Today we’re visiting Wendy’s garden in Cleveland Township in northern Michigan.
22.08.2023 - 16:51 / theprovince.com / Brian Minter
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With everything that’s going on in our gardens right now; the heat, drought and water restrictions, we could all use a lift from a remarkable plant family. I’ve seen them blooming their hearts out even in the hottest, driest locations, so they are well suited to today’s new gardening realities.
I’m talking about the hibiscus family, and two members in particular are bringing fresh, vibrant colour just when we need a little pick-me-up in that department. One, hibiscus moscheutos, is a hardy Zone 4 perennial, the other, hibiscus syriacus, a Zone 5 flowering shrub.
The old moscheutos hybrids, also known as Rose Mallow, like the Southern Belle and Luna series, have evolved into some of the most remarkable, absolutely amazing giant flowering perennials in our gardens.
The irony is that these late summer stunners were originally not recommended for the West Coast because we did not get enough heat to allow them a full summer and fall show. Well, that’s changed. Perennial growers across the Lower Mainland have them budded and ready for gardeners throughout the province.
Most of the North American breeding is done in Michigan and the newer varieties are shipped as bare root plants to growers who pot them up in February and March to finish them as blooming plants in mid-July and August.
Proven Winners have branded a series called Summerific. All are Zone 4 hardy and grow about one to two metres height and width. The foliage varies with many shades of green to the deepest burgundy reds, which contrasts nicely with the huge, spectacular blooms.
Flower colours
Today we’re visiting Wendy’s garden in Cleveland Township in northern Michigan.
Potatoes are one of the most popular vegetables, likely because of their versatility. Not only can you prepare potatoes in a myriad of ways, but there are so many unusual potato varieties to try. From russet to fingerling in hues of red, yellow, white and even purple, there’s a unique potato variety out there you will enjoy. Some unusual potatoes might be considered gourmet potato varieties, while still others are de rigueur, but all of them are delicious. Keep reading to learn about unusual potato varieties and which ones you should grow.
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Get ready to meet the cool Shore Birds with Curved Beaks, where their special feature stands out, making them even more interesting to look at!
Helianthus annus ‘Sonja’
These vegetables grow best in warm weather and when the sun is intense. You must give them a place in your summer vegetable garden. If you don’t own a garden and space is limited, grow them in pots in your apartment balcony or patio.
There can’t be a more iconic symbol of Halloween than a witch riding a broomstick. In olden times it wouldn’t have been a problem to wander out into the woodland and cut a stout pole and then find sticks to make the sweeping end, and then you’d have yourself a fine broom, or besom. I suspect most of them were used for more mundane purposes – they are jolly useful things to have to hand.
If you’re currently tending lettuce plants, then you have something in common with the crew on board the International Space Station (ISS). They’re testing NASA’s new Vegetable Production System – affectionately known as ‘Veggie’. At 11.5 inches by 14.5 inches, Veggie is the largest plant growth chamber to have been blasted into space, and was developed by Orbital Technologies Corp.
Join Emma the Space Gardener as she explores gardening on Earth… and beyond! In this episode, Emma recaps the latest space plant news and then talks about some of the seeds with space stories.
With my bookshelf groaning under the weight of unread review books, I have declared an emergency Reading Week. Reading Week at university is a bit like half term – the lecturers get a week off teaching, and the students are supposed to use it to catch up on their reading list. When I went back to uni to do my Masters I dreamed of spending a lot of time reading, with the wealth of the university library on hand. The reality was there was never any time to ready anything that wasn’t immediately essay-related, which was a shame.
Header image: Richard Bord/Getty Images
At the beginning of the year, I set up a new mission in the AeroGarden, growing two peppers (Popti and Redskin) and a tomato (Veranda Red). Ten days later, I had two tomato seedlings, which I had to thin to one. The peppers were a bit slower, but by 19th January they had germinated (and been thinned) too.