Hydrangeas for the North

Hydrangea pro Tim Boebel has created a very nifty myspace page with pictures of his favorite hydrangeas for the north, as well as a slide show on how he constructed a container (pond) big enough for lotus to thrive for years. Check it out at http://www.myspace.com/hydrangeasinthenorth.

I'm looking forward to Tim's class at RCGC, Winning Hydrangeas for Rochester Gardens, Wednesday, March 18, 7-9 pm: "Tim Boebel, nursery manager at Wayside Garden Center, has been studying this charismatic flowering shrub for years, both at Wayside and in extensive trials in his home garden. Tim will discuss the merits of the up-and-coming introductions for ‘09 and ’10, and will also give you the lowdown on the established varies which rank high in overall beauty as well as performance in our cold climate. Have you been frustrated by the lack of bloom on supposedly hardy varieties? Much of the information about hydrangea culture was developed for areas much warmer than Rochester. Tim has perfected a very different method for getting reliable blooms in our climate and will detail the steps in this slide-lecture with handouts." See the Education Pages on our website for registration info.

Reuse your Christmas Tree

Don't toss your Christmas tree! It's a handy design tool. Use it to mimic plants you think you want in your garden. You can easily drag it around and locate anywhere you want (unlike the real thing).

With a little imagination you can fantasize how a new tree or shrub might look.

In my  case, I want more conifers. I"m not quite sure where yet, so I'm experimenting. Give it a try. It's a great way to recycle the tree and formulate your next garden plan.

Our Connection to Our Horticultural Roots

Is is commonly accepted that agriculture started in various locations around the world 10 to 11 thousand years ago. Since those earliest times, human beings have been seed savers. They saved seeds of the best and most favored plants or perhaps those with new and more desired traits to plant the next growing season. Those simple choices allowed our ancestors to develop a stunning range of varieties of plants and foodstuffs.

Farmers continued seed saving and swapping through the millennia since with little change until relatively recently. In the middle of the 1800's seed began to be produced commercially in the United States. This changed the face of agriculture forever. The early 20th century saw the introduction of commercial hybrid seed and more recently, the introduction of genetically modified (GMO) seeds. The seeds collected from hybrid (and GMO) plants do not produce plants true to the quality of the parent plant. Between this and the easy availability of seeds to buy, seed saving began to fall out of common practice.


Beans - "Anasazi"
Even so - and thankfully, some people still saved seeds from varieties of crops and flowers handed down through their family for generations. Some of these varieties can now be had through sellers of open-pollinated and heirloom seed varieties. While much can be said for disease-resistant and robust hybrids, the open-pollinated varieties offer flavors and colors not found on your supermarket shelves. I find these old-varieties so pleasing that at least 85% of my vegetable garden last year was devoted to heirloom and open-pollinated varieties.

Interested in trying something different in the garden this year? Well the RCGC is holding a houseplant and seed swap on January 24th. It is a wonderful way to not only reconnect with our horticultural roots but a great way to get unusual varieties you will not find at your local lawn and garden centers. The seeds will surely include vegetables, herbs, garden flowers, and wildflowers. The event is also a great place for indoor gardeners to trade houseplant cuttings and starts. Our event also includes two speakers and refreshments - a little something for everyone!

Please see our 2nd Annual Seed and Houseplant Swap webpage for full details and how to register online! See you there!

-kim

Winter-Spring Catalog is available on-line

You can view the new catalog now on our website at: http://www.rcgc.org/pdfdocs/RCGC_Winter2009.pdf

The paper catalog should be in mailboxes soon, and on-line registration will be available after the first of the year.

As always, you can also call, fax or email to register or for more information: phone 585-473-5130, fax 585-473-8136, or email rcgcjh@frontiernet.net

Wreathmaking Class

This year's wreathmaking class with Nellie Gardner was a blast, as always! Tons of fun, and everyone's wreath turned out great.

Nellie setting up the room - what a huge assortment of natural materials she brought in her little truck.

Some wreaths in progress:

Everyone's wreath came out different!

Hearts-a-bursting

"Hearts-a-bursting" or strawberry bush or Euonymus americanus is the Botany Photo of the Day for today November 19, 2008 at the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research out of Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada. It is a wonderful site full of plant information and beautiful botanical photos. You can even sign up here to have the Botany Photo of the Day emailed to you. It is inspiring to see all the beautiful pictures of plants plus you learn a bit about each plant that is featured as well. It is a site not to be missed by lovers of plants and all things green.

Perhaps it is inpiring enough to encourage you to take your camera out in the garden or on walks with you. Refer to your camera's user manual to see if it has a setting for close-up pictures. My camera has a little flower icon next to the button that will put it into "macro mode" or in other words set it so it can focus on close-up subjects. Here is an easy to understand article from DIY on taking botanical pictures to get you started. Google will also be able to get you even more information if you search for something like "camera macro."


Hopefully you've enjoyed some of my botanical photographs that have been sprinkled through this blog and the Rochester Civic Garden Center's webpages - including the picture above. The above picture is of common toadflax, Linaria vulgaris, or my favorite name for it, butter-and-eggs. Although most who are not herbalists consider it an alien weed, it is a gorgeous photo subject. It's not a weed to me. I love their late summer color and ability to grow in the leanest and driest waste places on my property. Just how could you hate that?

-kim

What are you doing for HerbDay?

HerbDay is coordinated series of independently produced public educational events celebrating the importance of herbs and herbalism. HerbDay was conceived of by five nonprofit organizations with interests in herbs and herbalism to raise public awareness about the significance of herbs in our lives and the many ways herbs can be used safely and creatively for health, beauty care, and culinary enjoyment. In 2008, HerbDay will be held on Saturday October 11th. People wishing to hold an herb-related event can register their event with the HerbDay organization but they are not required to. Check out the HerbDay website for a schedule of events to see if there is a registered event being held near you.

Since the event is young and still growing you may not find an event being held near you. If that is the case, you can still celebrate HerbDay. Go to your favorite local park with woodland hiking trails and look for wild herb plants. They will be all around you. A good book to take on your travels would be Peterson’s A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs: Of Eastern and Central North America by Duke and Foster. It is my one of my favorite books on herbs. You may also wish to take a list of some plants to look for. Here is an Herb List for Western NY State (PDF document) that I put together which includes many wild herb plants as well as a few garden herb plants that you may come across in your travels. It is by no means a complete or exhaustive list but it should give you a starting place. And please remember to NOT pick the plants you find unless you have permission and KNOW exactly what you are picking. That warning is as much for your safety as it is for stewardship of wild places and plants. Besides poisonous and toxic plants, there are many wild medicinal plants that are at risk from overharvesting. See United Plant Savers for more information on 'at-risk' medicinal plants.

If stomping through the wilds is not your cup of tea, perhaps you could plan an herb garden for next year. Your herb garden could feature culinary herbs, medicinal herbs, follow a theme, or any other thing that strikes your fancy. There are many books on herb gardening and your local library or the RCGC's Horticultural Library can certainly help locate one of these books for you. But if you need something to get you thinking now, I wrote an article Starting an Herb Garden which may be of interest to you.

However you wish to spend HerbDay, I hope you enjoy yourself and at least give pause to consider all the wonderful things herbs have given human beings down through the millennia.

-kim