Articles about my experiences with landscaping and gardening in Southeast Wisconsin
I'm not about to play a trick on you and talk about something other than plants, but rather introduce you to a treat of the plant world - witches' brooms. Witches' brooms are abnormalities in plants that result in the growth rate of a section of a plant being slower than the normal rate. This …
Continue reading "Witches’ Brooms Aren’t Just for Halloween"
If you have allergies, you know instinctively when plants are pollinating. Ragweed pollen in the fall is a bane to many, causing itchy eyes and stuffed-up heads. However, the allergy season does not begin at that time, but now, just after winter has released its stranglehold on trees and shrubs. Tree and shrub pollen can …
Connoisseurs of Monty Python no doubt recognize this title as the name of one of their sketches. As an admirer of the British comics myself, "The Larch" prompted me to reminisce with a viewing on YouTube. However, this article refers to the plant by that name, not the sketch. Hopefully, you will find it just …
There are three pines native to the state of Wisconsin: Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana), Red Pine (Pinus resinosa), and Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus). All three have been harvested for timber and pulp, but the one most valued for its wood and as an ornamental is the White Pine. Eastern White Pine is a northern …
Continue reading "White Pine is Meshed in Wisconsin History"
Sometimes I get inspiration for an article just by looking out my living room window. As I write this, it is snowing, so naturally I think of one of my favorite plants - Snow Falsecypress! 'Snow' is a cultivar of the Sawara Falsecypress, Chamaecyparis pisifera. Sawara Falsecypress is native to Central and Southern Japan, on …
Picture the most difficult conditions under which to grow a conifer. Are you thinking of dry, sandy soil subject to drought stress? Perhaps fine textured soils with poor drainage? How about mine spoils, industrial pollution, or road salt? Impossible, you say? Not if the conifer you’ve chosen is Eastern Redcedar (Juniperus virginiana). Except for the …
Since I now live in Cedarburg, Wisconsin it is only appropriate that I discuss the tree for which it is named. Cedarburg is, after all, the "village of Cedars." But what is a "cedar?" The true cedar is found in the botanical genus Cedrus, best known by the biblical cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani), but …
As I write this article it's snowing in northern Minnesota, which can only mean that soon the white stuff will be making its entrance into Ozaukee County as well. After a hot dry summer, I don't think I'm going to mind it nearly as much as I have in some years! Before long, we'll be …
What is a "fir?" People will often mistakenly refer to any evergreen tree by this name. If you called your Christmas tree a fir, you were most likely right, for Balsam fir and Fraser fir are the most commonly used Christmas trees in Wisconsin. But chances are the evergreen tree in your backyard is some …
The Cottage Gardener 