Saturday Gardening And Puttering Thread, October 26 [KT]

Hi, everybody! It's not quite winter yet. Fires here in California. Not where I am, though. Hope things are OK in your garden. The lovely Hibiscus above is from Admirale's Mate, as is the Lily below.

Halloween is coming

Need a pumpkin? Larro photographed some (along with squashes and flowers) at the Silver Dollar City Fall Festival. Have you visited a place like this recently?

Some amazing pumpkins there!

Update: It is apparently National Pumpkin Day in Canada. From the Toronto Zoo. Video. Awwww.

Here are the last of Moron Robbie's great photos of that Corpse Flower.

Very Halloween-ish. I don't know why it makes me think of a coffin. But I don't think most of us have the capacity to grow one. There is hope, though, if you are set on growing a plant that smells like a corpse. From Kew Gardens:

Meet the Octopus Stinkhorn (Clathrus archeri) fungus.

When mature, it smells like rotting flesh and the unpleasant odour attracts flies which disperse the spores to produce more fungi

Quite attractive for a fungus that smells like rotting flesh.

The Edible Garden

Been harvesting potatoes? Thought about making Fondant Potatoes?

Equirhodont identified all the mystery plants in our initial photos last week and he is right about the Spicebush Swallowtail, too. He also noted the presence of Dodder. EEEW. More discussion on Dodder in this thread. With a close-up. Plus Monkshood from Jerry. Very toxic. (Halloween costume idea).

Close-up. Looks like a monk's hood. One of several species, all toxic. Some are native to Alaska. Be careful handling them.

Dodder can be a real problem. In California, Japanese Dodder has been identified. You are supposed to call the authorities if you see it.

Sweet Autumn Clematis is an attractive plant. Several people noted its invasive tendencies in the comments. It has two seasons of interest. Should have fluffy seedheads about now.

I was not familiar with Ironweed. There is a shorter garden cultivar of one native species of Ironweed called Iron Butterfly. Said to be a butterfly magnet, but not a deer magnet.

Try pairing Vernonia lettermannii 'Iron Butterfly' with Baptisia australis, Asclepias tuberosa, Ceanothus americanus, Monarda fistulosa or Rudbeckia hirta.

Amsonia hubrichtii has similar foliage texture and cultural needs and would be a worthy substitute in some situations.

TRIVIA: Unlike most other members of the Aster Family, Vernonia spp. flowers are composed only of disc florets with no rays.

Flowers attract bevies of butterflies, skippers, moths, native bees and the occasional hummingbird.

The specific epithet honors a reclusive field botanist, George W. Letterman (1841-1913) who spent his days searching for rare plants in the Missouri Ozarks. Many distinguished scientists make the trek to his cabin and botanized the woods along the Merrimac with him. . . Letterman turned down two Harvard professorships and refused to publish preferring instead to spend time in the woods.

The unusual texture of this species has caused many to compare it to another Arkansas native, Amsonia hubrichtii. When not in flower, the species also resembles Liatris spp.

Vernonia lettermannii 'Iron Butterfly' is one of Piet Oudolf's "Must Have" plants and is massed at New York City's Highline and Chicago's Lurie Garden.

Leave this plant standing during winter and cut back hard in early to mid-spring. Here it is with an orange, gray-leaved Agastache in back of it. I had an Agastache that looked a lot like that once. The foliage smelled wonderful. The flowers attracted hummingbirds.

Somehow, the Iron Butterfly above does not really remind me much of this Iron Butterfly.

Gardens of The Horde

Anything going on in your garden? Got anything to eat growing?

Here are some fall leaves from Admirale's Mate.

And a dragonfly.

If you would like to send information and/or photos for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:

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posted by Open Blogger at 01:15 PM

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