The latest version of a crazy project...

This is flowering in my garden right now...

What is it? Well... it started out like this:

Regular old Plantago major, aka plantain, aka, everyone's favorite weed.

Starting with some exisiting cool forms, I made this, which I call 'Purple Perversion' because it is purple and twisted, and you'd have to be a little perverted to grow it because it is, after all, a weed. Even if a purple frilly one.

Now... the latest edition! The flower spikes have been transformed into these crazy cool thingies that I REALLY like. Probably most people still wouldn't grow it because, you know, people have this whole thing about not wanting to plant weeds, but I think it is awesome. (And I bet they'd make awesome, long lived cut flowers.)

What say you? Would you grow it?

Playing with pelargoniums

I play with a lot of different breeding projects. Some of them are more-or-less sane, reasonable ideas that I think will be successful and valuable for gardens... And then there are the crazy things I try on the off chance they'll turn into something cool. I do a lot of those. Mostly because they are really fun, and because, well, why not? It takes hardly any time to splash a little pollen around and see what happens. If those initial forays turn out well, I can forward to try and breed something nice, and if not I'm not out much.

Currently, one of the odd-ball, probably-won't-work projects that I'm having fun with is breeding pelargonium. Not with zonal pelargoniums. They're kinda boring.

And no, not regals like these either, though they are gorgeous. I'd serious consider it, but the brilliant minds are Garden Genetics are already doing amazing things with them, (along with a lot of other cool stuff – you've gotta check out their blog where they post about all sorts of exciting projects) so I'll just wait (not very patiently) for their work to become commercially available.

No, I'm playing with a handful of rather obscure species that have caught my eye for various reasons.

P. caffrum has beautiful ferny leaves:

And, when it flowers (mine hasn't yet – but soon, I hope!) the flowers should by crazy fringed like this:

(photo from geraniaceae.com)

P. pulverulentum's flowers aren't nearly as exciting looking, but they do boast a really wonderful fragrance.

Both of these, along with a few others I'm growing, have tuberous roots and go dormant in the winter – which should be perfect! Winter dormant plants are easy to over winter in a garage or the like, unlike the bulk of the really cool species pelargoniums which go dormant in the summer, which isn't so easy to work into a climate like mine.

I'm also growing some odd-ball hybrids like this 'Arden' which... just love those colors on the flowers!

And of course I had to have P. sidoides, which has these amazing dark flowers over a neat mound of lovely silver leaves and is quite simply one of my most favorite plants of all time. This form is a more purpley-wine color than redder forms I've grown in the past, and seems to flower more heavily as well.

I ordered this rambling, irregular collection of plants from the wonderful nursery Geraniaceae (www.geraniaceae.com) (which you really MUST check out. Lovely, amazing stuff) and I thought, well, I'll just splash pollen around with a liberal hand and see what happens. I didn't really expect to get too much, figured the species would be too dissimilar to hybridize.

But, just the other day I noticed a few seed pods starting to develop! Happy dance!!!

So stay tuned... in a few years maybe I'll have crazy fringed fragrant flowers in a range of colors and... who knows what else! Or maybe none of the seed will germinate, and if they do the hybrids will be ugly and sterile. Or maybe something totally unexpected will happen. You can never really tell with plant breeding... and that's half the fun. Maybe more than half.  

Declines in Monarch butterflies: A problem you can do something about

When I read this article, Habitat loss on breeding grounds cause of monarch decline my first response was "Hurray!"

Not because I hate butterflies. But because the researchers found that the problem with monarchs is here in the US where they feed and breed, NOT in Mexico where they congregate and overwinter. Which is good news because that means that I, and all of you who live in Monarch territory, can DO something about it. Monarchs are declining because there has been a 21% decline in the amount of milkweed for them to feed on since 1995. You can help by planting milkweed. That's pretty simple. Much simpler than the high unemployment, drug wars, and lack of opportunity that bedevil efforts to preserve overwintering habitat in Mexico.

So plant some milkweed. And, while you are at it, plants lots of OTHER things. Because monarchs are far from the only fascinating animal that is suffering the results of extensive habitat loss, even if they get a disproportionate amount of coverage. The best way to support the widest possible range of insects and other animals in your garden is to grow as wide as possible a range of plants. Especially if they are different from the plants your neighbors have in their gardens! Then follow that up by not using any insecticides on your plants.