Viewing comments posted by Bluespiral

My late dh and I were walking along a woodland trail, just inside a field, and shafts of June light were hitting a carpet of trailing arbutus on the forest floor. What a surprise that those tiny, improbable flowers could produce such noticeable wafts of delicate fragrance at the altitude of our noses...lots of springs and creeks in the hills of that river system...one of my most treasured June memories.

Although, as Mindy says below, bees get nectar from this plant from which they produce honey, this plant also "...contains tremetol, a complex alcohol, and glycosides. These toxins cause a fatal disease known as 'staggers' in cattle. The toxin can be passed through the milk and has caused fatalities in humans who have drunk affected cow's milk[274]".

(quoted from Plants for a Future with respect to this plant's synonym, Ageratina altissima)

Ageratina aromatica, is one of those poisonous plants that has great beauty with its cream/green variegated leaves and goes by other names such as Boneset, Thoroughwort, Eupatorium aromaticum 'Joicus Variegated' and Joe Pye Weed.

It also is tolerant of a wide range of soil, light and water conditions, as I discovered in my erstwhile garden. A single volunteer appeared one year, followed by several volunteers the next year. Aesthetically I would have loved to have kept this one, but ultimately yanked them all out due to its toxic risks. (Although I don't keep cows, other mammals are said to be affected by this toxin, and I still wonder to what extent this toxin might affect other life forms. As an aside, let me say here that it was milking cows that helped Dad get through college, albeit Pearl Harbor was quite an interruption. Anyhoo, I never heard about anything like this toxin from Dad's generation.)

ps - There is another gorgeous variegated plant said to be in genus Eupatorium: 'Bartered Bride' and has at least two scientific names:

----- Eupatorium purpureum 'Bartered Bride' (Joe Pye Weed) and

----- Eupatorium fistulosum f. albidum 'Bartered Bride' (from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS)

It's not every day some of us find surpassingly beautiful plants that will grow in places inhospitable to most other plants. Any corrections or comments on this post will be welcome.

This pumpkin is said to have an edible hulless seed, which is a good source of zinc and can be toasted like sesame seeds - adds crunch to salads, cereal/granola or snacks.

It's possible that the name, Akatsuki no Tsuyu, only applies to the lighter colored phase of Blue Silk that comes from light seeds, while the name Sazanami No1 from Nichinou may apply to the darker Blue Silk with a wider band of blue that comes from the darker seeds.

from ron_convolvulaceae

I don't believe this plant has ever found a spot in my garden it didn't like - it would self-sow everywhere if I let it. But since it has an overall elegant appearance, blooms in dark, unwatered places at the end of summer, and was a favorite of Hiroshige and Kunisada woodblock prints during the Japanese Edo period (1603-1858), who could relegate it to the compost pile? And then there's always the "Free to Good Home" sign for the street...

(many thank-yous to Critterologist for giving me my first plant)

This plant was originally purchased from a local nursery, and we have been enjoying its flowers while deer mosey through, leaving them untouched. I have also been collecting seed for seed exchanges from this flower, and was startled to learn from a very knowledgeable friend that E. tennesseensis was originally considered sterile and did not produce seeds. She thinks seeds that come from this plant might be a result of E. tennesseensis crossing with E. purpurea, somewhere in the past.

Some years, during July - August, she drives through the Kentucky mountains, and over the border in Tennessee, looms a mountain with its peak above the clouds, with this wild flower blooming near its top.

Why did she tell me this? Because I called this flower "boring". The mountain's name is Rarity.

ps - In 2011, E. tennesseensis was taken off the Endangered Species List, although it is still considered endangered by the USDA. According to the Missouri Botanical Garden*, [the Tennessee Coneflower must be isolated several miles from other echinacea species to maintain its genetic integrity.]

*http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=r430. Last sentence is paraphrased from this link.

pps - Now, how does a sterile wild flower flourish on earth without making seeds for millions of years? Same question might apply to the ubiquitous ditch lily - how can Hemerocallis fulva survive so successfully without making seeds??

Last spring, after last frost, I purchased a 6-pack of Browallia 'Blue Bells' and planted it directly into the garden's ground in 3/4 shade, with Coleus 'Black Dragon' nearby. There was much rabbit, woodchuck, deer & neighbors' pooch activity with usual damage, but 'Blue Bells' flourished and is still blooming prolifically in frost-sheltered spots anyway - undamaged.

I have collected a couple of tablespoons of seed this summer and plan to wintersow it and see whether I can get any seedlings to make a show in the last weeks leading up to autumn frost next summer. Since torenia self-sows over our winters here, I'm optimistic this may work for browallia as well.

After approximately seven years in my garden, with either one or no roses produced in a given year, Celine Forestier finally produced 12 - 18 blooms this spring, in spite of growing at its northern limit here in zone 7, 3/4-day's shade and no spraying.

These are divine flowers of transporting fragrance, many-petaled shadows and elegant form. Perhaps growing up through a Sciapytis verticillata has given it an edge in surviving our winters on our NW-facing hill.

Papaver burseri is not a long-lived perennial farther south, but it self sows.

Not showy, but in its own way could add its season-long, attractive maple-shaped leaves to the chorus of ferns and hostas often found in full shade gardens. Its unassuming frizzy white flowers, which appear around August, above the leaves, may attract bees and butterflies.

It prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils, as well as acid and neutral soils, and self-sows when happy in its native deciduous Japanese forests.

Its young leaves, raw, cooked or as flavoring, are said to be "edible." Hmmm - not sure exactly what "edible" might mean in Cacalia's case.