Publications

April 4, 2023 Spring is here, and with it comes the urge to clean up our gardens and remove all the dead plant material from the previous year. However, it is important to resist this urge, at least for a little while longer, and leave some of the debris in place to protect the pollinators that have taken refuge there for the winter! Many pollinators, including bees, butterflies, and other insects, spend the winter in dead leaves, plant stems, and other debris in our gardens. More than 70% of bee species nest in the ground! By removing this material too...

March 22, 2023 Excuse me? Yes, you read that correctly. It is not a flower you are seeing in this image, but rather a collection of several flowers! Let me explain. In some plants, what might appear at first glance to be a flower is an inflorescence composed of many flowers. In the case of the Asteraceae family, all these flowers are grouped in a structure called a capitulum, and for the Araceae family, we refer to it as a spadix. In the picture, we see the inflorescence of the cup plant [Lien], a member of the Asteraceae family. Its...

Seeds Fascinate Me! March 22, 2023 Ah, seeds! These tiny capsules of life, sometimes less than 0.5 mm in diameter, contain all the genetic material, the embryo, and the energy reserves needed for the reproduction of the parent plant. Some seeds have hard shells to withstand the rigors of the digestive system of animals that eat the fruits containing them, while others have air-filled coats that allow them to float to their destination.   Samaras or akenes equipped with aigrets can fly far from the parent plant to disperse, while other seeds have hooks that latch onto the fur of animals...

Fall and winter offer ideal conditions for sowing native plant seeds in outdoor pots and encouraging natural germination. This article explains when, how, and why to prioritize outdoor sowing.