by Meg Lynch, Editor

I took a quick trip to St. Louis, Missouri, recently. This trip reminded me of the first time I visited the city, which was a few summers ago (I've been back a few times since, but in other seasons). On that first trip, and again last week, the city's streetside plantings bowled me over.

Big, colorful flowering tropical plants fill a 30-yard-long (or so) border in front of the historic Old Courthouse downtown (behind which you can glimpse the Gateway Arch). The city uses foliage plants to great effect too, with giant green and purple elephant ears (Colocasia) and variegated angel's wings (Caladium) planted in the medians downtown.

I didn't have a chance to stop by the Missouri Botanical Garden on this trip, but I've been once and I hope to see it again on my next trip to St. Louis.

The weather looks good for Boston this week, so I'll try to get some pictures of what's growing and blooming alongside this city's streets and over in the Public Garden. What's happening where you live?

7/30/2007 4:15:39 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [1] 

by Meghan Lynch, Editor

Recently I visited the new Botanical Center at Roger Williams Park in Providence, Rhode Island. The main attraction, which opened this past spring, is a 6,000 square foot conservatory full of tropical plants, arranged in long borders and around a few pools and fountains. There's also a slightly smaller connected greenhouse with plants from temperate and desert regions. Even though I'm a cactus-nut I have to say I enjoyed the tropicals best.

Here's one border, with a silver bismark palm.

And one of the pools, with truly giant elephant ears.

Located within Roger Williams Park (on Elmwood Ave. in Providence), the conservatory is open Tuesday through Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Adult admission is $3; children ages 6 to 12, $1; kids under 6, free.

7/18/2007 4:56:40 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0] 

by Meg Lynch, Editor

My recent request for book recommendations has brought some great responses. Thanks to EJM, Carol, Jenny, and Kate for the suggestions.

I recently finished reading The Good Good Pig by Sy Montgomery, which isn't about gardening. It's about the author's pig, Christopher Hogwood, and the ways he changed her life and the lives of everyone he met. The following paragraph, from a scene with a gardener Sy and Christopher knew, really jumped out at me so I jotted it down. Thought I'd share it here:

“This newest photosynthetic roommate was a tropical creature, a member of the same botanical family as the banana, Selinda explained. In fact, its leather, blue-gray leaves were shaped like bananas. It had no flowers—yet. But it was the promise of these flowers that had made Selinda bring the huge, expensive plant home on a day when she had been feeling low. One day it would produce a riot of orange and yellow color, the spikes of its blooms splayed out like the crest of some imaginary tropical bird, opposite of which a bright blue tongue curved forth like a beak. The unborn but hoped-for flowers gave the plant its name: bird of paradise.”

Not a gardening book, but I think Sy Montgomery captures a lot of what gardening is all about, right there.

Learn more about The Good Good Pig

7/10/2007 4:43:27 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0] 

by Meg Lynch, Editor

I love signing into my e-mail in the morning and finding Les Brake has sent me a message from Alaska. Les is a great writer (you've likely read some of his articles in Horticulture) and a great gardener. His keeps me clued in to what Alaskan gardeners are up to. Les recently sent me a few photos of his blue poppies (Meconopsis) and a pink-flowered lily relation, with this note:

"Our list of plants isn't nearly as long as that of gardeners in more temperate climates, but I feel like what we lack in quantity is made up for in quality plants such as the blue poppies, and this lily relative, Nomocharis pardanthina.

"Many of our best garden plants come from the same region in the high Himalayas as the poppies, including that peony that leaps out of the ground every year (Paeonia veitchii). Here's how elevation corresponds to latitude. Plants from latitude 26 that grow at 10000 to 12000 feet are right at home from sea level to 1200 feet at latitude 62 [where Les gardens].

"Notice how all the plants from that area have nodding flowers. That's because, according to what I've read, they get a daily misting at that elevation, and therefore the flowers have been made to protect the pollen. Very clever, I think."

Visit the Alaska Botanical Garden web site

Read Nan's blog

7/3/2007 9:46:03 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]