Gerbera Daisy

A bouquet of gerbera daisies (commonly known as 'gerber' daisies) came into my life yesterday at work. The organization I work for is planning a wine and food tasting event on a bohemian chic street in Venice, CA and delivered single stem daisies to potential participants, merchant owners and restauranteurs . I was happy to take home the remaining beauties, and they are what you see here.

I think a bouquet of gerber daisies always adds a feeling of bountiful delight to a room. It's no surprise that these flowers represent cheerfulness, purity and innocence; just look at them grinning from the center of their brightly colored petals! This flower is one of the most popular gifts and seems sure to add extra merriment to the day of any recipient, whether it be a birthday, baby or bridal shower, or other congratulatory event.

History: The gerbera daisy was discovered in 1884 near Barberton, South Africa, by Scotsman Robert Jameson. While the flower's scientific name, Gerbera jamesonii, recollects the name of its founder, the meaning of its common name draws from German naturalist Traugott Gerber. Breeding programs that began in England in 1890 enhanced the flower's quality and color variations. The gerbera daisy's popularity soon traveled to growers in the Netherlands which, along with Columbia, is the primary distributor of the flower's cut version today. (History and Meaning of Gerbera Daisies by Samantha Green)

Pink gerber daisies are thought to represent admiration and sympathy, and can be given as get well gifts or a gift of friendship.

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• History and Meaning of Gerbera Daisies by Samantha Green

Cucumber culprits

My cucumber plant was thriving, but then (cue the ominous pipe organ) after returning from a long weekend camping trip I discovered that most of its leaves were brown, brittle and what was left of anything green had been chewed to bits. The little culprits blended in so well with the green stems that I didn't spot them right away. Green caterpillars, those jerks! Once I discovered the first onme I was able to quickly spot 2 more, lounging on their green couch, being all fat and happy. Their vicious little bite marks were visible on the only small fruit that had started growing.

In researching cucumber culprits, I've narrowed it down to cabbage loopers - green inchworm style caterpillars. I found varying sources on what the adult species is, either nocturnal brown moth or cabbage white butterfly

All sources said that the cabbage looper is "very destructive" to plants due to its "voracious consumption" of leaves. Watch out plants!

Solutions: One suggestion is to attract beneficial insects by planting flowers, such as marigolds, calendula, sunflower, daisy, alyssum or dill nearby. These plants attract insects that attack and kill cabbage loopers and cabbage butterflies.
http://www.bhg.com/gardening/pests/insects-diseases-weeds/stop-cabbage-loopers/

Another solution is to cover the plant with netting to keep the insects out.

Photos above by J. Zacarias

Spring growth

Schefflera has baby leaves sprouting everywhere

Avocado plant leaves are growing and unfolding...exciting to see

Asiatic lily is getting ready to bloom again

Mint Juleps & Mojitos, coming up!

I was happy to stumble upon this large patch of mint growing in my neighborhood. It smelled so sweetly fragrant that I could not resist pinching a leaf off for some scratch and sniff action; the fuzzy leaves released a wonderful fragrance when rubbed between two fingers.

I returned the next day with a sharp pair of scissors to take cut some clippings in order to try propagating them at home. I am currently trying 3 methods of growing new mint plants from the cuttings. I started with clippings from the same mint shrub on 3/28/11, and I am excited to see which method works the best over the next few weeks.

1. I cut a stem with 4-5 sections and plant directly in soil. I covered each node with about 1/2" of dirt in this pot, making sure that the leaves at each node stayed exposed above the dirt. I am watering daily, and making sure it gets a few hours of sunlight each day and if I've got it right, roots will grow from each node, and I will have more chances of the mint plant thriving than with a single root system. I think I should have used a longer narrow planter to give the cutting more room to root and grow, but we shall see!

2. I placed cuttings upright directly into soil, am watering daily and rotating between a sunny outside perch and indirect sunlight indoors.
3. I placed 2 cuttings in water, which are sitting on an indoor shelf with daily indirect sunlight. After several weeks I expect to see roots begin to grow from the stem, and at that point I will transfer to dirt.

New geranium growth

The Geranium

When I put her out, once, by the garbage pail,
She looked so limp and bedraggled,
So foolish and trusting, like a sick poodle,
Or a wizened aster in late September,
I brought her back in again
For a new routine--
Vitamins, water, and whatever
Sustenance seemed sensible
At the time: she'd lived
So long on gin, bobbie pins, half-smoked cigars, dead beer,
Her shriveled petals falling
On the faded carpet, the stale
Steak grease stuck to her fuzzy leaves.
(Dried-out, she creaked like a tulip.)
The things she endured!--
The dumb dames shrieking half the night
Or the two of us, alone, both seedy,
Me breathing booze at her,
She leaning out of her pot toward the window.

Near the end, she seemed almost to hear me--
And that was scary--
So when that snuffling cretin of a maid
Threw her, pot and all, into the trash-can,
I said nothing.

But I sacked the presumptuous hag the next week,
I was that lonely.

Theodore Roethke

Cyclamen's cycle of life

This cyclamen is another plant that came back from the dead. You can see in the top 2 photos that the leaves grow out from a round tuber. At one point all that was remaining of this plant was the tuber and roots into the soil. Recently this spring it has come back with the sun and good watering, and has sprouted a full array of new leaves. The flowers are white, and I hope it will blossom again.

Symbolism
I read according to folklore a woman in labor can wear a cyclamen flower to speed up her delivery, but she should never come in contact with the flower early in her pregnancy because it creates the risk that she will abort. The flowers also contain a toxin, and are thought to counteract poison from certain snake bites.

According to some sources on Wiccan beliefs, the flower is thought to represent farewell, death and resignation because it is the only flower still blooming in the winter months when other flowers are gone for the cold spell.

I found 2 poems that relate the cyclamen to the deaths of children:

The gentle cyclamen with dewy eye
Breathes o'er her lifeless babe the parting sigh:
and bending low to earth, with pious hands
inhumes her dear departed in the sandss
"Sweet nursling! withering in thy tender hour.
Oh, sleep, " she cries, "and rise a fairer flower!"

-Erasmus Darwin (1731 - 1802)

Illusions are children
who went out to find cyclamens in the field
and never came back

-Yehuda Amichai

Fern babies

Baby ferns curled up, awaiting birth into the afternoon sun. Fuzzy spiral hugging itself, no womb to protect it, only a new world to open into and begin to explore. It awakens slowly, becoming a part of the frond community it shares a home with.

Baby ferns are a traditional dish of northern New England, especially Maine, called fiddleheads. Though New England is my homeland, born in New Hampshire, raised in Vermont until 8 years old and then Maine through high school, I've only dined on fiddleheads once. They were delicious, but also dowsed in so much butter that any green would've tasted delicious. They reminded me of small sauteed softened brussel sprouts.




The fern frond seen below is what the white fuzzy baby fern above unfurled into. The baby spider found a new playground on the fern's freshly watered greenth, swinging from a thread, climbing and falling in repetitive game.

Picasso and I, working on a vineyard

This philodendron plant makes me think of working in fields of grape vines...it helps this fantasy that it hangs out in our kitchen next to the wine rack and glasses. It creates a nice curtain to the corner of the kitchen, and reminds me to eat bright greens and add fresh herbs to our food.

This may actually be a pothos plant, but doesn't seem to have the mottled white or yellow striations that pothos are known to have, so I'll stick with philodendron for now.

This plant does well with filtered sunlight that comes in through the sliding glass doors across the room. It takes plenty of water, and after freshly watering I will see small droplets appear on the tips of the leaves at the very bottom vines, so it's clear that the plant is doing its job of distributing water to every stem.

Symbolism & history

To pagans, the philodendron plant has long been considered a symbol of health, to others, it is thought to be an emblem for abundance and wealth. As a gift, these plants are frequently given in pots or hanging baskets to welcome neighborhood newcomers; to those who have just purchased their first home; or to wish the recipient well as they move on to a new path.

The philodendron plant is absolutely one of the most popular houseplants today, but the history of its collection can be dated as far back as 1644, when the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave began acquiring them from the wild. Many other explorers sought to find out more about this extensive genus; the first such exploration was done by Charles Plumier, who managed to gather and classify at least six new species.

In the United States, the philodendron did not really take off until the mid-1930s when a nurseryman by the name of John Masek noticed the potential of this plant. Considering that they were easy to grow, not to mention low maintenance, he began propagating and selling them to florist shops.

Pablo Picasso frequently used these plants to shape unusual scenes – such as his 1929 work, “Woman in the Garden,” where the nymph Daphne was transformed into a large brush of vines.


symbolism and history source: http://flowerinfo.org/philodendron-plants

Baby avocado tree is a survivor

This avocado tree was started for me by a former house-mate, who grew it from an avocado pit. He suspended the pit over a glass of water by poking toothpicks into 4 quadrants, and balanced the pit on the glass so that about 3/4 of it was submerged in water. After a few weeks of sitting on the windowsill like this, the pit had split almost fully in half due to growth of the beginnings of roots below and a sprout reaching to burst out from the top of the pit. At this point, he planted the pit in potted dirt, left it in a partially sunny area on our front porch, watered and tended to it. In a few months the shoot had grown several inches tall, and soon was sprouting its first leaves.

The baby avocado plant, not even a year old yet, was moved to an outdoor balcony when I moved and was subjected t
o the horrible air quality during a particularly bad fire season in the San Fernando Valley.

This plant had a sister plant that did not survive; its leaves were fully singed by the ashes in the air from forest fires, in combination with the incredible desert heat in August in "the valley" in Los Angeles county. The remaining plant stood strong, though it lost many of its leaves. The leaves you see now are mostly all new growth over the past year. In the close-up photos you get a closer look at the small sprouts of new growth that are getting ready to unfold into new leaves.

It might not look like much now, but to finally see this new growth emerging more than a year after being exposed to the harmful fire air, it really is an amazing comeback for this little plant.


Symbolism
This is a fun one - the Aztecs believed that the avocado fruit contained aphrodisiac properties, and named it Ahacatl which means 'green testicle'. This makes sense when you examine the shape of the fruit, something I definitely never noticed until researching for this blog.

Avocados are also believed to represent love, and are thought to be a good gift between lovers. Obviously we've just learned one reason why, wink, wink.

We see avocado as an ingredient in many skin care products, as it is high in vitamin E and the oils are very soothing.

Geraniums and war

Geranium

I rescued this potted pink geranium from an outdoor staircase at my work where it had been neglected. The plant had grown such long roots, that they were spilling out of the water drainage hole at the bottom of its ceramic pot. The flower has come back to life during the past month perched on my balcony ledge where it gets good afternoon sun. It's dried up stalks are renewed with new leaves, and blossoms that just appeared this week.

Symbolism
I haven't found much on the symbolism of pink geraniums in particular, but pink flowers generally symbolize a sweet kindness, and often nostalgia to childhood. However, perhaps you've had a glimpse of a supposed darker side of flower-gifting (see my post on florigraphy.)

Instead of playful childhood happiness, pink is also rumored to symbolize doubt. For example, I'm sending you pink flowers because "I don't get you. Why are you acting this way?" or "I'm not sure this is working, but I'm not ready to send the yellow flowers yet". (yellow being rumored to symbolize that the sender actually loves someone else - see my florigraphy post for amusing notes on this subject).

Back to geraniums. Like I mentioned, I couldn't find much about pink geraniums in particular but did get interested in red geraniums, which I read somewhere might not even be in the geranium family proper, as true geraniums are usually blue, but the red ones have become the most iconic 'geranium' there is.

I found the red geranium has ties to 2 post-war times - the War of 1812 and post-World War II. In regards to the War of 1812, there is a battlefield, Lundy's Lane Battlefield, in Niagra Falls that was thought to be the bloodiest one of this war. Years later, a teacher named Ruth Redmond saw the town of Niagra Falls coming up as a tourist destination so she started buying parts of the battlefield land to save it from urban development. Before she died she gave the land to the city in agreement that they would turn it into a historical park to commemorate the men who lost their lives there. Sources vary, but apparently Ms. Redmond loved the red geranium and had planted it all over the Lundy Lane land. After her death a campaign was led to make the flower the official symbol of the War of 1812; it's not clear whether this is official, but residents of the town still plant red geraniums in the park in honor of the lives lost.

The red geranium also has a place in the post-war WWII era in the 1950's idealized American home. The flower was affordable by the middle class, and its bright color seemed to represent a positive new outlook. Many people who grew up in this time relate red geraniums to a fond memory of home because they were so prevalent in and outside residences.

You can see the potted geraniums on the windowsill in this 1950's ad for a new sink (the yellow sink will complement the red flower), linking the plant to the idealized housewife who gazes out the window at her beautiful family and lifts a heeled foot in merry playful contentment at her perfect life. The flower seem the cherry-on-top to the depiction of the 'perfect' home of this era. The red geranium carried symbolism of change, stability, idealism and happiness that people of this time were seeking.

Red geraniums also appear in a literary favorite of mine, Harper Lee's "How to Kill a Mockingbird", as a symbol that all humankind have good somewhere in them, even the most corrupt. The beautiful flowers are tended to outside a decrepit home by Mayella Ewell, the daughter of a corrupt man who wrongly accuses a black man of raping her. Atticus Finch is the single dad lawyer, with a strong heart and moral value, who defends Tom Robinson in court, and tries to teach his 2 children the lessons of the red geranium - good exists in even the most corrupt of situations and people.

Now, if only the solution to finding my 'perfect' life was as easy as tying on an apron and getting started on growing some red geraniums!

Lily love comes back to life

This asiatic lily is a perennial, which means it's a flower that seems to die, but is actually hibernating for a period and then emerges each spring renewed with new growth and blossoms. I bought this lily last summer when it was brilliantly blossoming without realizing it was a perennial, so after all the flowers fell off and the stems browned and died, I thought I had destroyed it. Luckily I didn't trash it, but just set it out of sight on my patio. I was sad and embarrassed to have murdered the sweet little plant! This was last July, and just recently in February I happened to noticed something green behind a table on the patio and was ecstatic to discover this little gem had come back to life with new stalks and full bright leaves. At that point I realized I had a bulb perennial and paraded it around the apartment trying to get my boyfriend to understand the treasure I had just discovered. I am excited to see what color the blossoms are; I remember them as yellow, but cannot quite remember so it will be a nice surprise this spring.

April update: it's looking like a shade of purple.

Symbolism
I have found a lot of meaning related to the Christian religion - the lily representing purity, chastity and innocence. The Virgin Mary is often seen with white lilies, and the ones that have 3 petals are thought to represent the holy trinity. In other sources I've seen the flower related to sexuality and fertility, mainly because of the phallic pistil that protrudes from the center of the flower.


















4/27/11: Aha! it has blossomed, the color mystery is solved.

Djembes transformed into plant pots

I wish I could take credit for this brilliant idea. My boyfriend works for a drum company and salvaged some discarded djembe hand drums that were no longer useful as instruments. He created a plant pot inside each drum by fashioning a base filter out of wire mesh and inserted inside each drum where it curves inward, at its 'waist' as I call it. This created a perfect drainage system for the soil and both the fern and the tropical frond plant shown above have been thriving ever since. I adore resourceful re-purposing of discarded objects, so this is probably my favorite urban garden invention that we have in our home. Thanks for adding creative plant love to our home, J!

Help! norfolk pine failing to remain ever-green

This Norfolk Pine was purchased at Lucky Plants in Santa Monica, CA. I had it in my home for several months around the winter holidays. It was so plush and green then (not seen here), and the needles grew in cylindrical fashion around each stem and were soft to touch. So soft and smooth, in fact, that I would pass by the plant and be impulsed to actually pet it.

This photo was taken recently, after the plant has almost completely dried up, lost many needles and branches and what's left has become brittle. The top portion seemed to be surviving for awhile, but eventually the rest of it was getting so dry that I had to put it outside in attempt to bring it back to life. It's remained well-watered, so the only thing I can think is that it didn't get enough sunlight.

Does anyone have knowledge about the norfolk pine that can help bring it back to life? I've never owned a potted evergreen tree, so perhaps this is the natural process similar to in cold climate forests where many needles drop and then they are renewed in the spring. However, this plant is known for staying green all winter, hence the symbolic meanings you'll find below. Regardless, any tips would be much appreciated. Advice, please!

Symbolism
Many evergreen trees, including pine, holly, spruce and mistletoe are thought to hold power against the darker magics of winter. This is a myth commonly found in Pagan and Wiccan beliefs coming from cold northern climates around the world where the evergreen species are named such because it's the only plant that remains green through the dark, gray, lifeless winter.

Here is a blessing that I found and read during a small ceremony with my love around this pine tree, to bless our home, our relationship and our loved ones as the new year approached.

By the powers of earth, we bless this tree, that it shall remain sacred, a symbol of life.

By the powers of air, we bless this tree as the cool winter winds blow away the baggage of the old year and we welcome the brightness of the new into our hearts and home.

By the powers of fire, we bless this tree, as the days have gotten shorter and the nights grown dark, yet the warmth of the sun is returning, bringing with it life.

By the powers of water, we bless this tree, a gift we give, that it may stay bright and green so that we can enjoy the harmony and peace of life.

Jade: friendship and fortune

Since moving to southern California and seeing jade plants everywhere I've become enamored with it.

The jade you see here on my patio balcony is an old plant, given to me by someone cleaning out his late great aunt's Malibu hills home as the family prepared it for sale. Aunt so-and-so was an avid gardener and had many potted plants in her backyard along with those planted in the earth. I decided to give it a home, and it seems happy in the afternoon sun. Jade is easy to over water which rots the roots, so I just let it be for the most part. It requires little care. If leaves start falling I move my plants into the sun for a few weeks. If the leaves become soft and squishy that is a sign they might need some water; the water soaks into the leaves because it is a succulent.

The amazing thing about jade is that you can easily grow a plant from a chunk taken from a larger jade tree or bush. I've done this with several jade clippings, one of which you'll see one in the photo below next to the Peruvian wall hanging. It was grown from a small clipping from a large jade bush that was the landscape design around the outdoor steps to a previous apartment of mine in Manhattan Beach, CA. The jade bush blossomed with small white flowers, and the gardeners often trimmed it back after the flowers fell. I salvaged several chunks of the stem with succulent leaves, suspended them in water for a few weeks until they had small roots growing and then potted them. This one has survived a few years and has grown taller. A few of the branches have died, fell off or had to be removed, but overall the small plant is strong.

Symbolism
Because the jade is so easy to grow and pass along pieces for others to grow, it is seen as a symbol of sharing and friendship. You can plant the leaves or a stem directly in dirt as I have done and it will likely take hold and grow strong. Jade is also thought to bring good luck and fortune, especially in business - so put the jade next to your cash register and see if your sales increase.

Florigraphy: love and cruelty

We've probably all heard the basics about what different colored flowers signify; red is for passion and love, white is for purity, pink is for sweet youthful admiration and yellow for friendship. I found some postings on florigraphy that include the crueler side of flower-gifting symbolism, that I found excitingly devious, so let me share.

Florigraphy comes from the Victorian era, and was a flower-gifting tradition that evolved for the need of communicating messages that could not be spoken directly. We mostly hear of the messages of love sent from a suitor to his object of affection, however, the more interesting part is what flowers can say that might not be so flattering.

I am not totally confident of the accuracy of this darker side of florigraphy, but I found similar info in multiple sources, so here's a glimpse. Yellow roses are rumored by some to mean that the sender actually loves someone else. What a surprise, beautiful flowers delivered to a young mistress' door, only for her to discover that the gift actually means something heartbreaking, assuming the young lady admired the sender.

In this case, the sender in question found the most passive agressive means to say "I don't love you" - wouldn't you much rather hear it from the person privately rather than have it announced at your door, while the neighbors saw the dreaded yellow bouquet coming down the street headed for some unlucky lass. What does a young lady do with this bouquet? Does the family offer to put the flowers in a vase on the table, after watching her eyes fill with tears at the unfortunate message, because it is beautiful and expensive after all?

I suppose this guy thought it was a gentle way to send the message - "well, I don't love ya but here's something nice to look at while you get over it." Idiot.

Instead of playful childhood happiness, pink roses are rumored on the flip side to symbolize doubt. For example, I'm sending you pink flowers because "I don't get you. Why are you acting this way?" or "I'm not sure this is working, but I'm not ready to send the yellow flowers yet".

My two favorite colors of roses are yellow and white. Yellow roses are described above, and I am amused to know that white roses are rumored to symbolize rejection by a sender - "I just don't love ya baby" or "Frankly, I just don't give a damn." Regardless, I stick to my flower color preferences. The whole flower gifting thing is a little overdone in my opinion; I tend to feel bittersweet about receiving a gift of cut stems that will wilt and die, much preferring a potted plant.

If we've taken any cynical notes on the destruction due to jealousy, especially from Wuthering Heights or Shakespeare's plays, perhaps this dark side of florigraphy is all just a mindgame made up by lonely and jealous Victorian gals who never received any flowers and wanted to make other girls second guess the true meaning of their bountiful floral gifts.

Dried flowers aren't just for great grandma

Dried roses
I've always felt bittersweet about receiving a gift of flowers. On one hand the gift represents the loving thoughtfulness of someone who cares about me, and yet this sweet fragrant gift will soon shrivel up and die. In an attempt to honor the short life that such flowers lived in order to become a bouquet in my home, I often hang them to dry and then display them somewhere as an offering and preservation of nature. The flowers that don't dry in full-flower shapely condition become a pile of petals used for potpourri. Their fragrance lasts for many months beyond being dried.

Symbolism
The tradition of giving flowers to loved ones became a very important gift long ago because a suitor or lover could secretly (or not so secretly) express important symbolic messages depending on the type of flower given.

White roses, like most white flowers, often represent purity and innocence. When used at weddings, the white rose represents the virtue of a new vow of love.

Schefflera, or easier to pronounce as 'Umbrella Tree'

The schefflera is a common and hardy houseplant, which is known as the umbrella tree because of how each cluster of leaves fans out and arches downward like the shape of an umbrella.

Common problems
My scheff lost a lot of leaves this past fall. The leaves started to fall off in bunches, likely due to a natural seasonal shedding process and a result of having moved the plant from a sunny spot in one apartment to a spot in another with much less light. From what I've read, the scheff needs to be gradually brought from one lighting situation to another, especially if moving from an outdoor location to an indoor one. I'm happy to say that my plant has been pretty stable over the past several months, no more leaf loss and has new growth. It is receiving indirect sunlight for several hours a day from the window that most of the branches are reaching toward. A note, if this plant has too much water its leaves will turn black, or if it doesn't have enough water the leaves will turn yellow.

Symbolism
According to a Feng Shui Artist, having this plant in your home is the symbol of good fortune.

The turtle design that I drew and pasted onto the plant pot has its own symbolism of wisdom, growth and taking one step at a time to reach our goals. Many indigenous tales about the turtle tell stories of this animal's shell representing the world and all of creation that dwells on it. Another way to view the turtle's shell is like a mobile home, so this creature is always ready for soul seeking adventures.

Aqua globes...rockin' the soil of house plants

These magical little glass watering bulbs really do seem to work wonders. I tried them on the recommendation of Olive, my grandmother who has farmed and lived in Vermont her whole life. She is also an avid indoor gardener and isn't one to fall for telecommercials, but she swears by these things as of late and has one in each of her twenty-plus indoor plants.

Check them out here:
https://www.asseenontv.com/offers_on_demand/aqu_glbs__ood_ontv.html

Philodendrons love to shower

This heart-leaf philodendron is thriving on the ledge above my shower. The indirect sunlight that filters in through the mottled window, combined with the moisture from the shower seems to be just the right combination to keep this plant happy without much fuss.

Philodendrons are one type of houseplant that is known to turn carbon dioxide in the air in our homes into oxygen, and also absorbs pollutants. Most of us know that plants are great for improving the air quality in nature, and in the same vein, many plants are also excellent for improving air quality in our homes.

Bouquets: The true masterpiece of an urban gardener?

Cut Calla Lilies

I bought these cut stems at Trader Joe's, so I know, I know, this isn't quite urban gardening...though I could argue that it's actually the best depiction of urban gardening since a vase of flowers is the closest many people get to it when living in a city. Regardless, I couldn't help posting a photo of these beautiful cut calla lilies, as they are abundantly in bloom now in Southern California. The calla lily is not actually from the lily family, and is native to South Africa and has been made famous is paintings by Diego Rivera and Georgia O'Keefe, two of my favorites.

Symbolism
Calla lilies are a symbol of beauty and sensuality (shapes and forms can be found within the flower that allude to both male and female genitalia.)

Calla lilies are often used at both weddings and funerals, so they serve both ends of the spectrum of rebirth of individuals as the enter a union, and also rebirth, or as some believe the resurrection, of an individual after leaving this world. In both situations the flower represents purity, rebirth, and a sense of celebration - the trumpet-like shape of the flower is thought to herald good fortune at weddings and funerals.