Life of a Marigold A One Act Play By Carol M. Cast of Characters Marigold…………………………. A simple annual flower Pruners……………………………. The villain turned hero TIME: Late Spring SETTING: A garden ACT ONESCENE 1 (We see a simple annual flower, sunning itself in a garden, admiring its beauty.) MARIGOLD Oh, I am so proud of myself. I’ve grown a flower! And it is so pretty! Isn’t it the prettiest flower ever! Now I just need to attract a bee or two to pollinate me and I’ll be all set … [Read more...] about Life of a Marigold: A One Act Play
annuals
A Coleus Knocked On My Door
Knock, knock. Who’s there? Solenostemon scutellarioides. Solenostemon scutellarioides who? Solenostemon scutellarioides ‘Crimson Gold’ No joke, those crazy taxonomists renamed the common coleus a while back to Solenostemon scutellarioides. I checked out the pronunciation on the Fine Gardening website and have decided to stick with “coleus”. I have trouble with words that end in “ioides” and sound like a fool trying to say them, or make that “more of a fool”. Fortunately, those who are … [Read more...] about A Coleus Knocked On My Door
Cruising For Pansies And Violas
Yes, that’s me, driving slowly by the still desolate garden centers, peering out the window hoping for a glimpse of the first pansies and violas for sale. I have my routes, I make my rounds. On the way to and from work, I carefully choose a route that takes me past a small garden center Sometimes I take a slight detour on the way home to go by a local grower’s place. She’s usually pretty good about putting a few flats of pansies and violas out front by mid-March or so. Sometimes I wonder if she … [Read more...] about Cruising For Pansies And Violas
Embrace Annuals For a Happier Life
If you want to boost your confidence as a gardener, embrace annuals!Botanically, annuals complete their lifecycle in one growing season. They sprout from seed, grow like mad, flower as much as they can to produce seeds, and then die off, usually with the first hard frost. Sometimes we also grow tender perennials as annuals because they will also flower the first year from seed and are killed off by the first freeze.But it’s not that important to know if a plant is botanically an annual versus a … [Read more...] about Embrace Annuals For a Happier Life
Embrace Fall Clean-Up for A Happier Life
There are some gardeners who claim that they do little to no fall clean-up. They make it sound quite virtuous to let nature do its thing through fall and winter.They want us to believe that once the first leaf falls from a tree, they put up their hoes, put up their feet, and watch the season change.That’s not what I do! I do fall clean-up. Yes, I do! I’ll admit it.I embrace fall clean-up for a happier life.I’m not terribly neat about it. I don’t end up with a clean-swept garden, with every … [Read more...] about Embrace Fall Clean-Up for A Happier Life
Benefits of Not Weeding
One of the benefits of not weeding is seeing volunteer petunia seedlings blooming amongst the dried up corn stalks on a beautiful October day.These petunias are almost exactly the color of the original Wave™ Petunias, giving me a clue as to where they might have come from.I spotted them yesterday afternoon, as I stood on the edge of the vegetable garden thinking about how someone needs to get busy with cleaning it up.At the risk of shattering any image that anyone might have about me having neat … [Read more...] about Benefits of Not Weeding
