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Via EnjoyGardening)
Posted by admin to Jim's Notebook on 2008-01-10, 11:22:01
Hits & Misses: Healthy houseplants & laggard lilies
Question of the Week: Why have my houseplants stopped growing?
The Business: University of Alberta Textile Collection
The Path to Enjoy 2009: Innovative
When I was growing up, there was this drink called…coffee. It was just called coffee, too. There were no fancy epithets stuck on the end of it. Fast-forward to Christmas 2007 and I’m brewing Coffee Verona one day, Coffee Sumatra the next and God knows what I brewed on New Year’s morning, but whatever it was, I figure I have another dozen or so like it to try before I exhaust my Christmas supply. My point (and I swear I’m getting to it) is that the jive we do with java is really no different than the one we do with garden plant varieties—the amount of choices seem daunting at times. But having said that, I wouldn’t want to return to the dark days of limited plant varieties any more than I would want to drink that acrid, tasteless generic stuff we called coffee. In fact, I’ll drink to it.
Hits & Misses
Hit: Houseplants, Health and Wellness
It’s a jungle out there! The beginning of January is when we bring in our massive shipment of tropical plants for our annual houseplants sale. Now, one of the great things about tropicals is that they provide a lot of give and take—literally. On the give side, tropicals provide beauty that lifts our spirits, particularly during the dark days of winter. One the take side, indoor plants are remarkably effective at absorbing air pollutants (volatile organic compounds or VOCs, for short) that occur naturally in our homes. Nothing like a little boost to our mental and physical health after a long month of holiday overindulgence!
Miss: Laggard Lilies
Easter 2008 will be one of the earliest on record, so there’s a bit of panic to get the Easter lilies up and out of the potting soil quickly so that they bloom on time. Thankfully, about 99% of them are on (or ahead) of schedule, so we’re out of the starting blocks in good shape. However, as good a statistic as that is, there are always a few laggard lilies that bug me each and every year. Regardless of how well they are treated, they just seem to march to their own beat. In all fairness, though, as long as we unpredictable humans keep changing the date of Easter, I guess we really can’t expect 100% compliance.
Question of the Week
Why have my houseplants stopped growing?
I get a lot of people asking that exact question this time of the year. My answer is simple: it’s a lack of fuel. Plants need sunlight to fuel their growth, and thanks to the lower sun angle and shorter days of January, the maximum amount of light that plants receive is a mere 20% of what it is during the summer. The solution? Simple: move your plants closer to the window during the winter. Just watch out for cold drafts or windows that get a little frosty when temperatures fall.
The Business
University of Alberta Textile Collection
Last month, our family donated some of Mom’s favourite wardrobe pieces to the University of Alberta Textiles Collection. It just seemed like a natural thing to do: the University of Alberta was special to Mom, and we felt it would be a beautiful way to remember her. As tempting as it may have been to keep everything stored away, it’s comforting to know that these clothes will always be at the U of A, one of Mom’s favourite places and where she had some of her most meaningful experiences. The exhibit went on display Tuesday, January 8, 2008.
This robe is one of the many garments that make up a part of the Lois Hole wardrobe at the University of Alberta Textile Collection.
The Path to Enjoy 2009
Innovative
Can a microbrewery and a greenhouse work together?
We think they could. One of the plans for our new location is to investigate the opportunities of using the wastewater and beer mash from a microbrewery to water our plants and amend our soil mixes. Hmm…beer drinking as part of a good gardening regime. Now there’s a trend that has potential to catch on! Kind of puts a new spin on beer gardens.
The future site of the new Hole’s may sport such innovative concepts as a spa or even a microbrewery.
Did You Know?
Each gram of soil contains about two billion bacteria.
“There are two seasonal diversions that can ease the bite of any winter.
One is the January thaw. The other is the seed catalogues.”
-Hall Borland
While we we’re visiting my daughter and granddaughter in Riverside I just had to get another picture of her next to the Parent Navel Orange Tree. It was just about two years ago that I took the earlier picture of her. The Parent Navel Orange Tree is the original “Washington” Navel Orange Tree from which all others descended. It was this tree that spawned the great citrus industry in California. You can read more about it at a earlier post from two years ago. It is the tree on the right.
(aff.). Being that I'm not a great reader of books - that's my wife's department for future reference - I hesitantly accepted and received a copy a short time later.