When it comes from the garden and nature herself, sugar can be a very good thing. It’s a source of energy and tastes darn delicious. And yet, like everything, it can be problematic when over-consumed, which is often the case with processed sugar. Thankfully, there are so many other wonderful natural sweeteners out there for your sweet tooth.
Stevia is one of my favorite natural sweeteners. It’s easy to grow and offers many herbal benefits.
I’ve been going back and forth on this article about natural sweeteners for quite a while. The idea for this one was originally written not long after I spoke at the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival in 2017. So I’ve been sitting on this one for a while!
On display, they had a sweet garden showing a few plants that produce natural sugar. Really, it only had a few plants in it: sugarcane, agave, and stevia. But ever since, it has made me think a lot more about all the naturally sweet foods and herbs that grace our plates.
The Epcot Flower and Garden Festival in Disney World.
My Relationship With Sugar
I have a bit of a contentious relationship with sugar, which you can read about in my article on growing and using stevia. I always had a bit of a sweet tooth. But after I had my child, my hormones got all messed up. Soon, I started to trend toward insulin resistance. Luckily, by cutting out all the sugar in my diet, I could quickly reverse those hormonal changes.
Overall, it made me curious about the natural sugars that sweeten our foods. There’s a reason we’re drawn to sweet foods—it only becomes problematic when we overconsume too much sugar and don’t expand the energy to burn it immediately.
I’m certainly not one to just say no to desserts. But with all my food, I like to try to find the least processed options. And I find many of the confections that have processed sugar in them just too sweet and don’t make me feel good.
On the other hand, fruit that ripens in the sun, vegetables that are sweetened because they’ve been touched by frost, fresh honey and maple syrup are all delicious natural sources of sugar that are meant to be enjoyed.
I can always pick fresh herbs from my garden, including stevia to sweeten a cup of tea.
Before You Look For a Natural Sweetener….
Just because sugar is marked as organic or natural doesn’t mean that overconsumption will not influence our bodies. Sugars in any form are still simple carbohydrates meant to give us quick and fast energy.
If you’re looking to cut out sugar from your diet and that’s where sugar alternatives come in. There are very few sugar alternatives that I feel comfortable consuming because most are some sort of isolated sugar, alcohol, or sweet lab-created powder that doesn’t resemble what I think of as sugars.
But I do really love naturally sweet herbs like stevia and licorice. They add a lot more than just sweetness to a recipe. They both add flavour and have medicinal properties. Stevia is my absolute favourite and I wrote a lot more about it in this post.
But as for the other sugars out there that come from nature, here are some wonderful natural sources of sweetness to get to know and try.
Stevia leaves are used as a garnish for this hibiscus iced tea as well as a natural sweetener.
15+ Natural Sweeteners from the Garden
Let’s dive in, shall we? Whether you opt to grow these yourself, buy them, or simply want to learn, here are the 15 natural sweeteners that come straight from the garden.
Sugar Cane
Refined white sugar comes from sugar cane, but there are also sugar cane products that are less artificially processed and are better for you.
Sugar cane syrup is a sweetener made from the juice of the sugar cane, and molasses is a thicker, richer version of the same thing that has been boiled down multiple times to get a thick consistency.
Fruit and Vegetables
Of course, plenty of fruit and veggies can be considered sweet. These are the sweetest of the crop, and how they can be used.
Corn
Corn syrup is often used as a sweetener and is added to many processed products like sweets and sodas. Although this is a natural product extracted from corn, it is very high in fructose, almost always comes from genetically modified corn, and is widely considered worse for your health than refined sugar.
Beet
Beet sugar is often used as an alternative to sugar, but all commercially produced beet sugar comes from GMO sugar beets.
However, you can use your own organic garden beets as a sweetener by grating them and adding them to recipes. They are not extremely sweet but will add a touch of sweetness and an earthy flavour to your favourite dishes.
Beets are also certain to dye your food red or pink.
Coconut
Coconut sugar is made from the coconut tree’s sap. It has a similar sweetness level to refined white sugar, so you can use the same amount of coconut sugar as regular sugar if you want to substitute it in a recipe.
Coconut sugar tastes richer than white sugar, similar to brown sugar and molasses.
Fruit
All sorts of common fruits are great natural sweeteners. Use dried and chopped dates, plums, apricots and more to sweeten cookies, cakes, brownies, granola, and bread.
You can also make your own fruit syrup to add to recipes by cooking various fruit juices down until the liquid thickens.
Apple is a common sweetener for fruit juices and smoothies.
Agave
Agave is a type of cactus. You may know it as an ingredient in tequila, but the plant’s nectar is often harvested and concentrated into a syrup as a vegan alternative to honey. It is practical for use in cold drinks like iced tea and cocktails because it dissolves easily without heat.
However, according to many experts, agave has a high fructose concentration. Research has linked high-fructose sweeteners to obesity, diabetes, high triglycerides (blood fats), metabolic syndrome, and fatty liver.
Agave plants are a succulent native to the tropical regions of North America, such as Mexico.
Honey
Honey is the only animal product on this list and is not for those who adhere to a strict vegan diet, or for children under 1 year old. It comes in many different flavours depending on what plant the bees pollinated and can have a very light flavour or a deep, rich taste.
You can find honey that has gone through various levels of processing, from raw to pasteurized. That being said, honey always goes through less artificial processing than refined sugar. It is also a natural anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory that can help soothe sore throats and kill germs.
Manuka honey comes from bees that have pollinated manuka plants. I like using it for sore throats.
Tree Sap
Another garden-friendly natural sweetener is tree sap. Here are the most popular:
Maple
Maple sap’s earthy sweetness is excellent for sweetening more than just pancakes! Add it to sweets and baked goods of all kinds, beverages, and even meat dishes.
Birch
Birch sap has a caramel taste with a bit of spice to it. It is most commonly used as a sweetener for savoury dishes and in glazes, dressings, and sauces.
Sugar Pine
Sugar pine sap is sweet with a rich nutty flavour. Add it to sweet or savoury recipes for a deep, earthy sweetness.
Tree saps are great natural sweeteners for liquids since they dissolve.
Monk Fruit
Monk fruit is a small melon native to South East Asia. It contains antioxidants called mogrosides (which cannot be found anywhere else) which give it its sweet flavour.
Monk fruit is significantly sweeter than sugar, so you don’t need a lot of it. There are also some additional benefits potentially as it is purported to boost immunity and aid digestion.
Sorghum Grass
Sorghum syrup is a natural sweetener extracted from sorghum bicolour grasses native to Africa. The plant grows more like sugar, with canes that reach six feet in height. Sorghum syrup tastes similar to sugar cane but with a mildly sour molasses flavour.
Herbs
Stevia
(Stevia rebaudiana)
A very popular sugar substitute, stevia has an intense sweetness and its own unique herby flavour. While marketed as a sugar substitute, it won’t taste anything alike, so people often twist their noses up at pure stevia.
The reality is, stevia is a delicious very very sweet herb that is amazing when you appreciate it for its original taste. Stevia disrupts biofilm, meaning it helps to uncover the hiding places of bad gut bacteria so the good bacteria can flourish.
Just remember that the powdered stevia you buy at the grocery store differs greatly from the herb.
That’s why I suggest growing it yourself. It is easy to grow and use in many different recipes (or just as an addition to your morning tea). Learn all about stevia here.
Place a leaf of dried stevia in your morning coffee or tea for a natural sweetener.
Licorice
(Glycyrrhiza glabra) Licorice root contains a compound called glycyrrhizin, which is what gives it its sweetness. The herb can aid digestion, making it a lovely addition to after-dinner tea.
Licorice is used for sweets, baked goods, ice cream, soda, and also medicinally.
It’s a detoxifying herb, often used to protect the liver and for its anti-inflammatory properties. The root of the plant is most often used for sweetening, grounded into a fine powder. You can place a leaf or use the powder in your tea.
Licorice can be grown in the home garden and even thrives in poor soil. It is hardy in zones 7 to 10, and you can overwinter it in colder climates with heavy mulching.
Aztec Sweet Herb
(Phyla dulcis syn. Lippiadulcis)
Also sometimes called Mayan mint, although this herb is actually a member of the verbena family, Aztec Sweet Herb tastes about 1,000 times sweeter than refined sugar.
All you need to sweeten a cup of tea is one small leaf. Grow it outside in the summer and treat it as a houseplant over winter.
Grind your herbs into a powder that you can then use to sweeten baking and cooking as I did with this stevia.
Final Notes on Natural Sweeteners
All of these natural sweeteners will have very different tastes. While I suggest using these in place of refined sugar, I’m not trying to say that these natural sweeteners taste exactly like the refined sugar that we are all so used to.
I don’t like to think of them as replacements for sugar but instead as individual foods that all have specific tastes and all help to satiate sweet cravings.
Find the one that tastes best to you and works how you want it to!
How do you begin the process of designing or refining your own gardens, especially when there are so many things that you need to take into consideration? In this class, award-winning UK garden designer Annie Guilfoyle will guide you through the elements that make for a successful design and show you how to develop a garden that really suits your taste and lifestyle. This webinar will focus on how to use sketching and observation as tools to develop your technique. The process of designing your space should be fun, according to Annie, so she’ll share insights for how to develop your style using the influences of things you really like, such as textiles, art, and architecture. There will be plenty of suggestions on how to start your design process and gather inspiration—and, of course, we will touch on those oh-so-important plants. Sign up for the Finding Your Garden Style webinar below.*
*If you are interested in classes similar to this, please join us for a three-part course, Garden Design Ideas That Work, which will offer a deeper dive into the garden design process. This unique set of classes will be taught by a trio of renowned UK landscape designers.
Showy and vibrant, fiery Crocosmia flowers are ideal for the late summer garden, blooming for weeks when many other perennials are fading and spent.
Summer-flowering corms, they quickly form vibrant, spikey clumps of upright, strappy foliage topped with graceful wands of tubular blooms in brilliant hues of orange, red, scarlet, and yellow.
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Blooms open progressively from the bottom of the spike, and immediately attract hummingbirds, butterflies, and other pollinators, while deer and rodents leave them alone.
Easily grown, crocosmia is an excellent choice for beds, borders, drifts, and islands, or in patio planters and window boxes.
The pretty spikes are also long-lasting and make an eye-catching addition to floral arrangements.
And in fall, the foliage and seed heads turn attractive, sometimes burnished, shades of copper, tan, and rust.
To add this unique charmer to your garden, read on for all the details on how to cultivate crocosmia flowers.
Here’s a quick preview of everything we’ll cover up ahead:
What Is Crocosmia?
Crocosmia is a genus of summer-flowering corms in the iris family, Iridaceae, with eight species native to South Africa, parts of east and central Africa, Sudan, and Madagascar.
Also known as coppertips, falling stars, and montbretia, their natural habitat ranges from desert conditions to woodlands and they like to inhabit areas with some available ground moisture, such as locations beside marshes, ponds, and streams.
Small star-shaped blooms blaze in hot shades of orange, red, and yellow, with attractive bi- and tricolored blends as well. Buds form long, pretty spikes atop elegantly arching, wiry stems, with buds at the base opening first.
The deep green, lance-like foliage creates attractive, upright clumps with the bright blooms floating over top.
Corms are spring-planted and flower in their second or third year. They multiply readily and quickly form chains, producing new growth that develops into attractive and ornamental clumps.
The name “crocosmia” comes from a combination of Greek words for saffron (krokos) and smell (osme) – apparently, when dried petals are dipped in water, they release a saffron-like fragrance.
Tough and resilient perennials, they are hardy in USDA Zones 6 to 9, with some hybrid cultivars like ‘Lucifer’ hardy down to Zone 5.
It should also be noted that in certain regions like the UK and New Zealand, some varieties of the hybrid Crocosmia × crocosmiiflora are considered invasive and should be planted with care.
Sow corms in areas where they can spread freely without interfering in other plantings, or you can easily restrict their spread with container plantings.
Propagation
Crocosmia multiplies readily, forming new corms in a joined stack or string, one on top of another. And unlike many other bulbs, the parent doesn’t die off after producing bulblets.
You can also purchase corms from your local garden center, plant nursery, or online.
By Division
To divide, lift clumps in spring and gently pull apart corm strings with your fingers.
For new plantings, use the newest and most vigorous corms, or the top two or three on the string. Older corms with waning vigor can be disposed of.
Photo by Lorna Kring.
To plant corms, loosen and dig the soil in a hole about four to six inches deep.
Plant with the flat root end down, nestling them lightly into the soil three to four inches deep and about six inches apart.
It may be tempting to plant the smallish corms closer together, but they spread quickly – planting too closely means you’ll have to divide overgrown clumps sooner.
Backfill with soil and lightly firm in place. Water gently to settle.
For container plantings, space corms closer together, or two to four inches apart.
Use containers with drainage holes. I like to add a two-inch layer of drainage material such as broken pottery or pebbles to the bottom.
Fill to four or five inches below the rim of the pot with well-draining and humus-rich potting soil amended with grit or sand for drainage. Mix in some bone meal, according to package instructions, for healthy root formation.
Nestle the corms in place, root side down.
Top with three to four inches of soil and lightly firm in place.
Water gently and deeply to settle the corms. After new growth emerges, allow the top inch of soil to dry between watering but don’t allow the soil to completely dry out.
From Seed
Montbretia can also be propagated by sowing seed, although cultivars may be sterile or fail to grow true with their parents’ characteristics.
Collect seeds in autumn after plants start to turn brown and seed heads crack open.
Crocosmia seed germinate best while fresh and should be planted promptly.
Sow seeds half an inch deep in trays of seed-starting soil and water lightly, taking care to avoid disturbing the seeds.
Place trays in bright, indirect light in a spot with temperatures in the range of 60 to 70°F.
Keep the soil lightly moist and seeds should germinate in two to three weeks. After germination, keep the trays in the same bright, indirect light, and maintain even moisture in the soil.
Transplant seedlings in late spring when they have four to six sets of true leaves.
Transplanting
To transplant seedlings or container-grown plants from the nursery, first prepare the soil as discussed above for planting corms.
Dig a hole the same size as the container in which the plant is currently growing. Gently remove the plant from its pot, and set it in the hole at the same depth.
Backfill with soil, tamping it down to remove air pockets, and water in well.
How to Grow
Crocosmia does best in a fertile and lightly moist but well-draining soil with a neutral pH of 6.0 to 8.0 in a full to partial sun location.
Photo by Lorna Kring.
These plants tolerate light shade but bud set is best in full sun with consistently moist soil – avoid planting in hot, dry locations.
To plant corms, loosen and dig the soil in a hole about four to six inches deep.
If the soil is slow draining, amend the planting site with coarse landscape sand, granite chips or grit, or pea gravel.
Enrich the soil with aged compost or well-rotted manure, then mix in a handful of bone meal for healthy root formation.
In the absence of rain, water regularly during the growing season to keep the soil evenly moist but not waterlogged. Aim to provide an inch of water per week.
In dry summers, provide plants with a two- to four-inch layer of mulch such as shredded bark, compost, leaf mold, or straw to help retain soil moisture.
Growing Tips
Easily grown, the following tips can help you get the most from your crocosmia plants:
Grow in a full to part sun location.
Amend soil if needed to ensure it is well-draining.
Maintain even moisture in the soil.
Maintenance
After flowering, remove stems by cutting close to the foliage where they emerge. Allow a few seed heads to remain in place if you want to collect seeds.
Photo by Lorna Kring.
The spent foliage can be allowed to die down to form its own natural winter mulch.
If you prefer a tidier look, once the foliage dries and turns brown, trim back leaf fans to two to four inches.
In early spring, remove all remaining foliage by tugging lightly to remove leaves at the base and rake up any mulch materials.
After new growth emerges, fertilize with a two-inch layer of compost.
You can also use a water-soluble formula or slow-release pellets designed for bulbs, like this Pennington 15-10-10 NPK formula for blooms and bulbs available in five-pound bags at Home Depot.
Divide congested or overgrown clumps every three to five years to rejuvenate plants and encourage abundant bud set.
In colder regions with consistent freezing temperatures in winter, mulch corms with pine boughs or straw to protect them from heaving in freeze/thaw cycles.
Cultivars to Select
Crocosmia’s fiery tones are a sure way to warm up any garden space. Here are a few popular cultivars to light a spark!
Emily McKenzie
A bold pick, ‘Emily McKenzie’ features striking flowers of saffron orange with a strong maroon stripe and golden yellow throats that rise gracefully above upright clumps of deep green, strappy foliage.
A superb choice for perennial beds and borders, containers, drifts, and patio planters, this cultivar is a profuse bloomer that starts in midsummer and continues into fall.
A true stage-stealer, ‘Lucifer’ has diabolically bright, cardinal red flowers that seem to glow from within, blooming from midsummer into fall in full to partial sun.
The colorful, long wands float above deep green, strappy leaves in textured, spiky clumps that grow two to four feet tall.
Lucifer’ is among the hardiest of all cultivars. Reliable in Zones 5 to 9, many growers in Zone 4 also find success if they’re planted in a protected area and mulched heavily for winter.
A showy perennial featuring golden yellow flowers, ‘George Davidson’ is perfect for hot color schemes and blooms from midsummer into mid-fall.
An excellent choice for beds, borders, and containers, the upright, sword-like foliage adds textured vertical interest in clumps 18 to 24 inches tall with a spread of 12 to 18 inches.
‘Orange Pekoe’ refreshes the late summer garden with a long-lasting show of full-bodied, vivid flowers in a tricolor blend of sizzling orange, red, and yellow.
A superb choice for heat waves of color when mass planted in beds, containers, and drifts.
The saturated, corn yellow flowers of ‘Tai Pan’ add vibrant pops of color to the landscape, and float above dense clumps of attractive, lance-like foliage.
Long lasting, blooms appear from midsummer into early autumn and make a striking choice for foundations, islands, patio planters, and naturalized drifts, or in floral arrangements.
Bonide neem oil concentrate is available in pint, quart, and gallon sizes at Arbico Organics.
It is important to avoid oversaturated conditions which can cause the corms to rot. Make sure that the planting site is well-draining and take care not to overwater your plants.
Best Uses
These brightly colored flowers add a vibrant flair to beds, borders, islands, and naturalized drifts where the attractive vertical foliage adds interest even when the plants are not in flower.
They also grow well in containers, patio planters, and window boxes, and they’re a must-have for cutting gardens.
Mass planting is the best way to get a big display of color, and to really make their bright colors pop, place crocosmia in front of rows of dark conifers, fences, or walls.
Quick Reference Growing Guide
Plant Type:
Flowering corm
Flower/Foliage Color:
Orange, red, yellow/green
Native to:
Madagascar, parts of central Africa, South Africa, Sudan
For long lasting fiery colors to brighten the late season garden, crocosmia is sure to please.
Mass plant for the greatest visual impact, and divide the upright, spiky clumps every few years to ensure vibrant growth and the best flower production.
And be sure to plant plenty in the cutting garden for indoor floral arrangements!
Do you folks have a favorite cultivar growing in your garden? Let us know in the comments section below.
Pruning can be confusing for a new gardener. When do you do it? How much do you remove? Which stems or branches should you prune? I have learned a lot over the years about how to prune correctly, and I’m still learning. With some wisdom gained I can advise newbies that the biggest mistake isn’t pruning incorrectly. It’s never pruning at all.
Pruning Can Be Scary
As a new gardener I just didn’t understand pruning. I didn’t realize that some plants desperately need it and what the benefits could be. I had some sense that you were supposed to prune, but it seemed complicated.
The thought of chopping back branches seemed like it could backfire. In other words, I was too nervous to take up the task. I worried I would end up with a bunch of dead stumps rather than healthier, bushier plants.
Overgrown, Thin Shrubs
We have a large bush honeysuckle in your backyard. I know, it’s invasive, but it was there when we moved in, and I didn’t know what it was then. It houses a lot of birds, which I like, but we never trimmed it for the first several years we were in the house, and it began to look pretty unattractive.
What happens when you don’t trim a large shrub like this it goes beyond out of control growth. That was problem number one. It began to engulf the Rose of Sharon next to it. It overhung the sidewalk leading to the back door, causing me to walk with a lean to get by it.
The other issue, which I discovered when I finally researched how to prune a shrub like this, was that the leafy growth became thin. Outside of a green, lush outer growth of leaves, the large interior of the shrub was all sticks and few leaves. The sunlight couldn’t penetrate to stimulate more leaf growth. The overall effect wasn’t very attractive.
Ultimately, we learned how and when to trim back a bush that had grown out of control. This includes removing some of the stems right down to the base and doing so strategically to allow light to get to the interior. The result today is a well-shaped, fuller, if still invasive shrub.
Leggy Plants
When I first started growing annuals in the garden, both in beds and containers, I didn’t know what legginess means. I knew that some of my plants looked spindly and bare, but I didn’t know why or what to do about it.
I now know this means the plants were getting leggy from lack of trimming. There are other reasons plants can get leggy, like low light conditions for houseplants, but for my outdoor annuals, lack of pruning was definitely an issue.
Leggy is the opposite of full and bushy. When the stems get long and floppy with leaf growth mostly at the top, you have a leggy plant. It’s not attractive.
Fortunately, pruning plants to stimulate fuller, bushier growth is easy. For most plants, you don’t even need any tools. Simply pinch off the newest bit of growth at the end of the stems. Pinch just above a leaf node and those two leaves will grow into two new branches. The result is fuller, denser growth throughout the plant. I do this throughout the growing season but especially early on.
Pruning can seem complicated for new gardeners, and yes, plants survived before there were humans to prune them, but we’re going for more than survival in our gardens. If you want attractive, healthy, and productive plants, learn how to prune and then get to it.
Some plants bear the name of a color… or is it vice versa? It’s a bit like what came first, the chicken or the egg. At any rate, many plants share the same name as a color.
Flower Colors
There are lots of examples, of which fuchsia is one. When the word “fuchsia” is said, who doesn’t conjure up an image of the hot pink hue? Speaking of pink, pink is also a word for both a color and a plant. Pink was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. The pale red color got its name from a flower of the same name. One might be tickled pink to see a pink pink.
We’re all familiar with blue jeans. When Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss began marketing the work pant, they chose to dye the fabric blue, indigo blue. Indigo is a color derived from several plants in the genus Indigofera, members of the pea family. Indigo is not only the name of a plant, but also one of the seven colors of the rainbow blending in between blue and violet, yet another color that is a plant.
Of course there’s also the rose, so named for its rosy hue. And then we have the color blind Sir Edmund Spence and later Gammer Gurton who oh so poetically (and incorrectly in my opinion) wrote “The rose is red, the violet’s blue, the honey’s sweet, and so are you”. Violets are well, violet to my eye. Definitely not blue.
Really the list could go on and on regarding colors names that are also the names of plants, but my favorite holds a special place in my heart: lilac. I was born and raised in what has become known as the Lilac City.
The Lilac City
The historical background on how my Spokane, Washington became known as Lilac City is a bit fuzzy. Lilacs are not native to the area so someone brought them here, but who and when is in dispute. Regardless, by 1938 there were sufficient shrubs with accompanying lilac blooms to promote a Lilac Festival complete with parade. Of course, again it depends on who you talk to; the official Lilac Festival folks say the first festival was held as early as 1896…
Today the Lilac Festival is in its 76th year (or is it?) and probably a good two out of three homes have a lilac somewhere in the landscape; except mine.
Despite a sentimental attachment to the name I actually abhor lilacs except when they are in bloom. They are a rather large, rangy shrub with multiple trunks that tend to be rather unattractive except from May to June when they are in bloom.
Despite my distaste for the shrub, it is still a spectacular experience to go visit the Lilac Garden in Manito Park during the peak of bloom when over 100 named lilac cultivars from 23 species vie for your attention.
And, there might just be a lilac that I might consider adding to my garden. More compact than other lilac cultivars, the Bloomerang has something else… it blooms twice a year! Two blooms of fragrant flowers might, just might, be enough to entice me to join the lilac craze in my hometown.
Growing perfect turf grass is a skill people master in university horticultural programs. It’s both an art and a science, and the end goal can be circumvented by so many different issues. I inherited a patchy, weedy, muddy lawn, which while still not perfect, is better than when I received it after diagnosing and correcting several problems.
Diagnosing in the Garden
One of the most important skills a gardener can develop is the ability to diagnose a problem. What’s causing yellowing leaves? Lack of growth? Wilting leaves? Eventually, you learn. You can read the signs and what your plants are telling you.
Diagnosing and correcting problems in a turf lawn is another level. One reason growing turf is so challenging is that it isn’t natural. Nature doesn’t produce perfectly green monocultures. A lawn requires a constant input of maintenance to stay in this unnatural state.
When I moved into my current home, its lawn stood out. It was patchy. There were a lot of weeds. And, with several big trees throwing shade, moss and dirt outcompeted grass in many areas. Not knowing much about growing turf, it took years to diagnose all the problems.
Shade
Shade in my garden has been the primary issue with growing grass in several areas. With several old maples, a walnut, and an oak tree, shade is plentiful. I don’t consider this a problem, exactly, but in learning about growing turf, I can definitely diagnose it as the number one barrier to growing a perfect carpet of green.
I did not correct this issue by cutting down trees, of course, although we do get them trimmed regularly. We — my husband and I — have taken a variety of approaches to avoiding dirt spots under trees.
First, we have reseeded some areas with shade-tolerant grass seed, mostly fine fescue. This has bulked up some of the turf, but in the deepest shade, I have happily accepted the green offered by moss. I have also embraced other grass alternatives. In my deepest shade corner, I have a lovely patch of ferns that thrive in the low light.
Grubs
One problem that took some time to diagnose as a newbie in the world of turf was damage caused by grubs. Even in sunny areas where most of the grass grew well, we had brown patches. I expected and accepted that grass in sunny areas would brown up over summer, but these were irregular patches surrounded by areas of green.
It took some research into grass problems to determine the cause. The first sign I had that it might be grubs was that the spots felt loose and spongy. Grubs nibble at the roots, detaching grass from the soil, which causes this effect. When I suspected grubs, I actually dug into the ground and found the culprits: white and fleshy with darker heads. Although I don’t like to use chemicals, pesticides seemed necessary here and took care of the problem.
Compacted Soil
Isolated problems like shade and grubs caused isolated damage or patchiness. We also seemed to have an overall issue with the grass being patchy and thin throughout the lawn.
The grubs were fairly easy to diagnose compared to this issue. As someone new to being responsible for a lawn, I had no idea compacted soil could be a problem. One sign I now would recognize right away include the fact that it was nearly impossible to dig into the soil in areas where I wanted to replace grass with other plants, like ferns.
Another was the shallow root system in much of the lawn. When soil gets dense and packed, it’s hard for grass to send down roots into it. We also had areas where water would puddle after the rain. Aeration every few years has been a good solution to breaking up the soil and allowing grass roots to move more freely and deeply.
Diagnosing problems in the garden is easier now than in the past. There are so many online resources to help. In spite of this, it still takes experience to really read your plants. The longer you garden, the easier it gets to understand what ails them.
Note: Any recommendations pertaining to the use of chemicals are for informational purposes only. Chemical control should only be used as a last resort, as organic approaches are safer and more environmentally friendly.
Our butchering instructor was Billy from Perma Pastures, along with his son William.
Today, at long last, I present a photo-essay, showing the process of pig butchering from start to finish.
First, William (left), Billy (center), and Sean (right), plan the slaughter of Sean’s two delicious pigs.
Here are the delicious pigs. They are nothing that anyone in his right mind would like to cuddle, vegan commenters on YouTube notwithstanding.
Here, Billy loads a single round into a .410 shotgun.
Pow!
Billy shared that the proper way to take down a pig with a gun is to shoot him at the “X” intersection of the eyes and ears. From the left ear to the right eye makes one bar of the X, and from the right ear down to the left eye is the other bar.
Once the pig is down, the throat is rapidly cut from beneath the ear and through the artery.
Here, Sang and Sean pump the blood from the pigs.
Until Billy has an easier method, which involves gently stomping on the pig’s corpse.
Now the bleeding has stopped and the pigs are taken to a tarped piece of ground for the next step.
Here, the heads are completely removed.
Billy counts his fingers to make sure he wasn’t too energetic with his knifework.
Now the breastbones of the pigs are sawn through while they are still on the ground.
Once opening the chest cavity is completed, Sean cuts into the back feet to open up a place to hook the pigs for hanging – a pocket between the ankle area and the back tendons.
The pig is hooked up, then hoisted by the tractor for the next stage.
Safety first! Don’t count on just the bucket to hold up hundreds of pounds of pig. Nate and Sean use a log as a backup to the tractor hydraulics.
Now it’s time to remove the guts.
Billy cuts around the anus, being careful not to puncture the intestines. Once it’s freed from the flesh, he ties it off with a zip tie to keep manure from contaminating the meat.
Now the visceral cavity is carefully opened and the guts revealed.
Now a trashcan is placed beneath the pig to catch the viscera.
At this point, you can save your favorite organs if you wish. Sean wasn’t big on organ meat, but did save at least one of the livers.
Once the pig is gutted, it’s time to skin.
Billy demonstrates how to cut through the skin in strips with a hooked razor knife, then peel the skin off the fat beneath.
Once the skinning is complete, it’s time to saw the pig in two. Billy does this with a sharp butchering saw, dividing the carcass right through the spine.
This can be done with a Sawsall, but the old fashioned method can be done off-grid, and is also rather less messy.
Once divided, the two halves of the pig are washed.
…and taken down……and transported to the main butchering area.
Here the two halves are laid out on a pair of clean plastic folding tables.
Billy and the crew carve the pork into pieces. Ribs, hams, loin, etc.
Once they are cut up, Billy quizzed everyone on the parts and where they belonged in the animal.
The lesser quality pork is made into ground pork. Here Brian is grinding it down.
Two grinders were on the table. One ground it the first time and ejected the pork into a tray. That was then fed into the second grinder which had a feed tube on the end, allowing the pork to be neatly bagged.
The fat was trimmed and set aside for rendering into lard. We were the beneficiary of quite a few pounds of nice, white fat, which Rachel later processed into almost three gallons of beautiful lard.
While Brian was running the grinder, Isaac, Katie and I ran a vacuum sealing station for the prime cuts of pork, bagging and labelling them all. I cut bags and packed them, Katie ran the vacuum sealer, and Issac was our labeller.
Here, Brian is standing in for me.
Finally, just a few short hours after the two pigs were dispatched, there is a beautiful freezer full of home-raised pork.This fall we hope to do a similar butchering day on our own homestead with the two piglets we’re currently raising.
I much prefer the way these pigs were raised and fed to the horrors of factory pig farming. Home butchering may be a chore, but like any chore, it can be turned into a fun day when shared with the right company.
Thank you, Brian, for inviting me along, and Sean for hosting, and Billy and William for their pig-butchering expertise.
Pothos is a tropical evergreen climbing member of the Araceae family of plants.
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There are about 15 species of Pothos plants, and you may hear it referred to by several common names, such as:
Golden Pothos
Devil’s Ivy
Hunter’s Rove and more
By any name, when this plant is at home in tropical regions of the western Pacific and Southeast Asia, it can be found rambling about the jungle floor and enthusiastically climbing up trees.
This article explores how to get Pothos plant to climb and ramble about your home. Read on to learn more about climbing pothos plants.
Train Your Pothos To Climb The Way You Want It To
In hot, humid tropical settings, Pothos vines run rampant. In your home, this indoor plant may be a bit reticent. Making your pothos climb and trail in a lush, controlled manner can take some training. Learn how to make your pothos grower fuller.
Refer to these step-by-step guide to successfully train your Pothos:
1. Choose the Right Climbing Pothos Plant
Begin with a fairly mature pothos plant (a couple of years old) so that you’ll have something to work with. The stems should be long enough and strong enough to support the plants’ larger leaves.
Some of the best indoor climbing Pothos are:
A plant with several trailing vines can be guided and secured onto a climbing structure. A Pothos kept as a hanging healthy plant is an ideal candidate.
2. Decide How You Want Your Pothos to Climb
Even with some fairly long vines, you will probably need to secure the plant in place to get it started. Soft cord, such as jute, lightly tied, works best.
Be careful not to tie the cord too tightly because this can be damaging. Once your plant has attached to aerial roots, you can cut the cord away.
As wild vining Pothos clamber up trees, they anchor themselves along the way with aerial roots. To give your plants stability, you’ll need to provide them with something to hold onto.
This can be a trellis, driftwood, a wooden stake, a post, a moss pole, a metal pole, a wire frame, bamboo canes, etc. One of the most popular choices includes bamboo canes and metal poles.
You could train larger plants with a taller stake, such as a curtain rod or totem pole. But whatever you provide them should be sturdy, strong, and secure.
Also, ensure your material does not rust or contain any phototoxic chemicals, so it can easily withstand the pressure of plant vines.
Pothos’ aerial roots and root nodes will help hold the plant in place as it grows. It is possible for your plant to climb up a wall, but if you plan to use one of the interior walls of your house, you’ll need to provide small command hooks or nails to steady and guide the plant.
This is unsightly and can be damaging to the indoor wall. Furthermore, the plant roots will damage the paint slightly, even though they are not strong enough to embed into the wall.
3. Place Your Pothos Carefully
A low placement is typically more successful than a high placement. For example, placing your Pothos on a high shelf will tend to trail down toward the ambient light in the room. It will not have a reason to climb up.
If you put your Pothos in or near a bright window, it will gravitate toward the sun and may travel up the insides of the window frame, but it will not travel into the room. Place your plant so that it needs to climb to get to the light.
4. Direct With Light
In a jungle setting, these plants may grow from the ground to the very top of a tree. They do this in search of sunlight, so if you want your plants to climb in a particular direction, you can encourage them to do so with lighting. They will travel and grow toward the light.
Generally speaking, Pothos do best with bright, indirect light for six or more hours daily. Moreover, you can add a grow light if you are growing your vining plant indoors. This will provide the plant with the light it needs and encourage it to climb.
5. Make Your Pothos Comfortable
Although these plants are quite rugged and able to withstand a wide variety of adverse conditions, if you want vibrant, enthusiastic growth with larger pothos leaves, you’ll need to provide a setting that mimics the temperature, humidity, and lighting of the plants’ natural environment.
How Do You Make A Plant Wall With Pothos?
You can either place Pothos planters low and near the wall and then provide lighting from above to encourage the plants to grow upward or place the plants in hanging baskets near the ceiling and coax them down along the wall with clever use of artificial light.
As mentioned above, create anchors on the wall with hooks or nails, or attach a trellis system to the wall. You can add garden twine, fishing string, or wire as guides between the anchors if you wish.
Gently guide the plants’ tendrils as you wish, and secure them in place by tying them lightly with a jute cord.
Understand that the type and amount of light you provide may affect your plants’ foliage coloration. For example, variegated types will lose variegation and go green if you do not provide enough light.
Large wall displays of variegated Pothos may be solid green far away from the light source and brightly colored near the light.
Create A Climbing Pothos Specimen Plant
If you don’t want to do an entire wall, there are all sorts of attractive ways to train your Pothos vines to climb a small trellis, wire structure or frame, moss pole, bamboo pole, etc.
Of these choices, a moss pole usually gets the best results because it provides a good surface for the Pothos’ aerial roots and helps keep humidity levels high.
You are more likely to get lots of large, lush leaves when you use a moss pole to train your Pothos to climb over a bamboo stake.
This sort of climbing display requires a bit of planning, grooming, and guidance. When your indoor climbing plant has reached the top of its climbing structure, it will begin looking for something else to climb unless you keep it well-trimmed and continue shaping and guiding its growth.
Moreover, it’s also important to provide your climbing plant with adequate drainage and remove excess water. This will prevent root rot, a common problem in overwatered pothos.
Climbing Pothos Are Natural Pothos
Climbing is the Pothos’ way. When these vining houseplants are given what they need to climb, they produce more and larger leaves. This is because climbing Pothos typically have more indirect sunlight exposure than trailing plants.
In the cold months we crave a holiday. Just a break. A different view. New smells. Exotic plants. An atmosphere that draws the chill from our bones. And we can’t always travel. But—at least for those of us who live in big cities—there is often a botanical compromise: a local green house, or conservatory, a place where plants are kept under glass in conditions that defy the weather outside and mimic, instead, the climates where their progenitors were born. In Brooklyn, on the east side of Prospect Park, the conservatories of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden offer respite from the cold—and a therapeutic immersion in fragrant steam.
Come for a stroll through a handful of climates worlds away from winter.
Above: A dramatic example of effective climate control.
Puffer jackets can be unzipped, woollen hats removed, gloves peeled off.
Above: A Camellia sasanqua in January.
Within the massive, clear panes of the conservatories’ great glass houses, the transition from outdoor cold to moist heat is instantaneous. To acclimate, I head for the Bonsai Museum, the most moderate and airy room, where a rotating bonsai collection invites quiet admiration.
Above: The tiny trees growing in shallow trays are seasons in miniature.Above: The Warm Temperate Pavilion at the BBG.
And then I go home. Not across the park, to where I live, but to my homeland, South Africa: Downstairs.
Above: South African Lachenalias smell delicious.
In this familiar climate (not too warm, not too cool), it is spring.
Above: The many species of Lachenalia are known commonly as Cape hyacinths.
Lachenalias in bloom give a visitor a tiny taste of the spectacular spring effusion that envelopes South Africa’s West Coast and Northern Cape, in the Southern Hemisphere’s spring.
Above: Mediterranean Capparis spinosa var. inermis— caper bush—in bloom. The unopened buds and fruit capsules are pickled.
The Warm Temperate Pavilion’s climate, characterized by cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers (often better-known as a Mediterranean climate), is shared by other, diverse geographic regions, including southern and southwestern Australia, central Chile, coastal California, and the Mediterranean Basin. Here, they are under one domed roof. And it’s a riot for the senses. Citron may be fruiting, and always, there is an intense scent.
Today’s post is from Tim Covington, who likes gardening with a tropical flare—even though he gardens in chilly upstate New York.
My obsession with palm trees and tropicals came from gardening failures. When I first started gardening, I went the “normal” English garden route. But it seemed the more I paid for the plants the more the deer enjoyed a colorful, expensive meal. I then made a discovery—deer don’t like banana plants. Thus began my experiments: I added a ginger plant, and the deer ignored it. I put in a sago palm, and still nothing. Feeling bold, I bought a blooming Brugmansia. The deer did not even touch it. Almost overnight I became a tropical gardener in upstate New York.
Thanks to trial and error, I have created a tropical oasis on the banks of the Hudson River. What was once a grassy hill down to the pool is now filled with bananas, palm trees, cactus, and perennials.
Each fall I fill up my garage with the tender tropicals that must live inside during winter. I even give my koi a winter home in a large holding tank. It’s like a greenhouse but with fluorescent lights and a car.
But the big challenge is keeping the large tropical plants outside year-round. I started withMusa basjoo (a banana hardy to Zone 6) and other zone-pushing tropical plants that could handle Zone 6A with some protection. But most importantly, I learned how to getTrachycarpus fortunei (windmill palms) through a Zone 6A winter as well as Washingtonia robusta,date palms (Phoenix dactylifera) , and jelly palms (Butia capitata). My education all came from books and YouTube.
Each palm requires a slightly different configuration, but the result is that you can have large, beautiful palm trees even in cold winter zones. I was very lucky to find Island Wide Palm Trees, located in Long Island, NY, which specializes in palms. They sell not only palm trees but also the proper protection structures for windmill palms. The method for Trachycarpus saves a lot of time and is easy to store.
My other palms require a “box” covered by insulation board. This takes more work, but the result in the spring is a beautiful palm tree ready for summer. I use Christmas lights with a thermocube so that the box keeps all my palms above freezing.
The boxes are easy to put together once you have the wood frame constructed. And I put them on top of my palms when frost is predicted.
And now here in the Northeast, I wait for spring to appear so I can remove all these structures and return the yard to the tropics until November. You can see more of what I do on my YouTube channel, or follow me on Instagram.
Have a garden you’d like to share?
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
There are a lot of home remedies out there that use basic home ingredients. Using these methods may not always have a 100% percent success rate, but they can save a lot of money when they do work and cost so little that it never hurts to try them.
One popular home remedy is cayenne pepper to repel a wide range of pests. Cayenne has shown varying degrees of effectiveness on everything from insects to raccoons.
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However, it’s also generally safe for use on plants, making this a great option for those who may have issues with rabbits, spider mites, or other pests.
How To Make And Use Cayenne Pepper Spray For Plants
Making cayenne pepper spray for use on plants can be as simple as powder, soap, and water or a lot more complicated.
Let’s first look at what it does, then consider a few popular recipes, ending with how to apply your pepper spray properly.
Effects Of Cayenne Pepper On Pests
All peppers contain a chemical compound called capsaicin.
While you won’t notice it in bell peppers, hot peppers are another matter entirely, and the amount of capsaicin directly affects the amount of heat in the pepper.
This substance has a warming effect when made into a paste, which is useful against arthritis, but not so pleasant for pests.
In fact, simply sprinkling ground cayenne pepper around your trash cans can discourage raccoons because it irritates their paws.
In the garden, using a spray version can have some interesting results of its own.
Any rabbit or other pest that tries to nibble on a treated plant will end up with a nasty burning sensation for their efforts.
Even something as small as an aphid will be reluctant to attack a treated leaf, and there are reports of the pepper spray even killing small insect pests on contact.
One other benefit to using cayenne pepper spray is that it won’t harm most plants and will leave beneficial insects alone if you apply it when they’re least active.
One Small Warning
Before we get into the recipes, there’s one important detail to consider.
While most plants tolerate a little soap, some are sensitive to it.
Be sure to test a tiny portion of the plant first if you aren’t sure whether or not it’s sensitive to soaps.
Basic Hot Pepper Spray Recipe
The most basic recipe requires only three ingredients.
Add 2 tablespoons of ground cayenne pepper to a gallon of water.
You can also use 3 to 5 tablespoons of cayenne pepper flakes instead of the powder.
Finally, add a touch of Dawn dish soap (a tablespoon is plenty) and gently blend it in. And that’s it!
Pour the mixture into a spray bottle, and you’re ready to go.
The spray will generally remain viable in the fridge for up to a week, but the sooner you use it, the better the effects.
Cayenne Hot Sauce Spray Recipe
This recipe uses a cayenne-based hot pepper sauce (such as Frank’s Red Hot) instead of ground cayenne.
Because the hot sauce is already in a liquid form, it dissolves a lot easier than powder and diffuses better than flakes.
You will need 8 ounces of hot sauce per gallon of water and 6 drops of liquid soap.
Blend and add it to your spray bottle.
This spray will last a bit longer in the fridge than the basic recipe but should also be used soon after being made for the best results.
Cayenne Pepper Tea
This third recipe is a lot more time-consuming but has great results.
You will need to chop 10 cayenne peppers finely.
You can also add 10 cloves of garlic (or the equivalent of minced garlic).
Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, then add 1 gallon of water and bring it back to a simmer for another 30 to 45 minutes.
Remove the pot and allow it to sit covered for 24 hours while the contents continue to steep.
Strain the mixture into a spray bottle and add 4 to 5 drops of liquid soap.
The tea can be refrigerated for up to 3 months, although it’s best to use it within a few weeks.
Get Fancy With It!
We’ve given you three basic recipes, but you can get really creative by adding other ingredients.
Some popular choices are essential oils, such as peppermint, garlic, and lemon juice, or steeping strong herbs, such as sage.
While unnecessary, these additions can help repel a wider range of pests, increase the potency, or simply give the spray a pleasant smell that pests hate.
Applying Cayenne Pepper Spray
The best time to apply your spray is in the evening when beneficial insects are least active, and the plants have less moisture on them.
Spray your plants thoroughly, getting the leaves (top and bottom), stems, and fruit or veggies.
Reapply every 3 to 4 days and after it rains.
You will want to wear gloves and protect your eyes in case of splashing or wind.
Also, you may want to avoid coating the flowers on plants that are in bloom unless they are attacked.
This will prevent you from accidentally chasing away pollinators that might get hot feet.
Cayenne pepper strays are easy to make and can discourage pests from chewing on your plants, but remember that it’s not 100% effective.
If a pest is hungry enough, it will eat anything – even plants they know are toxic.
Also, remember that birds aren’t affected by capsaicin, so a cayenne pepper spray won’t stop an avian attack on your berry bushes unless you add additional ingredients.
But when you use this popular remedy regularly, it will generally cause pests to flee after their first spicy nibble, and they’re not likely to return for a while.
Who knew it was so simple (and inexpensive!) to grow this darling of the cafe menu and salad bar.
Also called roquette or rocket, arugula (Eruca vesicaria) is easy to sow from seed in USDA Hardiness Zones 3 to 11.
Just pop the seeds in the ground as soon as the soil can be worked, and they will usually germinate within a few days. You’ll be harvesting fresh leaves two or three weeks after that.
The ideal time to pick the leaves is when they’re about 2 inches tall.
If you let arugula shoot up higher than that, it will taste extra sharp and even a bit bitter, but many cooks and foodies still enjoy the tangy taste piled on pizza slices, or torn into small pieces for a salad.
In general, though it’s counterintuitive, the “wild” variety of arugula is milder-tasting.
Most of us home vegetable gardeners admire basil, Ocimum basilicum, for its characteristic scent, and ability to elevate a variety of dishes from caprese salads to bruschetta to minestrone.
But did you ever think of basil as a quick-yield crop for your garden?
Basil is hardy in Zones 4 to 11, and you can grow it as a perennial in Zones 10 and higher.
Since the seeds sprout in just 8 to 14 days, and produce a few sets of true leaves between 16 and 25 days later, basil is a great choice for adding quick flavor to your culinary creations.
Basil microgreens make a tasty addition to spring salad mix.
Young basil shoots are also handy for flavoring butter, tossing with pasta, or garnishing some of those frozen or canned vegetables or soups that feature so prominently in the end-of-winter (or quarantine) menu.
For more ways to cook with young basil leaves, feel free to browse our sister site, Foodal for inspiration.
For an extra quick harvest, plant several seeds close together, and eat the ones you thin – while you wait for the others to mature. Be sure to use scissors when you trim these, to avoid disturbing the roots.
You can start harvesting leaves from the young plants when they are a couple of weeks old, although you’ll want to wait until your basil has at least two sets of true leaves before snipping a couple here and there, always from the bottom of the plant.
To learn all the best practices for this ever-popular Mediterranean herb, check out this guide to growing basil in your herb garden.
Through every stage of the process, remember that basil is one of those home garden crops that just keeps on giving.
You’ll start your harvest with some microgreens or the young sprouts you thin from your basil patch. But as the plants grow and mature, they’ll provide increasingly larger leaves for pesto, followed by edible blooms.
If you’re thrifty, you can even save the mature stems to add to broth, or to flavor vinegar or cooking oil.
If you grow the purple-leafed ‘Dark Opal’ cultivar, you’ll also want to cut some flowering stems for bouquets and sweet-smelling flower arrangements.
Find seeds for ‘Dark Opal’ basil in packets of various sizes at Eden Brothers.
And be sure to dry and save some basil seeds for planting next year.
Once you discover early-season basil, growing it is habit-forming. By the beginning of next year’s growing season, you’ll want all the basil sprouts you can get.
Other basil varieties mature faster still, like ‘Piccolino,’ which grows to full size in just 45 days. This cultivar is not as widely available as ‘Spicy Globe,’ but if you do come across some seeds, they’re an excellent choice for hungry gardeners who are in a hurry.
Or if you want to get a jump on the growing season, you can buy a set of three seedlings at Burpee.
3. Microgreens
Sure, they’re tiny, so you can’t use them to stock your veggie bin. But microgreens are quick to sprout and grow to the perfect size for adding to salads, garnishes, and smoothies.
A typical microgreen mix can include anything from cilantro and radish to kohlrabi, kale, and arugula.
Photo by Rose Kennedy.
Not only are they simple to grow, you can make sowing microgreens a quick weekly gardening job, and have a supply available from early spring all the way to late fall.
In hot climates, you may want to skip growing microgreens in the heat of the summer months, unless you keep them indoors. Like lettuce, they can begin to taste bitter when the weather gets too warm.
Depending on how far you want to go with this particular gardening pursuit, you can invest in trays with grooved trenches, such as this one from True Leaf Market that allows you to grow your microgreens with almost no soil at all.
The kit contains everything you need to get started, with two self-watering trays and six seed varieties, including Basic Salad Mix, Broccoli, ‘China Rose’ Radish, Red Tatsoi, and Spicy Salad Mix. In addition, it includes 4 ounces of hydroponic growing medium, enough soil for growing four crops, a mist sprayer, and full instructions.
Even a beginner grower can press a few microgreen seeds lightly into damp seed starter soil and set their tray on a heat mat indoors.
Odds are good that you’ll have a few tasty additions to your salad or smoothie ready to enjoy within 10 days for some varieties, like sorrel.
The maximum time from seed to edible microgreen is about 30 days, depending on what you choose to grow. This guide to growing microgreens will give you the nitty-gritty on everything from seed selection to recipes for enjoying what you grow.
You can find 400-seed packets of a microgreen blend that includes ‘Detroit Red’ beets, ‘Pak Choi’ cabbage, ‘Purple’ kohlrabi, ‘Di Cicco’ broccoli, and ‘China Rose’ radish at Burpee.
Or find other individual varieties and blends in packets of different sizes at True Leaf Market.
4. Nasturtiums
Nasturtiums? That’s right, the flower!
While nasturtiums, Tropaeolum spp., are beautiful, spreading to fill empty patches of the flower garden border or trailing from hanging baskets, their leaves, buds, and blooms are also peppery edibles.
Nasturtiums, both bush and vine types, are hardy annuals in Zones 4-8. And if you’re gardening in Zones 9-11, it’s possible these tasty edible plants will overwinter as perennials. Either way, they self-seed readily as well.
Even if you’ve only got a container or two of growing space, you can still start nasturtiums in average to poor soil after all danger of frost has passed.
They’ll germinate in 10-14 days, and produce true leaves for you to nibble on a week or two later.
As the plants continue to grow, you’ll also be able to eat the blooms, but they typically take 30-52 days to flower.
At the end of the season, after flowering, you can collect the seed pods and pickle them – they have a taste similar to capers.
In general, dwarf bush varieties grow edible leaves more quickly and bloom earlier than their vining counterparts.
But vining nasturtiums, like the ‘Troika Red’ cultivar available from Burpee, can climb up to six feet, which means they produce more edible leaves over time – perfect for summer salads.
Our guide to growing nasturtiums has all you need to know to produce early edible leaves and bountiful tasty blooms later.
Growing storage onions, Allium cepa, typically calls for early tilling, lots of watering, and a long wait – up to six months! – between planting and harvest.
Photo by Rose Kennedy.
But if you choose to grow onions from sets, which are small bulbs, or nursery seedlings, you can enjoy a bit of green onion flavor much earlier in the season.
Some green onions will mature in as little as 30 days if you plant them from seedlings instead of seed. There are even purple and sweet bulb onions you can grow this way.
Or, get the best of both worlds.
Plant bulb onions from seedlings or sets, and snip the leaves that sprout within a few weeks of planting in early spring.
The onions won’t miss a few of these shoots, which are delicious in stir fries, chopped to top soups or tacos, or in salads.
Later in the season, you can harvest the bulbs.
Of course, to succeed with storage onions, you’ll still have to plan according to whether your area requires long- or short-day onion varieties. I’m fortunate because my local feed store sells the short-day sets that are ideal for growing in my garden in Zone 7a.
But you can also opt for day neutral onions, which form bulbs no matter when the sun sets in summer. All you need to guide you to a successful onion crop can be found in this onion growing guide.
You can find a collection of 300 onion sets from Burpee, and 75-plant bunches of other varieties, also at Burpee.
6. Pea Shoots
I admit that after all these years of growing snow peas, snap peas, and ‘Tom Thumb’ shelling peas, I only recently started nibbling the greens from the garden.
Photo by Rose Kennedy.
For me, this is a great find.
While nothing compares to the taste of sweet, crispy, homegrown peas, they take 70-90 days to reach the point where I can start gobbling them right from the vine. But the baby shoots can brighten your early spring menu just a few weeks after planting.
Peas (Pisum sativum) can take a while to germinate. If you plant them when the soil is still cool, around 38°F, they may not sprout for 21 to 30 days.
After that, though, you can pinch the entire plant at the base and it’s ready to wash and toss in a salad or on a vegetable tray.
If you can wait until soil temps reach 65-70°F, your pea seeds will sprout within a week or two. But if you sow outdoors too late, you run the risk of the plants not producing full-size peas or pods before the weather gets too hot.
For a pea shoot harvest within 30 or 40 days, sow peas and let the seedlings grow to six inches or so. Then clip off the top set of leaves for snacking.
You can usually repeat this process a couple of times before the plants get too tall, or the pea leaves start getting tough and not as tasty.
Keep in mind that repeat harvests of the shoots will be too hard on any plants that you’re counting on for a later pod harvest, so don’t go there.
Plant a few extras as dedicated pea shoot providers. Be prepared for that harvest to stop once the plants have grown taller than 10 inches and the shoots get too tough.
If you’re just trying to pep up your early spring homegrown ingredient list, consider starting pea shoots indoors, using a heat mat to speed up germination.
Plant more of them, more closely spaced than you would if you started them outdoors.
And speaking of planting extra peas for early pea shoot yields, don’t skimp! The sweet, tender young pea leaves are pretty tasty and consuming them is habit-forming. Even if I’m sowing mine outdoors, I usually plant at least two extra in between the seeds I plant for mature crops.
For an early maturing variety, I recommend ‘Oregon Sugar Pod II.’ As a vigorous bush pea, it grows more quickly than most vining pea plants, which means more tasty tendrils and shoots on a speedier schedule.
Oh, joy! Radishes, Raphanus sativus, are like the vegetable counterpart to crocuses, heralding the arrival of warm weather and thriving even if your area catches an extra freeze or snowfall in early spring.
These delightful orbs are hardy in Zones 2-10 and germinate zip-quick, sprouting three or four days after planting. Typical varieties are then ready to pull 28-30 days later.
But when you plant radishes for an early homegrown vegetable, don’t overlook the greens.
While the bulbs are still growing, you can clip baby leaves from the radish plants and add them to salads or atop pizza slices.
Alternatively, you can steam or saute the greens when they’re 14-28 days old, like you would kale or spinach. Just make sure you only harvest a few at a time, as keeping a few leaves attached to photosynthesize are required in order for the roots to grow.
But don’t rush out to plant any old radish variety in your enthusiasm for enjoying some early greens with your pasta, or in minestrone.
Daikon, and other “winter” radish varieties, grow better when you plant them in late summer as a fall crop. Since these big radish varieties take much longer to produce greens or roots than their tiny cousins, they aren’t a good choice for hurry-up-and-harvest plants.
Here’s a fast-yielding veggie that may have already started growing on its own in the pantry, with no encouragement from you.
The sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) left in your veggie bin that have started to sprout may not be the best for baking, but the sprouts are plenty tasty on their own.
That’s right, while the leaves of ordinary potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) contain potentially toxic levels of an alkaloid called solanine, sweet potato leaves and stems are entirely edible.
In fact, sweet potatoes are from a different plant family altogether, one that includes morning glories, and their leaves are prized in the tropics as a culinary ingredient. Also known as kamote or camote tops, you can prepare them in much the same way as you would spinach or kale.
If you want to grow some tasty sweet potato slips to sample before the root crop comes through after 90 to 120 days, you’ll start with a mature tuber – and you can expect results in a matter of weeks.
They are suitable for growers in Zones 9-11. Check out this guide on how to grow sweet potatoes at home for more information.
Whether you buy slips from a nursery, or start your own indoors, plants will yield an early harvest of edible tops, both leaves and stems.
Nibble on the young greens straight from the windowsill or garden, or add them to salads like you would baby spinach – just make sure you don’t harvest all the leaves, as the plant needs them to be able to continue growing.
If the sweet potato leaves get a bit older, they’ll taste best cooked.
Borrow from your spinach recipe book here, too, either sauteing the leaves to add to dishes like quiche or omelets, or steaming them lightly to use in green smoothies in place of kale.
Sweet potato slips are available in six-packs from Bonnie Plants via Home Depot.
Alternatively, find a variety of bare root sweet potato plants available at Burpee.
9. Turnip Greens
I don’t admit this often, but I don’t have much luck growing turnips, Brassica rapa subsp. rapa. Here in the South, the roots can get bitter or the plants can bolt in a hurry.
Photo by Rose Kennedy.
But I don’t have to forgo the crop altogether! Instead, I focus on growing the greens, particularly ‘Seven Top,’ which is renowned for producing lush handfuls of greens on each plant without harvestable turnip roots.
These early sprouts are a welcome sight in very early spring, when the whole family is eager to start eating fresh garden produce again.
And turnip greens are a delight for the impatient gardener. They’re hardy in Zones 2-9.
It is simplicity itself to scatter a few seeds on well-worked soil a week or two before your expected last frost, and pat a half inch of earth on top.
Turnip seeds germinate in 3-10 days, or up to two weeks if the soil is a bit cold. Within a few days, you can thin the first true leaves and add them to your salad.
Within a week, you’ve got 1.5- to 2-inch baby greens. I like to saute them for a springtime feast. You could use turnip greens as an alternative in this delicious recipe for garlicky beet greens from our sister site, Foodal.
And should you allow your turnips to grow so tall that the greens become too sharp in flavor, and you’re growing a variety other than ‘Seven Top,’ you can turn to the roots for enjoyment. Win-win!
Greens Delivered from Your Garden in 30 Days or Less?
When you’re devoted to growing edible plants, it’s comforting to have a few you can start harvesting just weeks after planting. That way, you’ll have patience to spare for growing the crops that can take nine months or more between planting and harvest, like garlic.
And each of these quick-growing, fast-yielding vegetables and herbs has another advantage:
If something goes wrong, you will typically have plenty of time to plant another round before season’s end.
Did I miss an obvious choice here? I’d love to hear about your favorite varieties to plant for an early harvest in the comments section below. And if you’ve got a recipe to share, let’s hear it!
If you’re feeling inspired to get started with growing a vegetable garden, you’ll need these guides next:
We often judge living things based on how they look and the company that they keep. Case in point: the hummingbird plant.
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If you’re a cruelly handsome, athletic-looking dude with a posse of letterman-jacket-sporting jocks in a ‘90s movie, I’ll bet you’re also the film’s school bully.
If you’re a disheveled, manaically-cackling old woman with a pet feline count in the double-digits, I’m guessing that you’re a crazy cat lady, or maybe a witch.
But if you’re a brightly-flowering and lushly-leaved perennial that attracts hungry hummingbirds, I’ll assume that you’re worthy of a spot in the garden.
Dicliptera squarrosa is definitely worthy: on top of its ornamental beauty and attractiveness to pollinators, it’s resilient against heat, humidity, and drought, and can also survive in subfreezing temperatures.
And on top of all that, no pests or pathogens are known to pose serious health risks to this plant!
If all this has you raising an eyebrow, your skepticism is totally understandable. But believe me – D. squarrosa is the real deal. And after reading this guide, you’ll be able to see for yourself.
Here’s what we’ll go over:
What Are Hummingbird Plants?
Hummingbird plants are herbaceous perennials that belong to the acanthus family, Acanthaceae, alongside other stunning bloomers such as bear’s-breech (Acanthus mollis) and shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeeana).
Originating from central South America and hardy in USDA Zones 7 through 11, Dicliptera squarrosa has gone through many a name change: Dicliptera suberecta, Jacobinia suberecta, and Justicia suberecta were all former monikers.
Photo via Alamy.
Besides “hummingbird plant,” D. squarrosa wields the common name “firecracker plant,” in reference to its fiery-colored, terminal clusters of blooms.
Said blooms are reddish-orange, two-lipped, and tubular in shape.
Emerging in summer to fall, these flowers are the money-makers, so to speak – along with being the visual focal point, they provide copious amounts of delicious nectar for hummingbirds, who pollinate the plants as they move from flower to flower.
As a source of nectar, hummingbird plants help maintain healthy populations of hummingbirds, who in turn aid in D. squarrosa reproduction.
It’s a beautifully codependent relationship, as oxymoronic as that may sound.
After pollination, the flowers give way to capsuled fruits, which eventually produce tiny reddish-black seeds.
The fruits have two wing-like divisions, which explains the genus name Dicliptera, a union of the Greek words diklis (twice-folded) and pteron (wing).
Grayish-green, velvety shoots coated with thin hairs support the flowers. The oval-shaped leaves are oppositely arranged, alternating in direction at each node.
This allows for otherwise empty spaces to fill in with foliage, which adds to the plant’s mounded appearance.
Photo via Alamy.
This mounded, clumping form tends to have a minimum height and spread of 18 inches, but specimens can reach a maximum size of two feet tall and three feet wide.
D. squarrosa also spreads pretty easily via its fibrous root system – I’ve heard stories of its almost weed-like behavior.
Given its glamorous looks, the plant is valued for its aesthetics and ability to attract pretty hummingbirds, which can make any landscape feel like even more of a living, breathing ecosystem.
Propagation
Now that you know how cool D. squarrosa is, it’s only natural to want some, ASAP.
The best ways to acquire more are by taking cuttings from mature plants, or transplanting newly purchased starts or potted specimens from the nursery.
From Cuttings
In late spring, take cuttings four to six inches in length from the terminal ends of shoots, using a sterilized blade.
Defoliate the bottom half of each cutting, then dip the leafless end of each cutting in rooting hormone.
If you’re in need of some, Bontone II Rooting Powder from Bonide and available via Arbico Organics is a wonderful product.
Stick the defoliated, hormone-coated ends into containers filled with a 50:50 mix of peat moss and perlite. Moisten the media, and keep the containers in indirect light next to a sunny window.
Provide humidity by draping a clear plastic bag over the cuttings. Make sure the cuttings don’t touch the sides of the bag, if possible.
Keep the media moist, and periodically uncover the cuttings to check for mold and wilt, as well as to provide fresh air.
Root formation should occur in three to four weeks. After that, you’ll need to repot the cuttings into larger containers and cover them with larger bags as they continue to grow and develop.
Come spring, the cuttings should be ready for hardening off.
After your first predicted frost-free date in spring, leave the rooted cuttings outside for 30 to 60 minutes before bringing them back inside.
Each following day, leave the containers outside for an additional half to a full hour prior to bringing them inside.
Once the cuttings can withstand a full day’s exposure, they’ll be ready for transplanting!
Via Transplanting
Once you have ready-to-transplant hummingbird plants, the next step is moving them into their forever homes.
For in-ground transplants, choose a site that’s situated in full sun or partial shade, with well-draining soil and a moderate pH of 6.0 to 8.0.
Prepare holes – spaced at least far enough apart to accommodate the transplant’s anticipated spread – that are about as deep as and slightly wider than the root system.
Lower the transplants in, backfill with soil, water in the transplants, and add additional soil as needed.
After transplanting, feel free to add an inch or two of mulch to the root zone. Keep the soil around the transplants moist as they grow and develop.
For container transplants, select containers at least two inches wider than the root mass for repotting.
With a hanging basket or two, your container-grown plantings aren’t confined to the ground.
If you go this route, make sure to select a well-draining basket that’s made of lightweight and weather-resistant material such as fiberglass or plastic.
How to Grow
As a reader of Gardener’s Path, you clearly want what’s best for your plants – and while D. squarrosa can tolerate less-than-ideal conditions in some ways, optimal care will yield optimal growth.
Climate and Exposure Needs
Within USDA Hardiness Zones 7 to 10, D. squarrosa can be grown outdoors year-round.
To ensure survival in colder climates, it’ll need to be protected from the cold or brought into a warmer location for the winter.
Photo via Alamy.
Cold protection via thermal coverings will add a bit of warmth, but using it is only advisable if your climate is right on the edge of the hardiness range, or if you’re experiencing a brief, unusual dip in temperature.
If either is the case, then a lightweight, yet durable dark green plant blanket, aka the Planket® (get it?), is available on Amazon.
If thermal coverings won’t cut it – or you simply don’t want to chance it – then you should bring your potted plants inside if temperatures are predicted to drop below 32°F.
Care for them in a garage or basement, and never let their soil become completely dry.
You can then bring them back out again in spring, but definitely not before temperatures routinely stay above freezing.
To protect pots from cracking in freezing temperatures, ensure that they can drain well, and prop them on top of bricks or cinder blocks.
The former ensures that no freezable water can collect and expand at the bottom, while the latter will prevent freezing rain from adhering to and damaging the bottoms of pots.
Partial shade exposure is acceptable, but for those gorgeous, hummingbird-attracting flowers to really bloom at their peak, D. squarrosa needs full sun.
Don’t fret over high humidity and heat levels – temperatures over 100°F are tolerable!
Soil Needs
“Well-draining” is the only quality that a hummingbird plant truly needs from its growing medium.
Photo via Alamy.
I recommend a loamy or sandy soil composition, or a 50:50 mix of peat moss and perlite, if you go with a soilless potting medium instead.
D. squarrosa tolerates a variety of pH levels, so a middle-of-the-road range of 6.0 to 8.0 works just fine.
Irrigation and Fertilization Needs
A hummingbird plant prefers to grow in moist soil, but its drought tolerance allows mature specimens to survive in conditions that are more dry.
You should aim to water whenever the surface of the soil feels dry, but if you’re late on irrigation, your D. squarrosa isn’t in immediate danger.
Photo via Alamy.
Fun fact: fine hairs like those found on the stems of this species retain water better than a hairless surface, so avoid overhead irrigation for the sake of keeping shoot surfaces sanitary.
A decent level of fertility is a plus as well, so make sure to amend the soil each spring with a couple inches of compost or well-rotted manure.
Growing Tips
Full sun is optimal, but partial shade is tolerable.
Make sure the growing medium is well-draining.
Ideally, irrigate whenever the soil surface is dry.
Additionally, cutting down the plant all the way to the ground in late fall can encourage vigorous regrowth the following spring.
Maintaining an inch or two of mulch around the plant will keep it protected in cold weather, and help to prevent weeds.
Photo via Alamy.
Any specimens cultivated in containers or hanging baskets will probably need to be divided and/or repotted as they grow.
At the beginning of each spring, check your D. squarrosa for drooping leaves, defoliation, reduced growth, dead growth in the center, and/or roots emerging from drainage holes.
All are signs that it’s time to divide or size up the container.
To divide, remove the plant from its container and cut it apart in two to four equally-sized sections with a sterilized blade.
Tragically, D. squarrosa can be tough to track down. In my experience, you can find a hosta or heuchera pretty much anywhere flora is sold, but a hummingbird plant? Not so much.
First and foremost: you aren’t likely to find this plant in physical nurseries and gardening centers beyond its hardiness range.
Odds are, a nursery in Louisiana or Alabama is more likely to have D. squarrosa in stock than one located in North Dakota, for example. And that’s for good reason – it won’t do well there.
Photo via Alamy.
But thanks to online shopping, geography is no longer the obstacle it used to be.
Just keep the weather forecast in mind, and try to avoid scheduling shipments for periods of extreme heat or cold. Be on the lookout for reputable vendors who sell high-quality plants.
Don’t forget to utilize your fellow green thumbs. Attend local plant swaps and horticultural shows, and hit up your network of gardening buddies for any D. squarrosa they can spare.
Heck, it spreads easily enough that they may be more than willing to give some away.
Managing Pests and Disease
Thankfully, D. squarrosa doesn’t suffer from any serious pests or diseases. In fact, it’s even resistant to rabbits and deer!
But it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
By sanitizing your gardening tools, using clean soil, and utilizing healthy plant stock, not only will you be doing everything you can to prevent health issues, you’ll be protecting the rest of your garden.
Plus, you’ll be reinforcing good gardening habits!
Remember that this plant must be grown in well-draining soil – plants will suffer in an inhospitable growing environment, and root rot poses a danger to many varieties of plants struggling in oversaturated soil.
Best Uses
If you’re eager to increase the number of fast-flapping and nectar-guzzling hummingbirds that visit your garden, you’ll have a hard time finding a better lure than the hummingbird plant.
These tiny birds can spot red flowers from a quarter mile away and have astounding memories, so make sure your plants are prominently displayed and you’re sure to have repeat visitors.
Aside from an increase in hummingbird and butterfly traffic, the plant itself is stunning enough to display prominently, or it can be used in the background.
Plus, D. squarrosa doesn’t even need to be grown in-ground! It performs equally well in containers or hanging baskets.
Quick Reference Growing Guide
Plant Type:
Herbaceous flowering perennial
Flower/Foliage Color:
Reddish-orange/grayish-green
Native to:
Central South America
Water Needs:
Moderate
Hardiness (USDA Zones):
7-10
Maintenance:
Moderate
Bloom Time:
July to September
Tolerance
Deer, drought, dry soil, heat, partial shade, rabbits, salt
For anyone looking to attract hummingbirds with a fabulous-looking perennial, the hummingbird plant should be one of your go-to’s.
Good things come to those who increase their garden’s biodiversity in style, and by implementing D. squarrosa into your landscape, the coming of good things is practically guaranteed.
Any remarks, questions, or fun hummingbird facts can go in the comments section below!
Crocuses naturalize rapidly, forming carpets of color over the years. In addition to the spring bloomers, there are autumn varieties that are suited to Zones 6 to 10.
Daffodils are often interplanted with snowdrops, hyacinths, and tulips for a succession of blooms in beds, borders, containers, and mass planting schemes.
This plant thrives best in Zones 4 to 8.
Find ‘Precocious’ bulbs now from Eden Brothers in packages of 10, 20, 50, or 100. Luxuriously ruffled bright peach-pink trumpets are backed by a single row of creamy white tepals.
3. Dwarf Iris
Early-blooming dwarf iris, Iris reticulata, is a fragrant miniature plant that bursts into bloom early in the season in Zones 5 to 9.
Photo by Nan Schiller.
I love mine. As winter yields to spring, I begin to check for flowers. The first hint of life is the foliage that resembles very erect dark green grass.
In the seven years I’ve had them, I can honestly say I’ve never seen them in the bud stage. One day there’s foliage, the next, gorgeous blooms.
Photo by Nan Schiller.
The falls, or tepals that droop, have a splash of gold called a signal, as well as white striations. The upright tepals, called standards, are solid blue-purple.
Over the years, they have begun to naturalize in my woodland garden, with a tendency to grow very close together.
This is a low-profile plant with a maximum height of six to eight inches. It is especially suited to containers and window boxes, where its exquisite details may be appreciated at eye level.
Glory of the snow, Chionodoxa forbesii, has violet-blue, star-shaped flowers with white center “eyes” that face cheerfully upward.
It grows in a clumping fashion. The foliage is strap-like, and both stems and leaves have a reddish tint.
Ideal growing conditions include full sun to part shade and average, well-draining, slightly acidic soil. Glory of the snow is best suited to Zones 3 to 8.
Heights range from six to 12 inches. It’s an excellent choice for rock gardens, and works well as a companion to other early spring bulbs.
Find glory of the snow bulbs now from Dutch Grown in a variety of package sizes from 10 to 10,000.
There is another species of glory of the snow, Chionodoxa lucileae, that varies slightly from Chionodoxa forbesii. It has 3- to 6-inch stems with fewer flowers per stem. They are slightly larger, but not as starry in shape.
5. Grape Hyacinth
Grape hyacinth, Muscari spp., is a fragrant flower with spikes of multiple tiny blooms that resemble bunches of grapes.
The best-known color is blue-purple, but there are also shades of pink, white, and yellow available. The foliage looks like floppy grass.
This plant thrives in full sun to part shade with average, well-draining soil that has a pH close to neutral (7.0).
Heights range from six to 12 inches, making grape hyacinth a fine choice for beds, borders, containers, drifts, and window boxes.
Plant en masse for a spectacular monochromatic display, or interplant with companions of similar stature, such as crocus, dwarf iris, and glory of the snow.
It spreads vigorously, so consider containment measures such as deeply placed garden edging material, like concrete pavers. Dividing it periodically is another good way to curb its enthusiasm.
Do not plant lily of the valley in the Midwest, where it has become invasive.
Low-profile Siberian squill, Scilla siberica, has one to three light blue, nodding, bell-like blooms per stem.
It’s often seen in the company of the crocus, grape hyacinth, and glory of the snow. The leaves are strap-like with reddish stems.
Ideal growing conditions include full sun to part shade, and average, well-draining soil that is slightly acidic.
Heights reach between three and six inches, and these show well in fronts of beds, border edges, containers, and window boxes. For maximum impact, mass planting is recommended.
Find Siberian squill bulbs now from Burpee in packages of 15.
8. Single Early Tulip
The Tulipa genus is a large one, with early-, mid-, and late-season flowers.
The single early tulip is a classic variety, with one row of colorful tepals that blooms early in the spring season, alongside the daffodils and crocuses.
The foliage is fleshy, elliptical, and sometimes tinged with purple.
Photo by Корзун Андрей, Wikimedia Commons, via CC BY-SA
Colors include orange, pink, purple, red, white, and yellow. Stems are between 12 and 18 inches tall. Some cultivars are fragrant.
Tulips do best in a full sun location with average soil that drains well, and has a slightly acidic pH. They thrive in Zones 3 to 7.
Frost-tolerant snowdrop, Galanthus spp., is a very early bloomer that often keeps company with the hellebore and crocus.
It has drooping, white, bell-shaped flowers with a splotch of green on the margin that resembles a tiny inverted heart. The leaves look like thick, fleshy grass.
To grow snowdrops, provide a full sun to part shade location, and soil of any pH that is organically rich and well-draining.
Snowdrop has a clumping growth habit. It naturalizes readily in Zones 3 to 8. Heights reach three to seven inches.
Enjoy the cheerful blooms in beds, borders, containers, and window boxes. Or, sow en masse for an uplifting drift as winter yields to spring.
When shopping for snowdrop, you’re likely to encounter multiple species with similar characteristics, including G. nivali and G. lewesii.
Find G. nivalis bulbs now from Burpee in packages of 25. Heights reach four to six inches, and flowers are slightly fragrant.
10. Trillium
Trillium, Trillium spp., is a native woodland wildflower that blooms on a single, bare stem that rises from a thick root called a rhizome.
It has three white petals that bend under at the tips. Beneath these petals are three green sepals.
The foliage consists of three ovate, or egg-shaped, leaves that radiate around the stem in a pattern called a “whorl.”
Trillium grows in part to full shade, where the soil is organically rich, slightly acidic, and well-draining. It is an ephemeral plant that dies to the ground and disappears soon after it’s finished blooming.
If you’ve got a woodsy setting with lots of trees and shrubs, slowly colonizing trillium is a wonderful choice for creating natural-looking drifts.
Winter aconite, Eranthus hyemalis, has bright yellow cup-shaped blossoms atop collars of deeply divided leaves.
It grows from swollen roots called tubers and has a petite three- to six-inch stature.
Yellow winter aconite and crocuses make a colorful carpet.
For optimal growth it requires full sun to part shade, and organically rich, alkaline soil that drains well. It spreads easily, and does well in the presence of black walnut trees. Juglone toxicity is not a concern.
Winter aconite is best suited to growing in Zones 3 to 7, where it blooms very early, from late winter into spring.
Find winter aconite bulbs now from Dutch Grown in packages of 25 to 10,000.
Perennials
Perennials are hardy friends to the gardener. They winter over and burst forth according to their own inner time clocks, often while the last dregs of snow are still on the ground.
Here are some to count on for early color.
12. Bleeding Heart
Bleeding heart, Lamprocapnos spectabilis, has arm-like branches that support rows of dangling pink or red blossoms.
They resemble split, inverted hearts spilling a white teardrop tinged with yellow.
This plant is ephemeral with airy, feather-like foliage that dies to the ground after blooming.
Bleeding heart prefers a location with full sun to part shade, average soil, a neutral pH, and good drainage.
Heights range from one to three feet. Shrub-like growth makes for an eye-catching stand-alone specimen, affording observers a close view of the unique flowers.
Carolina jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens, is a native vine with showy, trumpet-shaped, scented yellow blossoms. The foliage is lanceolate, or lance-shaped, and shiny.
It prefers a full sun location where it can spread along the ground, or up and over a trellis, fence, or pergola.
The soil should be slightly acidic, organically rich, and well-draining.
Carolina jasmine can grow to heights of 12 to 20 feet and thrives best in Zones 7 to 10. In warmer regions, the foliage is evergreen, and in cooler climes, semi-evergreen.
Best suited to Zones 3 to 9, columbine is lovely in beds and borders, and makes a charming specimen plant for cottage and small-space gardens. It shares space well with dwarf iris.
Find ‘Early Red and White’ seeds now from Burpee in packages of 20.
This type boasts bright red sepals and coordinating red petal centers. Heights are between 14 and 20 inches for attractive mid-bed or stand-alone placements.
15. Dutchman’s Breeches
Dutchman’s Breeches, Dicentra cucullaria, is a native wildflower with upright to arching stems.
Suspended from these delicate stems are small white flowers tipped with yellow that look like little inverted pairs of pants.
This is an ephemeral plant whose flowers and foliage seem to vanish, as if by magic, after blooming.
The foliage is deeply divided and reminds me a little of Italian flatleaf parsley.
Dutchman’s breeches grows from fleshy rootstock. It thrives best in full to part shade, where the soil is organically rich, slightly acidic, and well-draining.
Heights reach between six and 12 inches in Zones 3 to 7.
Use this plant as it is found in the wild, tucked underneath trees and shrubs, where it can be spotted during early spring walks through woodland property.
Find Dutchman’s Breeches seeds now from Amazon in packages of 10.
16. Hellebore
Hellebore, Helleborus spp., is a large genus of winter to spring blooming flowers known best for their nodding heads and ability to bloom even in the snow.
Colors range from pinks and purples to whites, yellows, and greens. There may be a single row of sepals or an additional inner row of petals, as in varieties known as “doubles.”
Foliage is deeply divided in palmate (radiating), or pedate (foot-like) fashion. It ranges from deciduous, matte, soft-textured, light green leaves to evergreen, shiny, leathery, dark green leaves.
Hellebore thrives in part to full shade with organically rich, well-draining soil that has a neutral to slightly alkaline pH.
Hellebore exhibits exceptional winter hardiness and frost tolerance in Zones 4 to 9.
Find Winter Jewels® ‘Peppermint Ice’ plants now from Burpee. This is a double pale pink and white variety with dark pink edges called “picotee.” Expect a height of 12 to 16 inches. Plants are sold individually.
17. Pigsqueak
Pigsqueak, Bergenia cordifolia, has panicles, or drooping clusters, of dark pink blossoms.
The leaves are shiny, leathery, and heart-shaped, and arranged in rosettes. They squeak if you rub them, hence the name.
New spring growth has red stems, and the foliage is evergreen, deepening to burgundy in the fall.
This is a ground-covering plant that grows in dense clumps from seeds or fleshy rhizomes.
It’s taller than most, topping out at 12 to 18 inches. Give it room to roam on sloped areas where it can both beautify the landscape and inhibit erosion at the same time.
Flowering quince, Chaenomeles speciosa, is a large deciduous shrub that bears small yellow-green edible fruit that you may like to make into jam, jelly, or preserves.
The blossoms are similar to those of a cherry tree, and have salmon-pink to red single or double petals.
The foliage consists of shiny, oval leaves that appear as the flowers drop. The branches are dense and often thorny.
There are varieties suitable for Zones 4 to 9. Provide full sun to part shade, with average, acidic soil that drains well.
The overall shape tends to be rounded. Average heights are between six and 10 feet. Best uses include hedging and stand-alone plantings.
‘Scarlet Storm’ is a particularly attractive variety with double-petal dark crimson flowers that bloom on four- to five-foot shrubs. This cultivar has no thorns.
Find Double Take™ ‘Scarlet Storm’ Quince plants now from Nature Hills Nursery. Choose from a sprinter (starter) pot, quart container, or #3 container.
Forsythia, Forsythia x intermedia, aka border forsythia, is a tall, deciduous shrub with slender, arching branches dotted with yellow blossoms.
Flowers spring directly from the stems, nodding their star-shaped yellow heads before most other blooms have awakened.
Narrow elliptical leaves sometimes appear before the flowers fall.
Best suited to Zones 5 to 8, forsythia grows to a mature height of eight to 10 feet tall, with a slightly rounded shape. The leaves may turn bronze in the fall.
You can use this plant for hedging. Prune it to the height of your choice, or leave it to its own devices.
Or, give it room to spread its arching branches like fountains of yellow in a large drift of its own.
Japanese camellia, Camellia japonica, aka the rose of winter, has flowers that resemble flouncy, cottage garden English roses.
It comes in shades of pink, purple, red, white, and yellow. The smooth, shiny, oval foliage is evergreen in Zones 7 to 9, where it grows best.
For cultivation, provide a location with part to full shade that is sheltered from strong winds. The soil should be acidic, organically rich, and well-draining.
There are numerous cultivars with mature heights ranging from seven to 12 feet tall. The Japanese varieties grow a bit more slowly than other types.
Pussy willow, Salix caprea, can grow as a shrub or a small tree. The long, bare stems of male plants bear furry gray and white catkins for intriguing early season interest.
Find a spot with full sun to part shade for growing pussy willow. I had a beautiful small tree at one time, on the south side of my house.
It provided me with armloads of long stems for stunning floral arrangements.
Pussy willow reaches a mature height of 15 to 25 feet tall. By trimming the new canes (fresh spring stems) each year, I was able to maintain a manageable size.
To grow as a tree, trim away the side branches to establish a trunk. Plant bulbs and perennials around your tree for a pleasing focal point.
For cultivation as a bush, allow the lower branches to remain. This is a useful option for property perimeter plantings, hedgerows, or specimen planting in an island bed of its own.
Pussy willow requires soil that is acidic, organically rich, and well-draining. It thrives best in Zones 4 to 8, where it grows quickly.
In addition to Salix caprea, there’s a North American native variety, Salix discolor, with smaller flowers.
Spring heath, Erica x darleyensis, is also known as winter heath.
It’s an evergreen ground cover with multiple overlapping stems that bear rows of tiny bright pink to red cylindrical flowers. The leaves are bright green needles.
Spring heath prefers full sun and organically rich, well-draining, acidic soil. However, it has a high tolerance for poor acidic soil, as well.
Heights range from 12 to 15 inches tall at maturity.
It naturalizes slowly and is useful for inhibiting hillside erosion, border placement along sidewalks, hiding the legs of mid-size shrubs in sunny beds, and creating stand-alone evergreen drifts.
Normally, when roots start coming out of the pot, you know it’s time to upgrade to a bigger container.
It’s a sign that your plant has outgrown its current home, and it needs to move to something with some more space. But what about orchids?
These aren’t your average plants. They’re quite unique compared to most other houseplants, as you probably surmised. Maybe their unusual blossoms alone were enough to tip you off!
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With orchids, roots growing out of the pot can actually be a good sign. It means your plant is healthy and growing as it should be, similar to how it would be in nature.
Does that mean your plant needs them? What if you think they’re a bit ugly? Can you ditch them to clean up the look of your houseplant, or does it mean you have to repot?
We have the answer to all those questions and more coming up in this guide.
If you’d like to know more about these funky growths, including what they do for the plant and why you should probably reconsider sending them to the compost heap, keep reading.
Here’s a quick look at everything we’ll discuss up ahead:
Most orchids are epiphytes, which are plants that grow on other plants.
They aren’t parasites that draw nutrients or water from the host plant, however.
They just hang out on the bark and in nooks and crannies of the host plant, and use it as a base of support high off the ground.
Because they don’t grow in the ground like most plants, they’ve developed some unique methods of gathering moisture and food.
When you see extra growth coming out of the container, it’s usually related to this special adaptation. Let’s learn more about these growths.
What Are These Growths and Why Are They Here?
So, what’s up with these growths that you’re seeing, and what does it have to do with being an epiphyte?
Since epiphytes don’t grow in a big bunch of soil that can hold water until they need it, they have adapted other methods to draw in water.
Staghorn ferns have adapted by growing fine hairs on their fronds to catch water, and orchids developed their own adaptations to absorb all the good stuff from the air.
Orchids have two kinds of roots: aerial and “normal” ones.
The second type is the same kind that most ground-dwelling plants have, and they act in the same way, by growing in the leaf litter and other matter that gathers in the crooks of branches and cracks in the bark where epiphytic orchids grow.
Terrestrial types have the same “normal” roots for growing in the soil.
But the aerial type is far less common and usually seen on plants that grow without a soil substrate in trees or on rocks.
Aerial types are there because orchids grow attached to trees without traditional soil.
They have these roots to help them nab additional moisture and nutrients from the air, and they provide additional anchoring for the plant. Imagine clinging to a tree all day. You’d want some additional support.
So how do the aerial growths help capture additional water and nutrients if they don’t anchor in the decaying matter that the plant uses as its nutrient base?
These growths are covered in a special spongy outer layer made up of dead cells. This skin is known as the velamen radicum and it should be white, silvery, or gray if it’s healthy. When it’s moist, it becomes green.
A few other epiphytes, such as Monstera species, have velamen, too.
Once the velamen soaks up some water and nutrients, the veins of the orchid, known as steles, draw in the moisture and send it out to the regular roots, stems, and leaves.
Don’t confuse aerial roots with flower spikes.
They can look similar, especially when they’re young. Flower spikes have a bud at the end that looks like a bunch of bumps. Aerial roots have smooth ends.
What Should I Do with Them?
The short answer is: nothing!
If your plant has these growths, there’s nothing you need to do. For the most part, aerial roots are a sign that your plant is perfectly healthy and just doing its thing.
It doesn’t mean the orchid is unhealthy or that it has outgrown its pot.
These growths can actually be a good indicator of when your plant should be watered. Think of them like a built-in hygrometer.
If the aerial roots near the base of the plant touching the growing medium are green, they’re wet, and the plant doesn’t need water. If they’re silver or white, you can go ahead and add more water.
This doesn’t work as well with those growing higher up on the plant since they dry out faster without access to the moisture in the growing medium.
Dead or diseased growths can be trimmed off, but healthy growth should be left alone. Removing aerial roots reduces the amount of water that’s able to reach the plant. It grew those for a reason, right?
So can you just trim them off and give your plant more supplemental water to make up the difference? Nope. If you do that, you run the risk of overwhelming the existing roots, leading to rot from overwatering.
Removing them also introduces an opening for viruses, bacteria, and fungi.
Truly, if you can stand it, leave these growths alone as long as they appear healthy.
Trimming Aerial Roots
Let’s say you do need to trim off those aerial roots for whatever reason. Maybe they’re sick or broken. How do you go about it?
Find a pair of scissors and clean them with soap and water or rubbing alcohol. You always want to use clean tools to avoid spreading disease. Then, let them dry or dry them off.
Carefully lift up the aerial root and follow it to the base. They can be twisted up or entangled, so this is easier said than done.
Remember those maze games you used to do as a kid? It’s kind of like that. Once you solve the puzzle, use the scissors to snip away the root at the base.
For the next few weeks, you’ll want to keep a really close eye on the spot where you did the trimming and observe the overall plant to make sure nothing has snuck in to attack your specimen. Look for spots, discoloration, fungal growth, and black, mushy bits.
If you run into any of these, our orchid growing guide provides tips for dealing with common diseases.
What if Normal Roots Are Growing Out of My Orchid Pot?
This is another possibility. These won’t be the silvery white aerial ones coming out of the medium at the top of the root ball where the stem meets the roots.
These are the ones that start peeking out of the holes in the pot. These growths are darker, and they may be brown or yellow.
Now, if you have normal roots coming out of the holes in the container, you should repot the orchid in a bigger pot or, better yet, mount it.
If you don’t love the look of a bunch of aerial roots sticking out all over the place, mounting your orchid gives you a chance to arrange them in a manner that’s a bit more pleasing. Just don’t tuck them into the moss when you mount.
When repotting, just go up one size and make sure to pick a container with lots and lots of drainage holes. The more, the better.
Embrace Those Roots
Orchid roots are usually nothing to worry about. If you see them crawling out of your plants unexpectedly, it’s typically no big deal. Just know that your plant is doing what it does naturally.
Worst case scenario, you might just need to do some repotting.
Orchids are such fascinating plants. How long have you been growing them? What species are you growing? Share your experiences with us in the comments section below.
This little basil beauty is named well: it has a pungent, spicy flavor, it grows in a globe-like shape, and it’s definitely basil.
It’s a dwarf strain that fits just about anywhere, including indoors in small pots.
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‘Spicy Globe’ is so attractive that it can be grown solely as a short-lived ornamental if you prefer not to eat it.
It kind of looks like a mini boxwood hedge trimmed into a round shape. I’ve actually used it to shape up my herb garden, which can look a bit more functional than attractive sometimes.
If you’re looking for something that grows quickly, looks cute, and tastes like heaven, you found it.
Or, if you want a basil plant that will do well indoors, this is it. To help you make this plant thrive, here’s everything we’re going to talk about in this guide:
‘Spicy Globe’ grows quickly, so there’s no time to waste with chit-chat. Let’s jump right in.
Cultivation and History
Basil originated in India, Iran, and southeast Asia, and we humans began cultivating it long ago. So long that no one is sure when it began exactly.
‘Spicy Globe’ was likely cultivated in Greece from a minimum variety of the basilicum species of basil.
This species is commonly called sweet basil, and it is different from holy basil (O. tenuiflorum), camphor (O. kilimandscharicum), and African (O. gratissimum).
It’s a dwarf strain that’s considered a Greek type.
Propagation
Basil is so easy to start from seed that there’s little reason not to.
Unless you’re in a rush, lack the space, or can’t find seeds, propagating seed is the way to go. But, you can always buy a seedling instead, if you can find one.
From Seed
As an heirloom, ‘Spicy Globe’ grows true from seed. If you want, you can let your existing plant mature and produce seeds.
Here’s a quick rundown of my method for starting seeds indoors:
Fill a couple of cells of a six-cell seed-starting tray with fresh potting soil, bury the seeds a quarter-inch deep, and add water.
Then I place the trays on a heat mat because they germinate best when the soil temperature is above 65°F, and I turn on some grow lights.
If you have a spot available in full sun and your house is nice and toasty, go ahead and skip the grow lights and heat mat.
I grow basil year-round, and that means sometimes I’m trying to tempt this heat lover into growing in my freezing cold basement in the dark of winter, so supplemental lights and heat are essential.
Keep the soil moist. After your seedlings have a few true leaves, once air temperatures outside are consistently above 65°F, you can harden them off and transplant them outside.
Or, you can keep them inside in a sunny window in trays or pots.
I usually move my seedlings into a larger container and place them in a west-facing window when they’re about a month old, and they grow fine even though it’s not technically a spot with full sun.
Otherwise, you can also direct sow outdoors after the risk of frost has passed.
Transplanting
If you can find plants in stores, or if you have seedlings ready to move out to the garden, transplanting is a snap.
You’ll want to prep an area about a foot wide by a foot long by nine inches deep before planting. Dig to loosen the soil, and amend with well-rotted compost.
Dig a hole in the loosened, prepped soil about the same size as the growing pot and remove the plant from the pot. Lower it into the hole, firm up the soil around it, and water well.
Basil doesn’t have a massive root system. If you decide to keep the plant in a container, anything larger than six inches across will do as long as it provides good drainage.
It’s tempting to put indoor herbs in a pot without drainage to make watering easier, but that’s a quick route to root rot.
How to Grow
If I were advising someone on starting an herb garden, it would absolutely include basil, and ‘Spicy Globe’ in particular.
I have to imagine that it isn’t just the flavor that makes basil one of the most popular plants in the home garden. The ease of raising this herb must factor in as well.
The usual basil rules apply here: this cultivar needs full sun, lots of water, regular feeding with balanced, mild fertilizer if you grow it as a perennial.
But let me be a bit more specific.
These plants need full sun, but you can provide a little protection throughout the hottest part of the day if you live somewhere hot and dry.
The soil should be consistently moist. That means it should always feel like a well-wrung-out sponge.
If you stick your finger into the soil and it feels even slightly dry, add water. Just don’t let the medium become soggy, and ensure good drainage.
Give the young plants started from seed a dose of mild fertilizer every two weeks until they’re about six weeks old, then stop feeding.
Store-bought plants already have fertilizer, so skip feeding, at least for the first year. If you’re growing your plant as a perennial, feed it once each year to follow in the fall.
Dr. Earth makes an awesome all-purpose fertilizer that’s mild and balanced. I use it on all kinds of plants and they’re all perfectly happy.
Arbico Organics carries both 32-ounce hose-end ready-to-spray bottles and 24-ounce bottles of concentrate if you’re looking for options.
If you’re growing your herb indoors, keep it in a sunny window. Sun exposure is key.
These plants need at least six hours of direct sunlight per day or you’ll need to place them under supplemental lighting.
Mine get about five hours per day in my west-facing window, and while they grow just fine, they do tend to lose their shape a bit.
Otherwise, treat indoor specimens as you would outdoor plants, with regular fertilizer applications when they’re young, and by keeping the soil moist.
Be sure to dump out any excess water that collects in saucers promptly.
Growing Tips
Grow in full sun.
Keep the soil consistently moist.
Feed young plants with a mild, balanced fertilizer.
Maintenance
‘Spicy Globe’ will form a rounded shape all on its own, but if you want to pinch it as it matures to encourage an even more compact shape, feel free.
Stop pinching after about 45 days to allow the plant to mature fully.
For plants grown as perennials, you’ll want to do some heavy pruning in the late winter when plants are dormant to provide some shape, since they will tend to become leggy over time.
True Leaf Market has ‘Spicy Globe’ available in two-gram, one-ounce, or four-ounce packets.
Managing Pests and Disease
‘Spicy Globe’ is special, but not when it comes to pests. Aphids, Japanese beetles, and slugs are all common pests that favor basil.
Notice what’s not on this list? Rabbits, deer, and rodents don’t seem interested in this particular cultivar at all.
When it comes to diseases, downy mildew and leaf spot are going to be your biggest challenges.
Downy mildew is caused by the oomycete known as Peronospora belbahrii, which thrives in mild temperatures between 60 and 70°F paired with high humidity above 70 percent.
Initial symptoms present as leaf yellowing between the veins. As the infection progresses, circular brown spots will develop, along with a gray or purple mold on the underside of the leaves.
Eventually, the foliage will drop.
Sprays containing Bacillus subtilis QST-713 or potassium salts of phosphoric acid are highly effective treatments.
Whichever treatment you choose, use it every week to drench the foliage during periods of warm, humid weather.
Monterey makes a product called Garden Phos that contains potassium salts of phosphoric acid, which you can grab at Amazon in pint-size containers.
Leaf spot is a generic term for circular brown spots on foliage caused by various fungal pathogens, species of Cercospora, Alternaria, and Colletotrichum.
A product containing potassium bicarbonate can help treat the disease, but you need to start treatment as soon as possible because a small plant like ‘Spicy Globe’ can succumb rapidly.
Pull off diseased leaves as they pop up and then treat with something like MilStop SP.
As with most basils, it’s best to harvest this one as needed just before use rather than trying to store it in the fridge.
Use your fingernails or a sharp pair of scissors to clip off some leaves when you need them.
Once the plant starts sending out seeds, it’s time to cut the whole thing down to the base. The leaves start turning bitter and tougher after the plant goes to seed.
If you live in Zone 10 or 11, you can grow it as a short-lived perennial and harvest the new growth in the following year.
Just know that this cultivar will start to become leggy and lose its shape beyond the first year of growth.
However, since this is an heirloom cultivar, the seeds will grow true. Feel free to let a few seed pods develop and mature to save for planting next season before cutting the plant down.
Recipes and Cooking Ideas
This isn’t the right cultivar if you need piles and piles of basil for a recipe. When you’re whipping up a big old batch of pesto, use something with large leaves like ‘Italian Large Leaf.’
The leaves on this one, on the other hand, are great for using as an accent to garnish pasta dishes and desserts.
They make a particularly attractive option as a garnish because you can use the whole leaf. No need to tear or chop up the leaves before you sprinkle them on.
1/4 inch (seed), same depth as original container (seedlings)
Family:
Lamiaceae
Height:
12 inches
Genus:
Ocimum
Spread:
12 inches
Species:
Basilicum
Water Needs:
Moderate
Variety:
Minimum
Common Pests and Disease:
Aphids, Japanese beetles, slugs, snails; downy mildew, leaf spot
Cultivar:
Spicy Globe
It’s the Finest Spicy Basil on the Planet
You can search the entire globe for a better dwarf basil, but ‘Spicy Globe’ is pretty hard to beat.
I think of it more as an ornamental that just happens to be delicious than an herb that just happens to look good.
Are you going to keep yours indoors as an edible houseplant? Or will you grow it outside in your herb garden? Let us know your plans in the comments section below!
If you love basil, there are lots more options out there. We have a few guides to some of the other wonderful basils that you might want to consider. Check out:
COULD YOUR houseplants use a tuneup after a hard winter indoors? I know mine will need it, from re-potting, to light pruning, to full-scale rejuvenation in some cases, so I wanted to get expert advice. Karl Gercens has been growing houseplants since age 5, and the last 25 years he’s been doing that not just at home, but also in the historic Longwood Gardens Conservatory in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, where he’s the conservatory manager.
In that time, Karl estimates he’s seen more than a million pots of display plants, many of them species we think of as “houseplants,” move through its galleries as different seasonal shows were staged. Each one has to be exceptional to make the grade, the best varieties (like a variegated Thanksgiving cactus, above) and also grown to perfection. So I know he has the answers on both fronts: on which plants to choose and how to care for them.
Margaret Roach: You’re a little plant-mad, aren’t you? [Laughter.]
Karl Gercens: I think that would be an understatement. I thought everyone was like me. I thought everyone collected plants from the age of 5. I thought everyone filled every windowsill and their car was covered in dirt, but maybe not everyone’s like that.
Margaret: [Laughter.] We should say, for people who haven’t been to Longwood, that even at this time of year you have exhibits on. There’s one called Winter Wonder[below] on right now, isn’t there?
Karl: Absolutely. And being from Mississippi, growing up in a warm climate, moving to Pennsylvania, I thought that was going to be tough. But when you come to a place like Longwood where it’s perpetual springtime, especially in the conservatory where there’s something in bloom 365 days of the year, winter has really become my favorite season. We have flowers blooming that are completely unusual to those of us who only garden outdoors. And it’s absolutely inspirational to see something that is not local, to see something that kind of takes you to a different part of the world.
Margaret: Yeah. I mean, I think it’s a must stop for anyone interested in plants, as a destination. So houseplants, as we call them, those of us who don’t have a conservatory [laughter]. So step one in houseplant success is probably trying not to impulse-buy just based on the pretty face of some the picture that we see online, but maybe doing some advanced homework to see if it’s a good match for us. Is that the idea?
Karl: Oh, it’s so terribly true. Oftentimes we go to a grocery store or a garden center or any place we buy plants, and we fall in love with it. And if we are one of those people that say, “I’m going to make this work,” do you really know what that means? Are you going to completely turn your life upside down? Are you going to change your light, your humidity, your temperature just for a plant? So maybe we need some self-reflection first, and get to know yourself, and get to know what conditions you have.
And I think the first step is, what am I looking for? What is light? Everyone says, “Oh, my house is bright,” but what is bright? “Oh, my house is warm.” Well, what is warm? So really trying to clarify what those conditions are, so that we can match a plant to you, and you truly will have success.
Margaret: So I mean, some of the toughest things, and I was saying in the introduction about winter, which is especially hard because we have the heat on … And I mean my thermometer and humidity gauge in the house, I mean, sometimes when the heat’s been on all day, it’s like in the 20-something percents of humidity. I mean, it’s really dry, right?
Karl: It totally is. And oftentimes, too, when I’m changing my sweatshirt and you just feel the static electricity, that’s a heads-up that you probably got some dry air going on in that house. And I was just talking to some of my students yesterday, and they were asking you, “How do I grow this specific philodendron, or this palm, happily inside my home?” And we were talking about ways to add humidity to your environment, and certainly the biggest way is a whole-house humidifier. But even with that, you’re barely going to hit 35 percent, 40 percent.
Adding humidifying trays, those large 12-plus-inch pebble-filled trays underneath all of your plants. Grouping plants together. But maybe even creating a plant room. So if you have a spare bedroom inside your home, maybe you’re turning the heat vent off and it’s just a little bit cooler than the rest of the house. And then maybe you do have all of your plants in one spot as opposed to spreading them out through the entire house.
Margaret: Yeah, that’s a good idea. And are there also some plants that stand up better? I mean, if we have to just face facts and that’s what we have, at least part of the year, is quite dry, are there some that are more durable in the face of low humidity?
Karl: Well, talk about low-hanging fruit. So that’s exactly right. Let’s start with those plants that don’t need all of that care, that don’t require us to turn our lives upside-down. And certainly the easiest plants are the ones I think with the funnest names. When you think about cast iron plants, well, that pretty much tells you what it’s made of. It is almost indestructible.
Margaret: Tough [laughter].
Karl: And I mean, this is a terrible name, but I learned it as a child, the mother-in-law’s tongue, which perhaps has been renamed snake plant, but the Sansevieria[above] are certainly super easy inside your home. And when you have a plant that thrives in your conditions, first of all, it looks beautiful, but you also feel a little bit better in that it’s not only producing some fresh air for you, but you feel like you’re being successful. So start with those plants that are almost going to guarantee success. And as you build up that confidence, then you can branch into things that a little bit more challenging.
Margaret: So I know from … we just recently did a “New York Times” garden column together, and also from just seeing the displays and what’s in the collection at Longwood and so forth, so when you get a … I think cast iron plant, is that Aspidistra, Is that correct?
Karl: It is, it is.
Margaret: Yeah. And then … or a snake plant, a Sansevieria, Karl doesn’t just go order any old, any old, right? You still ask to turn it up a notch, because I mean, after all, this is a world-class show you’re putting on. So tell us a little bit about how we up our game with even these toughies like that.
Karl: Well, yeah. So many times too, I had a previous coworker that sometimes snubbed his nose at houseplants. He’s like, “That thing looks like it’s from the 1970s.”
And I said, “Well, interestingly, the 1970s are coming back. People are liking the fashion styles and even some of the decor that came from it.” But with these houseplants, we don’t just have to have the plain-Jane green version. We can have truly exciting things. More value is incorporated into anything if it’s harder to find. So put a little effort forth, seek and find. Go to some of your favorite garden centers, your favorite websites, as we mentioned, networking through social media, to get those cultivars that have a little zing to them.
So things like Aspidistra can have a beautiful white stripe, or maybe even a white airbrushed tip. The cultivar ‘Snow Cap’[above] is one of my favorites, and that’s readily available from places like Plant Delights Nursery in North Carolina, where they sell it as a garden plant. But for really the rest of us, it has to be a houseplant. And it is absolutely incredible because each leaf looks like it’s been hand-colored, and you get that beautiful soft white brushing at the tip. It’s not necessarily a hard edge, it’s not necessarily a speckle. I mean, it really is artistic.
And that’s just one of my favorite selections, cultivars, again, those things that you won’t necessarily find at the average plant shop, but if you seek them out, they’re certainly out there to be found.
Margaret: I know you gave me the tip, speaking of the social media, you told me if I wanted to find some of the things that you’ve talked to me about in our recent conversations for the Times article, you said, “Well, put that name, that plant name of the genus and species, so to speak, and/or the common name, into an Instagram search.” And see who all the total nuts are, the people who are obsessed with it. Find the societies and the groups and the individuals who have given themselves a name having to do with that or who post pictures of that type of plant all the time. And those are your real insiders. And then network with them to learn about unusual varieties, but also sometimes tips on where to get them, right?
Karl: Absolutely. I have found so many like-minded people through social media just by searching for a single plant name. There is a asparagus fern, which I think we featured in the Times article, which has this incredible, bright white new growth, and I-
Margaret: Like an asparagus fern? Is it a foxtail? Is that the one?
Karl: It is, yes. The foxtail asparagus fern [Asparagus densiflorus ‘Myersii’, above]. And that plant, I was just in lust over it the first time I saw it at the Philadelphia Flower Show. And I wanted that plant so badly. I’m like, “Where can I purchase one of these?” I was willing to pay $2,000 for one of these things [laughter]. I had just decided it’s going to be my entire paycheck. I’m just going to make this happen. And nowhere could I find anything for sale. So I might’ve been just doing some lamenting on Facebook, and just sharing with whomever was following me at the time that, “I saw this plant at the flower show. I really would love to find a piece of it. I’m sad that I can’t get it.”
And literally a person only 30 miles up the road messaged me and said, “I have a piece that I can give you.” And I literally almost fell off my chair. And it was that aha moment where you realize that you just have to ask. You just have to put it out there and say what you want, whether I’m seeking this out or I need some help with this, and the world of social media, it’s I think miraculous in that you’ve got these people from around the world that are willing to jump in and tell you what you need to know.
Margaret: Right. There’s one plant you’ve been growing, I guess you could call it a rubber tree or something, that you’ve been growing for a really … that’s the common name … a really long time. I think you’ve had them since probably childhood, different ones, but that you have an exceptional example of. So sort of as exceptional compared to the straight species, the plain green version, as that foxtail asparagus fern with its white new foliage was compared to the plain green one. So do you know what plant I’m talking about [laughter]?
Karl: Oh my goodness, do I ever. All my little children. I have so many plant passions. And of course if you back it up, my coworkers tease me that I have this thing for variegation. I said, “Wait a minute. It’s not just variegation. I have a thing for color.” And I really love … I mean, red’s my favorite color, and purple, and orange, and yellow.
And actually white is my least favorite color. So when you think of variegation, we typically think of a green and white. So technically, my variegates need to be of those more rich and intense colors. And certainly there is a rubber tree … there’s a cultivar called ‘Ruby’ that when I saw it for the first time, I mean, literally a warm rush must have gone over my body. And I was just thinking, “This is the ultimate plant. It has got color from top to bottom.” It has that color 365 days of the year.
A phrase that someone had told me years ago is “flowers are fleeting, but foliage is forever.” And that is so true, because if you can fall in love with foliage that truly excites you, whether it be red, pink, striped, swirled, speckled, every time you look at it, you’re going to get that pleasure. And I get that when I look at my rubber tree. That cultivar, ‘Ruby’ [above], is just one of my favorites.
And as a houseplant, it grows really well. Certainly with any Ficus, they’re going to have a change in leaf when they move, meaning they’re probably going to drop some leaves if they go from bright to dark or wet to dry or warm to cold. But once they even out in your life, they’re probably going to grow so well that you’re going to have to think about rejuvenation or pruning. And that’s when I became pretty daring when it came to how I handled my houseplants. I mean, this rubber tree is getting 5 feet tall in my 7-foot-tall bedroom. Something’s got to go, and it’s not going to be the entire plant.
Margaret: So let’s digress that into some care, because I mean, we wouldn’t do this in the dead of winter, but spring is approaching before we know it. Plants are waking up, and noticing the longer days of more intensity of light, and so forth. So there is a time for some pruning, some cleaning up, some repotting. You do some hard rejuvenation with certain kinds of plants-
Karl: I certainly do.
Margaret: So like a Ficus, it could do it. If it was just too big, you could give it a hard cutback. Is that what you’re saying?
Karl: You certainly can. And I find so many times the people I’m dealing with, even in my community or even with some of the students that I’m teaching, that we’re often afraid to do pruning. And while I think that’s probably true on woody plants that are outside, we don’t need to be pruning our maples really hard … I mean, that’s horrible to be cutting the tops out of some of our woody trees. That’s just horrible. But as these houseplants go, we should think of them really more as perennials.
And with our perennials, even like Caryopteris, you prune that back to a nub in the fall or even in the spring, and it completely regenerates from that. And you have a perfectly natural-looking plant again. And I think that is the same with so many of our houseplants, including almost all the Ficus. I’ve had great success with rubber trees, with the fiddleleaf fig, with the weeping fig, to the point they literally touch the ceiling.
And I’m not buying a bigger house just to grow the plant, and I’m not going to make a bigger pot for it. So you have to make it work in the space and in the pot.
Margaret: So other species of plants that might be good for this? Like pothos, I would imagine you could do a hard cutback if it’s just looking scraggly and nasty or if it’s just stringy. [Above, a yucca that has regrown after a hard cutback at Longwood.]
Karl: Oh, it’s so true. And oftentimes, people seem like they’re proud of their pothos when it starts to creep over the edge of the bar and up around the windowsill. I’m like, “Oh, no, no, no. We do not want this plant vining through our house.” It needs to be full and bushy, and almost look like it did when you bought it.
So cutting those things back sometimes to even 6 inches from the surface of the pot is perfectly fine for pothos and even some overgrown ficus.
But you were alluding to the fact that spring is coming and the light is getting more intense, the temperatures are getting warmer, so our plants are starting to respond more. And I would oftentimes say that April, May, are great times to prune our houseplants back pretty hard and let them start to rejuvenate through the warm days of summer.
Margaret: So not palms; I know that wouldn’t be good. Who else could I do this with though, so some other examples? Could I do it with some of the Dracaena, or …
Karl: Oh, so true. So true. When you buy your Dracaena, sometimes called corn plant, they’re those giant canes that were grown in warmer areas. And you already look and they have a giant cut, and they’ve got probably three stems coming off of them.
And Dracaena are so easy to grow inside the home. I find that those things, when you purchase them, maybe they’re 10, 12 inches’ worth of foliage, but then it stretches out to 2 feet,3 feet, and it just starts to look silly. So you can literally prune those things back to within 2 inches of where they had started growing, to the point there’s no foliage left at all. And they will completely regenerate from that.
And not only will they look full and lush, even within the first season, you have a chance now to play with rooting some of the cuttings you’ve taken off of there.
Margaret: Really?
Karl: We took some Dracaena and Ficus, very fun to try to propagate. See if you can start a new one, share those with friends and neighbors. [Above, Dracaena ‘White Aspen’ at Longwood.]
Margaret: So that trunkish-like thing that I’ve just cut off, I do what to propagate it [laughter]?
Karl: Definitely. So with the Dracaena, let’s just say you had a two-foot stem you chopped off. I would take it down to about 12 inches at the top. Strip off some of the foliage at the bottom, and you’re going to see those leaf scars where you pull the leaves off. And then if you have a humid environment, maybe that’s going to be a container with a plastic bag over it, you can leave the foliage intact and just push it down in that barely moist media, peat-based with some perlite, some charcoal. Keep it moist, keep it warm, and those things will root within a month or so, as long as it’s nice and warm.
Margaret: Oh, that’s crazy.
Karl: And you’ll be the crazy plant lady having all kinds of small baby plants here, there, and everywhere. But they make great gifts when people stop by. And you can share your passion, and you can share your story with someone else. And in turn, they’ll have a story to share with the next generation as well.
Margaret: I think you can do that, not exactly what you just described, but you can do a hard cutback rejuvenation of Schefflera also. Is that another one that’s a good one?
Karl:Schefflera‘s great. That’s another one that really grows well inside my home. There’s two species that we oftentimes deal with. The smaller leaf version they sometimes called arboricola, and then the larger-leaf version actinophylla. And they’ll have cultivar and trade names that go with them. But I have definitely played with Schefflera over the years, trimming them back to a nub, talking 2 inches from the soil surface. And they completely regenerate, nice, full, lush, bushy.
And it just makes you feel fresh and your plant has come back to the way it was. If only we could turn back time ourselves and have no longer our gray hair and our body aches, and if we could just rejuvenate ourselves like that. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Margaret: Yeah, I’d like to get a good cutback. Yeah, definitely. That’s pretty funny. Excuse me. So one that I want to ask you about, because you have this incredible looking sort of holiday cactus, this variegated one. In the course of being a parent to a holiday cactus, whether it’s a Thanksgiving cactus or a Christmas cactus or whatever, what should we be doing through the year for that to make it happy and bloom and so forth? What’s the sort of protocol? And what’s the name of your variegated one that I’ve seen in pictures?
Karl: Oh, my goodness. That variegated Thanksgiving cactus [above], the cultivar is called ‘Norris Variegated.’ And I got that from a wonderful plant guy up in Maine. Lordicultural is the name of this company [a list of sources, including Lordicultural]. But he has 300 cultivars, 300 named cultivars of holiday cactus. I didn’t even know there were that many out there. I mean, I’ve been doing plants since I was a kid. I thought red, white, peach, pink. It blew my mind that … first of all, I fall in love with the flowers. They’re just beautiful when they bloom in the winter.
But again, if you’ve got foliage that is equally as interesting, the cladodes on there can be this beautiful, buttery yellow. And one might be half-yellow, one could be solid yellow. They’re kind of a grayish-green. I mean, each one’s different.
And of course, as you know with holiday cactus, they have almost like those finger-like stems that come out, and it just looks like there’s movement. And from a distance, the thing looks like it’s blooming even before it has flowers on it.
But working here at Longwood, I was unaware that those things would reliably bloom twice for us. So they always bloom in November, hence the Thanksgiving cactus is the most popular one. And we would just leave those baskets hanging in our conservatory and they would re-bloom in March, complete heavy flowering, just as if it were Thanksgiving.
Strangest thing. I have no idea. Tried to figure out the science behind it. We know that we can manipulate holiday cactus to flower when we want them to. It really is a change in light levels in the fall. So once the nights get longer, that triggers them to bloom. Once it starts to cool off a little bit, that triggers them to bloom.
So I have found that inside my home, I won’t get reliable flowering around Thanksgiving if I have it in a room that I’m living in. Because you go in there and turn the lights on and the plant thinks that it’s a long day, it’s summertime, and it may not be triggered to flower. Or perhaps in our homes we have that constant 68 to 72 degrees, and the plant’s like, “Oh, it’s summertime. Why should I go into flowering mode?”
Margaret: I see. O.K.
Karl: So in order to trigger your Thanksgiving cactus, oftentimes I would say the guarantee is to put it into that unused bedroom where the light’s not going to be turned on in the middle of the evening, and perhaps that room where you’ve turned the heat vent off and it’s actually going to chill down a little bit. Maybe that bedroom has a north-facing window that you sit your pot on the ledge and just the natural coolness of the window will help trigger that into flowering.
Margaret: And you’re saying put it in there all year round, or put it in there at a certain time of year?
Karl: I think certainly in the fall. So between September and November, that’s the trigger time for those. But then once it finishes flowering, you can bring it back out into your regular living spaces, only because … And I have not been able to make my Thanksgiving cactus rebloom in March at home. It only does it at Longwood. And again, I don’t know what the trigger is. I’m going to have watch what’s happening.
Margaret: You have the magic mojo there at Longwood.
Karl: We’ve got some pixie dust, I guess.
Margaret: I want to just get some of the basics for sort of … Like you fertilize all year, and I had always stopped in the winter in the low light season. But so you do sort of a weakly-weekly? Is that what you do year-round, you fertilize?
Karl: That’s generally what I would suggest, because inside our homes, it’s that constant temperature, so that’s not slowing the plants down. And while we could have lower light levels, you might supplement with some grow lights, but just having that really weak solution all the time, I think, is pretty good.
And remember, in between fertilizing your plants, you should always be leaching that soil out. So take it to the sink, better yet take it to the shower, and just rinse those leaves off and let that water flow through that media so it cleans the soil out, because fertilizer is made of salt, the salt can start to build up. And whenever you’re washing that excess away, it’s just making it ready for the next round that the plant could then take up.
Margaret: Right. And similarly, I mean, water-wise, if you have a water softener in your house, that can add some salts to your water, so that’s not good water. What water do you recommend for watering houseplants?
Karl: It is so easy to just put a bucket outside, or if you have a large trashcan that your rain gutter can flow into. But even as a kid, I would collect rainwater. And I grew up on a farm. We had clean water around us, no problem. But rainwater, it’s magical. It really is. And that stuff is so good for plants.
Certainly if you’re leaving your bucket outside, it’s going to be probably pretty cold. Just scoop some up, bring it inside, let it warm up to room temperature. And it’s almost like revitalization. It’s the fountain of youth for plants to let that rainwater come and clean out the soil and really start things afresh.
Margaret: All really good advice. And the thing that I’m mad at you for, Karl, is that I’m going to have to go on a houseplant shopping binge [laughter] because you make me want all these variegated versions, and so on and so forth. But thank you for sharing all these tips and also some of the suggested varieties. They sound gorgeous.
Karl: Absolute pleasure. I wish you luck in having room for all of your new houseplants. It’s a wonderful addiction to have.
Margaret: Yes. And happy Winter Wonder show as well.
Karl: Thank you so much.
Margaret: I’ll talk to you again soon, I hope.
(Photo credits: Ficus elastica ‘Ruby’ by Karl Gercens; Aspidistra ‘Snow Cap’ by Plant Delight Nursery; all others by Becca Mathias for Longwood Gardens)
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MY WEEKLY public-radio show, rated a “top-5 garden podcast” by “The Guardian” newspaper in the UK, began its 13th year in March 2022. 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 March 6, 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).
Ever wish you could plant a berry bush or fruit tree and get instant fruit? Ground cherries are the answer to your impatience!
Related to the ubiquitous garden tomato, these summer annuals can be included in your veggie garden to provide a crop of delicious, tropical-flavored fruit in just one growing season.
Ground cherries are known by a seemingly endless list of common names, including Cape gooseberry, poha berry, pichuberry, ground tomato, strawberry tomato, golden berry, Inca berry… and the list goes on!
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Whatever you call them, these little berries are a superfood that you can easily grow for yourself.
Let’s dig in:
What Are Ground Cherries?
Here’s a member of the nightshade family that will inspire your sweet tooth. If the leaves and flowers look familiar, that’s because these plants are related to eggplants and tomatoes. In fact, they are sometimes referred to as “husk tomatoes.”
The plant can grow low, hugging the ground, or more upright, depending on the variety and growing conditions. They have velvety leaves, purple-veined stems, and tend to sprawl.
Ground cherry flowers are bell-shaped and white to yellow with purple centers. Fruits grow inside of lantern-shaped husks that turn from green to tan and take on a papery texture when the berry inside is ripe.
The husks eventually break down, leaving a delicately webbed encasement around the berry.
These delicious orange-yellow berries have a tropical taste that some describe as pineapple with a hint of vanilla, and others describe as strawberry with tomato undertones. It’s their pronounced tart flavor that everyone will agree on.
Cultivation and History
The term “ground cherry” refers to several species of Physalis plants. While there are at least 75 species of Physalis, not all of them have edible fruit.
One of the most distinctive members of this genus is Chinese lantern (P. alkekengi), a unique plant that is grown as an ornamental rather than for its berries.
Edible ground cherries may not have the showy color of Chinese lantern, but their husks enclose a foodie’s delight. While this fruit may be trending as a superfood, it has been cultivated since the 17th century, according to Karen Hager at the Roanoke Times.
One of the most common types, P. pruinosa, is native to warm, subtropical Central America like its relatives, tomatoes and tomatillos.
Another species native to Peru and Chile, P. peruviana, is commonly called Cape gooseberry or golden berry.
Many species of ground cherry have naturalized in North America, but the most common place that many of us will find ground cherries is in heirloom seed catalogs, rather than in our own backyards.
Propagation
Speaking of seed catalogs, are you ready to try growing your own ground cherries? You can plant transplants directly into your prepared garden soil, start seeds indoors, or even try direct sowing.
From Seed
Most seed companies recommend starting the seeds indoors rather than direct sowing. But the ease with which these seeds grow as volunteers is proof that direct sowing is certainly an option.
Photo by Kristina Hicks-Hamblin
If you do choose to direct sow, plant seeds after your last frost. Loosen the soil and work in some compost. Moisten the soil then pat it down gently without compressing it.
Place your seeds on top of the soil and then cover lightly with a thin layer of soil, about 1/4 inch. Pat soil gently. Water after planting seeds, and then daily with a gentle spray from your watering wand until the seeds are established.
Seeds should germinate in approximately five to eight days. Ground cherry seeds have a low germination rate, so plant more than you need. When seedlings are well established, thin them so plants have at least two square feet to spread.
If you want to skip the seed starting business altogether, you can obtain transplants from heirloom seed companies such as Seed Savers Exchange. Or ask your local nursery!
When planting seedlings or transplants, wait until two to four weeks after your last average frost. Harden off before transplanting into a sunny location with well-drained soil.
Ground cherries are notorious self-seeders, so plant once and you may never need to plant them again!
How to Grow
Plant seedlings or transplants in well-drained soil amended with compost. Don’t over water – they don’t like to keep their feet wet.
If you have heavy clay soil, you may want to plant them in a raised bed. In my drylands garden, they do great in a sunken row.
If planting in containers, make sure the roots have plenty of room. Each plant should be in a gallon-sized pot or larger.
Whether growing them in the garden or in containers, make sure you give them room to sprawl – a single plant can take up 2 to 3 square feet.
They generally do not need to be staked, though some gardeners do stake leggier plants.
The plants will produce more fruit in full sun but can tolerate light shade.
Photo by Kristina Hicks-Hamblin
Cover with a row cover if there’s a risk of frost, and to extend your growing season.
As always, when you plan your garden next year, make sure to rotate your nightshades to prevent nutrient depletion and the spread of disease.
Cultivars to Select
Wherever you live you will probably find a cultivar or species of ground cherry that will work for your climate. P. pruinosa grows best in USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 4-8, while P. peruviana can be considered a perennial in Zones 10 -12.
And there are many other edible species, including the “clammy” type (P. heterophylla, aka Rowell’s ground cherry), which is native to the US and hardy in Zones 7-10. Another US native, “common ground cherry” (P. longifolia) was used by Native Americans for food.
Photo by Kristina Hicks-Hamblin
A garden full of a variety of different species would be a beautiful thing! But most likely, you’ll want to start with the basics.
The most commonly available seeds are cultivars of P. pruinosa.
Aunt Molly’s
‘Aunt Molly’s’ is the classic ground cherry, the most widespread cultivar of P. pruinosa and the most common variety to buy as a transplant.
The fruit is sweet, tart, and tropical.
Ground Cherry
This open-pollinated variety of P. peruviana produces one-inch, golden fruits with a sweet, slightly tart flavor.
This variety of P. pruinosa is very low growing with a wider, three- to four-foot spread. The fruits ripen earlier than other varieties, so it is good for climates with short growing seasons. It is said to have a subtle sweet flavor.
New Hanover
Some think this is better tasting than the ‘Aunt Molly’s’ cultivar. This is another sweet and fruity variety of P. pruinosa.
Pineapple
Also known as ‘Cossack Pineapple,’ this P. pruinosa cultivar produces fruit that tastes like – you guessed it – pineapple! The berries are fruity and sweet.
No matter where you live in the US or which cultivar you pick, you should be able to harvest fruit in one season.
Managing Pests and Disease
If you’re a laid back type of gardener, then ground cherries should be part of your repertoire.
These plants are not particularly prone to bacteria, fungi, or viruses. Although they are rarely targeted by garden critters, occasionally you may find your plants visited by some unwelcome guests.
Herbivores
Ground cherries may attract the same types of animals as your other tasty garden goodies – squirrels, raccoons, rabbits, possums, and deer. Luckily the ripe fruit are fairly well-hidden, so most four-legged garden intruders will not find them easily.
Photo by Kristina Hicks-Hamblin
Fencing will certainly help keep the bigger critters out, and floating row covers will offer even more protection.
Insects
While ground cherries aren’t particularly prone to insect problems, there are a few bugs that might find your plants as delicious as you find the fruit!
Cutworms
Cutworms can be a problem for young seedlings. Protect seedlings with plant collars or by sprinkling eggshells or coffee grounds around the base of young plants.
Be sure to correctly identify these guys, as they look similar to some beneficial butterflies.
Tomato hornworms will munch on any nightshade plant, so ground cherries are definitely on the menu.
Inspect your ground cherry plants (and other nightshades) for these big, juicy caterpillars and remove them. They make excellent treats for your chickens, or can be squashed under your heel.
Flea beetles are tiny beetles that will chew holes in the leaves of your ground cherry plants. In healthy plants, this will probably only be an aesthetic concern. Plant basil nearby to repel these pests.
Your main strategy for keeping your ground cherry plants insect-free should be inspecting your plants regularly.
Photo by Kristina Hicks-Hamblin.
And since nightshade-loving pests tend to eat any member of this plant family, keeping your tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, potatoes, and ground cherries separated with non-nightshades will keep those pests from smooth sailing on the free food expressway!
Harvesting
Ground cherries have so many things going for them – they are tasty, easy to grow and even easy to harvest. How do you know when it’s time to harvest them? When the berry ripens, it falls to the ground in its protective husk – thus the name!
The berries will ripen gradually after the plants reach maturity, usually starting in July or August and up until your first frost.
On ripe fruit, husks will be straw-colored and papery while the fruit inside will be somewhere in the yellow to orange range. Leave green-husked fruit on the plant to ripen.
Once you start noticing ripe fruit, look underneath the plant every day or so to collect any fallen berries. Mulching under your plants will make harvesting easier.
Photo by Kristina Hicks-Hamblin
Use floating row covers to extend your growing season, but when it’s time to put the garden to bed for winter, you can harvest unripe berries in their husks.
Store unripe fruit at room temperature in a single layer to ripen. Smaller fruit may not ripen fully – only eat those that are ripe as the leaves, stems, husks, and unripe fruit may be toxic.
As for ripe fruit, they will keep longer in a cool environment, such as a fridge, basement, or root cellar. For longer storage, just make sure to keep them unwashed and in their husks.
According to Brenda Lynn at Mother Earth News, ripe ground cherries can be stored for 3 months in the right conditions.
Preserving
Another thing to love about these members of your garden is that a single plant can produce hundreds of berries.
These berries are a great source of antioxidants and vitamins A, and C, but also vitamins B-1, B-2, and B-3. Consider preserving your harvest if you grow a bumper crop.
Before preserving, remove husks, and rinse berries. You can preserve them by making jam, dehydrating, freezing, or fermenting.
Leave fruits whole or cut them in half for jam. Jam made with ground cherries will brighten up your winter and make exciting gifts for your foodie friends.
You can dehydrate ground cherries in much the same way as you would dehydrate grapes to make raisins.
Dehydrating concentrates flavors, so you can use your dehydrated harvest to flavor muffins or cookies, add them to trail mix for a burst of tartness, or sprinkle them on top of your oatmeal. Read more about dehydrating the garden’s bounty on Foodal.
The fruit can also be frozen for later use.
Place clean fruit on a baking sheet, then place the baking sheet in the freezer. Freeze for half an hour or so, then remove the baking sheet and put the flash-frozen ground cherries in a reusable glass container. Store the container in the freezer.
Read more about the ins and outs of freezing garden produce now on Foodal.
Cooking Ideas
If you don’t eat them all in the garden, cooking the berries is a delicious way to transform them.
Cook them down into a sauce to drizzle over vanilla ice cream or plain yogurt. Or chop them up with some hot peppers, onions, and cilantro and turn them into a peppy salsa!
When I lived in Paris, I would often see a single ground cherry placed as a garnish on top of a dessert with its papery husks folded back like wings. So pretty!
Quick Reference Growing Guide
Plant Type:
Annual/Perennial fruiting herbaceous plant
Water Needs:
2 inches per week
Native to:
Central America
Maintenance:
Low
Hardiness (USDA Zone):
4 and up, varies according to species
Soil Type:
Rich, organic, but tolerates poor soil
Season:
Summer
Soil pH:
6-6.8
Exposure:
Full sun to light shade
Soil Drainage:
Well-draining
Time to Maturity:
About 70 days
Companion Planting:
Basil, cleome, cosmos, parsley, Queen Anne’s lace, Aster family flowers
Ground cherries will add an exciting new flavor to your veggie garden, and when you pop open that jar of ground cherry jam mid-winter, its tartness will contrast beautifully with the winter weather.
Do ground cherries brighten up your life as much as they do mine? If so, tell me about it in the comments.
If you want to learn more about nightshades or growing rare fruit, here are a few more guides you’re bound to need:
With its sweet fragrance, sparkling flavor, and pretty flowers, mint makes a delightful addition to any garden.
It’s a welcome ingredient in cold beverages and teas, as well as in sweet and savory dishes. And its renowned taste and aroma are found in a myriad of products around the home from air fresheners to mouthwash.
Bees and other pollinators flock to the enchanting spires and tufts of flowers that bloom in pastel shades of blue, mauve, pink, or white. And this frost-hardy perennial even grows year-round in regions with warm winters.
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Now, you may have heard of mint’s legendary spreading properties.
And that you should avoid planting it in the garden to prevent it from “taking over.”
But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy growing this lovely herb. This just means it’s vigorous and easy to grow.
This lush, rewarding herb can be successfully cultivated in containers and garden beds to stop it spreading – and you’ll love the fresh-flavored results!
Here’s everything you need to know about how to grow mint.
What Is Mint?
Mint is a highly aromatic, perennial herb in the genus Mentha of the Lamiaceae family.
The genus contains approximately 20 species and numerous natural hybrids that occur in the overlap areas of different growing ranges.
Peppermint, M. x piperita is one such hybrid, formed by the cross-pollination of M. aquatica and M. spicata.
M. x piperita. Photo by Lorna Kring.
In their natural environment, plants thrive along marsh edges, in meadows, along stream banks, and woodland fringes – growing 12 to 36 inches tall at maturity.
Most species are native to temperate regions of Africa, Asia, or Europe, with a few indigenous to Australia (M. australis), and North America (M. arvensis and M. canadensis).
The presence of pungent essential oils gives Mentha its attractive fragrance that fills the surrounding area with a sweet perfume.
Plants are easily identified by their bright scent and refreshing taste, and by the square stems typical of Lamiaceae family members.
Tiny blooms in terminal racemes form flowering spires on tall spikes, and smaller flower tufts often form in the leaf axis. Blooms appear from mid to late summer, and are highly attractive to bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.
Leaves have a serrated edge and can have either a smooth or fuzzy texture. They come in all shades of green – with some variegated types as well.
Fast growing, plants send out runners (stolons) above and below ground to quickly establish large, lush colonies.
For this reason, they need to be contained when planting, if you don’t want them to take over – or only planted in areas where you don’t mind them spreading freely.
Fragrant and deliciously cooling, mint is a popular beverage and kitchen herb. It’s also widely used in candies, teas, and toiletries – as well as aromatherapy and herbal remedies.
According to an article by Monica H. Carlsen et al, published in the BMC Nutrition Journal, Mentha has a very high antioxidant capacity, and has long been recognized for its aromatic, medicinal, and therapeutic properties.
Cultivation and History
The name originates from a Greek myth about a river nymph and means “having a sweet smell.”
A versatile herb, it has been cultivated for cooking and medicinal properties throughout history.
The ancient Egyptians used the oil to treat a variety of ailments. The first recorded documentation of medicinal oil use was published in the library at Alexandria in 410 AD.
The Roman historian Pliny the Elder reported many uses including scenting bathwater and perfumes as well as flavoring beverages, sauces, and wine.
By medieval times, Mentha was commonly grown in gardens for kitchen and apothecary use.
And in the mid-1700s, commercial cultivation for the essential oil was established in England, with the Netherlands, France, and Germany following soon after.
For centuries, all plant parts – flowers, leaves, roots, and stems – have been used in folk medicine to treat a number of health issues, including gastrointestinal distress and respiratory illnesses.
A tea made of dried leaves is sometimes consumed to relieve a sore throat.
Although mint grows wild in North America, root stock was introduced by English settlers, and by the 1790s crops for distillation of the essential oil were commercially grown in Massachusetts.
Today, Mentha is an important commercial crop in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho with the oils used primarily to flavor candy, chewing gum, cough drops, mouthwash, and toothpaste.
Propagation
Mentha seed is tiny – approximately 14,000 seeds per gram – and difficult to germinate.
And, being an avid cross breeder, seeds produce variable results – often with different taste and appearance than that of the parent plants.
I have an unintentional patch of minty oregano from this cross-pollination trait – it’s very tasty in icy drinks!
Commercial growers propagate vegetatively, and root division or stem cuttings give the best results for home gardeners.
Autumn is the ideal time to take root cuttings, but early spring works as well.
Choose a rootbound container plant and gently remove the root ball from the pot. Using a hand saw or garden shears, cut the root ball into quarters.
Photo by Lorna Kring.
Fill small 2- to 4-inch pots or trays with a soil mix of 1/3 well aged compost, 1/3 vermiculite or peat moss, and 1/3 landscape sand. Water well until the soil is evenly moist.
Repot 2 or 3 of the quarters in fresh soil and divide the remaining quarter to create several smaller root cuttings, each with at least one stem.
Trim off the top growth and prune the hairy roots to fit in your containers.
Set the cuttings in place then top up with soil and firm gently.
Water lightly then set out in a cold frame or a protected site with bright, indirect light and steady moisture.
By Stem Cutting
Choose strong stems with fresh, healthy green leaves.
Photo by Lorna Kring.
Cut off 4- to 6-inch pieces, removing the lower 3 or 4 sets of leaves. Cut the stem just below a set of leaf nodes to prevent the stem from curling in water.
Longer stems are preferable because roots sprout from the leaf nodes – more leaf nodes from long stems means more roots and a strong plant.
Place stems in a small glass of water, and set in a light, airy windowsill until healthy roots have formed.
The roots start to form in 10 to 14 days and can be planted out in 3 to 4 weeks.
Once a strong root system has formed, pot up the stems into containers 6 to 8 inches deep and wide, filled with sterile, well-draining potting soil.
Firm the soil around the stems and water gently.
Keep the pots in a sheltered spot for 4 to 6 weeks, ensuring the soil stays moist but not waterlogged. After plants are established, transplant into the garden to their permanent locations.
How to Grow
Mint is a vigorous grower that likes organically-rich, well-draining soil with a neutral pH of 6.0 to 7.0. Plants are hardy in USDA Hardiness Zones 3-8.
Plants prefer full to partial sun exposure and variegated types may need shade protection from the hot afternoon sun.
Plant out in spring after the last frost, or in late summer once the evenings start to cool.
Keep soil consistently moist and water when the top 1-inch of soil becomes dry.
Once new growth emerges in spring, feed with an all-purpose, water soluble plant food, such as 10-10-10 (NPK). Fertilize once more mid-way through the growing season if needed.
After plants are established, harvest leaves regularly by pinching out the tops. New leaves are more flavorful and tender than the older ones, and pinching promotes bushy growth.
In the garden, space plants 12 to 24 inches apart in containers to keep growth in check. Use large containers measuring 8 to 24 inches in diameter and with a similar depth.
Sink the containers into garden beds leaving the top two inches of the rim above ground. This helps to prevent runners from escaping into fertile soil and establishing new plants.
Improve the soil with 1/3 aged compost or other rich organic matter and 1/3 landscape sand to improve drainage.
Ensure pots have plenty of material covering the drainage holes such as coconut coir, pebbles, or broken pottery to prevent the roots from sitting in water.
Turn pots in the ground every 14 to 28 days to stop the roots from spreading through the drainage holes.
Alternatively, plant directly into the ground in an area where you don’t mind it spreading.
Consider burying some metal flashing or landscape edging 8 inches deep around the plant to prevent it from taking over. Mint can make a useful ground cover and some varieties will tolerate a little foot traffic.
Mulch pots and in-ground plants with a 2-inch layer of straw to retain moisture and keep weeds in check.
Mentha plants tolerate a light frost, but the top growth will eventually die back in winter. In autumn, cut back stems to the ground and cover with a 2-inch layer of mulch if your winters are harsh.
While humans are quite enamored of this herb, many animals and insects are not. It is known to repel ants, cockroaches, deer, mice, spiders, and squirrels which makes it a useful companion plant for other crops.
In the garden, grow near cabbages and tomatoes to deter cabbage moths.
Containers
Grow mint in containers of rich, well-draining soil amended with 1/3 organic matter such as aged compost. You can add 1/3 landscape sand to improve drainage if needed.
Photo by Lorna Kring.
Ensure pots have plenty of drainage material – such as broken pottery, gravel, or pebbles – at the bottom and keep soil moist but not wet.
Fertilize with an all-purpose liquid plant food such as 10-10-10 (NPK) in spring and once more mid-way through the growing season.
For a steady harvest, give your containers some afternoon shade to prevent heat stress.
Container plants should be divided every 3 to 4 years to rejuvenate plants.
Growing Tips
Keep the following in mind for an easy growth and an abundant crop.
Don’t allow the soil to dry out, these plants are moisture lovers
Provide light shade in areas with hot afternoon sun
Restrict plants from spreading by cultivating in containers or with landscape barriers
Allow some plants to flower throughout the garden to attract pollinators
Protect plants with a 2-inch layer of mulch to help retain moisture
Cultivars to Select
Botanists disagree as to exactly how many species of this herb exist, with most landing in a range of 13 to 20 different types. Close to 2000 different cultivars are available.
The most popular varieties for home cultivation include spearmint (M. spicata), peppermint (M. x piperita), wild mint (M. arvensis), and Scotchmint (M. x gracilis).
Peppermint
M. x piperita is one of the more well-known species and is a favorite for use in beverages, desserts, and sweets because of its strong menthol flavor.
M. x piperita ‘Variegata’ offers a different look, with pretty two-tone leaves of deep green and buttery-cream – but the same zesty scent and taste of peppermint.
M. x piperita f. citrata ‘Orange’ has a strong citrus scent and flavor that makes it popular in cold beverages, salads, teas, and with fruit or ice cream.
The 3-pack of plants contains ‘Kentucky Colonel’ and ‘Orange’ Mentha as well as Honey Dip stevia (Stevia rebaudiana) – perfect for sipping cool ones on a warm summer’s eve!
If insects become problematic, apply an insecticidal soap such as this one from Safer Brand, available through Home Depot.
Disease
If you do notice problems with your mint, it could be one of the following:
Anthracnose
Anthracnose is a fungal disease that can spread quickly in warm, wet weather, causing small spots that gradually get larger until the leaves drop off.
Remove diseased plants promptly to prevent its spread.
Keep plants off the ground and ensure good air circulation. The spores overwinter in plant debris, so clean beds well in fall and remember to rotate crops. Avoid splashing water onto lower leaves.
Mint Rust
Mint rust is another fungus that causes small brown, orange, or yellow pustules on undersides of leaves.
Infected plants should be removed to prevent this disease from spreading.
Heat treating the roots may help to control rust. To do this, immerse roots in hot water, 111°F, for 10 minutes then cool under running water and plant as usual.
Powdery Mildew
Powdery mildew is another fungus that can also show up in moist, damp conditions, coating leaves and stems in a fuzzy dusting that weakens and damages plants.
Remove any infected plants and allow the soil to dry out. Thin plants if needed to improve air circulation and don’t water until the top 1-inch of soil is dry.
It’s perhaps unsurprising that these moisture-loving plants can be plagued with fungal diseases.
If fungi are persistent, treat with a fungicide compatible for organic gardening like Bonide, available at Amazon.
Harvesting
The quality of the volatile oils that give mint its characteristic flavor is best during the long days of summer when plants receive 14 hours of daylight or more.
And for the best aroma and flavor, plants should be harvested before flowering.
Harvest on a sunny day by shearing the tops of the plants after the morning dew has dried. Cut stems to just above the first or second set of leaves.
Plants can be harvested 3 or 4 times a year and frequent harvesting helps to keep them bushy.
Preservation
Like most herbs, mint is best enjoyed fresh. But it can be successfully dried and frozen as well.
Fresh
Sprigs will keep fresh in the fridge for up to 7 days.
Photo by Lorna Kring.
Rinse cuttings and lightly shake off excess water.
Gently wrap leaves in a damp paper towel and place the paper towel inside a loosely sealed plastic bag or storage container. Refrigerate the container.
Or, trim the stem ends and place them in a small glass of water. Place the glass in the fridge and cover loosely with a bag, replacing the water every 3 to 4 days.
Dried
Rinse your harvest under cold, running water and dry in a salad spinner or pat dry with a clean dish towel.
Tie several stems together into small bunches of 10 to 25 stems and hang upside down in paper bags. Choose a cool, dry location with ample air circulation.
When leaves are dry and crumbly, in 1 to 2 weeks, strip them from the stem and store in airtight containers in a cool, dark cupboard.
Or, use your dehydrator at the lowest setting to dry cuttings.
Fresh mint makes a lovely complement to fish, lamb, and poultry and can spruce up lightly steamed veggies like baby carrots, peas, and new potatoes.
Leaves pair well with fruit and tossed salads, and it’s popular in Levantine dishes like tabbouleh.
It’s flavor can enhance beverages such as lemonade, punch, and herbal teas. And a julep or mojito would be nowhere without the cooling zest of mint!
For cooking, bear in mind that peppermint’s flavor is mentholated. That means it’s cool and strong, making it well-suited for alcohol-based drinks, desserts, and sweets.
Spearmint has a lightly sweet flavor and is more commonly used in savory dishes.
To enjoy your crop, why not start off with a Tomatillo-Jito from our sister site Foodal? This refreshing beverage is a tart twist on a classic cocktail.
Photo by Kendall Vanderslice.
Also from Foodal, you might enjoy Spicy Pork Tacos with Peach and Corn Salsa, where the herb adds a special pop to the flavorful salsa.
Other Garden Uses
Mints have lovely, soft flowers that are highly attractive to pollinators.
Allow a few pots to bloom and place throughout the garden – they’ll repel unfriendly pests and attract beneficial insects.
In the right place, mint makes a pretty and fragrant seasonal ground cover. But remember, it’s a spreader and should only be planted where it won’t become invasive.
It loves moist areas and is a natural along stream banks, lightly shaded meadows, and the fringe areas around marshes and ponds.
The sweet, fresh fragrance can also be enjoyed between pathway pavers, where walking on it releases the scent.
But ensure the roots are restricted to the pathway with hardscape borders. If needed, use a landscape edging barrier for effective root management.
Temperate zones of Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America
Maintenance:
Low
Hardiness (USDA Zone):
3-8
Soil Type:
Rich and loamy
Season:
Spring and summer
Soil pH:
6.0-7.0
Exposure:
Full to partial sun
Soil Drainage:
Well-draining
Time to Maturity:
90 days
Attracts:
Bees, butterflies, and other pollinators
Spacing:
12-24 inches
Companion Planting:
Cabbages, peas, and tomatoes
Planting Depth:
6 inches (root ball), lightly cover for seeds
Avoid Planting With:
Parsley and chamomile
Height:
12-36 inches
Family:
Lamiaceae
Spread:
Vigorous
Genus:
Mentha
Water Needs:
Moderate to high
Species:
Various
Common Pests:
Aphids, spider mites
Common Disease:
Anthracnose, rust, powdery mildew
Zesty Cool
Planting zesty cool mint not only means adding an attractive plant to your landscape, but also a fantastic flavoring agent for drinks, savory dishes, and desserts.
Remember to provide plenty of supplemental water and prune or pinch regularly, and that’s about it. Oh, and don’t plant it in the ground unless you have a few acres you want quickly covered in this herb!
Have you ever grown mint? Did it take over your whole yard, or did you put it in a container? Tell us your minty tales in the comments below.
And if you’d like to learn about other easy-to-grow herbs, check out these guides next:
…and transported to the main butchering area.
This fall we hope to do a similar butchering day on our own homestead with the two piglets we’re currently raising.
And now here in the 
houseplant tuneups, with karl gercens
Margaret: Yeah. I mean, I think it’s a must stop for anyone interested in plants, as a destination. So houseplants, as we call them, those of us who don’t have a conservatory [laughter]. So step one in houseplant success is probably trying not to impulse-buy just based on the pretty face of some the picture that we see online, but maybe doing some advanced homework to see if it’s a good match for us. Is that the idea?
Karl: And I mean, this is a terrible name, but I learned it as a child, the mother-in-law’s tongue, which perhaps has been renamed snake plant, but the Sansevieria [above] are certainly super easy inside your home. And when you have a plant that thrives in your conditions, first of all, it looks beautiful, but you also feel a little bit better in that it’s not only producing some fresh air for you, but you feel like you’re being successful. So start with those plants that are almost going to guarantee success. And as you build up that confidence, then you can branch into things that a little bit more challenging.
Karl: Well, yeah. So many times too, I had a previous coworker that sometimes snubbed his nose at houseplants. He’s like, “That thing looks like it’s from the 1970s.”
Karl: It is, yes. The foxtail asparagus fern [Asparagus densiflorus ‘Myersii’, above]. And that plant, I was just in lust over it the first time I saw it at the Philadelphia Flower Show. And I wanted that plant so badly. I’m like, “Where can I purchase one of these?” I was willing to pay $2,000 for one of these things [laughter]. I had just decided it’s going to be my entire paycheck. I’m just going to make this happen. And nowhere could I find anything for sale. So I might’ve been just doing some lamenting on Facebook, and just sharing with whomever was following me at the time that, “I saw this plant at the flower show. I really would love to find a piece of it. I’m sad that I can’t get it.”
Karl: Oh my goodness, do I ever. All my little children. I have so many plant passions. And of course if you back it up, my coworkers tease me that I have this thing for variegation. I said, “Wait a minute. It’s not just variegation. I have a thing for color.” And I really love … I mean, red’s my favorite color, and purple, and orange, and yellow.
Margaret: So other species of plants that might be good for this? Like pothos, I would imagine you could do a hard cutback if it’s just looking scraggly and nasty or if it’s just stringy. [Above, a yucca that has regrown after a hard cutback at Longwood.]
Margaret: Really?
Karl: Oh, my goodness. That variegated Thanksgiving cactus [above], the cultivar is called ‘Norris Variegated.’ And I got that from a wonderful plant guy up in Maine. Lordicultural is the name of this company 
Margaret: Right. And similarly, I mean, water-wise, if you have a water softener in your house, that can add some salts to your water, so that’s not good water. What water do you recommend for watering houseplants?
