Hi
Gardeners
Its 44 degrees and sunny as I write this, the second
mostly sunny day in a row, which is a great mood lifter. When Gizzy and I took our walk yesterday I
noticed tiny green buds on the honeysuckles.
Ground Ivy and chickweed are beginning to grow and the early bulbs are
sprouting. Last year at this time we
were experiencing lows of the -15 range and highs below 20 degrees. In 2015 it was -10 on Valentine’s Day. However I had snowdrops blooming on the 24th
of February last year so I’m getting excited that I may see them soon this
year. The day after I saw the snowdrops
bloom last year we had 11 inches of snow. I hope that’s not coming this year.
Inside the hibiscus are all putting on lots of
buds. My Christmas cacti are still blooming;
they’ve had a long bloom period this year.
The fuchsias are still blooming.
Kalanchoes are beginning to bloom. The tuberous begonias I saved in pots
on the porch are starting to sprout again.
I kept saying last fall that I wasn’t adding any more
flower or vegetable beds this year, but here I am, out walking in the balmy
winter sun and dreaming about what changes the garden needs. I do need a new raised veggie bed, maybe a narrow
one along the fence for greens, that area is shaded late in the day. And I see a need to expand the front bed
along the walkway a bit, just a bit you know, because there are some plants I
want that I don’t have room for. And if
I move the log border back around the pine tree in the center of the yard I’ll
have room for one more flowering shrub on the edge of that. Spring fever is real folks; it messes with
your mind.
Hey – I just got a catalog from Gilbert Wild and they
have a clearance sale on daylily varieties they are discontinuing, number one
size clumps of very nice older varieties for only $2.50 each. http://www.gilberthwild.com/products.asp?dept=33
On line I saw they also had some iris varieties on
clearance. I’m not getting anything for mentioning this, just looked like a
good deal.
Lots of catalogs have special sales through the end of
this month. If you are going to order
plants now is the time to do it. I spent
part of the week looking at on line catalogs again this week while adding them
to my garden catalog page to the right of the blog. I have got to stop doing that as I get too
many ideas about what plants I must have.
Great
Backyard Bird Count
Fill those birdfeeders it’s the Great Backyard Bird Count
February 17th -20th . Take part in some citizen science and
observe the birds in your yard for a short time in your yard on one of these
days. It’s quite easy and you can look at data coming in from all over the
world as people count birds. This is a
joint research project by Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon
Society. You simply look at and count
birds for a short time and then enter your counts on a form on line.
Don’t worry if you aren’t sure exactly what kind of
bird you are looking at. There’s a way
to record birds you aren’t sure of.
There are also photos of birds, Id tips, bird sound recordings and other
things on the site. You can look at maps
from last year and see what birds were recorded around you. You don’t have to have a bird feeder, you can
take a walk or slow drive and count birds too.
Knowing what bird species are showing up where and numbers
of certain birds helps researchers track declining populations of birds and how
birds are responding to climate change.
You can create an account and track your own bird sightings from year to
year or just count birds one time. I’ve
been doing this for several years and it’s fascinating to see what birds others
in my area and around the state are counting.
The US, UK and India are major contributors to the
count but people all over the world participate. Why not join them this weekend? Here’s the
link
Flowers
for Valentine’s Day?
According to statistics about 35% of us are going to
buy flowers as a gift this Valentine’s day and in the process spend about 2
billion dollars. The great majority of
those flowers will be red roses, 110 million of them. Roses of another color are in second place,
then mixed bouquets and plants.
California produces about 60% of the roses sold in
floral shops throughout the year but red roses for Valentine’s Day come mainly
from South America, particularly Columbia.
About 70% of all florist cut flowers are now produced in Columbia for
the US market. The businesses in
Columbia got their start when the US eliminated import fees in 1991 on cut
flowers from Columbia. This was done to
encourage investment in flower farming instead of growing coca to produce
cocaine.
In the Bogota Savannah and the Rionegro Valley of
Columbia near the Andes Mountains the days are long and warm, the nights cool
but frost free, and the soil fertile.
Most flower crops are grown in greenhouses or hoop houses, but some are
field grown. All kinds of flowers are
grown from roses to mums to supply the florist markets. The farming of flowers provides work for
thousands of people, especially women.
There’s a lot of hard work from grafting to weeding to
harvesting and packing flowers for shipment on the 300 some flower producing
farms in Columbia. Wages are low by our standards but people appreciate work in
a field other than an illegal one. Child labor and pesticide use/exposure were
big problems at one time but Columbia has worked to reduce both. In fact most flower farms are now modern
facilities, many have day care programs for workers children, and they sponsor
many educational and charitable programs.
Columbia celebrates its incredible diversity of native botanical
species as well as all the non-native species it grows with many botanical
gardens and parks throughout the country. Jose Celestino Mutis botanical
gardens in Bogota, near the major flower farming region is both a marvelous
public botanical garden and a botanical research center.
The weeks prior to Valentine’s Day are frantic in
Columbia. In the week before the holiday
about 24 large jets each holding up to 50 tons of flowers will take off for the
US. All of those flowers have to be cut, inspected, and packed in a very short
time span. Most of the planes are bound for Miami, Florida where the flowers
are inspected by customs then sent to distributors. The flowers must be kept chilled the entire
journey from farm to florist.
In the language of flowers red roses signify passionate
love. Three red roses are said to mean “I
love you”, 11 roses to say “I complete the love”, meaning you are the 12th
in a dozen-( that sounds silly to me) and 3 dozen red roses means “I have given
you my heart”. Since red roses probably
cost more at Valentine’s Day than they do the rest of the year, the number of
red roses you get may just reflect what the giver can afford.
Can
you grow your own chocolate?
With today being Valentine’s Day many people are
thinking about chocolate. It’s considered
to be one of the top Valentine’s Day gifts after roses of course. But if you love plants you might be asking –
can I grow my own chocolate? The answer
is you can probably grow a chocolate (Cacao) tree with a little care, but
unless you are living in a tropical growing zone you probably won’t be able to
produce anywhere near the amount of cacao seeds it would take to make a single
candy bar.
Cacao, or cocoa (Theobroma cacao subsp. cacao and. T.
cacao subsp. Sphaerocarpum) is native to Central and northern
South America but is now grown in several other countries near the equator.
Africa probably grows the most
commercial cocoa now, but even Hawaii produces a small crop. Please don’t confuse coca from which we get
the drug cocaine, with cocoa or cacao.
They are distinctly different plants.
 |
| Cacao plant - Logee's picture |
Cacao is farmed, but more than 70% of the commercial
crop is still produced by small farmers in a semi-wild state. It’s a tricky crop to grow because it needs
very specific conditions. It needs warmth
and humidity, light shade, especially when young, protection from strong winds,
the right soil conditions and to get the flowers fertilized it needs certain
small insects to visit the flowers. Then
of course there is a tricky harvest and fermenting process before the beans can
be used to make chocolate.
People in southern Florida have grown cacao plants
outside in sheltered areas but outside of southern Florida and Hawaii, most
American gardeners will need to grow their cocao plants indoors most of the
year. This can be done, but it’s a bit
of a challenge.
Cacao plants can be purchased from several tropical
plant suppliers. Logee’s is one. (Find a link to Logee’s and other tropical
plant sellers on the garden catalog page to the right of the blog.)The plants
will be small when you purchase them, but in nature cacao is a small tree about
25 feet high with an extensive taproot.
Trees don’t produce flowers and seed pods until they are several years
old and about 4 feet tall. The cacao
plant does make a handsome houseplant but if you want to see flowers and fruit
pods you’ll have to let it become a pretty large plant with a deep, large pot.
Cacao
description and habits
The cacao plant has glossy oval leaves that can get 4
inches wide by 24 inches long. New
leaves are reddish, and they gradually become bright green. The leaves are able to move and adjust their
angle of attachment to the stem in relation to the amount of sun they are
receiving. This is accomplished by a
swollen area at the leaf base called a pulvinus. It is normal for the plant to shed its lower
leaves as it grows.
When cacao gets about 4 feet high, with a stem about 1
½ inches in diameter and several branches, it may bloom. Cacao has an unusual bloom habit in that the
flowers pop out of a spongy bark layer on the main stem and older
branches. This is called cauliflorous
flowering. The plant usually has
numerous flowers and produces them all through the year. The flowers are small, pink or white, with 5
petals.
Cacao flowers have both male and female organs but most
cacao plants are not self-fertile. They
need the pollen from another plant to fertilize the female stigma. This complicates growing cacao inside,
because generally you will need two plants to get fruit. There is one variety of cacao that is
self-fertile called ‘Amelonado’. You
could ask the company you get your plant from if it is that variety.
Cacao flowers have to be hand fertilized when
inside. Tiny insects fertilize plants
outside. When fertilized the flowers
turn into either red or green fleshy pods with grooves in them. When ripe the pods turn yellow or orange
yellow. Inside a ripe pod will be 20-60 pink to red seeds (they turn brown when
dried) and a creamy, gelatin like pulp which is sweet and quite edible,
although it does not taste like chocolate.
Cacao often produces more pods than the tree can
support. It does some self-thinning by
letting certain pods shrivel, turn black and fall off, but farmers often thin
the crop so the trees are not stressed.
It’s unlikely a home indoor gardener will have this problem.
Growing
cacao
You could start cacao from seed but the seed needs to
be planted soon after the pods ripen for good germination. Its unlikely most gardeners would have access
to those seeds. Nurseries start plants
from seeds or cuttings. You’ll probably want to start with a small potted
plant. The plant will generally be a single stem for the first 2-3 years and
then begin to branch at the top.
 |
| Cacao |
While they grow in the shade of larger trees in nature
cacao plants grown inside need bright light.
In the winter this could be a south window but by March they should be
moved away from the window a foot or so or moved to an east window until
November. You can also use grow lights,
about 12 hours of light is good. If you
move the plants outside for summer do not put them in full sun. You should try to find them a spot under a
tree where they get filtered light or on a roofed porch or deck or the north
side of a building.
Cacao should be kept above 50 degrees and in a humid
environment. Do not put plants outside
for a summer vacation, which they love, until the weather is warm and settled
and bring them in early in the fall.
Plants should be kept out of windy areas outside or drafts inside. Increase humidity indoors to about 60 % or
higher if you can. Misting in the morning
helps, humidity trays or a humidifier may be needed. A warm, humid greenhouse would be ideal, but
some of us don’t have that.
When you get your potted cacao tree let it adjust to
the environment for a few weeks before transplanting it. Transplant the tree into a larger pot when it
has grown a few inches. Move the plants
up to larger pots every 6 months or so instead of planting a tiny plant in a
very large pot. Be very careful not to
break or damage the large main taproot when transplanting.
Cacao needs a loose but well drained soil that is able
to maintain a consistent moisture level.
Use a good soilless mixture, not garden soil in the pots. Many home gardeners use an African Violet
potting mix. Preferred soil pH is
slightly acidic, 6.5.
When your cacao plant is as large as your home can
handle stop transplanting it and you can prune some growth off the top to keep
the plant from touching the ceiling.
Cacao needs to fertilized for good growth and possible
fruit set. Indoor gardeners can use an
African Violet fertilizer or other blooming plant fertilizer that has some
magnesium in it. This can be a granular
slow release fertilizer mixed into the soil or one you mix with water. Dilute the water soluble fertilizer to half
the recommended dosage on the label and use it each time you water.
Keep cacao plants moist, but never water logged. Water until the water runs into the saucer
underneath the plant and then dump the saucer.
Every six months leach the soil by sitting the plant in a tub or sink
and letting water run slowly on the pot and out the bottom for about an hour.
Inside cacao sometimes gets whitefly or mealy bug like
other plants and should be treated for them the same way. It is normal for cacao to drop its lower
leaves and most growers in the home environment will experience the browning of
leaf edges during the winter die to low humidity.
If you get flowers, lucky you. If you want to try for pods you can remove
the male anthers from one flower and rub them on the stigma of another flower. If you have the ‘Amelonado’ variety this
could work. If not you’ll need the
anthers from another plants flowers. If
you have a greenhouse or tropical conservatory near you, ask if they have cacao
in flower that you could trade anthers with.
If you get pods after that you will probably not have
enough seeds to make chocolate with so I won’t cover the harvesting/fermenting
process. However you could taste the
sweet pulp inside for a unique experience and maybe use the seeds to start new
plants. Never pull off the pods, it damages the flowering area, use a knife and
cut them off.
If you like a challenge and houseplants that are
different, cacao may be for you. If you
are a person in a tropical planting zone you could contact your local county Extension
office for directions on planting cacao in the ground.
Anthuriums-
Boy Flowers
While some
people give red roses as a Valentines flower some are a bit more mischievous
and give anthuriums instead. Anthuriums
are also known as Boy Flowers because the “flower” of the plant has a
resemblance to male anatomy. Other
common names for the anthurium include Flamingo flower and Tail flower. Anthuriums may be found as potted plants
around Valentine’s Day (and at other times) or the flowers may be found in
distinctive floral arrangements. In the
language of flowers the anthurium flower is said to mean hospitality. Huh?
 |
| Anthutium or boy flower Photo credit wikipedia |
There are
more than 130 species of anthuriums but few are found in cultivation. Two species of anthuriums; Flamingo Flower
(Anthurium scherzianum) and Painter's Palette (Anthurium andreanum) and some
hybrids of these are sold as flowering houseplants. Some species of anthuriums are also used as
foliage plants in the homes and greenhouses of collectors who can afford the
pricy and finicky plants. Florida and
the Netherlands produce most of the flowering potted anthuriums.
Hawaii
produces great quantities of cut anthuriums for the florist trade, varieties
with large flowers and strong stems. In
Hawaii some gardeners also grow various species of anthuriums outside. Hawaii greenhouses and nurseries also produce
many of the foliage species of anthuriums that collectors covet.
Boy Flower anatomy
The
anthurium “flower” is actually a modified leaf, or bract. In most species it is an elongated heart or
hood shape and is colored red or orange in color. This bract is called a
spathe. Species of cultivated anthuriums
have now been developed that have pink, yellow, purple, white and variegated
spathes but red is still the most popular.
The spathe is thick with a waxy, shiny look that looks almost
artificial.
At the base
of the spathe a long spike called a spadix pokes upward. The spadix is closely packed with the tiny
true flowers of the anthurium. These
flowers have both male and female parts.
Spadix flowers are usually yellow or white. Each flower will eventually turn into a
fleshy berry with two seeds inside.
Anthurium
foliage is also attractive. The leaves
are heart shaped, deep green and shiny in the species kept as flowering
houseplants. But some rarer anthuriums
have velvety leaves, or broader leaves marked with beautiful vein
patterns. Most of the foliage anthuriums
are difficult to grow in normal household conditions and require a greenhouse
and dedicated gardener.
Growing conditions
Most
anthuriums come from tropical areas of Central and South America. They are often epiphytes or “air” plants in
nature although some species grow in the ground. Most species are sprawling or vine-like. The anthuriums cultivated as houseplants are
grown in a coarse, well drained media in pots.
If kept in
good light, warm, lightly fertilized and watered correctly anthuriums will
actually bloom for long periods or if in perfect conditions almost continuously. They can be a bit tricky as a houseplant and
are not for those indoor gardeners who practice benign neglect.
The
suggested medium for anthuriums in cultivation is equal parts of peat, perlite
and shredded bark. A potting mix for
orchids will work. (In Hawaii
anthuriums are sometimes grown in macadamia nut hulls. ) Plants should be kept
slightly root bound, which means the pot should not be much bigger than the
root system. When you buy a potted
anthurium it will probably not need re-potting for a year or two.
Anthuriums
need bright but indirect light. They
will flourish in an east window or a few inches from south or west
windows. Strong direct sun will burn the
leaves. They must be kept above 65
degrees F. for good flowering but below 90 degrees F. Keep them out of drafts. Plants need to be kept above 45 degrees F.
to survive.
Humidity is
essential to flowering and good looking foliage in anthuriums. If you don’t use a humidifier in the home the
anthurium pot should probably be set over a tray of water and misted
frequently. But while they like humidity
they absolutely cannot stand over watering.
They should be watered well and then allowed to dry out just slightly
but not to the point of wilting, before watering again. Brown ends on the foliage and flower spathe
mean the humidity is too low or that you are over or under watering.
Anthuriums
require light but continuous fertilization to bloom. Slow release fertilizer is usually
incorporated into commercial potting mixes that plants are potted in for sale
and so you probably won’t need to fertilize for a month after purchase. After that you can use a fertilizer with a
low nitrogen ratio such as 7-9-5 either in a slow release granular form or as a
liquid at every other watering. Many
growers suggest a flowering houseplant fertilizer mixed at half strength.
The
Flamingo Flower or Painter’s Palette anthriums get about 2 foot high and wide
at maturity. These species or similar
hybrids are relatively easy to find in places that sell potted house
plants. Make sure they are well protected
from the cold as you transport them home.
Other species of anthuriums can be found in specialty stores and
catalogs but can be very expensive.
Anthurium
plant parts are poisonous and handling the plants may also give some people a
rash.
For the
gardener in your life a Valentine’s Day gift of a Boy Flower may make the day special. And if you opt instead for a floral
arrangement featuring anthurium flowers you are giving a special gift that can
last for weeks.
Question
of the week- Which is better, seed tapes or pelleted seed?
Rob
from Michigan
Seed tapes and pelleted seed are both made to make
planting small seeds easier. Seed tapes
have small seeds like carrot seed spread along a paper strip which you simply
lay in a furrow. The seeds are usually pressed between two pieces of material. Pelleted seeds are seeds enclosed in a small
ball of clay-like material, which makes them larger and easier to handle and
space in a row. Both tapes and pellets
can be organic and they are almost always more expensive than plain seeds.
I have planted both pelleted seed and seed tapes. My preference is for the pelleted seed. Seed tapes have the disadvantage of a whole
row being dislodged if a cat or chicken, for example, starts digging in one
part of the garden. They also seem to
wick away water from around the seeds if the paper part is exposed to air. Since most seeds on tapes are small seeds
they aren’t covered very deeply with soil and it’s easy for them to dry out.
The pelleting material tends to keep the seed moist,
especially if the row is well watered after planting. And if a cat or chicken digs up one spot the
rest of the row usually isn’t disturbed.
Either of these methods simplifies planting and keeps
you from having to thin out the plants as much.
After placing the tapes or pelleted seeds in the furrow make sure to water
them well, before covering the seeds.
Then water again, unless the soil is really wet.
Happy
Valentine’s Day, eat some chocolate it’s good for you
Kim Willis
“He who has a garden and
a library wants for nothing” ― Cicero
© Kim Willis - no parts of this newsletter may be used
without permission.
And
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