April_2012">April 2012" href="tiki-index.php?page=Book+of+the+Month%3A+April+2012" class="wiki ">April 2012

May_2012">May 2012" href="tiki-index.php?page=Book+of+the+Month%3A+May+2012" class="wiki ">May 2012

One_Writer_s_Garden:_Eudora_Welty_s_Home_Place_by_Susan_Haltom_and_Jane_Roy_Brown_University_Press_of_Mississippi_Jackson_MS_Sept._8_2011_304_pages_250_photos_hardcover_publisher_s_price_35_Amazon_price_23.10.">617031194/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=noamrogasona-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1617031194" rel="external">One Writer’s Garden: Eudora Welty’s Home Place, by Susan Haltom and Jane Roy Brown, upress.state.ms.us/books/1410" rel="external">University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, MS (Sept. 8, 2011), 304 pages, 250 photos, hardcover; publisher’s price $35; Amazon price $23.10.5>+

Heucheras_and_Heucherellas:_Coral_Bells_and_Foamy_Bells_Dan_Heims_and_Grahame_Ware_Timber_Press_April_7_2005_208_pages_116_color_photos_hardcover_publisher_s_price:_27.95_Amazon_price:_26.01.">0881927023/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=noamrogasona-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0881927023" rel="external">Heucheras and Heucherellas: Coral Bells and Foamy Bells, Dan Heims and Grahame Ware, timberpress.com" rel="external">Timber Pressrnallink" src="img/icons/external_link.gif" alt=" (external link)" /> (April 7, 2005), 208 pages, 116 color photos, hardcover; publisher’s price: $27.95; Amazon price: $26.01.</h5><br />
n.com/gp/product/0881927023/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=noamrogasona-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0881927023" rel="external">iv class="img" style="border:none; padding:.1cm 0; line-height:1.5em; margin:1px 0;;margin-right:15px;float:left;width:300px;text-align:center">src="img/wiki_up/heucheras.jpg" border="0" width="300" alt="Heucheras and Heucherellas: Coral Bells and Foamy Bells" width="300" />

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Click title or book cover in order to purchase!

Not so long ago, most gardeners would describe Heucheras as a pretty demure group of plants. Although they have been long used in troughs and rock gardens, especially the smaller forms, they were not seen so often in the general landscape. Things have certainly changed. It is impossible to walk into any garden center today without being drawn to the bench with the most eye catching plants on the premises. These newer cultivars, with their colorful, sometimes almost gaudy, winter-persistent foliage now have a firm edge over a whole range of popular accent plants.

The subject of <i>Heucheras and Heucherellas, which would have deserved a chapter only a decade ago, has now earned a book. Who would know this subject better than Dan Heims, creator of so many outstanding introductions through his Terra Nova Nursery? Written with Grahame Ware, a Canadian horticulturist, specialist grower, and free-lance writer from British Columbia, this is not a vanity book, but a very thorough account of Heuchera and xHeucherellai> aimed to inform the serious gardener.
>- <a class="wiki external" target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1617031194/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=noamrogasona-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1617031194" rel="external"> class="img" style="border:none; padding:.1cm 0; line-height:1.5em; margin:1px 0;;margin-right:15px;float:left;width:300px;text-align:center"> src="img/wiki_up/eudora.jpg" border="0" width="300" alt="One Writer’s Garden: Eudora Welty’s Home Place" width="300" />iv class="mini" style="text-align:center width:100% font-size:0.85em">

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Susan Haltom’s <i>One Writer’s Garden chronicles the garden in Jackson, Mississippi, of writer Eudora Welty (1909-2001) and her mother, Chestina, from its heyday to its decline and eventual renaissance in the last decade. Haltom began a long-term effort, with volunteers and professional assistance and advice from organizations such as the Garden Conservancy, to rehabilitate the garden, and eventually “the lost garden was coming to light.” The significant period for the garden appears to have been 1925 to 1945, thus presenting Haltom and her crew with challenges on how to present the garden based on its current condition and future use. She drew upon logs, plant lists, and notes, as well as Eudora’s photographs, her papers, and writings. The garden was opened to the public in 2004 and the house in 2006; the site is now a National Historic Landmark.+ <p>The book begins with 116 color photos that show a full range of what is available including a few of the species. A botanical history follows including uses for “alum root” in folk medicine. Brief, non-technical descriptions of the species might provide helpful reference when scrutinizing a seed exchange list.-

The Welty garden was originally Chestina’s, but gradually it became Eudora’s as her mother spent less time in the garden during years of declining health. After Chestina died in 1966, Eudora took full charge of the garden, although, according to Haltom, Eudora always referred to it as “my mother’s garden.” It included an Upper Garden and Lower Garden separated by an arbor with roses, a collection of camellias, a cut-flower garden and woodland, and numerous bulbs, annuals, and perennials such as bearded iris and daylilies.+

A list of 73 Heucherai> and 17 xHeucherella introductions from Terra Nova at the date of publication prove that Dan Heims is a master of Heuchera breeding. One fascinating chapter describes his process of creating these cultivars. The various roles the hybridizer plays in his controlled breeding program are portrayed as artist, botanist, horticulturist, geneticist, and finally, judge and executioner. A roll call of others involved in the introduction of <i>Heucheras are given due credit.  Many of these individuals are well-known to the rock gardening community. A sixty eight page A-to-Z list describes nearly 400 varieties currently in cultivation, and also includes the originator and year of introduction for most of them.-

In reading <i>One Writer’s Garden, there are many places where Eudora Welty’s writings caused me to linger over a phrase and savor it. But one of Haltom’s caused me to pause as well. Haltom writes that, as Eudora watched her mother expend her grief in the garden after her father’s death in 1931, “Eudora discovered the solace of gardening for herself, and a kind of joy.”+

The culture and care information will be intuitive for rock gardeners, considering the majority of the species involved in breeding are native to rock and crevice habitats. Propagation is covered, and diseases and pests are enumerated. The book concludes with suggestions for using them for effect in the garden and containers, along with suggested plant combinations.-

For fifteen years, I have made daily use of an email program called Eudora. The software, developed in the late 1980s by Steve Dorner at the University of Illinois, pays homage to Eudora Welty’s short story, “Why I Live at the P.O.” In Dorner’s busy life, he apparently saw a connection between Welty’s “post office” and his daily e-mail fetching, naming the software “Eudora” in her honor, a reference that pleased the author. Sadly, I am being forced to give up Eudora, the e-mail software, because it, just like the post office Welty wrote about, is becoming obsolete and outdated by newer software and technological changes. Thankfully, there’s nothing outdated about Eudora, the author and gardener, especially as lovingly preserved in Haltom’s admirable book, One Writer’s Garden.+

Anyone with any interest in the group will find this is indeed a very thorough treatment. Advertised as the first book published on the subject, who will foresee the need for another any time soon?-

Book reviewed by: Bobby J. Ward

+

Book reviewed by: Bob Bartolomei

-

Bobby J. Ward lives, writes, and gardens in Raleigh, North Carolina.+

Bob Bartolomei is a former curator of the T.H. Everett Rock Garden at the New York Botanical Garden and the Botanical Gardens in Nevis BVI.+

+ +

April 2012

+

One Writer’s Garden: Eudora Welty’s Home Place, Susan Haltom and Jane Roy Brown, University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, MS (Sept. 8, 2011), 304 pages, 250 photos, hardcover; publisher’s price $35; Amazon price $23.10.

Book review by: Bobby J. Ward+

- ]]> Hannah Tue, 01 May 2012 04:00:49 +0100 http://www.nargs.org/nargswiki/tiki-index.php?page=Book+of+the+Month%3A+May+2012 .diffchar { color:red; } +

Heucheras and Heucherellas: Coral Bells and Foamy Bells, Dan Heims and Grahame Ware, Timber Press (April 7, 2005), 208 pages, 116 color photos, hardcover; publisher’s price: $27.95; Amazon price: $26.01.

Click title or book cover in order to purchase!

Not so long ago, most gardeners would describe Heucheras as a pretty demure group of plants. Although they have been long used in troughs and rock gardens, especially the smaller forms, they were not seen so often in the general landscape. Things have certainly changed. It is impossible to walk into any garden center today without being drawn to the bench with the most eye catching plants on the premises. These newer cultivars, with their colorful, sometimes almost gaudy, winter-persistent foliage now have a firm edge over a whole range of popular accent plants.+

The subject of Heucheras and Heucherellas, which would have deserved a chapter only a decade ago, has now earned a book. Who would know this subject better than Dan Heims, creator of so many outstanding introductions through his Terra Nova Nursery? Written with Grahame Ware, a Canadian horticulturist, specialist grower, and free-lance writer from British Columbia, this is not a vanity book, but a very thorough account of Heuchera and xHeucherella aimed to inform the serious gardener.+

The book begins with 116 color photos that show a full range of what is available including a few of the species. A botanical history follows including uses for “alum root” in folk medicine. Brief, non-technical descriptions of the species might provide helpful reference when scrutinizing a seed exchange list.+

A list of 73 Heuchera and 17 xHeucherella introductions from Terra Nova at the date of publication prove that Dan Heims is a master of Heuchera breeding. One fascinating chapter describes his process of creating these cultivars. The various roles the hybridizer plays in his controlled breeding program are portrayed as artist, botanist, horticulturist, geneticist, and finally, judge and executioner. A roll call of others involved in the introduction of Heucheras are given due credit.  Many of these individuals are well-known to the rock gardening community. A sixty eight page A-to-Z list describes nearly 400 varieties currently in cultivation, and also includes the originator and year of introduction for most of them.+

The culture and care information will be intuitive for rock gardeners, considering the majority of the species involved in breeding are native to rock and crevice habitats. Propagation is covered, and diseases and pests are enumerated. The book concludes with suggestions for using them for effect in the garden and containers, along with suggested plant combinations.+

Anyone with any interest in the group will find this is indeed a very thorough treatment. Advertised as the first book published on the subject, who will foresee the need for another any time soon?+

+

Bob Bartolomei is a former curator of the T.H. Everett Rock Garden at the New York Botanical Garden and the Botanical Gardens in Nevis BVI.+

+

Description and general information

There is some debate as to the proper name of this plant. Some authorities call it Pulsatilla patens subsp. flavescens while othesr elevate it to its own species status as Pulsatilla flavescens. Of course, according to the Flora of North America, it is now classified as an Anemone.

This plant is native to eastern Siberia and neighbouring Mongolia growing on meadows among larch, pine and birch forests as well as steppe slopes. The entire plant is softly hairy with palmatisected leaves. Flowers are yellow, often lilac-tinted on the reverse of the sepals. Blooms are erect and held wide open. Perianth segments are 2.5-3.5 cm long. Plants range from 15 cm when in flower to nearly 30 cm when in seed.

Cultivation

This pasqueflower prefers full sun and demands a well-drained site with performs best under slightly alkaline conditions. As Pulsatilla are taprooted, it is best to plant them as young plants and avoid transplanting it later in life. It is rated hardy to zone 3.

Bloom period

March in the south to May in northern areas.

Propagation

Seed

Seed

Fresh seed is best for the germination of this species. It seems that germination is also better if the long tail is removed from the seed. Fresh seed may be sown at 20 C and should germinate within 3 months. Otherwise, if no germination, provide a startification period of 10-12 weeks. Older seeds germinate best after a stratification period.

Division

Plants are primarily taprooted. While large plants can be divided, it is ill-advised

Cuttings

No

References

//www.onrockgarden.com/germination-guide/plants?title=p&title_1=Pulsatilla+flavescens

2 text &/or url here

Description and general information

There is some debate as to the proper name of this plant. Some authorities call it Pulsatilla patens subsp. flavescens while othesr elevate it to its own species status as Pulsatilla flavescens. Of course, according to the Flora of North America, it is now classified as an Anemone.

This plant is native to eastern Siberia and neighbouring Mongolia growing on meadows among larch, pine and birch forests as well as steppe slopes. The entire plant is softly hairy with palmatisected leaves. Flowers are yellow, often lilac-tinted on the reverse of the sepals. Blooms are erect and held wide open. Perianth segments are 2.5-3.5 cm long. Plants range from 15 cm when in flower to nearly 30 cm when in seed.

Cultivation

This pasqueflower prefers full sun and demands a well-drained site and performs best under slightly alkaline conditions. As Pulsatilla are taprooted, it is best to plant them as a young plant and avoid transplanting it later in life. It is rated hardy to zone 3.

Bloom period

March in the south to May in northern areas.

Propagation

Seed

Seed

Fresh seed is best for the germination of this species. It seems that germination is also better if the long tail is removed from the seed. Fresh seed may be sown at 20 C and should germinate within 3 months. Otherwise, if no germination, provide a startification period of 10-12 weeks. Older seeds germinate best after a stratification period.

Division

Plants are primarily taprooted. While large plants can be divided, it is ill-advised

Cuttings

No

References

//www.onrockgarden.com/germination-guide/plants?title=p&title_1=Pulsatilla+flavescens

2 text &/or url here

May 2012 Pulsatilla patens subsp. flavescens+

May 2012 Pulsatilla patens subsp. flavescens>>+ ]]>BolandSat, 28 Apr 2012 22:22:37 +0100 http://www.nargs.org/nargswiki/tiki-index.php?page=Plant+of+the+Month+April+2012 .diffchar { color:red; } -

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Pulsatilla patens subsp. flavescens, photo by Todd Boland

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Lewisia brachycalyx; photo by Todd Boland

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img/wiki_up/Lewisia brachycalyx.jpg" border="0" width="530px" />

Lewisia brachycalyx; photo by Todd Boland

]]> Boland Fri, 06 Apr 2012 21:22:33 +0100 http://www.nargs.org/nargswiki/tiki-index.php?page=Book+of+the+Month%3A+April+2012 .diffchar { color:red; } -

The Welty garden was originally Chestina’s, but gradually it became Eudora’s as her mother spent less time in the garden during years of declining health. After Chestina died in 1966, Eudora took full charge of the garden, although, according to Haltom, Eudora always referred to it as “my mother’s garden.” It included an Upper Garden and Lower Garden separated by an arbor with roses, a collection of camellias, a cut-flower garden and woodland, and numerous bulbs, annuals, and perennials such as bearded iris and daylillies.+

The Welty garden was originally Chestina’s, but gradually it became Eudora’s as her mother spent less time in the garden during years of declining health. After Chestina died in 1966, Eudora took full charge of the garden, although, according to Haltom, Eudora always referred to it as “my mother’s garden.” It included an Upper Garden and Lower Garden separated by an arbor with roses, a collection of camellias, a cut-flower garden and woodland, and numerous bulbs, annuals, and perennials such as bearded iris and daylilies.]]> Hannah Sat, 31 Mar 2012 19:05:04 +0100 http://www.nargs.org/nargswiki/tiki-index.php?page=Book+of+the+Month%3A+March+2012 .diffchar { color:red; } +

Weeds: In Defense of Nature’s Most Unloved Plants, Richard Mabey, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, New York (June 28, 2011), 336 pages, hardcover; publisher’s price: $25.99; Amazon price: $17.15.

Click title or book cover in order to purchase!

Richard Mabey is one of Britain’s foremost nature writers, and even a quick glance at Weeds shows why. It is, at once, erudite, witty, insightful, and full of allusions to the many facets of human knowledge: history, botany, agriculture, literature, and so much more. That he uses common weeds as the kernels around which to accrete his stores of information is astonishing.+

“Weeds are mobile, prolific, genetically diverse,” Mabey writes. “They are unfussy about where they live, adapt quickly to environmental stress, use multiple strategies for getting their own way. It’s curious that it took so long for us to realize that the species they most resemble is us.”+

Of course, we gardeners are on the most intimate terms with weeds. We attempt to draw a firm line between “nature and culture, wildness and domestication,” Mabey writes. Weeds belong to nature and wildness, and relentlessly invade our gardens of cultivated plants. He points out the fine irony that “weeds are found most abundantly where there is the most weeding; that notion ought to make us question whether the weeding encourages the weeds as much as vice versa.”+

Mabey praises weeds as the “progenitors of all the plants that keep us alive,” for before cultivation, selection, and hybridization, our vegetables, herbs, and low-growing fruits existed as wild weeds and kept the human race going. He reflects on the theory that agriculture developed in the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East when gatherers brought home the seeds of the weedy emmer grass that then sprang up around settlements. Eventually, through selection, this yielded our modern wheat.+

Chapters are devoted to delicious information that springs from his musings about specific weeds, such as thoroughwort, love-in-idleness, and gallant-soldier. These are British common names, so American readers may want to refer to the book’s glossary of plant names that at least gives botanical names.+

The best testimonial I can give to this excellent book is that within 10 minutes of finishing it, I found myself in a roadside patch of wild weeds, seeing them as I had never seen them before.+

+

Jeff Cox is a contributing editor of Horticulture magazine and has written 15 books on gardening. He lives in Kenwood, California.+

+

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italic plant name; photo by Todd Boland

+

img/wiki_up/Oxalis Ione Hecker1.jpg" border="0" width="530px" />

Oxalis 'Ione Hecker'

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ni"> Oxalis 'Ione Hecker'; photos by Todd Boland

]]> Boland Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:14:44 +0100 http://www.nargs.org/nargswiki/tiki-index.php?page=Book+of+the+Month%3A+February+2012 .diffchar { color:red; } +

Fifty Plants that Changed the Course of History, Bill Laws, Firefly Books, Buffalo, New York (Sept. 14, 2011), 224 pages, hardcover; publisher’s price: $29.95; Amazon price: $19.77.

Click title or book cover in order to purchase!

Is it possible that a mere 50 plants changed history? I won’t argue because this is a terrific book that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Zippy prose masks an extraordinary amount of spellbinding facts and anecdotes about these plants—among them crabapple, bamboo, and lavender—that humans enjoy for seemingly limitless purposes, most of them taken for granted. Included are some we also fear: opium poppy and coca (that’s cocaine—not to be confused with cacao, or chocolate, also included).+
 +
For example, sunflowers started their cultivated life among North American Indians, but were improved in Russia when Stalin realized their many commercial potentials (mostly for cooking, but also for life belts—its stem pith has “a lower specific gravity than cork”). Yet sunflower’s ultimate fame came from Vincent van Gogh’s golden flowers that “lifted his depression” as he sought to capture their essence in the late 1800s. A century later, the sale of one of his sunflower paintings set an art world record. +
 +
Then there is the tale of the Peruvian Indians who used the bark of a tree they called “quina quina,” the source of quinine, to treat malaria. Their discovery ultimately led to “fantastic fortunes” for some, and a history of “love, deceit, corruption, and inter-governmental conspiracy,” that could rival “any work of fiction.”+
 +
In between these fascinating yarns, a serious conservationist’s voice is unmistakable. For instance, author Bill Laws notes how “King Cotton” was not only a mainstay of the slave trade in the 18th and 19th centuries, but also led to forced migrations of Native Americans who occupied the land. And while mid-19th century America exported millions of bales per year, the growing methods were “killing the soil.” To this day, “more chemicals are sprayed on cotton than any other crop,” Laws writes. Cotton uses less than three percent of farmed land but is treated with “a quarter of the world’s pesticides.”+
 +
All the illustrations are from other works, but, honestly, I hardly looked at them because the prose packed such a wallop. This book will mesmerize plant-lovers and non-gardeners alike.+

+

Linda Yang is author of The City Gardener’s Handbook (Storey Publishing), now in its 21st year of publication, and a former garden writer for The New York Times.  She is a member of the Manhattan Chapter of NARGS.+

+

85" />Persian rock cress flowers from late May into June. It has heads of small, light pink flowers on the tips of 8” stems clothed in linear gray-green leaves. The plants are about 12” wide. They are fairly short-lived, but they self sow without becoming weedy.+

100" />Persian rock cress flowers from late May into June. It has heads of small, light pink flowers on the tips of 8” stems clothed in linear gray-green leaves. The plants are about 12” wide. They are fairly short-lived, but they self sow without becoming weedy.]]> Jeremy Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:40:10 +0100