The Ginger Family

     While trying to discern if Stromanthe was a type of ginger, learned a few things:
     -The ginger order (Zingiberales) is a large one, including 68 genera.
     -Most members of Zingiberales are herbacious perennials with rhizomatous root systems (Wikipedia).
     -Straight from Wikipedia, the families of Zingiberales include
          -Cannas
          -Costus Spiral Gingers
          -Heliconias
          -Orchidantha
          -Musa Bananas
          -Maranta Prayer Plants
          -Strelitzia Bird of Paradise
          -Zingiber Gingers
     Most of the members of the Zingiberales Order are tropical or subtropical. Cannas are native to the new world, while most Zingiber gingers are native to Asia.
     Zingiberoides members have adapted to Southeast Asia's monsoonal climate, becoming dormant in the dry season as underground fleshy rhizomes. Marantas, Heliconias, and Cannas have adapted to swampy areas and have their rhizomes rooted underwater.
     Asarum canadense "wild ginger" of Eastern North America is actually not a ginger, and is not edible. If eaten it causes permanent kidney damage as it contains aristolochic acid. Try saying that 5 times fast.
     Members of the Maranta family can have Rosmarinic acid, a caffeic ester. Arrowroot is a member of the Maranta family. So is Stromanthe, so it is possibly edible and possibly awesome.

Red Sugarcane, Saccharum officinarum

   Last fall I took a road trip to a nursery called A Natural Farm, at Howie in the Hills, Florida. They had many interesting plants, which pleased me very much, including many that I already owned. I ended up buying three sugar cane rooted cuttings, and planted all three in the back yard. The back is sheltered from frost and winds, as best as I can make it. These are some pictures taken shortly after planting.

     Wikipedia says that sugarcane is the worlds most produced crop by quantity. It also says that sugarcane is a true grass. It is propagated by stem cuttings that must contain at least one bud. These three are stem cuttings.
     IFAS recommends cutting linger stalks into 6 bud seed pieces ( about 2-3 feet long) and planting that. Also, "Single node pieces, which contain a single bud, can be planted in pots or trays and later transplanted at the target site."

Shell Ginger Smoothies

     Since learning that Shell Ginger is a superfood, I have found that it can be good in a green smoothie with plant based vanilla flavored protein and frozen blueberries. I have also found that freezing the leaves in advance and then removing the center spine improves their consistency in the smoothie without sacrificing any nutrition.

Pink Mystery Flower

May 2019

     I wish I knew what this wildflower was called. It is quite beautiful and large, at least 18 inches tall. Found in the spring time in the grasses on the Weeki Wachee Preserve.
     One of the suggestions that I have received online says that this is a Thistle. What do you think?

Purple Mystery Flower

May 14th, 2019

Found this growing in the side of a baby fig tree that I bought from the botanical gardens. Whatever this is, it's beautiful, so probably toxic, right?

Salvia splendens

     I bought this little beauty on sale from one of the big box stores in the springtime. Clearly the shoppers there had passed it over for showier selections. It was significantly rootbound, with hardly any soil remaining in its tiny two inch container. Aside from that indicator, it looked like it still might be worthwhile since my yard has been very successful with tropical or cardinal sage. This picture was taken about two weeks after planting, shocking how much fuller the leaves became once they had a little bit of room to grow!

   Multiple internet sources say that Salvia splendens is native to Brazil and is a tender perennial that can't stand a freeze. Perhaps that is why it was looked over, it may have to be potted up in the winter and cuttings taken. Salvias can be propagated by cuttings and by seeds, but some varieties are not true to type.
     The internet is conflicted on whether Salvia splendens is edible or not. I will have to try it out on the rabbits, then watch them closely for hallucinations. Just in case.

Scrubland Baroness works on the Forest Garden, July 2017

   Early on, one of the children noted that the ground in the real forest was very spongy and lacked a pathway. Apparently children are too short to see over the tops of palmetto bushes, which can make navigation difficult. My solution was to begin building a pathway from the edge of the forest to the shady vale.

   We stopped at the closest big box store and got 20 pavers to begin the pathway. At $1.36 each, the convenience of premade bricks at a reasonable size makes up for the additional price. Plus I didnt have to cast my own bricks, which sounds like a messy and time consuming process.

     Carrying the bricks to place them was the hardest part. I got some cardio, and didnt even make the kids help out.

Texas Sage, Scarlet Sage, Tropical Sage, Salvia coccinea

     It's hard to believe how many flowers this plant has over the course of the growing season. I feel like it blooms if it gets any amount of watering. I have even taken to trimming off the spent branches after the seeds have been thrown off to encourage more blooms. I feed the branches to the rabbits, of course.

   Texas sage is a tender perennial native to Mexico but found in Florida and other parts of the Southeast. It can freeze to the ground in the winter time, and I have lost several plants that way.  I have also lost a few plants to irregular watering. It is edible, has a bitter taste which is good for flavoring chicken. It is in the same family as the hallucinogenic sage, but it is unknown if Texas Sage has hallucinogenic properties. Maybe you can tell me?

    Propagation of Texas sage is primarily done by seed, but I suppose you could do cuttings of new growth if you were desperate. Texas sage is woody, so follow the same cutting directions as if you were making rosemary cuttings. I like to do nothing to propagate Texas Sage, and then later find seedlings in unexpected places, and I move the seedlings to where I want the plants to grow. The seedlings transplant easily.
     Flowers can either be red, pink, white, or possibly other colors I have never seen. Red is the most successful in my garden, but that could be because I have had red the longest. It gets visited by a variety of creatures including hummingbirds and bees.

Chrissy the Scrub Land Baroness

March, 2019

     When I was young, I was bullied. A lot. Things were different then. I have forgiven the chick who was always trying to fight me, because I am a grown up and she, well, she works at a car dealership. I have also forgiven the chick who was always calling me a "scrub" (she thought she was so much better than I was, economically, it seems.) She is a waitress now, and I have come to embrace the term Scrub and all it stands for.

Future Campsite

     When I was younger and trying to understand how the world works I would always ask my father the good questions. Not about dating and romancey stuff, but about science/history/religion/life. I used to spend time with him on the weekends at his repair shop, and sometimes we went out on service calls. I remeber once, as we were driving past the cattle farms on the east side of the county, asking him who owned all this land and how come they didn't do anything with it? His answer was vague, something about rich people that hoarded land from others. That kind of answer was right in character with him, as he grew up on a dairy farm and knew the value of land, or at least, Michigan land. Anyone who has scoped the price of acreage here in Florida knows that you can't buy anything but swampland for less than about 12k an acre. Many estimates are even higher than that number.

Climbing Tree

     When I was a teenager, I really started learning how the world works, and I took an interest in the biosciences and ecology. It was sometime during that time that I had the dream of becoming one of those land barons, so that I could preserve plant and animal habitat. Of course, back then I wanted to buy rainforests so the pretty little parrots and iguanas had their home to live in (thanks a lot, Ferngully!) But now that I am a grown up, I believe in protecting habitat locally. I try to support local parks amd state parks. I try to practice sustainable living ideals - so I have, indeed, turned into the scrub who hangs the laundry on the clothesline.

Rat Snake

     This year I have done something amazing, completed one of my lifelong goals - I have bought some bug out land. I have a piece of the local scrubland for myself, out on the eastside of my county. Though it's only an acre and a half, I am now one of those reviled land barons.
          Scrub Land Baroness.

Punch-bowl Gardening

     I love Cannas. They are beautiful and edible and easy to grow. They are easy to grow, but you have to give them what they want, and what they want is water and sunlight.
     So I am developing a whole new style of plant nursing which I invented, and I am going to call it Punch-Bowl Gardening.
     The technique is simple. Head to your local charity-based thrift store and buy a few punch bowls. Believe me, these large bowls are there in abundance and no one else is buying them! Make sure you don't spend more than $3.00 per bowl, as that kind of money means you are buying an antique and not just unwanted glassware. The bowls can have chips on the edges, no big deal. We are buying them to reuse and recycle, not necessarily for looks.

     Then pot on your Cannas, Taros, or other water-loving plants as you normally would into whatever kind of pot that you have handy. I am using black nursery pots that I have scavenged or begged for. When I plant Cannas and other bog plants i like to put a layer of cypress mulch into the bottom of the pot, then medium, then manure and plant base as the top layer. I use aged rabbit manure, the moldier/gummier the better. Then place the potted plant into the punchbowl sitting out in your garden, and fill the punchbowl up with water. Whenever you water your plants or when the punchbowl is empty, refill to the top.

     The advantages - easy to keep thirsty plants happy and gives wildlife a place to grab a drink (frogs, lizards, butterflies). Disadvantages - mosquito growth and high winds can sometimes knock plants over if very full of water. The easiest way to treat the mosquitos is to add BT to the punchbowl, which inhibits the larval form of mosquito. That is also the most expensive way. Hardest way to treat the mosquitos is to dump the water out twice a week, run a scrub brush around the inside, then refill with clean water.
    If you've enjoyed this post and now want to buy some mosquito dunks loaded with BT from amazon, please use Amazon Smile and donate to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention for me. I want them to get the proceeds for any sales, not me or my plant blog.

The back yard garden, featuring aquarium Cannas, Punch-Bowl Cannas, and non-draining pot Cannas