Salt And Tomato Plants From The Start
#1 For Potted Tomatoes
Before providing Epsom salt, it’s important to do a soil test to check the soil pH and for a magnesium deficiency. Yellow leaves is one sign of a magnesium deficiency. This way, you won’t accidentally put too much on your soil, potentially harming your plant.
So how much Epsom salt per gallon of water?
Dissolve around 2 tablespoons of Epsom salt in 1 gallon of water. Use the solution to water your plants.
How often should you put Epsom salt on plants?
No need to do this every day, though! Instead, use the solution once a month and switch to regular watering for the rest of the days.
#2 When First Planting Tomato Seedlings
When first planting seedlings in the garden, take 1 cup of Epsom salt and sprinkle it liberally over the plot. Ideally, 1 cup of Epsom salt will cover roughly 100 square feet. Make sure you distribute it evenly. Epsom salt will help reduce transplanting shock.
When you’re done, work the Epsom salt into the garden soil. This makes it easier for your tomatoes to obtain micronutrients from the soil, strengthen cell walls, build stronger roots, and burst into healthy blooms.
Generally, you’ll know if your tomato plants are suffering from a magnesium deficiency if you see tomato yellowing leaves or chlorosis. Do not wait for this to happen! As your tomatoes mature, continue adding Epsom salt to the soil.
How much Epsom salt for plants?
The ideal solution ratio is 1 tablespoon of Epsom salt per foot of plant height. If your tomato plant is two feet tall, you’ll feed it two tablespoons of Epsom salt at least twice a month!
Once on the 15th and another on the 30th would be perfect. For other plants, the general rule is once every six weeks. Opt for the less frequent method and observe how your plants react.
Warning: DO NOT overuse because too much magnesium can lead to micronutrient imbalance and harm your tomato plant.
#4 Applying Epsom Salt As A Soil Drench OR A Foliar Spray
How to use Epsom salt on plants?
Drenching with Epsom salt improves the overall health of tomato plants by giving them a good dose of magnesium.
How much Epsom salt for tomato plants?
If your tomatoes need a boost, mix and dissolve about one or two tablespoons of Epsom salt in a gallon of warm water. Epsom salts help with nutrient uptake.
Drench at the base of the tomato plants and allow the water-salt solution to soak into the ground.
Repeat throughout the season as necessary. Using Epsom salt for peppers will produce the same benefits. You’re essentially fertilizing tomatoes with Epsom salts.
Apply as a foliar Epsom salt spray for plants using the same 1 or 2 tablespoons in a gallon of water every 2 weeks for a boost.
What To Expect When Applying Epsom Salts For Tomatoes
So, what do Epsom salts do for plants?
Epsom salt for tomato plants with the proper application, your tomatoes, you can expect the following results during the growing season:
Tomato plants are less prone to problems
The tomatoes bear fruits longer with bigger yields and fruit production
Improved chlorophyll production with green veins and foliage
Ripening color is redder than usual and more attractive
Larger tomato fruits
The tomatoes are sweet, better flavor, and incredibly juicy
Other crops that benefit from Epsom salt include: peppers, rose bushes with brighter colored bloom, Epsom salt for cucumbers, and Epsom salt for garden or Epsom salt for vegetable gardens.
However, remember that using Epsom salt alone will not provide the core nutrients and vitamins needed for growth, including nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. So it’s best to add your Epsom salt as part of a homemade fertilizer.
Understand that different plants have different care needs, so you’ll have to do some research based on the crop you intend to grow.
Colorado potato beetles pose such a grave threat to potato crops that flamethrowers have been used to control them. However, you do not have to go to such extremes in your garden.
We at Gardener’s Path provide a number of natural control methods to use against this voracious pest – and if necessary, tips on how to use insecticides as well.
Although not discovered until 1811, Colorado potato beetles quickly spread from the Rocky Mountains to the East Coast by 1874, and reached Europe a few years later.
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Left unchecked, these beetles can devour an entire crop of potatoes. And they also lay waste to these fruits and vegetables:
Infestations are so serious that they have even been considered part of international warfare!
In the 1950s, East Germans called these pests “Yankee beetles” and accused the United States government of dropping them from planes during the Cold War. (There was no evidence to support this claim.)
Identification, Biology, and Distribution
Colorado potato beetles, aka potato bugs, are about 1/4 to 1/2 inch long. The area behind their heads is orange-yellow. You can easily identify them by the 10 alternating yellow and black stripes on their shells.
These voracious insects can be confused with false potato beetles (Leptinotarsa juncta), which are not pests. You can tell the difference because the false potato beetles have alternating white and black stripes on their shells.
Potato beetle larvae hatch from yellow-orange eggshell clusters on the bottom of leaves. Newly hatched larvae are bright red. The older orange-pink larvae are about 1/2 inch long.
Larvae of all stages have black heads, and can be identified by the two rows of dark spots on each side of their humps.
These insects can be found in every state except California, Nevada, Hawaii, and Alaska. They are also pests in every Canadian province, and in Central America. The beetles have spread to more than 6 million square miles across Europe and Asia.
Life Cycle
Depending on the climate, these pests can live through the winter as adults in gardens, field margins, and windbreaks. In less favorable climates, the adults may overwinter in your soil.
The adults lay yellow to orange eggs about 1 millimeter long on the bottom of leaves, where they hatch into larvae.
The larvae go through four growth stages (instars), and the fourth instar larvae cause the most damage to food crops. These hungry larvae are responsible for up to 75% of the damage to a crop.
When the larvae complete this phase of their life cycle, they drop to the ground and burrow several inches down before pupating.
Adult beetles emerge 5-10 days later, and start feeding and mating on their host plants. If conditions are not favorable, the adults may not emerge until spring.
A single female can lay over 500 eggs over a 4 to 5-week period, and they can mature from larvae to adult beetles in 1.5-3 weeks, depending on the climate.
Organic Control Methods
Once you have identified these insect pests in your garden, don’t panic! Potato plants can lose up to 30% of their leaves and stems without any loss of yield.
Their most critical time is after flowering, when the tubers have begun to bulk up. However, you will want to take action before these fiendish pests take over.
Your immediate reaction may be to reach for an insecticide. This may not be the best strategy, since Colorado potato beetles are frequently resistant to pesticides.
Instead, your best bet is to consider a combination of different types of organic control methods.
Physical Controls
Handpicking
If you are a home gardener, one of the first and most effective things you can do is to go on the offensive and pluck the slow-moving beetles off your plants. This is easiest to accomplish on a sunny, warm day when the pests are out and about.
Just drop them into a container of soapy water! That will dispense of these nasty pests quickly and easily.
While it may be the most satisfying to kill the adults, make a point to get as many of the larvae as you can, as they cause the most damage. And don’t forget to crush any egg masses that you find on the bottom of the leaves, which often appear around the same time that shoots are first emerging from the soil.
Be sure to wear gloves, and wash your hands afterwards. The bugs contain a chemical that may irritate your skin.
Floating Row Covers
Floating row covers can help protect your plants from insect infestations. Use a specially designed lightweight floating row cover and thoroughly secure the material to the ground with soil or staples.
Ensure that you are not covering plants in an area where you grew them before. Since these pests can overwinter in the soil, you could get an accidental infestation under the floating row cover if you are not careful.
Trap Crops
Another way to protect your plants from L. decemlineata is to grow plants that attract these insects. If you grow trap crops around the perimeter of your garden, the beetles will colonize the first host they see.
This can delay their spread into your garden and give you a chance to go on the offensive.
Potatoes are the most common trap crops used for L. decemlineata. However, any host plant that they enjoy munching on will work as a trap crop, including other members of the Solanaceae family such as ground cherry, horse nettle, tomato, and buffalo-bur.
Commercial tomato growers have had great success using potato plants as trap crops. A Canadian test found that tomato yields increased by 61-87% using this approach.
You can also grow non-host crops like corn in the area. This can confuse the beetles and delay infestation.
Fittingly, you can use other types of insects (or even spiders) to control L. decemlineata. Some well known beneficial insects for this purpose include ladybugs (aka lady bird beetles) and green lacewings.
Normally thought of as a menace in their own right, several types of stinkbugs prey on L. decemlineata. These include spined soldier and two-spotted stink bugs.
Parasitic wasps are highly specialized for their hosts, and Edovum puttleri can help control your infestation. This wasp will lay its eggs in those of the beetles. Myiopharus doryphorae, a type of tachinid fly, parisitizes these pests as well.
You even have the option to use microbial insecticides against L. decemlineata. One type of bioinsecticide contains Bacillus thuringiensis var. tenebrionis (Bt-t) bacteria.
This strain produces a toxin that targets the young larvae, so it should be applied every few days as soon as the eggs start to hatch. If you apply it too early, the bacteria won’t survive until the larvae emerge, so the treatment won’t work.
Bt-t is sensitive to UV rays, so you should spray late in the evening or on cloudy days. Also make sure that it won’t rain within 8 hours after you have sprayed. You can tell if the treatment is working because the larvae will turn black.
However, like other organisms, insects can evolve resistance to their attackers, and some Colorado potato beetles display resistance to Bt-t.
Another microbe that can be used to attack these garden pests is the fungus Beauveria bassiana, which can be used against both adults and larvae.
Combining this fungus with Bt-t can enhance the effectiveness of this type of control.
Organic Insecticides
Several organic insecticides can help to control L. decemlineata. However, often when you spray an insecticide, you also kill the natural enemies of the pest you are trying to control.
One organic insecticide that is particularly effective at killing these pests without slaughtering their natural enemies is spinosad. This compound acts best against young larval beetles, so you should apply it when you see the eggs hatching.
You should spray neem oil in the evening, so it won’t affect beneficial insects. You will need to reapply the neem oil frequently. It also acts most effectively against the young larvae.
One of the primary pyrethrin components almost completely degrades after 5 days on tomato or potato leaves, and some L. decemlineata populations have developed resistance against this class of insecticides.
Cultural Controls
Crop Rotation
If you have had problems with L. decemlineata in the past, crop rotation can be the most important cultural control for this pest. This method delays infestation and reduces the early season populations of beetles.
A Journal of Economic Entomology study of commercial potato fields on Long Island, New York, found that rotation with non-host plants like rye or wheat decreased the density of early season adult beetles by nearly 96%. This effect wore off later in the season.
One thing you can do to enhance the success of crop rotation is to mulch with straw early in the season. This will make it even more difficult for the beetles to find your crop.
Plus, it has an added bonus: this environment favors predators of the beetles!
Rotating your potato or tomato crops every few years is a good strategy to reduce disease and beetle outbreaks. Many diseases are soilborne, and the beetles frequently overwinter in the soil.
No-Till
Implementing a no-till system of cover crops has been reported to help farmers greatly reduce their pesticide use against L. decemlineata.
There are several reasons why no-till works so well. One is that they can harbor the beneficial insects that serve as predators to the beetles. Another is that they discourage the pests from colonizing your plants.
Another strategy is to plant your cover crops sequentially, so they will flower at different times. This will help to increase the diversity of beneficial insects available to attack the potato beetles.
While you do want to attract the beetles if you are planting trap crops, this is not the case when you are growing cover crops close to your potatoes or tomatoes.
With no-till practices, you should purge any alternate hosts like nightshades, ground cherry, jimsonweed, horse nettle, or henbane that are growing in the area. This will prevent the beetles from feeding on these host plants and infecting your crop after they come out of the ground in the spring.
Chemical Pesticide Control
Modern potato growers frequently use chemical pesticides to control this pernicious pest. If the infestation in your home garden is severe, you may want to consider this option.
A. Alyohkin and co-authors claimed “the Colorado potato beetle played a large role in creating the modern pesticide industry” in a 2008 issue of the American Journal of Potato Research.
Your first thought might be to reach for a classic insecticide like Sevin (carbaryl). However, you should hold off until you have consulted with your local county extension agent.
Colorado potato beetles typically exhibit strong resistance to such a pesticide due to its wide usage in the past. The population as a whole is resistant to at least 56 different insecticides.
However, no one beetle is resistant to all insecticides. Agricultural experts can tell you which ones are likely to work in your area. Esfenvalerate may be one to try.
Your best bet for chemical control is to spray after most of the eggs have hatched but before your plants are seriously damaged. Take care that you apply these pesticides in a safe manner and follow all the instructions on the label.
You should rotate your insecticide use among different classes, so the pests will not develop resistance.
Keep in mind: it is likely that the natural methods described to control these pests in your garden will be effective, without the need for pesticides.
Go Forth and Garden
If you are faced with an onslaught of these unwanted visitors to the garden, you can start by handpicking the mature pests and their larvae, and crushing their egg masses.
Natural control methods range from waging war with predatory insects and microbial insecticides to cultural methods like using trap crops and implementing a no-till strategy. If necessary, you can rely on the judicious use of insecticides.
Gardener’s Path provides a range of options for you to save your crop!
Have you waged war against Colorado potato beetles? If so, let us know how it went in the comments. We would leave to hear what worked or didn’t work for you. And read on for more articles about insect pests here:
As the late summer sniffles simmer down and crisp fall winds begin blowing through the air, it is time to think about preparing for the impending cold and flu season – which, for me, includes harvesting and preparing my favorite winter remedies.
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And that means… it is time to harvest elderberries!
Here’s what’s to come in this guide:
This enchanting deciduous shrub is decorated with clusters of small white flowers in the spring, which eventually develop into bundles of tiny black or purple berries. In the wild, you will tend to find them in wet and swampy areas, often in disturbed places.
Boasting a multitude of marvelous uses, this plant is an incredibly supportive medicinal winter remedy touted by many herbalists and practitioners of traditional medicine, not to mention it makes for delectable jams, pies, and even wine!
Folklore and Magical History
In ancient Celtic traditions of Northern Europe, elders were revered trees, cherished as gifts from the “Elder Mother” goddess who was believed to reside inside the plant.
They were thought to be a window into the soul of trees, protecting forests and the people that cared for them, and they were often planted around houses and farms to protect the land and the gardens. Cutting one down or burning its sacred wood was considered highly taboo.
In Danish and German folklore, prior to cutting, it was necessary to ask the Elder Mother for permission, or else risk coming into misfortune. In Ireland, cutting down the elder tree was forbidden.
Upon the introduction of Christianity, however, the reputation of the elder changed. The Elder Mother became feared as a witch, and this resulted in a new association with evil.
In Scotland, elder wood was placed above entryways to protect homes from wicked spirits. In England and Germany, bringing the wood of an elder into the home was thought to attract ghosts and witches. And in Ireland, the elder became feared as a cursed tree; putting elder wood in a fire was said to attract the devil.
Though its cultural significance has fluctuated across time and space, one thing seems to be agreed upon: elder is a plant of magic and power!
Perhaps this is why, in J. K. Rowling’s novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the Elder Wand is considered the most revered and powerful of all magical objects. In this fictional world, elder wood was not commonly used in wandmaking, and it was said that only a “highly unusual” witch or wizard would be matched with it.
Medicinal Use
Elder has a long history of therapeutic use in many places throughout the world. Both the flowers and berries are used medicinally for a variety of ailments.
Loaded with antioxidants and vitamin C, elderberries are antimicrobial, providing overall support and protection to the immune system.
Elderberry medicine is therefore often taken regularly or acutely during the winter months as a preventative for colds, flu, fevers, chills, congestion, and general malaise.
The fruits are comparable to Tamiflu and have some ability to inhibit H1N1 influenza.
As cited by David Hoffman in his book Medical Herbalism: The Science Principles and Practices Of Herbal Medicine, a number of clinical studies have confirmed the benefits of elderberry against cold and flu.
This long-respected plant has made a resurgence in popular culture in recent years. These days, syrups and tablets can be found on vitamin shelves in many co-ops and pharmacies.
It is much more rewarding to make your own medicine, though, and I find the process to be both calming and enjoyable.
When to Harvest
Elderberry shrubs bloom over the summer from June to August, depending on the climate. Here in central Vermont, they tend to flower in August. The berries soon follow, ripening in late August or early September.
Make sure to harvest the fruits when they are fully ripe. This is important because the berries are mildly toxic before they have fully ripened. The fruit of both S. nigra and S. canadensis should be a dark purple or black in color, soft, and juicy. Unripe ones will look green or pale purple.
Note that even the ripe berries should not be eaten raw. According to Maria Noel Groves, the process of cooking or drying ripe berries will break down any remaining toxic chemical compounds that could irritate the digestive tract.
If you are interested in learning more about natural herbal remedies using elderberry and other homegrown or foraged ingredients, Groves’ book is available on Amazon.
Sometimes the berries can look purple on the outside but still be under-ripe inside. To tell if they are fully ripe, try squeezing a berry and examining its juice. If it is ready, it will be a deep purple. The juice of unripe berries looks pale and watery.
It is a good idea to do this squeeze test on one or two berries on each cluster that you snip.
If you also want to harvest the flowers, collect them when they are in full bloom, but don’t harvest all of them or you won’t get any fruits!
If you aren’t growing any elder shrubs of your own, you can look for wild plants in bogs, along stream beds, or on the edges of disturbed areas.
A word of caution: Red elderberry (S. racemosa) is toxic and should not be consumed. It happens to look very similar to other varieties, the key difference being that it flowers earlier in the spring, around the time that lilacs bloom. It also bears its bright red or purple fruit earlier in the summertime.
How to Harvest
To harvest the berries, cut entire clusters with pruning shears, just below the base of the fruits.
Collect the clusters in a basket, bucket, or plastic bag.
Once the berries are harvested, they must be removed from the stems. The stems and leaves are toxic and should not be consumed.
Bonus Tip: Instead of attempting to remove each berry from the stems individually, a painful and tedious task, place entire clusters in the freezer for a few hours. Once frozen, you can easily shake the fruit off the branches into bowls or bags.
Preservation
Elderberries need to be cooked, dried, or processed in some way before they can be consumed safely. Like many other parts of the plant, the berries are mildly toxic when eaten raw.
While eating a few raw ones won’t kill you, it will likely leave you with an unpleasant stomach ache and some unfortunate nausea. Better not to risk it!
Luckily, there is no lack of enticing ways to preserve and use elderberries. They can be made into medicinal syrups, alcohol- or glycerin-based tinctures, gummies, or cough drops. Fruits can be decocted for tea or infused in honey.
For something delicious to eat, they can even be preserved as jams and jellies, or baked into pies.
And don’t forget about sweet elderberry wine!
Drying
Clean the fruits by placing them in a pot of water, letting debris float to the top. Scoop out anything you can with a strainer, and then filter the berries from the water using a colander.
Let the fruit drip dry in the colander or on a paper towel for a couple of hours to remove any excess moisture, and then spread them out in a single layer on a drying tray.
Once they’re clean, there are a few ways to dry elderberries:
Dry them in full sun, covering them with a screen to prevent birds and insects from stealing the berries. This method should take a few days.
Place trays in the oven on the warm setting for about half an hour, checking occasionally until berries are fully dried
Dry them in just a few hours, using an electric dehydrator.
For more dehydrator preservation tips, check out the guide to dehydrating the garden’s bounty on our sister site, Foodal.
No matter what method you choose, check to make sure that the berries are shriveled and crinkly to ensure that they have dried fully and are ready for further processing or storage.
Try pressing one with your finger. If any moisture is present, keep drying!
Store in a sealed glass jar in a cool dark location, such as a pantry or cellar.
Freezing
Clean fresh fruits in a water bath similar to that described above for drying.
Freeze in tightly sealed jars or zip-top bags until you are ready to process and use them.
If you have already pre-frozen clusters prepared for easy stem removal, wash and then refreeze the individual berries as soon as possible. Otherwise, you risk creating a giant, messy mass of berries.
Making Medicine
My favorite way to use elderberries is to make my own medicinal syrup, a process I find to be easy and fun!
To Make Syrup
First, combine 1 part clean fruit with 4 parts water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Turn down the heat and simmer for 30-40 minutes. The resulting liquid should be dark purple in color
Next, remove the decoction from the heat and let it steep for about an hour.
Strain the juice using cheesecloth, a colander with small holes, or a nut milk bag. Squeeze the bag to recover as much of the liquid as possible. Set it aside to cool.
Measure the final liquid volume, and add 50% of that volume in honey to create a syrup.
Once the mixture is fully cool, you can also choose to add alcohol, which can greatly increase the syrups shelf life. Add 20% of the final liquid volume for the best keeping quality. Vodka works well, or any other neutral alcohol you prefer.
And that’s all there is to it! Bottle it up and stick it in the fridge or the freezer until those icy winter winds arrive.
Tip: Elderberry can be combined with many other herbs and spices for added medicinal benefits or flavor. Try a tasty addition of cinnamon, lemon, and ginger!
The syrup can last a few months in the fridge, longer if made with alcohol. Otherwise, it is a great idea to freeze it in ice cube trays and defrost one at a time as needed.
Tincturing is another of my favorite ways to preserve and utilize this fruit.
Just fill a jar with tightly packed berries and pour in a neutral alcohol to cover. Vodka that is 100 proof or higher is best.
Seal the jar and store in a dark place, shaking every day for at least a few weeks. Strain out the berries and bottle it up.
If you prefer not to use alcohol, you can make a glycerite tincture instead, by replacing the alcohol in the tincture with vegetable glycerin.
A Note of Caution:
As always, this article is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your health care professional before starting herbal remedies or supplements.
Cooking and Recipe Ideas
This Thanksgiving, why not try making an elderberry pie? Baking these sweet and sour fruits in a warm and flaky pie crust really brings out the exquisite and unique flavor. All of your guests will be impressed!
Want to try your hand at brewing up some elderberry wine? Before diving in, check out this article on Foodal about making wine at home.
Ward Off Those Winter Blues
Don’t get bogged down by the winter blues this year! Protect and nourish yourself with elderberry instead.
Whether you want to support your immune system with plant medicine, enjoy fresh-brewed homemade wine, or ward off spirits, this magical plant is for you!
Do you have experience preserving and using elderberry? Share your tips and questions in the comments below.
You constantly hear gardeners saying that you should deadhead your roses. But what does that really mean? And how do you do it? And for that matter, when should you break out the pruners?
I can relate. When I first started growing roses, I felt totally overwhelmed. They seem like such complicated, needy plants. If I deadheaded them wrong, I feared that I might ruin everything.
Fortunately, deadheading isn’t all that difficult. But it’s essential if you want to encourage your plants to bloom all season long.
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If you let a blossom stay until it turns brown and forms a hip, the plant often thinks it’s time to start putting its energy into developing seeds so it can reproduce.
That’s usually not what we want. We want more flowers!
This guide will transform you into a deadheading master. Here’s what we’ll go over:
Sharpen and sanitize your secateurs, because we’re going in.
What Is Deadheading?
Okay, first things first. What is deadheading, exactly?
Well, deadheading is the act of removing a flower that is nearly spent, and it’s usually done in order to encourage more blossoms. At the same time, it enables you to improve the shape of the plant so it doesn’t look straggly.
Photo by Kristine Lofgren.
When a blossom is left in place, the plant usually starts putting its energy towards creating hips (fruit containing seeds) so that it can reproduce. When seeds start forming, the rose plant releases a hormone that tells it to stop blooming for now.
On top of that, a spent blossom tends to look unkempt, and if it rains or the sprinklers hit it, the blossom turns into a mushy mess. This can encourage fungal diseases.
Keep in mind that deadheading isn’t the same thing as pruning. You aren’t trying to create a different shape for your plant or removing diseased bits. This is just about encouraging new flowers to form.
Also note that not all roses need deadheading. Self-cleaning roses shed their blossoms on their own and will continue blooming without extra encouragement.
Even so, they will still look tidier if you remove the spent blossoms. You might want to spruce your plant up a little, even if it is self-cleaning. To do this, just snip the spent flower heads with a pair of clean secateurs.
As a quick added note, self-cleaning roses are infertile so they don’t create hips. If you want hips, don’t select one of these.
When to Clip Spent Blooms
You should deadhead continuously through the entire blooming season, which may vary according to the specific species, hybrid, or cultivar.
When the roses are in bloom, deadheading is a part of my daily routine to help make it an easier task. If you leave it to every week or so, it takes longer each time, and you will end up leaving blossoms on the plant for too long.
When I grab my coffee in the morning to drink on the patio outside, I also grab my clippers and do a quick once-over of my rose plants. I remove any flowers with petals that are starting to droop or turn brown.
The point is that deadheading is much easier if you do it every day, or at least every few days. If you let the job build up, it’s going to take a while and you’re probably going to miss a few blooms, which means your plant might blossom less.
Better to make it a regular habit! If you drink coffee on the patio in the morning like I do, bring your clippers too. If you take the dog out in the evening, bring the clippers. (Are you sensing a pattern here?)
Put your clippers or scissors somewhere convenient where you’ll remember them and make this a habit. Always remember to clean them between uses as well.
The easiest way to determine which roses need to be removed is to just gently shake the plant (watch for thorns – aka prickles!).
Any blossom that drops petals is done. Snip it. Flowers that are drooping or turning brown should also be removed.
Stop deadheading in the fall. Once Labor Day rolls around, put down the secateurs and take a well-deserved break.
Some people suggest that you make each cut at an outward-facing leaf bud for a more appealing look, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference to me.
The only exception to the five-leaf leaflet rule is after the first bloom of the season. In that case, you should trim back to the first leaflet that has three leaves instead.
Why? Younger canes aren’t as thick as older canes, so early-season growth should be deadheaded a little differently. The goal is to cut the cane (sometimes called a stem) back to the point where the cane is still strong, but not too old to produce healthy growth.
Photo by Kristine Lofgren.
If you are deadheading a rose that grows blossoms in clusters, just snip away the single rose that you’re after as close to the joint as possible.
Once all of the flowers in that cluster are spent, cut back to the first five-leaf leaflet.
Photo by Kristine Lofgren.
For wild roses that bloom in masses, just treat each branch as one giant rose, even though it is actually made up of up to a dozen or so flowers. Trim back to the first five-leaf leaflet when a majority of the flowers look spent.
Always make sure that you clean your clippers in a solution of one part bleach to ten parts water in between plants. I know this seems like a lot of work, but it will save you a lot of trouble down the road because it helps to prevent the spread of disease.
By the way, if you’re curious about which kind of clippers to use, any pair will do. Even scissors work.
But lots of pros swear by Felco F-2 secateurs. They don’t have any extra bells and whistles like rotating handles or thick padding, but they are well-made, make precision cuts, keep your hand in a comfortable position, and will last you a lifetime.
That’s what we use at the Portland International Rose Test Garden.
If you want a lot of blossoms, you need to leave as much of the foliage in place as possible.
Foliage helps the plant to produce flowers by storing and manufacturing food, moving water, and exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide. On top of that, the foliage provides shade to the canes and roots of the plant.
All of this is essential to your plant’s health. And a healthy plant produces more flowers.
I once had a neighbor who would deadhead by taking his electric hedge trimmers and buzzing the plant back until there were no blossoms left. It was certainly quick, but imprecise.
He was removing foliage that the plant needed to be healthy, and leaving stems in place that would have been better to remove (not to mention removing flowers that were ready to bloom).
Don’t pinch or snap off the flowers. Use your clippers.
A quick note: sometimes buds won’t open if the weather is too wet and cool. This is called balling. Gardeners can also induce this problem by watering roses on the foliage rather than at the soil level.
Regardless of how it happens, prune any of these unopened blossoms back to the first leaflet with five leaves to help prevent disease (and general ugliness).
You’re Ready to Deadhead Like a Pro
There you have it! All the info you need to make your rose plants look absolutely fantastic.
Now, instead of feeling overwhelmed, hopefully you feel empowered to head outside with your clippers and wrestle your roses into shape.
If so, come back and let us know in the comments section below what kind of roses you’re growing and how the deadheading is going.
Alright, let’s get into it! Without further ado, here are your planting companions for beets. Keep an eye out at the end for our coveted pick for the “Most Beet-iful” growing companion!
1. Broccoli
Broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) is my favorite vegetable so it goes first on the list. It being first alphabetically has nothing to do with its placement…
If you have a hard time getting broccoli to grow in your garden and it is mixed in with neighboring veggies, it might have a calcium deficiency.
Other plants are eating up this mineral too, but beets require less calcium than many vegetables.
That means your beets and your broccoli will play nicely together in the garden and help each reach their best potential.
‘Green Sprouting Calabrese’ is the broccoli I have the most experience with, and it gets my first recommendation. Seeds are available in packets and in bulk from True Leaf Market.
The ‘Sun King’ hybrid is another great producer, and heads can be harvested from July through the fall until the first hard frost. Seeds and plants are available from Burpee.
Ah, brussels sprouts. I’ve been eating more brussels sprouts (Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera) later in my life since avoiding them like the plague when I was a kid. They’re also a solid garden buddy for your beets.
Beets and brussels favor similar conditions and don’t compete for the same types of real estate, making them desirable neighbors.
You harvest your brussel sprouts after a few frosts in the fall, so you can pick them with your beets at the same time. That’s one less trip out to the garden on nippy mornings!
The ‘Catskill’ brussels sprout is pretty easy to grow and produces plenty of delicious sprouts. Give it a shot if it’s your first time growing these! Seeds are available from Burpee.
‘Long Island Improved’ brussels sprouts are another good option with a very high germination rate.
Grow this improved version of the heirloom ‘Long Island’ if you wanna brag about how your sprouts have such a pedigreed history, dating all the way back to 1890!
Bush beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) naturally provide nitrogen to the soil, and that’s a very good thing.
Beets tend to grow sweeter when they’ve got a reliable source of nitrogen, and the steady supply from bush beans makes for candy-like beets.
Bush beans are also a reliably successful crop, so this an excellent pairing for gardeners of every skill level.
The only time I ever got excited personally about bush beans was when I found the ‘Desperado’ cultivar.
These taste great, but more importantly, every time I order them I get to think of The Eagles, and that one episode of “Seinfeld.” You know the one I’m talking about…
A regular resident in many gardens, cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata) grows very well with beets.
The leafy heads can be conveniently planted together at the same time of year, and I gotta say, I’m all about convenience.
They are also a dashing duo, especially when red cabbages are grown in tandem with deep red and purple beets poking their shoulders above the soil.
The only cabbage I’ve ever had luck with is ‘Mammoth Red Rock,’ and I plant it every year.
It grows easily and tastes great, and it’s a heckuva lot easier to spot pests on it than other varieties I’ve grown. It’s also really neat looking, so there’s that, too.
My neighbor swears by ‘Early Jersey Wakefield,’ and though I’ve never grown it, I can say it tastes delicious.
Every year I get some fantastic sauerkraut from their yearly production, and I don’t think it’s ever tasted better than when it’s made with this heirloom cultivar.
Just make sure that when you have catnip growing in the garden it’s not planted closely with the vegetables.
When cats are really getting into the catnip they often roll around in drunk euphoria, sometimes damaging plants in the process. Give them some space to stop that from happening!
Don’t be deterred by the color! It doesn’t actually taste like cheddar (rats…) but it does have more vitamin A than the regular cauliflower you’re used to. Find seeds now at True Leaf Market.
If you prefer something more familiar, check out ‘White Corona.’
This type has a similar flavor profile and takes just as long to be ready for harvest, so it’s just a style choice in terms of the color you think is best for you and your garden.
This pair should be grown as companions if only because they look so damn good together.
Even if you ignore other details of their suitability, with each competing for different nutrients and space in the garden, they’re just a very handsome pair.
Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes ‘Konan’ is a hybrid cultivar that won the 2016 All-American Selections award and has rave reviews backing it up. Pale green, four- to six-inch bulbs are crunchy with a refreshing flavor.
Seeds are available in packets of 100 from Burpee.
If you want something with a little more zazzle to it, check out ‘Purple Vienna.’
I think I’m going to give this type a shot this year if only because it’s so fine looking, with purple bulbs and stems that contrast with the green foliage.
Leeks (Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum) also prefer the same conditions (seems to be a recurring theme here…).
Years ago, I worked at a private garden and enjoyed tending to an enormous vegetable patch. My mentor loved pairing beets and leeks in almost every bed, and it’s a habit I’ve carried on myself.
They grow nicely together, and are rewarding and successful partners.
‘Carantan’ is an heirloom variety of leek that I’ve grown a few years in a row and it keeps me coming back every year.
This is a pair I tried last year and am looking forward to doing it again this year.
I had developed a sudden passion for fresh lettuce leaves (Lactuca sativa) and sorrel as a daily salad, and decided to include beets in the mix too so I could snack on the trio of greens.
Everybody grew happily together, and at the end of lettuce season I put together a few nice salads with the sweetest beets I’ve ever eaten.
I’ve planted many lettuce varieties but I just like this Gourmet Blend from Burpee.
Hey, that’s not a vegetable! Alright, you caught me, but marigolds (Tagetes spp.) are another staple in almost every garden I put together.
They smell great, attract a whole list of pollinators, and the flowers are so pretty to look at. All of these features make the marigold a delightful companion for your beets.
If you’re a fan of white flowers, check out ‘Snowglobe.’ The three-inch flowers grow on upright stems that reach up to 24 inches tall, and offer almost non-stop flowering.
Onions (Allium cepa) were one of the first crops I successfully grew, so I aim to include them every year in my gardens.
I’ve rotated various crops in and out of proximity to onions, and am consistently pleased when they grow side by side with beets.
I think a big part of that appeal is how nice the foliage looks together, and how tidy the rows can be kept.
The tried-and-true garden hoe is my favorite tool to use, and I can use it with surgical precision between beets and onions.
An onion preferred by gardeners with longer days, ‘Big Daddy’ is sometimes also referred to as ‘Cannon Ball.’
It’s a fat onion and very flavorful, and a favorite in my kitchen if only because I get to tell people, “Yeah, those caramelized onions? Courtesy of ‘Big Daddy.’”
My mother-in-law is in upstate New York and she likes to grow the ‘Imai Early Yellow’ every year.
The onions are as cute as onions can get – with their yellow skins and flattened globes – if that kind of thing matters to you. And it does to me, so don’t be ashamed.
This is an easy and fun pair of vegetables to grow side by side. It’s a favorite for me because radishes (Raphanus sativus) are ready for harvest so quickly. The frequent trips to grab a bunch lets me keep a close eye on my beets.
They enjoy growing at similar times, and favor the same care, so it’s an easy planting companion pick. Just take care when harvesting your radishes not to disturb the developing beets nearby.
I feel like everyone either loves or hates radishes, and if you love ‘em, you love just a couple kinds. These two are my favorites:
As far as fresh radishes go, I love ‘Fire ‘N’ Ice,’ and it’s not just because they’ve got the name of an ‘80s pop-rock band.
They taste like spicy candy right out of the ground and grow quickly and easily.
My wife and I tried to pickle radishes last year and it was a resounding failure, so we’re trying again this year with something different, the ‘Bora King.’
I’ve grown this cultivar before and I’m fascinated by how beautiful these are, plus the taste is out of this world. They can be pretty spicy, so prepare yourself!
The citrusy flavor of baby sorrel (Rumex spp.) adds a welcome pop to my daily salads. Easy to grow, these leafy greens do well with beets, preferring the same cool temperatures.
Unless you’re cooking up large vats of sorrel soup, a little goes a long way, so interplant sparingly and remember to harvest regularly!
Bright green garden sorrel is ready to harvest in just 45 days.
Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) favors cooler weather just like beets do.
It’s a tidy plant to grow if you keep up with harvesting, and this pair can be planted pretty tightly together to maximize the growing space you have.
It’s a perfect combination if you’re using a cold frame.
I will say that I tend to have little luck with spinach, probably because I don’t harvest it often enough. But I have noticed these two varieties do better for me than any others:
‘Bloomsdale Long Standing’ is the favorite spinach of a customer from yesteryear, so I grew heaps of the stuff in their garden.
It’s tough and tolerant of my inattention, and the leaves are pretty darn tasty.
The neighboring bed alongside our community garden plot produces the best looking spinach, and a few years ago I learned that it’s the hybrid ‘Riverside.’
I grew some myself from some gifted seeds and was shocked to see how quickly and readily it grew.
15. The Most Beet-iful Planting Companion is… Garlic!
Theeere she is, Miss Allium Satiiiivuuum…
Isn’t she lovely, ladies and gentlemen?
Garlic (Allium sativum) is crowned the winner because of its easy give and take relationship with beets. Garlic is a natural deterrent for the fungal issues that beets are vulnerable to.
Because the plants grow at the same time, they can help improve the soil conditions for one another during the season, and they don’t compete for many of the same nutrients.
Garlic is also typically ready for harvest at the tail end of when beets are just about finished producing, so you harvest both and have an entire bed cleaned and ready for the next crop to go in.
My favorite garlic is one I don’t know the name of! It’s a random garlic that I keep replanting every year. But my second favorite? Well, that’s ‘Spanish Roja.’
With fat bulbs and a flavor that’s impossible to beat, it’s perfect in hot sauces and just about anything I cook with garlic.
I wait to eat these until they’re properly cured and dried because the heat can be a little intense when they’re fresh. Bulbs are available from Burpee.
Go Plant!
Beets have a nice list of growing companions, don’t they? You are sure to find something you want to add to the beds with your beets, or maybe a few somethings.
So what are you waiting for? Get out there and get to planting!
Enjoy your adventures with beets in the garden, and share your stories and questions below.
I can’t help noticing that when an entity is attractive, whether it’s a plant for the garden or something else entirely, it’s often not practical, and the reverse is also true.
But ‘Red Rubin’ basil bucks that trend.
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This Ocimum basilicum cultivar is an appealing shade of reddish-purple that will beautify gardens, borders, containers, and window boxes.
And it also works as a culinary herb, in numerous ways. The leaves and stems can flavor teas, simple syrup for cocktails, vinaigrettes, and baked goods – and replace the typical sweet basils in many recipes.
‘Red Rubin’ tip cuttings and tiny pink flowers make lovely garnishes for cakes and soups, too, while the longer stems add color and scent to bouquets and flower arrangements.
Oh, and this pretty plant is easy to grow – as long as you recognize its need for warm temperatures, full sun, and consistent watering.
Let’s go ahead and take a closer look at this beautiful and practical herb variety. Here’s what I’ll cover:
What Is Red Rubin Basil?
‘Red Rubin’ is a vigorous, large-leaf, sweet cultivar of O. basilicum.
It is distinguished by its bronze-purple leaves that taste of cinnamon and clove. If you don’t pinch the buds off, it will produce stalks of tiny pink flowers.
Often, this variety is classified as O. basilicum var. purpurascens. But other authorities on taxonomy regard the variety purpurascens as a synonym for the species plant that does not require separate classification.
Basil is native to tropical regions ranging from central Africa to Southeast Asia.
In the 1830s, British botanist George Betham was the first to identify the purple basils that came before this cultivar.
These varieties gain their color from anthocyanin compounds, which today are sometimes used to produce red food dye and other natural colorants.
The next leap forward for cultivated purple basil came in the 1950s when botanists at the University of Connecticut bred ‘Dark Opal,’ a cultivar with almost purple-black leaves and a light anise aroma.
Its flavor, ornamental nature, and downy mildew resistance all contributed to All-America Selections honors rewarded in 1962.
‘Red Rubin’ is a “re-selection” of ‘Dark Opal,’ an improved variety of this prized cultivar. Bred in Denmark, it first arrived in North America in 1993.
You may be wondering how the two cultivars are different.
First, ‘Dark Opal’ has almost inky purple leaves, while those on ‘Red Rubin’ are a coppery purple that could be called purple to brick red.
Both types are prone to producing a few leaves that are splashed with green, but this is far more rare in ‘Red Rubin.’
‘Dark Opal’ leaves are smaller, growing about one and a half to three inches long, with crinkled surfaces and slightly ruffled edges. ‘Red Rubin’ leaves are a consistent three inches long once mature and they’re also puckered, but with smooth edges.
While ‘Dark Opal’ leaves arch slightly down from the stems, ‘Red Rubin’ holds its leaves horizontally, making them easier to pick.
‘Red Rubin’ plants grow a bit taller, 18 to 30 inches compared to 16 to 18 for ‘Dark Opal,’ which is part of the reason why its yields are superior to that of other purple basils.
While you may appreciate the prospect of a bumper crop if you’re a cook, prolific ‘Red Rubin’ also produces more leaves, stems, and flowers for bouquets, garnishes, and potpourri – and to attract pollinators and scent the night air.
Sound good? Here’s what you need to know to plant and grow ‘Red Rubin’ in your garden, raised beds, or containers.
Propagation
Along with all that glorious color and scent, ‘Red Rubin’ grows quickly and easily, beginning with its propagation.
If you’re fortunate enough to know someone already growing one sturdy plant or a group of them, you can readily root a stem cutting.
It’s a simple matter of cutting a stem directly beneath its bottom leaf node and then stripping all but the top two sets of leaves.
Set the cutting in a small, clear glass of water and place it in a sunny location.
The stem should sprout roots in three to 10 days, and you can pot the rooted cutting once the roots are at least two inches long.
Continuing on the generous friend theme, it’s also possible to divide mature plants into several new ones. If you have a buddy who would also like to grow ‘Red Rubin,’ you can share one bushy plant by separating it into two.
You may need to sow seeds indoors to get a jump on the growing season in some areas, and it’s also possible to grow the plants indoors from start to finish with ample light and warmth.
Note that ‘Red Rubin’ is technically a short-lived perennial when grown in USDA Hardiness Zones 10 to 11.
But even in those areas, I recommend sowing fresh seeds each year or rooting new cuttings instead of trying to keep an older plant alive.
This herb grows quickly, maturing in 72 days, and the leaves on young, new plants will be more flavorful. In their second year of growth, basil may become woody and its leaves may have a hot aftertaste or lose flavor altogether.
How to Grow
This basil cultivar may look different from other O. basilicum varieties, but cultivation is essentially the same.
The keys are growing in fertile, well-draining soil, avoiding chilly temperatures, and planting ‘Red Rubin’ where it will receive ample sun.
Remember that all basils are susceptible to frost damage. Not only will the plants die if the temperature dips below about 45°F, they’ll also only put out new leaves when the temperature is consistently at or above 60°F.
If you feel like sudden cold snaps in your area could do your ‘Red Rubin’ in, consider growing at least a couple of plants in containers that you can move indoors to avoid chilly temperatures.
In the garden or planted in permanent outdoor containers, your basil will need at least six hours of sun a day if you’d like the leaves to maintain that rich, coppery purple hue without too many green streaks.
Planting in part shade is a fallback solution, but it’s not ideal – “drab” is not a good look on ‘Red Rubin’ basil. Plants that receive less than six hours of sunlight each day will get leggy, and their leaves will look duller and possibly greener.
Indoors, this purple basil requires a similar amount of direct sunlight or eight or more hours of bright, indirect light. You may need a grow light to supplement if you plan to grow it on a sunny windowsill.
Garden companions should also be given careful consideration when you choose where to grow this beautiful ornamental herb. There are a handful of vegetables, flowers, and other types of herbs that bring out the best in ‘Red Rubin,’ and a few that won’t work at all.
Ever the fan of edible landscaping, I heartily recommend planting this herb along walkways or in borders, especially as a complement to flowers with green stems and color-popping blooms, like zinnias or marigolds.
Both the foliage and the blooms of ‘Red Rubin’ add color to hanging baskets and patio planters. You can also sow or transplant them in a patch of taller annuals like sunflowers.
Remember, though, that basil is a warm-weather-only plant, so resist the temptation to plant it too close to perennials like thyme, or next to annuals that bloom in fall, like sweet alyssum.
You want to be able to uproot basil at the season’s end and get it in the compost without worrying about disturbing other plants’ root systems.
Lots of fellow culinary plants make good companions for ‘Red Rubin’ basil. These include herbs such as cilantro, chamomile, chives, and parsley, and vegetables like peppers, tomatoes, and other nightshades.
I especially like the visual appeal of purple basil next to eggplants, whether they are bearing purple, white, or striated fruits.
Basil will benefit a bean crop by discouraging certain pests, too. Read about the connection in our guide to the best bean companions.
After picking a suitable location and beneficial companions, the work required to maintain thriving basil is minimal. You will want to keep up with watering, a chore you can learn more about in our sweet basil growing guide.
It’s also a good idea to apply a layer of mulch to suppress weeds and retain moisture.
Wait until the plants are at least four inches tall, and then apply a two-inch layer of natural material such as lawn clippings or straw, making sure it hasn’t been treated with pesticides or herbicides.
Don’t let the mulch touch the stems, or this may encourage disease.
‘Red Rubin’ is less prone to powdery mildew than some of its sweet basil relatives, but it can pick up some common basil pests and ailments.
Consult our guides for advice on preventing, detecting, and treating the most common attackers, including aphids, Japanese beetles, slugs and snails, and the fungal infections fusarium wilt and damping off.
Growing Tips
Plant in well-draining, fertile soil.
Sow seeds indoors three to four weeks ahead of transplanting outdoors.
Transplant seedlings outdoors when the temperature is above 60°F.
Grow in full sun for top yields.
Where to Buy
If you’ve decided to grow ‘Red Rubin,’ prepare for a taste sensation – and a feast for the eyes.
Now, to find some seeds!
Of course, you may find starts for this cultivar at a local nursery or you may be able to root cuttings from a friend’s plant. But I wouldn’t agonize over the search for transplants when seeds are readily available and they germinate so quickly in warm weather.
You’ll have enough leaves to harvest in 30 to 40 days even if you sow from seed.
In your hunt, you may occasionally come across a mislabeled ‘Red Rubin’ packet with a photo of the deep purple ‘Dark Opal’ variety on the front. Keep in mind that ‘Red Rubin’ leaves will look more coppery-purple than that.
You can find conventional ‘Red Rubin’ seeds in packets and in bulk at True Leaf Market.
They also offer an organic option, in 600-seed packets and in bulk, ranging from 4,500 seeds up to a five-pound sack that holds around 1.4 million seeds suitable for mass planting and growing microgreens.
You may also find this variety rounding out basil seed collections.
For example, Rebel Gardens sells a seven-packet collection that includes ‘Red Rubin’ in addition to individual envelopes of ‘Genovese,’ lemon, lime, Thai, ‘Spicy Globe,’ cinnamon, and ‘Dark Opal.’ That collection is available via Amazon.
Harvest and Storage
Once this Italian-leaf basil variety has stems at least six inches tall, it’s game on for harvesting.
Picking is a win-win for you and for the plant. When you keep the tips pinched back, you can use the leaves while promoting fuller growth and encouraging plants to produce more leaves to harvest.
Cut individual leaves from the top or sides, or take sprigs by snipping above a leaf node so the plant will resprout from that spot.
This is the reverse of the process you might use for taking a cutting to root. In that case, you want to remove the lowest node with the stem, so it will sprout roots beneath the water.
To pick stems for bouquets and flower arrangements, let the plants reach at least 10 inches tall and then use scissors to cut the desired lengths. Be sure to strip any leaves from the bottom before placing the stems in water.
Be careful never to pick more than one-third of the foliage at a go or the plant may not be able to rebound.
Of course, it’s always an option to harvest the entire plant, especially towards the end of the season.
I do that by first pulling up the entire plant and then cutting the roots off of the bottom, but you can also slice the entire plant at the crown and till the roots of healthy plants into the bed at the season’s end.
It’s best to pinch any buds that form before they flower. Once the plant blooms the essential oils dissipate, along with the flavor of the leaves.
Always pick the buds and their stalks an inch or two below the part of the stem where they started to form. Otherwise, the plant will form more buds in a matter of days – and it will feel like it happened in the space of an hour!
Basil buds and blooms are also edible. You can wash the buds and pluck them from the stems to use them for flavoring, much like you would the leaves. Treat the flowers gently.
For the best flavor and texture, wash and dry the leaves as needed as soon as you harvest them, and use them immediately.
If you like, you can store stems in a glass of water on the counter to use within a couple of days, or promptly put them in water as part of a flower arrangement.
When you must pluck but can’t use the fresh herbs right away, to me, the best solution is to mash minced leaves into a compound butter and freeze it for future enjoyment.
You can use ‘Red Rubin’ in place of one or two of the fresh herbs called for in this herb butter recipe from Foodal, our sister site.
You can also freeze some leaves for future use, following the directions in our guide to freezing herbs.
Recipes and Cooking Ideas
There are multitudes of culinary uses for ‘Red Rubin,’ but don’t expect it to replace more typical sweet basil in pesto recipes.
It has more of a baking spice essence and less of the light licorice flavor of other green Italian leaf O. basilicumvarieties, with a hint of clove first and foremost. That flavor can overwhelm pesto if you’re used to the milder taste of other basils.
I recommend making a smaller batch using 100 percent ‘Red Rubin’ leaves in place of the sweet leaves, and then use that pesto sparingly for pasta salad and the like.
Or, pair the spicier basil leaves with a milder green, like spinach, in a one-to-three-part ratio. If you add any more, you may find that it has a bitter flavor.
Scaling back the amount you add to pesto will in no way leave you with too much ‘Red Rubin’ on your hands, though!
You’ll want an ample harvest so you can use the fresh leaves in hot tea or dry some to concoct an herbal tea mix for the winter.
You can add baby leaves to spring salad mix, mince large leaves for use in salad dressing, and use the tip cuttings to garnish frosted confections, soups, or cool beverages.
You’ll want to use raw harvested leaves to enjoy that dashing reddish-purple coloring.
They’ll turn a greenish-brown when they meet heat, which isn’t nearly as pretty but will still taste fine. Just make sure to add them at the end of cooking so they’ll retain their flavor.
The leaves make a tasty addition to marinades and casseroles. Try a couple of tablespoons chopped in this marinade that’s part of a delicious lemon chicken quinoa bowl recipe from our sister site, Foodal.
Or, use them in place of other sweet basils to pep up frozen treats like this vegan vanilla bean ice cream recipe from Foodal, or as a flavor accent in fruit-infused water.
Speaking of ‘Red Rubin’ and drinks, don’t overlook the adult beverage category. The color will pop when you muddle the leaves to add to mojitos or garnishes. Just remember that you’ll lose that reddish-purple hue if you add it to flavor hot simple syrup.
I have this habit of strolling through the garden picking a bud here, a stem there, and carrying these herbaceous bits with me until I empty my pockets in the evening.
Right now it’s winter as I’m writing this, but there’s a dried bit of ‘Red Rubin’ from last summer on the dresser tray where I keep loose change.
It’s still a lovely, dark red and has a faint cinnamon-anise scent. I love the aroma and the reminder of seasons past.
Do you have a fond memory that involves this ruby-colored basil? Growing tips or questions to share? The comments section below awaits your input.
Monstera deliciosa (mon-STER-ah de-lis-ee-OH-sah) is a popular houseplant well-known for its large, glossy, heart-shaped leaves with a split characteristic.
This easy-to-grow climbing evergreen is native to the rainforests of Central America and southern Mexico.
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It goes by a wide variety of common names, including:
Split-leaf Philodendron
Cutleaf Philodendron
Mexican Breadfruit
Swiss Cheese Plant
Hurricane Plant
Mother-in-Law
Windowleaf
Monstera
Tarovine
Ceriman
This perennial member of the arum or Araceae family of plants is not actually a philodendron, but it does resemble them, hence several of the common names.
In this article, we’ll discuss the important aspects to consider when growing and caring for your Monstera deliciosa plant care.
Monstera Deliciosa Quick Care Guide
Botanical Name: Monstera deliciosa
Common Name(s): Swiss cheese plant, split-leaf philodendron
Synonyms: Philodendron pertusum
Family & Origin: Araceae family, native to the tropical rainforests of Central and South America
Growability: Easy to grow and care for
Grow Zone: USDA zones 10-12
Size: Can grow up to 10′ feet tall indoors, kept smaller with pruning
Flowering: Rarely flowers indoors
Light: Bright, indirect light, but can tolerate some low light conditions. Avoid direct sunlight to prevent leaf burn.
Humidity: Prefers high humidity, but can tolerate average indoor humidity levels. Mist the leaves regularly or use a humidifier.
Temperature: Prefers temperatures between 60-85° degrees Fahrenheit. Avoid cold drafts and temperatures below 60° degrees Fahrenheit.
Soil: Well-draining potting mix with added perlite or sand for aeration
Water: Water when the top inch of soil feels dry. Allow excess water to drain away and avoid letting the plant sit in standing water.
Fertilizer: Feed every 4 weeks during the growing season with a balanced, water-soluble fertilizer.
Propagation: Easily propagated from stem cuttings placed in water or soil.
Uses: Makes a great statement plant for indoor spaces and can help purify the air.
Monstera Deliciosa Care
Size and Growth
In the wild setting, the Monstera Deliciosa plant does not stand on its own. Instead, it begins life on the ground but becomes epiphytic when it comes in contact with a tree to climb.
Young, ground-dwelling plants grow toward the darkness surrounding tree trunks. Once the young plant encounters the tree trunk, it begins to scramble rapidly upward toward the light.
At this stage, the young, solid leaves overlap like shingles. As the plants mature and the Monstera leaves grow larger, splits and holes develop in the leaves called fenestrations, allowing wind to pass through without causing damage.
This rainforest dweller grows naturally throughout Panama and Mexico, where it can rise to a towering seventy feet high. Still, it makes a pretty houseplant topping out at about 8′ feet in cooler climates.
Young plants have small, heart-shaped leaves without holes. Mature plants’ large, leathery, glossy oval leaves are pinnately lobed.
Mature leaves are also perforated on the inner sections. Leaves may be a foot long with an equal width.
Flowering and Fragrance
When kept as a houseplant, Cutleaf Philodendron does not usually bloom. However, in the wild, the plant produces sturdy, spadix, and spathe flowers, transitioning into edible tropical fruit in shades of green, white, cream, and tan.
The fruit is about 3″ inches long and may be between 1″ and 3″ inches wide. It is structured rather like a cob of corn and tastes like bananas and pineapples combined.
You can tell the fruit is ripe when its exterior covering falls off. Don’t eat it before this happens.
Monstera Plant Care Light and Temperature
Split-leaf Philodendron will perform best with bright, indirect sunlight like most houseplants.
Bright indirect light also produces white variegation and helps the plant grow faster.
This plant can also tolerate low light conditions but may result in slower leggy growth.
Too much direct sunlight, especially in warmer months, will burn the foliage.
However, you can still set your plant outside in direct sunlight at least once a year to encourage lush growth.
Cultivars with variegated leaves prefer brighter sunlight. Those with solid green leaves can do well in slightly shadier settings.
In wintertime, you may want to move your houseplant into an area where it can receive 2 to 4 hours of direct sun daily.
Swiss Cheese Plant thrives in temperatures ranging from 60° to 85° degrees Fahrenheit. Moreover, Monstera deliciosa is winter hardy in USDA hardiness zones 10a to 12b.
Watering and Feeding
Remember to check the soil moisture level first before you water your Monstera plant.
After checking, you can now employ soak-and-dry watering techniques. Allow the top third of the plant’s soil to dry out before providing a thorough watering.
If you overwater, water will begin to seep out of the leaves. Telltale signs of overwatering are yellow leaves with crispy brown spots on leaves. Loss of leaf structure is also a sign.
If this happens, reduce watering to prevent the development of root rot and other fungal infections.
Maintain high humidity levels using a pebble tray or a humidifier.
Throughout the growing season, provide your Hurricane Plant with a balanced, water-soluble houseplant fertilizer for monthly feeding. NPK ratings of 10-10-10 or 20-20-20 liquid fertilizer will also work fine.
PRO TIP: Does your newly purchased Monstera need fertilizing? NO – They probably left the greenhouse with good feeding. Wait a couple of months before feeding.
Soil and Transplanting
Windowleaf does well in loose, airy, well-draining, fertile soil rich in loam and organic matter (peat moss).
It also grows well in heavy clay soils with neutral or acid pH levels or light sandy, medium loamy soils.
Plant Tarovine between 6′ and 12′ feet apart outdoors to allow room for growth. Ensure to push the plant’s aerial roots to absorb the nutrients more.
Repotting Monstera deliciosa in the container is best done early in the springtime. Just ensure there are adequate drainage holes so the excess water will flow out.
Grooming and Maintenance
Monstera deliciosa’s large leaves can make the plant top-heavy. Be sure to provide support using plant ties, a moss pole, or stakes to prevent toppling and breakage.
As vining plants, you can also trail your Monstera over the pot and climb along a trellis.
These plants appreciate daily misting. Wipe the leaves with a damp cloth weekly to remove dust and facilitate good photosynthesis.
Prune as needed to remove dead or damaged leaves and stems. Perform a fairly thorough pruning in the springtime. Keep healthy stems for propagation.
The easiest way to propagate this plant is to take cuttings and start them in water, just like a philodendron cutting.
If you wish, you can start a long cutting in soil by laying a foot-long length of vine on the surface of moist, prepared soil.
Simply press it into the soil gently so the cutting is firmly in place, but the top is still exposed to air.
It is also possible to propagate Split-leaf Philodendron through air layering. To do this, locate a leaf node and aerial root on a stem. Cover this area with a bit of dampened sphagnum moss.
Cover the moss with a bit of plastic wrap. Poke a couple of holes in the plastic wrap for air circulation.
Roots should begin to appear within a month or so. When they do, you can carefully prune the limb away from the parent plant and transfer it to its own pot.
Monstera Deliciosa Main Pest Or Diseases
For the most part, a healthy Swiss Cheese Plant is pest and disease resistant.
Be sure to provide plenty of warmth, bright, indirect sunlight, and a regular soak and dry watering schedule to help your plant ward off typical houseplant problems, such as root rot, fungal growth, and common pests like mealybugs, aphids, scale insects, spider mites, and the like.
For severe pest infestation, you can apply insecticidal soap or neem oil.
Is the plant considered toxic or poisonous to people, kids, and pets?
The plant’s leaves, stems, and roots can be toxic if eaten in large quantities.
The calcium oxalate crystals they contain can cause drooling, trouble swallowing, mouth irritation, tongue and throat irritation, and vomiting.
The fruit is edible and tasty; however, it should only be eaten when ripe. It is also important to note that it is an allergen for some people.
Monstera deliciosa sap can irritate your skin. Be sure to wear gloves and eye protection when pruning this plant. Wash up afterward.
Is the plant considered invasive?
Hurricane Plant is a fast-growing, enthusiastic tropical plant that is winter hardy in the tropical United States, Hawaii, and other tropical and semi-tropical settings.
Naturally, when planted outdoors in these settings, it happily spreads. Because of this, it is deemed a highly invasive risk species in tropical settings.
Suggested Split-leaf Philodendron Uses
With its easy-growing tendencies and dramatically attractive good looks, Split-leaf Philodendron is a great addition to any home or office setting. It does very well in any situation that provides it with consistent warmth and bright, indirect light (or all-day-long fluorescent light).
Feng Shui aficionados recommend it as an entryway plant because it brings happiness, luck, and wealth to the home and all who dwell there.
Like most large, leafy plants, Cutleaf Philodendron has a good reputation for improving air quality, removing odors and dust, and improving household humidity levels.
In the spring and summertime, Monstera deliciosa makes a nice container plant on porches or sheltered patio settings.
If you live in an area where it can be grown in the landscape year-round, place it in a location where it will be sheltered from high winds and harsh, noonday sun.
Place it near a stump or fence where it can climb, but avoid placing it near a building because it will cause damage.
Let me preface this post with this point: I am not a professional peach grower, and I have only lived in Lower Alabama for less than three years.
But from my conversations with other gardeners and growers, I have come to the preliminary conclusion that growing peaches down here is a pain in the neck.
If you care for your peach tree well, it will grow. But they seem to be plagued with many issues, from dropping fruit, to chewing and boring insects, to random die backs, to squirrel attacks, to late frosts destroying the blooms, to deer pressure, to insects drilling in the fruit, etc.
Yesterday I visited a peach U-Pick in the Florida panhandle, about twenty minutes south of our location.
Despite there being many hundreds of trees, the yields were not impressive and the fruits were small and lacking a full peach flavor. The owner told me that they had issues with deer and late frosts. Many of the peaches were small and misshapen, with very few – very, very few – of commercial quality. A few on the trees were decent, but they were few!
The two varieties were Flordaking and Gulf Crimson. Neither seemed to be producing well. The trees were 7-8 years old and pruned short.
I don’t know if they had more peaches earlier in the season, but there were a few still on the trees. I was told that many were lost due to our late frost, though the remaining ripe fruit were mostly golf-ball sized.
Though I was impressed by the layout and the huge amount of work that went into the operation, it did not show well.
It seems that our peach growing here is still lacking good locally adapted varieties, or perhaps they simply aren’t in a good location in general. I noticed the soil was sub-par, and the interplanted pecan trees looked better than the peaches.
Sometimes it’s a matter of “right plant, right place.”
In North/Central Florida, south of Gainesville, we had some excellent peaches, with my seedlings also performing well, provided they were well watered, mulched, and given compost.
But the yields I see here aren’t so hot, even in that nicely laid out U-Pick. The best thing about it was the pecans planted in between the peaches.
Interestingly, the owner told me that none of the pecans had been worth keeping, despite the trees looking good.
Perhaps micronutrients were missing?
We had a couple of peach trees at our last place but despite them bearing fruit, we lost most of them to rot/insect damage.
It’s possible that a well-protected and excellently cared for tree would do well, but I have not been impressed with the production thus far.
Peaches seem to be quite needy, rather like growing good head lettuces here. Not a tree for beginners or casual gardeners.
Plums do well, as do Japanese persimmons and sand pears. But peaches? Whew. Looks like work to me.
We’re going to plant all the pits and see if we can get some to do better. Perhaps we’ll hit on the right culture and/or genetic combination for one that thrives. It’s hard to say whether planting a peach orchard is really worth doing here, especially when better options – such as muscadines, blueberries, figs, persimmons, etc. – might bring better yields with less work.
Are you tired of boring, uninspiring plants taking up space in your home or garden? Look no further than Strobilanthes Dyerianus (botanical name), also known as the Persian Shield Plant. This broad-leaved evergreen perennial is a show-stopper with its stunning iridescent purple foliage, making it a must-have for any plant enthusiast.
Hailing from Burma and winter hardy in USDA hardiness zones 10 through 11, this plant is as versatile as it is beautiful. In this article, we’ll dive into the unique characteristics of Strobilanthes Dyerianus, as well as provide tips for how to care for and make the most of this captivating plant.
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Strobilanthes Dyerianus is also commonly referred to as:
Bermuda Conehead
Purple Paradise
Royal Purple plant
Quick Care Tips for Persian Shield Strobilanthes
Botanical Name: Strobilanthes Dyerianus
Common Name(s): Persian Shield, Royal Purple plant, Bermuda Conehead
Synonyms: None
Family & Origin: Acanthaceae family, native to Myanmar (Burma) and hardy in USDA zones 10-11
Growability: Easy to grow as a houseplant or in a garden
Grow Zone: USDA zones 10-11
Size: Grows up to 4′ feet tall and 3′ feet wide
Flowering: Blooms with small purple flowers in summer
Light: Needs bright, indirect sunlight or partial shade
Humidity: Prefers high humidity levels
Temperature: Thrives in warm temperatures between 60-75°F
Soil: Requires well-draining soil with a pH between 5.5-7.5
Water: Keep soil consistently moist but not waterlogged, reduce watering in winter
Fertilizer: Feed every 2-3 weeks with a balanced fertilizer during the growing season
Propagation: Propagate by stem cuttings in spring or summer
Uses: Adds color and texture to gardens or indoor spaces, can be used as a border plant or in containers
Strobilanthes Dyerianus – Persian Shield Care
Now you might be wondering. Are Persian Shield plants hard to care for?
Let me tell you. You will find the plant very easy to care for as long as you provide them with plenty of consistent humidity and warmth, along with just the right watering schedule.
Follow the guidelines below for the ideal conditions for caring for your Strobilanthes Dyerianus.
Size and Growth
In a frost-free climate, Strobilanthes can grow up to 4′ feet high and 2′ or 3′ feet wide at maturity. However, outside USDA hardiness zones 10 and 11, it is unlikely to grow taller or wider than 3′ feet.
Although the flowers are attractive and even showy, the main draw of the Persian shield plant is its stunning silvery/purple foliage. The leaves, which are oval and somewhat lance-shaped, are the selling point.
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Leaves may grow as long as 8″ inches, with the base color being a deep green infused with a flush of silvery purple. The undersides of the leaves are very deep purple.
However, it’s important to note that the colorful foliage of Strobilanthes Dyerianus fades with time.
Do Persian Shields grow back year after year?
In warmer climates (USDA zones 9 to 11), Strobilanthes Dyerianus can grow as a perennial, coming back every year.
Moreover, most of the time, plants growing in the landscape in zones 8 and above will grow back in the springtime.
In colder climates, it’s often grown annually or brought indoors during winter.
Flowering and Fragrance
The Persian Shield is a seasonal bloomer that occasionally produces five lobed violet or purple flowers that are quite rare.
The flowers are individually very small; however, they grow in cone-shaped bunches that are quite appealing. The shape of these inflorescences gives the plant its alternate common name, Bermuda Conehead.
It is unusual for Strobilanthes Dyerianus to flower outside of its native land. However, in hot, humid settings, the plant may bloom in autumn or early wintertime.
Light and Temperature Requirements
Persian Shield works well in various light settings but does best in locations that mimic its native habitat or environment.
Can Persian Shields take full sun?
Strobilanthes Dyerianus will grow in full sun in cooler climates when grown as an annual. However, the foliage color may appear a little washed out.
So partial shade all day or dappled shade under trees will work well for plants on the edges of tropical forest clearings, landscapes, or outdoor container plants. The part shade or indirect light will also help show off the best foliage color.
But if you’re in a very cool climate, the plant may need full morning sun in the summer for optimum color.
If kept indoors, this evergreen shrub needs plenty of bright light—even some direct sun—to keep its color.
Potted plants indoors (or those in smaller pots outdoors) will do well in a setting that provides all-day bright, indirect sunlight.
As for the temperature, these tropical jungle understory plants love consistently warm temperatures but cannot tolerate harsh, direct sunlight.
Therefore, a setting that provides several hours of direct morning sunlight and shelter from the harsh noonday and afternoon sun will work well when grown in the landscape.
When kept as a houseplant, it likes consistently warm temperatures between 60° and 75° degrees Fahrenheit.
Also, remember that protection against extremes like cold or hot drafts) is very important. Keep your houseplant away from drafty vents, windows, and doors.
Overwintering
When overwintering indoors, keep the plant as a potted or container plant in a bright and sunny location.
How Cold Hardy is Persian Shield?
Some sources say that this tender perennial plant is hardy from USDA zones 8 to 11; however, it may die back late in the autumn in zones 8 and 9.
In these zones, it’s a good idea to cut it back before cooler weather arrives and provide a layer of mulch to protect the roots during the coldest months.
This tropical plant does best at temperatures higher than 60° degrees Fahrenheit. Therefore, in areas where winter temperatures are higher than freezing but below 60° degrees Fahrenheit, the plant should be cut back to the ground and protected with mulch during the winter months.
Can Persian Shield Survive Frost?
This plant is not frost tolerant and should be brought indoors for the winter in areas where temperatures drop below 32° degrees Fahrenheit.
You can keep Strobilanthes through the winter by digging it out of the ground early in the autumn before the first frost. Then, place it in a pot or planter and keep it indoors for the winter.
You can either keep it as a houseplant or let it rest in an area that receives moderate light. It may lose leaves and look poorly during this rest period, but it should come to life in the springtime when the temperatures rise, and it can get more sunlight.
How Do You Revive a Persian Shield Plant in the Spring?
Your plant will know the days are longer, even if you overwinter it in the basement. You may begin to see new growth. When this happens, move the plant to a warm indoor area where it can receive more light.
Prune away any dead stems, and give the plant a good watering. Then, after all the danger of frost has passed, begin transitioning your potted plant to the outdoors.
You may just set it out for an hour or two in a sheltered, shady place for the first few days. Then, gradually move it nearer and nearer to its intended spring and summer setting, and then transfer it to its place in the landscape if that’s what you have in mind.
Watering and Feeding Your Persian Shield Plant
This plant has moderate watering requirements but does need consistently moist soil. When caring for Persian Shield as a houseplant, it’s a good idea to establish a weekly watering schedule to keep the soil evenly moist and your plant healthy and thriving.
Monitor the soil moisture level by checking the top third of the soil. When it feels dry to the touch, it’s time to water your plant.
Remember to provide a full 1 inch of water per week but may need daily watering in hot climates to avoid leaf wilt.
Can You Overwater Persian Shield?
Even though Persian Shield likes consistently moist soil, don’t let it stand in water, or root rot will ensue. Overwatering is the major cause of root rot.
When you use a high-quality potting medium, your plant will not need much fertilizer.
You can either fertilize once in early spring and again in midsummer using a slow-release granular fertilizer product or fertilize monthly throughout the growing season with a half-strength liquid fertilizer.
Choose a product with a low, balanced NPK ratio (10-10-10). Do not fertilize at all during the autumn and winter months.
Soil and Transplanting
The best soil for Persian Shield is light, airy, well-draining, fertile soil that has been richly amended with organic matter, such as aged compost. It will also thrive in rich soils with good drainage.
Moreover, the plant is not picky about pH levels, growing well in neutral soils. However, it can also tolerate slightly acidic soils. Remember to keep the pH between 5.5 and 7.5.
Can Persian Shield Be Grown Outside?
Persian Shield makes a good landscape plant. This colorful tropical plant appreciates a very rich, organic soil. It always likes medium moisture, but as with all plants, it cannot stand in water. Well-draining soil is essential.
When planting in the landscape, leave 2′ to 3′ feet space between plants to allow space for growth and air circulation.
Before planting, work the soil thoroughly and amend it well with lots of organic matter. Be sure excess water can drain away freely.
How Do You Care For a Potted Persian Shield?
You must use high-quality potting soil when keeping Persian Shield as a houseplant. It should be rich in organic matter. In addition, your container must have plenty of drainage holes.
Your indoor Persian Shield should be kept in a consistently warm and draft-free setting. It should receive bright, indirect sunlight at least 6 hours a day.
Turn your plant every couple of days to be sure it gets good sun exposure on all sides.
Grooming & Maintenance
Persian shields need very little care and grooming. They may be left to grow to their full height and width, or you can pinch stems back to promote more compact growth and bushiness.
As with all plants, it’s important to remove damaged, diseased or dead leaves and stems promptly when they appear.
Otherwise, very little maintenance is required during the growing season; however, preparing plants for overwintering and keeping them sheltered through the winter can be something of a challenge.
Before bringing container plants indoors for the winter, cut them back by about one-third.
It is also advisable to cut your Persian Shield back to the ground before the first frost if planted in the landscape in USDA hardiness zones 8 to 9.
If your plant becomes very leggy with the sudden growth in the springtime, you can prune it back to slightly below the desired size. It will soon grow back and fill out. Regular trimming and pruning will help prevent this problem.
You may also like these plants from the family Acanthaceae:
How To Propagate Persian Shield Plant
When you groom your Persian Shield or cut it back before winter, you can keep stem cuttings to grow new plants.
Although you can keep the same plant from one year to the next by bringing it in as a houseplant through the winter and returning it in the summer, it is preferable to propagate new plants by taking cuttings annually.
As these plants mature, they develop woody stems. This reduces the brilliance of the coloration and the quality of the leaves.
Here’s How To Propagate Fresh Plants!
Take cuttings from your overwintered plants to grow new plants to set out in the spring, or take cuttings from your outdoor plants late in the summer to grow new plants to overwinter.
It’s always a good idea to cut very close to the main stem to leave the parent plant with a tidier appearance. Then, cut off stems at least 3″ to 4″ inches long.
Make a clean cut just below a growth node when taking cuttings for propagation. Then, remove the lower leaves and place the cuttings into fresh water.
Change the water every day or two until you see roots forming. Once the cuttings have several good roots, you can plant them into their own pots or containers and care for them as mature plants.
TIP: When transplanting cuttings from water to soil, provide a thorough watering immediately.
Can You Grow Persian Shield from Seed?
It’s possible to grow these plants from seed, but it’s quite a bit of trouble, and you’ll probably have a better success rate with cuttings.
If you don’t have a parent plant to obtain cuttings, you can start seeds indoors in late winter under grow lights or a sunny windowsill.
Keep the soil moist, and transplant the seedlings outdoors once they are large enough and the danger of frost has passed.
Purple Paradise Pests and Diseases
When well cared for, the Persian shield is usually resistant to fungal diseases, insect infestation, or other common plant problems. But it may occasionally be prone to spotting and water stress.
If your plant has brown leaf edges or curled leaves, this is a sign of too much sun or too little water. Follow the directions above to correct watering and sun exposure.
If you are transitioning your plant from indoors to outdoors, don’t allow it to sit in direct sunlight.
Aphids and whiteflies can also become common pests, especially when compromised and drought-stressed.
So it’s best to inspect your Strobilanthes Dyerianus regularly, and if you encounter pests, remove them manually or use a gentle insecticidal soap, horticultural oil, or neem oil. Be sure to follow the products’ instructions carefully and treat as needed.
In addition, Persian shields may falter for several reasons. Too much or too little water, sun, or warmth can all negatively impact your plant.
Reviewing and correcting your plant care practices may be needed to help your plant recover.
How Do You Revive a Dying Persian Shield?
Review your care techniques and make corrections to be sure your plant is consistently warm and sheltered from drafts.
Be sure the soil is neither soggy nor bone dry. Provide a minimum of 6 hours a day of bright, indirect sunlight, and protect your plant against harsh direct sunlight.
Repotting is in order if your plant is root-bound or suffering from root rot. Be sure to repot using an entirely clean, new potting mix and a new or sterilized container.
If you also notice your Persian Shield losing its color, it’s because of excessive sunlight. Too little sunlight will also cause this problem. Be sure your plant gets 6-8 hours of bright, indirect sunlight daily.
Also, understand that older leaves (bottom leaves) will naturally fade and fall. This is not a cause for concern. Simply remove them when they start to fade.
Is Strobilanthes Shield Considered Toxic or Poisonous?
Generally speaking, members of the Acanthaceae family are non-toxic. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that the sap of the Persian Shield may be irritating to the skin.
There is no indication that this plant is invasive, even in very conducive climates.
Suggested Strobilanthes – Persian Shield Uses
Persian Shield makes an excellent houseplant both indoors and outdoors year-round in any climate.
This pretty purple plant is a great choice for a rain garden, as a colorful addition to an outdoor garden, and as an excellent plant in persistently damp, shady areas in the landscape.
You can also plant it with plants with orange, soft gray-green, or chartreuse shades. It also works well as a striking border plant.
Where Did The Name Strobilanthes Come From?
The genus name is derived from the combined Greek words strobilos, meaning cone, and anthos, which means flower.
The specific epithet honors a late 19th-century/early 20th-century botanist named Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer. He was the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew from the late 1800s to the early 1900s.
Persian Shield – Outdoors or Houseplant – It’s Beautiful!
In Closing
Strobilanthes dyerianus is a beautiful, easy-care plant that can bring lots of visual drama to your indoor or outdoor plant collection.
You can enjoy this lush, colorful plant year-round by paying close attention to the plants’ warmth, light, water, soil, and fertilizer requirements.
There are hundreds of decisions to be made whether building new or renovating old. The posts on Remodelista this week reminded us to spend time pondering the mundane stuff. The payoff could be spectacular. The Vent Covers The Walls The Window Dressing The Ceilings Plus: Kitchen of the Week: A Dated Condo in Oregon Gets […]
Gardeners everywhere battle weeds throughout the growing season. But I’m here to offer some unconventional advice.
I’m going to encourage you to grow them, or at least allow them to germinate.
The reality is that there’s a seed bank underground, an accumulation of seeds built up over the years, just waiting for their turn to germinate and outcompete your beloved edibles.
In fact, there can be thousands of these undesirables lying in wait within just a single square foot of earth.
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If left to grow, these opportunists will undoubtedly outcompete annual edibles for nutrients, water, and space. But most of them will only germinate when they’re within just an inch or two of the ground’s surface.
So, there’s both good news and bad news.
We’ll get to the bad first:
The bad news is that many of the common methods for managing weeds bring seeds closer to the soil surface, where they’re able to sprout.
The good news:
You can get ahead of these nuisance species!
Though popular weed management practices have their downsides, there is one lesser-known method that may be effective in your garden – and it’s known as stale seedbed cultivation.
Keep reading to learn what stale seedbed cultivation is, how it’s done, and why you need to try it in your backyard (and front yard, and side yard…).
The Pitfalls of Common Weeding Methods
Weeding is a chore that some claim to actually enjoy, and that most of us merely endure season after season, for the benefit of our garden plots.
But did you know that commonplace modes of unwanted plant removal may be doing more harm than good?
For instance, tilling encourages germination – and that means more weed seeds sprouting in your soil.
Tilling has its place, but in the process, seeds that were once buried become primed for germination.
Even when it’s done by hand, tilling also damages soil structure, and takes out earthworms and other beneficial organisms.
Hand weeding can have similar results. While it’s often necessary, pulling the entire root system of a plant out of the ground stirs up the surrounding area – encouraging other weeds to grow.
So, the fewer weeds there are to pull, the better.
How can we accomplish this?
Read on, gardening friends!
Improved Outcomes with Stale Seedbed Cultivation
One lesser-known method of management is called stale seedbed cultivation. And it can make all the difference.
While a little more effort is required on the front end, it will save you a lot of hand pulling in the heat of the summer.
Stale seedbed cultivation goes by a couple of other names as well, including stale bed planting and false bed planting.
It’s a method commonly used in large-scale agriculture, but it’s also a great option for backyard gardeners.
If avoiding herbicides is a priority for you, this method is definitely worth a try.
The idea is to prepare garden beds as you normally would, on a slightly different timetable. You want to get them ready two to four weeks in advance of your usual schedule.
Prepare soil as if you were going to direct sow or transplant crops the very same day.
Till it, if needed, and add any amendments and appropriate fertilizers. Create a smooth, level surface. Water the area, and then walk away.
Your mission during this time is to get as many weeds as possible to grow.
Sounds crazy, right? Bear with me – this insane-sounding behavior is going to pay off, I promise!
Keep the area moist and warm, and you won’t have any problem achieving great success.
Most seeds will sprout within seven to ten days. So, within two weeks you should see a first flush of growth.
With a razor-sharp hoe, gently cultivate the area. You want to cut plants off just at ground level, being careful not to disturb the soil more than an inch below the surface.
If you’re sloppy, you’ll likely move new seeds to the surface, giving them an opportunity to germinate. And that’s not what we’re going for here. Hoe carefully!
If possible, you’ll want to repeat this process twice before planting out your crop. It’s a great way to remove a majority of the weeds that would ultimately become an issue later in the season.
If done effectively, you will create an area at the soil’s surface that has very few seeds left, hence the name “stale seedbed.” This can reduce your garden’s weed population by 50 percent.
Can you imagine spending half the time hand pulling thistle and other nuisance plants?
This method is especially beneficial to any plants you will direct sow. By taking out their competitors, you dramatically improve their chances for success.
If you’re dealing with acres to manage, carry a hoe with you everywhere you go.
As you tend to your garden, make cultivating the area a habit. You will be pleasantly surprised when you see how your effort and diligence pays off.
A Few Things to Keep in Mind
Stale seedbed cultivation works best for summer and fall vegetable gardens. But there isn’t always extra time in the spring to prepare a bed weeks in advance.
If you are attempting stale seedbed cultivation in the early days of spring, or in late winter, try covering the area with heavy-weight garden fabric. This will help to warm up the soil faster, in turn helping many weeds to germinate.
You could also lay clear plastic over the area, and then remove it once growth is evident. Just be sure to keep the area moist.
Working the soil while it is wet could ruin its structure, so wait until it’s dry to get it ready.
Also, different seasons favor different species. So, keep your timeline tight.
You’ll want to be able to direct sow right after you’ve cultivated the soil. This will give crops a better chance to outcompete any competitors yet to come.
Plants like garlic, onions, and carrots are more vulnerable. One reason is that their leaves do little to shade the surrounding area, leaving room for unwanted neighbors to fill in.
Continue to hand weed around seedlings until they’re large enough to mulch. A two-to three-inch layer of organic mulch – like straw, grass clippings, or pine fines – will help to further suppress weeds.
Inevitably, if transplanting crops, you will disturb the soil at the time of planting. You can expect some weeds to surface shortly afterwards as a result.
Avoid compacting soil so you won’t feel the need to till it every year. Designing beds no more than four feet wide and using raised beds goes a long way to minimize compaction.
Worth the Extra Effort
A little extra work at the beginning of the season can save you a whole lot of work later. And it’s such a relief to know your beds are ready for planting as soon as the time is right.
The majority of the weeds you will have to pull are just sitting there, right beneath the soil’s surface.
Instead of letting them grow alongside your crops, get them to germinate ahead of time. Then simply cut them down with a sharp hoe, being careful not to disturb the soil.
The work you will save yourself later in the season is more than worth the effort required to get your garden bed prepped a little earlier the next time around.
What do you think? Are you willing to take the time to prep your garden earlier in order to avoid weeding later? Let us know in the comments!
Hemigraphis alternata, also called Strobilanthes alternata, is an herbaceous perennial member of the Acanthaceae family.
The plant originally hails from the Maluku Islands, Malaysia, Java, and India. The plant’s genus name, Hemigraphis, is Greek and means “half brush.”
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This refers to the thick fur covering the plants’ outer stamens. The specific epithet, alternata, is also Greek and means “alternating.”
The specific variety native to Java is also known as Strobilanthes alternata (stroh-bil-AN-theez al-ter-NAY-tuh).
You may also hear this attractive plant commonly referred to the following common names:
Purple Waffle Plant
Metal Leaf Plant
Cemetery Plant
Red-Flame Ivy
Waffle Plant
Red Ivy
In this article, we will look at how we can grow and care for your Hemigraphis alternata at home.
They are herbaceous perennials and belong to the flowering plant family – Acanthaceae along with:
Purple Waffle Plant Care
Size and Growth
Purple Waffle Plant is a low-growing, sprawling forest floor plant with a prostrate, spreading growth habit. It may reach only a mature size of 8″ inches while spreading 18″ inches or more.
Hemigraphis alternata feature 3″ to 6″ inches long oval leaves that are glossy, puckery, corrugated, and toothed.
This tropical has beautiful oval leaves that are hairy and opposite with grayish-green metallic sheen tops and lighter green or purplish bottom surfaces.
Excessive amounts of sun will prevent the leaves from developing their classic metallic sheen.
Some cultivars have slightly different coloring. For example, the Snow White Waffle Plant has green leaves with large white markings and splashes of pink.
On the other hand, the Belgian Waffle Plant has green leaves with cream-colored margins.
Flowering and Fragrance
The bell-shaped blooms of Red Ivy are small, white, unscented, yet attractive, appearing in summer. However, the tiny white flowers are only secondary to the plant’s beautiful foliage.
They grow in clusters of inch-long racemes in the summertime.
Plants indoors need ample bright, indirect sunlight to spur blooming.
Light and Temperature
Grow Red-Flame Ivy in full sun to part shade. Outdoors, full morning sun with protection from harsh noonday and afternoon sun will produce the best results.
Avoid direct sunlight, as it can cause the leaf edges to scorch or the color to bleach.
Direct sun can also result in the fading of the cool metallic sheen of the leaves. However, your Purple waffle plant may lose its rich purple color without enough light.
A setting that provides consistently bright, indirect light will work well when kept as a houseplant. The plant can be placed directly in a north or east-facing window.
If your only exposure is west or south-facing, place the plant a few feet away from the window.
When you cannot access natural light, these plants thrive under artificial lights.
Waffle Plant is winter hardy in USDA hardiness zones 10 and 11. In colder climates, the plant will die off after the first frost.
Indoors, strive to maintain temperatures between 55° and 75° Fahrenheit.
Remember that they need high humidity conditions for healthy growth. If the humidity levels are low, you can increase them by misting or growing your plants in a pebble tray with water.
You can also maintain relatively high humidity levels (50% to 70%) through a humidifier.
Watering and Feeding
Keep the soil slightly moist by watering whenever the top quarter inch of soil becomes dry. However, don’t soak the soil, and never leave your plant standing in water, as this can lead to root rot.
Fertilize once early in the spring and again in mid-summer. Excessive amounts of fertilizer will cause spotty leaves or white spots on leaves and leggy growth.
Use a liquid fertilizer formulated for indoor plants. The NPK ratio should be 6-12-6.
Using a slow-release 6-12-6 houseplant fertilizer will also provide the necessary nutrients, including phosphate, potash, and nitrogen, for healthy growth.
In the landscape, top dress/mulch with well-rotted compost very early in the springtime. The compost will provide nutrients on a slow, steady basis while helping maintain moisture in the soil surface.
Add another layer of compost in mid-summer. Don’t fertilize in winter.
Soil and Transplanting
This low-growing plant does best in fertile, moist soil with a great deal of humus content and a pH level of 6.1 to 6.9.
Moist, well-drained soils will also work well for this plant.
If you are growing Red Ivy as a container or potted plant, repot with fresh soil early in the springtime. However, you may not find it necessary to repot every year.
If the plant seems overcrowded in its pot or roots start to sprout from the drainage holes, you’ll know it’s time to repot.
When grown as an annual or outdoor perennial, add leaf mold and compost to the moist soil to enrich it.
When grown as a houseplant, you can opt for commercial potting soil or an all-purpose potting mix.
Grooming and Maintenance
Remove dead and damaged leaves from your Purple waffle plant as needed. You can also trim lightly throughout the growing season to shape your plant or dig the offshoots, rooting themselves around the main plant, to keep the shape.
At the end of summer, take cuttings from outdoor plants to start indoors and keep them as houseplants through the winter.
When kept as houseplants, Cemetery Plants appreciate an occasional dusting to help keep the leaves bright and glossy and facilitate good photosynthesis.
Indoors or outdoors, you may wish to spray your plants monthly with insecticidal soap or a neem oil solution to help prevent pest infestation.
How To Propagate Purple Waffle Plant
It is easy to propagate Purple Waffle Plant through vegetative cuttings in water or soil. The plant spreads enthusiastically in the landscape and sets down roots as it rambles along.
You only need to cut an actively growing stem with at least one node at the end using clean scissors or hand-pruning shears.
Then, plant the stem cutting in a container with moist potting soil.
You can also propagate Waffle Plant through division when you repot containers or potted plants.
Red Ivy Main Pests Or Diseases
Whiteflies, mealybugs, and scale are the common problematic pests for this plant.
Tackle whiteflies by soaking and rinsing your entire plant in your sink or shower. Pests leaving honeydew secreted saps and cottony matters may affect the underside of the leaves.
When you see them flying around your plants, you can also use the hose attachment on your vacuum cleaner to suck them up, but be careful not to damage your plants.
If you see mealybugs on the plant’s undersides of the leaves, use a cotton ball soaked in isopropyl alcohol to wipe them away.
Scale insects appear as small brown bumps on the stems and leaves of your plants. You can gently scrape them away with the edge of a knife blade or your thumbnail.
If there are a lot of them, you may be better off pruning away heavily-infested stems and leaves.
Follow up spot treatment for any of these pests with a thorough treatment of insecticidal soap spray or neem oil spray.
Overwatering and excessive humidity can cause common problems with root rot and other fungal infections.
If this happens, prune away affected leaves, stems, and roots using a very sharp, sterilized cutting implement. In addition, adjust your care habits to avoid excessive amounts of moisture.
Repot your plant into an entirely clean potting mix and a new or sterilized pot or container.
Take care not to overwater the plant in the future. Instead, provide gentle air circulation around your plants to help prevent fungal growth on leaves and stems.
Is the plant considered toxic or poisonous to people, kids, and pets?
Metal Leaf Plant is completely non-toxic.
Is the plant considered invasive?
Although Red Ivy has a fairly slow growth rate, it does spread and self-propagate easily in tropical climates. In this sort of setting, it can easily become invasive.
In cold climates, it dies out at the first frost and is not invasive.
How to Grow and Care for Hemigraphis Alternata (Red Ivy)
Red-Flame Ivy can make a nice year-round ground cover in tropical and semi-tropical environments. It is planted as an annual groundcover or bedding plant in areas with cold winters.
In addition, trailing Red Flame Ivy is a good choice for containers and hanging baskets to use in the landscape.
Like coleus, Red Ivy may also be kept as a houseplant during winter. Its trailing growth habit makes it perfect for indoor hanging baskets.
Its colorful foliage also makes an excellent addition to the on top of a bedroom table, your office or terrariums at home.
You might also try planting in long planters placed on a high shelf (with ample artificial light) to create a living wall or curtain effect.
As a houseplant, Waffle Plant has a good reputation for helping improve air quality. This may be because its waffly leaves provide more surface area than standard flat-leafed houseplants.
Daylilies and I go way back. Hardy, drought-tolerant, profuse bloomers: what’s not to like? Add to that their eagerness to spread and multiply, and you’ve got yourself an easy addition to your home and garden.
Because of its popularity, the daylily is available in a staggering array of colors and growing habits. They’re forgiving of most forms of maltreatment and thrive on minimal attention.
Establishing and growing these spectacular beauties is an excellent starting project for the beginner, and finding a unique or quirky hybrid species is a feather in the hat for more experienced gardeners.
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Today we’ll learn about why daylilies are such excellent additions for your garden, and how to handle the handful of difficulties these flashy flowers can be prone to. We’ll take a look at a few cultivars I’ve had first-hand experience with as well.
Here’s what’s ahead:
Cultivation and History
You’re probably familiar with Hemerocallis in one form or another. This latin name means “beautiful day” in Greek, and that’s about as fitting as it gets for botanical names.
The brightly colored blooms are popular across most growing zones in the United States, and in many regions worldwide. Hemerocallis traces its origin to Asia and then to Europe, so this fantastic perennial is a world traveler.
Most cultivars will prosper in growing zones 3-9, although a few outliers will be happy in climates as cold as zone 2, and as warm as zone 10.
Daylilies with achillea and coreopsis.
Daylilies tend to grow in large clumps, and they get their common name because each individual blossom will last for only a single day.
Each clump of flowers can produce as many as two to four hundred blooms over the period of a month in the best conditions, so don’t let that “flower a day” limitation scare you off.
These prolific periods of flowering are supported by the stalks, otherwise known as “scapes.” Each scape can produce as many as a dozen buds, so you’ll have plenty of flowers to show off in your garden.
Pow, there you go! Next time you see a daylily at the garden center you can say, “Check out the buds on that scape,” and impress everybody around you.
Daylilies can grow in any light conditions, from full sun to full shade. But they’re at their best in full sun.
When grown in full shade, the quantity of flowers buds produced is minimal, and nothing to write home about. Hemerocallis is at its best when it has uninterrupted morning sun with a reprieve from the afternoon sunshine. We’ll go into a little more depth about this below.
Establishing in Your Garden
Because they’re so forgiving, it’s easy to imagine daylilies can be plopped into any old place and they’ll thank you for it. The truth isn’t far from that generality, but some forethought and planning will only benefit your gardening pursuits.
The timeliness of your Hemerocallis planting is potentially important.
In northern, cooler climates, you could get away with planting the hardy daylily in any season except the depths of winter (and even then, who knows?). But in warmer, southern climates you’ll want to get your bulbs planted in the spring or the fall.
An orange “ditch lily.”
Your Hemerocallis can potentially reach heights between one and six feet and will generally spread out to a width of two to four feet.
If you’re planting multiple specimens, you’ll space them one to four feet apart, depending on your patience reserves; patient gardeners will find theirs filling out in 2-3 years and eating up that space, but folks who want to make an impression NOW will space their plantings closer to one foot apart.
Daylilies are at their best with about eight hours of sunlight each day. They thrive in morning light where they receive shade from the hot late afternoon sun.
These plants don’t require much fertilizer, so an annual addition of compost will be all the added nutrients you need.
Adding Hemerocallis to Your Garden
You can plant your daylily a bit deeper than most perennials. The crowns can be buried to a depth of about 1 inch below the soil line.
Water a few times a week for 2-4 weeks after planting, but after a month or so you’ll only need to water once a week, tops.
After the first year of growth, you’ll find that your daylily has become drought tolerant and only needs to be watered during the worst dry periods.
Hemerocallis ‘Stella de Oro’
When first adding Hemerocallis to your garden, you’re going to want to loosen that soil up a bit. Hardy as it is, the daylily benefits from a good bit of forethought and planning.
Most garden centers will sell these in a pot size of one to two gallons, so you’re ideally going to till the soil of the planting area to a depth of 18 inches.
Different cultivars will bloom at different periods of the summer, so staggering your planting with a variety of different types of Hemerocallis is the way to go if you want to have continued blooms throughout the growing season.
If you plant a single cultivar, you can expect a grand and lovely, but short, period of flowering.
Soil Conditions and a Drink of Water
Your daylily is only particular about the quality of its soil.
It wants to be placed into good-quality garden soil, that magical middle-ground of high fertility, good drainage, and generally moist conditions.
If your soil is dense and heavy, the compost will help to break it up. On the other hand, if your soil is sandy and fast draining, the addition of compost will help to increase the moisture retention of your garden.
Pruning and Maintenance
Once it’s established, you can pretty much lace your fingers behind your head and relax.
This perennial is capable and ready to take care of itself, but there are a few ways you can help it along:
Deadheading and Maximizing Your Flowers
Most daylilies will deadhead themselves, so that’s one garden chore we can cross off the list.
Once a scape is out of bloom and has no future buds to produce, it’s wise to remove it from the plant.
Similarly, when the plant produces its seedheads, it’s best to prune these from the flower to aid future flower production.
You’ll divide your daylilies every 2 to 4 years, depending on how fast they’re spreading and growing out.
You’ll notice when the clump is too big for its own comfort because the flower production suffers and the plant, as a whole, looks unhappy.
Divide in late summer for the best results. You can chop in half, in quarters, or in tenths, depending on how large that Hemerocallis clump is. Spread those babies out to your neighbors for maximum impact (more on that later).
Cutting Back Dead Foliage
Ideally, you’re going to leave the foliage in place throughout the winter and into the spring. Once the weather warms up and the soil thaws, you’re going to want to flush cut any dead foliage from the daylily.
Leaving that foliage standing throughout the winter acts as an additional layer of mulch for your daylilies, so think twice before flush cutting your entire garden in the fall.
Cultivars to Select
Daylilies have some interesting naming conventions, tied with the iris in my opinion.
Primal Scream
The ‘Primal Scream’ Hemerocallis is a solid go-to choice for bountiful orange blooms. The flowers are large and the plant grows to a modest height of about three feet.
I’ve always been a sucker for white and yellow flowers, and ‘White Gloves’ provides a little bit of both. I’d call the flowers “creamy,” based on the ones I’ve seen in person.
It’s a gorgeous flower with a good size (each bloom is about five inches wide), and it blooms early enough in the season to provide a nice transition from springtime pastels to the more bold and vibrant summer colors.
‘Sunday Gloves’ will grow in zones 3-9, and it also reaches a modest height of just over two feet.
Possessing a dark purple flower that draws you in, the ‘Nosferatu’ Hemerocallis possesses a color and a name perfect for gardeners with a bit of an edge. The robust plant will eagerly grow in almost any condition and provide you with swaths of purple flowers throughout the mid-season.
No discussion of growing daylilies is complete without mentioning the ‘Stella d’Oro.’ One of the staples of any perennial garden, ‘Stella d’Oro’ will grow just about anywhere, and happily flowers throughout the entire summer.
It is resistant to many diseases and comes in at a modest one foot in height.
You’re probably familiar with the wild-growing orange daylily seen on the sides of roads and on the borders of pasture land. This is H. fulva, a tenacious plant given the unfortunate nicknames “ditch lily” and “gutter lily.”
This member of the daylily family grows eagerly, and quickly spreads beyond its original planting area.
These aren’t bad traits to have if you have a large area you need filled up. However, if you’re working with a small and contained garden area, you’ll want to select a more modest cultivar.
Managing Pests and Diseases
I love how daylilies are a “set it and forget it” type of perennial. They require minimum fuss and are susceptible to only a few problems. Brush up on your pesticide basics with our guide to safe chemical application in the garden.
The Bugs
Aphids, slugs, spider mites, gall midges, and thrips are the most common potential sources of most of your insect problems. Slugs are notoriously troublesome, but Gardener’s Path has put together an all-you-need-to-know guide on handling these slimy troublemakers.
The gall midge is a European pest that was discovered in British Columbia in the early 2000s. In the years since, it has spread throughout the Pacific Northwest. The gall midge overwinters inside of Hemerocallis buds and destroys them from the inside out.
Contact insecticides are ineffective, and the best way to remove the threat from your garden is to plant cultivars resistant to the gall midge. If you spot malformed buds on your Hemerocallis and live in the Pacific Northwest, Canada, or affected parts of Europe, you should remove the infected area of the plant and destroy it.
Infected buds will be inflated and distorted and will not open properly. Daylilies that flower early are most likely to be affected by the gall midge.
Thrips are a common garden problem, and don’t require any treatment if your plants are healthy. If an infestation is too big to ignore, spray with horticultural oil to eliminate the thrip problem.
Spider mites cause trouble mostly during periods of hot, dry weather. Keep your plants well-watered and give them a little shower once a week or so during hot weather to help minimize spider mites.
Streak and rust are more serious issues affecting the health of Hemerocallis. Both are fungal issues with many similarities.
They both appear as yellow-orange streaks and flecks on the foliage of your plants. Symptoms appear during warm weather and may initially be confused with chlorosis.
The easiest way to determine what you’re looking at is to touch the affected areas with your finger, a glove, or a tissue. If a powdery, orange streak wipes off, then you’re dealing with rust.
Another indicator to determine the difference between rust and streak is the gross-looking pustule that develops only with rust.
Streak is a less serious affliction. The fungus can overwinter in the foliage, so removing your dead foliage and starting fresh each spring is the best way to prevent exposure.
If your plants are affected by streak during the growing season, you should instead cut back the affected areas immediately and destroy the leaves.
Rust is a more serious condition. It spreads very quickly between plants. Although many gardeners will recommend destroying any Hemerocallis infected with rust, there may be other options.
Flush cutting all foliage could help to limit the spread of rust. Use a quality copper fungicide like the one pictured above, available on Amazon, to prevent further rust (and streak) infections.
Always destroy any plant material that’s infected with a fungus or disease. Don’t compost it!
Dang Deer!
If you live in deer country, there’s a good chance that Bambi is gonna be munching on your daylilies. Those flowers and foliage are like caviar to our ungulate friends.
I enjoy the color and durability that Hemerocallis provides, but my favorite aspect of this perennial is how voraciously it grows into dividable clumps.
As we’ve mentioned, daylilies won’t flower if they’re left undivided for too long, and that’s why it is the perfect plant for your garden.
Dividing is necessary for the health of the plant, but it’s also an excellent way to get to know your neighbors and share bits of your garden with each other.
Most gardeners jump at the chance to score a few free plants, and when you’ve got clumps of daylilies to offer, you’ll find people jumping to grab a few of their own.
I always imagined gardens in my neighborhood as the patches of a quilt. As individuals, we can’t cover our entire neighborhood in a green blanket. But we can all contribute our own squares.
When those squares are combined, we’re living in a greener place, and those individual efforts we take to beautify the landscape and protect our local ecosystems can make a bigger difference when we work together. That’s what makes daylilies the perfect neighborly perennial.
Do you have a recommended variety, or a question or bit of advice on handling this perennial? We’d love to see it in the comment section below. Drop us a line!
And for more spring flower growing tips, check out some of our other guides:
OUR HUMAN-CENTRIC way of looking at things in the garden and tasting, hearing, seeing and touching things is just one person’s opinion, and hardly represents the consensus of all the living creatures whose home it is.
You may know Nancy Lawson as “The Humane Gardener” (also the title of her previous book). She has a new book out called “Wildscape” (affiliate links) that asks us to adjust our senses to take into account everyone out there whose world it is—everyone else whose world it is, and was, before we intervened.
Nancy Lawson is a naturalist and a habitat consultant based in Maryland who promotes animal-friendly plant strategies and challenges us to sharpen our awareness that we’re not alone out there. (Above, a spring moment in Nancy’s garden; below, Nancy in a portrait by Jennifer Heffner).)
Plus: Comment in the box near the bottom of the page to enter to win the new book, “Wildscape.”
thinking about the wildscape around us, with nancy lawson
Margaret Roach: So I just really just wanted to ask, why did you want to write this book? I love the subhead on the title, it says “Wildscape” in big letters, and then it says “Trilling Chipmunks, Beckoning Blooms, Salty Butterflies, and other Sensory Wonders of Nature.” So why did you want to do this one after “The Humane Gardener”?
Nancy Lawson: Yes. Well, I felt like there’s a lot of information out there now about how to garden for wildlife in general, using plants. So people are much more aware of native plant gardening than they were even just a few years ago. But there are all these other things going on in the landscape that some of our more conventional landscaping practices that are still quite common, even among people trying to garden in a gentler way, a lot of these conventional landscaping practices kind of smother some of the opportunities for animals to communicate through their senses, to perceive the world through their senses.
And I just thought if people could think about a little bit more the fact that other organisms are not necessarily taking in their environment in the same way that we are, maybe they could also learn how to decrease their disruptions of those outdoor environments, because animals really need to be able to use that in a different way in order to survive and thrive.
Margaret: Right. And by animals we mean from the tiniest insect and other arthropods, and even smaller, to–well, not smaller, but that small [laughter]–to like I have black bear come wandering through the garden. You know what I mean?
Nancy: Right.
Margaret: We need animals on a wide range of-
Nancy: Yeah.
Margaret: Yeah. Not just squirrels and chipmunks.
Nancy: The micro to the macro. Right. [Laughter.]
Margaret: Yeah, there you go. So it’s about taking into consideration not just our own human senses, but all of their senses and, as you say in the book, considering the sensory experiences of the other species. You divided it up into these chapters that are about each sense–no big surprise there, which is great. And you really just ask us to pay so much closer attention instead of just being so, again, human-centric.
In the intro to the book you write, “If you treat the local environment like the homeland it’s meant to be, you’ll be exposed to more cultures and ideas and ways of life than if you visited with people from every country in the world.” I loved that [laughter]. There’s a real global perspective right in the backyard. So let’s talk about that idea.
Nancy: Yeah, I mean, there’s just an endless number of creatures out there that we’ll never even be able to know them all or understand them all. The natural-history studies are sort of done on the side by a lot of scientists because they’re not very well funded anymore. And a lot of these animals that people used to consider common and still do, we don’t even know very much about their lifestyles, let alone some of the ones that haven’t even been discovered yet. And so, I mean, I’m still discovering behaviors in my own backyard that hardly anyone else has seen and-
Margaret: Yes, yes, yes. I love that. I love that. Me, too. Me, too.
Nancy: Yeah, and I think we all could be contributing to the science of animal behavior and what animals need in our local floral and faunal communities. If we just were able to take some time to pay attention a little bit more, like you said.
Margaret: Yeah. And I think for me, one of the big ahas, even though I’ve been in the same place for 35 years, I thought I knew the place, right? But I didn’t really go out in the dark until the last maybe 10 years. I didn’t go out in the dark after… I’m a gardener, so I’m out there during the day. And that was the other thing–was to learn about the night shift ,too. You know what I mean? Not just the day shift.
Nancy: I loved that. I remember when you wrote about that about moths, right?
Margaret: Yeah. When you go looking for moths, which I do at night in the summer, it turns out there’s this whole other world of creatures. And, in fact, a lot of creatures because speaking of their needs, it’s a great way to avoid predation is to be nocturnal, because a lot of other animals that don’t have good sight and so forth are diurnal or whatever. So it’s a good time to crawl around and do your work and get your food.
Nancy: Right. And in fact, larger animals like mammals, like coyotes, people think of them as an nocturnal, but these animals are just doing that to avoid us a lot of the time.
Margaret: Right. An anti-predation strategy. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. No, it’s very, very interesting. So you’ll see all these crazy things, and if you take your time, then you can try to figure out what they are. I mean that’s the other part of it, is not just go, “Oh, what’s that? What’s that?” But actually find out what’s that and what’s it doing there, and how long has it been doing that?
Nancy: Yeah, right. And a lot of times when you start to look things up, you realize that very few people have followed that trail before, or they might have studied a slightly similar animal or a related species of plant or animal. And so that’s kind of what I focused on in my book when I couldn’t find an exact study or research or some other observations on what I was seeing, I could maybe at least find information on related species that could possibly give some insight into what I was looking at.
Margaret: I loved seeing… And speaking of related species, you have great pictures in the book, and you have this tortoise beetle. I think yours is a spotted tortoise beetle, maybe?
Nancy: Yeah. A scientist in Colorado took that picture.
Margaret: Oh, sorry. And I have a different… I saw, oh, a tortoise beetle. I have the clavate tortoise beetle [above] who sort of looks like a teddy bear under a piece of plexiglas, a little dome plexiglass or something.
Nancy: Right. I’ve seen them, yeah. [Laughter.]
Margaret: The first time I saw that I was like, what in the world? Who invented this thing and what’s it doing? Right?
Nancy: Right. It looks amazing. It looks like a little tortoise. Yeah.
Margaret: Yeah. So as I said, there’s just so many invocations in the book. You talk about how if we adjust our way of seeing and thinking, you’ll see the outdoors, even just your own backyard as “not really yours at all, but the gathering place of countless sovereign nations, a refuge for the increasingly displaced.” So this consciousness that we can make a difference with our decisions in our gardens and our parks and other green spaces and so forth. A big difference.
Nancy: Yeah. And in thinking about, a lot of people will ask, well, what’s the first piece of advice you’d give someone when they want to start doing this? I mean, first of all, it’s just observe what’s going on. Don’t assume you have to change something. Watch who’s coming through your space and things like that. But that also led me to thinking oftentimes we just have to stop. We don’t have to start doing something. We just have to stop: Stop mowing so much. Stop leaf blowing. Stop these sensory disruptions.
Stop using all these pesticides that actually not only are directly damaging, but are, it turns out putting out scents into the world that cause odor pollution, that can disrupt flower fragrances and bees’ ability to find the floral resources that they need. I mean, there’s all these different ramifications that are somewhat invisible to us unless we really think about it, or someone decides to do some research on it.
Margaret: So a little bit, we have to sort of have a cease and desist order on ourselves sometimes. So again, the chapters are by the senses and you talk about the Scentscape, the Soundscape, the Tastescape, the Touchscape, the Sightscape. And I thought maybe we could just quickly go through some of them, just an example. And so I pulled out an example from the Scentscape.
You talk about something I didn’t know. Everyone knows about monarchs and milkweeds and that close ancient relationship, but I didn’t know about the monarchs having a need and an interest in certain dead plants, I think, is that a sort of general way to attract-
Nancy: Yeah.
Margaret: So tell us about that.
Nancy: Yeah. So I didn’t know either until in the summer of 2019, I was just kind of wandering around the garden in the evening, admiring the flowers, taking pictures, and I saw a monarch on a boneset [Eupatorium perfoliatum]. And at first I thought that he was just kind of perching, and I’m glad I decided to zoom in. I have so many pictures of monarchs, I almost didn’t.
But I zoomed in, I took some video, and I realized that he was not leaving that plant at all, except when a car went by. And then he’d come right back, and he was sinking his proboscis into holes in the leaves, which they will go to injured leaves for these substances that they’re extracting from certain plants, or more often they’ll go to drying and dead leaves.
And the substances that they’re extracting are pyrrolizidine alkaloids. And they are chemicals that butterflies in the tropics often use in their defense and moths as well, and some grasshoppers. And other species of butterflies also synthesize them into pheromones. But monarchs aren’t really thought to need to do that, so we think they’re using them mainly in their defenses.
When I first saw this though, I had no idea what was going on. I looked online, I tried to find research, and I finally posted to an insect group on Facebook, and I got a response from someone who was a retired Lepidopterist from the Smithsonian. And he said, “I think what you’re seeing is leaf scratching.” Because the particular butterfly was scratching around a hole made by a flea beetle in the leaves. And that is something they sometimes do when they’re trying to get at more of these substances.
Margaret: It’s crazy.
Nancy: It’s crazy. And they find them by some sort of scent that’s released, but we don’t exactly know what that scent is yet. It hasn’t been captured. So yeah, I’ve seen it many more times and ended up collaborating with a German chemical ecologist on writing up the observations and starting a community science project.
Margaret: So in the chapter the Soundscape, you have this woodpecker who’s using this mushroom-covered, this fungi-covered tree stump, is drilling into it. And you talk about how that’s what we see that’s going on,. But there’s this whole other layer: He’s creating cavities. He’s creating little openings potentially for cavity-nesting bees to use as habitat and so forth. So there’s this bigger picture that isn’t visible to us right away.
Nancy: Right. Yeah. The sounds are cues to just many more things that are going on also in the Tastescape in that example. Or the sounds would alert me to the presence, when I really started just sitting quietly during the pandemic, trying to understand what was really going on around me in the Soundscape, I would hear brown thrashers, in the leaves, who I hardly ever see. I would start to hear more cuckoo birds, who are also very elusive, and that would help me make sightings as well. But it was only when I could sit for half an hour and have the animals start getting used to me and start hearing these tiny little sounds coming from the little woodland by the pond in front of me or things like that.
Margaret: Yeah, you said the leaves, and I’m thinking the one sound that I love, it’s a delicate sound–and I have to be somewhere and not moving around too much because obviously the bird’s not going to like it if I’m causing interference–but is when the towhees that used to be called rufous-sided towhees (I forget what they’re called now), when they come and they kind of kick in the leaf litter. You know what I mean?
Nancy: Yeah [laughter].
Margaret: And it’s this very distinctive sound of spring and summer, and it’s not like a chipmunk in the leaf litter. Do you know what I mean? Or a squirrel rustling around looking for fallen acorn or something. It’s a different sound. And there’s these incredible subtleties if you become intimate enough with your environment.
Nancy: Yes.
Margaret: Everybody’s at work and many are at work in the leaf litter, but everyone has their different movement and their different timing, their different rhythm, and it makes a different sound. I know that sounds completely insane [laughter].
Nancy: No, I think that’s such a good point. I mean, because it’s almost this other language that you get to know. And yeah, they make different sounds because they’re looking for different things. They have different ways of using their feet to kick things up or beaks or what have you.
Margaret: And then there’s the chapter, the Tastescape. So tell us something about the Tastescape.
Nancy: Yeah, so the Tastescape, one of the most interesting things that we encountered here were the blister beetles, and they were in the back, and I see them almost every year at almost exactly the same day. April 16th or 17th or 18th, they emerge, and we started seeing the little fire-colored beetles on their backs, and we didn’t know what it was at the time. They’re much tinier. And it turns out that there’s this whole thing going on where the fire-colored beetles are actually chewing on the wings and legs of the blister beetles to get cantharidin. That’s another chemical-extraction situation, except this time it’s animals going to animals. And they also use them probably in their defenses and possibly in mating.
And that took me down a whole trail of learning about blister beetles and the fact that they parasitize bee nests, and their larvae do, and they do it… We don’t know that much about the blister beetles species in my area in Maryland, but in California, I talked to a scientist who had studied a similar relationship among related species. And she found that the larvae actually crawl up on a flower and they aggregate to look like a bee and smell like a female bee, and they attract a male bee to come and think he’s mating. And then they jump on that bee, and then that male bee realizes what’s going on, and then goes and mates with the female bee who then picks up these larvae and goes back to her nest with them. And those little larvae eat the pollen and nectar and sometimes the baby bees.
And so all of that sounds like, oh my gosh, poor bees, which I mean, I feel that way about a lot of this predation and parasitizing stuff, but everybody’s got to eat. And I just also think about what are the broader implications of that? We have no idea. This is a relationship that’s obviously natural, been going on a long time, and maybe there’s a certain check-and-balance thing so that certain bee species don’t become too prolific and outcompete other ones. It’s just one example of so many wild things going on right under our noses.
Margaret: Yes. In the chapter of the Touchscape, I love that you showed cuckoos in there. You mentioned cuckoos I think a minute ago, but they are the only birds that can eat these spiny caterpillars, like tent caterpillars, and I think they can eat spongy moth or gypsy moth caterpillars. It’s fascinating how they’re adapted to be able to make use of them as food, because that’s a nasty, nasty thing to bite into [laughter].
Nancy: Yes, it really is. Yeah, they just are able to regurgitate all those spiny things and keep the good stuff. And it’s amazing to learn about how they’re sort of opportunistic nesters, where they’ll just go where they can find the most caterpillars. And so we also have a lot of white flannel moth caterpillars [above], which are these really gorgeous red and black and yellow and white caterpillars that tend to go on the redbuds here. And when they come out, that’s when the cuckoos are here, they and the fall webworms.
Margaret: Right.
Nancy: And they go where there are outbreaks of these caterpillars because they need a lot of them really, really quickly. They build their nests really quickly. Sometimes they lay eggs in other bird’s nests if they can’t do it quickly enough. And so we need to be leaving those tent caterpillars and fall webworms and all these other creatures, not only because they’re wonderful in their own, I mean, they’re just little moths, right? And they might be pollinating and all sorts of things, but also we need them for the birds.
Margaret: Yes. And in the chapter of the Sightscape, I wondered if you could tell us the story of your sister’s garden, which has turned out to make sort of a change in an important local law for her homeowner’s association at least. Just tell us a little bit about that. The Sightscape is kind of a lot of different things, but including when people object to what someone else’s garden looks like. Yes [laughter]? I mean, the front yard?
Nancy: Right. Yeah, I decided to start the chapter with that because I felt like the Sightscape really, we tend to think about gardening only for our own senses, and sight dominates everything, right?
Margaret: Yes.
Nancy: In my sister’s case, it was one neighbor who was very upset and didn’t tell Janet and her husband, Jeff, but went straight to the HOA board for years, wrote letters. And those letters were ignored for years until at one point he started signing them with his government signature, official signature, for some reason. And that’s when the HOA board started… It coincided with when they started to pay attention.
And they cited her initially for, they said she had weeds. And she has a mixed garden, lots of native plants, but also some nonnative plants that they had planted before that they like to put in for color, annuals and such.
So she wrote back an earnest letter that I helped her with and said, “We needed to do a little weeding, so we did that, but this is why we have this garden, otherwise it’s for the birds.” So then [laughter] she began getting letters that were attacking her for wanting to garden for the birds, and said that the plant community is no place for welcoming birds and wildlife and that it must all be “green grass” is how they put it.
And so Janet fought for three and a half years, and went to some local events, met some legislators, and our state delegates introduced legislation to prevent homeowners associations from being able to do this in the future. And the law passed in Maryland.
Margaret: Well, a round of applause for that, and I think it’s wonderful that it’s your sister, too. That’s a beautiful story. We’ve used up our time, but I’m so glad to speak to you and I hope we’ll talk again soon.
Nancy: Thank you so much, Margaret.
(Photos from Nancy Lawson except clavate tortoise beetle. Used with permission.)
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prefer the podcast version of the show?
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 April 24, 2023 show using the player near the top of this transcript. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).
But every so often, as I’m battling a stupid black spot infection, I start to think about ripping all my roses out and planting something easier. Maybe some pretty sedges or a handful of ornamental alliums.
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But then I see and smell those gorgeous flowers, and I decide to keep pushing on. And to try out rugosa roses. These beauties can be every bit as visually appealing as the more fussy types, but they’re incredibly tough and disease-resistant.
Do you live in an area that gets exceptionally cold and figured roses weren’t going to be a part of your life? Are you constantly dealing with powdery mildew? Swear you’ll scream if you see one more rose aphid? Rugosa, rugosa, rugosa!
This species has earned a legendary reputation for its disease resistance. You almost wouldn’t know they’re related to tea or antiques.
Excited to get to know these sturdy but showy plants? Here’s what we’ll talk about to help make that happen:
Depending on the specific cultivar or hybrid, these roses can grow in USDA Hardiness Zones 2 to 7.
There are even a few hybrids that will survive as far south as Zone 9. That means just about everyone in North America can grow one of these tough but pretty plants.
What Are Rugosa Roses?
Rugosa roses are plants of the rugosa species in the Rosa genus. They’re also known as beach, Japanese, or seaside rose, letchberry, and beach tomato.
That last name should clue you into what the hips on this plant look like. They’re large and juicy with a reddish-orange hue.
Those hips are part of what make this rose stand out from other species, and we’ll chat all about them in just a bit.
Native to eastern Asia, including parts of Siberia, northeastern China, Japan, and Korea, this species has naturalized all over the place. You’ll commonly find it growing near the ocean in Europe, New England, and the Pacific Northwest.
As you might have guessed from the common name “beach rose,” it’s partial to sandy areas such as beaches. If you’re looking for a rose that can tolerate salt spray, this is your guy.
While the hips are pretty distinctive, that’s not the only thing that makes beach tomatoes unique. This plant has dramatically wrinkled, thick, leathery leaves, which is where the specific epithet “rugosa” comes from. Rugosa means wrinkled in Latin.
While the flowers are less dramatic than some of the showier roses like, say, a tea, they persist on the plant from spring until the first frost. The hips stick around from late summer through the winter.
In other words, they offer you a good amount of ornamental excellence for a large portion of the year.
The arching branches can grow up to five feet long and are covered in long prickles and alternate leaves. The solitary flowers are single, with five petals that can be white or pink, and pale or vibrant. Some cultivars have red petals and double flowers.
Cultivation and History
Beach tomatoes were introduced to Europe from Japan in the late 1700s, and they traveled to North America a few decades later. They have done maybe too good of a job in their new home.
By 1899, the species had naturalized in Massachusetts, and it has become invasive in some places, such as New England.
In some areas, it’s such a common sight that many people don’t realize that it’s not native to North America. Not only does it spread through suckers, but birds carry the seeds far and wide.
Check local regulations to make sure you can legally purchase and plant this species in your neck of the woods.
If you’re afraid the plants will become overly aggressive, take heart. Rugosa roses have been used to make all kinds of hybrids that are a little less enthusiastic in their spreading behavior.
Since this species is naturally disease resistant – especially to black spot and rust, two diseases that often plague rose growers – it’s an excellent option to hybridize with.
Propagation
Rugosa roses can be propagated in lots of ways, and all of them may be equally successful. This is one plant that is eager to reward your reproductive efforts.
Of course, you can also go the old reliable route of purchasing a plant and putting it in the ground. If you opt to go in that direction, read our guide for some tips on planting.
If you’d rather go the seed route, you can harvest and save seeds from the hips or buy some. First, read our guide on how to harvest and save rose seeds, then come back here.
The seeds need to be stratified before you plant them, so place the seeds in moist sand or sphagnum moss in a sealed plastic bag and toss the bag in the refrigerator for 60 days. Check the medium now and then to make sure it stays moist.
Plant the seeds a half-inch deep in four-inch pots filled with a seed-starting medium.
You can use standard plastic pots, of course, but I love CowPots.
These are made out of cow manure, which means they will biodegrade into the soil, and you don’t have to disturb the rose’s roots as much when you plant. Plus, the seedlings get a little nutrient boost from the poop.
If you don’t have some already, you can purchase packages of 12 four-inch pots from Amazon.
Place the pots on a warming mat under grow lights for at least six hours daily. Once the seedlings emerge, move the lights a little further away.
When the seedlings are about four to six inches tall, you can harden them off.
Hardening off involves putting your plant outside in a protected location for an hour or so where it can get used to the sunlight. Then, bring it back inside.
On the following day, take it back outside and leave it out for two hours. Add an hour each day for a week. Now you can plant the seedling in the ground.
Some roses need to have their bud union buried to thrive, but that’s not a worry here since we aren’t dealing with grafted plants. Just plant it at the same depth as it was growing originally.
How to Grow
Normally, the prep required for a rose can be, shall we say, involved. Growers do their best to make the soil absolutely perfect for their new plant. But you can be far more relaxed if you plant this species.
It will thrive in sandy, clay, gravelly, chalky, or loamy soil. Unless your soil seems more like concrete or quicksand, don’t worry too much sound trying to make it perfect.
It never hurts to work in some well-rotted compost or manure though. And well-draining soil is best.
While the rugosa rose is adaptable enough to survive in partial shade, give it full sun for the best flowering. Just don’t plant one near your walkways or home entrances.
Many roses will reach out and grab you as you walk by, but especially beach tomatoes. They have lots of canes, and those canes are covered in lots of long prickles.
These plants will be fine even with a bit too much water or through a short period of drought, but try to keep the soil consistently moist. You don’t want to push it, so if you can stick your finger in the soil and it feels dry, grab the ol’ hose.
There’s no need to fertilize these plants unless you’ve tested your soil and you know it’s deficient in something.
If you’re already feeding the rest of your garden, feel free to toss them a little mild, balanced fertilizer. It won’t hurt anything, so long as you only do it once or twice a year, but don’t overfeed them.
Growing Tips
Work some well-rotted compost or manure into the soil before planting
Plant in full sun
Keep the soil consistently moist
Pruning and Maintenance
Rugosas spread via suckers, so if you want to contain them, you’ll need to stay on top of removing these. The plant will form a dense thicket if left to its own devices. That’s great if you want a nice hedge or natural fence, not so great if you want a specimen.
Dig up or cut down any suckers to the ground when you see them.
Don’t deadhead the spent flowers. This species will continue flowering without any help from you, and if you deadhead them, you’ll take off the hips and deprive yourself of the beautiful winter color they offer.
Prune to create a nice shape. You don’t need to prune these as carefully as you would standard shrub roses. Just trim them back to a leaf node to encourage branching and to keep the plants from growing too large.
Cultivars to Select
There are many, many hybrids bred from beach roses because they’re so resistant to problems and they can handle such a huge range of conditions.
Combining a little of their good stuff with types that are a bit more delicate can create an exceptional shrub.
But if you want the original, there are some fantastic cultivars that look just as showy as your average tea rose. Here are just a few standouts:
Alba Plena
If you want something that looks a lot like the original wild species, ‘Alba Plena’ is an excellent variety.
But there’s nothing plain about this rose. It’s more floriferous than the species, with double, pure white flowers rather than the typical single blooms. And they grow in big groups, adding to the impact.
The flowers are fragrant and the plant can survive as far north as Zone 2b.
Bayse’s Purple
If you want a hardy plant that can withstand the cold in Zone 3, check out ‘Bayse’s Purple.’
Bred by hobbyist Dr. Robert E. Bayse in Texas, he aimed to create tough, disease-resistant roses, and he found success with this hybrid.
The cherry reddish-purple blossoms are semi-double and strongly fragrant with a hint of clove. This is a prolific bloomer with a vigorous growth habit.
Hansa
One of the drawbacks of rugosas is that the blossoms can be a little less interesting than some of the frilly, double flowers you’ll find on other species. Not ‘Hansa,’ though.
The double blossoms are deep, bold fuchsia, and they stick around all summer long. A feast for the senses, the flowers are also intensely fragrant with a bold, spicy scent. Reach out and touch them: they’re velvety soft.
This cultivar will grow six feet tall and wide at maturity, so if you have the right spot, snag yourself one in a #3 container at Nature Hills Nursery. It’s recommended for Zone 3b and warmer.
Rugelda
‘Rugelda’ is a hybrid cross between ‘Bonanza’ and ‘Robusta’ bred by noted rose breeder W. Kordes & Sons in Germany.
It’s a stunning, clear yellow with pink along the edges. The small flowers are double and mildly fragrant. Plant it in Zones 5 and up.
Therese Bugnet
One of the prettiest rugosa hybrids out there, ‘Therese Bugnet’ is a stunner.
It was bred by Georges Bugnet of Alberta, Canada. He was known for using native and wild roses in his breeding program to create some extremely tough plants.
But you’d never know that this pretty lady is hiding a tough interior.
The large, fully double, fragrant pink blossoms look as attractive as the most elegant damask. This cultivar is hardy down to Zone 5.
Managing Pests and Disease
If you water at the soil level, keep the plants appropriately pruned so they have good air circulation, and don’t overwater, it’s unlikely you’ll experience pest or disease problems.
Some roses are devoured by herbivores, but the prickles on this species keep deer and rabbits away. I can hardly blame them. Those prickles can be vicious!
Rugosas are resistant to most diseases, though you may want to familiarize yourself with the list of common diseases just in case yours comes down with something.
Crowded plants growing in wet areas are more likely to have issues like rust and powdery mildew.
Pests have a harder time feeding on the thick, tough leaves, but keep an eye out for aphids and scale.
Best Uses
As with all roses, you can grow these as specimens in your garden. The less aggressive hybrids and cultivars work best for this purpose.
Otherwise, use them as a hedge, living fence, or screen. They’re also useful in areas that need some erosion control.
Remember how I promised to discuss the hips? Here we go!
These plants have arguably the best hips if you want to use them for food, cosmetics, home goods, or medicine. They’re some of the best for ornamental uses, too.
The hips are huge and somewhat juicy, whereas most species have mealy, small hips. They’re also tart, like other species, but they have more fruity sweetness than any others I’ve tasted.
As much as I love foraging and using rose hips, I have to admit that some of them don’t taste all that great unless you doctor them up with some sugar or something. These taste delicious all on their own, sort of like a tart apple – they’re related, after all.
Like all fruits in the Rosaceae family, the seeds contain compounds known as cyanogenic glycosides. These produce toxic hydrogen cyanide that can make you pretty sick if you eat enough, so don’t eat too many of the seeds themselves.
They’re tough and bitter anyway, so I’m not sure why you’d want to. If you happen to crunch on a few, you don’t need to stress. You’d have to eat a lot to become ill.
Because the hips are so large, you can pick out the seeds fairly easily. If you don’t feel like doing the work, just boil the hips to separate the flesh from the seeds.
Quick Reference Growing Guide
Plant Type:
Woody perennial shrub
Flower / Foliage Color:
White, pink, red/green
Native to:
Eastern Asia
Water Needs:
Moderate
Hardiness (USDA Zone):
2-7
Maintenance:
Moderate
Bloom Time/Season:
Spring, summer, fall (flowers)/winter (hips)
Soil Type:
Sandy to clay
Exposure:
Full sun
Soil pH:
5.0-7.0
Spacing:
5 feet
Soil Drainage:
Well-draining
Planting Depth:
1/2 inch (seeds), same depth as container (transplants)
Attracts:
Bees, butterflies
Growth Rate:
Fast
Uses:
Border, cottage garden, edible, erosion control, hedge, living fence, specimen
Time to Maturity:
5 years
Order:
Rosales
Height:
6 feet
Family:
Rosaceae
Spread:
20 feet
Genus:
Rosa
Common Pests and Disease:
Aphids, powdery mildew; rust, scale
Species:
Rugosa
Pretty on the Outside, Tough as Nails Inside
If you have a friend that longs to grow roses but doesn’t want to deal with some of the disease challenges, point them to rugosas.
Their status as tough plants that are tolerant of cold is absolutely legendary.
Are you turning to rugosas because you’ve given up on the more delicate types? Or are you planning to harvest the hips? Just want to try something new? Let us know in the comments.
Does anyone else feel behind in the garden chores department? I swear that just yesterday I was looking down the items left on my spring to-do list and thought, “How is this possible? There’s still so much left to do.” I’ve finished all my pruning, dividing, relocating, and removals. But there are still clumps of leaves stuck between plants in all of my beds, holes still need to be filled with replacements, and that small retaining wall along the back hill still isn’t built. I did run the string line for it, though, so that counts, right?
Spring holds so much promise for a new year of gardening. But my hopefulness quickly turns to feelings of being overwhelmed. I try to take it in stride and tell myself that Rome wasn’t built in a day. But I really do always aspire to getting the “work” done by July 4 so I can actually sit on my patio and enjoy the garden. This will never happen, of course, but a girl can dream.
As I read through the collection of new articles from our regional reporters below, I felt reenergized—and like I may not be all that far behind. Folks are still pruning clematis in the Mid-Atlantic, picking out lilacs in the Northeast to plant, and visiting public gardens for inspiration in the Southeast. Spring has just begun—it’s not almost over. There’s plenty of time left to do all the chores and still make that July relax-with-a-margarita-on-the-patio deadline. Or, knowing me, add 15 more projects to the list and then fret about not accomplishing them all by the time the snowflakes fly once again.
Margaret: I loved seeing… And speaking of related species, you have great pictures in the book, and you have this tortoise beetle. I think yours is a spotted tortoise beetle, maybe?
Nancy: Yeah. So I didn’t know either until in the summer of 2019, I was just kind of wandering around the garden in the evening, admiring the flowers, taking pictures, and I saw a monarch on a boneset [Eupatorium perfoliatum]. And at first I thought that he was just kind of perching, and I’m glad I decided to zoom in. I have so many pictures of monarchs, I almost didn’t.
Margaret: So in the chapter the Soundscape, you have this woodpecker who’s using this mushroom-covered, this fungi-covered tree stump, is drilling into it. And you talk about how that’s what we see that’s going on,. But there’s this whole other layer: He’s creating cavities. He’s creating little openings potentially for cavity-nesting bees to use as habitat and so forth. So there’s this bigger picture that isn’t visible to us right away.
Margaret: And it’s this very distinctive sound of spring and summer, and it’s not like a chipmunk in the leaf litter. Do you know what I mean? Or a squirrel rustling around looking for fallen acorn or something. It’s a different sound. And there’s these incredible subtleties if you become intimate enough with your environment.
Nancy: Yes, it really is. Yeah, they just are able to regurgitate all those spiny things and keep the good stuff. And it’s amazing to learn about how they’re sort of opportunistic nesters, where they’ll just go where they can find the most caterpillars. And so we also have a lot of white flannel moth caterpillars [above], which are these really gorgeous red and black and yellow and white caterpillars that tend to go on the redbuds here. And when they come out, that’s when the cuckoos are here, they and the fall webworms.
