Hort Shorts

ArborEATum: October 24

  ArborEatum is just around the corner: next Tuesday, October 24. What fun it is: a friendly no-fee gathering of people who love to grow, culinaritize, eat, and drink various foods from landscapes and gardens. Come one come all to the Miller Pavilion at Ohio State University’s Secrest Arboretum, Tuesday, October 24, from 5:00 pm on. Eating and walking. Bring your offerings or just your appetites.

 

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Authors
Jim Chatfield

Horticultural Horrors I

  Friday the 13th has just passed and in some sort of dyslexic dystopia, the 31st is just around the corner and Halloween will soon arrive. So it seems only right to write of that which is wrong - or shall we say – wicked, as in Wicked Plants. There is an excellent book by just that title, Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocitiesby Amy Stewart. I recommend it, but for now, let us take a little trip into the world of some plants wicked this way come, through the house of horticultural horrors, guided by myself...

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Authors
Jim Chatfield

Ode to the Buttonwood Tree

I often ask students in Master Gardener classes "what is a buttonwood tree?" to illustrate the challenge with common names of plants. Unlike scientific names, there is no recognized governing body that standardizes common names of plants. Consequently, plant names may vary widely (wildly?) owing to differences in the cultural backgrounds of people living in different geographical regions, among other things.
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Authors
Joe Boggs

Osage Can You See

Osage-Orange has long been one of my favorite trees. What's not to like? Grows anywhere, has glossy, dark green foliage and deeply fissured orangish-tan bark with great winter interest. Just don’t stand or park your car under female trees at this time of the year.
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Authors
Joe Boggs

This is How You Do It!

Need 100 one and a half gallon ornamental grasses planted?  Just put out an "all hands on deck" call to OSU Extension Master Gardener Volunteers and they get the job done in  less than an hour!   This is exactly what we did in Clark County in order to complete our border planting in the Snyder Park Gardens and Arboretum (SPGA).  The border consists of more than 4000 daffodil bulbs, a river of daylillies and now Schizachyrium scoparium 'MinnblueA' or Blue Heaven little bluestem.  The idea is that after the spectacular daffodil bloom in the early spring, the bluestem will come up and help to...

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Authors
Pam Bennett

Seasonal Needle Drop in Full Swing

I received a phone call yesterday from an Ohio landowner asking what was "killing" his Eastern white pine trees. Coincidentally, I was driving past a row of white pines with several trees looking pretty ragged owing to their normal shedding of inner needles at this time of the year. Although normal, it can sometimes be dramatically synchronous with all of the inner needles turning reddish-brown at once.
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Authors
Joe Boggs

Angel Trumpets Sound

During a recent visit to Kingwood Center Gardens in Mansfield, I was treated to Angel Trumpets in bloom. These summer-fall bloomers make for spectacular late season WOW! For Ohio growers, these are tropical and frost tender. They would need to be brought in each winter as Kingwood Center does, however a big pot and some TLC might be worth it for these show-stoppers.

 

Angel’s Trumpets, Brugmansia spp., are woody shrubs or small trees with large pendulous flowers. These huge trumpet-shaped flowers in total can be a foot long and come in white, yellow, orange, red or...

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Authors
Ashley Kulhanek