To acclimatize is when an organism adjusts to a change in its environment in order to survive. When dealing with INDOOR FOLIAGE PLANTS this becomes most apparent to anyone whom recently purchased one ! Most indoor house plants sold in the northeastern US are grown in shade houses in Florida. A land of abundant sunshine, […]
PARENCHYMA
THE UBIQUITOUS PARENCHYMA Plants contain many types of tissues and within each, various specialized cells – but none of them beat Parenchyma ! These are the biochemistry machines of the plant. They are alive at maturity (unlike wood) and specialize into many forms. The basis for all plant function – they are everywhere and in […]
OFF WITH HER HEAD !
Perhaps the Queen of Hearts would have said it about the Queen of Flowers but we will never know! A rosebud Deadheading It is of course the practice of removing spent flowers to promote more new flowers. By doing so you redirect all the energy it would have made into seeds […]
Dominance and Flower Color
Genetic expression Dominance is a description of genetic expression. The various flower color variations are due to the degree at which the individual genes are expressing for this one trait. Plants have two sets of chromosomes in their cells, each containing many genes in a sequence along its length. The ones in the […]
ALLELOPATHY
Our observations Many years ago we noticed how when planting sweet potato vine into containers for a summer display – all the hibiscus also planted with it would stop flowering soon after ! We also noticed how some annuals didn’t do well in pots with marigolds. And nothing liked to be in a […]
A rose by any other name
Damask That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet Juliet: O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?Deny thy father and refuse thy name;Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,And I’ll no longer be a Capulet Romeo: [Aside] Shall I hear more, or shall […]
LEAF CUTTER BEE
The Megachilidae Many clients, during the summer season call to say they found these perfectly cut out holes in the plant leaves ! A mystery no more ! – these are actually made by a group of bees !!! Typical leaf cut out in roses A common solitary garden bee that […]
BASIL
Origins While most of us associate basil with Italian food, it is actually native to India and Southeast Asia. The earliest known reference stretches back 5,000 years to Indian Vedic texts. It comes in many varieties; sweet basil used in Italian recipes, “holy” basil in ayurvedic medicine, small leaf, large leaf, purple, Thai, and […]
Going Banana’s
Ornamental Bananas Ornamental bananas differ from the edible kind only in that they are mainly used for decorative purposes. Although the genus of all bananas is Musa – the species or both edible and ornamental differ immensely. The subgroup Ensette is also an ornamental banana. NOTHING screams tropical summer display more than an ornamental […]
