Archive for September 2008
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
I have learned many new plants in my three months at the Scott Arboretum. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say I learn a new plant every day. One of the very first plants I learned upon starting work here, though, was not a cutting-edge cultivar or a unique specimen tree. It was a plant with quite a reputation around these parts, not for its aesthetic appeal, but instead for its stubbornness and invasiveness. This month’s Plant of the Month is the weedy Pinellia ternata.
The volunteer who first introduced me to Pinellia described this invasive plant with a…
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Friday, September 19th, 2008
When I first came to Swarthmore in the summer of 1986, I used to frequent the Taco Bell on Baltimore Pike (what can I say, I was an intern). One day I was parked in the back where the dumpster sits, and growing along the fence-line was a plant which had leaves similar in appearance to our native sassafras, Sassafras albidum. Some of the leaves were entire, others three lobed, and some had a mitten-shape. However, these were fuzzy, almost velvety to the touch. My new discovery was the paper mulberry, Broussonetia papyrifera, which is rarely found in cultivation, but…
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Thursday, September 18th, 2008
It is a transition time for the seasons…I can feel and smell the autumn in the first part of the morning before the heat and humidity of the day set in. It is also a transition time in the gardens as well – with summer blooms fading and trees beginning to think about fall color. With the rain we have had in the last few days, leaves have plumped up again and the gardens, particularly in the Terry Shane Teaching Garden, feel lush and green. The varying shades and textures of green are set off here and there by touches…
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