Tuesday, January 28, 2020

January 28, 2020 midwinter musing


Hi Gardeners
 
Akebia flower
Since the weather has been wet and gloomy, I’ve been finding things to do inside. I get a lot of magazines; the mailperson must hate me even though it’s job security. Some of those magazines are garden magazines, or at least they claim to be garden magazines. Many of them should be classified as catalogs for fancy garden supplies with a few words sandwiched between them.

I get one magazine called Flower. It does have a few flowers in the photos of fancy homes here and there. And it always gives you directions for creating a very fancy floral arrangement in each issue. But mostly it features outlandishly expensive floral wallpaper or a crystal vase with gold inlay that you can buy for only $600. It may show you the home of a famous person and look, there on the mantel is a bouget of roses, in an unusual shade that just matches everything in the room so perfectly.

Guns and Roses is a similar magazine. Not much about guns or roses, but a lot about expensive patio chairs.  Better Homes and Gardens occasionally has a very general article about gardening but it’s mostly about homes, although it’s not quite as boring as the others. I get a lot of these magazines free or at very low cost, and after looking through them, I’d never subscribe at the regular price.

I also get Martha Stewart Living. It doesn’t claim to be a gardening magazine, so I can’t complain about that. This month’s issue promised to talk about Martha’s gardens. Martha has 4 gardens actually, at 4 different homes scattered around the country. Some of them have relatively small acreage some are large estates. Martha is seen in pictures planting bulbs or walking along a path in some of the garden pictures. 

But there is no mention anywhere about the gardeners who must maintain these gardens of Martha. Because she surely doesn’t, even though the article makes it sound like Martha is the sole caretaker. She’s not even at some of the homes more than a couple weeks a year. And besides, she has all that glitter to glue on place cards and cupcakes to decorate.

It’s no wonder new gardeners often feel frustrated and overwhelmed when they look at gardens like Martha’s, professionally designed, planted and maintained and then at their garden. They wonder why they don’t have a green thumb and why they can’t manage their time better. Because they haven’t been gardening long, they don’t realize the extent of the help those gardens like Martha’s have.

I don’t think it’s wrong for gardeners to hire help, if you can afford to and want to. Many people make a good living being someone else’s gardener. I also enjoy looking at those beautiful professionally designed and meticulously groomed gardens. I just wish when people like Martha show off their gardens, they would acknowledge the work that someone else, or many someone else’s do.

Would it hurt Martha to mention the hard work of this or that person? Would it hurt to explain the labor and time involved in some of those gardens? If Martha really wants to instruct and inspire people, she should be honest about her own gardening involvement and what it truly takes to have gardens like hers.  And telling us about the real gardeners would be an interesting story, at least to me.

Don’t even get me started on AARP Magazine, which mentioned in a column this month that people should grow lavender in their bedroom to help them relax. Not put lavender in their bedroom but grow it. Lavender doesn’t grow well indoors. There were some other silly suggestions about herbal plants too. I guess I need to write a letter. Okay, I’ll move on from my rant about magazines.

What do you have blooming inside? I have holiday cactus, pomegranate, hibiscus, begonias, gerbera daisy and geraniums. My amaryllis blooms have faded but another pot is putting out shoots so I will have more blooms in about a month. Having blooming plants inside in the winter makes everything seem more cheerful.

It’s a good time to shop for houseplants and there are many houseplants that can provide you with blooms. African violets, orchids, the “holiday cacti”, anthuriums, azaleas, bromeliads, cyclamen, gloxinia, and kalanchoe are common blooming plants sold at this time of the year.

Food plants lost in time

When we picture early people living in North America growing food, we often think about corn, sunflowers, beans and squash. But before North American people began growing corn or maize, which was domesticated in South or Central America and worked its way north, they were growing at least 5 other types of plants that we classify as grain crops.

Over 4 thousand years ago the archeological record shows us that people in North America were growing crops that provided them with seeds (grain) that could be stored. These crops allowed many cultures that practiced agriculture to flourish and establish larger villages and towns.

Ethno-botanists have proven that at least 4 of these grain crops were selected over time or domesticated, to produce larger seeds and more productive plants. Unfortunately, the domesticated versions of these crops have been lost to time. Once corn became widespread in agricultural societies and especially after European grains arrived, these crops were no longer grown.

Although these plants are no longer grown as crops, you probably know some of them. Indeed, you may consider them weeds in your garden. And researchers are studying these ancient grains to see if they could once again feed people in a changing climate. You might want to experiment with them yourself, or forage some of them.

Goosefoot, or Lambsquarters (Chenopodium album) will probably be the plant most familiar to gardeners across the US and in many other places of the world. It’s a common annual garden weed. Known as wild spinach, the young leaves and plant tops are still eaten by foragers. While it is thought that early indigenous people may also have eaten it as a green, they also grew it for its seeds. They developed several domesticated varieties with larger and more nutritious seeds. There are several species of Chenopodium and species may have crossbred to form the domesticated varieties.

Lambsquarter flowering

Lambsquarters gets its Latin name album, meaning white, because it’s young leaves and seed heads appear to be dusted in white. It produces seeds in mid to late summer. Some plants produce a later fall crop also. Seeds range from round and black to brown and more oval in shape. The seeds found in archaeological sites are larger than the seeds of wild varieties.

Lambsquarter seeds were boiled, roasted or dried and ground into a flour that was used to thicken stews or make primitive breads. They are a good source of carbohydrates and a minor source of fat and protein. About 50-90% of seeds found stored in early archeological sites were from Chenopodium seeds. This plant probably has the best chance to once again become domesticated as a grain crop.

The second most important and most often grown plant in early indigenous cultures was Polygonum erectum or erect knotweed. Gardeners may know several species of knotweed as weeds, although the species once domesticated for grain P. erectum is not as common as other species. There are also knotweeds that have been turned into ornamental plants.

Knotweeds are known for their “knotted” stem nodes, which are often red or purple shaded. The flowers on a “wand” at the top of the plant also look somewhat like knots, or balls. They can be pink, red, green or yellow. The seeds of P.erectum are produced throughout summer and are variable in shape and color.

The domesticated knotweed of earlier times produced smoother and larger seeds than the wild type and it was thought that they were selected to produce a more concentrated harvest time in late summer. Early people used the seeds as a starchy grain in the same way as Chenopodium seeds. The seeds and plants also had medicinal uses, they were used as a dye, and some species of knotweed may have been smoked.

This is a knotweed planted in my yard that is supposed to be
P. erectum.  Since ID is difficult I won't swear that it is.

A recent study published in the Journal of Ethnobiology, found that when lambsquarters and knotweed were grown together the yield of both was improved. They produced as much food value as a crop of maize of similar size grown in that time would have produced. Since the seeds are often found together at archeological sites this may be how they were grown.

The other plants that were grown for their grain by early Americans were maygrass, little barley and sumpweed. Researchers have had a hard time growing these as crops in our time, but the plants do still exist in the wild.

Maygrass, Phalaris caroliniana is an annual grass that produces starchy seeds in late spring- early summer when other food is scarce.  It is very similar to Canary Reed Grass, a weedy grass of crop fields that is more common now than maygrass. It has more protein than many other grains and is high in vitamins and minerals. It was quite commonly grown in the central Mississippi River valley by the Cahokia culture. It will grow in moist and flooded areas.
 
Maygrass


Sumpweed, or Marshelder (Iva annua var. macrocarpa) was another plant that grew in floodplains. The domesticated species no longer exists but there is a wild species left in some places. The plant has seeds similar to wheat. The extinct domesticated species had seeds 1000 times larger than seeds on modern wild types.

Sumpweed matures in fall. The seeds are oily and high in protein, calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, thiamine, niacin, and B-complex vitamins. They would have provided a good, concentrated nutritional food source. However, sumpweed has some draw backs. Like a relative, ragweed, sumpweed is highly allergenic. It also has an odor, which at least to people today, is unpleasant. It may have been harder to process and use than other grains. It was probably the first early grain crop to be lost when corn was introduced into its growing areas.
 
Sumpweed


The last of the ancient grains, little barley Hordeum pusillum causes some dissention among archeologists. Some believe it was not domesticated but just foraged and stored. Others believe it would have to be cultivated in concentrated plots to be worth gathering, since the seeds were small. Like Maygrass it forms seeds in late spring when food is scarce. It was nutritious and would have been an important food source. 
While a few differences have been found in seeds recovered at archeological sites compared to today’s wild grown seeds, the differences do not seem large or consistent. In the wild today dense stands of this plant can be found so it’s possible this plant was just foraged.
 
Little Barley
University of Missouri photo
We can’t know for sure how the earliest farmers and gardeners in North America grew these grain crops, since there is no written record. And when corn and then European grains were introduced into North America, these crops were slowly abandoned, and we have no surviving cultures growing them. Were the new crops easier to grow? More productive? Tastier? We have no way to know.

It is interesting that to think that we have food crops growing all around us that we might be able to utilize as the environment changes. Gardeners may look at weeds a bit differently when you think of them as domesticated crops gone wild.

More reading









Should soy oil should be taken off the market?

I am of the age when I remember margarine as something fairly new to the public. It was being touted as preventing heart disease and I remember my mother nagging my grandparents to give up butter and lard and use margarine and shortening. Those products were being made from soy oil and corn oil. Early margarines were white, and you mixed in a little tube of yellow food coloring when you bought it. They also did not taste like butter. I grew up eating margarine and had to reeducate my taste when I found out how unhealthy margarine was.

What is alarming is that we now know margarine is not better for us than butter, and we know that soy oil is widely suspected to be a contributor to, perhaps even a cause of, several deadly diseases. Research has linked soy oil products to obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and now genetic changes in the brain. Research is pointing to a conclusion that humans should not consume soy oil.  Yet soy oil is still in American diets.

Five years or so ago several research reports linked soybean oil to metabolic syndrome, diabetes, obesity and fatty liver disease. We also know that people who are around soybean oil being used to fry foods have a higher risk of lung cancer and restaurants are no longer allowed to deep fry with it.  Now new research has found that consumption of soy oil cause changes to the genes in the brains of animals, changes that in humans correspond to Alzheimer’s Disease, autism, Parkinson’s disease and even anxiety and depression.

Research done at UC Riverside, California and published in the journal Endocrinology, found that mice fed a diet high in soybean oil had the functioning of over 100 genes in the hypothalamus changed. The changes did not occur when mice were fed diets high in other fats, like coconut oil.

The hypothalamus is a part of the brain that controls many important brain and nervous system functions, and the reproductive system. It regulates metabolism, growth, body temperature, reproductive hormones, the body’s reaction to stress, and a number of other things. The changes in gene functioning corresponded to changes researchers find in human conditions such as autism, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other conditions related to stress and anxiety.

Researchers are trying to find out what chemicals in soy oil are responsible for the gene damage. They know it isn’t linoleic acid, the chemical in soy oil found to be what causes metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Since those early findings came out crop researchers developed low linoleic acid soy varieties. But when researchers used those varieties in a study they found no difference in how the brain was affected than when normal soy oil was used.

Researchers can’t say definitively yet that soy oil consumption causes autism, Alzheimer’s and so on, but the suspicion is strong that it is at least a contributing cause to those brain disorders. More research studies are being done. Anytime something that is consumed alters genetic expression it is of great concern.  Soy oil may be genetically modifying you.

Researchers say they believe tofu and fermented soy sauce would be safe to consume, although no research confirms that. But they urge people to consume as little soy oil as possible. It is especially unwise to consume soy oil in the first 3 months of pregnancy when genes are more easily damaged in the fetus. Drinks made from soy, frequently called soy “milk”, have not been tested yet to see if they could contribute to disease.

Soy oil is the most common oil sold in the US.  It’s a highly refined product, you can’t just squeeze the beans, they have to be heated and chemically treated. Soybean oil was first manufactured to be a lubricant, not an edible oil. It was a new cash crop for farmers and supply outstripped demand, so clever people did things like add flavoring to hardened soy oil and sell it to us as margarine. They told us to take the lubricant and fry our potatoes in it.

But while research in the last 10 years is pointing to the fact that soy oil has harmful effects on the human body it’s still in all kinds of food products, in things you wouldn’t even expect oil was needed. It’s cheap and plentiful, especially now that the foreign market for soybeans has been drastically reduced because of the trade war. Even if you don’t use soy oil in your kitchen, you are probably still eating it every day.

Try finding a salad dressing without soy oil. You may get lucky but unless you make your own, most salad dressings contain soy oil. Soy oil is used to roast peanuts and put in peanut butter. It’s still used to fry chips and other snack foods. It’s in bakery items, condiments, frozen dinners, even some canned goods. Read the labels on things in your cupboards and refrigerator, you’ll be amazed. I just found soy oil listed as an ingredient in a cocoa mix.

I think it’s time the government regulates the use of soy, banning it from most food products.  Nutritional research is tricky, you don’t want to feed people things that will harm them, and outside a lab it’s really hard to control what people eat in long term studies. If there’s scientific evidence that soy oil may be causing or contributing to metabolic disorders and modifying genes in the brain, even just in animal studies, we should ban the product from the market until independent studies prove that it isn’t harming humans.

I think soy oil is more harmful to humans than trace amounts of pesticides on food that people get worked up over. I avoid soy oil containing products as much as possible, and you may want to do the same. It may be too late for a generation that grew up consuming tons of it, but we may be able to reduce its damage to future generations. What do you think?

More reading




Cruising through the catalogs  

Korean Angelica Angelica gigas

Korean Angelica
Photo by White Flower farm
Here’s another plant that can liven up pollinator or native grass gardens.  Pollinators of all sorts are highly attracted to it. Korean angelica has 6 feet tall stems with a purple tinge, and large umbels of deep purple flowers. It is quite impressive in the back of perennial borders too. It’s also an herb garden subject, because the plant has many herbal uses also.

This plant is a biennial, it makes a rosette of foliage the first year and produces the tall bloom stems in the second. For that reason and because it can be tricky to germinate the seeds gardeners may want to start with plants. It will reseed in the garden. This plant will even bloom in partial shade.  The seed heads are attractive when dried. It’s hardy in zones 5-9 and deer resistant.

You can get this plant at these places




Mexican Sour Gherkin Melothria scabra

This plant also has the cute common name of Mouse melon. It could be an interesting and tasty addition to your veggie garden. It’s a vining plant with small leaves and is grown much like a cucumber. It produces loads of small striped, melon like fruits which are picked when they are the size of a large grape. They can be eaten fresh or pickled. The taste is like a sour, slightly salty cucumber.

Mexican Sour Gherkins can be easily grown in containers with a trellis and kids will find them interesting and easy to grow. Seeds should be started indoors a month before the last frost and transplanted outside.

You can find the seeds at;


Mexican Sour Gherkin
Photo by Baker Creek

Hummingbird Trumpet, Zauschneria canum var. arizonica 'Sky Island Orange'

This is a cultivated selection of a western wildflower also known as California Fuchsia, or Fire Chalice. It grows about 3 feet high and in late fall is covered with tubular bright orange flowers that hummingbirds adore. It’s a great plant to help feed hummingbirds just before they migrate. It also brightens up the fall landscape.

This plant should not be confused with trumpet vine. This is not a vining plant. Hummingbird Trumpet is a perennial plant hardy in zones 5-8. It will sucker to form patches of color and is often used as a ground cover or a filler. It prefers well drained soil in full sun. Plants do like shady feet and their tops in the sun. If you like hummingbirds this plant is a great addition to the garden.

You can get plants at;


Zauschneria
Photo by High Country Gardens


Echium wildpretii,  "Tower of Jewels"

Okay, this is not a hardy plant for most of the country, it’s only hardy in zones 9-10. It’s native to the Canary islands. But if you are the person who likes the truly unusual and who adores succulent type plants you may want to try this in a large container on the patio or sunk into the garden. It’s a biannual plant, the first year it forms a 30-inch-wide clump of narrow leaved, silvery green foliage that is attractive in its own right. But the second year is when it will wow you.  Echium wildpretii forms a huge cone of clustered rosy pink flowers up to 8 feet high. The flowers attract hummingbirds and other pollinators.

To get it to bloom in northern zones you’ll need to overwinter first year plants inside. Echium makes a decent houseplant, it needs strong light inside. Outside it needs well drained soil or containers and full sun. It’s drought tolerant and deer resistant. I would keep it in a container the first summer and inside the first winter, then plant in ground the second summer for bloom. After bloom, it will die, but seeds can be collected, and new plants started. (In Zone 9 and higher it reseeds in the garden.) It’s well worth at least one try in colder zones.

Find this plant at;

 

Echium wildpretii,
Photo by Annies Annuals



Sauced Meatballs

Here’s a recipe from my book, Beer, A Cookbook.  It’s a good and easy to prepare recipe for a Superbowl feast or for any party.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups grape jelly
1 cup chili sauce
¾ cup beer, preferably a chili pepper or Mexican style beer
1 package McCormick Jalapeno and onion taco seasoning
2 pounds of prepared, cooked meatballs, thawed if frozen

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Put all the ingredients except meatballs in a large pot.

Arrange the meatballs 1 layer thick in a large shallow pan.

Bring the sauce mixture to boil on the stove top. Stir continuously until the jelly melts.

Pour the hot mixture over the meatballs.

With a spoon, turn over each meatball so all sides are covered in sauce.

Put in the oven and cook about 20 minutes. The inside of the meatballs should be hot.

Serve meatballs by putting a toothpick in each one.  Makes about 50-60 meatballs.

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"Bare branches of each tree
on this chilly January morn
look so cold so forlorn.
Gray skies dip ever so low
left from yesterday's dusting of snow.
Yet in the heart of each tree
waiting for each who wait to see
new life as warm sun and breeze will blow,
like magic, unlock springs sap to flow,
buds, new leaves, then blooms will grow."

-  Nelda Hartmann, January Morn  

Kim Willis
All parts of this blog are copyrighted and may not be used without permission.

And So On….

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Newsletter/blog information

If you have a comment or opinion you’d like to share, send it to me or you can comment directly on the blog. Please state that you want to have the item published in my weekly blog if you email me. You must give your full name and what you say must be polite and not attack any individual. I am very open to ideas and opinions that don’t match mine, but I do reserve the right to publish what I want. Contact me at KimWillis151@gmail.com



Tuesday, January 21, 2020

January 21, 2020 - glitter and cold


Hi Gardeners

An amaryllis in bloom here.
Well true winter has come back, with the ground layered in a white blanket and the air cold and biting, glittering in the pale sunlight. It makes me less restless. When it’s mild outside and the grass is showing, it makes me feel like I should be outside working, even though there is not much that can be done in the garden this time of year. Not that I mind mild weather, I love it. But it does cause conflicted feelings.

Now that winter is back, I can concentrate on planning the garden next year, the ordering of seeds and plants and reading and writing about gardening.  I can spend time housecleaning without resenting the time spent indoors. I can try new recipes and do some deep grooming on the dogs without worrying about what needs to be done in the garden.

Like many gardeners I am planning next years gardens, what to plant and what to remove.  As we get older my husband and I have acquired several medical issues that limit our mobility. So many of my decisions have been about changes that can make gardening and property upkeep easier.

I made the decision last summer to basically remove one of my oldest garden beds. It was a 40 feet long bed out in the middle of the east side of our property. When we moved here it was one of the few places I had to plant in full sun. It became a bed of sun loving perennials, things like daylilies, poppies, true lilies, phlox, sedums and so on, with a few larger shrubby perennials.

Over time a small oak on the south side of the bed became large enough to begin shading it. When we stopped keeping horses and goats the pasture in back of the bed was allowed to go “natural” again and there was less human activity in the area. This allowed the deer to become quite familiar with the garden, and the damage they did to it was frustrating.

In the fall I removed some lily bulbs and perennials that were left in the bed and planted them in the front beds. I now have sunny areas in front of the house, due to removing some walnut trees. Left behind were some larger plants; a snowball bush, a clump of baptisia, peonies and a hydrangea. With the smaller plants gone these plants can be mown around, no more weeding and edging. And the deer don’t bother them too much.

I have a small bed around an electrical pole on the far east side of the property, next to the road. I intend to remove the smaller things there too, the lilies and other bulbs, and sedums, and leave the shrub rose, weigela and smoke bush.

If I get ambitious enough there are a couple of other beds that need to be redone, to make them easier to care for and updated. The plans are there in my head, we shall see how far I get. And there is room now in the front to do some expanding, all in one area that’s easy to access and easier to protect from the deer.

Winter is the time for every gardener to reevaluate their garden goals. If you think you have more than you can handle it may be time to downsize. If you think you can handle more, because you now have time and money to do so, go for it.  Plan those new beds.

Look at your pictures of your garden last year. You did take pictures, didn’t you? Remember that new gardens can take 3-4 years to look mature and full. Patience and just a bit of tweaking may be needed. But there is often a time later down the line that gardens look too messy and crowded or out of balance. They may need to be pulled out and done over. Don’t be afraid to make changes.

Things change every year in the garden. Trees grow and make more shade; trees get removed or die and make more sun. New neighbors move in, you get or lose a pet, you need to dig up the septic, you build a shed or barn, you find out you are allergic to roses or you hate hosta. Plants die over the winter. The reality is even if you like it, you can’t always keep it. Some things you can control, others you cannot. But don’t worry. Things don’t have to stay the same. There’s always a way to have a garden and your best garden is coming this season.

Timely Tips

Check bulbs- I’ll be checking my stored bulbs this week, the dahlias, glads, crocosemia and other things I stored away in wood shavings for winter. If the bulbs look shriveled, I’ll dampen the shavings a tiny bit.  If they look moldy, I’ll spread them out on newspapers for a few days before repacking them in shavings.  If they look soft and mushy, I’ll toss them.

For most gardeners it’s too early to start seeds inside. Started now most common garden plants will be tall and spindly and struggling to be healthy in small pots well before they can be planted outside. You aren’t really getting a head start as those plants started too early inside tend to be poor performers the rest of their life.

There are a few exceptions. Plants that take a long time to get to blooming size, or plants that are half hardy and can be planted early outside could be started now. Some of these plants are impatiens, petunias, violas, and pansies. Some perennials that take a long time to germinate could be started now. You can pot tuberous begonia bulbs now to get them to blooming size by late spring.

If you wonder when the right time is to start each type of seeds inside, check the seed packet or look up cultural directions. Most seed packets will tell you how many weeks from your last frost date to start seeds. For example, it may say start seeds indoors six weeks before your last expected frost. You look up your last expected frost date and find it’s May 15.  You then count backward 6 weeks and start your seeds around the beginning of April.

If you have a greenhouse or a good grow light set up, you could start things like tomatoes a few weeks earlier than the suggested time to get larger plants. But don’t push the date too much even in those situations. The larger plants get inside the more problems you begin to have and the more stress they have when planted outside.

If you must start some seeds now why not try some unusual plants like cacti and tender succulents that grow well indoors. Some nice cannabis plants could be started. Or start something like lettuce under grow lights that you will eat and not move outside.

When I want to putter with plants in the winter, I clean my houseplants. About this time in winter houseplants can generally use some close attention. I remove dead and browned foliage, old flowers and dust leaves. The tips of plant leaves that have dried up are trimmed. Pruning of excessive growth and pinching back lanky stems are done. I may move plants around or just turn pots around to make plants grow evenly. I even give plants a shower sometimes, if they look like they may have insect pests or are really dirty. It’s a good time to repot houseplants if they need it.

It’s still early to fertilize most houseplants but anything that’s been blooming inside may need fertilization. I have brought some potted bulbs in the house this week from my cold dormancy area, the back porch. These include amaryllis and tuberous begonias. Some places are offering amaryllis bulbs at discount prices now and these can be potted for flowers in about 6 weeks.

If you don’t mind working outside in the cold, now is a good time to prune fruit trees.

Focus on Ukrainian Hollyhocks, Alcea rugosa

I must admit the common name for these hollyhocks is actually Russian Hollyhocks but since they come from the area of Ukraine and the Crimea and Ukraine is in the news lately, I thought why not protest the annexation of this wonderful plant?  I am giving it a new common name.
 
Alcea rugosa
Photo Select Seed
You may be familiar with the cottage garden favorite, the common hollyhock Alcea rosea. The Ukrainian hollyhock is greatly similar. But it has some qualities the common hollyhock does not. Alcea rugosa has more resistance to rust, a fungal disease that plagues hollyhocks and destroys their look in the garden. It’s also a bit hardier than the common hollyhock, it’s hardy in zones 3-8. Common hollyhocks tend to be biannual, growing a rosette of foliage the first year, blooming the second then dying. Ukrainian hollyhocks tend to be perennial in the garden, lasting several years.

The Ukrainian hollyhock has the same large, blue green, rough looking, lobed foliage as common hollyhocks. In its second and subsequent years it produces tall spikes, up to 6 feet tall, of large, round bowl-shaped flowers in a beautiful shade of soft golden yellow. The flowers attract bees and butterflies. They open from the bottom of the spike upward, beginning in early summer and continuing for many weeks.

Alcea rugosa is a good plant for cottage gardens of course, but it also looks good naturalized among grasses, in pollinator gardens and at the back of more formal perennial beds. The soft yellow color looks stunning with deep purple flowers or foliage. When grown among grasses and other tall plants it probably doesn’t need staking but may need staking in some gardens, especially in windy areas.

Ukrainian hollyhock is easily grown from seed, but gardeners may want to start with year old plants to get bloom the first season. They will grow in any well drained soil and prefer full sun. Plants reseed freely but if you wish to limit their spread you can keep seed pods picked off as they form and cut bloom stalks down when flowering ends.

Keeping seed pods and spent flowers picked off will lengthen bloom but it’s not something the gardener has to do. While Alcea rugosa has less problems with rust disease than regular hollyhocks, it does occasionally get rust in hot humid weather. It can be prevented with fungicides applied before the disease strikes but not cured after the plant gets the condition. Rust doesn’t kill the plants but makes them look bad. Keeping Ukrainian hollyhocks away from common garden hollyhocks makes them far less likely to get rust.

In the fall after the first frost cut down any remaining flower stalks and foliage to the ground and add some compost around the plants. If you want the plants to seed around you can leave the stalks or collect the seeds and sprinkle them on the ground where you want them to grow.

This year why not lighten the gloomy spots in your garden with the soft golden light of Ukrainian hollyhocks?  Something old can make your garden look new. And you could use the “Ukrainian” hollyhocks as a conversation starter.

Ukrainian Hollyhocks
Photo Perennial Resources

Buy this plant at;

Annies Annuals and Perennials

Select Seeds

Plant Delights

Cruising through the catalogs

How about a rare heirloom vine for your garden that has many good attributes? Lonicera reticulata Kintzley's Ghost® is a member of the honeysuckle family native to eastern North America. This variety was developed by William Kintzley at Iowa State University in the 1880’s.  Popular for a while, it had almost disappeared from cultivation when recently rediscovered.

In the spring Kintzley's Ghost® has clusters of bright yellow typical honeysuckle shaped flowers. The flowers are surrounded by a large, round silvery disk bract. This disk remains long after the flowers drop and glows in the moonlight, possibly explaining the name. They can be used in dried arrangements.

Kintzley's Ghost® honeysuckle is a vigorous vine, growing up to 12 feet long. It is hardy in zones 4-8 and prefers full sun. It likes any well drained soil. When in flower it attracts butterflies and hummingbirds. It’s also deer resistant.

You can get this vine from High Country Gardens


Kintzleys Ghost Honeysuckle
Photo High Country Gardens

Blackberry, ‘Baby Cakes’
The herb of the year is blackberries and raspberries. If you thought you wanted to try some but didn’t have room for blackberry plants, this variety may change your mind.  ‘Baby Cakes’ is a dwarf, compact blackberry that can even be grown in pots.  It’s thornless, and loaded with large, juicy fruit in early summer, with a second crop sometimes developing later.

You can get ‘Baby Cakes’ blackberry from Burpees


'Baby Cakes'
Photo Burpees

Black Sticky Corn

Now here’s something different. If you have the space to grow corn why not try this unusual (to Americans) corn?  This variety of corn is widely grown in Asia and roadside vendors sell it for a quick snack.  Vigorous 6 feet stalks usually produce 2, 8-inch ears. It is harvested at an immature light purple color for fresh eating and left to mature to inky black kernels for dried use.  The steamed or grilled young corn is said to be sweet but sticky in texture.

You can buy black sticky corn from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds


Black Sticky Corn
Photo Baker Creek

Pink Dandelion (Taraxacum pseudoroseum)

Many years ago, I purchased a pink dandelion plant, which I potted to keep it separate from the common dandelions so it wouldn’t get weeded accidentally. I was gone for a week when it decided to bloom, I came back to dandelion fluff. I never saw it bloom because the plant decided to die after that. And I couldn’t get the seeds to germinate, which is odd. I’m thinking of trying it again.

The pink dandelion is rosy pink with a light-yellow center. They are native to Asia. They are supposed to be perennial and as hardy as common dandelions although they are said not to spread as vigorously. They are edible like common dandelions. I can’t see much harm in it spreading since we already have the common dandelion everywhere.  It is a novelty and if you purchase it, I would pot it or mark it, so you won’t weed or eat it before it blooms.  Bees and butterflies love them.

This plant is available from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds


Pink Dandelion
Photo Baker Creek
  

Poppy – Spanish Papaver rupifragum

These pretty poppies are great for rock gardens, and slopes of sandy, gravely soil. The blue gray foliage forms attractive tufts about 18 inches high. Spanish Poppies produce wavy stems in late spring-early summer filled with shiny apricot orange, crinkled, semi-double flowers. The flowers turn into large attractive seed pods used for dried arrangements.

Spanish Poppies are short lived perennials but reseed freely. They are hardy in zones 6-9 and like full sun.

High Country Gardens





Normally I would say this is a good fiery dip for the Superbowl but since you may be sitting in front of the tv watching the impeachment trial you may want something to munch on to liven things up.

I can’t eat this dip because it’s just too hot for me.  But many people think its just wonderful. Sort of like politics, I guess.

Impeachment Hot Dip

Ingredients;

3-4 slices of pepper bacon

3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

4 oz softened Santa Fe cream cheese (or regular cream cheese plus 1 teaspoon Southwestern seasoning)

1/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup salad dressing- (Miracle whip type)

1/4 cup bottled roasted red peppers, chopped

2 teaspoons Tabasco sauce

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup finely diced onion

Directions

Fry the bacon until crisp.  Crumble and set aside.

Blend all of the other ingredients until smooth.  Sprinkle crumbled cooked bacon over the top.

Makes about 2 cups of dip.  Serve with corn chips, breadsticks or vegetables.


"One kind word can warm three winter months. "
--Japanese Proverb

Kim Willis
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