Category Archives: fellow gardeners

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – December 2014

fellow gardeners, winter

Today is the 15th of the month, so it’s time for a Bloom Day post. Each month, garden bloggers who participate take snapshots of what is blooming in their gardens. Then we all dash over to May Dreams Gardens to take virtual strolls through gardens from around the world. You may want to head over there right now because the following Bloom Day post is not for the faint of heart.

The Lot is situated in Zone 6a, so blooms in the garden are rare at this time in the year. If we’re lucky, we have pretty snow standing in for long ago spent blooms. In our growing zone, the idea of “winter interest” in the garden is a feature we may or may not pull off during the winter depending on the weather.

Take the start of this winter for example. We had our first snowstorm in November, burying the city in a short amount of time and as a result causing a bit of a scramble. On the Lot, plants I leave standing in the garden to help with winter interest were flattened. By the end of the month, temperatures warmed enough to make the snow heavy and sloppy before finally melting. Temperatures plummeted again and we’re left to look at a frozen and gray mess. Here is this month’s Bloom (or lack thereof) post for December.

121514_helleboreHellebore with some broken stems. It does keep its color though because of being semi-evergreen.121514_smSedumThe little sedum out front usually have a cotton top of snow on the ends of their upright stems. No so much here.
121514_coneflowersThe coneflowers straggly stalks are usually surrounded by snow.
121514_AutumnJoyHere’s another sedum, Autumn Joy. This one was stronger than the plants out front on the South side of the house.
121514_falseIndigoUgh, this poor Baptisia… SPLAT.
121514_MaidenHairGrassAnd here is the maiden hair grass which I’ve had to tie together to even keep upright.

So, no blooms really to report, but weather events to log. This is a great time to catch up on the garden blog and maybe break out a knitting project or two.

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – November 2014

backyard bed, fellow gardeners, house bed, the Lot, winter

On this chilly Bloom Day, temperatures in our Zone 6a reached a whopping 30 degrees Fahrenheit. This seems to have been the weather theme for 2014. Everything has been cooler this year. This type of chill in November reminds me more of the Zone 5a where I grew up in the countryside, not in our current urban microclimate. Our trick-or-treaters had red noses and snowflakes in the air this year.

We’ve had our first hard frost already and the majority of the colorful Fall leaves are on the ground. Most of the perennials in the garden are looking quite fatigued if not completely wilted from the cold temperatures. I only have a handful of pictures to share, but thought it’d be a good idea to log them anyway.

This first mess of color is of an old-fashioned spirea we have in the backyard bed. I pruned this one back hard after it bloomed in the Spring. The growth was old, overgrown, and collapsing from the center. The shrub sprung back throughout the season with healthy new growth.

111514_spirea

Here is a bit of Lamium that is sheltered by the fence and house at the southeast corner of the backyard. Behind it is foliage from a Heucherella ‘Sweet Tea’ and a little Labrador Violet to the left.

111514_lamium

And here is our single pumpkin the raised veggie bed decided to grow this year. We were going to carve it for Halloween but never had time to do so. It’s currently under the bird feeder as a snack for the squirrels. You can see they have already started to nibble on the back corner a bit.

111514_pumpkin

So, only one plant is blooming right now on the Lot. Everything else seems to be settling in for the Winter. Head on over to May Dreams Gardens and maybe you’ll find a few more blooms from the more toasty areas of the world.

A Lesson in Latin

education, fellow gardeners

Last night a local gardening association hosted a social evening with speaker guest Merry Kim Meyers. Her presentation was titled “Conquering Scientific (Latin) Names.” I’ve been lazy about learning the Latin names of the plants on the Lot. I always feel a bit embarrassed when a gardening friend points at a plant and some bizarre combination of syllables I do not recognize falls from his or her lips with ease. So I thought this may be a fun presentation to attend.

Why Latin?

There are several reasons why Latin was chosen as the language to classify organisms. One can communicate internationally about the organism utilizing the same name without having to deal with language barriers. Also, common names of the same organism can differ from country to country, throughout a region, and at times from person to person. Using the Latin name of a plant eliminates this possible confusion. This comes in handy while shopping for plants so you can be sure you are purchasing the correct plant. And finally, and I feel quite practically, a dead language like Latin does not change.

The Daddy of Modern Taxonomy

In 1753, a Swedish botanist named Carl Linnaeus proposed every organism should be classified with a unique binomial name. This offered a solution to the problem at that time of a very chaotic approach to taxonomy (the system of classifying and naming organisms). The first term of the name would be the organism’s Genus and would be capitalized. The second term of the name would be its Species and would appear lowercase. Both parts of the name are italicized.

Carl’s Sock Drawer

Carl did not stop at suggesting a binomial name approach to taxonomy. He also created a hierarchical system of classification of nature. The system organizes organisms from very broad groupings to very specific types. Plants are classified by similarities in their fruit and flower structure.

The Linnaeus Classification System

  • Domain
  • Kingdom
  • Phylum
  • Class
  • Order
  • Family
  • Genus
  • Species

The system has since been tweaked, “Domain” and “Phylum” being added afterward, but the guy got a pretty good start in 1735!

Latin & the Lot

Here’s a example of a plant tag for the Sweet Woodruff planted on the Lot.

Sweet Woodruff Plant Tag

Sweet Woodruff is the common name printed on the tag for this plant. However, it is also known as Sweetscented Bedstraw and Wild Baby’s Breath. See how this can be confusing? Latin to the rescue! The scientific name of this plant is Galium odoratum. Galium is the plant’s Genus and odoratum is the plant’s species. The Latin name of a plant may identify such characteristics as its history, taxonomy, or use.

Here’s the actual plant in our backyard.

111414_sweetwoodruffThough I am unsure about the word Galium, I did find odoratum in Latin means “fragrant/perfumed/sweet smelling.” This groundcover is definitely that as it has a strong, sweet scent while in bloom.

Difference Between Varieties & Cultivars

Plants can also be sorted one step further. If there is a marked difference in a species of plants in nature, this is referred to as a variety. If the plant is developed by man to have differences within a species, this is referred to as a cultivar. Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’ is an example of a cultivar. Note that cultivars are identified within the name of the plant by using single quotes.