Pelargonium tetragonum--and how what goes around comes around!

I collected this nice purple flowered form of P. tetragonum from a garden near Gaborone Botswana way back in 1984, during my first trip to southern Africa. I maintained it for many years, and in the greenhouses at Cornell it flowered magnificently during spring. To get the huge four petalled flowers requires cool greenhouse culture in the north since it requires a cool period with short days to set flower buds. I also took the plant to the NY Botanic Garden when I worked there, but somewhere along the way I lost my plant. Later on, I ended up caring for someone's orchids and other plants while he was away for an extended period in Florida, to which he enventually moved. It turned out he had a small plant of my P. tetragonum, given to him by my friend Elena who grew it for a time in a NYC apartment, but then gave it to him. I got a small cutting back, and now maintain several plants of it. Although I am unlikely to get flowers under my indoor growing conditions at the moment, it is just about the easiest thing to grow and propagate. It is a rather sprawling plant, but stems are brittle and break easily when the plant is moved or otherwise disturbed, providing a ready means of further increase. Although it comes from the winter rainfall areas of the Cape of South Africa, it does not seem to mind summering outdoors, and even grows some more during what should normally be its off season. It grows well under lights too. I have another form growing from seed, and it too is an easy grower. Its a good subject for those who like wierd, though it needs to grow large and get the cool/short day treatment to get the fabulous flowers to appear.

Zingiber mioga-a hardy ginger for NY

I got my start of this intriguing plant from a friend in Bronxville, the town next door. He has had a patch of it growing for some years, and also has a white variegated leaf form which appears to be somewhat less vigorous. My division has also spread a bit, producing typical ginger type foliage which remains green through the growing season. The foliage dies back completely come cold weather, and new shoots emerge when it gets warm. Most peculiar are the pale yellow flowers which appear around August, they come in short inflorescences which pop randomly out of the ground like some kind of strange mushroom. Eventually the attactive pale flowers open, just above ground level. I have read that the young inflorescences are edible, and in fact are rather esteemed in Japanese cusine, but there are also references which suggest they might have some carcinogenic potential, so for now I think I'll pass on the culinary option. No special winter protection appears to be needed for this ginger, since it has come through many winters without attention in my friends garden and several also in my garden.

Crepis rubra

This is a rather attractive little annual, kind of like a pink dandelion, or a mini pink gerbera of sorts. The seeds are very thin and long, at first I thought the seeds were not viable b/c they were so thin. But they do germinate easily, and quickly produce rosettes from which emerge pink flowers over a fairly long period of time. Crepis rubra does not take kindly to too much competition though, it is a sun lover and is easily swamped by larger plants. Abundant seed is produced in much the same manner as dandelions.