These weekly
garden notes are written by Kim Willis, unless another author is noted, and the
opinions expressed in these notes are her opinions and do not represent any
other individual, group or organizations opinions.
Hi Gardeners
Well the sun is out today- it makes those temperatures a
little easier to bear. It’s 58 days
until spring and I do hope nature follows the calendar on this one.
Time to check those bulbs
If you have summer
bulbs like dahlias and cannas stored for the winter it’s time to check them and
see how they are doing. I know I am a
bit worried about how cold it has been in my unheated porch where I store
them. Mine seem ok but I hope they will
all sprout in the spring. Check your
bulbs to see if they are shriveled and limp.
If they are you can add a small amount of moisture to the packing
material. That may revive them. If they look mushy or moldy remove any bad
areas and store what’s left in clean, dry packing material. Wood shavings and peat moss are good packing
materials.
If you kept your
bulbs in the pots they grew in last summer water the pots lightly with luke
warm water. You may want to start
tuberous and cane begonias growing by potting them up and bringing them into a
warmer, brightly lit area. They take a
long time to begin blooming.
You may also want
to start some cuttings of the geraniums (pelargoniums) that you
overwintered. Cuttings from Rex begonias
and coleus can also be started.
Beautiful Beans
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| Scarlet Runner Bean- Credit Nic McPhee |
If you need a fast growing vine for summer color why not
consider some beans? There are some
beans that sport beautiful flowers and some of them provide a bonus crop of
delicious edible beans. Beans are annual
plants but you can easily save seeds to grow them again the next season.
The Scarlet Runner bean has flaming scarlet
flowers. You can eat the beans when
young as “green beans” or allow the pods to dry and collect the pretty black
and purple beans for dry bean recipes. Golden Sunshine also has pretty scarlet
flowers but the leaves are a golden green.
It’s a bit later than Scarlet Runner but also has great flavored beans.
Sunset Runner has peachy pink
blooms. It’s an early bloomer/producer
that will keep producing as long as the pods are picked and is excellent for
“green beans.” Moonlight is also an early producer with large, pure white
blooms. It is semi-string less when used
as a green bean and can also be used as a dry
 |
| Sunset Runner Bean |
The Painted Lady
bean has red and white bi-colored flowers.
It can be eaten as a green bean or the pretty buff beans with brown
markings can be used as dry beans. Lady Di runner beans have bright red
flowers that attract hummingbirds and stringless bean pods that can reach 10
inches long and still remain tender and tasty.
The dry beans are mottled red and black.
Streamline also has red
flowers and pods that can reach 18 inches long.
Hyacinth beans or
Lablab have beautiful purple flowers and some varieties have leaves with purple
veins or that are purple shaded. There
is controversy whether the purple podded beans are edible or not. Most sources claim the beans can be eaten if
they are boiled with several changes of water.
The beans are eaten in other countries with proper preparation and the
young leaves of the plants are eaten like spinach.
 |
| Hyacinth bean |
Spider power
Nature
is far more complex than we can ever dream.
Scientists have discovered that the sticky substance that spiders coat
their webs with actually has electrostatic properties as well as being glue. As insects fly through the air they build up
static electricity and when they near a spider web the surface of the web
actually jumps toward them, giving the web an advantage in “capturing” prey. This movement has been captured by high
powered cameras. This action actually
pulls particles like pollen floating through the air toward the web.
What’s even more astounding is that this electrostatic glue
alters the earth’s electric field around a spider web. It’s a very small alteration in a very small
area- several millimeters around a web- but it is measurable. Researchers believe some insects can sense
disturbances in the earth’s electric field and this may help some of them avoid
spider webs.
I keep picturing a science fiction scenario where someone
gathers a million spider webs together in a room and creates a time warp.
Moon Trees
On January 31, 1971 Apollo 14 blasted off for the moon. On board were three astronauts including
Stuart Roosa, arguably not the most well- known of the crew. ( Al Shepard and
Ed Mitchell walked on the moon.) Each
astronaut on this trip was allowed to carry something personal to the moon and
Roosa, a former US Forest Ranger choose to carry tree seeds.
Packed in a metal cylinder 6 inches long by 3 inches wide
were 450 tree seeds from two US Forest Service Genetics labs. The 450 seeds were from Redwood, Loblolly
pine, Sycamore, Douglas Fir and Sweetgum trees.
While only Shepard and Mitchell walked on the moon, Roosa, the flight
pilot, and the seeds circled the moon 34 times before returning to Earth.
During the decontamination process of the shuttle the metal
canister shattered and the tree seeds were scattered on the floor. Even though it was feared the seeds were
damaged they were carefully gathered up off the floor and taken to a forest
service genetic lab. There the director,
Stan Krugman, was surprised to find that almost all of the seeds germinated and
began to grow.
The seeds were grown in the lab until 1975 when it was
decided that the normal looking and growing trees would be distributed to
interested parties. Requests for trees
swamped the Forest Service. They even
took cuttings off some of the trees and rooted them to supply some of the
requests. Moon trees were sent to Japan,
to public gardens, to teachers, girl scout camps, city halls and nearly every
state in the US. One was planted in
Wyoming Michigan, in Kent County. The problem was no one kept a record of where
the trees were being sent or planted.
Doesn’t that sound like our government?
Through the years most of the trees grew into perfectly
normal trees that crossed with native trees near them and produced viable
seeds. No genetic abnormalities were
ever found. Some of the trees have since
died or were cut down but hundreds still exist across the country, the problem
is finding them. Many of the trees were
marked with plagues or signs to show that they were moon trees.
Dave Williams, a NASA archives curator has made it his
mission to locate as many moon trees as possible. You can visit his web page and see a map of
where moon trees were planted and where they still may be located at
Unfortunately the moon tree near the police station in
Wyoming, Michigan, a sycamore, was “accidently” cut down by a contractor in
2000. It was however replaced by a 2nd
generation moon tree in 2009.
Try an Abutilon this
spring
 |
| Abutilon |
Abutilons have been around as houseplants for at least a
century, commonly seen as a shrubby house plant known as Flowering Maple. Other
common names for Abutilons include Chinese Bell Flower, Chinese Lanterns, and
Indian Mallow. The abutilons however,
are a genus of about 150 species growing in sub-tropical areas of South America
and Asia. They grow as small trees,
shrubs and vines. Recently plant
breeders have worked with the various species of Abutilon, improving and
hybridizing them to create many exotic, easy to grow varieties you can now find
at the greenhouse near you.
Abutilons are evergreen and like most tropical plants they
keep their leaves all year. The stems
turn woody over time. Most species are
perennial but annual varieties exist.
Some hybrids from South American species will survive temperatures into
the teens and growers are working to produce even hardier plants.
The older tree forms of abutilon still exist but the newer
abutilons produced for gardeners tend to form smaller shrub-like plants or
spreading hanging basket plants. There
is a wide variation in leaf size and shape and even flower shape among the
recent introductions. In some the
large, colorful hibiscus-like flowers are the show, in others the beautiful
foliage, often variegated, is as showy as the smaller dangling ‘lantern” type
flowers. All Abutilon flowers are
attractive to hummingbirds.
The large flowered varieties usually have leaves that are
lobed- sometimes looking like a maple leaf.
They can be various shades of green and may be variegated with yellow or
white. Some large flowered varieties
though, have smaller, fuzzy blade like leaves with serrated edges. The large flowered types have 5 tissue
paper-like flower petals shaped like a saucer or cupped ranging in size from 1½
inches to 5 inches across.
The large flowered abutilons have a prominent pistil and
stamens in the center and resemble hibiscus or mallow flowers. Flowers usually
dangle, facing downward. Flower colors
are usually warm colors such as reds and yellows, but white, pink and lavender
varieties exist. There are some hard to
find double flowered abutilons on the market.
Small flowered
abutilons are usually hybrids of Abutilon megapotamicum. The flowers have a large calyx- (a thicker
version of sepals) - on the back of the flower from which the flower petals
protrude beneath, producing the “lantern” look.
The calyx is often a contrasting color from the petals. Usually the colors are reds, yellows and
oranges but some pastels exist. The
lantern type flowers are 1-2 inches long.
 |
| Small variegated leaf abutilon. |
Small flowered varieties of Abutilon usually have small
leaves but at least one large maple leaf type variety exists. Many small flowered Abutilon have leaves that
are heavily variegated with gold or white.
The lantern types tend to have wiry, arching stems from which the leaves
and flowers dangle and make beautiful hanging baskets.
Growing Abutilon
Gardeners will generally start with plants. Abutilons can be started from seeds, although
Michigan grown plants rarely produce them.
It takes two years for most Abutilons to bloom from seed. Abutilons will also grow from cuttings.
Do not put Abutilons outside until all danger of frost has
passed and bring them inside in the fall before frost. They can be planted directly in the ground
and treated as annuals; however you can bring potted plants inside in the fall
for a blooming houseplant. The larger
flowered varieties hold their blooms better if protected from wind.
Abutilons prefer partial to full sun in the garden and a
sunny window indoors. Use a loose, light
potting soil. For best bloom Abutilons
need regular feeding. Use an extended
release fertilizer for flowers or fertilize with a liquid fertilizer every two
weeks. In the house stop fertilizing
November through January and let the plant rest a bit.
Abutilons need regular watering, particularly large plants
in hanging baskets. If they get too dry
they may drop their leaves but may recover if watered in time. Do not over water in the winter, soggy soil
will kill them.
Trim off any damaged or spindly growth. Abutilons can be pruned to control size as
some plants will get as large as 6 foot high and wide. If you want the plants to grow larger replant
in a slightly larger pot each spring.
Some varieties
‘Canary Bird’ is an older, small shrub form with large,
canary yellow flowers and large leaves.
‘Cannington Peter’ is similar but has dark red flowers and yellow
variegated leaves. ‘Violetta’ is a large - 6 foot - plant with large violet to
indigo blue flowers. ‘Voodoo’ has 2 inch
blood red flowers. ‘Hawaiian Ma’o’ is a large upright with 1 inch golden yellow
double flowers. ‘Tennant’s White’ has
huge white flowers.
‘Souvenir De Bonn’ is a tree-like Abutilon with large maple
leaves variegated with white and orange lantern type flowers. ‘Paisley’ is a hanging basket type with small
triangular dark green leaves heavily spotted with gold and dangling red and
yellow lantern flowers. ‘Pink Charm’ has
green leaves and pastel pink lantern type flowers. ‘Fools Gold’ has small fuzzy
green leaves and 2-3 inch lantern type flowers of gold with dark orange
veins. ‘Savatzii is a dwarf type with
almost white leaves, salmon orange flowers.
Kim Willis
“He who has a garden and a library wants for nothing” ― Cicero
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