Focus on Flowers

There has been so much hybridizing, that the differences between a Thanksgiving and a Christmas cactus have become blurred, so it seems reasonable to refer to them all as Holiday Cactuses nowadays.

This may be the perfect year to simplify our holiday decorations. Rather than buying new items, dig around in your closets and see what you can reinvent.

If you have gardeners on your holiday gift list, you can easily accommodate them from the comfort of your own home. Gift certificates to nurseries in the hometown of your recipients, or from catalogues, are always well received.

Most clivia plants produce orange flowers, but you can impress a gardener by ordering a clivia for them as a holiday gift that produces yellow blooms, as yellow is quite rare and treasured by knowledgeable gardeners.

As we look back on the gardening season, we can assess what worked and what didn’t – our successes and challenges in the garden.

In the fall, I leave a few cone flowers and sunflowers for the birds, otherwise I cut spent flowers right to the ground and clean up the debris. I want the beds clear before the spring daffodils and other bulbs bloom.

My garden is very crowded, and so in the fall, I am always wondering where I can plant more spring bulbs without cutting into the existing ones.

It is easy and fun to save seeds from this year’s annuals.

I used to believe that some plants—like peonies, for example—were immune to deer. Not anymore. I have seen deer eat just about every plant...

Not a pretty name for such an attractive plant.

A plant that attracts butterflies to our garden is the pincushion flower. The botanical name is Scabiosa, and these plants usually have blue, white, or pink flowers. As their common name suggests, the shape of the flower resembles a pincushion as the central florets form a rounded shape.

One often sees Veronia, a.k.a. ironweed, on roadsides and in fields and ditches. The wind disperses the seeds, which explains why it is a surprise when it appears in our gardens like an uninvited guest.

We should cut back most perennials in the fall. They don’t look good once it gets cold, so it is best to cut them to the ground and they will come back well next spring.

Joe-Pye weed looks great next to a splash of sunshine yellow from goldenrod or helianthus.

As summer transitions into fall, we usually rely on mums and asters to give us color as the growing season wanes. But here are some other reliable bloomers.

Surprise lilies bloom from late summer into early September, and their cool pink flowers do indeed surprise us when their pale lily-type blooms suddenly appear on their long bare stalks.

CORRECTION (May 2022): Goldenrod is native to North America but has naturalized and become invasive in parts of Eurasia.

“Heli” means sun and “anthus” means flower.

Many annuals need to be deadheaded to keep blooming all season. While snipping off the spent blossoms can hardly be described as hard work, it is easier not to have to remember to do this chore. For that reason, many of us try to buy annuals that do not need deadheading in order to re-bloom all season long and right into fall.

William Shakespeare included so many botanical references in his plays that there are about 175 mentions of flowers, fruits, grains, grasses, seeds, weeds, trees, spices, herbs, and vegetables in his works.

I don’t have a watering system, so I get tired of watering when there are long periods of hot, dry summer weather. Here in the Midwest when it is over 90F, potted plants need watering twice a day and beds on slopes do too. It is a chore that makes me wish I had more drought tolerant plantings.

Janae Cummings speaks with Paul Shoulberg, the writer and director of The Good Catholic and Ms. White Light.

IU Assistant Professor of Photography Elizabeth Claffey speaks with artist Ana Teresa Fernández about the ideas of immigration and gender she explores in her work, and what inspires her to create.

Host Aaron Cain speaks with author and comic Laurie Kilmartin about the anatomy of a good joke, and about how the truth isn’t always funny.

Shayne Laughter speaks with musician, dancer, teacher, and cultural ambassador Kevin Locke.