After a recent Plant Exchange Monarch butterfly feature, tidbits from Kate-Lyn Bunney’s blog related to her nonprofit MonarchJointVenture.org came to light. She featured an article about some of the Monarch’s favorite food and habitat, milkweed. Milkweed grows foliage and blooms in this region near the end of June when some migrating Monarchs might be headed north, … Continue reading
Filed under Dibbles And Bits …
Chill Outside
In winter on the Northern Plains, everything pauses in layers of snow. Nature highlights what is hidden. Favorite plants around us receive ornaments. In our suspended animation, tree buds swell in the promise of coming spring. We are so fortunate to see it.
Dibbles and Bits
It’s a reflective time of year. Even bunnies are pausing a moment as they find today’s path. Plant lovers thinking about next gardening season have all the seed catalogs a table can hold and plenty online besides. At Plant Exchange, garden magazines are a hit for reading and reflection now. Articles in the January/February 2021 … Continue reading
Three Easy-Care Houseplants
Adequate quality light in winter is necessary for healthy houseplants. In this USDA 4-5a growing zone on the Northern Plains, lack of satisfactory light quality indoors can be a problem. Choosing plants with a tolerance to lower light increases the chance they can adapt to the indirect winter sunlight they receive. These houseplants can be … Continue reading
Almost Missed It
In the middle of the growing season, when container sunflowers on the deck look as beautiful as these, it would be easy to miss a not-so-showy failsafe of Nature. When we think of a flower’s role in plant longevity, producing seeds come to mind. Then we look for friendly pollinators that help make that happen. … Continue reading
A Little Myth Dispelled about Ants
Because people sometimes find common ants on a bouquet of peonies, a mythical explanation is that peonies need ants to bloom. Not true. Ants and peonies do help each other. Ants eat the sweet nectar on peony blooms, and the pugnacious ants discourage some other floral-feeding insects, to the ant and peony mutual benefit. Ants don’t … Continue reading
How Does a Winter-Flowering Plant Make Seed?
Camellias are introduced plants from Japan and nearby Asian countries that have adapted well in the Southeast United States for more than a hundred years. In the south, camellias bloom in the fall or winter or early spring, sometimes before bulb plants. In nature, not many plants bloom at this time. Camellias are shrubs with … Continue reading
Fresh Lettuce in Space and Back Home
If you enjoy eating fresh, homegrown lettuce instead of purchased lettuce that has part of its fresh quality time in transport, it’s also a consideration at the International Space Station. Fresh lettuce is a premium in space. Growing conditions at the space station that differ with Earth include reduced gravity, more radiation, added food safety … Continue reading
Spring Arrives Each Year
Moments of spring shake us from all that swirls around us. A perfect daffodil blossom survives a frosty night. Not quite here, but in mind from last season, the redbud tree, northern magnolia, and native plum will soon display again. There is so much we do not know. Ginkgo trees are not native here but … Continue reading
A Few Dibbles And Bits
Reason to prune trees, chickens as a pesticide alternative, and a plant labeling tip are this week’s Plant Exchange Blog topics. We are grateful to all who share plant-relative information, ideas, and tips from experience that come from professionals and experienced gardeners of the region such as these below. Trees that are properly pruned have … Continue reading
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