Wes Porter

Corky-Fruited Water Dropwort Shoots Down Missiles

“To every thing there is a season” according to Ecclesiastes 3:1. And an insane season it is as London, England, gears up for the Olympics. Plans to use surface-to-air missiles to protect the skies over London during the Olympic could be thwarted – because they will disturb the habitat of a rare wildflower, The Mail on Sunday summed it up.

Plants to Protect Your Property

The first commandment should be obvious: Though shalt not covet, much less steal, thy neighbour's tomatoes, cucumbers or peppers. But people do.” Robert Finn, The New York Times.

All of the Latest Poop on Compost

“It’s hard to compost in a hotel room,” Bette Midler observed last year in a fit of green gloom. Equally difficult, although some taxpayers might not believe this, for their representatives at city hall. But at least in Toronto, councillors can buy the stuff to give away to rapturous residents – using their office budget, of course. Last year, for example, Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker spent $5,500 on compost to constituents, no small portion of his total 2011 spending of $31,077.34.

Gardeners Welcome New Season

A tip of the gardening hat to Wiarton Willie the mammalian meteorologist. Emerging from his winter quarters in that Ontario community on 2 February, the groundhog predicted an early spring. Willie was right on the money.

Questions We’re Often Asked: Patches on Lawns

The snow disappears and the frost comes out of the ground to reveal a front lawn in sad shape. Patches of dead turf splatter an otherwise rapidly greening expanse of grass.

April Fools Day, Gardening Style

Fooled you . . . or did we? Okay, maybe it’s still March but we figure you need plenty of time to prepare for the glorious First of April, when we dig up past idiocies. Or did they really take place? As a good gardener, you doubtlessly can separate the wheat from the chaff – or the fertilizer from the compost. But can the black thumb brigade?

Growing a Gigantic Gourd Depends On the Preparation

According to a study by Queen’s University in Ontario, it is true: in spring, a young man’s (and woman’s) fancy turns to thoughts of love: teenagers, the researchers found, are more likely than adults to conceive during the month of March. The thoughts of gardeners, ever ready to march to a different drumbeat, turn to growing one of those enormous pumpkins that grace the pages of the tabloids early every fall.

Landscaping Loses Ground In Canada

“At least he cuts it up into stove lengths,” Grandfather Thurnow, quoted by Paul Hiebert (1947). And, lo and behold, that is what is happening to horticulture in Canada.

Celebrating St. Patrick’s with green

May the blessings of St. Patrick be upon you, as they say across the sea in the Emerald Isle, for the 17th March ‘tis the day upon which we celebrate everything Hibernian. This brings to mind the Irish-Canadian botanist who crossed a shamrock with poison ivy – and got a rash of good luck.

Questions We’re Often Asked: Hormone Rooting Powder

Artificial rooting powders have been in widespread use for over half a century. The plant hormones auxin and cytokinin, usually naphthalene acetic acid (a-NAA), are often part of commercial rooting preparations.

Is Ornithomancy Strictly for the Birds?

In Ancient Greece, it was the practice to ornithological observation in the hopes of predicting future outcomes. The Romans, great admirers of all things Greek, adopted this form divination with gusto. According to British media, ever eager to enter into such suggestive behaviour, lasses looking for love on Valentine’s Day should turn to bird ornithomancy to discover whom they will marry. The practice dictates that the first bird an unmarried woman sees on Valentine’s Day is an omen of her future husband’s character.

Orgasmic Orchids

“Despite these glorious shenanigans of blooms and birds and bees, plant sex is really plant-to-plant,” recently wrote Susan Milius in Science News. This research field, she explained is not just the familiar and huge endeavour to understand how flowers lure, manipulate and even betray the animals carrying pollen from he parts to she parts.

Dion O’Banion – Chicago’s Famed Florist Revisited

Last November, we wrote of the life and death of Dion O’Banion, Chicago’s famed florist – and mobster. A correspondent and descendant residing in the southeastern U.S. has written to question whether O’Banion was indeed both a Roman Catholic and son of a recent Irish immigrant.

Winter half over:  Green thumbs are twitching

Halfway through winter and down in the valley the willows are indicating spring is on the way. Twigs of our native black willow, Salix nigra, have turned orange, while those of introduced weeping willows, S. babylonica, from eastern Asia are a bright yellow. Just a minute there – didn’t you just say weeping willows are from eastern Asia? So why does the botanical name suggest they originated in the fabled Babylon?

Questions We’re Often Asked: Something’s Bugging My Plants!

First you notice something is amiss with your indoor plants. The foliage is becoming mottled. Eventually it dies and falls to the floor. As you pick up the leaves, you notice a strange substance like soot there. The remaining leaves are sticky with glossy patches and again, perhaps spotted with black powder.

It’s the End of the World, Baby!

Yes, indeed: it’s the title of the 2012 Campari calendar featuring Hollywood actress and model Milla Jovovich in various fetching poses. This will make it the thirteenth edition of said calendar. But then if you suffer from triskaidekaphobia you will not want to have been counting to that dread number.

That Was the Year That Was

Unfortunately the editors of Bartlett’s and similar standard reference books seem singularly uninterested in quotations pertaining to horticultural affairs. In an effort to correct such erroneous exclusions, we have collected a few made over the past year by those either engaged or otherwise in gardening and associated pursuits.

Gardener’s health

“The money for these delights I earned in the winter by shoveling snow in our driveway and various sidewalks in the neighbourhood.” Katherine Hepburn: Me: Stories of My Life (1992)

Then Again There Are Other Ways . . .

A Christmas gift for that favourite gardening relative or friend? No problem if you are close enough to visit Richters in Goodwood, Ontario, a short drive northeast of Toronto. Through until 22 December, visitors to the gift shop can select wonderful herbs, seasonal greenery, stocking stuffers, books, herbal ideas and much more, all the while sipping mulled cider, nibbling on herbal goodies and enjoying festive music. Richters is located on the south side of Highway 47 a kilometre east of Goodwood.

Simple, Inexpensive Garden Gifts

Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, chose a gift to get her out of a jam. What could she give her new husband’s grandmother, the Monarch who has everything, as The Mail on Sunday phrased it. She apparently solved the problem by opting to give the Queen jars of her very own strawberry jam and plum conserve – Her Majesty prefers simple, homemade gifts such as these.