Flower Gardening
Hawaiian Hibiscus
Even though people generally associate the hibiscus flower as a flower of the state of Hawaii, however, of the over 200 species of hibiscus in existence today only seven of which are native to this state. Most of the flowers seen by tourists in Hawaii are generally not natives of the islands. The hibiscus can be typically found in places where there is warm climate, in tropical and subtropical regions all over the world. There are both annual and perennial types of the hibiscus.
By George Weigel/The Patriot-News
Q: With nighttime temperatures supposed to reach only the upper 20s the next few days, do I need to cover my new shoots? I have peonies, brunnera, columbine and several lilies, among other things, coming up and I'm worried these below-freezing temps will hurt them. What should I do to protect them?
A: Most of what's up now shouldn't run into much, if any, trouble from temperatures down into the 20s. Plants are pretty good about emerging and growing in tune with the season. Bulbs and hardy perennials and shrubs that have begun pushing buds, new growth and even flowers are adapted to our finicky early-April weather.
I suspect most everything will weather this cold snap just fine without any protection. At worst, you might see a little browning of the leaf tips. It's pretty hard to adequately protect landscape plants anyway. About the best strategy is draping beds with floating row cover, which is a light-weight polyester blanket that lets sun and rain through while giving a few degrees of temperature protection. It can be left on without hurting plants.
The only thing I'd be worried about would be people who rushed the season and planted annual flowers or tender vegetables. Some fruit trees also are susceptible to bud damage.
Flower Garden
Forest gardening
Forest gardening (also known as 3-Dimensional Gardening) is a food production and land management system based on replicating woodland edge ecosystems, substituting trees (such as fruit or nut trees), bushes, shrubs, herbs and vegetables which have yields directly useful to humankind.
In part based on the model of the Keralan 'home gardens', forest gardening has been pionered by the late Robert Hart, whose one eighth of an acre plot at Wenlock Edge in Shropshire has been described as possibly the only fully developed working permaculture site in the UK.
Robert began the project over thirty years ago with the intention of providing a healthy and therapuetic environment for himself and his brother Lacon, born with severe learning disabilities.
Starting as relatively conventional smallholders, Robert soon discovered that maintaining large annual vegetable beds, rearing livestock and taking care of an orchard were tasks beyond their strength. However, he also observed that a small bed of perennial vegetables and herbs they had planted up was looking after itself with little or no intervention. Furthermore, these plants provided interesting and unusual additions to the diet, as well as seeming to promote health and vigour in both body and mind.
Noting the maxim of Hippocrates to "make food your medicine and medicine your food", Robert adopted a vegan, 90% raw food diet. He also began to examine the interactions and relationships that take place between plants in natural systems, particularly in woodland, the climax ecosystem of a cool temperate region such as the British Isles. This led him to evolve the concept of the "Forest Garden": Based on the observation that the natural forest can be divided into distinct layers or "storeys", he developed an existing small orchard of apples and pears into an edible landscape consisting of seven dimensions;
- "Canopy" layer consisting of the original mature fruit trees.
- "Low-tree" layer of smaller nut and fruit trees on dwarfing root stocks.
- "Shrub layer" of fruit bushes such as currants and berries.
- "Herbaceous layer" of perennial vegetables and herbs.
- "Ground cover" layer of edible plants that spread horizontally.
- "Rhizosphere" or "underground" dimension of plants grown for their roots and tubers.
- Vertical "layer" of vines and climbers.
- Agroecology is the science of applying ecological concepts and principles to the design, development, and management of sustainable agricultural systems.
Red Hibiscus
The Great Red Hibiscus is a type of hibiscus that is native to the swamps of Georgia and Florida. The flowers are a perennial type of flower, which arrived in the United States in the end of the eighteenth century. This flower came into the United States when President George Washington ordered this plant to place in his home in Mount Vernon. The Great Red Hibiscus is a very famous and sought after ornamental plant in the United States.
By George Weigel/The Patriot-News
Q: My tulips this year are puny, sad-looking and some won't bloom at all. Is it the winter we just went through? Something else? Or maybe mine just need replacing? Some didn't come up at all, and I suspect squirrels or voles. My daffodils are fine.
A: Tulips are beautiful, but they're the toughest to grow well around here year after year. Various rodents like to feed on the bulbs themselves, and then the shoots and flower buds are favorite foods of rabbits and deer. Many types also peter out after a few years, which is why public gardens treat them as annuals and replant each fall.
A few quick ideas...
1.) Try tulip varieties that are best at perennializing, such as the fosteriana, kaufmanniana, Triumph and Darwin types.
2.) Put chicken wire over the beds after planting to prevent burrowing rodents from eating the bulbs. Or plant them in buried chicken-wire cages for total protection. (The shoots will grow out through the openings.)
3.) Use repellents once the shoots come up to protect against rabbits and deer.
4.) Fertilize with a balanced fertilizer in spring and fall and plant in compost-enriched, well drained soil.
5.) In May, dig up decent-looking tulips and group them together for a better display next spring. Remove the losers that didn't bloom and toss. Then make a note to replant with fresh tulips or other bulbs in the vacated spaces come October.
This winter also was a bit rougher than most for many bulbs. Growth got pushed along faster than usual due to the warm January, then the temperature plummeted almost overnight. It wasn't so much the level of the low temperatures that damaged early shoots but the suddenness of the change. Most bulbs are pretty adaptable, but this year's switcheroo was cruel and unusual punishment.