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News, views and clues from BotanicalGardening.com

Monday, August 18. 2008

Late summer sun: Rudbeckia triloba Posted by Carlo A. Balistrieri at 07:36

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Late summer sun: Rudbeckia triloba

With color on the ground at a premium in late summer, it's a joy to have a plant like Rudbeckia triloba in the garden. Thin-leaved coneflower or Brown-eyed Susan, as it is known, is a cousin to the more familiar Black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia hirta and and its ilk, but its flowers are smaller and more numerous.

Its ubiquitous cousins usually steal the spotlight, but R. triloba is a flat-out winner. Native to the eastern United States, it puts on a show in the late summer and early fall. Since it's found in open woods in the wild, it will put up with some shade and still fill itself with hundreds of flowers. It grows 2-5 feet tall and about 3 wide. Best of all it is easy, easy, easy. Scatter seed and wait. This biennial will always be around once it gets started. It's drought tolerant and, at least here in New York, needs no special soil treatment or amendment. It'll take the toughest situation you've got and turn that sow's ear into a silk purse.

Triloba means "three-lobed" and the lower leaves of this plant are--looking something like a narrow duck's foot. Flowers are, as mentioned above, quite numerous and about 1-1.5" wide. They don't have as many rays (and they're shorter) than R. hirta and R. fulgida, but they're every bit as beautiful and their yellow/orange combines wonderfully with the other yellows and purples of fall flowers.

Put R. triloba in the border, in a meadow, or in light woodland and watch it shine. Just don't baby it. I let it self sow wherever it wants. Some things you just can't have too much of. The only danger is not recognizing young plants when you're weeding early in the season. Don't pull what you don't know and you may be rewarded with a show!

Friday, August 15. 2008

Going fungal... Posted by Carlo A. Balistrieri in Plants at 04:44

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Going fungal...

Once or twice a year I go fungal. No...it's not some dread disease that casts me into a "socially unacceptable" category. And I'm not "going postal" with mushrooms, running around and launching them into the stratosphere with well placed kicks. Rather, going fungal is what I do when conditions conspire to permit the overnight appearance of a bumper crop of fungi.

You see, despite the fact that many people regard them as a nuisance to be done away with like a weed, I find fungi in the garden fascinating, beautiful, and eminently photogenic. My reaction, rather than mild revulsion, is to run for the camera, drop to my knees, and engage in a little impromptu portrait session. Today was a day to go fungal.

In a brief walkabout before starting the day, I became aware that the smattering of mushrooms and other fungi that I'd been observing for the past few days had reached an apogee of sorts. The odd group here or there that seemed to disappear as quickly as they popped up, culminated in a cornucopia of fungal fecundity.

Correct I.D. will await closer examination of the photographs, but a delightful hour or so was occupied by composing shot after shot of large meaty mushrooms, bright orange colonies, black, diamond-studded beauties disgorging spores as if they'd been disemboweled, beautiful browns, reds, snow-whites and nearly every color in between.

It will happen again before winter sets in. Fall is a great time for mushrooms--cool, moist conditions that they favor will return and I'll get another chance to add to the stock file of photographs that I'm continuously building to showcase their beauty and diversity.

Thursday, July 31. 2008

Stanky breath...the garlic's in! Posted by Carlo A. Balistrieri in Gardening at 07:44

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Stanky breath...the garlic's in!

Last day of July...time for the garlic harvest.

I use it in everything and although its per-pound cost in the grocery store is high, its light weight means you pay very little for what you need. Despite that, I like to grow it--and you can get much better variety, with spectacular taste, if you raise your own. It couldn't be easier.

Late last fall, I gathered bulbs from the farmer's market and grocery store. Keeping the smaller cloves for the kitchen, I took the bigger ones out to the garden and popped them in. Basal plate down, pointy end up, they went in rows, got covered up...and promptly forgotten until spring when they began their growth.

Garlic likes sun, water and fertilizer when in growth. Mine got sun. Despite the benign neglect they grew quickly and formed inflorescences (flower spikes) in due time. These were clipped off so that they didn't rob the bulbs of energy, brought into the kitchen and used in salads or sauteed.

Gradually, as is their wont, the plants began dying back. This morning, just a few days before leaving on vacation, I decided to dig them (so that they weren't forgotten). Bulbs weren't as big as I had hoped--but that's the result of my above-mentioned neglect. They'll be dried over the next few weeks, broken up so that the largest individual cloves go back in the garden, and brought into the kitchen for winter use.

AND yes. I'll be buying more at the farmer's market to diversify and supplement the crop, and build up supplies...

...can't ever have too much garlic!

Wednesday, July 30. 2008

Exploitably Vulnerable? Posted by Carlo A. Balistrieri at 05:22

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Exploitably Vulnerable?

It's been a while since I've done any conservation related work, but I thought I'd seen all the categories of "threatened or endangered"; status--those red-book and federal/state listings that classify the status of species being watched. So it was with great interest that I discovered one I'd never heard before when research the Purple Cliff-brake (Pellaea atropurpurea), a beautiful little native fern found in limestone areas, and in the old mortar of man-made structures across the northeastern part of the US and eastern Canada.

"Exploitably vulnerable." Exploitably vulnerable? What the heck does that mean (the mind does reel, doesn’t it?). "Endangered"; we're used to. "Threatened"; I get. Both, along with "rare"; have definitions in New York state law that contain quantifiable measures (so many sites or less, so many individuals or less...) and thus are relatively easy to understand compared to more ambiguous definitions of the same terms elsewhere. But "exploitably vulnerable?"

Current New York regulations contain three rarity categories (Endangered, Threatened, and Rare)
and one...our "exploitably vulnerable"; that is described as a "non-rare protection category." This is the only classification that does not contain either a quantifiable means of determining suitability for inclusion, or reference to a similar listing on the federal level.

"Exploitably vulnerable"; means: "...likely to become threatened in the near future throughout all or a significant portion of their range within the state if causal factors continue unchecked." The category includes plants that are "likely to be picked." Hence, although not necessarily obviously, this category warrants watching and protection because it MAY become endangered, threatened, or rare if over-harvested, collected, or impacted by other "causal factors."

Now; I was surprised to learn that there have been herbal uses made of ferns. Gerard even suggests that Adiantum (maidenhair fern) is a hair restorative (hmmm…..). To my knowledge there are no such properties present in Pellaea. Furthermore, even among serious gardeners this delightful fern is virtually unknown—so I doubt that overcollecting is a serious concern (besides, any fern-o-phile could give them a go from spores—certainly one of the most interesting and satisfying
horticultural exercises).

I have not seen the supporting documentation or listing paperwork for Pellaea atropurpurea. Perhaps there are other causal factors affecting the future of this species. The rate at which old bridges are disappearing may be a particularly salient point—it reduces that amount of old mortar by large chunks at a time.

Regardless if the causes, we can rest easy in the knowledge that our state government has its eye on the ball. This “exploitably vulnerable” species is in the cross-hairs. So don’t pick, pluck, sever, remove, damage by the application of herbicides or defoliants, or carry away, without the consent of the owner (Who knows? They may want to get rid of the pesky thing…) any Purple Cliff-brake. You’ll
be in a compost heap of trouble for your unchecked causal factoring.

Tuesday, July 22. 2008

You can only go so long... Posted by Carlo A. Balistrieri in Plants at 04:42

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You can only go so long...

You know how it is. You get new plants and, flush with the excitement and novelty of their newness, your lust is--however momentarily--sated. For the time being, all is right with the world.

Then it starts...

"Well," you think, "this is nice...."

"I've already bloomed it. It's been photographed...."

"It's growing pretty slowly. It'll be years before it looks like anything...."

"Gee, orchids are great, but I'd really love to try some cacti...."

Once you get to this point it's all over. You have to bring in something new.

I've been through many phases in my plant-growing career. Orchids, cacti, passion flowers, tropicals, clivias, succulents, anything bizarre. Most blaze like a comet for a undetermined length of time...then smolder languidly while a new passion rears its head. This results in a highly diverse collection--with needs that don't suit themselves to consistent, uniform treatment. Hence I create work for myself. That's just what we do.

The last phase, and one that has continued for quite a while, is caudiciform succulents. They are lumpy, bumpy, grotesques that have swollen stems/underground storage organs. They are bizarre, unusual and amazingly attractive for all their ugliness. Having grown them for a while, something else was needed.

Enter Asarum: the temperate, evergreen gingers of North America and Asia. Flipping through "Toki No Hana" a Japanese picture book of cultivated Asarum (they are the acknowledged masters and have selected hundreds of unique cultivars), should be enough to whet any plant lover's appetite, and since mine isn't all that hard to get going, I was hooked.

I knew exactly where to go, and a short time later an order for sixteen or so plants was emailed. The plants ship today and I'll have them by the end of the week. They are each distinct from the other, have fabulous and unusual flowers, and many have mottled or otherwise marked leaves. They are all Japanese or Chinese and will have to be grown in pots and brought in the winter. Luckily, I've grown a couple of similar species and they've done well with an outdoor regime in the season, and a cool windowsill for the winter--so I know I can maintain them.

This ought to hold me for a while. Really.

I might go, oh..., several weeks before needing another fix.
Continue reading "You can only go so long..."

Wednesday, July 16. 2008

Turkey leftovers... Posted by Carlo A. Balistrieri in Critters at 05:43

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Turkey leftovers...

Well, it wasn't a pigment of my imagination...no, I didn't see it again.

The existence of the leucistic turkey was verified as I learned that at least two other people have seen it. It is a HEN, however, and not a tom as suggested in my earlier turkey-latte post.

I'm still traveling with the camera....

Friday, July 11. 2008

Pale Male in Tuxedo Park Posted by Carlo A. Balistrieri in Critters at 07:34

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Pale Male in Tuxedo Park

With all the hullabaloo in recent years about Pale Male, the red-tailed hawk in Central Park, you may not have noticed that Tuxedo Park, just an hour or so away, has its own pale male. One park for another, one bird for another—we’re not talking here about what the young men of the village look
like (pale males) after a bit too much ale.

A week or so ago, while exiting the village’s Sterling Forest entrance, my eye was drawn to a
flock of wild turkeys frequenting the roadside verge. Just lately out with this year’s brood, the young, nearly invisible, but on their own foraging with the adults, disappeared into the grasses and leaf litter. The hens in the group barely seemed to notice the car. Then to the right, I saw him.

In the shadows of the sub-canopy stood a handsome tom; a ghostly apparition as his main body color was a light taupe—a blond amongst brunettes. He was stunning and beautiful. Sleek and dapper, he stretched his neck to survey the scene. Was it a pigment of my imagination?

According to Andrew Block, a wildlife biologist in the Bronx, the bird may be leucistic. This condition results from a reduction in pigment. As opposed to albinism, which is a reduction in melanin, leucism is a reduction in ALL pigment. This would account for his light--but not white--color. My turkey latte.

I haven’t seen him since. Despite taking the same route (with camera) several times and keeping my eyes open, he’s disappeared. Like Sasquatch and Nessie he’s receded into the mists.

Friday, July 11. 2008

Calopogon as cut flower: Who knew? Posted by Carlo A. Balistrieri in Plants at 07:10

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Calopogon as cut flower: Who knew?

Most people don't go through the trouble and expense of putting hardy orchids in their gardens to use them as cut flowers. Just getting them to thrive and bloom is a challenge--taking a scissors to them is unthinkable. Taking advantage of a natural disaster, however, is just putting the resource to its highest and best use.

I grow Calopogon tuberosus (Grass Pinks) in a bog garden. They come up relatively late and begin blooming in late June and early July. Their inverted (well they look that way--I'm sure the plant considers them quite normal) pink or white flowers are fantastic bits of architecture.

The other day, having gone out to photograph them, I noted a broken stem with an open flower and a string of buds. Not wanting it to go to waste, I cut it and brought it into the house to stick in vase. Now I know that many orchids are useful as cut flowers, but I'd never thought of Calopogons--or any of the other hardy orchids--in that way.

I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that the stem lasted. One by one the buds matured and opened (although the flowers got progressively smaller). At nearly two weeks on now, I still have a fresh Calopogon flower on the kitchen counter.

Don't get me wrong. The success of this little experiement doesn't mean that I'm going to run around next spring cutting Cypripediums and other hardy orchids. I still prefer them in the garden, doing what I originally intended for them to do. It's nice to know, however, that should disaster strike, I can take advantage of the situation to enjoy them in another way.

Why not stop at the mother-site BotanicalGardening.com to explore other ways to take advantage of the things that happen in your garden.

Monday, July 7. 2008

Put food on the table with flowers. Posted by Carlo A. Balistrieri in Check this out! at 12:37

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Put food on the table with flowers.

What’s the line? “You just can’t make this stuff up.”

There was a fascinating article about flowers and fish in the Sports section of the Sunday, July 6 New York Times (if that fact alone isn’t fascinating enough…). It appears that there are some strange goings-on in Costa Rica, where fishermen have taken to tying flies to look like flowers.

Early in the year when the trees are blooming, fish refused to take the usual baits. Keen observation of Machaca by their pursuers has led fishermen to conclude that when the trees on the banks of the river are in bloom, the fish prefer flowers to spinning lures. Moreover, they prefer pink to yellow!
This is all the more amazing since the article describes the fish as “tenacious and sharp-toothed” which would ordinarily lead one to conclude that it is carnivorous. (One just can’t imagine piranha taking flowers, now can one?).

The fish are equal opportunity eaters, taking fruit when the flowers are gone. In this respect they are omnivores like our local black bears, feeding opportunistically. Lures tied to imitate floating fruit do the trick at that time of year.

Take another look at your garden…. Who’d have thunk it?

Thursday, July 3. 2008

Sourland Music Festival: July 19th Posted by Carlo A. Balistrieri in Check this out! at 07:48

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Sourland Music Festival: July 19th

The Sourland Planning Council is advertising its 5th Annual Sourland Music Festival 2008 to be held on July 19th from 2-11pm at the Hillsborough Country Club polo field in Hillsborough, NJ. The event benefits the unique natural areas and fragile ecosystems (including many of the area's finest wildflowers and native plants) of the Sourland Mountain region in west-central NJ, home to a suite of habitats including many plants and animals having a tough go of it in the corridor between New York City and Philadelphia. It's also a major natural island for the many bird species that live their and pass through on their annual migrations.

The Sourland Mountain Region’s natural resources, especially the fragile drinking water supply and its unique ecosystem, need to be properly managed and protection or else they will be destroyed. AND that's what the benefit is all about.

Nine of the area's finest bands will be performing and food and drink will be available on site. Come for the day or come for your favorite band. Just get out and support the effort.

Tickets are $15 for adults; under 13 are $5; 6 and younger are free and I'm sure donations are welcome.

Information is available at: SourLandMusicFest.net which also contains links to the Planning Council's website, which has a wonderful, downloadable natural resource inventory report (unfortunately buried on the site--find it at the bottom of the Planning Initiative page).

See you there....

(But don't forget to come back to BotanicalGardening.com...).

Wednesday, June 18. 2008

Whoopeee! at the A&P... Posted by Carlo A. Balistrieri in Gardening at 06:54

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Whoopeee! at the A&P...

The local A&P is the last place you’d expect to inspire a garden moment. Plantings in parking lots tend to include vegetation that can withstand stresses to which no plant should be subjected, and consequently the palette tends to be thin and uninspiring. Poor, compacted soil, extremes of heat, sun and drought, irregular maintenance, and all the abuses heaped upon them by careless or downright malicious passers-by, contribute the least satisfactory of growing environments.

In such areas Juniperus communis (Common Juniper) ranks high because of its indestructibility. Its spreading nature and dense, impenetrable interlacing of prickly branches commend it to high-stress plantings. As a bonus it forms a barrier few humans would deign to challenge. Here at the A&P it is employed in parking lot island plantings—and people walk AROUND it with their carts.

Juniper is rarely thought of as beautiful. This is a plebian, and purely utilitarian planting. Yet occasionally in such situations you are called upon to sit up and take notice.

Leaving the store the other day with my shrimp and olives, an interesting thing happened. Passing one such planting a large bird flashed past my windshield, wings outspread, feet dangling. It was a female mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and she was coming in way too fast.

Now the surprise. Seemingly without slowing down, she plunged into the juniper and disappeared from sight. Half expecting her to bounce from the impact and the speed at which she had entered the prickly copse, I slowed to watch. Nothing.

Had she been impaled? I had to assume that this bird knew what she was doing. More than likely she was nesting in the protection of the branches. It was probably safer to croak an Anasian “BANZAI!” and plunge into hazardous tangle, than to try landing on hot asphalt amidst oblivious shoppers bent on their rounds.

The event brought to mind once again the transformative power of gardening and its attractiveness to non-human inhabitants of our world. I’d seen it before—most notably in the design and installation of gardens in sterile new subdivisions. Literally the DAY after planting (some of the plants were installed in flower) this formerly barren site was alive with birds, mammals, and insects—including butterflies; that hadn’t been seen on this property since before it was scraped clean for development.

Yet this bird and her action brought the potent allure of the garden home in a new and stronger way. They use and appreciate our gardens for far different reasons, but the impact we have when we plant should not be underestimated.

Skydive back to BotanicalGardening.com but watch that landing...

Wednesday, June 18. 2008

High tension? Not tonight... Posted by Carlo A. Balistrieri in Check this out! at 03:32

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High tension? Not tonight...

No one, not even New Jersey Power and Light, thinks a remotely romantic thought about high-tension power lines; but last night, oh last night--they were enchanting...

The moon was burgeoning full, the meadow straining in its gentle sway. Over the tops of the grasses and forbs legions of ardent male fireflies (actually not flies at all, but

Photuris pennsylvanica, a soft-bodied beetle) were advertising their wares, hoping to attract a female of the species for something more than a cup of coffee.

But this night, their mid-air performance, like twinkling Christmas lights unmoored from their strings, was accompanied by a sound-track. The hissing crackle of electricity surging through the power lines enlivened the gently flashing beacons of these suitors, providing an aural counterpoint to the visual display.

While it may require a little “willing suspension of disbelief,” the effect was magical. And regardless of what you think of them, 99% of us still rely on such delivery systems to provide the juice necessary to flip our lights on at night. Like many other things, power lines are necessary
evils of the modern world, so you may as well wring the wonder out of them wherever you can.

Ensorcelled by the sight, we stood silently…watching and listening; kissed, then turned to go in. The night--and the beetles, we left to their own devices.

Tuesday, May 27. 2008

Thunder and hot peppers... Posted by Carlo A. Balistrieri in Weather at 15:05

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Thunder and hot peppers...

Oh sure.... The first day back from a trip to the Netherlands and England and the weather has to be unruly. A wave of thunderstorms pealed their way through the neighborhood with strange periods of warm sunshine between.

Got me thinking though. You know how you just have this feeling that eating hot peppers MUST being doing something good for your body? (Nothing that spicy could fail to have an associated health benefit...). The violent blasts from Thor's hammer must have some advantage too. Yes...I know about the charging of ions and all that...but I think something more mystical and amazing must be going on.

It was supposed to have rained off and on the entire week I was gone--and a walk around the garden reveals that sun and heat must have also been applied to the equation. The weed growth was phenomenal...and prodigious. We'll be battling it the rest of the season.

SO...spring thunder and lightening must be a plant "call to arms"; a fox-hunt burst from the horns urging the hounds ever onward. They've heard...and have responded. As for me, I'll be throwing cayenne in the red snapper that's being grilled for dinner...

Wednesday, May 14. 2008

The Secret Life of Plants... Posted by Carlo A. Balistrieri in Check this out! at 08:09

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The Secret Life of Plants...

Take a break from the mental carpet-bombing that is the inexorable advance of spring in the garden. Sit and listen to one of Brazil's gifts to the world, Gilberto Gil, sing Stevie Wonder's late 70's tune, "The Secret Life of Plants." With apologies to Wonder, this is the best version of the song I've heard (and if I'm right, the only song in English on Gil's 1994, "Gilberto Gil Acoustic," a great CD released by Atlantic Jazz).

"I can't believe the nucleus of all
Begins inside a tiny seed
And what we see as insignificant
Provides the purest air we breathe."

...is how it begins. Funny how we take things for granted--especially in spring. Overlooking 99% of what is there in favor of the flashiest display of the moment; then quickly forgetting about that 1% when it is eclipsed by a new brilliance. And then there's "plant-blindness": "the inability to see or notice the plants in one's own environment, leading to the inability to recognize the importance of plants in the biosphere and in human affairs." Plant blindness also comprises an "inability to appreciate the aesthetic and unique biological features" of plants and "the misguided, anthropocentric ranking of plants as inferior to animals, leading to the erroneous conclusion that they are unworthy of human consideration." (Wandersee and Schussler, botanists and plant educators, 1998).

Insignificant or just plain unnoticed (and therefore non-existant), plants get their props in this song:

"And yet we take from it without consent
Our shelter, food, habiliment."

We gardeners can make this more than late 70's sentimentality. But we have to stop and notice ourselves; keep in mind the contributions, beyond our gardens, that plants make to our lives. It's not always an easy concept to wrap a mind around--that these green things make it possible for us to exist: be born, thrive, live to an old age....

"But if you ask yourself where would you be
Without them you will find you would not."

O.K. Back to your shovels...

Then back to BotanicalGardening.com to keep greening going...

Tuesday, April 29. 2008

Word of the day: Biobigotry... Posted by Carlo A. Balistrieri in Check this out! at 05:20

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Word of the day: Biobigotry...

The New York Times online taught me a new word today: biobigotry. It's "the persistent and often irrational desire to be surrounded only by those species of which one approves, and to exclude any animals, plants and other life forms that one finds offensive."

The article , in the Tuesday Science section, is a fascinating look at how we react to likes and dislikes in the natural world. It examines our thoughts and attitudes about various species, particularly birds.

BUT the author, in an ironic twist of her own, displays some biobigotry and a case of plant-blindness when she fails to acknowledge the best example of biobigotry: GARDENING. (Not that I'm proud of being a bigot or anything...). Nowhere in a human's relationship with the natural world around him/her does this "...desire to be surrounded by ONLY those species of which one approves..." occur with more regularity than in those who garden.

While pets are an obvious example of biobigotry (we only pick the ones we want), gardeners create entire environments with plants of their own choosing--and only those with the seal of approval make it into the ground. Rather than slotting a puppy or a kitten into a fully established household, gardeners start from a blank slate, create, and then continue to edit relentlessly, removing anything that fails to make the grade and ceaselessly adding new plants that have gained our favor.

Biobigots. That's what we are--in spades (and with spades, come to think of it...). And you thought gardeners were all nice people...

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