Halloween Flowers

Last miniature roses of the season join my inside geraniums and Halloween pumpkin candle.

Halloween Flowers

It's record warm again this fall in Missouri, a time when in the past we would already be bundling up in coats and getting trick or treaters extra scarves and mittens. Instead, I found myself picking a lovely little bouquet of blooming miniature roses to add to blooming pink geranium flowers in my business office.

I don't worry about whether the flowers will look good together or not, I rarely pick things that don't somehow look good together. When I plopped them down on my coffee table, they looked wonder next to my little ceramic Halloween pumpkin candle holder. I don't use real candles in it any more, I like the little flickering, batter-operated lights that make it look like a candle is inside. So much safer than having a lit candle.

If you still have flowers blooming, take a few minutes to pick a few and bring them inside. They will brighten up your day, I promise!

Charlotte

Halloween Black Spider

Would this black spider scare you??

Halloween Black Spider

I'm not fond of being scared but I sure do enjoy some of the Halloween decorations. The easier the better, and if it's creative, even better.

I was driving back from visiting a friend in Dixon, Missouri and chuckled when I spotted this black spider in a field. Sharing a name with a spider, Charlotte in E.B. White's Charlotte's Web, I am not particularly scared of spiders. Actually I find them very fascinating, especially the fall garden spiders I have all around my garden.

I couldn't help but wonder, though, at friends who are not as enamored of these interesting insects as I am. One was sharing a black spider she found in her garden last night at a neighborhood meeting, discussing the different kinds of tarantulas she had seen in her life.

To find a spider this big in one's garden would definitely be startling, if not scary.

So easy to make. A bale of hay, some black moldable plastic pipe and spray paint. Very clever!

Charlotte

Gorgeous Garlic Chives

Transplanted garlic chives blooming beautifully in my Missouri garden.

Gorgeous Garlic Chives

I don’t mean to brag but I thought I was familiar with most culinary herbs until I found these little bunches of onion-like plants in a neighbor’s garden. Without knowing what they were, I dug up as many as I could and moved them to my garden, planting them along flower borders so I could watch them during the growing season.

So many weeds we have growing in our ditches are herbs that are no longer loved and appreciated. It is a shame since many of them have as much, if not more, health benefits as plants we buy in grocery stores.

Turns out the plants I dug up are garlic chives, a very common herb used in Asian cuisine and quickly developing fans around the rest of the world.

Garlic chives belong to the chive family of onions. The family has two branches, onions and chives. The chive-like leaves add a garlic flavor to any dish, a nice option when one doesn’t have real garlic.

The plants grow about 12-inches high. They prefer a rich moist soil with sun and, once established, easily spread through self-sowing.

The green leaves of garlic chives can be cut and added to salads and dishes.

The leaves look like regular chives, only instead of being hollow tubes like regular chives garlic chives are flat. Both seem to grow about the same size.

I have them planted as flower bed border plants, more so that I could see them when they bloomed and I could confirm the identification.

Garlic chives make wonderful border plants.

Garlic Chives Healthy Benefits

t is interesting to see how herbs were used for medicine. In the case of garlic chives, they allegedly reduce stress and fatigue. Paste of the herb supposedly heals wounds faster and stops bleeding. It was also used in the treatment of liver, kidney and digestion problems.

More to the point, garlic chives can be used in soups, sauces, salads, egg dishes – wherever you like to use garlic but don’t have any available. If for some reason you can’t eat garlic, garlic chives are a good way to add the garlic flavor without any related issues.

Garlic chives are rich in vitamin C, riboflavin, potassium, iron, vitamin A, thiamin and betacarotene. These elements help maintain blood pressure and increase a body’s immunity.

Garlic chives are also low in fat and have a high content of dietary fiber and protein. According to Frank Tozer, who wrote the Uses of Wild Plants, it also helps to maintain a balanced metabolism.

A macro lens closeup of garlic chive flowers.

If you look at the white garlic chive flowers closely, they look very similar to wild onion flowers, which bloom in late spring. When trying to tell the difference between the two, wild onion leaves are tubular while garlic chives are flat.

Natural Pest Deterrent

Another advantage of garlic chives is they are supposed to deter pests such as Japanese beetles, black spot on roses, scab on apples and mildew on cucurbits. I will move a few around next spring to increase my natural bug repelling efforts.

I have used both garlic chive flower stems and cut up leaves in salads and can’t tell a difference between the two, they both add a nice garlic flavor.

Wild onions and garlic were a Native American food staple. Bulbs were gathered in large quantities for winter use. Whole bulbs were roasted in fire pits, something we can duplicate by wrapping bulbs in aluminum foil and baking in a 350-F oven, or the ashes of a fire, for 45 minutes.

Native Americans also used wild onions and garlic as insect repellants, simply smearing them on their skin. I have heard alleged garlic cloves repel vampires but I am sure smearing garlic all over will repel people.

Charlotte

Peak of Fall Color

Yellow Eastern Redbuds against orange oaks in my apiary. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The front of my garden with dogwoods turning red, one of my favorite fall colors. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Peak of Fall Color 

I miss some of the calls, people wanting to know when fall colors will reach their peak. It was a yearly project where I used to work.

It started with my trying to convince silviculture experts in August to “guess” at what kind of fall colors we would have later that year. After getting through the long lectures on how tree leaves change color and why guessing was not a scientific approach, we would end up back at the original question.

Some would ignore my follow-up calls. Others would get into the spirit and wax poetic, even going so far as to sharing what their favorite fall tree was. It was still dicey to get them to commit to a prediction but I could waffle around some of what they said. These are precise people. If you have never tried to convince a scientist to make an educated guess, trust me, it’s a fine art.

I was thinking about those conversations earlier this week as I was walking through my garden, trying to guess what trees were turning based on their fall leaf color:

·       Dogwoods are easy, they turn a variety of reds and tend to stand out against other fall colors.

·       Hickories are yellow. So are oaks, which turn yellow, orange and brown, depending on their unique species.

·       I don’t have peachy sugar maples but there are enough around town to enjoy them as I drive by.

Bartlett Pear trees turn peachy colors in the fall. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Tree leaves are not the same color in the other of the four seasons. We just don’t see them until a change in light and temperature triggers the decline of green chlorophyll to let colors shine through.

Leaves are fascinating solar-powered factories that produce most of the food trees need. Leaves contain chlorophyll, which absorbs sunlight and turns carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates, such as sugars and starch. Hidden in those leaves are yellow to orange pigments, which also give carrots and pumpkins their color. 

In fall, changes in daylight and temperature signal trees to stop producing food. Chlorophyll breaks down, the green color disappears, and the yellow to orange colors become visible.

As leaves undergo other chemical changes, additional colors appear, such as red anthocyanin pigments. Those pigments give leaves their reddish to purplish colors, while sugar maples show peach and orange. All these colors are due to the mixing of varying amounts of chlorophyll residue and other leaf pigments.

One of the reasons guessing the peak of fall color is not easy is that temperature, light, and water supply all have an influence on fall color degree and duration. Low temperatures above freezing will favor trees producing anthocyanin. Early frost will weaken the brilliant red color. Rainy and overcast days sometimes increase fall color intensity. Rainy days can also mark the immediate end of fall colors when wind blows leaves off.

Fall colors move from north to south, usually reaching their peak in mid-Missouri in mid to late October.

Don’t worry about when it will peak, it changes daily so sit back and enjoy the show! 

Charlotte

Mystery Clematis Identified!

Mystery Clematis Identified!

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to dig up plants from a neighbor's property getting bulldozed by the new owner. There were a LOT of plants so I invited a friend almost as crazy as I am about gardening to help me dig up the site.

We didn't always know what we were digging up. If it looked different than grass, it was dug up and we would sort it out later.

One of the big stashes we brought home was a collection of clematis vines. They were all over the property, at various stages of development. It was easier to dig up the starts than the more established ones so we focused on the younger ones. 

I planted several vines at the corners of the cedar fence in front of my house, having no clue what flowers might show up.

The mystery clematis vines growing over my cedar fence turned out to be autumn clematis.

Early August, the vines started to entertain tiny white flowers. These vines turned out to be Sweet Autumn Clematis vines, a beautiful snowly-like scene of blooms with a lovely scent and a vine I was hoping someday to add to my garden.

Once established, Sweet Autumn Clematis vines are beautiful late summer bloomers.

This more established Sweet Autumn Clematis vine growing over a neighbor's tree.

Sweet Autumn Clematis is a hardy climber, I see the vine growing all over mid-Missouri from simple fences to garden arbors.

To keep the vine in check, I have read to cut the stems back to 12 inches in spring. The vines can reach 30 feet.

It blooms on the current year's growth. I have also read it's unusual to see blooms the first year so I feel privileged that I can identify what these vines are still this year.

Unlike many Clematis, who prefer cool shade on roots and sun on vines, Sweet Autumn Clematis will thrive and bloom well in partial shade. 

Wonderful surprise!

Charlotte

Move On In!

Move On In!

Seems just yesterday I was moving these tropical plants outside on my deck so they could spend their summer in sunshine and rain showers.

In mid-Missouri, our first frost tends to occur mid to late October so it is once again time to get my tropical plants ready to move back inside.

The first step is to select which ones have to go in first, either because of their special light needs or size, sometimes both. Once in line, I do a quick hitchhiker check to make sure I am not bringing in additional residents: tree frogs, lizards, praying mantis are among passengers that have ended up scurrying across a room once the plants were moved in.

Plant trimmings get mixed in with oak leaves and composted for next season.

Secondly, it's time to trim. Some years I have left the lush growth, only to be sorry later when it was a mess to clean up. This year, the growth has been trimmed, branches have been cut back and each plant was giving a good shower. There is no way to prevent bugs from getting inside but I certainly can minimize their success.

Bigger plants are either on, or get placed on, plant caddies so I can more easily place them.

Smaller plants get plastic plant trays to keep water in pots.

Now that the the plants are ready to come in, it's time to re-arrange inside furniture to give them as much window light as possible. It does get a bit tight but there is nothing like sitting in a chair surrounded by blooming greenery while it is cold and nOsnowing outside.

One of my tropical hibiscus blooming in a bay window where it will spend the rest of winter.

What do you do to bring tropical plants inside for winter?

Charlotte

Not Forget Me Nots

Not Forget Me Nots

I was walking through my garden when I spotted a little dash of blue.

Spotting the first of several patches of Blue boneset in bloom at Bluebird Gardens.

The tell-tale sign of what I found was there, the tiny blue flowers that look like tiny puff balls with spiky hair. These are not forget-me-nots, which is how I first identified them many, many years ago, but a blue boneset, also called wild ageratum and more commonly referred to as a mist flower.

Fall-Blooming Missouri Wildflower

This native Missouri wildflower is part of the daisy family and blooms July through October. The usually grow along ditches, lakes, streams and any moist low areas according to Edgar Denison, Missouri Wildflowers.

Under cultivation, it spreads rapidly with an interwoven mass of roots and can be highly aggressive. One of the advantages of gardening on a limestone hillside is that some aggressive plants have a hard time of it. This little patch of Wild ageratum has been in the same spot for years with little expansion.

If I would make a note of it, I could trim them in summer next year and they would grow into more of a bush shape but I like being surprised finding them growing as they will.

Wild ageratum at Bluebird Gardens, one of the last flowers to bloom before season's end.

Favorite Pollinator Plant

According to the Missouri Department of Conservation, butterflies, skippers, and bees are strongly attracted to the flowers. Other insects eat the foliage. Not many mammals eat this plant because of its bitter taste.

End of the Season

Wild ageratums are the last flowers to bloom in my garden. Since I mis-identified them to begin with, I still think of them as forget me nots and my reminder to take notes about what went well in this year's garden so I can get better prepared for next year.

Charlotte

Last Scented Pink Rose

The last scented tea rose for the season from my garden.

Last Scented Pink Rose

This little scented tea rose has been in my garden for at least a decade. It's nothing impressive, you would probably walk by the plant if you were visiting my garden.

I, however, have her planted close to the walkway so that when the plant blooms, one does not miss the scent of the sweet, old-fashioned rose. These flowers remind me of David Austen roses although I don't have any proof of the pedigree. I tend to buy plants on sale and this one didn't have a tag when I brought it home.

The last rose of the season was waiting for me when I returned home late September. It was a lovely gift, not a bug mark or black spot on the leaves, the flower in perfect bud form.

I carefully cut the stem above a 5-leaf node and brought it inside to keep me company in my den. By morning, the bud was open but the flower was too heavy for the stem.

I clipped the drooping flower head to an orchid support with a clip to hold it up.

Taking a tip from my moth orchids, I borrowed a stick and clipped the flower to the stick so I can enjoy not only the flower, but the scent as well.

No orchid pins? Use those little hair clip pins, they are made the same way and in similar sizes, available at any hair supplies section. They are sold on little cardboard slips, usually six on each cardboard piece.

This would work well for a number of droopy flowers, especially peonies. Clip the rod to the back of the flower so that it is not obvious the flower is clipped. I left it longer in the pictures so you can see how it works.

Scented tea rose keeps my little potted orchid in my den company.

Don't they look like they are getting along quite nicely?

Charlotte

University of Missouri Extension Fruit Growing Guides

University of Missouri Extension Fruit Growing Guides

I clearly remember keeping the Fruit Experiment Station representative two hours after the scheduled end of our master gardener class. We had a lot of questions about how to raise a variety of fruit in Missouri's growing conditions, and the speaker seemed quite happy to entertain our questions, and stories.

Some time after that class, I was at my local University of Missouri Extension office and found a nice variety of pamphlets on growing fruit in Missouri: from blueberries to raspberries, the paper pamphlets were available for a nominal fee, varying from 50 cents to $2. 

You bet I took them all, they are part of my winter reading assignment to make sure I am following the best practices in my garden. I still dream of the day when I can step out into my garden and pick a variety of my own fruit. I have had good luck with my semi-dwarf pear tree, only 30 years after I first planted it. I had given up on seeing any fruit until wasps moved into some of my birdhouses and started pollinating the blooms. So exciting to finally see pears on that tree!

My compact peaches and nectarines have borne fruit within the first couple of years, but I don't always beat the squirrels to the fruit.

I have blueberries, raspberries and blackberries planted as well but haven't seen fruit yet. I have added wood chips to mulch the blueberries and blackberries to acidify their soil. I need to have a chat with my raspberry patch, the plants have literally taken over one of my raised beds. I wouldn't mind so much if they had fruited but not so far.

Maybe next year.

Charlotte

September Garden Chores

If you don't store your terra cotta pots, they will end up peeling off like this one or worse, broken.

September Garden Chores

Welcome, fall, a season when gardeners try to get a head start on next year. At least I do!

The following are my September garden chores, in no particular order:

1.     Get plants ready to bring inside. Trim off extra growth to reshape your plants into a manageable inside size. Spray with dishwashing liquid drops in water to remove hitchhikers. Determine good lighting spots inside your house for the plant needs.

2.     Plant trees. Make sure to check how big the tree will get when mature and select an appropriate location for that size. I have a compact apple tree I need to move because the tree is now growing in front of a bay window. Guess the root grafting didn’t quite take! Also dig the hole at least twice the size of the root ball, it does make a difference.

3.   Plant garlic. Get garlic bulbs at local garden centers or clean out your refrigerator crisper. Divide the garlic bulbs and get them planted before the first frost. You should have garlic for cooking next year.

4.   Harvest your bounty. It has been a late season for my tomatoes, onions and peppers this year but there is still time to harvest and store for winter. I freeze some of my bounty in plastic bags for soup-making later.

5. Weed and mulch your garden beds. If you weed now, you can remove plants with seeds and hopefully reduce next year’s weeds. Compost those plants after removing seed heads. Mulch your garden bed: hay, cardboard, grass clippings, non-treated wood chips all work well to amend your soil.

6. Make note of what you grew where. The general rule of thumb is to not plant the same thing in the same spot for more than 2 years in a row.

7. Wash, clean and store pots. You don’t want to harbor bugs or diseases so wash out plant pots before storing. It’s also a nice way to get a head start on spring planting.

8. Stop fertilizing roses. Trim them and mulch.

9. Cut and freeze herbs so you will have them for use this winter.

What garden chores do you like to do in September?

Charlotte

Happy Thanksgiving!

From my garden to yours, happy Thanksgiving! 

"Got no check books, got no banks. Still I'd like to express my thanks — I got the sun in the morning and the moon at night...." ~Irving Berlin

Why Leaves Change Color

Why Leaves Change Color

Having grown up in South America on the Equator, where the “seasons” are rain or shine, I can still remember the delight of seeing my first fall in North America. We were visiting friends the Midwest.  It was the peak of fall colors, the farm countryside covered in peachy sugar maples, red dogwoods, yellow hickories and orange brown oaks. Until we moved back years later, I thought trees in North America were different colors all year around.

Tree leaves, such as these red dogwood tree leaves, do have different colors. We just don’t see them until a change in light and temperature triggers the decline of green chlorophyll to let colors shine through.

Why Leaves Change Color

Leaves are fascinating solar-powered factories that produce most of the food trees need. Leaves contain chlorophyll, which absorbs sunlight and turns carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates, such as sugars and starch.

Hidden in those leaves are yellow to orange pigments, which also give carrots and pumpkins their color. 

In fall, changes in daylight and temperature signal trees to stop producing food. Chlorophyll breaks down, the green color disappears, and the yellow to orange colors become visible.

In fall, trees in my garden turn a variety of colors. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

How Leaves Turn

As leaves undergo other chemical changes, additional colors appear, such as red anthocyanin pigments. Those pigments give leaves their reddish to purplish colors, while sugar maples show peach and orange. All these colors are due to the mixing of varying amounts of chlorophyll residue and other leaf pigments.

Temperature, light, and water supply have an influence on the degree and duration of fall color. Low temperatures above freezing will favor trees producing anthocyanin. Early frost will weaken the brilliant red color. Rainy and overcast days sometimes increase fall color intensity.

Rainy days can also mark the immediate end of fall colors when wind blows leaves off.

Charlotte

Guess What Time It Is...

"Oh how we love pumpkin season. You did know this gourd-ish squash has its own season, right? Winter, Spring, Summer, Pumpkin.... We anxiously anticipate it every year. "

                       ~Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer, October 2010

Of all the vegetables that come out of a fall garden, one stands out to me above the rest. Or maybe I should say it sprawls below.

Pumpkins, a member of the squash family, bring in the fall holidays, starting with Jack O' Lanterns for Halloween. Pumpkins that make it through all those little trick or treaters become one of the highlights of Thanksgiving as a pie and baked side dish.

Left over pumpkin gets recycled in the next holiday as a Christmas cookie. Pumpkin seeds get roasted and salted as a snack.

What other ways do you use pumpkin, do you have a favorite recipe?

Charlotte

A New Beginning in Fall

 “Somewhere along the way, I realized that the new year doesn’t begin for me in January. The new and fresh has always come for me in the Fall. Ironically, as leaves are falling like rain, crunching beneath my feet with finality, I am vibrating with the excitement of birth and new beginnings.... My year begins in Autumn.”

                                                            ~Betsy Cañas Garmon

When do you have new beginnings?

Charlotte

Fall in Missouri

The changing of leaf color in fall in Missouri out my office window is surprising.

No two days ever look the same.

Perennially-green native Cedar trees hold on to green.

As morning haze burns off, the view gets a sunny tone, adding even more color.

The colors last until early November, or until a storm knocks leaves off.

Charlotte

Fall Colors

"Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn." -- Elizabeth Lawrence

In the midwest, of all of the four seasons, fall is a time when nature puts on a show just for us.

One day there's green and some brown, the result of a continuing midwest drought. Next day, trees and bushes seem to magically turn into a rainbow of colors. Leaves, too!

Fall Bulb Planting

I didn't appreciate a bulb planter until I had gift bulbs to plant.

Think biscuit cutter, only for planting.

You insert the bulb planter into ground; turn, then easily remove soil.

Pop in a bulb. Cover. Water.

Is it spring yet?

Ah-CHOO!

Of the four seasons, spring and fall are sneezing seasons in Missouri. A high pollen count from wildflowers like yellow goldenrod are wonderful for honeybees but hard on people who have allergies.

According to Cindy Brick's "The Stitcher's Language of Flowers," this is a "sneezing ditty" from the Ozark Mountains:

"Sneeze on Monday, sneeze for fun:

Sneeze on Tuesday, see someone;

Sneeze on Wednesday, get a letter;

Sneeze on Thursday, something better,

Sneeze on Friday, sneeze for sorrow;

Sneeze on Saturday, a beau comes tomorrow,

Sneeze on Sunday, trouble on Monday."

Fall Bulb Planting

I didn't appreciate a bulb planter until I had gift bulbs to plant.

Think biscuit cutter, only for planting.

You insert the bulb planter into ground; turn, then easily remove soil.

Pop in a bulb. Cover. Water.

Is it spring yet?

Charlotte

Harmless Daddy Long Legs

Have you heard Daddy Long Legs are poisonous?

It's not true, these arachnids often mistaken for spiders, are like ladybugs, good to have in your garden. Daddy Long Legs spiders feed on small insects, fungus, dead organisms and fecal material. They're also a bit of a change artist. Daddy Long Legs can also detach their legs which will continue to walk away and confuse would-be predators. They also have special glands that act as a repellent against ants.

Charlotte