Visit of a Plant-starved Gardener to Logee's

It's been a tough winter for the plants, with little snow cover and a constant cycle of rain and hard freezes.  Small bulbs and plants were heaved out of the ground and had to be reburied.  On a positive note, my Giant Snowdrops were up and blooming early in January.

Galanthus elwesii, aka Giant Snowdrop

February continued with lots of cold but not much snow.  March rallied with a couple good snowstorms before winter finally started to loosen its grip.  Last week it actually (dare I say it?) started feeling a bit like spring.  (I remain a cynic, though, as it has been known to snow in April.)

common snowdrops in the garden

So how do we northern gardeners survive during the long winter?  Let's see... we spend the first couple of months giving our neglected and abused houseplants some much needed love.  After we put all of our houseplants into shock, we obsessively peruse seed catalogs.  We then try to convince ourselves that this year we really are going to plant all those seeds we order...

another winter project - propagation of Christmas cactus

At some point, however, it is time for a desperate gardener to visit a nursery to get a plant fix!  We are lucky to have a couple nurseries with greenhouses in the surrounding area, but last month we took a day trip to visit the real jackpot - Logee's Greenhouses.

Mr. Red House took me to Logee's as a late Valentine's Day excursion.  He really knows the way to a gardener's heart!  Logee's has not just one but SIX greenhouses filled to the brim with botanical treasures.

Clockwise from top left:  narrow aisles run through the packed greenhouses, unlabelled camellia, rows of Euphorbia obesa and Euphorbia suzannae for sale, Callandra surinamiensis aka Powder Puff plant

Logee's is a mail order and retail shop in Danielson, Connecticut, that specializes in container-grown tropical plants, and it has an interesting history.  It was started in 1892 by William Logee.  One of its most famous plants is the Ponderosa Lemon Tree that was brought to Logees from Philadelphia in 1900 via train then horse and buggy.  It was planted in the ground in Logee's original greenhouse and is still there, alive and thriving, and thousands of cuttings have been taken from it for new plants.  It is also called the American Wonder Lemon, as its lemons can get as large as 5 pounds.

lemon from the Ponderosa Lemon Tree

William Logee's children became involved in running the nursery.  His son Ernest hybridized begonias for the nursery and was one of the founders of the American Begonia Society.  Sadly he passed away at a young age from a fall out of a tree while pruning.

Top: Calathea lancifolia 'Rattlesnake'  Center: Pavonia multiflora, unlabeled Hibiscus flower, Rhaphidophora cryptantha (aka Shingle Plant)  Bottom: Acalypha hispida (aka Chenille Plant), Begonia maculata variegata

William Logee's daughter Joy met her husband at Ernest's funeral, as he was a fellow horticulturalist and Begonia Society member.  They became owners of the nursery after William's death in 1952.  Joy focused on scented geraniums and herbs, while also continuing her brother's legacy of growing begonias.

Joy and her husband had two sons.  One, Geoffrey, became a physicist and professor.  His first wife was now well-known garden author Tovah Martin.  Their other son Byron stayed with Logee's, and he and his first wife now run the still family-owned and operated greenhouses.

profusion of blooms from an enormous Australian Sarsparilla vine

The nursery was a delightful place to visit after some long winter months.

So is it possible for a plant-starved gardener to visit such a greenhouse and not come home with a plant or two (...or seven or eight)?

my new Begonia 'Sophie Cecile'

I think not.

Happy gardening!

Winter-blooming Chains of Glory a.k.a. the Lightbulb Plant

After the holiday Paperwhite and Amaryllis flowers decline, there is usually a dearth of flowers at the Red House Garden until the blooming of earliest spring bulbs.  This year, however, my Chains of Glory is in bloom.

Chains of Glory plant

I bought this Chains of Glory plant, or Clerodendrum smithianum, three years ago from Logee's, a well-known nursery down in Connecticut that specializes in rare and tropical plants.  (They are known as a mail-order nursery, but if you ever have the chance to visit their greenhouses, it is well worth the trip!)  I am extremely negligent of my houseplants, so the fact that this one has survived to tell the tale is an indicator of how hardy it is.

Clerodendrum smithianum

Clerodendrum smithianum is actually a shrub or small, multi-stemmed tree native to Thailand that can grow up to ten feet tall.  For use as a houseplant, it is recommended that it be pruned after its winter blooming to keep it a more manageable size.  My plant has managed to stay nice and small thanks to two battles with spider mites and one unexpected and drastic pruning by a plant-hungry cat.  (Like I said, this plant is impressively hardy.)  When a mature plant is in full flower, the effect of multitudes of cascading flowers makes it easy to see where it gets its nickname 'Chains of Glory'.

Another common nickname for this Clerodendrum is the 'Lightbulb Plant', which I personally love.  Before the flowers fully open, they do rather look like little white lightbulbs.  I've also seen it called 'Indian beads'.

Lightbulb Plant

Clerodendrum smithianum is hardy to zone 9b, and prefers full sun to part shade, though direct afternoon sun can burn the leaves.  I have mine on a shelf near a south facing window.  It is a very long blooming plant as the flowers slowly open, starting with the top and working their way down. Mine has been in bloom for a month and is still going strong.  It is said that it can bloom twice in winter, so I am excited to see how long it will be in flower.  When grown in warmer climates, it can bloom for months.  It is a great plant for a hanging basket or as a patio plant, and it is sometimes even grown as a bonsai.  Chains of Glory likes fertile, well draining soil, and the soil should look dry before watering again.

Clerodendrum smithianum

Many Chains of Glory plants have both dark red stems and red star-shaped sepals which are quite showy in contrast with the white flowers.  My stems do age red, but the flower sepals of my plant are all light green with just a touch of red on the tips.

As far as botanical nomenclature goes, Clerodendrum smithianum's past appears to be quite mysterious.  Some online resources seem to think that C. smithianum is synonymous with C. schmidtii (also syn. C. hastato-oblongum C.B. Clarke).  This plant was first documented by E.J.Schmidt, a Danish oceanographer and naturalist who collected plant specimens from Koh Chang Island in Thailand in 1899, and catalogued by C.B. Clarke, a British botanist who worked at Kew.

Clerodendrum smithianum = Clerodendrum schmidtii ?

Other online resources, on the other hand, seem to think that C. smithianum is synonymous with the more similarly named C. smitinandii, a different species of Clerodendrum that was collected a few decades later by Tem Smitinand, a Thai forest botanist, and likely categorized by the American botanist H.N. Moldenke.

Clerodendrum smithianum = Clerodendrum smitinandii ?

All of these are known as 'Lightbulb Plant' or 'Chains of Glory'.  Is my Clerodendrum smithianum just another name for a different species, or is it its own separate one?  If anyone else knows, let me know! 

(p.s. If you would like to go down the rabbit hole with me, there is a paper published by botanists in connection with Chulalongkorn University that describes and illustrates the differences between the two other species.  My C. smithianum seems to resemble C. schmidtii the most to me, but I am no botanist.)

**UPDATE: I e-mailed Logee's and they replied back that it is, indeed, the same plant as C. schmidtii.  Mystery solved!

Whatever its origins, having a plant that blooms in the depths of winter is most definitely a thing of beauty!

Two Enchanting Miniature Gardens

A few days ago, we got a brief break from the snowy winter weather by attending the 2015 Boston Flower Show.  The theme this year was 'Season of Enchantment', and I have to share with you one of the most enchanting parts of the show - the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's miniature gardens competition.

Each miniature garden is in a box and viewed through a glass window that is about 2 feet wide and a foot and a half high.  The gardens are judged on how it represents a larger garden, with a scale of 1 inch equalling 1 foot, at least for the part in the foreground.  Combining both horticulture and design on an intricate, scaled-down level, the results are impressive and amazing.

There were two entries at the Boston Flower Show this year.  The first one, by Gloria Freitas Steidinger, is titled 'The Lot Was Pasteurized', and shows a charming scene of a home in the woods.  It is complete with miniature lambs frisking through the front yard, a water feature with a swimming swan, miniature moose or elk surveying the scene from atop a cliff, and tractors resting in the nearby field.

I love all the little plants and moss that help create the scene.  So cute!

The second miniature garden was created by Debi Hogan and Warren Leach, and shows an enchanting scene of a playhouse up in the trees, complete with vines and children's playthings. Birdhouses hang in nearby trees, and a stone path leads to a picnic table and chairs behind the playhouse, completing the look of a miniature backyard retreat.

The variety of plants used was astounding.  It truly looked like a lush, miniature backyard garden, full of bushes, trees, vines, grasses, and even flowers.  Can you believe this was all done with little tiny plants?

I wish I would have taken even more pictures of all the little details going on in the two gardens - it's worth clicking on the pictures above to enlarge them so you can see how many things are going on.  The miniature gardens truly were enchanting, and just seeing them makes me itch to get some tiny plants and make a miniature garden of my own in a terrarium or something!  I don't remember seeing the miniature gardens competition when I went to the Boston Flower Show last year, but from now on I know to be on the lookout.  So charming!

Winter Vacation! Flowers on the Las Vegas Strip

For the last month, the Boston area has been pounded with blizzard after blizzard, shattering records for snow and cold.

Thankfully I escaped.

The snow mountain at a local grocery store
- after they trucked out a lot.

For a few days, I was delighted to join my husband while he was at a conference in nice, sunny Las Vegas!

Now where does a gardener go in Las Vegas (especially one who is not very lucky at slot machines)?  The largest garden on the Strip: the Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.

Set under the 55-foot tall glass ceiling of the Bellagio's Conservatory, the gardens change every season according to a theme that is designed, implemented, and cared for by an army of over 100 horticultural staff.

The theme at the time?  Chinese New Year
2015 is 'Year of the Goat'

As a gardener, I was a little disappointed to find out that it was less a botanical garden and more an extravagant floral art show, but it was still fun and impressive to see.  The theme while I was there was 'Chinese New Year', and flowers and plants were used to build beautiful Asian-themed vignettes.

Several Chinese children frolicked through the garden, their clothes entirely made of flowers.  Water constantly ran through the displays, and I wonder how often they had to change out the flowers.

All of the thousands of flowers and plants looked incredibly fresh and healthy.

Each of the plants on the ground level was in its own (well-hidden) pot, ready to be changed out as it faded or wilted.

According to their information online, more than 10,000 potted plants are switched out over the course of two weeks in the garden.  After their short life, the old plants are turned into mulch for the rest of the Bellagio grounds.

Bamboo and Juniper topiaries served as vertical accents.  Most of the flowers were different Bromeliads and Chrysanthemums, but there were also orchids and a few other flowers I did not recognize.

It was impressive to see such a site in the middle of the dessert.  

It is also impossible to capture the scope of how large the place was with my little camera phone.

Such a nice vacation!  I enjoyed the Conservatory, and I just enjoyed walking around Las Vegas without needing five layers of winter clothing and snow boots!

Ah, back to the Boston area...

me digging my heated birdbath out of the snow

Did you hear that after tomorrow's winter storm, we are supposed to break the 107.6" record for the most snow in a season ever?  Lucky us...

The Problem with Houseplants

People think I have a green thumb.  But I have to tell you the truth - it's probably only because they haven't seen how many plants I've killed.

At least when gardening outdoors, Nature helps quite a lot.  I can dig a hole, amend the soil, put a plant in a spot where it is most likely to survive, water occasionally when there hasn't been rain for awhile, and the odds are good for survival.  But houseplants... houseplants are an entirely different beast.  They depend entirely on me for survival.

Them odds aren't as good.

I closed my greenhouse up for the winter, as it got too expensive to heat for the few plants I had in there.  So in came all the cuttings and the few tender plants I had.  I also got a few houseplants this fall from another gardener that was moving away.  Many of these went into the guest room, with a few houseplants scattered on windowsills or ledges around the house.  After a while, however, I've noticed many of them haven't been doing too well.  I spent a few days in denial, but finally resigned myself to diagnosing the problem.

Turns out I have several of them.

Problem #1:  Spider Mites
I hate Spider Mites.  They are so tiny that it takes forever to figure out what the problem is.  A couple tell-tale signs of Spider Mites are speckling of leaves from all the little hordes of mites sucking the juice out of them...

...and a fine webbing that appears around the plants, much like spider webbing.

But by the time you finally figure out that there are Spider Mites, you are in a war for the survival of the plant.  In two weeks, a female Mite can lay up to 300 eggs.  In a warm, dry climate (say, the climate of a heated house in winter), the eggs can hatch and grow into adults within 5 days.  At which point, of course, the cycle repeats, and before you know it, a bazillion Spider Mites now call your plant home.

Did I mention how much I hate Spider Mites?

Problem #2:  Fungus Gnats
Since noticing those little black gnats that like moist soil flying around my plants, I've tried to let the plants dry out between waterings, but that is hard with some of the small cuttings and seedlings that I have. I've also gone to my go-to solution of watering the plants with water that has Bt in it. (Bt is the bacteria in Mosquito Dunks and other products that kills larvae.)  My Bt must be old or have expired, though, as the Fungus Gnats have only increased in the last few weeks!  Ack!

Problem #3:  Aphids
Really?  How in the world did I get Aphids?!!  As if I didn't have enough problems with the Spider Mites...

Problem #4:  Root Rot
So far this has been limited to one of the plants given to me by another gardener.  She did tell me that it was fine with neglect.  I obviously showed this plant way too much love and care, and it got overwhelmed.  Or overwatered.  Back to the neglect route... I think I can handle that.

Problem #5:  This one is the largest problem of all.  Literally, the largest.  This one pest weighs about 13 pounds, and its sharp teeth and claws allow it to eat and destroy an entire plant in around 5 seconds.  (See my poor defoliated plant in the white and blue dragon pot near the top of the post for reference of the damage.)

This one problem is also the main reason I don't usually keep many houseplants.

I have two cats.  One comes begging when I make tuna fish, like a proper cat.  This one, on the other hand, comes begging when I make salad.  Boy, oh boy, does she love her greens.

I managed to rescue this plant with a few leaves intact (mostly).

So, my solutions?

#1 Spider Mites: I have been giving my plants showers to try to knock some of them off the leaves.  I also have been spraying with Neem Oil once a week.  That seemed to slow them down but not stop them.  I have now been trying Insecticidal Soap.

#2 Fungus Gnats:  I have bought new Bt and have started watered with that to kill the larvae.  I have also put sticky tape around, which the flying adults land on and get stuck to.

#3 Aphids:  Same solution as #1.  Also, whenever I see one, I squish it.

#4 Root Rot:  I removed part of the plant and am going back to the neglect route.  We'll see what happens.

#5 My plant-eating cat: I have resorted to caging...

Anyone else having problems with houseplants?

Anyone have some good suggestions for getting rid of the pests?

Anyone want a free cat?

(Just kidding)

Two Terrarium Books

This winter I bought two new books about terrariums, which provided some great inspiration and advice about this fun indoor gardening technique.  Read these books at your own risk - you, too, might be tempted afterwards to buy some gorgeous glass containers and, of course, plants to go with them!

Terrarium Craft: Create 50 Magical, Miniature Worlds

by Amy Bryant Aiello and Kate Bryant

photography by Kate Baldwin

This book visually walks the reader through making a terrarium.  It provides step-by-step instructions for 50 different ones, and gives some great advice and even better inspiration.  They use some really interesting plants, like living stones and different succulents, to great artistic effect.  However, my favorite thing about this book is all the beautiful and creative ways they use different colored sand.

 

If I were forced to pick out a deficiency in this book, I would say that some of the plants were so fascinating that I think I would have liked a whole section in the book devoted just to the different plants they used!  They did talk about the general types of plants and provided blurbs about the specific plants as the book went along, but I was left wanting to know even more about them and where to get them!  (Thankfully there is a resources page at the back.) They also do use some strangely unusual objects that are surely meant more for terrarium inspiration than replication (jawbone of a sheep, anyone?)

Ultimately, though, I loved the book.  I would recommend it for anyone looking for some creative terrarium inspiration, especially for desert terrariums - this book has some true gems!

The New Terrarium: Creating Beautiful Displays for Plants and Nature

by Tovah Martin

photography by Kindra Clineff

This book was featured in the January issue of Better Homes and Gardens, and I bought it and started reading it with great anticipation - only to be rather disappointed.  The author's writing in this book is extremely verbose, painfully and distractingly so.  I enjoyed reading about the history of terrariums, but Martin describes each individual type of terrarium container in such detail and repeats herself so often, that I could barely get through the first half of the book.  If I wasn't so determined to read it, I would have surely just flipped through many of the pages for the beautiful pictures.

A Wardian Case - after seeing the pictures in this book, you will want one!

Thankfully Martin's overly descriptive style is more of a complement to the second half of the book, where she has a great section on the many different types of plants that do well in terrariums.  She details quite a few plants that one would not normally think of to put in a terrarium, and she adds a resource list in the back that tells where to find them.  I only wish there were a few more pictures to go with all the beautiful sounding plant descriptions!

Martin does not cover desert or beach planted terrariums at all, instead stating unequivocally that "succulents can never work in a terrarium" due to light requirements.   After reading the other terrarium book which highlighted several succulents for terrariums, I am rather dubious about that..

Several plants in a Wardian case

The book finishes with some terrarium ideas and some other ways that terrariums can be used, such as for rooting cuttings of plants and nursing plants back to health.  Martin often uses her beautiful glass containers to showcase certain plants and make them into centerpieces; her pictures show her penchant for putting potted plants under glass to enhance them as well as provide a more humid environment for them.

Tropical lady's slipper orchid encased in glass

I would only recommend buying this book if you want a good resource for possible terrarium plants.  Otherwise, just pick this one up from the library to learn more about the history of Wardian cases, cloches, and other types of glass terrarium containers and to get some inspiration from the gorgeous pictures!

For more reviews of gardening books from other garden bloggers, head on over to the blog Roses and Other Joys - you might just find the gardening book you never knew you needed!