Jack-in-the-PulpiT
 

When gardeners have to move, fortunate are the ones who can smoothly transplant themselves as well as some of their favorite flowers. Fortunately for me, when I moved from Kansas to Nebraska, I eventually had a yard in which to move what I considered to be a piece of “home”, the Jack-in the Pulpit.

            I had originally obtained the Jacks from the timbered area located on our family farm in Kansas. Much to my surprise, they took root and each year got bigger and better. The same thing happened when I moved a few to my Peru garden. They have not only grown, they have prospered. Each year, they shoot up in the middle of spring. Each year, I have more plants than before, and each year, when the older more established ones grow to full height, they often reach three feet tall or more and have leaves that span two feet.

            Jack-in-the Pulpits are native to wet woodlands and heavily foliaged areas from Nova Scotia to Minnesota and southward to Florida and Texas, so Kansas and Nebraska do not have exclusive rights to this exotic looking group. The location at my home replicates these conditions around our Big Spruce tree on the east side of our house. The Jacks get full shade most of the day and grow in organic clay soil that stays fairly moist most of the time.

            Now when I say they “shoot up,” I mean it. You can practically stand and watch them grow. Overnight, a stalk will gain 1” or more. The stem starts out as a pointy looking, slick brownish purple worm, bare of any leaves. As it grows, gradually two basal leaves (sometimes only one) develop and unwrap itself from the stalk; each leaf is divided into three almost equal large parts. Then follows the formation of the “flower,” which consists of a delicately colored green and purple striped spathe (the pulpit) surrounding and arching over a slightly greenish, slightly striped spadix (Jack).

            All too soon, the Jack dies back down to the ground right after flowering, usually leaving a rather shriveled stalk bearing a berry bundle from what had been the Jack. The berries start out a bright dark green then turn intense red by fall. 

            By next spring, underground tubers or “corms” will have spread, yielding more plants. The seed bundle can also be used to propagate new plants, although it takes longer.

            Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) carries other monikers: “Indian Turnip,” “Bog Onion,” “Brown Dragon,” and “Starchwort.” It is a North American wildflower of the arum family (Araceae) noted for their unusual shaped flowers.

            Early native Americans are said to have used the Jack for medicinal purposes. Although no part of the fresh plant should be taken internally (it causes extreme pain), when dried or cooked first, the root was used as a vegetable. A salve reportedly was used to treat sore eyes, skin infections, and swelling.  From the corm, a preparation was said to have been used to treat stomach gas, asthma, and rheumatism.

            Jack-in-the-Pulpits can now be purchased from commercial nurseries, so either from nature or from the nursery, I would recommend obtaining some starts to add to your plants collection. Jacks are fairly easy to get started (apparently), are so beautifully unusual and exotic looking, deer resistant, use spaces in a cultivated garden that other flowers snub their leaves at, and really require no more care than to keep them watered.  You can understand why I personally am so fond of them - they remind me of my Kansas farm and the wooded hills I so enjoy, so similar to the Peru area. 

            Turning over another leaf: The greenhouse season has closed for partner Betsy Reed, my husband John, and myself, but we want to thank all of you who patronized our little shop in Peru and came to enjoy our garden flowers (blooms from which we shared with many a customer); our patrons have again helped us through another successful year.
 

How’s your garden growing?
Pick-Me-Up Greenhouse
Bea Patterson
bp15624@alltel.net

 Grandmother’s Bonnet

  The  Columbine

Welcome, Country Gardeners, to spring and our exploding world of sights, sounds and smells! Again, the earth is abloomin’, according to God’s plan!

The very cool columbine (Genus Aquilegia, Family Ranunculaceae) is such an easy going/growing beauty that it was an easy choice for this series.  Its name is rooted in its distinctive appearance.  Aquilegia is from the Latin Iaquila for “eagle," referring to the flower’s spurs, which suggest an eagle’s talons. Others suggest it is from the Latin for aquarins meaning “a water carrier,” because of the resemblance to ancient jars that held water or agui legus “to draw water.”    Ranuculaceae are the perennials which belong to the buttercup family.

          Columbine, the familiar name, comes from the Latin columba, meaning dove. Held upside down, one can imagine a ring of doves bobbing about and drinking from a dish.   Others suggest the bloom looks like a court jester’s cap or old-fashioned bonnet, resulting in another common name “Granny’s Bonnet,” the name that spoke to me for this illustration.

          The “spur” on a Columbine is one of its most distinctive parts. In the botanical world, a spur is a hollow, elongated tube extending from the petals or sepals of certain flowers. It is usually a reservoir for nectar, which is secreted by special glands inside the tube and collects in a knobby bulge at the base. The nectar is stored in those small knobs at the ends of the spurs.  One state, Colorado, has chosen the Columbine for its state flower, which is appropriate, as it is frequently found in forests and on rather rocky/spare terrain. 

          Historically, Columbines are often featured in old paintings, fabrics, architecture, and art work because of the dove imagery, a symbol of peace for the Holy Spirit.  For my own part, I became even more impressed with the Columbine as I learned to draw the intricacy of its blooms and leaves - how the spurs grow between the sepals, attach to the stem, the lovely shading of colors and contrasting color combinations, and the bright feathery stamen, not to mention beautifully shaped leaves.

          My own garden is enhanced with lots of the beautiful common forest variety, as well as a few of the newer varieties. They come up so early in the season, bloom a long time, propagate themselves so easily, and are so beautiful and hardy, what’s not to love? 

          Columbines in the greenhouse are gorgeous this season – each perfect bloom, five sepals and five spurs with dark throats, bobbing on their delicate looking stems. Colors range from white on white, to white and pink, to raspberry and white, to white and blue.

God’s creativity is clearly illustrated in the Columbine.

Turning over a completely new leaf and another topic,  we have a limited supply of Heirloom Tomatoes this year.
 

How’s your garden growing?
Pick-Me-Up Greenhouse
Bea Patterson
bp15624@alltel.net

“Bedding Plants -
 Fast Food for Gardens” 

Remember planting seeds? Remember waiting half the summer before they started to bloom?

Anxious gardeners don’t have to wait anymore. These days, large numbers of bloom-ready “bedding plants” are available.. For the price of an inexpensive four-pack of  “bedding plants,” a garden, border, sidewalk, porch, planter, or container can go from no color to color, bare to blooming, instantly filled with pretty posies and greenery before the weather hardly gets warm – instant gratification.

Availability is no longer a problem either. Practically every place we already drive to now has bedding plants for sale. Grocery stores sell plants – because they are edible? Pharmacies sell plants – because they are medicinal? Hardware stores sell plants – because gardens need outside watering faucets? I can understand florists selling plants – at least flowers are their business, although how to grow them probably isn’t. Just drive up, make your selection, take them home, plant them, and voilla – instant color - fast food for gardens. The Pick-Me-Up Greenhouse partners prefer to believe that patronizing an actual garden store makes more sense (knowledgeable clerks), and easy stop and shop is still an option.

Some may ask how I would define “bedding plants.” Bedding plants are generally annuals that are born and bred to last one growing season. One can sprinkle in early blooming perennials, but then they are spent until next spring. So “bedding plants” are defined and selected on the basis of their ability to bloom more or less consistently throughout the spring and summer and into fall, hopefully. Typically, they aren’t used to fill a garden but to fill-in a garden, added accents among bigger plants or as transitional color between plants blooming at different times, or fillers in small places (often still in their pots), or to provide color while bulbs or other plants are gradually filling in the garden.  

 Just to throw in a little confusion, some annuals re-seed themselves and so grow the next season, or they are hardy enough and the winter is mild enough that the plant doesn’t die and they over-winter. But, I wouldn’t count on that happening in our zone very often.

What should you look for? Always look for healthy plants and have some knowledge of what to expect from specific plants. Are they sun or shade lovers? Do they like sandy soil? Do they like morning sun but sun protection in the afternoon (when the day is the hottest – so means plant them on the east side of the house)? Do they thrive bunched up with other plants or do they prefer their space? When selecting flowers in early spring, remember these are usually the annuals that like cooler weather to begin with, and that’s why they are blooming right now. Although they will bloom throughout the growing season to some degree, most of these varieties will thrive again when the weather gets cooler in later summer or if we have a cool summer. Pansies are an example, as are Dahlberg daisies and alyssum. So don’t give up on them just because they slow down through the hottest part of the summer. Just plant other colorful, warmth-loving annuals amongst them or let the taller perennials provide some protection until then.

On the other hand, a few featured spring annuals will bloom early, but really thrive when the weather gets warmer, like marigolds and rose moss (portulacca). I have come to realize that the hardy and very popular petunia has its quirks along these lines. Petunias are forcibly encouraged to be blooming by the start of the season, but then they languish and get leggy. If you have the courage to prune them back rather severely when you first get them, which allows the plant to bush out and re-grow during the cooler part of the spring, you’ll be rewarded by the time the weather gets warm. The petunias will have had time to become re-established and really pop. And, try as I do, I haven’t found a petunia that likes (thrives) in shade.

Hanging baskets, too, need to be selected with the idea in mind that just because they are blooming in April, doesn’t mean all plants in the basket are going to thrive all summer. Plan on re-placing some of the plants at some point to keep the basket looking fresh.  Geraniums can’t hardly be beat, though, but if you are tired of the red geraniums (gorgeous and classic), try another color or unusual hybrids (simple to fancy blooms, variegated greens to leaves with color or ruffles).

A Sunday afternoon feature new to the Pick-Me-Up Greenhouse this year will be the “Build It Yourself” option. Folks can bring their pots and/or containers (or you can pick from our selection), your potting soil (or we’ll sell you some good quality potting soil), select plant material to meet your needs and color palettes (from our shelves, mixing and matching, getting one or six, etc.), and pot everything right there in our new potting shed area. Fast Food for the Garden(er). What could be easier than that!

Oddly, as I sit writing this piece, snow is drifting down on the already white covered landscape outside by studio window. But I know spring is just around the corner because the robins are home, the daffodils and tulips are four inches above the ground (some blooming), the bud bumps on trees are showing, and the brown ground is growing a green beard.

 I know you are out looking for signs of spring, too, so keep thinking flowers - those wonderful colors, that special.smell, getting our hands in the dirt…. ah-h-h. 

For lucky me, all of that wonderful plantness is super concentrated when the greenhouse gets packed full of plant material, and then I get to open the door and take it all in. On warm, rainy days (water gently pit-patting on the glass roof), and it’s quiet, I enjoy just sitting there among the hanging baskets and other plants and imagine what it must have been like in the Garden of Eden.  

How’s your garden growing?
Bea Patterson
bp15624@alltel.net

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