Sep 13, 2019
What's the secret to beautiful begonias?
I asked this to a friend recently who has the most gorgeous
begonias every single year. Her answer: fish emulsion.
This means you should feed your begonias with fertilizer. Since we
love that begonias flower and they do flower their hearts out, that
makes begonias are heavy feeders. Since fish emulsion (5-1-1)
is a low-intensity total fertilizer it's perfect for promoting
large, healthy, beautiful begonias. Just feed every 3-4 weeks and
follow the label directions.
And remember, most begonias do best with plenty of filtered light
but little or no direct hot sun. So don't fry them.
At the same time, water and begonias don't play nice together in
the sense that begonias can rot pretty quickly. They need a soil
that's going to drain quick. They need to be in pots - like terra
cotta- that breathe.
Add perlite or leaf mold to your soil mix to make a very coarse,
quick-draining potting mix to add more air pockets to the
soil. Then, don't forget that those air pockets mean you need
to water more frequently - especially during warm weather. One
thing you can also do is mist begonias. They like humidity - but
too much of that can invite fungus or powdery mildew, so keep an
eye on them.
Brevities
#OTD Today is the birthday of Caspar Wistar the
Younger who was born on this day in 1761.
His grandfather was also Caspar Wistar, so the Younger distinction
helps people tell them apart. Wistar was a Professor of Anatomy at
the University of Pennsylvania.
The botanist Thomas Nuttall named the genus Wisteria in his honor
(some people say Wistaria to reflect the proper spelling of
Wistar's last name. Either is fine because guess what - the
misspelling is preserved for all time under the International Code
of Botanical Nomenclature). It's like one of my kid's birth
certificate - it can be amended but the original is wrong and will
be until the end of time.
Wistar had some pretty impressive friends: his best friend was
probably Thomas Jefferson and his most famous botany friend was
probably Alexander von Humboldt.
Wistar died of a heart ailment unexpectedly on January 18,
1818. His final utterance was: "I wish well to all
mankind."
During his life, every Sunday Night, Wistar would hold a salon - an
open house - at his home on the corner of Fourth and Locust Street.
His friends would stop by - along with any members of academia, or
the elite or high society, along with other accomplished people who
happened to be in Philadelphia that evening. They all knew that
Wistar's house was the place to go to meet up with the best minds
of the day.
When Wistar died, his friends continued holding Wistar parties for
a core group of 50 members. They would each take turns hosting and
the kept the tradition going for another forty years.
#OTD Today is the birthday of the British
author, Roald Dahl who was born on this day in 1916.
Today, his birthday, is celebrated all over the world as Roald Dahl
Day.
Dahl was an avid gardener. In fact, his garden shed doubled as his
writing nook where he wrote many books, including Charlie and the
Chocolate factory. As romantic a notion as this sounds to a
gardener's ears, it was also a pragmatic decision on the part of
Dahl's wife. Dahl chain-smoked as he wrote and the garden shed kept
the smoke out of the house. For Dahl's part, he loved the idea of
using the garden shed as a place to write, especially after seeing
the little writing hut used by the author Dylan Thomas.
Gardeners with a passion for roses will no doubt praise the Roald
Dahl Rose which honored Dahl's love of gardening. It's an
absolutely stunning English shrub rose bred by David Austin.
It's got a very blousy habit and scrumptious peach blooms that just
go non-stop. They have a lovely fragrance as well - and not many
thorns, so that's a bonus.
Dahl's diaries have marvelous entries about his garden, and he was
often inspired by his garden which you can ascertain when you read
in his work. H ere are some examples:
From Matilda:
"I liked The Secret Garden best of all. It was full of
mystery."
From My Year:
"There is just one small bright spark shining through the gloom in
my January garden. The first snowdrops are in flower."
From James and the Giant Peach:
"And now suddenly, the whole place, the whole garden seemed to be
alive with magic...”
From The BFG:
“But Mr Tibbs didn’t hesitate for long. ‘Tell the head gardener,’
he whispered, ‘that I require immediately a brand new unused garden
fork and also a spade. And for a knife we shall use the great sword
hanging on the wall in the morning-room. But clean the sword well
first. It was last used to cut off the head of King Charles the
First and there may still be a little dried blood on the
blade.”
From Roald Dahl:
"Mary, Mary, quite contrary How does yr garden grow? 'I live with
my brat in a high-rise flat, So how in the world would I know.'
Unearthed Words
All week long The Daily Gardener has been sharing quotes
from the author Beverley Nichols, who was born on Monday of this
week in 1898.
A prolific writer, Nichols is best remembered for his gardening
books. Today I'm featuring excerpts from his book called Forty
Favourite Flowers. It is exactly as described, Nichols sharing his
top selections; the flowers he loved most in his garden; which he
described this way:
“A great deal of weeping goes on in my garden, but it is a
happy sort of weeping, for all this bending of branches and bowing
of heads is simply due to the fact that so much beauty is displayed
on so small a stage.”
Nichols arranged this book simply; using alphabetical order. Then
he just shares some of his favorites. Here are some excerpts for
you:
Algerian Iris:
One of my grandfathers died of a clump of Iris stylosa; it enticed
him from a sick bed on an angry evening in January, luring him
through the snow-drifts with its blue and silver flames; he died of
double pneumonia a few days later. It was probably worth it.
Magnolia:
"I must confess that, for me, the flower of the magnolia is most
beautiful when life has almost ebbed from it. These are the twilit
hours when the petals flag and falter, when their immaculate ivory
texture dims, when they glow with a ghostly radiance that seems to
come from another world"
Regal Lily:
"The regal lilies do indeed praise the Lord. Some of my own, last
summer were so exultant that they praised Him through no less than
thirty snow-white trumpets on a single stem, and even the most
accomplished angel could not do much better than that."
Iris Siberica:
How can one ignore... that singular infinitely sinister
blossom Iris siberica? This latter flower can certainly claim to be
exclusively dressed; for the petals of no other blossom has Nature
designed so curious of fabric, vein with slate and violet and
purple.
Fritillairies:
Each Stage of our lives has its "signature" flower and those of us
who keep diaries would have a little difficulty in assigning to
each year those flowers which are especially evocative...
Fritillairies are linked with my years as an undergraduate... Year
after year, for generation after generation, these flowers have
danced in the background through the lives of England’s youth.
Mesembryanthemum:
The flower is a startling proof of the fact that when nature
decides to be vulgar - really vulgar - she can achieve affects of
almost blinding beauty. For nothing could be more opulent, more
blatant, more shamelessly exhibitionist than a bed of the
Mesembryanthemum in full bloom. Magenta jostling scarlet, screaming
at cinnamon, fighting with shocking pink, yelling against a dozen
shades of orange and vermilion.
Caryopteris:
Paradoxically, blue is the color that makes many people see red; by
which I mean that fears arguments are constantly developing as to
which flower is the bluest... The Caryopteris is a radiant in any
weather... The blue of its petals seems to have the quality
of caring for great distances, as though it were some sort of
floral evangelist with a message of good tidings for all the
world.
Summer Hyacinth:
On an August night, when the moon is full, there is an almost
ectoplasmic radiance around its petals.
Golden-bell clematis:
If I had to confine my choice of creepers to a single family – what
a hideous thought! – I should probably choose the family of
clematis. And if I were limited to a single member of the
family, I should probably
choose Clematis tangutica. I said
"probably" because these hypothetical decisions are so very
painful.
Finally, in FFF, Nichols offered some sweeping thoughts that will
undoubtedly strike a chord:
“One of the many reasons why gardens are increasingly precious to
us in this day and age is that they help us to escape from the
tyranny of speed. Our skies are streaked with jets, our roads have
turned to race-tracks, and in the cities the crowds rush to and fro
as though the devil were at their heels. But as soon as we open the
garden gate, Time seems almost to stand still, slowing down to the
gentle ticking of the Clock of the Universe.”
Today's book
recommendation: English Cottage Gardening by Margaret
Hensel
This book is a wonder for anyone who loves the intimacy of the
English cottage garden and who endeavors to capture the feel of
that for their own space. Hensel has come up with core
elements from ten cottage gardens―eight in England and two in the
United States. Once you master those elements, you are well on your
way to having a cottage garden of your own. Hensel explains each
element and how to achieve it, and she shares the stories of
beginners that are sure to inspire new gardeners.
The last part of this book is especially helpful; It reviews 76
selected cottage-style plants and how to use them to create the
cottage garden.
Hensel wants her readers, "[to] feel moved, even inspired, to
imagine what magical things might happen in their own front and
backyards". The books is chockfull of information and photos.
Hensel is an exceptional photographer in her own right which makes
her photographs of the gardens and plants extra meaningful. So
overall, there's tons of information and Inspiration for gardeners
looking to create their own cozy cottage garden.
Today's Garden Chore
Just because it's September, doesn't mean you can't divide
bearded irises because you can - and I just recently did this
myself.
If you have older clumps of irises or irises out of place, it's a
great time to divide them and move them. Be sure to remove any bad
parts of the rhizomes and then plant them high. I like to nestle
mine on top of the soil and then stake them in instead of digging
them or half-burying them. To each his own - but no matter what -
do not bury them deep.
Something Sweet
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
On this day in 1843, the New England Farmer out of Boston,
Massachusetts published this little article about
toads.
"Never destroy the toad. In the season of bugs and flies, a toad
will do more towards the preservation of a garden, than a man, and
all that ho requires at your hands for this valuable assistance, is
the freedom of your garden walks and beds, and the paltry shelter
of a chip or turf. He meddles with no one's business but his own
constantly avoiding company, and intent only on extirpating those
voracious insects by whose jaws the beauty of the garden is so
frequently laid low."
Thanks for listening to the daily gardener,
and remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."