Dirty Little Secrets

Posted on August 18, 2009 by Meredith

Did I get your attention? C’mon, admit it. You’re already here. Can’t stop now. And if you don’t admit it, then you know…you’ll have your own dirty secret. 🙂

Well, this post is in thank you to Jessica of The Magical Mundane, who so kindly selected my blog to receive the MeMe Blogging Award. I was so honored by her words– Jessica, you really made me smile! The steps for me to accept the award are revealing 7 things about myself and then passing the award onto 7 others.

But I’m torn. And I had to give this a lot of thought before making my decision. On the one hand, Jessica truly made me feel good, and I’d love to do that for others. On the other hand, wow I just don’t like to send these kinds of things on. I started to, but then stopped. There are so many deserving bloggers out there, and I just don’t even know how to begin to choose, but then I worry about putting someone in a similar predicament of trying to figure out whether they should send them on, too. So with that, I can’t fully participate.

But here’s my compromise. I’ll do the first half — I’ll reveal dirty secrets about myself. It’s ok to talk about dirty stuff — I’m a gardener. (HEY — that might have to be my new motto.) Or maybe I’m NOT really a gardener… but you’ll have to read on to see my confession. Here goes — 7ish things about myself.

1. When I say I’ve been a nature and wildlife lover all my life, I mean it. I have a B.A. in Zoology, and wouldn’t you know it, I long for one in Botany now, too!

2. I have a strong British heritage, and I married someone with Irish ancestry. But I look more Irish than my husband does.

3. When I was young, my dad always hogged and hid the chocolate syrup, not wanting to share with his kids. I don’t hide the chocolate syrup, but I claim all Chocolate Underground Stoneyfield Yogurt! I also have a weakness for chocolate and strawberries. (A moment of silence, if you will, for the yogurt I devoured soon after taking this picture.)

4. I live in Texas, but my favorite region is the northwest coast. I lived in northern California for several years of my childhood. I think if I could be a tree, I’d be a Redwood.

5. Up until this last year I was a triathlete. Back injuries have made it difficult for me to do two of the three sports, but as alternative activity, gardening has actually been fine as long as I’m careful. I love open-water swimming in a lake with a big, big passion. Of course, it would have to be water in a lake that hasn’t been almost dried up due to drought.

6. I live for lime. Any kind of lime will do, but I particularly love key limes. I’m already drooling just thinking about it. If you ever come visit me, I make a mean key lime pie and a mean margarita. I now have three Mexican lime trees. When they start to fruit, I’ll be in lime heaven!

7. Our house is colorful and cozy, typical of most homes, but when you walk into our study, you venture into somewhat of a Star Wars theme. We have a variety of posters and Lego models, primarily related to the original movies. My husband is a true Sci-Fi geek, and I still admit to having a lingering crush on Han Solo, ever since my childhood (I confess to gazing across at the picture of Han Solo on the file cabinet while I typed this).

Ok, I’ll admit one more truly dark, dirty secret. And I’ve already been told that perhaps I’m not really a gardener because of this, but… I don’t like tomatoes. Well, not fresh off the tomato plant. (Stop gasping!) Something about the fresh acidity of the tomato, I guess, which is weird because I do have a passion for citrus, and I love anything with cooked or dried tomatoes. BUT a friend brought over cute little cherub tomatoes last week, and I managed to eat three of them! So there’s hope for me yet. I just need to find out whether I can grow cute little cherub tomatoes in Austin, and then perhaps I’ll really be a true gardener in the eyes of my fellow gardeners. There, MY DIRTY LITTLE SECRET. Err, secrets.

Jessica, thank you again!

The Ever-Growing List

Posted on August 17, 2009 by Meredith

Lookee, lookee! Something new is on my sidebar. It’s a list of all the plants in my garden. Click there, or click here, and take a look!

It’s a work in progress, and as I add new plants, so will I add to the list. But at long last, I finally got off my tush and, well, sat on my tush, and typed up the list of plants. I’ve only finished adding scientific names for the Texas-native plants, but I will catch up on the others. Any other errors are purely accidental!

Organic Veggie Gardening 101

Posted on August 17, 2009 by Meredith

I’m a bit behind in reporting on what I learned at the Organic Vegetable Gardening 101 class at Natural Gardener on Saturday. We’re painting our house, and it takes a very long time, as we’re doing it by ourselves using brushes only. Oh, how my muscles ache. Give me weeding and tilling over exterior painting any day! On the other hand, it’s looking good, despite the slow method! I’ll share a picture at some point, when we’re further along in the process.

So… veggies! By the way, I took this class with Caroline of The Shovel-Ready Garden and Cat of Amlo Farms. They are delightful! I see in Caroline’s blog that while I took more notes, she took more pictures, haha! Well, I’m a farming newbie — I had to pay close attention! So I recommend visiting Caroline’s blog for additional information about hoop houses and many excellent photographs.

The class, taught by horticulturist Rosina Newton, covered a lot of the basics of starting a garden. A big part of her lecture was on soil preparation. It was particularly interesting to hear how much they mix into their soil, versus the simple mixing in of compost that I did for my jack-o-lantern pumpkins. For their vegetable garden, they mixed in:

cottonseed meal (organic 7-2-1 fertilizer)
cow manure compost
green sand (for minerals, such as potassium)
worm castings
*crab shell (*they are dealing with root-knot nematodes, which are bad nematodes – the crab shell encourages chitin-loving microbes to increase, which will consume both the crab shell and the bad nematodes)

They also water in with liquid seaweed and then regularly fertilize. In Texas, we need to mulch – pine straw is recommended. Rosina says, “Never leave bare soil.”

Rosina recommends fertilizing every 4 to 6 weeks with an organic fertilizer. Fertilizers are labeled with three numbers, which in order identify ratio of Nitrogen : Phosphorus : Potassium (N-P-K). FYI, they are absorbed in a 3-2-1 ratio. Nitrogen helps with green leafy growth; phosphorus helps with roots, blooms, and fruit; and potassium helps with plant vigor, stem strength, and disease/pest resistance. For my pumpkins and melons, I chose Rabbit Hill’s Buds ‘N Blooms fertilizer. So if you never knew what those numbers mean, there ya go! Choose your fertilizer based on your garden needs.

Other tips:

Add Innoculant when planting legumes, for necessary rhizobium bacteria.
Plant your garden east to west to allow best sun coverage as it passes over. Taller plants should be on the north side, unless you need them to provide shade for other plants.
Don’t over-till. A garden fork is preferable over a shovel, too.
Always wet the root ball before transplanting.
Always rotate your crops with each planting season. For example, don’t use the same bed you just had squash in to plant anything else from the squash family. Ideally, wait two years before using that same location.

There was other information about dealing with clay soil, sheet mulching to deal with Bermuda grass, and using row and shade cover. I’m not adding that here, but if anyone is interested in what was said, I’ll be happy to provide it if you let me know in a comment.

Here’s a bee that captured my attention while they were planting during class. I love bees!

This was an interesting side note from Rosina – apparently it has been found that ADD/ADHD is linked to a magnesium deficiency. And what is the first nutrient to deplete from the soil? Magnesium. Could there be a correlation in regard to diet, she wondered? In any case, it certainly won’t hurt to make sure your veggies and fruits get fertilized and replenished minerals. Epsom salt adds magnesium, fyi. Apparently there’s info on the package about how to use in a garden.

With trusty Googling, I read that symptoms of low magnesium include light or restless sleep and daytime sleepiness. That’s me to a tee – I’ll need to see what my energy levels are like on days where I do or do not eat nuts, spinach, oatmeal, or bananas.

A final note — Rosina’s helper added this message, which I’d like to pass on: “Teach children and others to be caretakers of the soil, for the next generation.” So many kids never venture outside, much less learn to garden, in this era of technology. How will they protect the Earth, if we don’t teach them to love it and nurture it?

There’s a Master Gardeners organic gardening class on Saturday. I might try to go to it, too.

GBBD Aug 09–The Short Version

Posted on August 15, 2009 by Meredith

After taking an Organic Vegetable Gardening 101 class today, I get to jump straight into painting my garage, so I can’t wander the yard with the camera. But I’m sneaking in this one picture for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day — it was an exciting surprise bloomer for me. I planted the species last fall and not once had it bloomed until about a week ago, when all three of mine bloomed at once. It’s a Cenizo (Leucophyllum frutescens), a common landscaping plant here in Austin, as the contrasting purple blooms against the silvery-green foliage is a striking sight. The little fuzzy hairs give it a very soft appearance.

Cenizo is a beautiful, low-water-usage, heat-AND-cold-tolerant, any-kind-of-soil, sun-to-part-shade, dry-soil, nectar-providing, shelter-providing, screen-providing, deer-resistant Texas native shrub, explaining its huge popularity around Austin. How’s that for a list of credentials? It’s also known as Texas Sage, Purple Sage, and Texas Barometer Bush, among other names. It gets the name of barometer bush because of its tendency to bloom with rain.

One pet-peeve of mine, though: This plant is at its most gorgeous when only lightly pruned but mostly left to natural growth. Some people chop it to shape it, turning a once-beautiful plant into a hideous disaster. Keep Cenizo Wild!

Tomorrow I’ll post some of the veggie gardening tips we learned at the class. And now I’m off to paint! I don’t know why I used an exclamation point there, like I’m excited about it…

The Pests Cometh

Posted on August 13, 2009 by Meredith

My last post was atypically serious for me, so I feel the need to cleanse with a standard “ack, my garden” post. Bit by bit, the pests are starting to find my garden. What if they tell their friends?

I knew what those ants on my pumpkin vines were up to, so I was prepared mentally for yesterday’s discovery, if not emotionally. The aphids had found the pumpkins. I thought about reaching for the soapy water, but the affected leaves were few, so I removed just those leaves and stuck them in the soapy water instead. I know I can’t continue to do that, but I wasn’t worried about affecting the plant — people sometimes pinch off whole vines in growing their pumpkins. One or two leaves shouldn’t be a problem. But there will be more aphids, so I best prepare the soapy spray.

Today I got up to check the garden and found that something had chopped off a large section of one of the corn plants. This was no grasshopper, unless it was the big dude from the other day back to seek revenge. What might it be? Opossum? Dog? No evidence on the ground to help me solve the mystery.

The garden’s not too far from my bedroom window. I need a spotlight and a switch inside the house so that I can spy on the garden from time to time during my insomniac moments in the night (brought about by the cats attacking my toes and dogs who are either thirsty or need to go outside having drunk all their water). Perhaps a bright light will help me catch the culprit in the act. Of course, if it’s not mammal-caused, then perhaps it won’t do me a bit of good.

Most of the corn is fine and healthy. But a few seedlings stay small, victims of terrible regular feasting by a vicious corn-eating monster. You thinking what I’m thinking? Grasshopper.

NEWS FLASH: This just in. Either the evil grasshopper from two days ago came back to the garden, or I found his cousin, who jumped up to the trellis wires. He expected me to run and get my camera, I know, but instead I removed both my flip flops and sandwiched him in between. Gruesome, you say? Did you see what he did to my poor corn plants? Remember, he makes babies. Or she. Or it. The Thing. No pictures. I’m not that gruesome!

I noticed that two of my pumpkin plants are starting to show strange discoloring to their leaves. I don’t know whether this is normal or some sort of powdery mildew or other disease. Only some leaves are affected, and only two plants. What does this mean? Or am I showing my newbness and those are perfectly normal pumpkin leaves and all pumpkins do that?

While I was taking pictures, this black bug flew down. What is he?

The leafminer flies are frequent visitors to the plants. Though the damage of their larvae is slight, it’s unsightly. Not slightly unsightly, hoho.

I’m checking the plants daily for more evidence of squash vine borer eggs and for more of those little unknown red bugs. The closest thing I can come up with on identifying that bug is flea beetle, but there don’t seem to be any pictures to support this.

I know it’s only going to get worse. But I’m still going to do my best to keep all these and new pests at bay! <breaks out the boxer gloves>

Whole Foods Lets Us Down

Posted on August 13, 2009 by Meredith

I want to state immediately that Great Stems is not a political blog by any means; it’s a garden blog. Anything political does not provide the mood I want to feel and express in my blog. But this blog isn’t just about gardening – it’s about green, healthy, sustainable living. Many of the people who read this blog are not just gardeners – they are organic gardeners and consumers who are very health conscious and money conscious. And many of them have been long-term Whole Foods shoppers. And it is this reason that I’m writing about yesterday’s article from John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, in the Wall Street Journal. Like many consumers, I’ve been severely let down and disillusioned to the effect that I question whether I’ll be shopping at Whole Foods anymore. This is not a decision made lightly, mind you. And if I, not a political person by any means, am standing up in anger about this article – well, it should tell you something.

In the article, John Mackey has launched a campaign against health-care reform. Surprising, isn’t it, coming from the CEO of a company whose stated values are “caring about our communities and our environment” and whose very consumers are progressive-minded. His article is in direct opposition to the values Whole Foods has claimed to represent. Mackey supports independent healthcare insurance companies that will ultimately deny people care in their most critical of medical situations. He supports high-deductible health insurance plans that only the wealthy can afford. Furthermore, Whole Foods is now using registered lobbyists, including Michael Torrey from both Bush administrations and Stephen Cannon from the Reagan administration.

Responses from outraged consumers on the Whole Foods website were immediate and are almost countless because they continue to grow, and John Mackey’s hypocrisy has in effect started a massive boycott on his own company. He’s alienated the very people that provide his paycheck.

That John Mackey wants to take health care in the opposite direction of reform is just a slap in the face to his consumers and the communities Whole Foods claims to care about. So many people out there have had massive neglect from their insurance companies at times of most critical need, to the point of death. I know others who have gone to other countries for surgery to avoid the high costs of similar treatment here in the U.S. Though my family hasn’t had a similar situation at this point in our lives, we still have seen the problems with our current healthcare system directly, having just this year had to spend $2,500 in hospital and doctor fees for the one-hour visit to the emergency room for an x-ray and a temporary splint for my son’s injured arm (it wasn’t even officially broken; nor do the costs include any of the follow-up care from another doctor). I have other family medical stories, too – but they all boil down to this: medical costs are eating us alive.

In addition to his eight suggested “reforms” in regard to health care, Mackey states: “Unfortunately many of our health-care problems are self-inflicted: two-thirds of Americans are now overweight and one-third are obese. Most of the diseases that kill us and account for about 70% of all health-care spending–heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and obesity–are mostly preventable through proper diet, exercise, not smoking, minimal alcohol consumption and other healthy lifestyle choices”

Yes, Mr. Mackey, that is true. But it costs far more to purchase healthy foods than it does junk food, and your store is one of the most expensive out there. It has earned your company the nickname “Whole Paycheck” rather than “Whole Foods.” Perhaps in addition to healthcare reform we need to look at food reform. As I’m learning now, even the costs of starting one’s own garden is enough to deter people from trying. Well, I might have once complained about the costs of starting a vegetable garden, but if I take the money I would have spent at Whole Foods and put that into my garden – now THAT’s money-wise sustainable living. As one consumer put it, “Perhaps average folks would be able to shop at your stores if they no longer have to pay outrageous sums for crappy insurance coverage.” I’ve been wanting to visit some of the more local markets across the city. So thanks, John Mackey, for steering me their direction.

Cantaloupe Sex Ed

Posted on August 12, 2009 by Meredith

And the mistakes I’ve made, SO FAR.

Here’s what I did wrong. I’m going to be happy that this list, as far as I’m aware, is short.

1. I grew cantaloupe from the seeds of store-bought cantaloupes. To be fair to myself, I didn’t know any better! So don’t do the same thing — sure it’s tempting, but hybrids, if you bought one from the store (most of them are hybrids, apparently), will give you heartache or at least some stress. Read on to find out why. To those I gave seedlings, I will report my findings as I find them out, and I greatly apologize for any grief you experience!

2. I took a picture of the giant grasshopper, and it got away. I’m still kicking myself about this one, and it only happened yesterday. The babies are hard enough to catch. If you see a big one, don’t try to capture the awe in regards to its size or even impressive markings. Just kill it. It will eat and make babies. Something eats bits of my corn, and I blame him. Or them.

Here’s what I’m doing right (again, as far as I’m aware). Top-Ten List! Top-Ten List That’s Really in No Particular Order!

10. I gave my cantaloupe seedlings a raised bed and trellis in which to grow to their heart’s content without getting trampled by dogs.

9. I learned about square-foot gardening and went ahead and spent the big bucks to give them a good soil in which to grow. Even the in-ground pumpkins got a healthy dose of compost mixed into their soil spots.

8. I lovingly give them water each day, and I know to hold back on water as fruit maturity begins to happen.

7. I learned the difference between male and female flowers and what “self-fertile but not self-fertilizing” plants are.

6. I learned about and am quite willing to help my cantaloupes’ pollination. I don’t have many bees here yet, so I have to do what I can to help (I did see one of those big black ones this morning, but he didn’t linger long at the cantaloupe flowers; I also see an occasional sweat bee).

5. I check them each day for bugs and kill anything that looks menacing. Unless it gets away while I’m taking a picture, that is…

4. I’m being a good mom by growing the cantaloupes at my son’s request, and along the way I get to teach my kids about plant life cycles and good gardening practices (and/or my mistakes!).

3. I gently guide the cantaloupe vines up the trellis to give them something to hang on to.

2. I learned about companion planting and put in marigolds and corn in their raised bed.

1. And most importantly, I love them and talk to them and love them some more!

And there you have it. I’m so excited to have thriving cantaloupe plants, but I’m worried that I’m growing a hybrid. So I’m seeking words of wisdom from the experienced cantaloupe gardeners out there! And Cat at AmloFarms has some blooming male flowers (from REAL seeds) she can share with me for pollination purposes. This cantaloupe thing is getting pretty complicated, haha. But for the sake of my cantaloupes, I will drive across town and back! Thank you, Cat!

The cantaloupes are happily growing up their trellis and trying to grow out wide, too.

We’ve had male flowers for awhile, and today (day 38) I found my first female. Here’s how you tell the difference. The easiest way is looking at the flower stem.

The male rises from the vine with a single plain stem of its own.

The female has a cute little bulge that will become the fruit if pollinated.

Here’s a baby female bud.

You can also tell the difference by looking at the inside of the bloom, but here’s where I’m unsure about the condition of the inside of my cantaloupe blooms. The male stamens will have pollen, but I can’t tell whether mine do, haha.

And the females will have their stigma ready to receive pollen. But mine look quite green, so I don’t know if mine look the way they should (I’ve seen pics with them yellow).

All the same, I did my best to get some pollen from the male to the female. At first I tried q-tips and a paintbrush, but I saw hardly any yellow on either. So I finally pulled off some male flowers and exposed their stamens and rubbed them on the female.

No idea whether any pollen grains stuck.

So experienced cantaloupe gardeners, should I be seeing lots of yellow pollen on the males? The male pumpkin flower (just saw my first two today!) has a lot of pollen, that’s for sure. And ants. First blooms, day 38.

Here’s one of the giant plants. They have a long way to go to reach full size. Egads.

From what I’ve read, if I read correctly, the female flowers should be ok and just the males might be sterile. But I don’t know whether the females are sometimes sterile, too. And even if pollination happens, will I get a regular cantaloupe out of it or some dud?

And while I’m asking, let me ask this: Can someone identify this red bug for me? The bigger versions of it are black, but I don’t see any of those on the garden yet, but last fall I had a ton of all sizes in a bunch of fallen leaves. Even the people at Natural Gardener couldn’t name them for me. I kill them when I see them now. But I’d like to know what they are. They are not tiny lady bugs, that’s all I know.

In other garden news, I decided to do something with my broken tools. Please tell me this looks like a flower, because it’s supposed to, HA! I will probably paint it at some point, but it’s growing on me (hehe) as is, too.

You can see the evil chinaberry in my very nice neighbor’s yard behind it — it’s been my nemesis for many a year. My neighbor finally had it cut down several months ago, but the workers left the stump and roots, so of course it’s been growing back with a vengeance. We cut it again just to prevent seeds and it’s back — so the neighbor is getting the tree people back out to properly kill it. Not sure they’ll succeed if they don’t get the roots out. I’m having to close my eyes and ears about the herbicides they’ll probably use… But I’m so thrilled to have a neighbor who is trying to help with the invasives problem!

Sugar pumpkins continue to grow and confuse me. They just aren’t eager to send out tendrils, but growing they be, with new bloom buds forming.

sugar pumpkins08-12-09.jpg Marigold seedlings! Only about 6 took, but I have more seeds to try with.

And much of my corn is happy. A few seedlings are getting chomped by something <evil eye at grasshoppers, even if they aren’t to blame>, but the rest are growing. I never really realized how beautiful a corn plant is until all this growing stuff.

And I’ve planted 8 pole bean seeds so far. I’m making use of the far corners of the trellis squares (ok, according to square-foot gardening, those squares belong to the cantaloupes but they were just sitting there empty! seemed so wasteful). I’ll be planting more along the fence once I amend the soil. My wonderful oldest son dug out the weeds from that area for me this morning. This whole “raising kids to work on the farm” was a brilliant plan of the pioneering farmers!

I planted Black-Seeded Blue Lake Pole Beans. The seeds look like engorged ticks. Don’t they sound wonderful? But I hear they are delicious. No, really. Really!

And we had another frog in the dog pond. Not surprisingly, he’s just as cute as Murray! Pictures soon!

Welcome and Unwelcome Visitors

Posted on August 11, 2009 by Meredith

Yesterday I had a very pleasant time visiting with Bob of Draco Gardens and his wonderful wife Lynn. They had me cracking up with so many hilarious stories, and they ~~forced on me~~ gave me some fantail goldfish for my pond. Well, to be honest, I was out there to get fish (they have a rather plentiful population at the moment), but somehow they managed to sneak more into the bucket… they claimed it was in case one of the fish died on the way home, haha. I told them that because I didn’t actually need more, that they’d all survive, grow, and make babies for me to bring back to Draco Gardens. Sure enough they all survived! More on that in a bit…

We spent a pleasant time chatting, and we got to talking about the Texas Star Hibiscus, a plant they love and one I just happen to have growing in my pond. I told them about the buds on my hibiscus that hadn’t bloomed yet, and Bob said I’d be posting a picture in my blog as soon as they did. Well, guess what I discovered today?

Look at that gorgeous red. The species is Hibiscus coccineus, and it’s also known as Scarlet Rose Mallow and Wild Red Mallow. It’s in the same family as the Texas Rock Rose (Rose Pavonia), and it’s native to Texas.

From a distance the leaves appear straggly to me, but close up they are quite striking. Elongated, toothed, and a beautiful combination of green and ruby… It’s interesting to note that when this plant was quite small, the lowest leaves were remarkably wide and looked almost as if they belonged to a different plant.

Googling for a bit about the plant, I laughed when I read that in 2004 a Houston narcotics task force raided a landscaper’s home and held him at gunpoint because they thought the Texas Star Hibiscus growing in the man’s front yard was marijuana. This earned them a Bum Steer Award from Texas Monthly magazine — for those of you not in Texas, Bum Steer Awards are given each year to the most idiotic or ridiculous people, actions, and events of the year in Texas and sometimes nationally. Not surprisingly, the list is long (and often includes politicians).

Back to the subject at hand — yes, this photo was taken at the wrong time of day, but I had to capture a picture of the tiny spider standing guard on the flower. Can you spot him?

Here he is:

The buds on my plant are all paired. I wonder if they always appear in pairs. Even the single bloom has a bud with it, as seen in the pictures above.

While photographing the stunning plant, I realized I was being watched by our newest amphibian resident. Being ever the romantic, it’s tempting to name him Prince, but I think instead I will call him Murray, after Bill Murray, who gets slimed by Slimer the ghost in “Ghostbusters.” Why not just call him Slimer, you ask? Because that would be too obvious, of course.

I tried hard to capture a picture of the new fish, but they scooted under foliage anytime they noticed me looming above. I enjoyed watching all the fish school around together. The new fish are quite at home. We’re now up to nine fish, egads! This isn’t a great picture, but you can see one of the wee ones swimming with the “big” fish.

I am so jealous of the gorgeous dragonfly and damselfly pictures that many other garden bloggers get. Without a good zoom lens, I can’t close enough to take a picture without the little guys flying away, if they even land near me. And yet I am happy to have as many as will come eat my mosquitoes and wasps and even some of the plentiful tadpoles. I definitely have noticed a decrease in mosquitoes since having the pond, though perhaps that has more to do with the drought, lol. Maybe bats are visiting my pond at night now. One could hope! Do bats eat wasps and hornets?

Just behind it was this caterpillar-eating menace. Can’t it just eat webworms instead of my future butterflies?

And in my garden, I found this horrifying creature, the terrifying, shriek-causing, hide-all-your-plants-from Gigantic Grasshopper — one of those that are so big they don’t bother to jump at all — they just fly their clumsy fly way out of reach. I knew I was making a mistake taking a picture of it when I should have just killed it — it got away, flying to the branches of an oak tree. Which really bugged me! (pun intended)

I guess that makes mine a garden of good and evil!

Flower Anatomy

Posted on August 9, 2009 by Meredith

Ahhh, the Texas Rock Rose (Pavonia lasiopetala). Such a favorite. It’s also known as Rose Pavonia and Rose Mallow. This gorgeous perennial is native to Texas and Mexico, but it is part of a larger family that has species native to various countries. Texas Rock Rose loves limestone-filled clay soil and doesn’t mind the drought, which is good because I have plenty of both. And the little flowers really stand out against the limestone rocks of my pond and my stone house, looking like a miniature hibiscus or wild rose. But each individual part of the rock rose is as beautiful and fascinating as the rest. And as it turns out, the rock rose is a great plant to use for a lesson in flower anatomy.

Texas Rock Rose, like other flowering plants, is an angiosperm. In this case, it’s considered a short-lived flowering perennial.

Each young bud is surrounded by green bracts, or modified leaves. The long, skinny bracts start out parallel to the bud, but then open up to reveal a whorl of green wider modified leaves called sepals.

You can see that the whorl of sepals is in a group of five. The sepals form a star when they open. The rock rose shows off this star shape again and again. It’s a rock star! (Did you just groan? I heard that.)

Despite my bad joke, the fact that the flower parts are in multiples of five is actually important. This indicates that the rock rose can be classified as a eudicot, one of the groups of angiosperms.

When the bud opens, the sepals are almost flat. They remain to protect and support the flower. Being green, they also contribute to photosynthesis. Together, the whorl of sepals is called the calyx. A star-shaped calyx. 🙂

One reason I am drawn to this star theme is because Texas is known as the Lone Star State, making the star shapes in the flower very appropriate. But who can resist the way nature can produce such a perfect five-pointed star again and again?

As the sepals open, you begin to see the pink within. In this picture you can see a closed bud, an opening new bud, and an existing flower that has closed up. The rock rose flowers react to both temperature and light — they will close up in the hottest part of the day and when it is dark.

When the bud opens to reveal the flower, you can see the whorl of five pink petals. This whorl is called the corolla. Some corollas are fused, but in the rock rose, the five petals are distinct. The rock rose also only has a single whorl of petals — some other flowers have a double whorl. The calyx (sepals) and corolla (petals) together form the perianth.

The bright pink flowers help to attract pollinators to the reproductive unit of the flowers. The rock rose flower is “perfect” in terms of botany; it has both male and female parts. Plants like these are also called hermaphroditic, or bisexual. They can self-fertilize or be pollinated by insects or wind, or at my house by getting brushed up against by dogs.

It’s hard to miss the bright yellow pollen of the rock rose. But if you look closely at the pollen, you will see that the grains are clumped at the end of tiny pink filaments. The anther at the end of a filament produces the pollen. The filament and anther together form the stamen. The filaments are attached to the stamen tube, or staminal column, seen here as a white cylinder. All these parts together form the male part of the flower.

It is interesting to note that the plentiful pollen of the rock rose is sometimes gathered for its Vitamin E and other health benefits.

In the rock rose, the female structures are mostly hidden inside the staminal column. The female structures are collectively called the pistil. You can see the sticky stigmas protruding from the stamen tube. Some stigmas have little hairs on them. The stigmas are at the ends of the female tube, called a style. At the base of the style, the ovary contains the ovules, which in turn contain the female egg producers.

The pollen lands on the stigma and germinates, growing a pollen tube down the style to the ovary and ovules. The sperm travel from the pollen down the pollen tube to fertilize the eggs within the ovules. And with a number of divisions, a seed is born! In the case of the rock rose, I understand the plant is a happy seed producer, to the dismay of some gardeners. At the moment, I don’t mind if it spreads some. I have room.

In this photograph, you can see that some pollen grains have landed and adhered to a couple of stigmas.

Turning attention to the green portion of the plant, the lightly-toothed, velvety leaves of the Texas Rock Rose form an alternate pattern on the stem. I find it interesting that a single bud and leaf “stem” from the same node on the main stem.

I recently added another species of rock rose to the garden as well, Brazilian Rock Rose (Pavonia braziliensis). If it starts to gets out of control, too, I’ll give priority to the native variety. Pretty white flower, you have been warned!

The burgundy center provides quite the contrast to the white corolla. The petals are larger than that of the Texas Rock Rose, giving the corolla a more rounded appearance. From the back (see the crumpled petals in the background), the petals have a similar pink vein to that of the Texas Rock Rose.

Hey, even the burgundy forms a star shape!

Whatever the flower parts, whatever the species, the rock rose is beautiful. Dare I say, it’s a star.

Entwined

Posted on August 7, 2009 by Meredith

The darkness of night faded
I turn to the light of dawn
And gingerly I reach out

A shy and uncertain hand

Longing for love, and clinging

At the briefest hint of touch

Will I be made the fool?
My denied hopes a tangled mess

Or will the tendrils of love entwine?

For hand in hand, and more than hugs
Tenderness brings strength to heart

And hopes become wishes true

Oh, be the rock on which I stand
And I will stand proud but grounded

Be the wall upon which I lean
And I will know comfort yet stay dependent

But hold my hand and love me
And I will bloom and grow

High and higher, unbound by rooted doubts
Upon the ladder of heart’s embrace

Toward the warming sun above

And I shall be whole and happy

All because I reached, and you were there.

And love entwined.

The photos show a glimpse of my young food garden: jack-o-lantern pumpkin, cantaloupe, and sugar pumpkin vines, with images of the tendrils of crossvine and caroline jessamine mixed in. The seedlings are growing well, and they are my babies. The cantaloupes are blooming now, and the jack-o-lantern pumpkins are teasing me with buds.

A few days ago I saw my first squash vine borer moth (horror!), and the next day I went out and removed about 30 little brown eggs from my jack-o-lantern pumpkins. Hopefully I got them all. Seriously, I’m checking for eggs every day now. This task will get harder as the plants get bigger.

I’ve planted 32 corn seedlings and all are growing. Yes, that’s a lot of corn! But they all fit with this square-foot gardening.

I’ve had a few leaf-miners tunneling, but I haven’t done anything about it. As far as I know, the overall plants will be fine, though I hate to see the pretty leaves tainted with trails.

And I’ve bought seeds for my third raised bed, for fall: carrots, beans, spinach, and zucchini. Looking forward to and terrified of attempting to grow even more veggies… But having fun, too. 🙂