Spring (officially) arrives

Spring arrives 20 March: In times past, spring meant a boy would take a girl into the woods. Nowadays, it is time to change the snow tires on the car. And if you are from Canada’s Maritimes or even Pennsylvania, lucky you! Local groundhogs are calling for an early spring. But in winter-weary Ontario Wiarton Willie disagrees. Well, March is only month this year with a Friday 13th.

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Turning to the more serious . . . Unfortunately for cat owners, Easter comes early this year and with it loads of lilies. All parts of these plants are poisonous to felines, including the pollen which seems to be especially attractive to them. Choose an alternative flower.

Diversion No. 1

Japanese start-up 'Hoshinchu’ has created floating bonsai trees by harnessing the power of repelling magnets to make the miniature plants levitate, observed ScienceDaily

The aged, gnarled, twisted and bent branches of older shrubs can add a touch of establishment to gardens, perhaps even bringing some oriental drama. Nevertheless, thickest of such old favourites such as dogwood, forsythia, lilac, mockorange, spireas and viburnums can be restored to their former blooming splendour with judicious renovation pruning this month. Cut back all branches to just 4 inches (10cm) except for lilac, which should be left at a foot (30cm). Remove completely any dead, rotting wood. When new growth commences, select the best three to five stems and cut out everything else. The shrubs will take a couple of years to recover, the neighbours possibly longer.

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Diversion No. 2

Claude Monet’s 42-foot-long painting, the Agapanthus Triptych, will go on display at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in April. The French artist worked on the epic from 1915 until his death at the age of 86 in 1926. It was inspired by the flower, also known as the Lily of the Nile, which continues to grow in the pond of his garden at Giverny, just west of Paris. Monet, regarded by art experts as arguably the most important painter of gardens in the history of art, once said he owed his painting ‘to flowers.’

Tropical yard-long beans, round and slim, are offered by supermarkets and ethnic stores – at a price. Botanically, these are Vigna sesquipedalis, sometimes known as asparagus beans, or in China dow gauk. Available from online seed houses, they can be started indoors this month or early April for planting against a fence or trellis in June when both soil and air temperatures improve. Allow plenty of room – these are vigorous vines almost worth growing for their profuse white and pale purple flowers. Although the pods are not really a yard long – more like 12 to 24 inches – they will continue to bear prolifically almost until frost cuts them down. As with all legumes they require no fertilizer, just a reasonable, moist soil in a sunny location.

Diversion No. 3

Scientists have shown that hawk moths – which are toxic to bats – issue an ultrasonic “warning” whenever a bat is near. After a few nibbles, the bat learns to avoid the noxious species altogether. Their sound-producing apparatus is typically located at the tip of the genitals, explained Elizabeth Pennisi, Science Shots

St. Patrick’s Day arrives once again and shamrocks proliferate. “There is still not a consensus over the precise botanical species of clover that is the “true” shamrock” says Wikipedia; Trifolium dubium, lesser clover or Trifolium repens, white clover were favoured by almost 46% and 35% respectively in a 1988 Irish survey. Commercially, various selections of wood sorrel, Oxalis, are sold purporting to be “Irish shamrock,” such as O. oregano: native from Washington to California with bright green leaves and white flowers. Four-leaved pink sorrel O. tetraphylla may be sold as “four-leaved clover”

Diversion No. 4

Peter Wohlleben, a forest ranger and writer in Germany, has topped best-seller lists with The Hidden Life of Trees, describing trees as social beings that communicate on the “Wood Wide Web,” The New York Times reported. Now we know what is meant by ‘whispering pines’

March wouldn’t be March without a trip to the sugar bush, for example at the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival, Ontario. This month also sees the annual Philadelphia Flower Show, the largest indoor flower show anywhere, far superior to the pathetic posturing of landscapers and other fringe players of horticulture. In more mellow climes both Macon, Georgia’s International Cherry Blossom Festival and Washington D.C.’s National Cherry Blossom Festival kicks off late in the month, as does one of the first in Japan, Matsue Jozan Koen Cherry Blossom Festival, Matsue-city. While in the orient, there is the International Coffee & Tea Expo, Singapore and across in Jakarta the Indonesia Coffee and Cocoa Conference. We’re not too sure about the Melbourne International Coffee Expo however, known by the acronym of MICE.

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