Herself's Houseplants

Recent research from Vidi researcher Josef Stuefer at the Radboud University Nijmegen reveals that plants have their own chat systems that they can use to warn each other. Therefore plants are not boring and passive organisms that just stand there waiting to be cut off or eaten up. Many plants form internal communications networks and are able to exchange information efficiently.

Many herbal plants such as strawberry, clover, reed and ground elder naturally form networks. Individual plants remain connected with each other for a certain period of time by means of runners. These connections enable the plants to share information with each other via internal channels. They are therefore very similar to computer networks. But what do plants want to chat to each other about? [ read more . . . Clever plants chat over there own network ]

Plants are also less aggressive about sending out roots for water when planted among family. It may be a very good thing they grow and move very slowly.

Scientists from the University of Exeter and Shimane University in Japan have proved for the first time that vitamin C is essential for plant growth. This discovery could have implications for agriculture and for the production of vitamin C dietary supplements.The study, which is now published online in The Plant Journal, describes the newly-identified enzyme, GDP-L-galactose phosphorylase, which produces vitamin C, or ascorbate, in plants. Vitamin C is already known to be an antioxidant, which helps plants deal with stresses from drought to ozone and UV radiation, but until now it was not known that plants could not grow without it. [ read more. . . Study shows vitamin C is essential for plant growth ]

The vitamin C was increased in plants by manipulating genes. I have no idea if giving your plant some vitamin C in plant food will make any difference. The difference in plants exposed to stresses like smog is very impressive. The ones able to produce more vitamin C thrive while the others shrivel.

See also:
Vitamin C Protects Stressed-Out Plants
UCR: Boosting Vitamin C in Plants Can help Reduce Smog Damage

Naturally it would smell as sweet, but would a rose by any other name attract your attention as quickly as “Pope John Paul II”?Ken Rowe doubts it. People in the rose-naming business deliberately go for something catchy for just that reason, he said. Rowe, of Corvallis, is chairman of the 17th annual Albany Rose Show, which continues through 6 p.m. today at Heritage Mall in Albany.

Visitors to the show will see table after table of the fragile blooms, boasting names such as, “Timeless,” “Veterans’ Honor,” and “Hoagy Carmichael.” [ more How catchy is the name of your favorite rose?]

There are now companies that will name a rose after you or a loved one for a fee. Google ‘naming a rose’ to get a list of vendors.

Or you can go to Every Rose and search for roses by name.

One of the prettiest plants on my deck all summer has been an echeveria named Silver Spoons. The centerpiece in a small hypertufa trough, Silver Spoons also proved to be one of my easiest container plants.

A waxy succulent plant with large silver-blue, spoon-shaped leaves, it looks something like a giant hen-and-chicks (Sempervivum). Its small coral flowers atop tall stalks are a nice extra, but the leaves are really the focal point.

Echeverias are native to near-desert parts of Mexico and South America, where they thrive in soil that is well-drained and often dry. Houseplant books have long offered plenty of information on growing echeveria indoors, but only recently has the plant become a hot item outdoors here in the Midwest. . . . [ read more Silver Spoons is an easy container plant]

Thanks for the photo!

Echeverias are named after an 18th century Spanish botanical artist. They are easy to grow from cuttings. Dead leaves should be removed they are prone to fungus problems. Water them as you would a cactus, deeply and rarely. In winter they lose their leaves, detracting from their appearance. They make great dish garden plants and come in many colors.