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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One Pix/One Caption Contest

It's working pretty well for the New Yorker, so I thought I'd try it here.

Why is my black mondo grass dying?

photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR

 

If you've got a plant-related pix that begs a smart-ass one-liner, send it to me.

11:05 AM ET | 07-11-2008 | permalink

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The Genus Beagle

We're not talking plants today, we're talking dogs, on account of Uno -- praise be his name -- the first beagle to win Westminster.

So of course beagle lovers rejoiced coast-to-coast. Then, a pack of them got down to business. Including Denise Sproul of Cascade Beagle Rescue, who leads the Pacific Northwest effort to corral dumped and unwanted strays and get them into beagle-savvy homes.

(Let me say, straight away, that not only am I a member of Cascade Beagle Rescue, but CBR vice-president Susan O'Brien -- with addtional animal wrangling by Denise Sproul -- is looking after my oh-so-low maintenance Starlet for the entire month, while I'm here in D.C.)

"We had a Board of Directors meeting the morning after Westminster," she told me, "and after the first wave of excitement, the question was, how long before we start seeing them show up in beagle rescue? We could hear the puppy mill people popping champagne corks, as people race to pet stores looking for puppy Uno."

I'm going to take it for granted you're hip to the puppy mill crisis in North America. Here's a detached overview from a 2006 piece published in the New York Times Magazine.

But Denise Sproul also saw Uno's win as an opportunity to educate a now-curious public about the right way to go about researching and acquiring a beagle -- or for that matter, any dog. While I imagine you could have written this advice yourself, perhaps you could help her pass it along (and send any beagle-curious people her way):

If you're wanting a beagle, and you're not going to adopt one from a breed-specific rescue organization, at least talk to someone in beagle rescue -- whether in your area, or any region of the country -- and get information about the breed before getting one. Otherwise, you're going to be in for a big surprise!!

I've had lots of surprises over the years with my beagles, and I can only hope my life will continue to be filled with more. What about you? Am curious about your take on beagles, breeding, pet shops, Westminster, and the U.S. as a humane place to be a dog...

12:42 AM ET | 02-14-2008 | permalink

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Amazon Animal Farm

I've got good and even better news for those of you expecting a slide show today. (Welcome to the Year of the Spin). The good news is that the slide show is so cool -- with music, birds, river splashing and narration -- that several of us are now up to our elbows in production and it's taking a tad longer than expected.

The even better news is that in hoping to mollify those of you who heard Rosario on the radio and want more, I've got animal pix from the Rosario family farm. Who could resist this face?

He's about 35 pounds (if he was yours, he'd weigh more), shy and very submissive, but I am here to tell you, Pao Preto (Black Wood, don't ask) is one lucky dog. Rosario first saw him in Macapa, a large town about 3 hrs away, where he was both starved and owner-abused. She liberated the little guy from his rotten, stinking human in trade for a dozen eggs, and now Pao Preto gets to do something all day that even my spoiled brats don't get to do: bark.

photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR

 

Being a lifelong vegetarian, I tried not to get attached to the little piggy (pictured below, and by the way she's going to be sold; the Rosario family wouldn't touch her), but I nearly fainted from cute overload when I first spied her with his little hoofs hooked over the barn door. Her massive mother, however, Boneca (Doll), is a cherished member of the Rosario family; it seems there are enough stories about her to fill a few childrens' books. My favorite is the story about how she collapsed after eating something clearly lethal, and was subsequently revived by several pots of strong black Brazilian coffee.

Can you imagine coming home to this little doggie every day? That is, before she gains another couple hundred pounds?

photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR

 

One of the reasons there are plank walkways around the entire Rosario house is because the ground floor belongs to a bunch of roosters, chickens, and ducks. The ducks and chickens are easy to live with, but those roosters! They start crowing at about 3am and until evening falls, they never seem to stop. Of course, that's only news to those of us who are more accustomed to car horns and pistols going off at night, not farm animals.

Good-looking though he may be, this guy had a cruel streak (OK, so I'm anthropomorphizing) and pecked the heck out of one particular chicken. Out of my depths on this issue, I chose not to intervene.

photo credit: Ketzel Levine

 

The ducks seems to have the most fun, alternating between dry, muddy and aquatic terrains. I particularly loved the way they paraded up and down the pier during low tide; this close to the mouth of the Amazon, the tides came and went twice a day. After spending a week bathing and swimming in this Amazon tributary, I am living proof the river is quite benign.

Ducks commuting home the hard way. In high tide, this little boardwalk is completely submerged.

photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR

 

I wouldn't have guessed that all these free-range farm animals would get along so well -- true, the dog has been known to steal eggs -- but even the cats are (relatively) well-behaved. They're certainly not warm and fuzzy like my own Lulah, but unlike Pao Preto the dog, they're allowed in the kitchen. And I might add they are quite the beggars.

Alvino is one of Rosario's younger brothers, pictured here with the two family cats, Mr. Chau (Mr. Floor, he's the Siamese) and Mrs. Dancerina.

photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR

 

Come back tomorrow for the first Talking Plants slide show, when I will prove there is more to life than Super Tuesday...

3:04 AM ET | 02- 5-2008 | permalink

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The Most Dangerous Plant At A Nursery Nearest You

Here's hoping this is not the first you're hearing about the dangers of the beautiful, bold-leaved Ricinus communis, otherwise known as the castor bean plant. Its name might not ring a bell but perhaps you've seen its foliage.

Tough to find a plant that looks this good but, to be blunt, GET OVER IT!

photo credit: Valter Jacinto

 

The problem is those spiky, Sputnuk-like seedpods, or more exactly, the smooth pebbled seeds within. One of these mouth-watering, multi-colored beans is enough to kill a Jack Russell terrier, and I only single out the breed because that's what my friend's dog was. It took two years for the little guy's organs to finally fail, despite everything modern medicine had to pump him with.

The beautiful, glossy, and seemingly harmless beans inside a Ricinus seedpod

photo credit: Abigail Kelly

 

The list of plants that COULD hurt animals (and children, of course) is rather long. One of the better online sources is the ASPCA. But given the overall risks involved with most of them, the castor oil plant is where I draw the line.

Never mind that you can buy it everywhere as a summer annual. That does not make it safe. I'd like to see all the varities of Ricinus communis pulled from the market until such a time as a sterile hybrid comes down the pike.

If you must have this dangerous beauty - believe me, I understand the craving - there is one way to sidestop the danger: rip the plant out before it flowers.

1:45 AM ET | 07-26-2007 | permalink

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