Posted in Plants & Flowers, Science Lesson on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Did you see this article in the NYT yesterday? (Warning-registration may be required.) Canadian researchers are examining the ability of plants to distinguish members of its own species from “outsiders.” Last summer scientists at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario published a study on the sea rocket (Cakile edentula), a native member of the mustard (Brassicacaea) [...]
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Skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) is staring to leafing out in wetland areas so I know that spring is really here. Pretty soon, the ground in swampy areas will go from brown to green almost overnight as the skunk cabbage leaves unfurl.
Skunk cabbage leaves are pretty cool–big & wide, deeply veinated–but it’s the blooms that [...]
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Posted in Field Trips, Plants & Flowers on Monday, March 17, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Whenever I put the word “porn” on my blog I get lots of hits. I need all the help I can get, so as a sort of follow-up to my post on the science behind variegated leaves, here’s some variegated leaf porn from Roger Williams Park Botanical Conservancy in Providence.
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Variegation is when plant foliage, stems, or flowers have more than one color. It’s most often found in leaves. The most common leaf variegation colors are white, cream and yellow, but there are many others, including pinks and purples.
Cats can also be variegated, but I’ll leave that phenomena for the pet bloggers to explain.
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I’ve been reading a bit lately about butterflies and how to attract them to your yard and garden. It’s important to plant flowers whose nectar attract butterflies, but don’t forget the larvae (caterpillars). Many butterfly (and moth) caterpillars only eat specific plants. The best known example is the monarch butterfly caterpillar, which eats [...]
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Posted in Plants & Flowers on Sunday, March 2, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Remember how I was making fun of the amaryllis’s puny leaves? Look at them now that the blooms are gone….which, by the way, was kind of depressing to watch. As Curt put it, the flowers were really beautiful but they died a horrible death.
Now, however, I feel like the amaryllis is in its second incarnation. [...]
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Posted in Plants & Flowers on Sunday, February 10, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Enough words about the amaryllis, just photos today.
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Posted in Plants & Flowers on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 | 9 Comments »
After 5 years , I finally found a potted bougainvillea!! I’m so excited. I’ve wanted one ever since I moved here from California–they’re one of my favorite plants there. I had given up my search ages ago but was inspired by Kate, who grows one indoors in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. I figured if she could [...]
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Posted in Plants & Flowers on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 | 7 Comments »
I know you’re all dying to find out how it’s doing, heh. OK, OK, I’m really just posting this mostly to amuse myself but here it is, 11 days since you last saw it. Both stems are nice and tall and each one is probably going to have 2-3 blooms, which are just unfurling. The [...]
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Posted in Plants & Flowers on Friday, January 18, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Well, the hoped-for growth spurt did happen. Since less than two weeks ago when I last blogged about my amaryllis, both stems have far more than doubled in size. It’s interesting to see how the plant uses its energy…first to develop the buds, next the stem growth, next will come the leaves. Looks like it [...]
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Posted in Plants & Flowers on Sunday, January 6, 2008 | 7 Comments »
I potted my Amaryllis Benfica on November 23rd, about 6 weeks ago. Here’s what it looks like–two stems, the tallest being about 5 inches, and several leaves. According to the grower, it’s supposed to bloom approximately 8-10 weeks after planting and will be around 2 feet tall. I hope it’s not going to be stunted…it [...]
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Posted in Plants & Flowers on Monday, December 31, 2007 | 2 Comments »
If you’ve ever gotten frisky with a loved one under the mistletoe, you were kissing under a parasite. (How’s that for permanently ruining a holiday tradition?) Yes, it’s true–mistletoe encompasses a number of parasitic plants in the order Santalales that grow on host trees and shrubs. (That’s not a joke….the name of the order is [...]
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Posted in Plants & Flowers on Friday, November 23, 2007 | 8 Comments »
Today was amaryllis day. The poor bulb has been sitting in the box for a couple of days waiting for me to attend to it. I’ve never done an amaryllis before so you get to follow the progress here. I ordered it from White Flower Farm. Here’s the unpacked bulb. To the right is a [...]
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Posted in Plants & Flowers on Monday, October 8, 2007 | 5 Comments »
A couple of weeks ago I took a short class on wild plant and flower identification using Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. This is a book that I have always wanted to buy and learn how to use, but every time I looked at it in the store, I was always intimidated by how to use the [...]
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Posted in Field Trips, Plants & Flowers on Sunday, September 23, 2007 | 4 Comments »
Last week I finally made it down to Blithewold Mansion, Gardens, and Arboretum in Bristol, RI. Blithewold is a garden estate with a dozen different gardens and some fabulous specimen trees (which I’ll write more about later in the week). Today I wanted to briefly write about Hercules’ club, a shrub that I was not [...]
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