At this time of year, it's easy to find yourself with a few new houseplants. They're the outdoor plants that you can't bear to toss out as winter weather arrives. 
Rubber grids help ensure high humidity yet keep pots from sitting in water.
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With bright light and cool temperatures, camellias will bloom indoors. |
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At this time of year, it's easy to find yourself with a few new houseplants. They're the outdoor plants that you can't bear to toss out as winter weather arrives. The tropicals brighten winter days with their blooms; herbs, such as rosemary, add to winter cooking. However, these plants are vulnerable to conditions inside your home. Here are tips for keeping your winter guests happy and healthy until spring:
More Information
For more advice on overwintering, check out the following articles:
- David Grist
Online Content Coordinator, Gardener's Supply
In just four years, Urban Farming, a nonprofit founded by Taja Sevelle has helped plant 600 gardens in 17 cities and five countries. And they’ll keep expanding until their mission is accomplished: “We want to eradicate hunger, and we really think it is possible,” she said.
Taja Sevelle and volunteers
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Every year, our Garden Crusaders awards program introduces us to dozens of amazing gardeners who are making the world a better place through their love of gardening. Taja Sevelle, this year's grand prize winner, is making a difference through a nonprofit organization that plants inner-city gardens all over the country.
After being discovered by Prince in 1987, releasing a hit single, recording three albums, and seeing the world, singer Taja Sevelle has returned to her childhood love: botany.
Her journey back to her roots began in 2004 when she was recording music in Detroit. “I had never seen a city with so much vacant, unused land, and there was so much poverty and job loss,” she said. The next year, she helped plant three gardens in the city.
Four years later, the nonprofit she founded, Urban Farming, has helped plant 600 gardens in 17 cities and five countries. And they’ll keep expanding until their mission is accomplished: “We want to eradicate hunger, and we really think it is possible,” she said.
Tough and long-lived, Christmas cactus can be passed easily from one generation to the next, blooming for family gatherings and cheering the darkening autumn days. I've given many cuttings of Grampa's cactus to family and friends over the years. Someday, one of my kids or grandkids may inherit the original.
Christmas cactus bloom when nights grow longer and temperatures drop. |
My grandfather let me water it carefully when I was a toddler and he proudly showed me how to count each flower bud. When the fat red buds opened, they looked like arching Roman candle fireworks or dragons spitting yellow flames. That cactus is my first plant memory and the spark that lit my own lifelong love affair with horticulture.
My grandfather, born in Vermont in 1892, was an ardent gardener. He grew vegetables and fruit for the family table, manicured a perfect postage-stamp lawn, and dearly loved his peonies and roses. To get through the long winters, he kept a few prized flowering houseplants in the window near his reading chair. I inherited his Thanksgiving cactus when I was 18. It's lead a less-pampered life since then, but it still blooms reliably each autumn.
Some Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera) hybrids have pointy teeth on their stem segments and others have scalloped segments, depending on their parentage. Plant breeders have produced a wide range of flower colors — from deep red and hot pink to orange, yellow and white.
All hybrids naturally develop flower buds in early autumn, when the nights get long and the temperature drops to 50 to 55 degrees F. If your plants don't set buds on their own, put them in a cool room where they will receive at least 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness each day for six to eight weeks. After the buds form, they no longer need the long-night treatment. Keep the soil slightly moist and allow it to dry between waterings.
These plants are native to tropical areas with high humidity and may drop their buds and flowers if the air is too dry or the plants are exposed to sudden cold. My grandfather put his flower pots in saucers, then set them on trays of pebbles and water to keep the humidity high in the winter. To prolong the bloom, keep the plants as cool as possible. Temperatures in the mid-50s to mid-60s are best.
Tough and long-lived, Christmas cactus can be passed easily from one generation to the next, blooming for family gatherings and cheering the darkening autumn days. I've given many cuttings of Grampa's cactus to family and friends over the years. Someday, one of my kids or grandkids may inherit the original.
Our annual awards program honors individuals who are using
gardening to bring about positive change in people’s lives, cultivate
stronger communities and protect our environment.
Taja Sevelle |
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Roger Doiron |
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Vicki Nowicki |
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José Soto |
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Ronda Clark |
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Our annual awards program honors individuals who are using
gardening to bring about positive change in people’s lives, cultivate
stronger communities and protect our environment. Congratulations
and thanks to all of our 2009 winners:
Grand Prize Winner
Taja Sevelle, Detroit, MI
In just four years, Urban Farming, a nonprofit founded by Taja Sevelle has helped plant 600 gardens in 17 cities and five countries. And they’ll keep expanding until their mission is accomplished: “We want to eradicate hunger, and we really think it is possible,” she said.
Education
1. Roger Doiron, Scarborough, ME
Roger Doiron’s efforts have resulted in the creation of school gardens in his hometown, kitchen gardens in India and even a kitchen garden at the White House. He's accomplished all this through persistence, a knack for promotion and practical use of 21st century technology.
2. Thianda Manzara, Hockessin, DE
3. Glenda Balliviero, Lafayette, LA
Honorable mentions: John Murphy, Hendersonville, NC; Brenda Beckham, Athens, GA
Restoration
1. Vicki Nowicki, Downers Grove, IL
Vicki Nowicki is changing the way we think about our yards. “Lawns were supposed to be a place to bring people together, and that has failed,” she said. “It is vegetable gardens that will be the landscape that will bind people together, because food is the heart of a home.”
2. Atheria Ware, Buffalo, NY
3. Joe Mallon, Cape Coral, FL
Honorable mentions: Rhonda Killough, Henderson, NV; Lora Schreiber, West Bend, WI
Urban Renewal
1. José Soto, Bronx, NY
In the mid-1970s, the South Bronx became synonymous with urban decay, but it was also home to thousands of people, including José Soto. One day, he decided to do something about one lot in his neighborhood. He started clearing out debris, garbage and abandoned cars. Soon, 50 neighbors came out to help.
2. Robert Halstead, Bridgeport, CT
3. Kwabena Nkromo, Atlanta, GA
Honorable mentions: Michael Dowling, So. Boston, MA; Mark Covington, Detroit, MI
Feeding the Hungry
1. Ronda Clark, Athens, OH
As Ronda Clark works to expand gardening in southeastern Ohio, she is thinking big. “I want to break people of this western diet that is killing us: fast-food joints, high-fructose corn syrup …” And the best way she has found to do that is through gardening – one plot at a time.
2. Blue Peetz, Olympia, WA
3. Jacki Baer, Sycamore, SC
Honorable mentions: Merry Bradley, Eugene, OR; Amy Grey, Moscow, ID; Gabriela Compagni, Highlands, NJ
Once the holidays are near, I have the entryway and windows lit up with lights. But what about that dreadful month of November?
Our light sculpture started with two rusted steel bands from an old whiskey barrel planter.
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By late-October it's usually dark before I get home from work in the evening. I don't know about you, but I find this depressing. Once the holidays are near, I have the entryway and windows lit up with lights. But what about that dreadful month of November?
I have a pair of solar path lights near the house and they work great. Improvements in solar technology mean these new lights are considerably brighter than the ones in years past. They have a brushed metal housing and real glass enclosure for the light. That said, they're path lights; great when you're walking up the walk, but coming in the driveway they don't shout, "welcome home!"
Last fall we came up with a combination art project/all-season, outdoor lighting solution. We made an orb with two rusted steel bands from an old whiskey barrel planter. They're held together at the top with a rusted iron hose guide, which fits into a metal pipe that anchors the whole thing to a cedar post. Around the center of the pipe I wove a loose ball of wild grape vines. Then I stuffed the ball with a 24-foot string of small LED lights (these are the warm white ones — I don't like the cool blue lights).
We ran an extension cord from the front porch through the garden and up the pole, and put it all on a timer so it comes on at dusk to welcome me home. You could perk things up at your house by decorating a trellis or obelisk with the same lights, or if you don't have a power source nearby, try the solar-powered string lights.
Heirloom apples are hot! Look to local markets for cider, sauce and pie apples and long winter keepers.
Heirloom apples are hot! Look to local markets for cider, sauce and pie apples and long winter keepers. |
In a previous career, I helped people identify the old apple varieties they found growing on their properties and in abandoned orchards. Apples arrived in the mail from late August through November accompanied by hand-written notes describing the trees' location and condition, the special flavor of the fruit, and sometimes, a bit of history or a family story. Twenty-five years ago, the best reference was, and still is, the two-volume Apples of New York, by S.A. Beach, written in 1905 for the State of New York Department of Agriculture. In painstaking detail and with many color illustrations, Beach and his associates described more than 1,000 apple varieties that were in cultivation at the time.
For centuries, farmers and landholders lovingly nurtured regional apple varieties and carried them across oceans and continents as they moved to new lands. The oldest known variety, the lady apple, dates back to the Roman empire. The names reflected the apples' origins: Esopus Spitzenburg, Calville Blanc d'Hiver, Bramley's Seedling, Arkansas Black, and Westfield Seek-No-Further. Homesteaders grew different apples for cider, cooking, jellies and preserves, drying, and winter storage. Families especially valued the varieties they could store in root cellars until spring, depending on the nutritious fruit through the long winters.
One hundred years after the publication of Beach's book, some of the old apples varieties are gone. During the past century, fewer people grew their own food and, as agriculture got more centralized, a handful of popular apple varieties filled the commercial orchards. Seeking crop uniformity, easier culture and "shipability", growers planted millions of McIntosh and Red Delicious, Cortland and Rome, Granny Smith and Gala. Worldwide transportation, modern refrigeration, and storage techniques improved upon the humble root cellar, too, making high-quality apples readily available all year. Consumers demanded perfect, smooth, blemish-free fruit. Varieties with lumpy, russeted skin, and odd sizes, shapes and colors were no longer tolerated, no matter how delicious their flesh. We wanted picture-perfect lunchbox apples and forgot about varieties that made great cider, dried well or kept in the cellar until April.
So why care about old-time apples now? Well, for one thing, lots of us are growing our own fruit again. We're looking back at the apples that our grandparents and great-grandparents grew and discovering lost treasure. We're finding regional varieties, originally selected to grow in our particular climate and soil. Cider is back in vogue, too, and locavores are seeking fruits for drying, freezing, and canning.
Heirloom apples are hot. Supermarkets haven't quite caught on yet, but natural food stores, co-ops, and local markets can't get enough of them. My grocery shopping trips this week reminded me of this disparity between markets. The regional chain offered about 10 different apple varieties, four of them from a nearby orchard and the others from thousands of miles away. My local food co-op, on the other hand, had nearly 40 varieties on display, and almost all of them grown within 100 miles of the store. Fortunately apple trees are long-lived and some orchardists have kept the old varieties growing. Our co-op buys fruit from several of them, including Scott Farm, which produces 70 different heirloom apples under the care and direction of orchardist Zeke Goodband.
I brought a dozen different apple varieties home from the market yesterday and plan to use them according to their original purpose. I chose Maiden's Blush for the dehydrator, Northern Spy, Rhode Island Greening and Bramley's Seedling for pies, McIntosh, Jonathan and Winesap for sauce, and Keepsake, Pinova, Empire and Crispin for fresh snacking. We had a taste testing at dinner and my daughter announced that Keepsake was her favorite because "it tastes like cider." For the tall, oblong Sheep's Nose apple, she said, "I could fool myself that it's a pear." Try a tasting at your table and share your favorite heirloom apples, too.
Bon appetit!
You can find antique fruit orchards and suppliers in your area at farmers' markets, by asking at natural food stores and Extension Service offices, or searching online for "heirloom apples."
Always on the lookout for cold-hardy, richly-flavored greens, and a sucker for anything billed as "popular in southern Italy", I tried a new one this year.
Spigariello liscia in early October. The plants have set a few buds that quickly opened to flowers, but it's the leaves I'm after! |
The dusky blue leaves are soft like a puppy's ear. Ready for steaming, braising, soups or stir fries. |
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Remove the leaf's center rib — it's as easy as removing the string from a sugar snap pea. The rib's toughness detracts from the delicate texture of the leaves. |
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I'm a big kale fan. Though I'll eat almost any kind, cooked almost any way, I grow only one variety, the beautiful (and delicious) lacinato which is also called black kale, toscano and cavolo nero.
Always on the lookout for cold-hardy, richly-flavored greens, and a sucker for anything billed as "popular in southern Italy", I tried a new one this year: spigariello liscia. Johnny's Seeds described it as a leaf broccoli, similar to broccoli raab.
I spent most of the summer waiting for it to make little heads like broccoli raab. All the while it was growing and growing and growing. By mid-August most of the plants were well over 4 feet tall and still hadn't thought about putting out any buds.
It was on Bronwyn Weaver and Bob Archibald's amazing farm, Heritage Prairie that I finally learned what this plant is all about. The farm is located about 40 miles west of Chicago in Elburn, IL. Its market garden provides vegetables for many Chicago-area restaurants and several farmers markets, including Chicago's Green City Market and the Geneva Green Market. For 2010 they're also adding a CSA. There's a market on-site where you can buy the farm's in-season vegetables, as well as pre-made dinners and all sorts of locally-produced foods including cheeses and eggs, beef, chicken, pork, and honey from Bronwyn's bees. The farm hosts weddings and other special events, too.
While on a tour of the greenhouses and fields with farm manager Ted Richter, we passed a of row greens that I immediately recognized as spigariello liscia. Ted said that like me, he'd tried it on a lark and it had proven to be extremely popular with some of Chicago's best chefs. He said it's all about the leaves, not the buds (ah!) and showed me how they harvest it by stripping the leaves off the stalks. Though the leaves have a flavor similar to kale, they are much more tender than kale, with a felt-like texture.
So I came home and began using my own spigariello liscia. Move over, kale.
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