Your All Things Plants weekly news

SarasotaPatty recommended Tropical Plants & More and wrote:

It's taken me a little while to write this but I still just can't say enough wonderful things about Ken and Tropical Plants & More. In November I received a pretty large box of orchids from Ken and was simply in awe! I live in Florida so I have never bought an orchid through the mail as we have so many, many growers here locally...but this order blew them all away! The packaging was incredible, with each orchid as lovingly wrapped as a new-born baby! Even the flower spike on one made it safely! His tags are amazing! Laminated with the name of the plant and a photo of what the bloom looks like. I asked him to please come to Florida and do a tag for all of my orchids! (I'm still waiting for a reply on that request...LOL!) I also ordered a ficus alli and a sarcoglottis sceptrodes and was SO impressed with the size of them...the ficus was HUGE, and is showing much new growth! The sarcoglottis was also much larger than expected and it's already in spike! I simply cannot say enough good things about Ken and Tropical Plants & More...you can order with confidence!

RickCorey recommended Roughwood Seed Collection and wrote:

Roughwood Seed Collection is trying to become self-supporting by selling seeds from the rare seed collection started in the 1930s, which they steward. Many are rare edible heirlooms from the Pennsylvania Dutch country, and some are locally adapted crosses that they have selected and stabilized. Baker Creek brought them to my attention with their praise in an email newsletter. I just bought two packets, receiving order number "22." One is 'Mizunarubasoi,' their stabilized cross of a cold-hardy, wide-leafed Mizuna with Tatsoi and Maruba, adapted to Lebanon CT. They selected it to keep growing through the winter under plastic, then found that it didn't need the plastic to propagate itself. When tested at The Pentridge Children's Garden in West Philadelphia, it just sneaked out of the tunnels and grew unprotected. The other is a chard with golden-orange stems, developed by William Woys Weaver’s grandfather during the 1930s. So far, its name is only 'Grandpap’s Golden Chard.' I'm going to keep my eye on them as they "grow up." Right now they seem like a cross between a private seed conservancy and a startup rare seed company.

csandt recommended Roses without chemicals and wrote:

"Roses without chemicals: 150 disease-free varieties that will change the way you grow roses" by Peter E. Kukielski launched my first timid foray beyond Knock Out and Drift roses to find disease-resistant roses that are also fragrant. An All Things Plants rose expert first told me about Kordes roses, which have been bred in Germany for disease resistance. Then I read Mr. Kukielski's excellent book. Kukielski trialed the roses featured in his book as curator of the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at the New York Botanical Garden from 2006 to 2013. He is now the executive director of the new American Rose Trials for Sustainability (A.R.T.S), launched in 2014. In this book, each rose is given a full page, with a large photograph of the bloom and an informative description. The roses are scored on disease resistance (0-60), flowering (0-30), and fragrance (0-10), with a maximum total of 100. Here are some examples (* = Kordes): Cultivar Type Color Dis. Resist. Flowering Fragrance Total 'Beverly'* Hyb. Tea Pink 54 21 10 85 'Dark Desire'* Hyb. Tea Red/Purple 55 28 10 93 'First Crush'* Floribunda Creamy Pink 50 25 10 85 'Maris-Luise Marjan' Hyb. Tea Creamy White 54 25 9 88 'Poseidon'* Floribunda Lavender 57 26 9 92 'Savannah'* Hyb. Tea Apricot-Pink 60 25 9 94 'Summer Romance'* Floribunda Dark Pink 52 28 10 90 'Wedding Bells'* Hyb. Tea Pink Blend 60 28 6 94 The introductory chapters of the book contain succinct and well-written descriptions and examples of rose classes (e.g., Gallica, Damask, Alba, Floribunda, Hybrid Tea, etc), suggestions for companion plants for roses (including plants that attract beneficial insects and plants that repel Japanese beetles), suggested roses for specific regions of the U.S., and guidance for growing roses sustainably.