Frederick Leeth

Cornell Epiphytic Soil Mixture Recipe

Autumn and winter flowering evergreen and leaf-losing Orchids natives of Asia, Africa and Australasia. The name Calanthe is derived from the Greek kalos, beautiful, and anthos, a flower. Calanthe belongs to the family Orchidaceae.

Whether the snow is still blowing outside or your spring bulbs are already making their appearance, garden fever is in the air. One way to quench your need to get your hands dirty is to bring spring indoors by growing your own living decorations. Many gardeners are familiar with forcing cherry, forsythia blossoms & and spring bulbs but you can add to this by sprouting wheat kernels in containers for a beautiful centerpiece. In France, sprouted wheat is a symbol of the abundance of the upcoming season. March 21st, the first day of spring, also coincides with Norooz, Iranian New Year. Part of the celebration requires that green sprouts, normally wheat, decorate the table setting. The wheat sprouts symbolize the re-birth of the nature as spring emerges in the northern hemisphere.

Edging your pond will give it a finished look. You can hang a picture on a wall by itself but put a frame around it and you have a masterpiece. This goes for your pond. Put an edge around it and it stands out and calls to you to notice it. Edging will also secure your pond liner beneath it.

Commemorating Olaf Rudbeck (1660–1740) was a Swedish professor of botany and counselor of Linnaeus (Compositae). Coneflower. A genus of about 40 herbaceous plants, mostly perennial and hardy, natives of North America, related to Echinacea. The flowers are showy, daisy-like, often with drooping petals and conspicuous conical centers. Most of them are excellent herbaceous border plants and are valuable for late summer effect in the garden.

It doesn’t matter if you’re investing in your first-ever greenhouse or have had one for many years. Everyone should know a selection of key facts regarding their greenhouse. A hobby greenhouse is a greenhouse used for gardening projects such as growing your own fruit and vegetables or your favorite selection of flowers. It is often used for preparing upcoming projects, too. One of the greatest benefits of owning a greenhouse is that you can pursue your gardening hobby all year round, giving you plenty of time to practice new things and perfect your skills.

Some tomato plants, even high-acid varieties, produce lower-acid fruits under some conditions. Always add bottled lemon juice or citric acid to avoid the risk of botulism.

From Hobby Greenhouses in Alberta

The record existed until 1976 when Bob Ford of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, USA exhibited a 451 pound specimen at the U.S. Pumpkin Contest in Churchville, PA. Yearly International Competition was revived again in 1979 when Canadian Howard Dill of Windsor, Nova Scotia won his first of four consecutive international pumpkinship titles at the Cornell Contest in Pennsylvania. Mr. Dill’s first world record of 459 pounds came in 1980 which he supassed in 1981 by harvesting a 493.5 pound pumpkin.

George Schenk’s recipe for the ideal soil for growing plants in shade.

A conservatory has many uses, as a garden room, dining room or even a spare bedroom! Once you have a conservatory you will want to spend a lot of time in it, so get the location and aspect just right before you begin. So many people thinking of a conservatory forget about the garden and then live to regret it!

Cuttings: I use composted manure mixed with sawdust to root cuttings in — it works great; don’t need rooting hormones.

Cuttings: I use composted manure mixed with sawdust to root cuttings in — it works great; don’t need rooting hormones.

Pumice is also used as the top dressing and to provide extra bottom drainage. Provide encapsulated slow-release fertilizer with minor trace elements once a year and repot yearly.

JI #1 Base

Articles Grow Delphiniums from Seed Container Gardening

Choosing a location is the most important initial decision in designing your garden pond. Locate the pond in an active area of your yard so that you can enjoy it throughout the year. It is important to situate the pond around your best view of your garden. For instance, if you have a deck overlooking your yard, set the pond in an area where you can see it from the deck’s best vantage point. Consider the winter months and situate the pond so that you can view it from inside the home. An attractive pond draws people to it like bees around a honey pot.

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–Records –

As reports come in from Ponders, several people lost some of their larger fish during this long, harsh winter. Many fish died because the ponds froze over and they suffocated to death. With hopes that spring is finally here and the memories of snow behind us, it is time to open our ponds and prepare them for warmer weather.

To the novice it is a mystery why a simple little blossom should be burdened with an unpronounceable Latin name-and not only with one, but two and often even more. She forgets that her own name is not only Brown, that to distinguish her from all the other Browns she has been called Kathy and because of the many Kathy Browns she bears the additional name of Ann. It is just so with plants; each has a family or genus name, a given or specific name and often one or more descriptive names. Thus we have Myosotis palustris semperflorens, a plant belonging to the Myosotis or Dill family. This particular one is a marsh-lover and a more or less continual bloomer, as the last two parts of its name indicate. We prefer to call this flower Forget-me-not, its pet or familiar name, just as Kathy Ann Brown’s friends may wish to call him Kathleen or Kate.It is very interesting to investigate why the botanical names were chosen. We have all known a man named Small who was anything but small, or a girl named Grace who was not at all graceful. In the plant world, such entirely inappropriate names occur very seldom; each name is chosen to describe a particular plant and plants do not change sufficiently to belie the terms descriptive of their family. The original Small was, no doubt, small of stature, but through the ages his children have outgrown the name.

In the long history of plant science, no name is more famous than that of Linnaeus and no book is more highly regarded than his “Species Plantarum,” published in 1753.

Tropical plants which are grown for the sake of their large, ornamental leaves; they are natives of South America and belong to the Arum family, Araceae. The leaves, which develop annually from tubers, are heart-shaped and richly colored and vary from 6 in. to 2 ft. in length; the flowers are interesting but of minor importance. The origin of the name is obscure. For Caladium esculentum see Colocasia.

From the Greek gypsos, chalk, phileo, to love; the plants prefer chalky soils (Caryophyllaceae). Hardy annuals and perennials of great value in both the border and rock garden; the dwarf kinds also look well in pans in the alpine house. They are mainly natives of the eastern Mediterranean region.

BEAUMONTIA GRANDIFLORA (Beaumon’tia)

The principal requirements of the potato plant are adequate available food, sufficient water, good drainage and the type of soil in which tubers may swell easily. An open, unshaded site is very necessary. Light soils are considered very suitable, provided they have been dressed with large quantities of moisture-retaining organic matter. A heavy soil may also be improved structurally by the addition of organic material. A reasonably light, easily worked loam is probably the ideal. Where farmyard manure is available, it may be dug in during winter digging at the rate of up to 50kg (1cwt) to 6 sq m (6 sq yd). Garden compost may be applied even more generously during winter digging or as a mulch after planting. If a compound potato fertilizer is raked into the soil before planting, use it at the rates advised by the manufacturer.

The Blackberries of North America and Europe are a mighty clan of innumerable species and hybrids that have taxed the efforts of botanists to classify them. The many species in North America have furnished varieties suitable for cultivation in most of the United States except the cold, dry Great Plains region, and for the milder portions of Canada. One European species, the Cut-leaved Blackberry, Rubus laciniatus, has run wild on the Pacific Coast where it is cultivated.

They Play an Important Part in Beautifying Gardens Throughout the Greater Part of the Year

A particularly tough house and greenhouse plant with long, broad, evergreen leaves. It is a suitable plant for planting outdoors in shady places where winters are mild. Even at New York City it has been known to live outdoors for several years, but the winters there are too severe for it to thrive. It is a native of China and belongs to the Lily family, Liliaceae. The word Aspidistra alludes to the form of the flowers and is derived from aspidiseon, a small, round shield, and probably refers to the shape of the stigma.

From the Greek geranos, a crane, because the seed pod resembles a crane’s head and beak (Geraniaceae). Crane’s-bill. A genus of hardy herbaceous summer-flowering perennials with lobed or cut leaves, widely distributed over the temperate regions of the world. They are easily cultivated, free flowering and some are useful rock garden plants, others good border plants.

Violet Viola odorata, the sweet violet, is a hardy perennial, parent of the florist’s violets, many of them sweetly scented. The soil should be rich and moist but well-drained. Plant the crowns in the open in a sheltered, shady position in April, or in September for winter flowering in a cold sunny frame. Propagation is by runners removed in April. Other runners that are produced during the summer months should be removed and discarded.

From the Greek eri, early or ear, spring, geron, old, possibly referring to the hoary leaves of some species (Cornpositae). Fleabane. Hardy herbaceous, daisy-flowered perennials some of which continue to flower intermittently throughout the summer.

As the new year begins, your front porch needs to be welcoming with full of color and balance.  During the winter months, our front porch containers were planted with Red Dogwood branches and custom glass reed art, but now Spring has arrived, and we need a new beginning.

Succulent plants are the camels of the vegetable world, storing up food and water to be used not on a rainy day, but during a period of prolonged drought. This may last for a few weeks or, in extreme cases, plants have survived without rainfall for over a year. This water can be stored in either the leaves or the stems of the plants, depending on the type.

A constant, old-fashioned garden favorite! Hollyhocks have been universally admired for hundreds of years. They are stately, majestic, towering plants that add beauty wherever they are grown. What other plant has such a stately habit or so many transparent, lovely colors In single plants or masses against walls or buildings, in groups at the back or rear of the perennial border, interspersed with low shrubbery or in bold masses along drives or walks, they are alike effective Many delicate plants will give their fullest effects the first year, so they are planted to advantage in the newly made garden when the trees and shrubs are low. The general effect is too bare of color and foliage.

Fast growing, evergreen or semi-evergreen shrub reaching up to 6 feet tall and about as wide. Leaves are bright green, ovate to lance-shaped to 5 inches long, sometimes lobed or heart-shaped at the bases. Grown for showy, pendent, bell-shaped flowers with purple stamens protruding from yellow petals and red calyces. Blooms from summer to autumn. This plant was a favorite of Victorians, growing well in bright conservatories and relocated outside in containers during warmer months. Whiteflies, spider mites, scale insects and and mealy bugs maybe a problem. May be grown outside year round in frost-free areas or against warm wall or protected space in marginal areas. Use in shrub border, container garden, or as espalier.