CROCUS THAT ISN’T
Startling Beauty
Autumn’s crocus is worth planting if for nothing more than to startle your neighbors. When they ask how come your crocuses are blooming this time of year, just smile and say it’s an early spring.
A bed of autumn crocus does more than just startle, of course; it also paints the fall landscape in soft, bold swatches of lavender, pink, or white blossoms. And, if you so desired, that paint job, depending on species planted, could have begun as far back as August. Not such a bad idea at that, because many flower gardens temporarily sulk in August, waiting to revive in the moist coolness of autumn.
My late summer crocus blooms come from a bulb called colchicum, which is not really a crocus species at all. The plant is called autumn crocus because its blossoms do look like those of crocuses, crocuses on steroids. Read more
PLANT A TREE, NOW?
The ending of Joyce Kilmer’s ode to trees, “only God can make a tree,” may be true enough (as was Woody Allen’s addendum “probably because it’s so hard to figure out how to get the bark on”). But for good growth once a tree is made, it is for us mortals to step in and plant correctly.
Fall is usually the best time of year to plant most trees. The ground is soft and moist — perfect for digging. Nurseries have fresh trees. And roots have time to establish themselves before stems begin growing next spring.
Kinds of Nursery Trees
Nurseries offer trees three ways. “Bare root” trees are dug from fields as soon as their leaves drop, then the roots are packed in wet sawdust or other moist material. Transplant shock is minimized if the tree isn’t too big (I consider four or five feet tall to be ideal), spends minimum time out of the ground, and — of course — is planted correctly. Bare root trees are the least expensive kinds of nursery trees, and, because they are easily shipped, are available in greatest variety. Read more
HOW TO EAT A PEAR
Don’t Pick When Ripe!
Bite into a tree-ripened pear. Yecchh! It’s brown and mushy on the inside.
Pear is one of the few fruits that tastes best picked underripe, then ripened indoors — and there is as much art to picking and ripening a pear as to growing it. Perhaps more, because pears are relatively easy to grow as compared with other tree fruits.
Although the fruit has to be picked before it is ripe, you can’t pick just any unripe pear and then expect it to ripen into a juicy, sweet, buttery fruit, with the subtle flavor individual to the particular variety. The spicy flavor of Seckel or the hint of vanilla of Concorde pears, for example.
Passe Crasanne pear, ripe and ready for eating
To ripen well, a pear must have attained a certain degree of maturity before harvest. Otherwise, it merely Read more
