Good day, gardeners! I hope this newsletter finds you healthy and well. Here's some valuable things I wanted to share with you this week.
In this month's episode of The Plantastic Podcast, I interview Scott Beuerlein, Manager of Botanical Garden Outreach at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. We talk about his circuitous journey into horticulture, the synergy between plants and animals at the zoo, their plant trials program, achieving the highest level of ArbNet accreditation, and how they engage their community. Scott also gives us a glimpse into his creative process with writing for GardenRant and Horticulture Magazine and some advice on how to plant better based on his experiences at the zoo. Enjoy the show!
A conversation about Asclepias (milkweed) having better success with mycorrhizae led to me to see if there's any research to back it up. Sure enough research published in Ecosphere showed that native mycorrhizae can have a positive impact on Asclepias plant growth and latex production, though the effect is not consistent across species. They also noted that commercial mycorrhizae could have negative impacts on growth.
This Woody Plant Seed Manual from the USDA and the National Forest Service is a wonderful resource. The first section goes into detail on the practice of woody seed propagation, and the second section focuses on germination requirements for different genera.
This week at Ephemera Farm we are enjoying the emerging flowers of Claytonia virginica (spring beauty). They've been blooming since the first week of December, but around Groundhog Day, they really begin to ramp up.
As always, thanks for welcoming me into your inbox each week to share what I’m learning about plants.
Cheers, and keep growing!
Dr. Jared