Blog

By Marion McParland, PHS Staff

Today is Poinsettia Day! This day honors Joel Roberts Poinsett. Poinsett -- a botanist, physician, and the first U.S. Ambassador to Mexico -- spotted the brilliant red blooms on a trip south of the border in 1825. Enamored with their beauty, he shipped some back to his hothouse in Greenville, South Carolina.  It was there that he began propagating and sending the plants to friends and botanical gardens.  Bartram’s Garden received one of his plants and introduced it into commercial cultivation.

The Poinsettia was introduced to the American public in 1829 at the first Philadelphia Flower Show.

By Jenny Rose Carey, Senior Director, PHS Meadowbrook Farm

December is the month to plant indoor bulbs in containers for some early color and fragrance in your house. Plant your bulbs in succession – some now and some in a couple of weeks – to prolong the blooms in your house.

Take it Easy:
The easiest bulb to grow inside in the winter is the Paperwhite daffodil or Narcissus. I find that it is one of those ‘Love it or hate it’ plants, mostly due to the heavy floral fragrance that you either love or hate. My oldest daughter loves the smell as it reminds her of being at her great grandmother’s house as a child. Paperwhite bulbs are available at local shops or online. They are easy to grow, and this is a perfect project to do with your children or grandchildren.

Contain Yourself:
Find a container with no holes in it. An old dish, mixing bowl or thrift shop find is often the most fun container. It needs to be just deep enough to hold the bulbs. Add some stones, gravel, or my favorite --colorful marbles -- into the container.  The stones or marbles are used as a decorative element as this pot of paperwhites will be sitting in your living room or kitchen. The traditional paperwhite look was white pebbles that you had collected on your favorite beach the summer before. If you didn’t collect them, it might be too late now, but fun for next year!  If you don’t have pebbles or stones on hand, but you have potting soil, that works too! It is just needed to hold the roots. Another type of container is a taller vase that will support the foliage and flowers as they grow. There is a specific bulb-vase that you can purchase, or just improvise with a vase that you already own. Put pebbles into the bottom of the vase to hold the bulb upright.                        

By Jenny Rose Carey, Senior Director, PHS Meadowbrook Farm

Here at PHS Meadowbrook Farm we have been busy getting the gardens sorted out for next year. It is a balancing act between dealing with immediate tasks and planning for the spring garden, but bulb planting can still be done, despite snow and ice.

Gather Your Bulbs
If you still have outdoor flower bulbs (like daffodils, tulips, or crocus) in your garage or mudroom waiting to be planted, don’t panic! You are not alone in wondering if you can still plant them. The answer is yes. Some gardens have already seen snow, ice and the usual Philadelphia “wintry mix,” but if you can get a shovel in the ground, go for it. Plant those bulbs. They are not going to look pretty sitting in the bag in the garage, but in the ground they will be able to put their roots down into the soil. Even if the top layer of the soil is frozen, you can go down a few inches right now and it will be okay.

By Sally McCabe, PHS Associate Director, Community Education

Take Stock:
Survey the damage in the herb garden wrought by the dropping temperatures. Lemon basil has turned gray, regular basil is curled and brown, but the Thai basil seems to have stood the test. Cut it now before super cold temperatures, and hang it upside down if you'd like to dry it. You could also process it in the microwave: Take all the leaves off the stems and put them on a plate in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, turning them frequently until they are crisp and crumbly. You can also take the fresh leaves and put them in the blender with enough oil to make a slurry. Freeze this in an ice cube tray until solid, then take out the cubes and put them in a ziplock freezer bag. Later you can mix them with hot pasta, adding garlic parmesan cheese and pine nuts to make a wonderful pesto. I never add the garlic at the blender stage because it makes my smoothies taste strange the next day.

By Janet Evans, Associate Director, PHS McLean Library

“What is a Bookplate?”  

When a young scholar visiting the library asked me this, I realized I needed to do more public programming to reach people who love books and are curious to learn more about them. That’s when I decided to give a Rare Book Talk on this topic (see details below). 

Bookplates are decorative labels stuck in the front of a book, bearing the name of the book's owner. They have been around almost since the beginning of printing in Europe. The PHS McLean Library has many examples of bookplates, from the 18th to 20th centuries. Early examples were often armorial plates, showing a family crest. Later bookplates could be small-scale designs that reflected the owner’s occupation or lifelong interests and passions.  Book-loving botanists and gardeners had extensive personal libraries and found clever ways to convey their intellectual pursuits on their bookplates.

By Marion McParland, PHS Staff

Autumn, the year’s last, loveliest smile. 
-- William Cullen Bryant

As the heat of summer dissipates, and the temperatures cool, trees take their cue to begin their spectacular show of color for the season. Brilliant reds, purples, oranges and yellows make their appearance, creating a kaleidoscope of colors in the landscape. 

But when, exactly, will these beauties take the stage? “Just like the weather, I think it is unpredictable,” says Barley Van Clief, PHS Tree Tenders Program Manager. “After all, we had cherry trees blooming in February last winter. It may be that the extra rain and heat we have experienced has delayed the fall color.”

Showtime:
Typically, the show begins around the third week of October in the Philadelphia area. This year, however, may be a bit delayed. “The best weather for brilliant fall foliage is a growing season with ample moisture, followed by a dry, cool, and sunny autumn with warm days and cool, but frostless nights,” says Van Clief.

Several factors affect when and how leaves change color and the hues the produce. According to the Arbor Day Foundation, these include many factors, including shortening days, cooling temperatures, sunlight, moisture, latitude and altitude.

By Jenny Rose Carey, Senior Director, PHS Meadowbrook Farm

The Gardens at PHS Meadowbrook Farm have officially closed for the 2018 season, but activities continue in the gardens so that we can get ready for the 2019 garden season.

Here are seven of the fall activities at Meadowbrook that you might want to do in your own garden in the next couple of months.

1. Take a long look at the garden before there is a killing frost. See what worked well this year and what you would like to change for next growing season. Look at whether you would like to add more trees or shrubs, as autumn is a great time to plant these. The soil is still warm for the next couple of months, so the roots can have time to establish. At Meadowbrook, our formal gardens are a series of garden ‘rooms.’ We will be looking at whether we need to plant any new hedges to make the ‘walls’ of these outdoor rooms.

2. As the temperatures fall we will be digging up tropical plants that we want to save for next year and storing them inside as growing plants or as dormant tubers in the basement (for example Dahlias, Colocasia, Alocasia and Cannas). They must be kept above freezing and kept moist (not too wet or they will rot, and not so dry that they desiccate).

3. Take out and compost any annuals or tropical plants that you are not saving after they are killed by a heavy frost.

4. If perennials have good seed heads or structure, and they are still standing upright, leave them as seed source for birds to eat and for winter interest in your garden. Cut down and compost any perennials that are mushy, floppy or uninteresting.

By Janet Evans, Associate Director, PHS McLean Library

Predating the motion picture, lantern slides were used for entertainment and to illustrate educational programs and courses. The PHS McLean Library houses hundreds of hand-colored glass slides dating from 1900-1940s, depicting plants and gardens from all over the world.

On Wednesday, October 17, I will be part of a panel of librarians, archivists and curators from Philadelphia cultural institutions who will be showing lantern slides from their collections in the Wagner Free Institute of Science’s popular annual Lantern Slide Salon. Step back in time and see slides projected from an historic lantern projector in the Wagner’s Victorian-era lecture hall.  This free event is part of Archives Month Philly, a celebration of Philadelphia’s rich repositories located in the many archives, libraries and museums in the city.  

Three in a series of insights from the farm

We start out in life as a seed. From father to mother is how this type of seed is transferred. I call it placing the seed in the shell. There are many stages of life but we all start as seeds. Seeds are the beginning, this is where everyone starts. The growing of a seed is just like life itself.

So your mother is the pot or ground you grow in. Your father is the air, the rain, and also the wind. The sun is your strength.

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society with major support from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage and in partnership with Broad Street Ministry, set out this summer of 2018 to raise awareness about the important and lasting impact provided by Philadelphia’s community gardens and its gardeners by creating a working vegetable farm in the heart of our municipal and business district. Each day, our team of Farmers, Farm Hosts and Program Curator care for the vast array of plants, engage with and listen to those who visit and share insights into the origins, stories and techniques of gardening, plants and their relation to people. In their own words, the team shares their stories from the Farm and its impact on each of them.  

By Marion McParland and Raelie Mulvey, PHS Staff

This fabled fruit was making waves for entire civilizations as far back as 2 million to 10 million years. Today, the crisp, sweet, tart, full-bodied, packed with juicy greatness apple is as popular as ever. And, September is apple time in and around Pennsylvania! From apple picking to planting your own apple tree, now is the time to make your visions of apple-filled orchards, apple pies, and candy apples a reality.

Apple Country:
More than 2500 varieties of apples are grown in the United States with 100 varieties grown commercially. From its origins in Central Asia to its arrival in North America in the 17th century, apples have found a welcome home in Pennsylvania, the country’s third largest producer of fresh apples and apple produce because of its ideal climate and conditions -- a cold winter and plenty of time to chill, with lots of direct summer sun and well-drained, loamy soil. More than 21,000 acres of apple orchards throughout all 67 counties call the Keystone state home. The geographical and elevation differences across Pennsylvania slightly change the ideal autumn or spring months for planting. Mild, prolonged autumns make the month of October good for planting in southeastern Pennsylvania, zones 6 and 7.

Fall is for Planting: 
Although visiting an orchard to pick apples is traditional, apple trees can be grown right at home with a little bit of patience and effort. Container-grown apple trees, Malus pumila, can be planted any time of year if the soil is not frozen. Fall is a great time to plant trees because it allows them to establish root systems before the ground freezes in winter. During the autumn, the tree enjoys the frequent rains and agreeable temperatures that it would not have received in the summer.

By Sally McCabe, PHS Associate Director of Community Education

It's Time to...

Check your roses:
This morning I rode through the drive-through at McDonald's. Often they have neatly planted if not even neatly maintained landscapes around their locations, and many of them are planted up with knockout roses. Knockouts were the answer to all of our rose problems a few years ago, but now the problems have caught up with us. The dreaded fungus of Rose Rosette disease shows itself this time of year with gnarly red new growth and really hairy stems. You can buy a few more years by pruning out to below the ugly stuff, but remember to rinse your pruners in hand sanitizer or rubbing alcohol between cuts. On second thought why bother?-- they all already have it if you're pruning them. This fungus is spread through the roots, so you'll see it go down the line in the landscape from plant to plant. 

By Jenny Rose Carey, Senior Director, PHS Meadowbrook Farm

The garden at PHS Meadowbrook Farm in Abington Township, Pennsylvania is full and colorful in the late summer, especially this year with the copious amount of rain that we have had. The plants that I am featuring this month are personal favorites that are native to the East Coast: two species of perennial Lobelias and the Franklinia tree.

Brighten Your Garden
Lobelia siphilitica and Lobelia cardinalis are two upright plants with bright flowers in the late summer garden. They are both native to Eastern and Midwestern North America and are found in nature in moist to wet spots lining streambanks – so site them at the bottom of a slope, near a birdbath, rain barrel or in a rain garden.

Hummingbird Paradise
Not surprisingly, Lobelia cardinalis usually has bright cardinal red flowers that are a favorite of hummingbirds, although there are some cultivars with white or purple flowers. I was standing by a patch of this Lobelia the other day and a hummingbird came and drank the nectar from every flower on the stem. It was so close I could have reached out to touch it.

Vertical Beauty
Lobelia siphilitica is usually a sky-blue color, but occasionally white. This plant tends to seed around quite profusely, but it is a welcome vertical accent in the late summer garden. It is a great cut flower for arrangements. Pair it with zinnias in a vase and with Begonia grandis – the perennial begonia – in a partly shaded situation in the garden.