Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, March 16

Happy Saturday! Has everybody adjusted to Daylight Savings Time? Taking advantage of those evening gardening hours? Above, a great photo of Clivia from Neal in Israel. I love it.

It's time for many of us to shop for plants:

What's on your plant shopping list?

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

By-Tor with more inspiration:

Eight pints of Honeycrisp applesauce. Same as what I made for the LA County Fair but slightly less sweet.

The apples were 88c a pound which is cheap so about 80c a jar.

Looks wonderful.

Art

Puttering

Something to think about:

Adventure

Featuring wildflowers today:

Wildflower Season coming up in Texas

Wildflower Views

Each Spring, Texas' gently rolling flatlands explode into color. Some of the most stunning views in the state are of magnificent vistas and roadsides covered in blankets of our signature bluebonnets, as well as Indian paintbrushes and black-eyed Susans.

Wildflower Season

You can chase down some peak-season beauty across the plains of this region from about mid-March to mid-April. Exact bloom locations are somewhat of a surprise from year to year, but there are tried-and-true places to catch local color. Luckily, Texans tend to be obsessed with them, so you can find reported sightings on maps, apps and with local visitors' bureaus.

Here's a repeat photo from last year, from a friend in Texas:

You can also grow Texas Bluebonnets at home. It's a little more complicated to grow the Indian Paintbrush you see growing wild in Texas, as we noted back in June of 2018.

Last week, Don in Kansas had an interesting note on the Modern Language Association horning in on botanical nomenclaturer. The plant name-changers have been going wild in the past few decades, and not just in the realm of political correctness.

2018

Wildflowers in the Wild and in the Garden

Cumberland Astro has some friends in Texas who are interested in Indian Paint Brush and Indian Blanket. One of these is an easy summer garden flower. The other is not so easy, and may be better in a wild setting, unless you are doing a meadow or something, because it is a hemiparasite. But it brings up an interesting topic: changes in botanical names.

As a result of developments in the science of genetics, a few decades ago, the Figwort Family, formerly very large, was decimated. Most of its members were moved to other families. Even snapdragons, formerly considered to be models for the family. That is because genetic evidence was more powerful than similarities in plant structure. Changes in botanical names continue at a slower pace today. They remain disconcerting to gardeners. Don't get me started on "Chrysanthemum".

But still, botanical names are less confusing than common names. Especially of wildflowers, as Cumberland Astro has noted. I think the Indian Paintbrushes pretty much retained their genus and species names when they switched families.

Indian Paintbrush

Here is a photo of Scarlet Indian Paintbrush, Castilleja coccinea, one kind of Indian Paintbrush for which seed is offered. It is an Eastern species, though there are many more species in the West. It is apparently pollinated primarily by the Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

At the link above, you can also find instructions for the adventure of planting Indian Paintbrush with its host plants. And there are historical notes on Native American and medicinal uses. There is also some discussion of a similarly hemiparasitic plant, Owls Clover, which can sometimes be found near me. And a nice photo. I love seeing this plant in vacant fields.

And there is also a photo of Indian Blanket, which is easy to grow (and which you may be able to start now if you missed planting in fall, even if you are in Texas). Its fancy hybrid Gaillardia relatives are also easy to grow, and you may find plants in nurseries.

Garden hybrids are mostly called 'Gaillardia x grandiflora'. I like 'Arizona Apricot' and the red solid color ones.

The Huntington Library and Gardens is featuring several California natives on their current blog page including native buckwheats:

A couple of the 125 species:

California Buckwheat with a Honey-Tailed Striped Sweat Bee and San Miguel Island Buckwheat:

Roger's Red Grape, a hybrid of the Pacific Grape (Vitis californica) and a European grape. The leaves turn red in fall.

California poppy.

There are more photos and plant information at the link above, with some garden design tips.

Always a great place to visit if you get a chance.

Gardens of The Horde

Arizona Redbud

Redbud is just about to bust out for its first year ever, it didn't have blooms last year, just the leaves - Nan in AZ

Love it!

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

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Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? March 9, Saturday Gardening Thread - Spring Ahead

Any thoughts or questions?

I closed the comments on this post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 01:35 PM

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