Just say no!

If you're a poinsettia lover, I'll give you a second or two to navigate away from this page, because I'm going on a rant. An anti-poinsettia rant.

The poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) was attractive before people got their hands on it. It's native to Mexico where it can grow up to 10 feet tall. Its flowers are orangey-red and it's not a bad looking shrub. Alas, that's not the plant you're going to find at your local florist this holiday season.

Today's poinsettia is a fussy, bloated, short-lived plant, prone to whitefly and bract drop, highly unlikely to bloom again in your home. Yet it accounts for 85% of holiday potted plant sales in the U.S. Why? Because someone is a marketing genius. Pushed as the perfect living holiday decoration/ hostess present, you can pick one up in any corner deli, on your way to the party.

But take a minute to think. This is a plant that is almost certainly never going to bloom again. Unless you can give it COMPLETE darkness from 5 pm to 8 am starting on about October 1st. And I mean COMPLETE. Walking into the dark room and turning on the light to look for something in the closet, even if it's only for a minute, can ruin the whole thing. Nighttime temps above 70 degrees can also impede flowering.

If you want to give a plant as a holiday gift there are several alternatives that allow you to maintain the traditional color scheme. All of them re-flower reliably indoors and will live for years without forcing you (or your hostess) to tiptoe around in a dark house.

Coralberry (Ardisia crenata) is a wonderful plant that produces a long-lasting crop of red berries. (Seriously, these berries can last an entire year.) It flourishes in an east or west facing window and its leaves are a glossy dark green with crenellated margins. It develops a woody stem over time and will probably get to be about 3-4 feet tall as a potted specimen.

Crown of thorns (Euphorbia milii) is a relative of the
poinsettia but much less temperamental. It blooms year-round in an eastern or western window and has no special temperature requirements. Yes, it has a few thorns. Don't poke them and they won't poke you.

Scarlet plume (Euphorbia fulgens) is another poinsettia relative, easy to grow in southern, eastern, or western light, and not fussy about temperature.

If you're determined to fuss a little, try a holiday cactii (Schlumbergia and Zygocactus species). You can either give them a cool treatment (keeping them at about 50-55 degrees) OR keep them dark (from 8 pm-8am) from mid-October until you notice buds forming. Unlike with the poinsettia, a stray beam of light here and there isn't going to ruin your chances of bloom.

These plants can bring you joy for years (not weeks!). All of them are less prone to insect predation than the poinsettia, and at least two (crown of thorns and holiday cactus) are easy to find, in neighborhood florists and big box stores. So just say no to the ubiquitous poinsettia and choose a holiday plant that is truly a worthy gift.

Time to Prune Your Evergreens

wreath photos©Alan & Linda Detrick, design Ellen Spector Platt, cookies Judy Benson

Advice is pretty unanimous among experts at University Extension Services in colder regions. “Prune in late March or early April before new growth begins. Light pruning may also be done in late June or early July. Avoid pruning evergreen shrubs in the fall. Fall pruned evergreens are more susceptible to winter injury.” (Iowa State Extension Service)

I’m not trained as a horticulturalist but as a farmer who learned the hard way. I sold distinctive evergreen wreaths at my
Meadow Lark Flower &
Herb Farm, all greens
coming from judicious
pruning in mid to late
November. We pruned
more if we sold more.
Even in zone 5 in NE
Pennsylvania, I never
had shrub damage.
Here in New York City, I
still prune as I need the
materials. This year it’s
for a few centerpieces
and the tree pits in
front of my building.

How-To
1. Trim some ever-
greens,and some ivy.
Try for a variety of
greens and golds,
some needle and broad leaf branches and some ivy. Cut each stem from an inconspicuous spot, shaping the shrub as you harvest the materials you need. Buy to fill in where necessary.
2. Stand materials in a bucket of tepid water overnight.
3. Stand short branches in tree pits. They’ll look as if you planted dwarf evergreens.
4. To make a long-lasting wreath for a centerpiece, buy a ring of flower foam like Oasis. It comes with a plastic bottom that protects your table. Soak in a sink filled with water for fifteen minutes, drain carefully and dry the bottom. Add greens around the exterior first, then the top, and don’t forget smaller pieces on the interior so no foam is visible.
5. Here master
baker Judy
Benson con-
tributes ginger-
bread cookies
baked on lolly-
pop sticks to
add extra in-
terest to the
wreath.
6. Depending
on the temperature of the room, the wreath will look great for a month or more if you take it to the sink, and carefully add water every three or four days, wiping the bottom each time. If you choose to hang the wreath, hold upright over the sink first, as more water will drain out.

Gorilla Gardening

New York building superintendents don't like it when you make holes in their buildings. They are SUPER-sensitive that way.

So what do you do when you want to train a vine up a wall? Pergolas and trellises need to be attached to the facade (requiring the dreaded "piercing of the building membrane"), and free-standing trellises (their bases planted in containers) aren't sturdy enough for woody perennial vines.

I'm going to share my ingenious solution with you here. It's an excellent way to attach vines like Hydrangea petiolaris (climbing hydrangea) to buildings WITHOUT making holes in the facade or damaging the vine's stems. Can you say "Gorilla Glue"?

Actually you need both Gorilla Glue AND Gorilla Tape. First, prep a bunch of tape strips, 3 inches long and 1/4 inch wide. You can tear Gorilla Tape pretty easily with your fingers.

Next, apply glue to the portion of stem you want to attach to the building, about 1-2" long.

Press the glued stem against the wall and hold it in place as you tape the stem to the building immediately above and below the glued section. The tape looks funky, but it's temporary. Once the glue has hardened (about 24 hours) you can remove the tape.

Gorilla glue poufs up, so you don't need to use much. If it's visible, creeping out from underneath the stem, don't worry. The extruding glue wears away with time (and a little bad weather) and next year's foliage will help mask any glue that remains after the winter.

The glue bond holds for years, so it's a win-win-win situation.
1) You're happy (the vine is attached);
2) The vine is happy (its stem is undamaged); and
3) Your super is happy (no holes in the building).

Tis the season.

Special thanks to Other Ellen for the photographs that involve my hands. She braved the wind and cold to help shoot this project!

A Creative Gift

Macro Photography for Gardeners and Nature Lovers by Alan Detrick, (Timber Press, 2008, 24.95 paperbound)

This can’t be an unbiased book review when the author, Alan Detrick is a good friend, a colleague and my collaborator on one book, two magazines and many other projects. Instead it’s an appreciation from a grateful student for a teacher, who with words and many stunning pictures can make me stop, observe, think, notice and change how I perceive the world. This is no mean feat and Detrick accomplishes his goals in this book partly by giving the reader the rationale behind the photos. Many times he offers side-by-side images of the same subject taken two or more different ways, pointing not only technical differences, but his visualization of the outcome.©Alan & Linda Detrick

Detrick defines macro photography as “capturing an image that’s at least the same size on film or digital sensor as the actual subject and up to 10X the size of the actual subject”. There’s absolutely no need to be either a gardener or a nature lover to enjoy ‘Macro Photography’. It will tell any photographer how to capture fantastic light and patterns, and the flowers, leaves or insects can be almost incidental. His discussions of backgrounds struck a chord, because while I’m very aware of junk in a picture, I’m much less aware of how adding (or subtracting) splashes of background color can make or break the image.
©Alan & Linda Detrick

But maybe because I am a dedicated gardener, I found the bug images particularly enchanting, a change from my usual concentration on flowers and foliage. I’m left with the feeling that even I could capture a pollen covered bee just crawling out of an early morning flower if I follow the master’s tips.

There’s a big downside to this book however. It’s hard to simply read and admire. It may cause you to run out to buy a macro lens, the low tripod, cable release and other necessities to try macro yourself. Detrick is a one-man economic stimulus package.

A Pot to Pea In

Emboldened by my rooftop cotton crop last year (all of three plants),’08 was my summer to experiment with planting peanuts. I’m always searching for plants that will teach kids the connections between what we eat and use, and how it grows, things I can grow in my all container garden on a rooftop in Manhattan. Although I’ve farmed flowers and herbs in Pennsylvania, and grew enough vegetables there to make a dent in our supermarket shopping, I had never tried growing peanuts. In fact though I was intrigued with the Planters Peanut man as a girl, and pondered smooth vs. chunky for peanut butter sandwiches for my kids, peanuts were pretty much off my radar screen as a crop.

I love a challenge. The first part was finding seeds in early June when the big idea hit. Many companies thought it was too late to ship. Henry Fields did not. At www.HenryFields.com. I selected both ‘Early Spanish’ (100-120 days) and ‘Virginia Improved’ (120 days) and planted them more or less according to package directions on June 18. There was not one line on the packages about planting on a city rooftop in containers.I knew that the peas grew underground from 4th grade teacher Miss Stimson at the Mann School in Philadelphia. But I knew little else. When the leaves emerged they looked like PEA leaves, and when the yellow flowers followed, they looked like PEA flowers. The light bulb finally exploded in my head. I had planted PEAnuts. As they grew I thinned to one plant per pot.

Found a Peanut. The ‘nuts’ are really legumes, seeds encased in a shell, like peas and limas. The nuts form from the ovaries of the flowers that are near the bottom of the plant stems. The ovaries send down tubes into the ground where the peanuts mature. Both varieties formed peanuts, with the ‘Early Spanish’ a little smaller and faster maturing as advertised.I’m told that one can plant the peanuts from a grocery; they must be un-roasted of course, out of the shell but whole, not split in half. If you want to try that, go to a health food store and look for organic peanuts that ostensibly haven’t been treated with any growth retardant. My opinion? A packet of seeds is the biggest bargain in the universe both for the educational matter that’s on the outside and the miracle of growth that’s within.

My rooftop peanut harvest wasn’t enough to roast for World Series watching to cheer on my beloved Phillies and I’d sworn off FOX TV for the duration, so I bought some peanuts already roasted, and shelled them as I listened to the World series on radio.

Goodnight, Garden(s)

Putting the garden to bed for the winter might seem sad to some, but for me it's an appropriate end to a busy, productive, exhausting season. Along about Halloween I start looking forward to the week of Thanksgiving, which is when I say so long, farewell to all my gardens.

Cutting Back
I actually started doing this about a month ago. As soon as the annuals and perennials begin to look bedraggled, I cut them back, not only to make the garden look neater, but also to make my final clean up faster and easier. Yes, the gardens look a little bare with fewer flowers and less foliage, but I think that's appropriate for late fall. Subdued, serene, focus on the evergreens, the ornamental bark, the dried seed heads.

Move it Around
At the end of the season it's easy to see what's outgrown its place and needs to be moved, maybe even divided. Yes, it would be nicer to wait till the warmer days of spring, but will you really remember how big that Rudbeckia got, or will you convince yourself it couldn't possibly have been so huge and let it muscle out the elderflower yet another year? I thought so. Do it now.

Drain the System
Skip this part if you don't have an irrigation system. (But stay tuned for my "Why Everyone Should Have an Irrigation System" post, due out next Spring.) Truth is, your system should be drained before the first frost (or at least the first hard freeze), so keep an eye on the forecast. PVC piping can crack if water inside freezes and thaws, and this may lead to messy, wet insurance claims from that formerly pleasant downstairs neighbor.

Mulch it Good (like Shanti, my lovely assistant)
This is tricky, because here in NYC the leaves haven't always finished falling by Thanksgiving. And really, what's the point of mulching if a metric ton of small, yellow, locust leaves are going to fall the next day, messing up your mulch job? You definitely need to mulch, but you might have to wait until after Thanksgiving. The exception: I don't mulch rooftop containers. Why not? because I...

Bough & Berry
There's something about bare containers that is more depressing than bare, in-ground gardens. Maybe because the containers are positioned explicitly to be viewed, directly in front of the windows. Maybe because the railings and walls they once camouflaged are now exposed metal, brick, wood, or stone. So I decorate containers with evergreen boughs and decorative branches. These last for months and brighten up a bleak view. Notice the clever use of blue cedar boughs as mulch!

Say Goodnight, Gracie
Once your garden is neatly trimmed, mulched, and berried, you may survey your work with well-deserved satisfaction, knowing all will be well till spring. Unless a branch falls and crushes the hydrangea, or the Japanese maple tips over and breaks a limb, or the frost heaves up all the Heucheras. Or a thick blanket of protective snow gently covers the entire garden until the beginning of March...yeah, I pick that one!

It Takes a Village

It’s called The Holiday Train Show. It opens on Nov.23 at the New York Botanical Garden and stretches until January 11, 2009 when you might be able to see it with fewer crowds. Some people can’t get enough of the garden-gauge model trains. I’m mesmerized by the replicas of New York landmarks, designed and constructed by a botanical genius, Paul Busse, and his team from Applied Imagination in Alexandria, Kentucky.

Above, Van Cortlandt Manor, (1784) made of cedar bark, honeysuckle, willow, acorn caps, redbud pods and more. Of course take the kids, but this show fascinates adults as well; the numbers prove it and this is its 17th year.

The 140 build-
ings, four new
this year, are
made from bits
and pieces of
berries & bark,
twigs & moss,
pods & cones,
dried flowers &
leaves, and
other scaven-
ged plant
materials. Busse said, “When I saw the black locust tree fungus, that’s all I needed to make the spiral of the Guggenheim Museum.”

Live plant materials are part of the fantasy, adding a riot of color and texture. Where else can you find those Manhattan landmarks, the Flatiron Building, Empire State, Chrysler Building and the NY stock exchange within 4 feet of each other while trains whiz past? Viewers who know the city get a sense of discovery even before they read the explanatory signs. All boroughs are included, see the Guyon-Lake-Tyson House (1740), S.I. (below)















and Old Stone House (1699) Brooklyn (below) made of cedar bark roof shingles, willow walls, plum bark and wood fungus. Busse also used reeds, twisted sea grass, spruce cone scales, and birch & salt cedar twigs.

Since the train show is in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory of the New York Botanic Garden, it’s balmy indoors, whatever the chill outside.
For more details visit www.NYBG.org.

Your Own Village
After you’ve been inspired at the show, make your own village at home. Mr. Busse said that he’s done projects with kids using milk cartons as the base for the buildings. Take your kids out for a hunt in your garden, neighborhood and/or nearby park. Gather
twigs, dried
grasses and
leaves, cones,
pods, acorns
and other good
stuff. Here’s
what I gather-
ed from my garden and neighborhood, including slices of Osage oranges (see post dated 10/24/08) that I slowly dehydrated on trays in the oven. Color comes from a velvety sumac head that separates into small sections, rose hips and firethorn berries that will dry in place. I also have acorn caps, several kids of conifer pods, lambs’ear, birch bark , and sorghum that re-seeded itself from last year. Double-click on this any any other picture to get a really good view.
How-To
1. Gather pint, quart, or half gallon milk or juice cartons. Rinse well and dry the exterior.
2. Cut off a section of the bottom to make the size building you want. Here I’ve used one half gallon and one quart to make four buildings. The top halves have peaked ‘roofs’ and I’ve inverted the bottom halves to make flat roofs that can be tiled.
3. Take outdoors to a protected location, put down old newspaper and spray with flat black paint. This step is important so that if some spaces remain uncovered the brand names and ads on the carton won’t show through.
4. You can try to make a faithful rendition of your own home or a building near you, but it’s much easier and less frustrating to allow your creativity free reign. Use low temp glue, or a thick white craft glue for kids; or a hot glue gun for adults, who know how not to be burned and are ready to stick fingers too hot fingers in cold water.
5. Add what you need from the kitchen, like cinnamon sticks, dried lentils and beans. While Busse coats his buildings with urethane (used to protect boats and to give his buildings an antique finish), you’ll probably want to display yours indoors.
6. But first, take outdoors and spray several coats with a can of shellac for some protection. Place a grouping of buildings on a windowsill, shelf, mantle, or tray in the middle of a dining table, or under a tree. Surround with cut evergreens as you wish.