Hi
Gardeners
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| Sun on Rex begonia |
Today in Michigan it’s snowing lightly. We have returned to winter and the ground has
an inch or two of snow covering it. The
bird feeders are covered with birds and my parakeets are chattering to them
through the windows. There must be two
dozen junco’s, little gray birds with white bellies, spread across the yard,
busy picking at something.
I had gotten used to going outside with minimal
outerwear and having the hose to the barn run.
Now I’m back to bundling up and carrying buckets of water. Ground Hog day is Thursday and it’s supposed
to be sunny, so as the superstition goes he’ll see his shadow and we’ll have 6
more weeks of winter. (There’s an
article about woodchucks/groundhogs in the pages to the right of the main
blog.)
We always have 6 more weeks of winter after February 2nd
so the groundhog’s shadow means nothing to me, not that any sensible groundhog
would be out of its den now. But it will
be wonderful to see the sun. To date
this month we have had only 7 days where it was sunny or partly sunny- mostly
partly sunny. That’s a bad part of being
in Michigan’s thumb area in the winter, we get clouds off the Saginaw Bay to
the north and Lake Huron to the east.
My houseplants and the plants I am overwintering inside
are at their lowest point as far as looks and vitality goes. Artificial light barely compensates for the
loss of the sunlight. The air is dry
from the furnace running so much. Yesterday I removed the overwintering penta
from the windowsill, because it had basically dried up. I found a single still green shoot so there’s
hope it can be saved. I don’t know why I
save this one every year anyway. It’s a red flowering one I’ve had for 3 years. It’s probably at the end of its lifespan
anyway. So it’s sitting on the kitchen counter now awaiting my decision as to
where to place it now that I’ve cleaned the dead leaves off.
Yes I kill plants.
If a gardener tells you they have never killed a plant they are giving
you “alternative facts” or they are a very new gardener. I don’t like to kill
plants of course, but every one that dies usually teaches me something. In the
penta’s case I should have realized the small pot it was in would dry out very
quickly, especially since it was near a heating vent. It was buried behind other plants and I didn’t
notice its condition soon enough. So I
have moved around all my plants to get a good look at them and the remaining part
of the sad penta will be moved to a cooler moister place where I can keep a
better eye on it.
Don’t be afraid to make a gardening mistake. We all do.
If you have been gardening more than 50 years as I have (wow, writing
that makes me feel really old) you will have made many, many mistakes, but
those mistakes probably made you a better gardener. We learn by doing. Reading about gardening is good- and I hope
all of you like reading about gardening here- but getting your hands dirty is
even better.
And plants dying are a part of gardening. Many times it isn’t your fault; it’s just the
nature of life. Everything has a
lifespan, all things die. For some plants
the natural lifespan is only a few weeks, for other plants its decades. I have plants in my home that are 50 years
old. They may outlive me. Hopefully someone in the family will adopt
them when I’m gone.
My elderly plants are nothing really rare or valuable
but if you do have plants that are really rare or valuable have you ever
thought about what would happen if you could no longer care for them? You may
want to donate them to a public garden or school program or someone you know
would appreciate them. Or maybe you want
to give your heirs a heads up about how valuable they are and what they should
be sold for. Think about who should have
the plants and how to make sure they get cared for until they can be
transferred to the place of your choice.
Then put those instructions in writing, if not in your will, maybe
somewhere else in your important papers.
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| Red Penta |
Gardening
in the Zone
If you are new to gardening you may be a little
confused about all this zone stuff. Just
what is a gardening zone and what zone am I in? A gardening zone is determined officially by
the United States Department of Agriculture but a few other places have
developed their own zone charts. If you
live in another country your Department of Agriculture may have published its
own chart, although the USDA chart covers Canada.
A zone chart divides the country into areas by the
coldest winter temperatures they may experience and numbers them. That’s called your winter hardiness zone for
gardening. There’s another USDA zone
chart for heat hardiness but it is little used. Each gardening zone may be further divided
into part A and part B. The colder the
winter, the lower the number assigned to the zone. In the US mainland area, we currently have zones
three to eleven.
The USDA gathers data from numerous sites to determine
an average maximum low temperature from an area. As most of us know the climate is changing and
the USDA zone map has been revised. Many
gardeners will find that their gardening zone has changed so that they are in a
higher numbered zone, in other words, winter has gotten warmer.
The new gardening zone chart has taken into
consideration the data from a much greater number of places than previous zone
maps. Even without climate change, the
increased range of data may have changed the zone map.
Where
to Find Your Gardening Zone
Where can you find this gardening zone map so that you
can see what planting zone you are in?
Almost every garden catalog has a zone map somewhere in it. Most garden reference books do too. And you could go to the USDA site to find the
map also: http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/InteractiveMap.aspx
Some places devise their own gardening zone maps, such
as the Arbor Day Foundation and Sunset Gardening Publications. Since most plant sellers use the USDA chart
to rate the hardiness of their plants it’s probably best to look your gardening
site on the official USDA zone map.
How
to Use the Gardening Zone Map Information
The gardening zone chart is used so that consumers can
know what perennial plants will survive the winter in their area. Most plant labels and gardening catalogs will
put the zone hardiness rating somewhere in the plant description. When you choose plants for your garden choose
plants that will grow in your zone or a lower numbered zone.
If you are a gardener in zone five you will want to
choose plants that are rated hardy to zone five, four or three. (Zone three is about the coldest area of the
mainland United States.) A plant rated
hardy to zone seven would probably not survive the winter in your garden.
While most plants that have been in the market for a
while will be assigned pretty accurately to their gardening zone, new plants
may be less accurately placed. When new plants are put on the market they will
probably have been trialed in a number of places, but until thousands of
gardeners are growing the plant, the information about their zone hardiness may
be only a guess. When purchasing newly
introduced plants, or even new varieties of familiar garden plants, be aware
that the zone hardiness may not be really accurate.
How
to Cheat a Gardening Zone
What if you live in gardening zone five and you really,
really, want a plant that is listed hardy to zone six? Sometimes you can get away with it. In every yard there are areas we call micro
zones, areas where the climate is just a little different from the surrounding
area. It may be up against the south
side of the house, in a courtyard, or in a sheltered pocket surrounded by heat
holding rocks or cement. A zone six
plant might survive there.
There are other gardening tricks to try too. Deep mulching or a protective cover might do
the trick. Sometimes plants that mange
to survive a few milder winters in the zone will acclimate enough to survive a
harsher winter. Start with small
plants of the variety you want to try and plant them in the spring. Only spend what you can afford to lose on the
plant.
If you have always wanted to grow certain types of
plants in your garden but you don’t live in the right gardening zone, don’t
despair. New varieties of the plant you
are interested in may be developed that expand the gardening zone range. Keep looking. And when you have been
successful in getting a plant to grow in your gardening zone that wasn’t rated
hardy for it, share the information with gardening friends and
organizations. That may inspire others
in your zone to grow the plant and ultimately get the gardening zone rating
changed.
Book
review- The Sound of a Wild Snail
Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
While this is not a gardening book I think every
gardener will enjoy it. It’s a sweet and
stunning little non-fiction book that will take your mind off alternative facts
and government turmoil. And the author
is a gardener after all.
When Elizabeth is felled by an unusual virus she picks
up traveling she spends months upon months confined to bed, able to do very
little. A friend digs up some wild
violets and plunks a common wood snail in them and brings it to her bedside. And her fascination with the tiny snail
begins.
The book weaves Elizabeth’s musings about her condition
around fascinating information about what snails, and their relative slugs, are
like and how they live their tiny independent lives. If you as a gardener have ever battled slugs
or snails you may think differently about them after you read this book. These tiny creatures are much more likable
than you think. And most do not damage gardens.
Did you know snails like mushrooms and fallen flower
petals to eat? Did you know they can
cooperate as a group to escape from confinement? Did you know many species of
snails actually manufacture “Cupids darts” in their bodies and then throw them at
each other during courtship? The
courtship of snails is extremely sensual; you will be amazed at what biologists
through the ages have observed. In this
short and easy to understand book are snail facts that will amaze you.
I remember being fascinated with tiny white snails I
saw on moss under a microscope one time and from the book I learned there are
hundreds of snail species barely visible to the naked eye. In your garden there
are probably large populations of snails you know nothing about, a hidden world.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it was easy and
soothing to read, yet full of valuable information. (And it does have a happy ending, don’t worry.)
Amazon had the Kindle edition on sale-
and you can find it at good bookstores.
Try it; I think most garden people will like it.
Is
Australian Blushwood a miracle cancer remedy?
This week
someone sent me an article about an Australian plant, Blushwood, (Fontainea picrosperma), and then went on a
rant about how it cured cancer and how “Big Pharma” was trying to keep us from
getting our hands on this “natural” cure so they could keep selling us
drugs. I could see the article was
sensationalized for maximum sharing on line, but was there any truth in
it? I did some research to find out.
The Australian
blushwood tree grows in the rainforests of northern Queensland in
Australia. It’s a dioecious understory
tree that is relatively common where it grows but the area it grows in is not
large. There are several related species
that also grow in distinct areas. Its
habitat is a tropical rainforest and it does not grow well outside of those
conditions. It is an attractive enough
shrub/small tree and in the right areas of Australia was sometimes used as an
ornamental. It has small white flowers
and red fruit that indigenous animals like.
To see a botanical description and some pictures try this link; http://keys.trin.org.au/key-server/data/0e0f0504-0103-430d-8004-060d07080d04/media/Html/taxon/Fontainea_picrosperma.htm
Blushwood
became famous and highly sought after when a company called QBiotics isolated a
chemical compound called EBC-46 from its fruit.
EBC-46 is a protein Kinase C (PKC) inhibitor. The chemical was injected into solid
cancerous tumors of animals and it was found that it rapidly shrank those
tumors. Veterinary trials began and
currently there are some small human trials ongoing. In the trials a single injection is given to
the tumor and it causes the blood vessels supplying the tumor to shrink and
die. The first trial results were
published in 2014.
There are
reservations about the use of EBC-46 in humans because previous PKC inhibitors
have had serious or fatal side effects. Human trials are proceeding cautiously. Tumors that might be cured with EBC-46 include
cutaneous or subcutaneous solid tumors of diseases such as melanoma, head and
neck cancer, SCC and BCC of the skin and Merckel cell carcinoma. To date- at least in published material- no
cure of human cancer has been accomplished although tumors have been shrunk and
remissions occurred.
So why
wouldn’t this make a great herbal remedy?
Why not grow your own? Why are
they keeping this from us? Big Pharma
just wants to sell us drugs! This is the screaming message getting pushed
across public forums. And it’s nonsense.
It was “Big
Pharma” that discovered this “drug” in the plant. As far as I can find Blushwood is not used as
an herbal remedy in its natural state. It’s neither safe nor natural as the clickbait
headlines proclaim. Ingesting plant
parts won’t cure you; it will probably kill you, as Blushwood is considered to
be toxic. To get the benefits of certain
ingredients in this plant other chemicals have to be removed and the helpful
chemicals purified and standardized.
This can’t be done under home conditions; it needs to be done in a
lab. It’s a complicated process and the
product and process to get it has been patented by QBiotics.
Developing
new drugs from biologicals –plant and animal sources- accounts for about 60% of
the medicines we use or that are in development. Some come because herbal remedies used for
ages pointed to it as being helpful, aspirin for example, but others come about
because researchers are actively seeking out and testing plants and even
animals for new drugs. Some plants would
never have been used in herbal remedies or used very infrequently, because of their
toxic nature. In laboratory conditions
however we can isolate compounds that we feel might be useful from those we
know to be toxic.
Taxol is a
drug used for cancer treatment that comes from yew plants. However if you went out and made an herbal
tea from yew you might very well die after drinking a few swallows of it. In the case of many herbal remedies too much
will kill you, or make you wish you were dead.
Only a few herbal remedies are safe no matter how much you consume,
cannabis, for example. When you produce
or gather your own herbal remedies you can never know just how strong those
remedies are. Growing conditions,
preparation and many other things can affect the efficacy or toxicity of the
remedy.
Researchers
trying drugs for various disease cures like to know just how much of the active
ingredients are in each dose. This is
called standardizing dosages and it’s done in laboratory conditions. Without it results of trials may not be
replicable, which to get any drug approved for human use must be done. And we wouldn’t know what the threshold between
cure and death is either if we don’t know what dose of active ingredients was
given.
No, you don’t want Blushwood in your
herb garden
So this
means you should not rush out and
try to obtain Blushwood plants or seeds to grow in the herb garden. First of all the plant is not easy to grow
outside its native environment as researchers have found out. It needs tropical conditions and a
relationship with other plants in the understory environment. You need male and
female plants to produce fruit and seeds have to go through a treatment to
germinate. There are ongoing studies to
determine how to produce the plant in quantity under controlled conditions if
it does prove to be helpful.
Second you
cannot just use the plant like other herbal remedies if you were to find it and
were able to grow it. The helpful drug must be isolated from the harmful
ingredients under laboratory conditions. There is no ingestible form of the
plant that is safe. If you were to
inject some homemade concoction you would be more likely to cause great harm
than a cure.
Australian
nurseries have stopped selling Blushwood plants because they fear people will
die experimenting with them. It is also
not legal to sell plants or seed from Australia to places outside
Australia. On line I have seen people
begging others to sell them seeds or plants, giving all kinds of sad or greedy
reasons that they need them. Many of
these would be illegal transactions and none will be of benefit to any sick
person. Businesses that are advertising
seeds or powders made from the plant are
frauds and you shouldn’t waste your time and money on them. What is being advertised is 99% certain not
to be from Blushwood and it certainly won’t cure cancer.
So yes,
“Big Pharma” will be controlling this drug.
They discovered and developed it.
And they are not keeping the drug from you- if it proves effective you
can bet they will sell it. Without
debating drug costs, it’s important to remember that all drugs can’t be
replicated at home and there is a cost to produce them. While we can be cautiously optimistic that
this drug will help cure some forms of cancer, it won’t kill all kinds of
cancer in all people. It’s not some
ancient herbal remedy unearthed and exploited by drug companies, it’s a product
of the drug industry.
So don’t
fall for the hype and certainly don’t buy any Fontainea picrosperma products on line or in health food stores
unless you enjoy wasting money.
More information- references
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0108887#pone.0108887-Keisari1
October 1, 2014
Monarda,
or Bee balm for the garden
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| Monarda or Bee Balm flower |
Bee balm or
Monarda is a native American wildflower that makes a great garden plant. It’s pretty, long blooming, attracts bees,
butterflies, and hummingbirds, provides seeds for birds, smells good, has
herbal uses and is extremely easy to grow. It will grow in sun or partial shade, in many
types of soil and in zones 4-8. The only
drawbacks to Monarda are that it spreads very quickly both by runners and seeds
and can sometimes take over the perennial bed.
It is also subject to powdery mildew which can leave plants looking
ragged.
Monarda has
about 20 native species but the most common are Monarda didyma, which has scarlet flowers, M. fistulosa which has pinkish flowers, and M. citriodora and M.
pectinate which have pale lavender flowers.
The species are known to hybridize in the wild and many cultivated
varieties have been created by crossing species. Other common names of Monarda include
Bergamot, horsemint, and Oswego tea.
Monarda is
in the mint family and has squared, lightly grooved stems and a minty smell
when crushed. It is said to smell like
Bergamot, a citrus family plant that is used for perfume. The stems and leaves may have fine hairs or be
smooth depending on species. Leaves are
long ovals (lance shaped) arranged opposite on the stems with a pointed tip and
serrated edges. The young leaves and
leaves close to flowers often have a purplish tinge. Monarda dies to the ground in winter but
begins growing very early in spring, often as soon as the snow as melted and
may even begin to grow in brief thaws.
Plants grow about 3 feet high in good conditions. Monarda plants have underground stems called
stolons that spread along and just under the ground to form a thick mat.
Native
Monarda flowers are pretty enough but many colors of flowers have been
developed in cultivation in various shades of red, pink and purple. Monarda flowers appear in early summer at the
top of stems and bloom continues throughout summer. The flowers are a bit hard
to describe but here goes. There are
several layers of sepals, usually colored similar to the flower, then a rounded
cluster of buds which begin opening at the top like a wild hairdo. Flowers are tube shaped, splitting near the
top to form one long petal that may have a hook shaped appendage, or sometimes
a fork, and one shorter petal. The
plants 2 stamens (male sexual organs) extend past the petals at maturity.
Double
flowered varieties of Monarda have been developed but these are not as well
liked by bees and hummingbirds. Some
cultivated varieties have a more flattened shape to the flowers, instead of the
flowers opening in a cluster at the top they open to the sides. Monarda flowers must have very tasty and
abundant nectar as they are greatly loved by hummingbirds, bees and some
butterflies. When the flowers are
pollinated they produce tiny black seeds which small birds such as goldfinches
and chickadees really like.
Cultivars of Monarda
'Cambridge
Scarlet' with bright scarlet flowers and 'Croftway Pink' with pink flowers are
two old but good varieties. 'Snow White' is a harder to find variety with white
flowers. (It’s not as attractive to hummingbirds and bees.)
'Marshall's
Delight', (Pink) ‘Jacob Cline’, (red), 'Sunset',(red-purple) and 'Violet
Queen'( violet) are mildew resistant varieties.
Dwarf varieties include ‘Petite Delight’ (pink), ‘Fireball’ (red), and
‘Pardon My Purple’ (purple).
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| Dwarf purple monarda |
Growing Monarda
Monarda is
generally bought as a plant. A gardener
you know may be happy to share some with you as the plants spread rapidly. Seeds can be started also, but seeds
collected from hybrid plants will probably not look the same as the
parents. You can easily start Monarda
from cuttings of the stolons in the spring too.
Monarda looks best when several plants are grouped together, but don’t
worry if you can only find or afford one.
It will quickly multiply for you.
There are now Monarda varieties in dwarf form that can be grown in containers.
Monarda
prefers full sun and flowers best there, with less problems with powdery
mildew. But it will grow in partial
shade and even produce some blooms.
Monarda will grow in any type of soil as long as that soil is reasonably
moist during the growing season. Monarda
likes ample water. It rarely needs
fertilization and fertilization tends to produce floppy plants.
Deadheading
Monarda will help keep plants blooming through summer. Leave some flowers late in the season to
produce seeds for birds. The dried seed
heads can also be used in flower arrangements.
To make plants stockier you can cut the plants in half in late
spring. This will delay flowering but
the plants will be shorter when they flower.
Every 3-4 years the Monarda clumps should be dug up in the early spring
and separated or you will tend to get dead areas in the center of the clump or
toward the back of the area they are growing in. You can trim Monarda back to the ground after
the first hard frost or wait until spring to trim dead stalks back.
 |
| Bee balm seed head |
The worst
problem Monarda seems to have is with powdery mildew, which can pop up in warm
weather. Powdery mildew doesn’t generally
kill plants but it can make them quit flowering and look very straggly. It begins with a powdery white look on the
lower leaves, which quickly dry up and fall off and this continues up the stem
until you have bare stems with a clump of struggling foliage at the top. If you have problems with powdery mildew
there are flower fungicides that can be applied, usually they work best as a
preventative and not a cure. Management
can also be used to increase airflow through clumps of the plant. Trim half of the stems back randomly to about
10 inches throughout the clump. As those
regrow and begin to bloom, trim the other half of the stems you left back.
Medicinal and culinary uses of
Monarda
As a member
of the mint family the flowers and foliage of Monarda are edible. The taste is a sharp combination of
peppermint and oregano in my opinion. I
don’t find it appealing for salads but you might. The flowers could be a colorful touch to
salad or a plate garnish. Native
Americans used sprigs of the plant to flavor duck and game birds when roasting
them. I have seen recipes where it was
used to flavor bread. Monarda essential
oil is used for aromatherapy and in potpourri.
Monarda is
used for teas, hence the name Oswego tea.
Dried or fresh leaves, and flowers can be used for tea. It can be sweetened and used as a “pleasure
tea” and is said to relieve indigestion and gas pains. Beware it’s also a diuretic. Monarda has a high concentration of thymol,
which is a good antiseptic. Cooled tea
can be used as a mouthwash for sores in the mouth and sore throats. It can also be used to wash wounds or as a
poultice on skin infections.
Leaves that
are removed from the stems and dried for a few days in a warm dark place make
the best teas. Crumble and store in
tightly sealed glass or food grade plastic containers. To make a tea pour boiling water over a couple
teaspoons of dried, crumbled leaves in a cup, let seep for 5 minutes and strain
leaves off, keeping the fluid.
Here’s a
good drink recipe. Make a cup or 2 of
Monarda tea as described above. Crush a
cup of raspberries and strain off the fluid, add the fluid to the strained
Monarda tea. Now add a cup of pineapple
juice, sweetened or unsweetened, your choice.
Add ice. It will make one or two
servings.
As usual go
easy the first time you consume any Monarda products to test for
allergies. Pregnant women should consult
with a doctor before using. Monarda
products placed on skin and exposed to sunlight can increase the risk of
sunburn.
Earth teach me to forget myself ~ as
melted snow forgets its life. (UTE Prayer)
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
So On….
Do you have plants or seeds you would like to swap or share? Post them here by emailing me. You can also
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