Wes Porter

PLANTS LACK A CONSCIOUSNESS: SCIENTISTS

Plant are extraordinary living things. They can recognize sounds and touch – and don’t like some of them. They seem to be able to remember. They communicate with one another. They even become numb under the effects of .anesthetics. But let’s not get too anthropomorphic. This is emotional language. From Prince Charles on down, many people believe their plants respond to being talked to. But those same people obviously appreciate their plants to the extent of taking care of them. So their plants respond. So perhaps we had better forget about plant neurobiology, suggests research appearing in the journal Trends in Plant Science.

Questions Often Asked: Dog Days of Summer

As with so much, we must credit the Ancients with the Dog Days of Summer. The Greeks derived dog days, from the Dog Star, Sirius, the most brilliant star in the night sky. This became to the Romans, always ready to adopt Greek culture, caniculares dies: days of the dogs. In the Northern Hemisphere these is the hot, humid days of midsummer--roughly mid-July to the third week of August--this year 12 July to 20 August. The Greeks believed that a combination of Sirius' light with that of the Sun's effected plants, animals, women and men.

Bowling Greens

"The Drake. The Spanish Armada Drake. He was playing bowls on Plymouth Hoe when they told him that the Armada was in sight. 'There is time to finish the game,' he replied. That's what Drake thought of bowls." P. G. Wodehouse (1926) Certainly the most famous game of lawn bowls every played, the 19^th July 1588 contest was by no means the first such, certainly not the last.

Berried Treasures--Elderberries

"Elderberries in the yard and an uncle in Kiev," says as an old Russian proverb. Yes ancient, a French soldier declares, "Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries" in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. All of which offers an indication that elderberries were exceedingly popular. In many areas they still are. Elderberries are produced on a medium to large, somewhat coarse bush Sambucus nigra. Flowering profusely in early to midsummer with scented cream to white flowers, they are followed by equally generous quantities of berries. While still green these are poisonous. Ripening to juicy and black, birds and knowing people gorge on them.

The Great French Wine Blight

"Wine, sex and baths ruins our bodies but they are the stuff of life--wine, sex and baths," reads a 1^st century AD Rome tombstone to former slave Tiberius Claudius Secundus by his wife Merope. Two millennia later, wine, at least in France, seemed en retraite. Blame a minute pest from eastern North America, rice-grain in size. It bears a name you might not wish to pronounce after a couple of glasses of vin rouge: Daktulosphaira vitifoliae.

Watercress, Truly a Superfood

Watercress is one of oldest leaf vegetables consumed by humans. Hippocrates, father of modern medicine, used it to treat patients about 400 B.C. Later it became a staple of Roman soldiers as they brought the Pax Romana across much of Europe, along with a portion of Africa and Asia. Throughout medieval Europe on into the 19^th century it remained popular, picked from the wild. It was first grown commercially in Britain in 1808 by Kent horticulturist William Bradbury. High in nutrients and especially vitamin K watercress is remarkably low in calories. Unlike many other media-promoted 'super foods' it tops the list of such compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

The Fair Rosa Mundi

Many roses have been named after people. Fewer though, in all probability after mistresses and fewer still commemorating royal mistresses. Once upon a time though such was bestowed on a beautiful medieval maid. Rosamund Clifford lived during the middle years of the 12^th century. She is believed to have been born at Woodstock, where Blenheim Palace now stands. Definitely upper class, Rosamund was raised with two sisters and three brothers at Castle Clifford on the River Wye in Hertfordshire and educated at Godstowe Abbey near Oxford.

KOKEDAMA, BEER CURES LAWN SPOTS, MORE

15 St Swithin's Day falls on 15 July every year. The Bishop of Winchester in the old English capital of Wessex died in 862. Thanks to a nifty piece of early meteorological forecasting, rain on that day is said to herald 39 more of the same.

Questions We're Often Asked: Can Caterpillars Sting?

In one word: Yes. But with more and more people raised and living in urban areas, there is a disconnect with nature. A simple rule then: if you don't know for sure, Hands Off! Stinging caterpillars--some of the most widespread in North America are listed below--have urticating, hollow hairs containing toxins. When touched, these break off, enter the skin and release their poisons. This may result in anything from a discomforting itch to excruciating pain. Top contenders include:

Hedged In or Sitting On the Fence?

Fences, it is said, make good neighbours but Dean Fosdick suggests considering a hedge if you're in need of a fence. Writing in The Washington Post, he notes that, when managed properly, hedges cost less and outlast wooden fences. But hedges require regular watering, weeding, fertilizing and, unless informal, shaping. Other than the ubiquitous chain-link fence, apparently almost indestructible, fences made of treated wood will need maintenance every few years. Even then they will succumb while living barriers continue to flourish. Nevertheless, as Robert Frost once advised: "Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up."

Berried Treasures - Saskatoons

A car with U.S plates was driving through Canada's flattest province. Confused to their location and seeing a local alongside the road, the wife told her husband to pull over and ask for directions. He did so, asking "Where are we?" "Saskatoon, Saskatchewan." Wife: "Come on and let's find someone who speaks English." In fact the prairie city is named after the delicious berry bush. In turn this derives from the Cree misâskwatômina for Amelanchier alnifolia. Native to western Canada and hardy in the extreme it varies from a two metre suckering shrub to small tree double or more that height.

Josephine's Roses

We owe our modern roses to Napoleon's wife, the Empress Josephine, she of the "not tonight' fame. Less well-known is that she was born Marie Joséphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie in Southrière, St. Lucia--note the 'Rose' in her birth name. It was to prove significant to modern horticulture. Upon her first marriage at age 17, she became Joséphine de Beauharnais until her unfortunate aristo was guillotined. Luckily, she escaped the same fate then met the rapidly rising Napoleon Bonaparte. When he became a public figure, she gave up her plunging décolletage dresses and partying for gardening.

Air Plants: Exaggerated Claims

"This year air plants are expected to lead the way because they require minimum attention, can fit in small spaces, and brighten up house shares and flats. They only require occasional misting and sunlight." -- The Daily Telegraph, 16 February 2019 Better yet, they don't need soil or water to and were even featured at this year's Chelsea Flower Show. With all this going for them, they must be the very thing for the rush of modern living.

SOIL YOUR UNDIES FOR PLANT GROWTH

A 'soil your undies' campaign aims to improve plant growth in one district of Ontario. Soil with healthy microbial activity should eat away at the underwear buried six inches deep within eight weeks, leaving only the elastic waistband behind a conservation authority said. So, which is environmentally friendlier, Victoria's Secret or Stanfields? Alas, not British "biodegradable" plastic shopping bags. Researchers from the University of Plymouth found that bags labelled biodegradable and compostable were still able to carry a full load of shopping after being left to degrade in the elements for three years. Conclusion: carry groceries home in your undies.

Berried Treasures - Gooseberries

There seems about gooseberries, Ribes uva-crispa, to be something peculiarly attractive to northwestern Europeans. Despite being native to Europe, Caucasus, and North Africa it seems only in England, Scotland, Scandinavia and, perhaps, Russia that the fruit has maintained a popularity.

Tomatoes--The Luscious Love Apple

Botanists know it as Solanum lycopersicum 'wolf peach.' Introduced into Europe, it was supposed poisonous and so lethal to lupus. But Europeans never seemed to agree between themselves and, being European, favour an aphrodisiacal explanation. According an editorial last year in the journal Nature, the world produces some 800 billion tomatoes each year. Most are an insult to consumers. The only answer is to grow your own. Here are some timely tips and a little on the background of the home gardeners favourite fruit.

Lawn Lovers Appreciate the Grass

"Nothing is more pleasant to the eye than green grass kept finely shorn," opined English philosopher, statesman and scientist Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626). In his day, grass was cut on hands and knees with a very crude pair of shears. It is unrecorded if the great man himself so indulged. W. C. Fields was another lawn enthusiast. "I like this place because of the lawn. I think looking at cut grass is the most soothing thing in the world," he said of the three acres of lawn at his rented house in Laughlin Park, Los Angeles. But he didn't have to care for it himself.

Questions We're Asked: World Naked Gardening Day

According to some accounts Lady Godiva, on her horseback ride sans clothes through medieval Coventry, was followed by an enthusiastic gardener bearing a bucket and shovel. This might have been the inspiration for World Naked Gardening Day. Apparently though, it was not. Instead it owes its beginnings one day in 2005. It was then that the Body Freedom Collaborative organized an event in Australia when something more than leaves were shed. Since that auspicious date, the celebration has taken on an international aspect, run on the first Saturday in May--this year on the 5^th.

ANNUAL FLOWER DISPLAYS AND MORE

"Do we by any chance knowledge of a beverage called May Queen? Its foundation is any good, dry champagne, to which is added liqueur brandy, armagnac, kummel, yellow chartreuse and old stout, to taste." A potent potion recommended Lord Ickenham, 'Uncle Fred in the Springtime' of P. G. Wodehouse fame. On second thoughts, perhaps a nice Chablais would be safer, sitting out admiring a new gardening season. As Cass Warner Sperling and Cork Millner proclaimed: "You're as welcome as the flowers in May/And I love you in the same old way."

Questions We're Often Asked: Lilies Poison Cats

"It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily," observed Marlene Dietrich in the movie Shanghai Express. Unfortunately for the proverbial curious cat every Lilium could be fatal.