Botany

Thought I'd start with some of my own photos today and show you how some of my babies are coming along, starting with the random assortment of species Pelargoniums from South Africa, the first two of which I pricked out today, putting them straight into the humid cloche as they'd come from a sealed unit.A pelargonium (copyright Chris Mackay)And the Gallery Dwarf Lupin hybrids are tanking along, which is gratifying with the winter approachingDwarf Lupin showing true leaf (copyright Chris...Read Full Story

Rhododendron floccigerumRhododendron griersonianumRhododendron hyperythrumToday those lovely, nay indispensible, people at Chilterns Seeds delivered packets of fun from Rhododendrons at Muncaster Castle in the Lake District, the seeds having been collected from the original specimens planted there from collections made in the Far East in the late 18th century by such luminaries as Forrest and Kingdon Ward.I went for R. yunnanense on the premise that it is a very common parent in modern...Read Full Story

It's always fun to get parcels in the post because if you're me it's either a rare record or some plants or seeds. It's even better when you can't remember ordering them, although the contents, Iris magnifica, Fritillaria elwesii and Crocus "Remembrance" are exactly the sort of thing I would order.  Hopefully one day they will look like this (apologies to copyright holders)F. elwesii                                                                                                            I...Read Full Story

I'll be using this blog to ramble excitedly about my botanical exploits: what I'm growing, what I'm sowing and what I'm blowing.Today I sowed seeds of Tulipa turkestana, Fritillaria meleagris, Iris douglasiana hybrids, Verbascum phoeniceum mixed hybrids and Lilium canadense.About 100 Dianthus knappii have burst through in literally three days, as have Digitalis ferruginea gigantea, and I've managed to root 2 of 4 cuttings of Dahlia Bishop of Landaff. Although they are covered in mildew (as is...Read Full Story

Time for the birds, the bees, the insects and the wind. These catkins graced one of the trees (don't know the name: I'm not good on trees other than maples) in the lane this week. No insects seemed nearby, so I'm assuming that they will be fertilized by wind-blown pollen.I'm reminded of the strategy that Linnaeus used when he did his landmark work on plant classification in the 17th century. He divided the classes of flowering plants into orders on the basis of their female organs, their...Read Full Story

We are funny creatures: the weather has been dry for several days, and I'd begun to fret about it. Then we had a day of heavy rain yesterday with more forecast for today, and I find myself looking for bright things. Therefore this photo that I took on Monday as I wandered and wondered in Montreal's Saint-Michel district.More about that some other day, but today's let's revel in the brilliant colour and general exhuberance of this mass of flowers growing, seemingly unculivated, at the back of...Read Full Story

Someone--perhaps inspired by Roadsworth, Montreal's legendary street stenciler or maybe even Peter Gibson himself--has been stenciling the word "Resistance" on sidewalks for the last month or so. Each stencil points to a place where plants have pushed up through cracks in the urban hardscape.The word works in both English and French, so it's appropriate in this officially French city. It's also particularly apt as the summer begins to wind down. There is greenery everywhere, which is a balm...Read Full Story

This week it's not a green house in a botanical garden that's featured, but the charming reproduction of one of the first modern botanical gardens, the Clusius Garden in the Hortus Botanicus at the University of Leiden in Holland.Carolus Clusius was engaged in 1590 by the directors of the then-new university to set up a garden where plants could be studied in a systematic fashion. At the time only two others existed, in Padua and Pisa in Italy. The garden eventually outgrew its walls, as the...Read Full Story

Much fun today: we walked around the Plateau Montréal, showing off the city, and then went on the Jardin botanique de Montréal. It is one of my most favourite places in the whole world. Definitely worth a visit when your are in this territory.Our guests were particularly taken with the Chinese Garden.Read Full Story

Written specifically for the horticultural student, this new text presents an ideal introduction to botany for the non-science major. The book’s systematic organization around the five-kingdom system effectively covers the botanical basics, while the many illustrations make new scientific concepts easy to understand. By clearly presenting such topics as respiration, fermentation, photosynthesis, and physical properties of protoplasm, the text builds a solid biological foundation for further...Read Full Story