A MAYAPPLE IN SEPTEMBER
An Eerie Plant
September does not seem a likely time for seeking out things called “mayapples,” but this when they are ripe. Obviously, mayapple is no ordinary apple. In fact, it’s not an apple at all. But you can eat it, I guess.
Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) is a native plant that blankets forest floors throughout eastern North America. Each spring, as soon as winter chill is out of the air, the perennial rootstocks send up new stalks. Each stalk grows about 18 inches high, then is capped by just one or two leaves. The leaves are like large shields, deeply lobed and held parallel to the ground.
The perennial rootstock spreads underground, so plants grow in ever expanding colonies. These colonies add another layer to the forest, one of green shields hovering above the earthen floor. Contrasting growth habits and leaf shapes make mayapple a nice companion to ferns in a woodland garden. Contain the wandering roots — in a bottomless pot, for example — if your woodland garden is small. Read more
BRUTAL BUT HAS ITS BENEFITS
Root Pruning
“Root pruning” sounds like such a brutal way to treat a plant. Yet it’s a periodic necessity once any potted plant has grown as large as you want it to. Potted plants — like other plants — grow, and while a fifty foot tall weeping fig (Ficus benjamina) is a glorious sight on a Carribean island, my living room ceiling won’t allow such growth. Root pruning slows stem growth as well as makes room for new soil and new roots.
Root pruning — and stem and leaf pruning — of my own weeping fig “tree” has kept it, after 15 years of growth, only a few inches high! This bonsai gets its roots, stems, and leaves pruned twice a year, one of those times this week.
Weeping figs, Puerto Rico and windowsill
How often to root prune any potted plant depends on how fast the particular plant grows, or tries to, and any quirks it has about being root pruned. Read more
BORING TROUBLES NO MORE
First Evidence: Limp Leaves
Complaints. Complaints. I’ve been hearing so many complaints about squash plants, how they looked healthy, then all of a sudden flagged and took a turn on the road towards death. I can help you deal with the problem — but mostly for next year. The best time for action was earlier this season.
Young zucchini, early in season
An insect called the “squash vine borer,” lodged in the stem, is responsible for your squash’s wilting. The saga of how that insect got there began in early summer, Read more
