Poinsettias

The very popular poinsettia is the topic of my article at the Garden and Hearth flower gardening site.

Image courtesy of stock.xchng

Christmas Rose

The Christmas Rose is a hellebore, in the same family as the Lenten Rose. It blooms at this time of year. If you're lucky, it might continue blooming through mid-spring. Check out my article on the Christmas Rose.

Book Review -- Flower of the Moment

My book review of Flower of the Moment: A Month-by-Month Guide to the Best 100 Flowering Plants is up at Garden and Hearth. This book is gorgeous and would make an excellent Christmas gift for a gardener.

Biology News

Come join the discussion of GM foods, fish with personality, and other interesting bits of biology news.

Fall Blooming Bulbs

I have a new article up on my Flower Gardening site about bulbs that bloom in the fall. I have most of these growing in my garden right now. If they're not already blooming, they're getting ready to bloom.

Fall-Blooming Alliums

I have a new article up on Garden and Hearth - Flower Gardening about alliums that bloom in the fall. Allium is a huge genus that includes onions and garlic, but also has hundreds of ornamental varieties. Most bloom in the spring and early summer, but I've chosen six that bloom in the fall. Check it out here.

Spider Lily (Lycoris radiata)

My article on Spider Lilies is posted at Garden and Hearth in the flower gardening section. The spider lilies in my garden came from my mother-in-law's house. She said she had gotten them from her mother-in-law, who got them from her mother. I think it's nifty when a plant has a story or a memory attached to it. This one has a little history.

The spider lily in the above photo has been growing in that spot for several years, but the annuals around it are new every season.

Cyclamen

My article on cyclamen is posted at Garden and Hearth - Flower Gardening. If you love cyclamen, you'll be interested in the link I provided at the end of the article to the Cyclamen Society.

Watering the Flower Garden

I have a new article up at Garden and Hearth - Flower Gardening about watering the flower garden. I get a lot of questions about this. Too much water can be just as bad for a plant as not enough.

Garden and Hearth is an online magazine with a readership of over half a million. Topics covered include garden and home (hence the name of the 'zine) as well as jobs, crafts, hobbies, and other things.

I write the flower gardening section.

Book Review -- Hoot

Originally appeared in Haruah on 03 May 2006 in One for the Book.

Hoot
by Carl Hiaasen
published by Alfred A. Knopf
New York, 2002
ISBN 0-440-41939-5

Carl Hiaasen brings his sense of humor to a young audience in Hoot, a delightful novel filled with quirky characters and their sometimes zany, sometimes sensible antics. Set in Florida, the book is a light comedy with a mystery centered around endangered owls and a national chain of fictional pancake houses.

Roy Eberhardt, the new kid in town, is being squished by the local bully, when he sees a boy running barefoot alongside the school bus. The boy veers away from the bus, clearly not going to school, and Roy's curiosity is piqued. He waits several days until he sees the boy again, then jumps off the bus and runs after him. What follows is a series of events in which he outwits the bully, solves the mystery of the truant boy, and exposes criminal doings at a construction site, while making new friends and adjusting to his new home.

There were two things I particularly liked about Hoot. The first one, and the big one for me, is the portrayal of the main character and his family. Roy is a good kid, who loves his parents and wants to please them, and he is normal. His parents are both alive, married to each other, and normal. When Roy has a problem, he talks to his parents. They listen to him and he listens to their advice. In true kid fashion, he doesn't share everything with them, he doesn't follow their advice to the letter, and he doesn't behave perfectly, but he does try to do the right thing within the limits his parents have defined for him.

The second thing I liked may be considered a bit of a spoiler for the ending, so skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to know. Roy solves the central problem of the book by thinking the problem through and using legal means to prove his case to his parents and enlisting their support. No calling the bad guys and having them meet him in a dark alley. No elaborate plans involving booby traps. This brought the story into the real world for me. A middle-school kid could not take on a corporation in the real world. He would need to recruit adults to his cause, and that is what Roy Eberhardt does.

Hoot is a Newbery Honor winner and a New York Times bestseller. A movie version is due to be released in theaters in May. Carl Hiaasen has written many novels about ecological problems in Florida and the offbeat characters who solve them, though this was his first written for a young audience. He has since written a second novel also aimed at ages ten and up called Flush.

I highly recommend this book for the younger readers in your life. Or read it yourself. It's a hoot.

Bulb and Flower Division

A new article is up at Garden and Hearth about bulb and flower division. One of my recent articles talked about the differences between bulbs, corms, rhizomes, tubers, and tuberous roots. This one details how to divide them to grow more plants, whether to expand your own garden, or to pot up as gifts for family, friends, and neighbors. Some flowers can be divided for new plants, too. I talk about those and how to care for the new plants.

Bulb Packages and Beneficial Insects

Two new articles are up at my Flower Garden site at Garden and Hearth.

Insects Wanted in the Flower Garden is a list of a few types of beneficial insects that most people are probably familiar with. I often see gardeners spraying pesticides and crushing every bug they see. Being polite, I don't tell them that they are just making extra work for themselves, but I hope this article enlightens at least a few of those gardeners.

The second article is a short glossary-type piece defining the terms you might come across on a package of bulbs (because now is the time to be planting them in the Northern Hemisphere, but you knew that, right?) It defines bulb, corm, rhizome, tuber, and tuberous root, as well as pointing out the differences between fall bulbs (bulbs planted in the fall to bloom in the spring) and fall-blooming bulbs.

The Fall Garden

I planted my fall garden this week. Plenty of autumn blooms to look at -- rock rose, salvia (purple), chrysanthemums (one of each color from the garden center), dianthus, marigolds, zinnias, gazanias (I'd never heard of those before, but they are pretty), and snapdragons. It is a cacophony of colors. From hot pink to purple to orange, red, and yellow, I think I managed to represent the entire rainbow.

We'll just have to wait to see how my design skills held up. Right now, they are all small plants (cheaper that way) and they need to fill in. Once the mulch between them is covered with foliage, I think it will look great.

Marigolds

I have new article up on Garden and Hearth about marigolds. They are great for the fall season because of their sunny blooms. If you're in the southern hemisphere, the yellows and oranges go really well with spring, too.

New Articles

I've been hiking for the last few days, so I haven't been keeping the blog updated.

I have a book review up at Haruah. Jamaican Me Crazy: A Christmas Escape is Christian chick lit, but don't let that scare you. There's no preaching and you don't have to know anything about religion to enjoy the silliness in this book. It's good, clean fun.

Garden and Hearth has published my snapdragon article. Snapdragons are one of my favorite flowers for their color and easy care, as well as that nifty snapping sound their jaws make.

Chrysanthemums

I have a new article posted at Garden and Hearth - Flower Gardening about chrysanthemums. I love chrysanthemums, partly because they are so easy to care for and partly because there are so many blooms per plant. I can get lots of color in my house and yard with very little effort.

Autumn Blooms

I just posted a new article in the online magazine, Garden and Hearth. It's about autumn blooms. In the northern hemisphere, it's the right time to get started on fall gardening.