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Medical research shows that simply
looking at a garden is good for our health.
- Ken Druse -
see What's Coming Up #54
A medium sized tree can move more than
500 gallons of water into the air on a hot day.
- Ken Druse -
see What's Coming Up #35 and
- U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency -
see Wringing Water From
Trees and What's Coming Up #82
Violets' scent caused a singer to lose
her voice.
- From Scented Flora of the
World -
see What's Coming Up #91
Viola cultivar 'Freckles' -- like all of its kin, a chemist.
When we inhale a flower's perfume, we inhale chemicals...
We blame Walt Disney for goldenrod's
undeserved bad name. Despite Sneezy's pronouncement, plants such as
goldenrod with heavy, insect-carried pollen rarely cause allergic
reaction.
- Janet Macunovich -
see Growing Concerns #255
Goldenrod flower. (Solidago sp.) In the Disney
animated film, Dopey presents Snow White with a bouquet that
includes some yellow flowers. Sneezy exclaims, "Goldenrod!" and
proceeds to sneeze everyone out of the room in very dramatic
fashion. Yet goldenrod is not an allergen. Here, a bee collects the
sticky pollen, which is too heavy to float and must be carried by
insects. It is not an airborne irritant.
We've heard that a first
class head gardener requires longer training than a surgeon or
lawyer. Not surprising, since the surgeon or lawyer are working
with just one species. The gardener tends hundreds of different
plant species and must know the ins and outs of many animal
species, too.
- Janet -
Below: Janet gets a guided tour of
the garden managed by our friend Dawn Trainor-Green. She is the gardener
for several acres and a couple thousand species, and has become
expert on the behavior and food habits of a dozen animals from
muskrat to white tailed deer.
The first dahlia tubers sent to
Europe from the New World were for eating and not for growing in
the flower garden.
- Dr. D.G. Hessayon, The Bedside
Book of the Garden, 1988 -
Below: The rest of the story: Dahlia flowers have
more recently been bred for the very large flowers we're accusomted
to seeing. If its blooms were less showy and you were hungry, would
you be more likely to saute it for breakfast?
..
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