Crocus

The crocus is an “early riser” – at least relative to the seasons.  These early spring blooms are often seen peeking out of the snow on a very cold day.

Crocuses come in lots of colors including white, yellow, blue, pink and purple.  Some are solid and others have striped petals.  Even the leaves have a stripe down the middle.

Once you see crocuses, you know that warm weather has to get here soon.

True spring crocus are cold tolerant.  They sprout from small corms planted in the fall or existing corms from prior years.  The plants and flowers are fairly small.

Once they’re done blooming, the nutrients from the leaves will be reabsorbed into the corm and the plant will go dormant until next spring.

There are two other types of crocuses that are in a different family.  They are called “crocus” due to their similar appearance to the true crocus.

The first is a “fall-blooming crocus.”  These are not as hardy as the true spring crocus.  They come up in the spring but don’t bloom until fall and are larger than the delicate spring crocus.

There is also an “autumn crocus.”  These don’t make an appearance until fall.  Then they send up their flowers followed by their foliage.  Like the fall-blooming crocus, these are larger and not as hardy.  This group includes the Saffron Crocus whose stamen are plucked for culinary uses.

You’ll read more about these other crocuses later in the year.

Earth Day 2022

Earth day falls on Friday, April 22nd.  The theme for 2022 is “Invest in Our Planet”.

This is particularly appropriate with the current issues of global warming along with all of the oil spills, deforestation and other damage humans have been doing to our planet.

One of the things you can do is to plant more plants.  Lots of people love to landscape with lots of open space between your plants.  This isn’t a natural way for plants to grow.  They love to lean against each other.

Keeping the ground covered helps it to retain more water so you don’t have to water them yourself as often.

Plants clean pollutants out of the air so the more plants there are, the faster we can try to recover from all of the pollutants we’ve created.

Stop using herbicides, pesticides and chemical fertilizers.  Allow the natural good fungus to spread its white tendrils through the soil.  There are alternatives.  Use organic products from companies such as Gardens Alive! and Arbico.

Grow your own fruits and vegetables.  There are even grains that you can grow.  These will taste better because they will be so fresh.  If enough people grow their own, it might reduce the amount of food needing to be transported in diesel-fueled trucks.

Let’s try to do a little something this year.  All together it will make a difference!

Muscari

Along with the crocus, Muscari are one of the first flowers to pop up in the spring.

These little purple delights seem to pop up everywhere.  You probably planted them in your garden bed but then they’ve migrated into your lawn and wherever else they can reach.

 Muscari – also known as Grape Hyacinth – grow about 3-4 inches tall with leaves that look like a miniature hyacinth.  In the center, a stalk appears with a grape-like cluster of blue to dark purple flowers.

 Even if they appear in your lawn, you shouldn’t be concerned.  Once they bloom, they will hang out for a while before dying back to the ground and going dormant until next year.

 Enjoy them while you can.

‘Fancy Finch’ Ajuga

If you’re not familiar with Ajuga already, you should really look into this versatile ground cover.

 Ajuga is a plant that live in just about any conditions.  It does need a bit of sun and if there’s a drought, it will start to look a bit ragged unless you water it, but it will still hang in there.

 Ajuga comes in so many varieties and colors.  Brighter sun usually intensifies the color so keep that in mind when you choose a variety.

 I wanted to show off the ‘Fancy Finch’ Ajuga.  This variety was just developed and put up for sale in 2021 so it’s still new.  Is very striking with long ovoid leaves in varying shades of yellow and bronze.  The foliage is a lovely backdrop for the gorgeous clusters of pale periwinkle blue flowers.

 This only grows to a height of 3-4”.  The flower stalks are taller.  Each plant can cover up to 18” of ground.

 This is the perfect ground cover to add a pop of color and to keep the ground covered and retain moisture for your garden.

Native Wild Ginger

The Wild Ginger plant that is native to our area is not related at all to the plant that produces the roots we use in cooking.  In fact, wild ginger is toxic.

 John Clayton of early Williamsburg named the plant “Ginger” because the variety he found has a similar smell to culinary ginger.  Worldwide, there are about 1,600 varieties.

 This woodland plant has attractive foliage and makes a great ground cover and landscaping plant for shady and semi-shady areas.

 Many essential oils can be extracted from the plant with quite a few different scents such as ginger (obviously), pine and rose.  Some are used as insecticides. There is controversy about ingesting essential oils, but the rule of thumb is to assume that they are harmful.

 Please do not ingest this plant in any form!  It may taste and smell nice, but it has the potential to cause permanent kidney damage.

 Enjoy it in your garden – not in your stomach.

Powdery Mildew Treatment & Prevention

What is powdery mildew?  It appears as light grey or white powdery spots that appear on a wide variety of plants.  This common fungus can be easily identified.

Can plants recover from this powdery mildew? Yes, the powdering mildew infections are typically mild.

How do you remove mildew?  By applying a weekly dose of one part milk to the two parts water.

How do you prevent powdery mildew from attacking your plants?  The best way is to keep the plants in dry conditions and high humidity.  Another way to avoid this is plant mildew-resistant plants. Some other remedies are baking soda (one tablespoon combined with liquid soap and water), mouthwash (3 parts water to one part mouthwash).  Milk (one part milk and two to three parts water).  Organic Fungicides are also available.

The most susceptible plants are:  begonias, sun flowers, chrysanthemums, dahlias, roses and zinnias.

The most susceptible fruits and vegetables are:  melons, zucchini, squash, lettuce, cucumbers potatoes, parsley, pumpkins, grapes, peppers, tomatoes and various tree fruits.

Take care of your plants!

Tamarind

Have you ever used Worcestershire Sauce?  Its distinctive flavor comes from tamarind.

Tamarind is a tree that will reach a height of 40-80’ depending on the variety.  It takes a tree 3-4 years to make fruit.

The fruit consists of pods that look like overgrown lima bean pods that turn brown when they are ripe.  Inside you will find the inedible seeds surrounded by pulp.  It is the pulp that we use in cooking.

Tamarind is mostly used in Asian cuisines.

The tree has lovely leaves similar to a silk tree or a locust tree.

It is easy to care for. Keep it in a pot outdoors so you can bring it in before the temperature drops below 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once it’s indoors, keep it in a sunny window.

If you keep this plant long-term, you’ probably need to do some pruning.  It makes a beautiful potted plant.

Bay Laurel

Did you ever think about where bay leaves come from?

The Bay Laurel tree is an extremely slow-growing tree that produces those leaves that you use in soups, stews and other culinary delights.

Small Bay Laurel trees are available in most garden centers. They can be a bit on the expensive side because they are slow-growing so the grower has to have them for a few years to get them to a size where they can be sold.

It is not hardy in our area but you can keep it in a pot outdoors and bring it inside before a deep freeze.  It can tolerate temperatures down to 20 degrees Fahrenheit but it’s best to bring it in before it gets that cold.

Keep it in a sunny window and don’t let it dry out.

When you need a leaf or two for cooking, just pick them fresh.  You’ll be glad you did.  Remember that the taste of a fresh leaf is much stronger than the dried ones you buy in your supermarket.

Be sure to leave plenty of leaves on the tree or you could kill it.

Bay Laurels can be affected by scale and the fungus that scale seems to bring with it.  Treat it with neem oil as directed on the package.  You will need to spray three times at specific intervals to kill off all stages of these pests.

Over time, it will get very large so prune it as necessary.  Unpruned, it can grow to 12’ tall and 10’ wide.

Enjoy your tree!