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In this issue:
Wanted: Poinsettias nifty, not
gnatty
Breathe free and like the lichens
Naming thin skinned maunderers
Cold: Describe, understand, revel in it
Frost and I cut back a jade
Protecting still-potted perennial bargains
Trees and ice: Betting against bending
Plants sleep safe with chemical alarm
'Chilled fruit,' a whole new meaning
Apple, lilac and peony varieties for warm zones
Wolves, peasants and mentors teach us
Toward more artful burlap
Low sun means time to think
Pad now for piled snow to come
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Excerpts!
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Above: Poinsettia plants are beautiful and non-toxic. Yet
they can be buggy if we aren't care-full.
Relax and enjoy the
lichens
Above: Lichens in the woods, on trees and
also boulders.
Below, left: In the late 1800's and early 1900's so much
soot and sulfur filled the air from factory exhausts that no
lichens could survive in industrialized cities like Detroit. Then,
you'd only find them in far-off woods where the air was clean. Now,
the lichens on the previous page, from the Blue Ridge mountains can
also be seen the Detroit area (left). I think they are
beautiful.
Below, right: Don't confuse lichens and mushrooms. These tiny
(1/2") mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of fungi that are
destroying wood inside the tree. Sometimes they can form a dense
mat which might look at first glance like lichen.
Download the pdf to
read the complete issue illustrated here.
Black frost and gray words take
bite out of jade tree
Our jade tree suffered because Steven and I didn't
communicate clearly on a day before a freeze was
predicted. I brought it in to the back room one evening
before a frost, then asked Steve the next day, "Can you
set the jade back outside? It's still nice out and that
light's so much better for it." "Put it on the table out
there?" Steven asked. I answered simply, "Yes."
Before dawn the next morning, I heard the radio report a
lower current temperature than I'd expected. Not terribly
concerned because a roof such as on our porch is great
frost protection, I glanced out the back door to see if
frost had formed outdoors. I saw no frost but was alarmed
to see the table on our covered porch was empty! Steven
had set the jade on the other table, on the open patio.
No frost had yet formed there yet the damage was done, by black
frost. I know when it comes to tropical or subtropical
plants and cold, the longer the exposure, the greater the
harm. So I brought the jade in to our cool back room right
away. The leaves looked fine for a day, then all of the
outermost layer turned dark.
Below: Our jade, a favorite hiding place for Olive the tree
climbing cat, before the frost.
Above: So we pruned the plant back hard. We've done this
many times before, and often harder. However, we usually
do that in spring when we can put it outdoors and out of
mind while its new growth comes back fast and thick.
Next time Olive the tree-climbing cat visits, she'll be miffed
that her favorite hiding tree has become so open.
Below: It's a trooper, this old jade. After just three weeks
it's blooming in a sunny window and adding interest
in another way -- pushing out new shoots.. Our pencil
points to one of the new buds. (See the flowers? Too bad
most of the branches were killed or they would all be
blooming.)
Right, a four-year update on this
jade: It grew back wonderfully -- the cat was
pleased. However, three years later we goofed again and fall frost
nipped it once more. This time the damage was more extensive and we
decided to divide it as well as cut it back. Then we had three
jades, which all grew back. See that story in Jade cold,
cut back and Houseplants Spring
Revival.
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What's Coming Up 71 to read the complete issue
illustrated here.
A year without its winter would seem all wrong to
me... It is a necessity, not just a necessary
evil. - Christopher Lloyd -
Brrr-lap
Above: If you're tired of burlap screens, learn to
create some of the beautiful Japanese forms of
winter protection called "fuyu-jitaku."
Below right: When we decorated my dwarf Alberta spruce for
Halloween, wedidn't realize we were parodying Japanese winter
"kasa." The hemlock branches placed in a Japanese maple (below,
left) is like "Yabu-maki."
This issue Sponsored by: Dan Burns
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