Hybrids vs Heirloom Plants

When it comes to gardening there are two types of plants - hybrids and heirloom.  In order to understand the difference, you need to know a bit of basic genetics.  An heirloom plant is one that has not been modified other than by nature.  It breeds true  meaning if you collect seeds from the plant, the resulting plants from the seeds will be the same as the parent plant (P).  An hybrid is the

Pothos (Epipremnum)

Pothos (Epipremnum) is a beautiful, low maintenance house plant that with white or yellow variegated leaves, or the leaves can be solid green.  It is commonly called devil's ivy or variegated philodendron.   My pothos is about 10 years old.  It grew nicely until we moved to our last house where no plants wanted to grow indoors.  I struggled for 4 years to keep him alive and I do mean struggle. 

Coleus

Eons ago I first became interested in gardening as a child but a few years later my environmental science teacher hired another student and myself through the school.  Our job on the surface was easy, to help out with the greenhouse.  The real purpose of the job was to teach us how the greenhouse was maintained including all the operational functions.  I absolutely loved it!  I would spend every

A Few Thoughts on 'Propagation Prohibited'

Yesterday I mentioned that the geraniums I had bought had propagation prohibited on the tag.  Essentially the plant developer holds the rights to that plant so you are not supposed to propagate the plant by asexually means such as cuttings or divisions.  You can however propagate the plant through pollination meaning you can collect seeds it produces.  On the surface the Plant Holder's Rights

Pinnacle Salmon '07 Geranium

Pinnacle® Salmon '07 GeraniumJuly 12, 2010

Geraniums have never been my favourite garden plant.  The reason being my mother would line every windowsill in the house with geranium cuttings in the fall so she would have geraniums for the following year.  I found the scent overpowering.  The past few years I have come to appreciate the simple beauty of geraniums.  They are available in a wide range

Volunteer Tomato Plants

Volunteer Tomato PlantsJune 25, 2010
We've had a fair amount of warm days followed by rain in the afternoon and evenings mixed with rainy days.  The combination has seen weeds sprout up on the garden paths so they are getting to the point of needed to be cleared again.  A couple of days ago I noticed two volunteer tomato plants on one of the paths and there is another one in the first raised bed.

Tomatoes

This is a wonderful time of year in the garden! The garden is blessing with it's abundance daily. I am dealing with a couple of problems and the ADFF (average day first frost) is quickly approaching. The days are getting shorter and cooler. The evenings have been fairly cool as well. After such a cool, wet summer it is hard to know whether we will have a nice autumn although that is the

Dealing with the Unexpected in Gardening

Gardening is one of those activities that come with a lot of risk. You plant your seeds and seedlings then with a bit of tending you hope for the best. Many a gardener has woke to find their carefully planted garden destroyed by hungry rabbits or deer. Gardens are often raided by marauding four legged and two legged thieves. As if that is bad enough the gardener is faced with adverse weather

Vinca major (Bigleaf Periwinkle)

One of our smaller garden beds has a pretty green and white creeping vine that has little purplish blue flowers in the early spring to mid-summer. It was quite apparent that the vine was of the spreading nature. It had filled the garden bed and was heading down the divider between our driveway and our neighbours. Our driveway is paved but his is gravel so the vine had no problem spreading and

Trumpet Vine

Trumpet Vine(Campsis radicans)Years ago when we bought our second house there was a vine growing up the south side of the house. This was an old, turn of the century, wood sided, two storey house in need of tender loving care. We were young and naive so tackled the job that ended up being an almost 12 year project. We did everything from designing a huge kitchen, re-roofing, siding, new wiring