Magic Myrtles

Gardeners of the Galaxy is three years old! To celebrate, Emma the Space Gardener has been delving into the archives, digging deeper into three related astrobotany stories from days gone by, which all have something to do with trees.

Don’t let the name mislead you; these plants do not possess the ability to spell magic. It is just their dark, amazing appearance and the name of these varieties “black magic.”

You must be wondering, “How to Create a Black Magic Garden?” Step into the shadows and discover how to create a magical garden that’s as dark as it is, with a touch of gothic flair and an irresistible aura of mystique.

One of the lesser known fruits that grow well here in South Carolina, the Pineapple Guava, Acca sellowiana, is a large, evergreen shrub in the Myrtle Family, Myrtaceae. Native to South America, it is becoming more popular within the nursery trade due to its excellent ornamental features. It is a relatively fast-growing shrub with beautiful bluish-green leaves and gorgeous flowers opening this month and eventually producing unique fruits which ripen in the late summer. The undersides of the leaves have a silvery look to them, and the stems contrast this well with its brownish-orange bark. If planted in full sun, these produce an abundance of flowers in spring that have white petals and dark red stamens in the center. These shrubs make excellent additions to most landscapes and tend to have few issues once established. This is also an ideal plant along the coast due to its moderate salt tolerance and semi-tropical appearance.

From the first time I landed on her popular blog Posie Gets Cozy, I knew there would be a connection—again, though I was the hopeless (and embarrassed) girl who hemmed her junior high school dressmaking project right onto the lap of the skirt she was wearing, and when the bell rang for next period had to go there “wearing” both.Alicia (self-portrait, left) welcomed me into her sewing circle, anyhow, charming me in the funniest Alicia-style ways. I mean, what’s not to like about a woman you don’t even know who says, “I want to be a gardener. Like Margaret.”A woman who emails you—though you are still total strangers, really—and asks you about the potato she has planted in a smallish flower pot, and how to care for it? (Answer: Get it out of the confines of that pot, a.k.a., my curriculum of How Not to Grow a Potato 101.)A woman who sends you link

I CAN’T WAIT FOR THEM to announce themselves noisily, though readers have been writing in, expressing varying degrees of cicada anxiety. Brood II of the periodical 17-year cicadas—the brood that returns on that uncanny schedule specifically to parts of the East, from Georgia to Connecticut, are already being sighted where soil temperatures have warmed to the preferred 64 degrees.

Add enchanting sparkle to your garden this year with this easy DIY craft project! You can create these in no time at all! Make plenty of them to light up your planters or your garden this summer!

Am I a magician?? Maybe. I have posted how I transformed a wood box into mimicking galvanized metal. Now watch how I transform a glass table top into wood before your very eyes!

Have you ever seen a piece of a fallen tree and thought, «Hmmm… DIY log fairy house?! Maybe it's just me but I love the fun and magic of fairies!

I got this idea from a school that involved their students in making a colorful rainbow rocky river. I knew it would give my own yard a beautiful burst of magical color and wanted to make my own DIY rainbow river rocks.

Hypericum, its, well let’s face it, a common shrub which we generally wouldn’t look twice at.

Hydrangeas like most garden plants prefer to be planted in the border. Fortunately, many are quite happy planted in a pot. Hydrangea Magical Mont Blanc is one of them.