by Meg Lynch, Editor

Another sure sign of spring, for me, is when my living stone (Lithops sp.) begins to shed its old body—which is really just pairs of water-filled leaves.

This is a succulent plant native to South Africa, where it sits low in the ground, protected from grazing animals by its pebble-like appearance. I had wanted a living stone for a couple years before I finally found a local greenhouse that had some.  It was July 15, 2002, to be exact—I noted it in the cactus and succulent diary that I kept at the time:

“LIVING STONES!!!     !!!     !!! Very excited! One is greenish and the other grayish/peachish—they look good and I will take careful care of them!”

At some point soon thereafter the gray one died, though I don’t seem to have noted it.

On March 1, 2003, I mention that lately the still-living living stone, the green one, which I dubbed Gerard, “started to open a pinhole and that turned into a large oval-shaped separation and inside there are what look like tiny Gerards.” I had been hoping it was going to flower. But it was just going through the routine of a living stone: to shed its leaves each year, revealing new leaves inside. Sometimes they open to show more pairs than the last year, and form large clumps this way. (Gerard has held steady at two pairs.)

It has done this right around the middle of February every year since. It takes a couple months for the old leaves to completely shrivel away. All of my references say not to water a living stone at all until it has finished this routine, but toward the end I do give it a little water. I think it helps to move the process along—the new leaves swell up with water, and as they do they shrug the old leaves farther off.

Read more about living stones

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Get the reference in the title of this post

2/26/2008 4:12:23 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [4] 

by Meg Lynch, Editor

I know spring is around the corner when my houseplants start to perk up. Here are the first of my cacti to bloom. Some others have buds forming. These are planted together in the bottom half of a clay pot designed to cook a chicken. It is the perfect shape and depth!

These first blooms prove for me that the sun is getting stronger and the daylight hours, longer. Do you know we start Daylight Savings Time in three weeks?  I can’t wait to be getting home while it is still light out—looking at the garden is a great way to end the day.

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2/15/2008 4:18:50 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [1] 

by Meg Lynch, Editor

My fiancé and I went to a wedding in the Des Moines area over the weekend. We had some spare time, so we checked out the Des Moines Botanical Center. It was a great break from the frigid weather! Even John, who is not exactly a “plant person,” enjoyed the colorful bulb display blooming inside the entrance. (He took these photos with his cell phone.)

The main part of the Botanical Center is a Plexiglass and aluminum dome, 150 feet wide and 80 feet tall at its highest point. The collection of plants growing in the dome includes unusual tropical plants, familiar houseplants, shrubs, and fruit and nut trees. Some of the palm trees there are quite large, and you follow winding paths through the dome, heading up and down to different levels, so you really get the feeling of being in a lush tropical garden. And it is always fun to see the plants you grow as houseplants in their natural state (big!).  

The Botanical Center also has an annex called the Gardener’s Showcase, where volunteers design exhibits demonstrating design ideas or certain groups of plants, and classes and events take place in the center’s classrooms.

The temperature was -2 when we left Des Moines on Sunday, heading for the airport in Omaha. I spotted a billboard for Omaha’s Botanical Center (or Lauritzen Gardens) and remembered writing a little box on an event there when I first started working at Horticulture. Too bad we had flights to catch. (Right, John?) I’d like to get there someday. Preferably a warm one!

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2/12/2008 3:17:54 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

by Meg Lynch, Editor

Here's a fun contest. At Success With Seed, they are asking for recipes that uses at least one ingredient (or more) that can be grown from a Park Seed plant or seed. Park Seed employees will judge the contest (yum), and they say they are looking for creative and enthusiastic use of homegrown food. (Be sure to read the official rules, etc., over there.)  You could win a gift certificate to Park Seed.

Personally, I love carrots mashed with rutabaga and a little butter and ground black pepper. Not sure that's really a recipe, but feel free to enter it, somebody. And everybody, try it!

Visit Success With Seed

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Radish 'Rainbow Sprout' mix. Photo courtesy Park Seed.

2/1/2008 4:43:18 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [1]