The Last Heuchera

My last brave little bouquet i took into work from my Fall garden is long gone. Except for.........i had one little purple Heuchera (Coral Bell) leaf in the vase for contrast, and, after everything else had died, this leaf still looked good and so i kept it. The months went by, and i started to think maybe this leaf was dead, dried up, and is crispy in the vase - but it still looked alive!

My Jewel Orchid bloomed, as it does in January/February, and i stuck a couple of the stems of flowers in with it so it wouldn't look so lonely. Now they are on their last flowers, too. Today i decided to change the water (which i keep forgetting and it's kinda er, cloudy - but it's a tiny vase). To my amazement, the Heuchera leaf's stem had sprouted roots!

Had no idea they could BE propagated like that; not that i had researched it, but i have always just had a good feel for how various plants can be multiplied and which cannot, and i would have bet money that single LEAF wouldn't produce roots ~ but, hey, that's what's fun about gardening!                           

My Garden Interview - Part 3

...A continuation of my hypothetical interview...

***i'm currently reading an older garden book titled, "Gardening From The Heart - Why Gardeners Garden" by Carol Olwell. The reason for this book is interesting, because, as she points out, gardening is hard work,

considered pretty much low grade manual labor, and is rarely lucrative -

so why do we do it? She compiles the story of many gardeners who were interviewed for this book. i am barely past the introduction, but i feel compelled to put into words how i myself came to be a gardener, and why....***

Q: Any garden organizations?

i became involved at that time in the Master Gardener program - the very first year it was offered in my area (1991). It was a wonderful program, and i got to "shmooze" with fellow gardeners! The only downside was that most of my fellow "students" were retired folks - and i was in my thirties! i thought it was a good deal - the fee was $25, for the

literature and instructors (there wasn't anything offered online in THOSE days!), and you agreed to give back so many hours in volunteer time, i believe it was around 20 hours back then. It quickly became a very popular program, and a lot more people became involved with it. Later it was decided that you had to give so many hours each year to

"recertify", which i just did not have time for in the growing season. NOW the fee is up to $175, you have to volunteer 50 hours, and need 10 hrs. of volunteer work plus 6 continuing education hours annually to recertify! Whew! So, even though i have not recertified, i do still call myself a "Master Gardener" anyway - seniority ought to count for

something!

Q: Any funny stories?

We sold our first little house in '97 to a very young couple who were not even in their 20's yet, it was November, but they were very impressed by the gardens. I had taken photos and had a few enlarged to show prospective buyers. Unfortunately, they both had jobs and went to school, and had no clue how much work that was gonna be! i did take starts of my favorite plants to go to the new house with me, but left just about everything.

The following July, i received a phone call from my former neighbor. All she said was, "Oh my God, Nanci, they're tearing out all your plants and throwing them away!" i was there within 10 minutes, on the pretense of visiting said neighbor. The young people weren't QUITE throwing away everything, but threatening to, and i could see why. When i had lived

there, i walked around virtually every day, automatically weeding, deadheading, pruning...they had done none of that. The Hollyhocks were 7 feet tall, the vines had literally absorbed part of the yard, the groundcovers were covering WAY too much ground, my arbor that i painstakingly created from PVC pipe was broken and laying in the vegetable garden space - it looked like an abandoned property! To their credit, the new owners were very considerate and told me i could dig up

everything i wanted to, so i borrowed a shovel from my friend next door and started digging in the 90 degree heat. An hour later, after i had filled the trunk AND back seat of my car, i called my husband and told him to come over with his pickup truck and more tools! When we came home with the plants, i had no idea what i was going to do with them - it was early July, in the middle of a heat wave.These plants were my

BABIES! Now that i had rescued them i was NOT going to lose them! So we shoved them all into our 2 garbage cans filled with water and i spent the next week or so finding spaces for them. Now, planting in weather like that should only be done in emergencies (like this was), but - it CAN be done.Out of about 40 plants, only 2 did not make it, i am proud

to say!

 One more unfortunate thing - about a month after that, I

discovered that the vinyl lattice we had put up all along the fence row was gone - the young couple had taken it down and put it out for the garbage pickup - all five hundred dollars worth of it!! i almost cried over that - wish i had known. BUT, to this day, i really have no idea what i could have used that for at the new house! It was such a waste,

though...

The Princess And The Cherry Tree

Once upon a time, in the northern Land Of The Five Lakes, a tree seed found a lovely spot in which to start its life, and began to grow. It just happened to be the land belonging to the Monarch and the Princess. (You may recall the Royal Wars in the land of literary works of fantasy many years ago, when the King was banished and the Monarch's rule began).

The Princess, who was known to nurture much flora and fauna, happened upon the young tree one day and was pleased. The little seedling, as it grew older, had small peach sized leaves, panicles of white flowers in Spring, beautiful bark, and golden leaves in the Autumn. It was an unknown type to the Princess, but she was sure it was a tree of petite ornamental heritage that just happened to find her lands. As a season or two passed, the Princess inquired of her royal clan (The Masters of the Garden) as to what tree it might be, but they could not answer. She even inquired of the magic PC (Prophet Creature) who also could not answer.

 

So the tree stayed, and grew. And grew. And then, as it matured, it proceeded to send thousands of progeny down upon the royal lands to create a small forest of its own kind, which began to displease the Princess. Finally, one day, the magic Prophet Creature revealed to her that the tree was not only a Cherry tree, but a BLACK Cherry tree, which was a duplicitous and evil life form!

The Princess informed the Monarch that she wished for the tree to be removed before it and its progeny invaded the royal gardens any further. Their many subjects

 

 

 

 

 

   

agreed.

The Monarch, wishing to keep tranquility in the Castle, also agreed and proceeded to remove the large branches one at a time. The task is not yet completed as of this day... 

 

The Moral of this story - Beware of evil beings that disguise themselves as alluringly beautiful ~ by the time you realize what is happening, it may be almost too late! (And your Royal Spouse may threaten to "crown" you!lol)
THE END

First Seed Swap Of 2010 - How It Turned Out

Why do i swap seeds? Partly because i like to get something for relatively nothing - yes, i do a little work to prepare, but i'm still not handing anyone money for what i get. It's also partly for something to do during the "worst" time of the winter; that is - when it's STILL winter, but you want it to be Spring so badly that it's almost a physical pain.

But a day like today reminds me of why i really do it. It's certainly not wanting to crowd into a roomful of people and having to wait several minutes at times just to MOVE 3 feet! It's because of what kind of people they ARE - gardeners! Almost everyone had the same look in their eyes - here we all are(the day after a snowstorm), surrounded by seed packets, seedlings, plants, plant paraphernalia, and although we do know a new season is very near, an event like this reinforces that promise. Did anyone complain about being crowded? No. Everyone was pleasant, considerate and smiling. We were all given paper grocery bags, and as we collected packets, bags or cups of what we wanted and put them into our bags, several of us could be heard commenting that we felt like we were collecting goodies at Halloween!

Didn't take my camera, but this looks close to our swap - just add about 50 more people into this picture!

Because this, 20 days before the first day of Spring, was a happy day for all of us!

Some of my "take" today, laying in a large cast Tobacco leaf i just finished. That package of black radish seed touts, "Popular Snack With Beer and Dips" - although i got nothing against beer, radishes sure wouldn't be my first choice as an accompaniment! i now have seeds of Resurrection Lily, "Rose" and "Cherokee Purple" tomatoes, an "experimental" variety of snap bean, and "Rattlesnake Master" Eryngium. Plus quite a few red Canna rhizomes that i promised i would get for my friend Diana, who is still recovering from cancer treatment, and, as a result, probably hasn't got the best of immune systems and i'm sure wouldn't have wanted to get into a crowd like that!

***plAnt dAy!***(a running commentary on the most interesting collector's plants I own) *JEWEL ORCHID*

i initially ended up with a Jewel Orchid (Ludisia discolor) years ago when i was in the first Master Gardener class in my area. i may have traded someone at one of the plant swaps our Extension Service (that hosted the MG classes) had a couple of times a year - however, they didn't know what it was. i, of course, wanted it anyway - i love leaves with PINK stripes or spots on them, just because it's so unusual. It was planted in heavy potting soil at the time, definitely not great for Orchids, but since i couldn't find out what it was, that's where it stayed (again, this was long before many humans regularly went online to research things - actually, before anyone knew what "online" was!). It grew okay for a while, then it languished, and finally started to decline, no matter what i tried to do for it.

My Jewel orchid in my work office, just starting to bloom

My Master Gardener class visited the greenhouse at the Toledo Zoo during that time, and i took my plant to show the people who were giving a class for us that day. Well, they knew what it was, even repotted it for me in Orchid mix, but by that time it was too late for the poor thing....

A cutting off the same plant, showing the dark purplish green leaves with those remarkable pink stripes and unique texture.

BUT, about a year ago, i found another one, and, hey, once you know what the heck the plant is, it's real easy to grow! What a concept! There is one drawback- the flowers are numerous, but white, scentless and tiny - definitely not what one would picture an "Orchid" blossom would be. That's the way it goes sometimes in the plant world - beautiful plant; obscure flowers, or beautiful blossoms; ugly plant! Nonetheless, i'm happy with my "jewel"!