Yes, I broke down and am tweeting on Twitter. You'll find me at @botanicalgarden (you're not the only one that couldn't believe it was still available this late in the game). It's an experiment at the moment--for real time, short reports and quips on our favorite topic and others. It's a lot easier to do 140 characters than it is to write a blog entry--much less to think about and ponder--much less pressure to come up with a "great idea." 

Follow me if you are interested in a slice of my life. It won't go into the gruesome details that some people love to spew into the electro-sphere, but might give you a better idea of where I'm coming from and who I am.

In the short time I've been tweeting, I've probably got more followers than readers of this blog--so let me know if you found me on Twitter from reading me here--and don't stop...

Thanks.

In one of the most fascinating reads I've had in a long time, Carl Zimmer talks about fireflies (they're already out you know...) in The New York Times (June 29, 2009). His article "Blink Twice if You Like Me" examines the current state of research on how and why these insects use flashes of light to attract their mates. Everyone with a backyard should check this one out!

What a beauty!!! AND ain't it just the truth.....       Check this out:

...that New York City still has wildflowers!

It's true--one of the world's largest, most developed cities still has many native wildflowers, trees, shrubs and grasses. And we're celebrating...

 NYC Wildflower Week is May 2-9 and is packed with activities for all age levels. All events are free and open to all. With weather as beautiful as we've been having, there are no excuses for failing to get out and enjoy the great oudoors.

A full calendar of events is available on-line.

See you there???

Boy you missed it! Number thirteen was definitely not unlucky yesterday. I had the great good fortune to join many of New York's finest at Metro Hort Group's PLANT-O-RAMA held at Brooklyn Botanical Garden. MHG, for those that don't yet know, is an association of horticulture professionals from New York and the tri-state area. What a day it was....

Dozens of vendors from the metro area including a few I hadn't known before, networking with colleagues up the wazoo, and general schmoozing with people that are just darn fun to be around, were the order of the day. Folks from NYBG, BBG, Wave Hill and other gardens, private and public sector professionals from the city and beyond made for a day of amazing discussions. AND speaking of amazing--Dan Hinkley and Ken Druse (among others) speaking on the program!

Free for Metro Hort members and bargain priced for non-members (but, then, why not join?) the event was a great 2009 kickoff for my plans to improve my networking...

In what might be the most sophisticated animated depiction of plants/gardens ever to grace a movie screen, the makers of Coraline, a film adaptation of Neil Gaiman's creation have created virtual flowers, plants, trees, and gardens with amazing special effects. Don't know beans about the story but Wired magazine has an interesting story in its current (February, 2009) edition that chronicles some of the techy touches. The animation is stop-motion and 3D. Blooming effects and plants that move to attract pollinators, along with a quarter-million pieces of popcorn (800 hours!) that stand in for cherry blossoms, are just examples of the the wizardry at play. The article isn't saying when the multi-million dollar movie will be released but we'll be there to see the end result...a geeky garden delight!

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December 21^st…shortest day of the year. That means longest night. If you’re like many (and no…you’re not getting any personal information from me on this one) Mother Nature will wake you at least once during the course of the night with an urgency that causes you to leave your warm covers for the less comfortable climate of tile and porcelain. Stumbling into a bathroom with one of Clark Sorenson’s fixtures in it may cause you to wonder what was in that dinner you ate last night….

You are not hallucinating. Sorenson, a San Francisco artist, has taken sink and urinal construction to new heights with his floral pieces. (Visit the home page for more examples and a little politically incorrect bathroom humor).  Every gardener will find a favorite flower to adorn their bathroom.

Until now, I thought that Matterhorn Nursery’s painted bathroom doors “LADYslipper” and “CyclaMEN” were the last word on garden-themed water closets. The bar has been raised. I’m not going to ruin your fun, but suffice it to say, the fixtures are startling representations of flowers from aroids to orchids.

Sorenson’s art is gaining a reputation and he is showing…and selling…around the world. And people everywhere are spending more time in the bathroom (oh, great…) and dragging their friends in with them (…ahem…).   

But please, take your pictures BEFORE you install your new urinal. As beautiful as they are, you could run into problems if you start taking your camera into the bathroom….

When you're done, come back to BotanicalGardening.com...but take your time in there.

Holiday preparation is well under way here. We're making some of the gifts we're giving this year, and discovering a thing or two in the process. Long before it was fashionable; before “environmental” was the rage; before “sustainability” was a word; we were playing with ways to use the resources that came our way in a “full” way. Wasting as little as possible, stretching for not just the “highest and best use” discussed in conservation circles, but also the most complete use became a daily contest. 

This year it's a holiday challenge. We've maintained the sensibility. Our emphasis, given the state of the environment and the economy, is thriftiness and sustainability. To that end, like Native Americans and their bison trophies, we were determined to squeeze every useful bit out of things most people use for their primary purpose and throw away. 

We save citrus peels after using the fruit--oranges, tangerines, lemons, and grapefruit—by tossing them in a freezer bag and tucking them into cold storage (residual pulp or no). Last month the Christmas doings began in earnest with the production of a small amount of creamy limoncello to give as gifts. To be honest, it was limoncello, the sweet, lemony liquor, with its requirement of LOTS of lemon peel, that spawned our sustainable citrus project.  

The homemade hooch took a lot, but not all of the lemon rind to make...and we still had other citrus peels to deal with. What to do? Make candy, of course. Imagine using waste to make a sweet! Candied citrus peel sounded easy to make...clean leftover pulp from the rinds, cut them into sections, blanch and rinse a few times to reduce any leftover bitterness, soak in a syrup made of equal parts of water and sugar, drain and roll in sugar, then dry. Easy enough...but more time consuming than we bargained for-- still the result was wonderful (and an entire Christmas present category ticked off the list...+ limone makes two down!).

A by-product of the candying process was a bowl of syrup with a citrusy essence. Hated to pour THAT down the drain. Isn't simple syrup (called for in many cocktail preparations) just sugar and water? There is a reason they call it simple. We strained it through several layers of cheesecloth and bottled it up. Now we're ready for those holiday cocktail parties. People just won't know what it is that makes their drinks so special tasting (unless, of course, one of you shows up...).

So give it a go. Think about what you use and how you can use it better; to its fullest; creating as little waste as possible. Then go have your merry Christmas. 

Now we just need to find a way to use the seeds....

The New England Flower Show has canceled its 2009 edition. After nearly 140 years the slowing economy and resulting financial difficulties have caught up with the venerable institution. While others before have dropped by the wayside, NEFS had managed until now, to attract crowds of over 100,000. Now they'll have to go elsewhere to get their early spring fix. 

My newest talk, "Simple Exercises for Tighter Buns" was a hit at the Delaware Valley Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society last Saturday. A wonderful crowd had what appeared to be a good time--and the word is already being spread.

Interested?

Feel free to contact me about speaking to your group. There are many topics to choose from and I've lectured all over the country and in Europe. Could you be next?

The August issue of Orchids, the bulletin of the American Orchid Society is just out with my latest book review. It's a look at: Icones Pleurothallidinarum XXIX: A Third Century of Stelis of Ecuador; Systematics of Apoda-Prorepentia; Systematics of Miscellaneous Small Genera; Addenda: New Genera, Species, and Combinations, the latest contribution by Carlyle A. Luer to the Missouri Botanical Garden series. Sure it's a mouthful...but you might want to check it out, particularly if you're a lover of obscure species orchids...

More from that magazine later...

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?

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...).

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.

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...