By now, many of you will have put up your Christmas tree, decorated it and stuffed presents under its skirts to tantalize and tease all in the household.
As most of you know, there is a long tradition of using evergreens in winter celebrations. Dr. C. Hole in the book, Protective Symbols in the Home, wrote that, “Long before the Christian era began, evergreens which flourish when everything else in nature is withered and dead, were regarded as symbols of undying life, and used in magical rites to ensure the return of vegetation. The sacred buildings of Europe and Western Asia were decked with them for the Winter Solstice rituals.” Most of no longer celebrate those Winter Solstice rituals, nor I suspect do we regard our trees as anything more than hangers to hold those decorations for Christmas morning.
Bringing Greenery Indoors
While our society is guilty of succumbing to advertising jingles and pressures, putting up Christmas trees just after Halloween in some cases, the traditions are much more restrictive than that. Christmas greenery was not to be brought into the house until Christmas Eve in most traditions – although this was probably more respected in theory than in operating fact. It was however to be removed from the house before Twelfth Night or January 6. The trees were not burned and certainly the holly and ivy used in decorating the house was never burned in the fireplace. In some parts of Ireland, the holly was kept and burnt under the pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.
Martin Luther
Legend has it that Martin Luther gave us our first decorated Christmas tree. The story goes that he wandered outside one bright, star-lit Christmas eve and was awed by the millions of shining stars. To celebrate this heavenly sight, he set up a tree for his children and covered it with hundreds of lit candles. Whether this was true or not, the first recorded use of a decorated Christmas tree comes from 1605. It was recorded about Stasburg, Germany, “At Christmas they set up fir trees in the parlours of Strasburg and hand thereon rose cut out of many-coloured paper, apples, wafers, gold-foil, sweets, etc.” Using decorated trees remained a continental European tradition for several hundred more years.
Christmas Trees Arrive in England
Christmas trees arrived in England with the court of George III in the 1800’s. The various merchants, soldiers and courtiers who accompanied him from Germany brought these Christmas traditions with them to this new court. However, using decorated trees at Christmas did not catch the public fancy until Queen Victoria and Prince Albert set up a huge tree at Windsor Castle. Reported in the press, complete with illustrations, the Christmas tree craze was born and we’ve not been the same since. I do note that there was a report in 1912 that Christmas trees were still only for the well-to-do. The landowners or merchants would set up a tree and all the children would be invited in to look at the lit candles and decorations. The poor could not afford such luxury. And such luxury it is. A friend of ours decorates his tree with candles and one of our Christmas outings is to visit and sit around a candle-lit tree sipping our mulled cider and hot chocolate. They are beautiful but one has to be very, very careful with lit candles next to a resinous evergreen.
First Electric Lightbulbs
After the introduction of electricity, light bulbs replaced candles and trees began to be erected in public place for all to enjoy. The first of the electric-lit public trees that is well recorded took place in Pasadena, California in 1909. Now, the use of Christmas trees is everywhere and I suspect the original meanings have been lost in that ubiquity. Just part of the landscape so to speak.
Practical note
As a note of practicality in this historical lesson, do keep your tree well watered this season. Not that it will live afterwards but if you keep it watered in its stand, the needles will stay green longer and not dry out. Dry needles are serious fire hazards and can be lit off by the heat of a nearby electric light bulb. Once ignited, it only takes three seconds for the tree to be totally consumed by flames and almost impossible to extinguish with household fire systems. A few gallons of water and a few minutes every day or two can easily prevent a Christmas tragedy.
Let me take this moment to wish all of you a very happy Christmas season. However you see or celebrate this holiday season, I hope you can find it in your hearts to bring some love into this world. Love, in life or gardening, is really the most important thing we share and my Christmas wish for you would be that you are able to find and share some love with those around you.
Merry Christmas.
Now, I know some of you (at one or two) like to hear what my oldest and best friend Fergus and I are doing. Right now, I’m not talking to him. Here’s why.
And to follow up on the previous post - here’s a video about 3 Steps to Better Shade Gardening
Interested in finding the three main things you need to do in order to grow great perennial flowers in full sun? There are some decent pictures in the video (if you like perennial flower pictures) 
Here’s a link to a video I just posted.
I think this is “that” column. The one where I tell you how to either kill or save your poinsettia because it just seems too nice to toss away. It seems that a column like this is obligatory; much like writing about not planting too early in the spring or your tomatoes will get frosted. I mean, if we haven’t figured out by now that frost is going to kill a tomato, what chance do we have with keeping poinsettia alive? You either want to do it or you don’t.
There are only two things to know
There are only two things you need to know about admitting a poinsettia into your house. Either you want to keep it alive or you don’t care if it dies. So we know that if you don’t care, you really don’t have to read this article. Let the thing dry out and wither away, toss it in the compost and move on. Life is too short to worry about a red-bract plant on steroids.
On the other hand
On the other hand, if you want to keep it alive there are really only two things you need to make decisions about. Are you going to keep it alive for Christmas and then get rid of it or are you really going to keep it alive and try for a reblooming. Now, if you’re going to keep it alive for Christmas, then all you have to do is keep it slightly damp, out of drafts and in as much sunlight as you can. That should keep it alive for the next few weeks and then right after Christmas, you can compost it and return it to the soil from which it sprang.
Rebloom?
But, if you want to try to keep it alive and get it to rebloom, there are only two things you have to consider. Are you serious about only giving it natural light for the next 12 months along with feeding, watering, pruning, and moving it indoors/outdoors and fighting off whitefly armies. If the answer to this question is an introspective, “No, I’m really not going to do all those things” then your decision is an easy one. See the paragraph immediately above and simply enjoy the plant.
Light?
On the other hand, if you decide you’re serious about keeping this plant alive, then there are only two things you need to make decisions about. Do I have a full southern exposure or do I not have a full light area. If you don’t have a full light area so you can mimic this plant’s native Mexican light levels, then I suggest you see paragraph three above and simply enjoy the plant. If you do happen to have a full light area, are committed to making the plant live for an entire year, then we can move on to, surprisingly enough, to understanding that there are only two choices you have to make.
You’ve committed to keeping the plant alive and healthy. Giving it full sunlight and watering it properly (water when the soil dries and allow it to dry out slightly between waterings), feeding it with half-strength fertilizer for the summer and then ramping up to regular doses when the light levels improve. You’re keeping the plant out of the draft and generally setting up a place in your house that will resemble the climate of Mexico. You only have two choices then. Do I take the plant with me on my summer vacation or do I not? If you decide to pamper the plant this means making sure it is taken care of year round. If you can’t do this, then please see paragraph three.
Pruning?
If we’re pampering the plant, there are only two questions to answer. Are you prepared to really, seriously prune this plant at the end of August and early September or are you a shy person when it comes to whacking plants back. A poinsettia develops the red bracts on the ends of new growth so if you’re not prepared to whack it back, make it bush out and force it to develop new coloured bracts, then once again I suggest you see paragraph three. If you are prepared to whack it back, then you only have two choices to make.
Light bulbs?
Are you prepared to never turn on a light bulb in the room where this plant lives or are you going to insist on seeing in this room? At the risk of being boring, let me tell you that artificial light of any kind will stop the plant from turning red. Even a second of artificial light will set it back a few days. Enough seconds and you’ll never see a bloom. And no, putting it into a closet for the entire fall will not bring it into bloom. It requires full sunlight but a decreasing (naturally-so) amount of it. So if you like seeing in your house after dark, then please see paragraph 3. On the other hand, if you’re committed to unscrewing the bulbs in every fixture in the poinsettia-room, then there are only two things you need to worry about.
Sane or Crazy?
Whether you’re sane or whether you’re crazy. Frankly, if you haven’t already chosen paragraph 3 above, then the answer to that question is becoming more and more obvious by the paragraph. If you’re still with me and want to try to keep this bit of gaudy horticultural breeding alive, then all I can say is you’re some crazed gardener, looking to never, ever admit defeat with a plant. You’re joining a club of similarly afflicted folks who simply can’t bear to toss out a plant under any circumstances. People who will grow a poinsettia for years and years without ever seeing a bloom again but who do so on the odd chance the plant will respond. People who will grow outdoor plants far out of their zone. People who don’t know the meaning of the words, “Can’t grow it here.”
Welcome to the club.
Recent research at Sanford University indicates that global warming is going to have a devastating effect on land-birds. *If* nothing changes between 2100 and now, we can expect to lose upwards of 30% of all land-based birds. It seems the plants they depend on have to move north or upward in height (up the nearest mountain) and the loss of area will also reduce the number of birds that the habitat can support.
Reported by TreeHugger Blog
One of the things I’ve started doing again after a bit of a break, is reading a lot more garden blogs. (Hey, it’s winter and I can’t garden) I had read about Blogger’s new policy of requiring you to have a Blogger site if you wanted to interact with other Blogger blogs but hadn’t run into it until this weekend. I read a post and decided to make a comment but then ran into the fact that I no longer have a Blogger account.
I could sign up for some kind of “anonymous” account but what’s the point?
Blogging is and always has been about creating networks and sharing stuff among blogs. With one swoop of policy, Blogger has surgically removed all future networking/links from outside its own boundaries. Because I host my own blog, I can’t make comments on Blogger sites that will include a link to my site to include myself as part of the ongoing conversation. I can’t include myself and my blog into the conversations of Blogger sites.
Garden bloggers that use Blogger will no longer be able to have comment links from a range of non-Blogger sites. Blogger-hosted blogs are now insulated from the rest of the blogosphere. A blog-ghetto if you will. It’s a big ghetto but as soon as you put up a wall where you restrict people from coming in, it doesn’t matter how large the area enclosed, you still live inside a wall.
So. Too bad I couldn’t contribute to the ongoing discussion on the blog I visited but them’s the breaks. I suspect both myself and the blog author are slightly worse off for this.
I think the real losers in this though are those that blog within Blogger. Not to put too fine a point on it but if you look at the most-read gardening blogs, the most popular, the majority of them are outside of Blogger and self-hosted. Those who blog within the Blogger network will find themselves slowly weaned off contact from these content leaders. It won’t happen next week or next month but my guess is it will happen unless Blogger changes its policy. Those who blog seriously will move to self-hosting and those who want to play will stay within Blogger.
My .02 on a snow-recovering Monday morning.
I’ve posted a new video on “3 Things You Can Do to Start an Organic Lawn.”
Click here to see it.
Winter seems to have arrived with a bit of a bang this past week. The lawn chairs are covered in snow and if that’s not a sign I’m not supposed to be sitting out there, I’m not sure what is. You have to love it though; the clean white snow covering everything is a clear signal that I should get on with next year’s gardening. Or at least make sure that whatever I’ve left undone in the house is well and truly taken care of. And here’s where my cold basement comes into play. I am watering every plant I brought indoors even though the mice seemed to have taken a bit of a shine to the geraniums when I put them down in the old cold cellar. The upshot of this is that the geraniums are a bit smaller now and the mice are gone, courtesy of a few traps, peanut butter and bait. I have high hopes that the plants will overwinter in the old way by being frost free but damp and without light. I know if I let them stay down there without water or in a heated basement, they’ll be dead come spring but the old cold cellar “should” work according to garden lore. I’ll get back to you though.
Houseplants
I’m also trying to decide what to do with the ginger. Last year, I let it almost freeze (or it did freeze a bit) and it was decidedly unhappy with me. This is the variegated ginger that has never flowered so perhaps it too is sending a message. Having tried bright light all winter, dormancy with little water and last year almost-freezing, I’m thinking that my season simply isn’t long enough for this plant. I suspect that grow-lights are the answer but I’m not committed enough to the plant to set up a growing system for one plant. I think it will get a cold room treatment this year and I’ll combine that with an early spring in the seed starter area and in-ground growing. And if that doesn’t bring it into bloom next summer, I’ll have one more plant for the compost pile. The only thing that will get it dug up next fall will be having produced blooms. There’s only so much room I want to give plants that don’t perform.
Rule of Watering Houseplants
The other plants are doing well although the basil I brought indoors has been dropping leaves a bit. I think I have to step up the watering there a bit. Remember the rule of watering indoor plants? I have to remind myself of it regularly. Touch the potted soil with your finger. If the soil is slightly damp, do not water. If your finger comes away bone dry, soak the pot. In this way, you’ll avoid over or underwatering and your plants will love you for the even supply of moisture. There’s no rule that says “water every third day” that makes sense to me because every house is different. And zones within houses are different; plants over heating vents require more water than plants stuck in cold, dark corners. Touch the soil with your finger for best results. And no, one of those fancy watering gauges is no substitute for your finger. I’ve heard more folks kill plants with those things because the readings are off. Your finger never needs batteries, never hides in a drawer somewhere you can’t find it, is readily accessible 24 hours of the day whenever you think of watering and doesn’t make mistakes. Why use a gizmo when you have a finger?
Garden Catalogs
The first catalog also arrived in the mail this past week. Yes! I’m now ready to start planning for next year. Mind you, I also have somewhere around 300 varieties of seed already in the basement hidden from the mice in mouse-proof containers. So my spring project is not likely to be choosing seed, but rather building a seed starting rack in the basement. Seems there’s a lot of things going on in the basement this spring. I suspect we’ll have enough lights down there to qualify as a grow-op by the time real spring rolls around. But it is still fun to look through the catalogs and find the treasures, the plants you really want to start yourself because you know they won’t be available in garden centres. That’s the advantage of having your own little growing area in the basement; you get to pick what to grow.
Overwintering Shrub Cuttings
The other plants that got to visit the basement this past week were the shrub cuttings I had taken last summer. I had great intentions of potting them up and overwintering them outdoors but it was a case of too little, too late on those. So the cuttings dropped all their leaves with frosts and reduced light levels, have been well and truly frozen outdoors, and are now downstairs in the cold cellar along with the geraniums. They should be fine down there; staying dormant until next spring. I will plant them in the ground next year in a small temporary nursery area so they’ll grow up into nice shrubs in a year or three. I need a ton of these plants for the landscaping I want to do so I suspect I’ll wind up taking even more cuttings next year. Watch out for your shrubs if I come to visit your garden!
Mind you, that won’t take place until next spring and for now, I have enough projects to keep me busy dreaming of next year. I’ll dream right on through this snow. And what projects are you dreaming of for next year?
Ξ December 13th, 2007 | → 2 Comments | ∇ Ponds |
Whoa Nelly! The biggest pond company in the U.S. is in a bit of an economic downturn and the owner Greg Whittstock was just asked to blog about his company at Inc.
This isn’t particularly interesting if you’re a home gardener but if you’re in the trade at all or are interested in corporate dynamics, this is interesting stuff. Just be aware that there’s a ton of very angry people writing comments (some of the folks who had to be let go in the cost-cutting)
But it’s a window into the nursery trade for sure.
I actually visited the building they’re talking about and took some pond tours courtesy of these guys last summer. They were very professional and helpful in setting this garden writer up with some great ponds to see and tour. So while I love their ponds, I’m not at all qualified to write about the business itself.
Thanks to the Golden Gecko for the tip.
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