The Rosh Hashana Mystery Plant

Happy Jewish New Year! In a few hours, it'll be 5769.

While I wouldn't describe myself as a particularly observant Jew, my Conservative upbringing makes me constitutionally incapable of working on the High Holidays (happily, I can garden). Since Rosh Hashana begins tonight, I won't be blogging tomorrow which gives you an extra day to help me identify this (native?) southern Illinois plant.

I'm hoping this isn't a weed because it was the only plant of integrity growing among morning glories and other invaders but hey, I've been sucker-punched before. Its stems and leaves are fuzzy, it grows in full sun nowhere near water and the soil's thin and powdery gray (truly). Figure 8" tall.

photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR

 

Among the changes now ushering in 5769 is a huge improvement in the way we can interact on Talking Plants. Next time you leave a comment, you'll be asked to sign in as a member of the NPR community. Don't balk; it's painless. Fill out your profile, do the confirmation e-mail dance, and voila: in addition to posting, you'll be able to comment on all NPR stories and connect with community-minded NPR staff.

There's also a blog re-design in our future which may enable you to post pix directly to Talking Plants instead of having to go away and post in the TP Flickr pool. You can hardly stand the excitement, right? A toast, then, towards community and connection in the New Year...

12:23 PM ET | 09-29-2008 | permalink

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Acres Of Sunshine

A ray of light and enlightenment from Flora: Four years ago, looking for a less costly product alternative to the soybean/corn grind, Dave Burt decided to try his luck with sunflowers, plants far better suited to his lean, mean soil.

Today, bird seed is his most lucrative crop.

Though demand and storage issues prevent him from expanding his sunflower operation, the man's poised to make some radical changes. That's a whole 'nother story but I daresay a remarkable one that fills this reporter with grade A sunshine.

To be continued...

Greetings from Flora, Illinois!

photo credit: Dave Burt

 

9:43 AM ET | 09-26-2008 | permalink

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Where Fossil Fuels And Fertilizers Rule

I'm on assignment in southern Illinois, spending time with an insightful and open-hearted farmer named Dave Burt. He's likely to be the first person I'll be profiling for a future Morning Edition series with the working title, AMERICAN MOXIE: HOW WE GET BY.

Dave's intelligence and compassion are inspiring: his love of the land where his grandparents farmed is incredibly touching and his understanding of the global marketplace positively mind-boggling. But I won't lie. The ways in which he and other farmers around here make a living depresses me.

This part of the world is all soybeans and corn; you can drive for miles, seemingly days, and see nothing remotely resembling an ecosystem. Instead, the landscape is dominated by "Roundup Ready" crops completely dependent on chemical fertilizers and the mega-vehicles needed to sow, reap and move product to "market".

Making a living as a farmer here is stressful and high risk. The soil is stingy, the weather often brutal, the prices of everything sky high. If not for customers like ADM (Archer Daniels Midland), many of these hard-working, self-employed Americans would go broke.

That said, as I look at the monstrous trucks and tractors involved in these farm operations and the Rocky Mountain-high tons of chemicals needed to sustain this way of life, the idea of minimizing one's global footprint -- whether by eating locally or reusing paper grocery bags -- seems merely quaint and faddish in the face of such entrenched, overwhelming odds.

Like I said. Depressed.

11:42 PM ET | 09-24-2008 | permalink

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Can You Answer This Riddle?

From Oregon to Maryland, coast to coast, with stops along the highways of the midwest, it's now electrifying roadsides, brightening streams and illuminating woodlands. Though it sings the same notes first introduced by the daffodils of spring, it's the last brash wildflower of the year. Last hint, its botanic name rhymes with How'd Your Day Go.

The answer is?

10:59 PM ET | 09-23-2008 | permalink

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Pruning Raspberries

It's easy. Relax. You've never been in better hands. Her name is Cass Turnbull and she's on intimate terms with anything that's ever needed pruning.

Cass is the founder and current president of PlantAmnesty, an organization I have been a member of for at least 13 yrs. I can just about recite its mission statement from memory but in the interest of accuracy, it reads:

To end the senseless torture and mutilation of trees and shrubs caused by mal-pruning.

What first attracted me to PlantAmnesty was its name. You gotta figure that an organization promoting plant (vs. human) rights knows better than to take itself too seriously. Not that topping trees and other pruning atrocities aren't cause for alarm, but since its founding in 1987, Plant Amnesty has consistently found ways to smarten us up about trees and shrubs and make us laugh in the process.

Sexy, wholesome and easy to grow, raspberries simply need space, sun and pruning advice from PlantAmnesty.

photo credit: Barbara Galasso

 

A case in point, from the most recent PlantAmnesty newsletter which features the art of pruning raspberries:

...the people from PETP (People for the Ethical Treatment of Plants) want me to let you know that fruits (and maybe nuts) are the only plant parts that actually want you to eat them.

C'mon, that's funny!

This is all to say that Cass's current column takes the mystery out of pruning raspberries. Here's the quick and dirty:

1)If you've got good old-fashioned plants, simply remove the old, dead canes. Those are the ones that are grey and woody, NOT bright, fresh green. First-year raspberries canes neither flower nor fruit.

2)If you've got "ever-bearing" or "fall-bearing" raspberries, simmer it down to one word: OY. As Cass writes,

My advice to you is to just do what's "obvious" by looking at the patch. Cut out the "finished" tops, and the completely finished, dead-looking canes to the ground. Or forget the cutting in-half part and just cut the completely dead ones out. Leave the live-looking ones. That oughta work.

Your two cents?

12:39 PM ET | 09-19-2008 | permalink

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300 Downed Trees And Counting

The good news is that all of the Houston Arboretum's staff is safe and sound after Hurricane Ike. The inspiring news is that volunteers armed with gloves, tools and tons of good will are helping clean up debris.

Which leaves us with the somewhat sad news that lots and lots of big oaks have bit the dust along the Houston Arboretum's Alice Brown Trail.

Post oaks and willow oaks are the big losers at the Houston Arboretum. Invasive species will likely be the winners. With so much shade lost and ground disturbed, it's inevitable that the problem plants the Arboretum always faces -- particularly Chinese privet -- will take advantage of the lincreased sunlight and the chaos.

photo credit: Lori Hutson, Houston Arboretum

 

The Arboretum is a 155 acre sanctuary native forest where hummingbirds are feeding and birds once again singing after the storm. But the hiking trails are still unpassable. If you're in the neighborhood and would like to help out, contact Lori Hutson.

9:55 AM ET | 09-18-2008 | permalink

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A Rainforest Still Grows In Galveston

Several days after Hurricane Ike hit the greater Houston area, communication still remains spotty with Galveston. I did try to contact the folks at Moody Gardens to see whether their Rainforest Pyramid sustained damage; inside is a collection of some 2,000 plant species plus 175 animal species and pools of fresh water fish.

By all reports, the Rainforest Pyramid at Moody Gardens in Galveston sustained very little damage during Hurricane Ike.

photo credit: Bryan Dawson

 

Jerri Hamachek is a spokesperson from Moody, currently in NY. She told me that despite the catastrophic hurricane, "we've been pretty fortunate. I've seen photos of the Rainforest Pyramid and there's some glass breakage but it didn't collapse. And there's been no breach of our 1.5 million gallon aquarium." That would have been disastrous.

What does concern Hamacheck are the indoor pools of fresh water fish, particularly whether there was enough flooding to have stranded them outside their pools. I haven't heard anything further about that. The few staff members still on site have enough on their hands -- particularly with all those free-range parrots -- without me pestering them for news of kalanchoe and koi.

11:17 AM ET | 09-15-2008 | permalink

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Violet Gage Plums and Wrens Egg Beans

I'm the first to admit this is the last place edible gardeners are going to find great ideas. Hell, any ideas. But at least I can turn you on to one of the more innovative and accessible organic farmers in the country should you ever find yourself within shouting distance of the Portland, OR. area.

Anthony Boutard of Ayers Creek Farm is happy to market everything but himself. Fortunately, his extroverted and activist wife Carol -- full partner in grime -- kicks over any bushel that might be hiding his light. Dynamic duos don't come more powerfully suited than these two.

photo credit: Anthony Boutard

 

The Boutards have no website -- I was lucky to find their online article on winter greens -- and they don't do any shipping unless you're their daughter, Caroline, in which case you get fresh produce all year. They have been known to ship their astonishing berry preserves to people they like; I suggest courting favor. But if it's depth of knowledge you're after regarding the cultivated history of fruits, nuts and vegetables, Anthony Boutard is your go-to man.

The best way to get to know him is to get your name on his weekly e-mail, ostensibly a list of the produce he and Carol will be bringing next day to the Hillsboro Farmers Market, but more often than not an invitation into a world of agricultural insights and ideas.

Last week's e-mail was all seed patents and copyrights, all in all a subject way beyond the casual produce shopper, but one of urgent interest to those who grow and collect seeds.

Until the 1930s, plant varieties were not covered by patents or copyrights, and were in the public domain. We don't think we suffered any setback in the field of plant breeding up to that point. For example, crack open Hedrick's Small Fruits of New York (1928) and you will see a much greater diversity in every single type of small fruit than is available today. The utility patent is particularly pernicious, as it strikes at the very essence of traditional farming, saving and selecting seeds, as well as scouting out sports and interesting seedlings.

Later, he continues:

As growers, we do not begrudge paying a premium for good quality material, and we believe buying good quality planting stock is a bargain... We also know the most expensive seeds and plants we plant are those which we have selected and saved ourselves...That said, we think the granting of utility patents to plant traits and the Plant Variety Protection Act were both bad public policy, Faustian bargains benefiting lawyers and clerks, and have done nothing to advance plant breeding in this country.

Do his interests and priorities resonate with yours? Excellent. Oh I'm sorry, did you say you're only in it for the food? Then take a look at what Anthony and Carol have been harvesting these days and you'll either eat your heart out, live vicariously through his mailing list, or, Move!

Plums: A pile of plums are beginning to ripe. We should have violet gages, golden transparent gages, mirabelles, and several different prune plums. Table Grapes: Good selection. Price and Swenson's Red on the fecund side, and Interlaken, Sweet Seduction and Canadice for fans of the celibate. Berries: Chester & Triple Crown . . .we promise. The warm weather has done wonders for the berries. They are sweet. The Triple Crown is back in good form, surprising the Eyores among us. Fresh Shell Beans: Vermont Cranberry, Cannellini, Flageolet and Wrens Egg. We will try to have enough for even the late risers. Cucumbers: Biet Alpha and Boothby's Blonde. Pole beans: Preacher, and some Fortex and Garden of Eden. Spuds nuevas: Charlotte and Red Thumb. Shallots: French red and grisselle

I'm not sure I'd know a Biet Alpha cuke from a Boothby's Blonde, but I feel better knowing there are people like the Boutards on the planet who are making sure that when I'm smart enough to care, both varieties will be amply available.

8:02 PM ET | 09-14-2008 | permalink

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Dahlias and Dogs

Dahlias have seemingly been blooming for months and my dark-leaved, single-flowered Bishop is sprawled all over the ground. I go through this every year because I'm too lazy to stake it. Can anyone tell me if cutting my plant back in June would solve the problem? Will someone call me in June and remind me?

Meanwhile, botanic gardens from coast to coast are stuffed silly with the plants and it's hardly news. But we were lucky enough to have TP friend Jay Blackburn at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden just when the dahlias went to the dogs.

I won't ask you to i.d. the varieties of dahlias in the background, but can you count how many species of dogs are on the bench?

photo credit: Jay Blackburn

 

11:52 PM ET | 09-10-2008 | permalink

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Dancing Through The Tops of Trees

If you're heading to London this fall, here's the latest reason among many century-old ones to visit Kew Gardens. A few months ago, this Royal Botanic Garden jewel opened its Rhizotron & Xtrata Treetop Walkway, and I'm guessing the experience -- unlike its sadly dysfunctional web page, which promises but doesn't deliver -- could knock your socks off.

After looking through a few dozen online sites trying to get a real sense of the experience, I recommend the Flickr slide show posted by a bloke named Andy Brown.

Not to worry if you can't manage the 108 steps to the top; there's a lift. For the insatiably curious, here's more reading.

photo credit: JL2003

 

11:45 AM ET | 09-10-2008 | permalink

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The Floating Photographer

Couple weeks back, I checked in from eastern Oregon while I was out there on assignment. You can now read the story I was chasing, and better yet, hear it. I love recording natural sound as much as I do talking to people; it doesn't get any better for me when I get to do both.

But I admit, radio can only take you so far when the subject is the visual arts. So be sure to check out the underworld world of Mary Edwards, part biologist, part artist, and yes, part fish.

Mary and I spent a day in dry suits on the Lostine River outside Joseph, OR. It was salmon spawning time and she wanted to shoot some big ones. In the radio story, she finds a slightly beat-up male about 4 years old. The light was dim -- he was under a big log, and she doesn't use a flash -- but a few liquid rays filtered through his tail.

This guy was probably 3' long with an 18" body depth. Mary almost had to touch him before I could discern his shape, he was so thoroughly camouflaged by his clean, clear and oh so cold environment.

photo credit: Mary Edwards

 

She snapped a whole bunch of other pix that day, but I'm now going take up some mega bandwidth on this page to feature a whopping photograph from her trip to Alaska last year. It's a hell of a pix, and hers is a hell of a tale.

To hear it, all you gotta do is CLICK.

Is seeing believing? Guess it depends on what you want to believe. This seemingly impossible shot of underwater fish and above the water bears might be possible, but is way beyond the pay grade of Mary Edwards' camera. Instead, she stitched these two images together in post-production, images she indeed captured in the same Alaskan river within the same hour.

photo credit: Mary Edwards

 

5:41 PM ET | 09- 8-2008 | permalink

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Now That's A Big Moth

All manner of lovelies are showing up on our Flickr site right now. Bright orange lanterns, tight-fisted aquatics, check it out.

But let's start the week thinking big. Really big. Introducing the Atlas moth, Attacus atlas, as seen by our own Andy Carvin (you might remember his stellar pix of passiflora last year). Andy grabbed this stunning shot at "Wings of Fancy", the live butterfly exhibit now on for another two weeks at Brookside Gardens outside D.C.

In terms of total wing surface area, Atlas moths are considered the largest in the world. Andy figures that each wing was bigger has his man-sized hand.

photo credit: Andy Carvin, NPR

 

Everything I know about Attacus comes from Wikipedia, so feel free to dissent. Among the more compelling things I read concerned the moth's sexual differences and mating behavior:

Females are sexually passive, releasing powerful pheromones which males detect and home in on with the help of chemoreceptors located on their large feathery antennae. Males may thus be attracted from several kilometres downwind. Atlas moths are unsteady fliers and the female does not stray far from the location of her discarded chrysalis: she seeks a perch where the air currents will best carry her pheromones.

Since you know how the story ends, I figure you'd like to see how it begins. Thanks to Sachin Palkar for this photo.

photo credit: Sachin Palkar

 

Stay tuned for tomorrow's Wild Kingdom when we re-visit the floating photographer Mary Edwards and the underwater world of spawning salmon...

10:42 AM ET | 09- 8-2008 | permalink

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The Platform Of The Garden Party

Who says there's no platform for gardeners as the prevailing winds whip this country intro frenzy?

Kitchen Gardeners International -- a non-profit founded in Maine 8 yrs ago by a gent named Roger Doiron -- has hooked up with eBay to sell virtual plots of the First Lawn. Why? After repeated readings of its press material, I see it's a fund-raising campaign for KGI programs, a call to turn front lawns into kitchen gardens, and a way to galvanize interest in convincing the next president to grow food on the underused, over-preened White House lawn.

Roger Doiron, founder of the Maine-based Kitchen Gardeners International, is using this cheeky campaign to petition our next president for a quarter-acre garden on the White House lawn.

photo credit: Eat The View

 

I fear the campaign suffers from confusion. We've got the virtual lawn sale, the Eat the View petition plus the challenge of interacting with eBay if that's not something you ordinarily do.

But at heart, no gardener will argue with KGI's mission statement, "to achieve greater levels of food self-reliance through the promotion of kitchen gardening, home-cooking, and sustainable local food systems".

Besides, if you're feeling disenfranchised as a green thumb voter, here's a place to put your muscle, your shovel and your vote.

As far as the precedent of growing veges on the big house's turf, the last time it was dug up and planted was in 1943, when victory gardener Eleanor Roosevelt grew carrots and beans. Here's a juicy article on the subject by the well-known victory gardener, Barbara Damrosch.

Check out a video after the jump...

Continue reading "The Platform Of The Garden Party" »

11:16 AM ET | 09- 5-2008 | permalink

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Another Mystery Solved

We've just had a query from DillyBean over at our discussion group about mystery plants and with a little help from our friends over at Timber Press (what? you don't know about this outstanding horticultural publisher?), we have lift-off.

This volunteer showed up in DillyBean's Oregon garden. The telling clue was its seed pod, "covered by a paper husk, much like a tomatillo". Any ideas, she asked? Don't eat it, we answer. This is the shoo-fly plant, Nicandra physaloides, a day-blooming relative of Jimson weed with similarly poisonous parts.

photo credit: DillyBean

 

Based on some elemental surfing, it would appear the shoo-fly plant is inordinately fond of Illinois, since few other states (w/the exception of California) have websites showing where this weedy non-native has naturalized. After planting it voluntarily, Chicago gardener Mr. Brown Thumb has since decided to nip his in the bud.

Nicandra physaloides is hardly poised to take over the planet, and if you can look past its coarse leaves, the flowers and the dried seed husks are quite ornamental. I found a nice assortment of comments about the plant posted on the U.K. website, Plants For A Future. And should you want a variegated form (who am I to judge?) check out Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

Oh yeah, about this "shoo, fly!" thing. The plant's reported to have insect-repelling properties, particularly against white fly.

7:59 PM ET | 09- 2-2008 | permalink

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Cat, Roof, Neighbor, Ladder, Labor Day

It's 5:30 am Labor Day morning and I hear Lulah crying. Which is odd, because I let her out at 4:30am and left the door open for her return. The crying continues so I get out of bed and check all exits/entrances. No Lulah, more crying. It takes me a few minutes, but finally I find her.

Lulah against a morning sky with the delicate silhouette of Sophora microphylla, but we're not talking plants this morning, we're talking Lulah's inexplicable trip to the roof in what is the first time in our four years together.

photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR

 

Now it's 6:00 am and I take out my only ladder. It's completely inadequate, i.e., total crap. I briefly consider getting out on the ledge below the roof to keep Lulah company, but having recently fallen down my own back stairs only to land on the basement concrete floor, I reluctantly forgo the risk.

I decide to e-mail my neighbor Paul, an early-waking walker who, like me, is often online. Never have I been more grateful for the invention of the Blackberry. Paul gets my message and goes into action.

Paul Anthony, generous neighbor and dependable early riser; elapsed time between distress call and response, 10 minutes.

photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR

 

Lulah, bless her, stays put while we prepare for her rescue. For a moment I think she looks amused, but she's not that cerebral. Certainly she's stopped mewing and is no longer pacing in distress.

And so I ascend to her rescue on this well-named labor day. No doubt you'd like to see a better picture of our happy protagonists, but one of them had seriously bad bedhead.

photo credit: Paul Anthony

 

9:28 AM ET | 09- 1-2008 | permalink

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