Talking Plants Blog
 
 

June 30, 2008

Summer Eye Candy on our Anniversary

In August 2007, a gender-unknown person by the name of Cy Savino uploaded a stunning close-up of a bee in multi-hued buds. Almost a year later, I now know her real name.

Cynthia Savino spends her summers as a dance instructor at the Albuquerque Academy. She's also a fencing enthusiast talented enough to coach. And she belongs to a number of Flickr groups aside from Ketzel's, including Secret Life of Plants and The Flower Show.

The girl's got an eye for plants and invertebrates, for sure. Congrats, Cynthia, on being named TP Summer Eye Candy of the Year!

bee deep in sunflower

If you'd like to know more about Cynthia's macro photography, stop by her Flickr page and drop her a friendly, "Ketzel sent me" line.

photo credit: cy_savino
 

A bug in a bud has got to be worth at least two in a blog -- which brings to mind one of the best-loved creature pix of Talking Plants' first year. It dates from September 2007 and was credited to Judie Dunn (alas, we haven't had any submissions from her in a while). The title of that day's blog was Beautyberry and the Beast.

jumping spider on calicarpa berry

The identity of the spider caused quite a stir when the post went up. The last word went to Bill Barber, a spider expert and TP friend: "I think I can agree with Phidippus spp., but I thought (from the B.J. Kaston book) it's the male (not female) of the genus that have the vertical 'eyebrow tufts.' From this photo it's hard to tell if the chelicerae are iridescent, which would further suggest male." We are so beyond hip ...

photo credit: Judie Dunn
 

We've had so many wonderful summer pix in the last year, to pick one is certainly not to diss another. We've featured a few of them on the NPR homepage billboard just in the last week, but you never did get to see the one below in its entirety.

 sleeping swan within a peony

I was pretty sucker-punched by this white peony and its pink belly button until I saw the photographer's name. Ah yes, Aleth11, I should have known. She's one of the most frequent contributors to the Talking Plants Flickr Group and her stuff just gets better and better. I couldn't help but notice that her grandma BJ was one mean photographer, too.

photo credit: aleth11
 

There's still a little time left for you to nominate your favorite of our first year's TP Flickr Pix. But if you're not up to the challenge, come back tomorrow for more of the best of the best ...

 
June 26, 2008

The Human Body Ain't Got Nothing On This Plant

First and foremost, this breaking news...

TALKING PLANTS TURNS ONE YEAR OLD TODAY!!!

I'd like to celebrate all next week by posting some of the best pix from our TP Flickr Pool and I need YOUR nominations.

Why not take a few minutes and either scroll through former posts or walk through our garden of, count 'em, nearly TWO THOUSAND submitted images and send me the best spring, summer, winter and fall TP Pix of the Year.

As a token of my thanks for your continued interest in Talking Plants through rain sleet and inexplicable absence, I'm posting a great big ol' Flickr pix that says more than I can legally say.

extreme close-up lotus in bud

This is only one of the sumptuous images TP photographer Chris Stamboulis recently taken at the Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens in Washington, D.C. Talk about an inside-the-beltway scandal. And let me add a personal note: HAPPY BIRTHDAY WONDERFUL BEAUTIFUL MAGGIE. Add it to your birthday bouquet.

photo credit:Chris Stamboulis
 
 
May 26, 2008

Dirt Nerd's Gotta Pea

pea leaf

Dirt Nerd gardens above 5,000 feet in Boulder County, Colorado. "In this dry climate," he says, "seeing a rain drop stick around makes my day."

photo credit: Dirt Nerd

The lead story this morning in the Talking Plants world (I didn't hear from you so what else could I lead with?) is Dirt Nerd's pea seedling. Isn't she sweet?

Well if that doesn't work for you, perhaps the thoughtful musings over at A Thinking Stomach will:
"What possible kinds of salad greens can one grow when it is 105 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday and 50 degrees Fahrenheit (and spitting hail the size of nickels) on Thursday of the same week?" asks blogger Christina from Pasadena. Check out her answers.

OK, how about...

An old friend showed up in the Talking Plants inbox the other day. If you'd like to meet one of the people in the world I most envy, check out the latest from the fabulously talented (and obscenely young-to-retire) Margaret Roach. Her blog is Away To Garden.

Sure I wish I had a couple acres in upstate New York. Poor me, all I've got is this:

view towards WA. along Columbia Gorge

It was another dark, rainy morning when I left Portland and headed East along I-84. Sixty or so miles and a hundred minutes later, I was climbing up through lupine, balsam root and penstemon, making my way to the top of the Tom McCall Preserve. What you see here is the view from mid-way up, looking north across the Columbia River towards Washington State. The spills of yellow and purple you're seeing? Wildflowers, my friends. Wildflowers. More pix from this magical place tomorrow.

photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR
 
 
May 22, 2008

A Plant Nerd Worthy of the Name

Ever so slowly here at TP, strangers are becoming regulars, and regulars are becoming friends. So as I continue dodging your most-asked question, What Would Eve Do? (she'd chew her nails to the bone worrying about how much angst to reveal; I promise an update, soon...) I thought I'd introduce you to one of the many sensational photographers in the TP Flickr pool, an anything but garden variety acolyte of the Goddess Flora.

His name is Rob Illingworth, he says the "real"gardener in the family is his wife Sharon (I guess that makes him, what, chopped liver?), and the couple lives 7 miles north of the MN border in Oh! Canada. Judging by their Flickr page, her passion is woodland and rock garden plants and his is everything she grows.

If it takes a family to create a portrait like the one below -- the plant is Hepatica -- consider this union blessed.

blue hepatica in bloom

Hepatica clearly thrives in Ontario, at least in the Illingsworth garden, where the couple grow -- and he photographs -- a variety of colors and forms, mostly from seed. The Mr.'s photographs blew me away. In answer to my sheepish question, Um, you didn't color-correct this, did you Rob?, he answered quite earnestly, "I went out and picked two flowers from the plants. I have always intended to do this just to satisfy myself as to colour accuracy. I am pleased to say that the flower colours are very close to what I see on my monitor, which is colour balanced."

photo credit: Rob Illingworth
 

A self-described "plant nerd with a bias to growing rather than plant classification" (aha! he does garden!), this serious amateur recently visited one of the country's more imaginative and certainly better-endowed public gardens, Chanticleer in Wayne, PA. Its website does not do it justice, but Rob's photographs do.

Surprisingly, it wasn't his destination. He had, shall we say, less romantic plans. Rob was visiting the mid-Atlantic region because of a trillum symposium he'd signed up for at a nearby native plant mecca, Mt Cuba. Now that is one serious plantfest of a place. "I went to the symposium not as an expert, but as a keen grower," Rob wrote, "feeling that we could grow many more trilliums here despite our climate."

I can only imagine the notes he took; something tells me this is the guy who'd you'd most want to cheat off during a final. Anyway, among the many pix he's posted from Chanticleer, this one is Rob's favorite:

petals on raked gravel

"Here's a low circular mound of fine gravel very carefully raked into an artful pattern," writes Rob. "The fallen flower petals from the adjacent trees had collected in the ridges making for me a perfect garden memory. While I was there the light was right and I was very happy even though I only had three hours for my visit. Not nearly enough time to see all the garden, but leaving me reason to return".

photo credit: Rob Illingworth
 

So many Illingworth pix, so little time. Be sure to take your own tour through his photos.

And who, might I ask, are you?

 
May 5, 2008

EZ Guide to Sharing Your Plant Pix

Just got a note from Ken Banks who's new to Talking Plants.

I'm a Hawaii plant guy and would like to be a part of this blog and pix scene, but I dont understand how it works. How do I become involved? I apologize for my ignorance, but a brief step-by-step guide might help.

Much aloha to you, too, Ken. Here's your step-by-step guide, courtesy of Andy Carvin.

Step 1: If you're not a member yet, join Flickr. It doesn't cost anything to join, though if you want to use it to share a lot of photos - ie, hundreds or thousands - you may want to purchase a Pro account.

Step 2: Upload some pics you'd like to share with the Talking Plants group. (If you're having trouble uploading, consult Flickr's help guide.

Step 3. Go to the Talking Plants group on Flickr and click "Join this group." You'll then have to click another button to confirm your membership.

Step 4: Find a photo from your personal collection that you'd like to add to the group. Between the title of the photo and the photo itself, you'll see a series of tabs. Click "Send to Group" then Select "Ketzel Levine's Talking Plants."

And that's it; you're done. Your photo will now be included in the group collection.

(Me again. Now even I get it. Guess it's time to finally jump into the Flickr Pool. See you there)

 
April 25, 2008

Behold, Sumptuous Snapshots

A recent walk through the Talking Plants photo garden reveals that your eyes are keen and your imaginations fired. How I treasure you roving troubadours of spring.

California wildflowers

Guillermo Meraz, aka Guissimo, went for a recent hike near the Merced River in Mariposa County, CA., home to the Sierra National Forest. So you've got to be wondering about those blue wildflowers, huh? Guillermo has the answer:Nemophila menziesii var. menziesii, or baby blue-eyes.

photo credit: Guillermo Meraz
 

Another TP regular didn't have to go very far to find stunning spring ephemerals. The prolific and talented Aleth11 just had to wander into the woods behind her house to behold the sparkle of the truly wondrous Sanguinaria canadensis (that link will take you to the bloodroot profile from my book).

white bloodroot

I have this note from our photographer: "These flowers ooze an orange/red color when a leaf or stem is "damaged" so I imagine that's where they got the name. Sounds like a horrible name for such a pretty flower, no? The sap is apparently toxic and has been used in salves and such on warts and skin cancer.

photo credit: Aleth11
 

Finally, though there's not a whole lot new to be said about tulips (after moving to the NW, I'm pretty much ready to give them up, except for the unimproved smallest species), TP friend Troye captured a few lovely shots that pretty much tell the story of why they'll always be a market for tulips.

orange tulips .

Troye's shown us his, time for you to show us yours. The Talking Plants Flickr Group has more than 300 members who've posted almost a year's worth of gorgeous, memorable and classy pix. To join, all you need is a camera and a love of the natural world. We want you!

photo credit: troye
 
 

Doyenne of Dirt Comes Clean

Consider me humbled.

You may have noticed I'm not the hippest blogster in the bunch. In other words, if it's hot and happening in the blog world, you're NOT likely to read about it here.

Believe me, I'm not bragging. I get that my creds as a blogger are slightly pathetic, possibly even considered rude, if the standard of gentility is linking to others.

So consider me a plant in need of sunlight and nourishment and help me out here. What are the enlightening, surprising, irreverent and relevant plant-related blogs I need to read?

 
February 19, 2008

Gloom Or Bloom?

delicate yellow bloom

You may think you know what this is, but I wouldn't jump to any easy conclusions. Wanna guess again?

photo credit: Coburn Dukehart, NPR

Rumor has it the bulbs are poppin' in Portland, OR. after a glorious weekend. And there are thousands of little blossoms like the one on the left now blooming at Dumbarton Oaks. So much for the Z7 and Z8 edges of the country what's up in your front yard?

Seedheads of sweet autumn clematis are about it these days for the floral fantasies of some TP members. If you are in need of chlorophyllic support, join the Talking Plants Flickr Group and let us ooow and aaah over your small triumphs.

clematis seed cluster

photo credit: Blathanna
 
 
December 16, 2007

Plants on Ice

Listen up, friends -- It's now that dead, dried and dessicated flower time of year and we need more TP Flickr Pix friends before some of us get really depressed. We need colors, shapes, lights, action! So skip the holiday shopping (just buy your friends memberships to local enviro orgs, they'll hate you for it), and go snap us some iced flowers and berry frappes...

a pansy's first snow

From what I've heard, the first snow in the greater D.C. area didn't last long, but TP member Camera Slayer (evidentally, he kills a lot of them) was poised and ready.

photo credit: Camera Slayer
 

Truth is we gardeners don't have all that much work to do right now (as if I've done a thing in the last eleven months; this was the Year of the Ruptured Disc), so this is a splendid time to look a bit more closely at things we missed all year, and indulge in the smaller moments that rushed right by during the growing season.

At my place, for instance, it's all about bark and bones -- as in, the dog's soggy stuffed animals and my garden's design bones that are in need of serious chiropractic care.

last stage of New England aster

If you're a TP regular, you've seen this aster before (scroll down page). Our friend in New England, Christine 4nier, sent in a purpleacious shot this past summer.

photo credit: Christine 4nier
 

Winter is also a superb time of year to have a Bad Excuse For A Garden exhibition here on TP...and I know just the "ornamental" cabbage planting I'm going to include. So while you're out walking the dog please scour the neighborhood for any amusing disasters. If I get enough pix that are truly bad enough, I'll put up a show.

iced daisy

Stopped in its tracks while blowing in the wind, this rudbeckia relative got caught up in last week's Oklahoma City ice storm.

photo credit: Clarissa Sharp
 


 
November 8, 2007

Getta Load of Your Plant Pics

Wanted to catch you up on what's happening over at our TP photo club, membership cruising towards 300. If you have no idea what I'm on about, here's how to play.

And now for a glimpse of some of the most evocative and enticing from the last few weeks:

frosted zinnias

As it was originally described by photographer and admired TP regular aleth11, "Sadly, the last zinnia photo of the year. As the frost melted, so did their color, and then they were gone ... "

photo credit: aleth11
 
confection of leaves

Simple, unpretentious, and universal. I also like to say the photographer's e-name, Grundlepuck. Grundlepuck. Grundlepuck.

photo credit: Grundlepuck
 
final foliage of fall

With any luck, photographer bear.bonnell will swing by the blog and tell us where he/she took this. I do recommend checking out the bear's other pix.

photo credit: bear.bonnell
 
Lion's Ear or Lion's Tail

If you're a TP regular, you'll know the gent who took this pix, Andy Carvin. He's a gift to both NPR and TP, plus one hot flower photographer (what, me, prejudice?). The featured plant is my longtime late fall favorite, Leonotis leonurus. Let me know if you want me to blog about it sometime.

photo credit: Andy Carvin, NPR
 
birch forest

I've saved my favorite for last. I am crazy, crazy, crazy for this photograph. It speaks to me; hell, it screams to me. Childhood, the Berkshires, Russian writers, the associations are endless. This is a photographer you must meet (and a pix you've got to see larger), so follow the links. Thank you, Jen!

photo credit: Jennifer Yu
 

So of course you're thinking, what's the big deal? I can shoot as well as this. Well, what are you waiting for?

 
October 17, 2007

Let It Fall!

What a relief that the flower season's almost over. Honest.

You macro pix meshuganas make the world so blissfully bite-sized and so breathtakingly unreal! While the truth -- for this gardener -- is the bigger, messier picture. Which is one of the reasons I can't get enough of the kaleidoscopic chaos that is foliage in the fall.

leaves with black mondo grass

For my money -- and the stuff does cost -- there's nothing black mondo grass can't do. This week it's drowning in killer crape myrtle foliage; a few months from now it'll be setting off brilliant little species tulips if the squirrels and the beagle don't get them first.

photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR
 
red maple and beech

Kudos to TP Flickr Pixer Christine4nier who grabbed this conversation between a red maple and a birch before they took the plunge into history near Woodstock, VT.

photo credit:Christine4nier
 

So how 'bout grabbing your cameras and sharing your perspective as this most melancholy of times take its leaves? Delight us with autumnal light, colorful landscapes, fiery and fallen moments in your garden. Best pix gets posted on the NPR homepage billboard (hint: take horizontals).

And if this is your first visit to Talking Plants, it's easy to join our jolly band of photographers (244 members and going strong!). We all belong to the no strings attached Talking Plants Flickr Pix photo swap, All Comers Welcome and Here's How, where you're likely to run into folks much like yourself with a strong sense of wonder (and might I add, gratitude) for all Man has yet to plunder.

 
September 20, 2007

Beautyberry and the Beast

If you aren't familiar with beautyberry -- a.k.a., Callicarpa -- you'd be forgiven for thinking this photo was a fake. But these purple fruits are the real thing and available in a number of delicious flavors, including that downhome Southeast native, Callicarpa americana.

Oh, it's the spider that lured you to Talking Plants? Excellent. Perhaps you'd care to tell us what kind of spider it is?

beautyberry and friend

Congrats to Talking Plants Flickr Pix winner Judie Dunn for her stunning close-up of these Callicarpa berries featured with this handsome stranger. Can you introduce us?

photo credit: Judie Dunn
 


 
September 7, 2007

Maypop Memories

The gig's up. The mystery's solved. The Flickr Pix of the Week was Passiflora 'Incense'.

One of this hybrid's parents is commonly known as Maypop, and just about everything I know about the plant -- also known as Passiflora incarnata -- I found out this week from you.

All I'd hoped was to tease out a few passiflora experts with our Talking Plants Flicker Pix of the Week. And I did find a few.

But I'm happy to report I got way more than I bargained for. Click here and you will, too.

For instance: Chris has learned not to kill caterpillars (right, Chris?) because they could turn into Gulf Fritillary butterflies; Jason uses the plant's flowers to make tea; Michelle used to pretend the flowers were ballerinas, with three sets of arms and three heads; and Serene has a recipe for passiflora juice.

In addition: it's the Tennessee state wildflower, it's rich with Christian symbolism, and it does a wicked imitation of that creature immortalized in the 1958 classic, The Purple People Eater.

Finally, I'm aware of at least one person in our community who did NOT use a search engine to come up with the mystery plant's name. Congrats, Tai Haku.

I send you off into the weekend with the maypop memories of a Glasgwegian. Here's the last two stanzas of Where The Passion Flower Grows, by a fellow flower-lover, Charles M. Moore.


Feel your mind exploding
in the heavy scented air
experience the shiver
as you're captured unaware

A little touch of heaven
where imagination flows
the valley in the garden
where the passion flower grows.

 
September 5, 2007

Gotta Problem With Eye Candy?

Here's this week's Talking Plants Flickr Pix winner, a sensational mega-whallop of purple...

flower from a purple passion vine

It's root-hardy to zero degrees and like most passion vines, it's not a particularly demanding plant. So I ask you, why aren't we all growing this plant? Could it be because most of us can't identify it?

photo credit: Andy Carvin, NPR
 

This pix was taken by NPR's own Andy Carvin, the best friend a blogger -- and Flickr fan -- could have. After a considerable amount of detective work, Andy was able to identify this species of Passiflora, and now I know the answer, too.

Question is, do you?

 
August 30, 2007

Heavy Metal Hits

Metallic blue is a preposterous color which behaves badly in front of a camera. Which makes the genus Eryngium the naughtiest of them all. So bravo to our Talking Plants Flickr Pix of the Week winner, who we trust did not doctor this photo of Eryngium alpinum -- the so-called alpine sea holly -- posing here in all its impossibly blue-osity.

an alpine sea holly at its bluest best

Thank you Canadian TP friends Rob and Sharon Illingworth for posting this little portrait of E. alpinum, a perennial that likes its feet in fast-draining soil, its head in full summer sun, and its neighbors some breathing space away.

photo credit: Rob Illingworth
 

I find this genus so captivating, its infertile blue bracts (the feathery bits) so ridiculously showy, its color so consistently elusive, and its demeanor so percussive, I thought I'd regale you with a couple more close-ups. Ready, Mr. DeMille?

This was taken in Switzerland more than two decades ago. It's a decidedly more purple look at Eryngium alpinum, the same plant as our Flickr Pix of the Week.

photo credit: Dr. Robert Thomas and Margaret Orr copyright California Academy of Sciences
 

I'll wait for you while you check out this gorgeous shot also taken in a Swiss meadow but just last year.

Awesome, right?

OK ... let's give the alpine eryngiums a rest, and move on to a different species (stop groaning). Drumroll, please...

the hybrid, Eryngium 'Sapphire Blue'

Killer photo, isn't it? Now take a close look at those bracts -- the Elizabethan collars around the fertile flowers -- and check out the textural difference between this puppy and the two above. So cool!

photo credit: htop
 

What, you're not awed? I'll find your weakness yet.

Maybe it's native plants, in which case, meet the little guy from Kansas, E. leavenworthii. This is one anatomically nice annual. You'll have to tell me whether it works as a garden plant -- maybe in a meadow? -- but at least you Kansans, Texans and Oklahomans get to tiptoe through fields of it in summer.

description

If I might quote from the photographer, botanist Tom Clothier, "Eryngium leavenworthii is nothing short of fantastic with its metallic purple stems and flowers". He also notes that the flowers' stamens come out as bright blue filaments, which you can see in the still-blooming flower heads, the ones that look spray painted. photo credit: Tom Clothier

 

OK, I'm just about done, but I must point out that even Shakespeare took note of eryngium.

"Rain me eringoes...." says Falstaff of the candied eryngium root. Turns out it was both a celebrated sweet, and an aphrodisiac.


 
August 20, 2007

It's Flickr Pix Monday, Do You Know Where Your Dahlias Are?

So let's start off this deliciously wet Monday (at least here in Oregon) with the Talking Plants Flickr Pix of the Week...

Iooking into an orange flower

This week's photographer is Steve Garfield, who shot right down into the kisser of a pinwheeled dahlia. At least that's my best guess what the flower is, based on its foliage. Any dissent in the ranks?

photo credit: Steve Garfield
 
red dahlia in mid-August garden

Good idea to get your flower in focus if you're going to submit to the Talking Plants Flickr Pix. (Clearly, I have no business being in the club.)

photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR


And speaking of dahlias, there is none finer (nor more ubiquitous) than the red alarm in a dark night that is the dark-foliaged dahlia, 'Bishop of Llandaff'. Here's a quick shot just scored from the dripping front garden.

Meanwhile, amidst this jumble of August growth you might see the red flowers from a flowering shrub known as Abutilon in the background, left.

Care to offer your fellow gardeners your favorite dahlia picks with pix?

 
August 13, 2007

Your Photo Here!

Oh the fame! and exposure! that await you if your stunning gardenesque moment is chosen as the Talking Plants Flickr Pix of the Week!

Or not. But at least it gives me something to post this dog-day of an August morning.

deep within a morning glory

This week's photographer is Elizabeth Yu Ellsworth, who captured this inner moment in the life of a flowering vine. And we'll have no political discourse, thank you, about this often unstoppable genus, Ipomoea, the morning glory.

photo credit: Elizabeth Yu Ellsworth
 

Seriously, folks, there will be one photographer each week posted Monday morning, chosen from pix posted at the Talking Plants Flickr Group.

Congratulations, Elizabeth Yu Ellsworth.

And now, on another note ... TP is taking orders for Rove farewell bouquets. What would you put in yours? ;-}

 
July 20, 2007

Face First into the Raspberries! Wanna Share Your Garden Pix?

Earlier this week, I made a promise I didn't keep — to explain the Talking Plants Flickr group and show you how to play. Much to my chagrin, even the Flickr folks noticed I hadn't followed through and sent me a crib sheet in case I was the one who needed the explaining.

But first let me get you up to speed.

As you may have noticed on the right side of this blog entry, I've set up a Talking Plants photo group on the Flickr Web site. I'm hoping those of you who are photographers will want to post your plant and garden pics to the group. (NOTE: All dogs and cats must be accompanied by something chlorophyllic.) That way, we can see what we love, hate, envy, can't identify, and wish we could dive right into.

Is there anything more enticing and legal than a Flickr group that posts such voluptuous eye candy?

photo credit: Barbara Galasso
 

As for what the Yahoo! company Flickr is — on a strictly need-to-know-basis — it's a free way to both store and share your photographs that is incredibly painless to use. All you need to do is sign up, create an account, and start uploading pix.

Lest you think that Talking Plants is a shill for Flickr, let me assure you that we are just users of the service. We don't have any special relationship with Flickr.

Most important — to me, anyway — is that you then join the Talking Plants Flickr Group. Then you can introduce yourself (or not; all curmudgeons welcome), and join the other kids who've been playing in our photo pool.

Stay tuned for weekly photo winners and other incredibly cheap thrills...

 
July 16, 2007

Jump in the Talking Plants Photo Pool!

Close-up of sunflower's cushionlike center

A sublime moment in the life of an ordinary sunflower

photo: Jesse78

Thanks to you guys, we've been cavorting for weeks in the Talking Plants Flickr photo pool, where fellow plant fiends have been posting garden pix and showing off their sublime sense of aesthetics. I'll explain what Flickr is in my next post so you, too, can bring your toys and jump in the pool.

Right now, for inspiration, enjoy the above delicious moment in the life of a sunflower captured by Talking Plants Flickr member Jesse78. Any little entertaining story you'd like to add about your pix will be most welcome (e.g., "I hate this sunflower because it's tall, rank and boring but I grow it for this one moment of glory" - no, Jesse did NOT say this!)

 



   
   
   
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Ketzel Levine

Ketzel Levine

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What is 'Talking Plants?'

Talking Plants is an open invitation to meet new plants and cool plant people, tour incredible private gardens, savor inside-gardening industry gossip, swap dead plant stories and get the odd gardening question answered by your fellow "hort-heads."

To learn more, read the FAQs and the discussion guidelines.

 
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photos in Ketzel Levine's Talking PlantsShare your gardening photos in Ketzel's Flickr group!
 
 

Talking Plants' Past

Before Talking Plants the blog, there was Ketzel Levine's Talking Plants the Web site. Although it's no longer updated, the site still offers an archive of Plant Profiles. It also answers the eternal question: Why Did My Plant Die?.

 
 

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