Martin Garcia and Lookin At Lucky make their way to the winner's circle following their triumph in the 135th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course Saturday, May 15, 2010.

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Kim Hairston

The Black-eyed Susan was designated Maryland's state flower in 1918 by an act of Gov. Emerson C. Harrington.

It seems that an article in the National Georgraphic deplored the state's lack of an official flower, especially since the Black-eyed Susan could be had for the picking, so to speak. And so the politicians were moved to act.

State Sen. Harvey Bomberger made this tribute in nominating the flower:

"The hardiness of the plant, its colors, the quiet beauty and refinement of its bloom, its adaptability for personal adornment, inclined me to think that if the state was to have a flower it might adopt by legislative action what seem to properly to be the natural choice. "

The flower was declared the Preakness flower in 1940 and Colonel Edward R. Bradley's Bimelech in 1940 was the first winner to wear the floral blanket.

It is said the Susan's flower usually has 13 petals, which is taken to symbolize the 13 original colonies, of which Maryland was one.

The flower reproduces the state's black and yellow colors, which were the colors of the founding Calvert family.

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Here in Maryland, we paint the daisies black for the Preakness.

Maryland's state flower is the Black-eyed Susan and, like the blanket of roses draped over the winner of the Kentucky Derby, a blanket of wannabe Black-eyed Susans will be draped over the withers of the winner of the Preakness on Saturday afternoon.

Trouble is, as any gardener knows, Black-eyed Susans are not in bloom in May in Maryland, so  yellow daisy chrysanthemums are doctored with paint to create a black-eyed center and then woven into a blanket for the winner.

(The work will take place Friday at the York Road Giant, and The Baltimore Sun will have video. Stay tuned.)

The fact is, even if the Black-eyed Susans were in bloom at Preakness time, they are a wildflower, not a commercial flower, and too delicate to be woven into a blanket, which requires perhaps 2,000 blooms.

The flower was chosen as Maryland's state flower because its colors, yellow and deep brown, echo the colors of the state's founding Calvert family. For years, the color was created for Preakness with a little black shoe polish.

That's the truth behind the Preakness flowers. The horses are real, though.

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It seems odd, but there are calls to "go green" this Valentine's Day.

We thought red was the color of the day. Or at least, the focus on fresh flowers made it a "green" holiday.

But there is increasing concern that the flowers imported to the United States are tainted by the illnesses suffered by the South American workers who harvest them. The crops, primarily from Columbia and Ecuador, are loaded with pesticides.

That's in part because the United States is very concerned about any and all insects that could hitch a ride into this country on those blooms.

Continue reading "Flowers for Valentine's Day" »

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Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Amy Davis

Garden Variety is back behind the plow today after a weekend in Pittsburgh, soaking up the black and gold fun of a Super Bowl weekend with family and friends.

Alas, victory did not go to the Steelers, but the "seeds" of future football victories are no doubt there.

Speaking of black and gold....

Black is the Holy Grail of plant hybridizers. The black dahlia, the black tomato, the black rose. This is what those in plant science seek.

Mostly what they get, however, is a very deep purple or a very deep blue or a deep burgundy.

This season entry is the black petunia, hybridized by Ball, and named, very appropriately, Black Velvet.

Continue reading "What blooms black and gold?" »

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Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Sarah Kickler Kelber

With apologies to "Jurassic Park"...

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Photo credit: Susan Harris

Susan Harris, one of the writers behind the hugely successful blog Garden Rant, visited Annapolis (our fair city!) over the weekend to photograph the city's street gardens.

Susan also writes the blog for Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville and still another blog, Sustainable and Urban Gardening.

That's for the attention, Susan!

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My colleague Dave Rosenthal, who blogs about books over at Read Street, is writing about flowers today.

The subject is the Corpse Flower that is blooming at a library (hence, the book angle) in California. A huge plant, it gets its name from its horrible smell.

As if it weren't tough enough to get people to read books....

Speaking of plants and death, I learned an interesting little tidbit while reporting yesterday on Waterfront Park, Baltimore's National Aquarium's bayscaped gardens.

The serviceberry, a colorful small tree or large shrub that produces berries at about this time of year, was named for the fact that, when it bloomed, it signaled that the ground had thawed enough to allow for burials.

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Why are they so profuse this season? Possibly because there was no late frost to kill off the buds. Maybe the winter snow provided the moisture they like so much. Not sure, but I'll take it!

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Photo credit: Michael Lemmon

Costus Barbatus

This majestic perennial, blooming now at the Baltimore Conservatory in Druid Hill Park, is appropriately named the Red Tower Ginger because it can grow up to 6 to 8 feet tall and is crowned with red spikes that produce small bright yellow flowers.

The leaves are a glossy green that grow short hairs on the underside,  making them very soft to the touch. 

These gingers are native to Costa Rica and do best in Zones 9 or higher. They will not tolerate frost but can be grown in containers and brought inside for the winter months.

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Photo credit: Michael Lemmon

Raphiolepis Indica “Springtime”

Adding their own sweet smell to the already fragrant Mediterranean House at the Baltimore Conservatory in Druid Hill Park, the blanket of pink and white blossoms of the Raphiolepis Indica are an attractive reminder that springtime is in the air at the Rawlings Conservatory.

Continue reading "What's blooming at the Baltimore Conservatory?" »

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A walk through the lush tropical room at the Baltimore Conservatory in Druid Hill Park, with its towering bananas, provides a warm remedy for your winter doldrums.

Bananas are commonly referred to as trees but are actually classified as an herbaceous plant of the Musaceae family, a group of treelike tropical herbs that are native to Asia.

Large green leaves grow in a spiral stalk giving the impression of a “woody” tree that forms a long stem containing both male and female flowers.

The male flowers grow into a large purple bract while the female clusters grow into fruit with tiers known as hands. Individual bananas are called fingers. There can be up to 20 hands on a single bunch weighing up to nearly 50 pounds. 

 The word banana comes from the Arabic banan, which means "finger." On the tree fruit can take up to 150 days to ripen.

Photo credit: Michael Lemmon

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Hellebores have always been the saving grace of the February garden for me.

You have to love a flower with the spunk to bloom in defiance of winter.

 A couple of years ago, I wrote a story on hellebores and their biggest champion, David Culp, after it had been awarded a long overdue Plant of the Year in 2005 by the Perennial Plant Association.

As always happens when I write a garden story for The Baltimore Sun, I spend money on my topic, and I bought hellebores.

Eight, to be exact. And I dotted my garden with them so that no corner would be unrelieved by their dark leaves and delicate cup-like flowers.

Continue reading "Where in hell are my hellebores?" »

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The power of the press.

I write today in The Baltimore Sun about planting pansies. About how it started with landscapers filling bare spaces in fall and winter and then migrated to the home garden.

Lo and behold, the column no sooner hit the streets than pansies arrived at The Sun!

I love it when it all comes together!

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

Continue reading "Pansy Day at The Baltimore Sun!" »

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"Every year is a good year for sunflowers," said Jon Traunfeld of the University of Maryland extension service, and he was laughing.

He was responding to a question I posed from Garden Variety readers. Several, including Linda Nelson, daughter of Colt great and barbecue purveyor Andy Nelson, wrote to say their sunflowers seemed especially tall this year and the seed heads especially heavy.

"As long as they get the heat they want and the moisture they want, they are happy," Traunfeld said.

Sunflowers are native to the high plains states, where it is hot and dry. They are used to drought conditions. When you get a rainy summer, as we have had here in part of the Mid-Atlantic, sunflowers go crazy.

Even in Hampden, where Laura Durington says her sunflower seem to grow inches every time she looked away.

While Linda Nelson used her father as a measuring stick, Laura used the 6-foot fence in her yard. She thinks her flower is more than 15 feet tall.

She can thank the rain, not the rat poop, which was one of her theories about why a sunflower grew so large in the city.

"It is a big plant and it needs lots of moisture," said Traunfeld. "But their production can really increase with good rainfall."

Continue reading "Sunflower season!" »

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Photo courtesy of W. Atlee Burpee & Co

I find myself humming Cat Stevens these days. "I'm being followed by a moonflower...moonflower, moonflower."

It was "moonshadow" in his song, but it is a moonflower in my garden.

My friend Susan Iglehart of Susan Iglehart's Flowers in Glyndon, Md., gave me a moonflower (Calonyction aculeatum) when I arrived at her home in May to pick up my order of annuals, vegetables and herbs.

Susan works hard over the winter to find the newest and best seeds to "custom" grow for her gardening clients. She sends us a checklist in February, and we pick up the results from her greenhouses in May.

(It is always a bit like Christmas to visit Susan. I never remember what I ordered, so it is always a surprise. And I always find one or two plants that I absolutely must have. And then she sends one of her newer varieties home with me, too. It might be an heirloom tomato, or an unusual geranium. This year, it was the moonflower.)

I tucked it in a spot at the corner of the deck, where the steps lead down into the yard, and now its vines and heart-shaped leaves have found their way up the steps and along the railing and into the bird bath that is attached there!

Moonflower is an annual tropical vine that is a slow starter. But it thrives in the heat and as the summer warms, it quickly grows, flowering around the 4th of July. It is like the morning glory in one sense - it is almost invasive. Deadhead if you don't want it to self-seed. (Warning: seeds are poisonous.)

Each evening, as I welcome the soft night, there are giant white blossoms to welcome me -- as big as dinner plates and as white as French porcelain. 

The flowers are only there in the evening, and each bloom lasts only until dawn when it closes and waits to drop from the vine.

But every night, there is a new moonflower to follow me.

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