I know I said my next post was going to be about Rhubarb, but I haven’t finished it and this came up in the meantime.
Archive for the 'Garden' Category
Check out what’s happening for the SeedGROW project this year, at my gardening blog, Gardening in Northern Virginia.
I’m going to be blogging about my gardening adventures there, and here for everything else. Stay tuned for a dual Rhubarb post – recipes included.
The obvious “Q” would be Quercus. Quercus alba, Quercus coccinea, Quercus velutina, etc. But my favorite Quercus isn’t a tree, it’s Hydrangea quercifolia.
A beautiful Hydrangea (‘Snowflake’ is the variety I have), with double flowers and oak-shaped leaves that start a beautiful, fuzzy green in the spring, and end a beautiful, rich burgundy in the fall. This is what I think of when I see the letter ‘Q’.
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I was at the local Latino/Korean/Ethnic supermarket yesterday, and like all of the other supermarket-type stores in our area, they had plants in front, calling to us plant aficionados. I scanned the racks, and didn’t see anything I needed to have. Down at the bottom of the last rack, I saw a funny looking, frilly-leaved plant that sort of looked like mint, but not quite, and it was labeled in Korean. I didn’t know what it was, and I wasn’t feeling up to trying to track an English-speaking person, so I kept walking. I saw the plant again on my way back to my car, decided it was Shiso, and headed home.
This evening, while trying to decide what my “H” post would be, I opened my borrowed copy of The Spice Lover’s Guide to Herbs and Spices
I currently grow two kinds of Agastache, ‘Apricot Sprite’ and A. cana. I love them immensely. I have at least a couple other varieties in my seed box. I suppose it’s time to think about growing A. foeniculum as well. According to The Spice Lover’s Guide, A. foeniculum is native to North America. (I can always use more native plants in my yard.) I’m reading different reports as to whether A. foeniculum or a similar species is grown in Korea, Thailand, and Laos – but that would explain why it showed up at the store.
I haven’t decided if I’ll buy the starts at the grocery store, or if I’ll start plants from seed. You can bet that in the near future, there will be a post about Anise-Hyssop!
My Echinacea is sprouting for a second season (yay, perennials!). I love this stuff. It’s not quite picture worthy yet this year, so I’ll share some shots from last year:
I’m trying to grow ‘White Swan’ again this year. It didn’t germinate the last time I tried, but maybe I’ll try again this year.
What’s sprouting today:
- Muscari
- More Daffs
- Dicentra (Man, this stuff is tough. I shouldn’t have planted it in from, and yet it continues to come back. Maybe this year I’ll remember to transplant it.)
- Blackberry Lily
I’d tell you what seeds I’m sprouting on my kitchen windowsill, but I can’t find the list. I had posted the types of seeds on MyFolia.com, but I failed to keep track of the list that shows the position of the seeds in the tray. Oy.
I know the whole tray is flowers (I have another tray with veggies, and I still have *that* list!) The Dahlias and the Malva zebrina popped up almost right away, and I knew what those were, but I’m not sure about anything else. 
It’s an interesting kind of puzzle, I suppose. I know that the following exist somewhere on the tray:
- Dahlia ‘Black Beauty
- Malva zebrina
- Goldenrod ‘Summer Showers’ (and NO, Goldenrod is not the same as Ragweed)
- Tithonia ‘Goldfinch’
- Verbena bonariensis
- Berlandiera lyrata
- Rudbeckia ‘Cherry Brandy’
- Asclepias tuberosa
- Amsonia hubrichtii
- Baptisia australis
I guess I’m about to get really good at identifying flowers from their leaves.
I finished The Brother Gardeners
After a great day in the City today, I headed over to my local library and ended up with two books off the list:
Beautiful Boy is going to be hella depressing, but it sounds like it is well written. I have high hopes. Before Green Gables is about Anne Shirley, whom I have loved since childhood. (You’ll be horrified to know that I learned about the Anne of Green Gables books from the PBS series, but I love both, so it’s all good. 
)
I also checked out a couple of books about herbs and spices:
They weren’t on the list, but the Spice and Herb Bible is a repeat checkout because I didn’t get to it last time. I’ve been eyeing the Spice Lover’s Guide for a while. I suspect that you will see some blog posts related to these books in the near future.
For those of you here for a gardening update: Aruncus dioicus (Goat’s beard), Lilium ‘Blackout’, and Iris versicolor (Flag Iris) are sprouting.
(FYI, links to books are Amazon Affiliate links…)
