Six on Saturday: Pots and Edits, Mostly

African violets sure make for beautiful displays by themselves. Among so many different varieties, differing in sizes, flower colors, and even flower shapes, you can literally have a standalone collection of African violets in flower pots and it would look gorgeous.

Happy Monday GPODers!

‘PLANTS TELL the story of a place,” says field botanist and native plant nursery owner Jared Rosenbaum. “If you want to be rooted on the earth you live on, you can look to plants to interpret that story.”

Fiddle-leaf fig plants (Ficus lyrata) are loved for their large, green, glossy foliage, which makes them beautiful houseplants. However, caring for this plant can sometimes be tricky, mainly in fall and around the onset of winter when many gardeners notice their plant starts dropping leaves.

Don’t put away your gardening tools just yet! Once the weather moderates, there’s still plenty of time to plant. In fact, fall actually is an ideal time for adding new perennials and shrubs to your garden to add beauty, privacy, andpollinator-friendly plants.

When and How to Fertilize Jasmine

Succulents are unique, low-maintenance plants that can grow in the harshest of conditions. But along with these structural characteristics, do they also catch the eye with intriguing colors? Yes! There are Succulents for Fall and Winter Colors that display their artistic touch even in the second half of the year!

When the season changes, your indoor plants’ needs also transform. So, why reduce watering in fall and winter? This modification benefits your plants and helps them confront the oncoming cold and less bright days. Let’s explore the details.

Even if you aren't fortunate enough to live next to a meadow of wildflowers, you can still capture their untamed beauty in a container or garden this summer by planting cosmos. Cosmos come in various colors, from burgundy to pink to white. Mix them up for a more natural look, like a wildflower meadow. Bonus: this colorful flower, native to tropical America, attracts birds and butterflies with its cheery blooms. Because of their wildflower characteristics, cosmo flowers are considered invasive in some environments. Cosmos are prime not only for containers but for creating a mass of color in borders or backgrounds or as a filler among shrubs.

I clocked up 46 hours in the garden in August this year, up from 34 the year before, so I have clearly been busy one way or another. I don’t include things like preserve making in this total, but nevertheless found time this week to make my first batch of tomato chutney (recipe here). This time last year I had already made 3 batches and had enough tomatoes to make a fourth batch, which is perhaps as well as I may not have enough ripened tomatoes to make the minimum of three batches I need to keep me going till the next tomato season. Not only have they been very much later to establish and ripen than most years, but the beefsteak tomato ‘Burlesque’, that I grow to make things easier for the chutney-making process, is less than half its usual size, either not maturing as normal, or not the correct variety in the first place.

Andrew Bunting is vice president of horticulture at Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS), where he promotes gardening for the greater good. PHS supports healthier neighborhoods through horticulture by cleaning and greening vacant lots, planting and maintaining street trees, partnering with community gardeners to share resources and conserve productive open space, and demonstrating ecologically sound gardening practices in public gardens throughout the greater Philadelphia area. Andrew’s extensive public gardening career includes time spent at Chicago Botanic Garden, Chanticleer, and 27 years at the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College. His Fine Gardening articles have covered topics like autumn-flowering trees, shrubs for shade, and selecting trees for structure. In this episode, he discusses the evolution of his home garden, the lessons learned from the many gardens his hands have touched, and the potential for making our shared landscapes more sustainable and inclusive.

Get ready to gobble up some giggles with these Thanksgiving jokes for kids!