Zinnias Are My Favorite Flowers
Zinnias are my favorite annual summer flowers, and I say this for four reasons: • They are as colorful as a kaliedoscopic rainbow. • Their many petaled blooms, like those ruffled collars seen on 17th...
The History of Persimmons and How to Grow Them
If you are seeking a medium sized shade tree, around thirty feet tall with a thirty foot spread, possessing unusually ornamental and gustatory qualities, consider the persimmon (Diospyros kaki). Alt...
The History of Corn and How to Grow It
It’s already August, but you can still plant corn, and you can thank the efforts of New England Indian tribes for this late summer option for your vegetable garden. Having received their first corn t...
Fruit Harvest Depends on Winter Cold
If you have a fruit tree or two, there’s one branch of science, despite its unfamiliar name, which you probably know something about. The science to which I refer is phenology. Phenology is the stu...
Texas Ranger and Firecracker Plant Defy Nature
It would be dereliction of duty on my part not to mention two plants, blooming now in all their glory, that defy the hottest weather with an outrageously floriferous late summer display. You look at...
Fleru-de-lis is Really an Iris
When the mob overthrew the monarchy during the French Revolution, one of the first acts of the new governing authority was to remove the flower that had been visible for centuries on flags, shields, ...
Let Beneficial Insects Do Their Work
How eager we are to find culprits or villains, whether in life or in the garden. Often, that search is merely an indication of our own impatience, stress or lazy thinking. Let’s say I get lots of hea...
Why Blue Flowers are Rare
Blue is the rarest flower color, seen on only 10 percent of the 280,000 flowering plants on Earth. Among those who specialize in color analysis, it is sometimes claimed that, in reality, there has ne...
Backyard Orchard in Long Beach
Yard space in America is disappearing. From 1999-2014, the average size lot in America shrank from 9,600 to 8,600 square feet. During that same period, the average size home increased from 2,100 ...
What Trees and Humans Have in Common
A notable Biblical passage asks: “Is man a tree of the field?” (Deuteronomy 20:19). Analogies comparing roots to deep, sustaining faith are frequently made and we all know about “the fruit of o...
