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Curated News

This L.A. music producer is obsessed with houseplants: See how they amplify his work | latimes.com | Micah Fluellen

Are you growing, Cleome?

My daughter just had her senior pictures taken, and I took some cuttings from the garden for her to hold during her photoshoot. For one of the images, I had her hold just one large white blossom. It resembled a giant puffball and had a distinctly ethereal quality.

Cleome is beautiful, but it is also sticky, so keep that in mind when handling it.

I know some gardeners have no trouble sowing cleome directly in their gardens, but others complain that it can be a finicky seed.

I like to sow cleome right now, as the seeds require intense light to germinate. Sometimes cleome can benefit from staking - so keep that in mind as well.

And if you are planning a cutting garden, cleome is hard to beat. The blooms are a show-stealer in any arrangement.

Go to a local farmers market - not for the produce - for the knowledge.

The growers at the farmer's market have expertise in growing, an often untapped resource. Plus, the growers are so generous with Information.

It's always a pleasure to speak with someone who has firsthand knowledge about growing plants.

Botanical History On This Day

1621 Oxford Physic Garden was founded at 2 p.m. by gift of Henry Danvers; raised on 4,000 loads of “mucke and dunge,” it became England’s oldest botanic garden and a living chronicle from Bobart to Tolkien.

1804 William Forsyth, gardener and early RHS founder, was born; he built one of the first rock gardens and lent his name to the golden-bellied spring shrub Forsythia.

1834 Samuel Taylor Coleridge died; the Romantic poet who called taxonomy “the best words in the best order” gave us “Friendship is a sheltering tree” and Xanadu’s sinuous, incense-bearing groves.

1938 Charles Joseph Sauriol noted a resident toad half-buried beside his hepatica, blinking up as the wildflower garden was gently watered—an urban naturalist’s quiet companionship.

1946 Elizabeth Lawrence wrote her sister about scattering Campanula americana and pairing daylily ‘Margaret Perry’ with lilies—an instructive, affectionate garden plan in a letter.

Unearthed Words

A midsummer reverie at the pond—sun, dragonflies, and sky—by Walt Whitman. A July Afternoon by the Pond

Grow That Garden Library™

Read The Daily Gardener review of Weeds by Richard Mabey

Buy the book on Amazon: Weeds by Richard Mabey

Today's Botanic Spark

1874 A Case of Floral Offerings—an actress hires a “flower man” to toss bouquets for two nights, the blooms whisked home, watered, and triumphantly re-thrown to her feet the next evening.

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And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.