Plant Profile: Indian Pink or Pink Root (Spigelia marilandica)

Indian Pink or Pink Root (Spigelia marilandica) is a perennial plant that blooms in early to mid-summer. It is native to the Eastern United States and is hardy to zones 5-9.

Spigelia prefers neutral, well-drained soils, and woodland edge conditions in light shade.

Spigelia is a favorite of pollinators and is particularly attractive to hummingbirds.

This plant is notoriously hard to source. Once established, it hates being transplanted. Seed collection is difficult, if not impossible. According to Rick Dark and Doug Tallamy’s The Living Landscape, Spigelia’s seeds are dehiscent, meaning the seed capsules are propelled some distance from the mother plant to start new seedlings.

Two recent introductions have made the plant more accessible to the home gardener. They are both vegetatively propagated and available now from local independent garden centers.

The first is ‘Little Redhead’, which improves on the straight species by being more tolerant of full sun conditions. It has deep-red flowers held above dense clumps of dark-green foliage.

The other is ‘Ragin Cajun’, which has flowers that are more orange-red. It also stays more rounded and compact while sending out more flowers per plant than the straight native species or ‘Little Redhead’.

Spigelia - You Can Grow That!

The video was produced by Washington Gardener Magazine.

Visuals by Amanda Cash
Audio by Kathy Jentz

 

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TikTok Tuesday: Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

@wdcgardener

A visit to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardrns in Washington, DC. It is a national park property and is free and open to the public. ##gardendc ##publicgarden

♬ original sound - Kathy Jentz

By Molly Cuddy

This past week, we visited Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, which is a national park located in northeast Washington, DC. It was a super quick and easy drive from my apartment in College Park, because it’s so close to the Maryland border. The garden spans several acres along the Anacostia River. It’s awesome that DC has that much public green space for gorgeous, spacious gardens.

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens is filled with lotus and waterlilies as well as lots of wildlife. The best time for spotting birds is early in the morning. 

Entry is free to the gardens and it is open 8am-4pm daily (except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day). The U.S. National Arboretum is nearby (literally just across the river), so you could easily check out both in one day.

My TikTok video linked here shows a preview of what the garden looks like in mid-July. The video doesn’t even do all of it justice, so be sure to go to the aquatic gardens when you can; it’s a perfect summer day activity. 

About the Author

Molly Cuddy is a journalism major at the University of Maryland, College Park, and an intern this summer with Washington Gardener. She is also a campus tour guide and will be a teaching assistant for a professional writing class next semester.

Monday Thoughts: Gardening is Art

"Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants as paint, and the soil and sky as canvas."

– Elizabeth Murray

Win Mosquito Dunks® and more in the July 2021 Washington Gardener Magazine Reader Contest

For our July 2021 Washington Gardener Magazine Reader Contest, Washington Gardener is giving away a kit containing one 6-pack of Mosquito Dunks®, one bag of Mosquito Bits, 1 pint (concentrate) of Summit Year-Round Spray Oil, and one hose-end spray bottle of Summit Caterpillar & Webworm Control to one lucky winner.

   To prevent mosquitoes from breeding in places where water collects (including ponds, bird baths, animal watering troughs, gutters, ditches, drainage pipes, and rain barrels), you can use a sustained-release mosquito control product such as Mosquito Dunks that contains BTI to kill mosquito larvae. BTI (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) is a bacterium that kills mosquito larvae naturally before they can become disease-spreading adults.

   To enter to win a 6-pack of Mosquito Dunks, bag of Mosquito Bits, pint (concentrate) of Summit Year-Round Spray Oil, and hose-end spray bottle of Summit Caterpillar & Webworm Control, send an email to WashingtonGardenerMagazine@gmail.com by 5:00pm on Saturday, July 31, with “Mosquito Bits-Dunks” in the subject line. In the body of the email, tell us what your favorite article was in the July 2021 issue and why. Include your full name and mailing address. The winners will be announced by August 2. 

GardenDC Podcast Episode 67: Beyond Behnkes

In this episode, we talk with Stephanie Fleming of Beyond Behnke's about her memories growing up at the now-closed Behnke Nurseries. The plant profile is on Agapanthus and I share what's going on locally and in the garden.

 

BTW, YOU can become a listener supporter for as little as $0.99 per month! See how at: https://anchor.fm/gardendc/support.

The episode is posted at: https://anchor.fm/gardendc/episodes/Episode-67---Beyond-Behnkes-e14uln4

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We welcome your questions and comments! You can leave a voice mail message for us at: https://anchor.fm/gardendc/message Note that we may use these messages on a future episode.

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Fenton Friday: Cukes and Zukes

This week at the community garden plot the temperatures finally moderated, but still not a drop of rain! Once again, the promised storms went directly south and north of us. Nothing here. It is getting really desperate in my home garden and I am so grateful once again to have a plot near the cistern as hauling water to keep the plants alive is become a daily chore. 

Last week, I wrote about our first baby zucchini. I was able to harvest that a few days later and have a few more zukes quickly following. I hope we can keep up the pace for a bit -- at least enough to share with all 3 interns and then have enough extra to shred and freeze packages for winter baking.

The cucumbers, blackberries, and the 'Sungold' tomato are all setting fruit. As a matter of fact, the cucumbers seems to be set with all female flowers! I hope somebody has a vine nearby with male ones. The beans are sending out lots of flowers themselves, so am hoping they'll start producing purple pods soon too,

I was able to start cutting bouquets from the celosia and zinnia. The yarrow is done and needs to be cut back.

We are gleaning for a harvest share group this weekend, so I plan to cut a bunch of swiss chard for that.

What is growing in your edible garden?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 8th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

July 2021 issue of Washington Gardener Magazine –Lilies, Green Beans, Tomato Hornworm, and much more

The July 2021 issue of Washington Gardener Magazine is out.

Inside this issue:

·         Fragrant Lilies for the Summer Garden

·         Year of the Garden Bean 

·         Natural Pyrethrum vs. Synthetic Pyrethrin

·         Washington Youth Garden Turns 50

·         The Height of Native Fashion: Seersucker Sedge

·         Attracting Butterflies with Nectar Plants

·         Vacation Care for Container Gardens

·         Carlyle House Historic Park

·         Meet Carrie Engel of Valley View Farms

·         DC-MD-VA Gardening Events Calendar

·         Dealing with Tomato Hornworm

·         Carolina Wrens

and much more…

Note that any submissions, event listings, and advertisements for the August 2021 are due by August 5.

>>  Subscribe to Washington Gardener Magazine today to have the monthly publication sent to your inbox as a PDF several days before it is available online. You can use the PayPal (credit card) online order form here: http://www.washingtongardener.com/index_files/subscribe.htm

Plant Profile: Hens and Chicks Succulents (Sempervivum)

"Hens and Chicks” Succulents (Sempervivum sp.) are like chips--you cannot have just one! Once you start growing them, you'll find yourself collecting the many different varieties. There are over 3,000 named sempervivum cultivars, in numerous colors, shapes, textures, and sizes.

Sempervivum literally means "live forever" as they can be divided and propagated almost effortlessly. However, don't think that you can just set-it-and-forget-it. Each individual plant has a three-year life cycle and produces off-shoots for two of those years, so you will need to pull out those baby "chicks" and replenish the mother "hen" spot periodically.

These easy-to-grow succulents are great for indoor or outdoor containers. They can also be grouped with other cactus/succulents for a nice layered or contrasting look.

Sempervivum prefer full to part sun and very well draining (sandy/rocky) soils. They need little water and are very drought-tolerant.

Note that there are winter hardy varieties available here in the Mid-Atlantic. They are great in rock gardens and thrive in stone containers or concrete troughs. If you select a tender variety, you must bring it indoors for the winter and they should be kept as container plants to save you from digging and re-planting them out every growing season. 

The video was produced by Washington Gardener Magazine.

Visuals by Amanda Cash
Audio by Kathy Jentz

Additional photos courtesy of iBulb.org

➤ If you enjoy this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our Youtube channel (thank you!)

➤Remember to TURN ON notifications to know when our new videos are out

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~ Podcast: GardenDC

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TikTok Tuesday: Tomato Party

@wdcgardener

Check out the recent Tomato 🍅 Party hosted by Common Good City Farm in Washington, DC. ##gardendc ##urbanfarm ##tomato ##dmv ##tomatotaste ##dc

♬ original sound - Kathy Jentz

By Molly Cuddy

Last Thursday, I attended the Tomato Party at Common Good City Farm. I’ll be doing a more indepth article on this event in the August 2021 issue of Washington Gardener, so look out for that in about a month.

The urban farm had been closed to visitors because of COVID-19, but has recently started hosting events again. They’ll be having cooking demos, a cocktail demo, and plenty more all happening over the summer. You can find the links to all the events on this page. Most of the events are free and for many of them you have to register in order to attend them. 

The farm was just a quick walk from the Shaw Metro station. They had arts and crafts for kids, as well as gardening themed books. 

There was plenty of free food to try, which you can see in my TikTok video for this week posted above. My favorite was definitely the catfish taco with a cucumber and tomato salsa, from Fish Scale. Everything was delicious, and the tomatoes from the farm were so fresh. 

I would definitely recommend attending the farm’s future events if you are in the area and available! It’s a great place to spend time with friends and family.

About the Author

Molly Cuddy is a journalism major at the University of Maryland, College Park, and an intern this summer with Washington Gardener. She is also a campus tour guide and will be a teaching assistant for a professional writing class next semester.

Monday Thoughts: You Got a Friend

 

"A garden is a friend you can visit any time."

- Okakura Kakuzo

GardenDC Podcast Episode 66: Small-Space Gardening

In this episode, we talk with Teri Speight of Cottage in the Court all about small-space gardening. The plant profile is on Lilies and I share what's going on locally and in the garden.

To pre-order the upcoming book, The Urban Garden: 101 Ways to Grow Food and Beauty in the City, go to:

BTW, YOU can become a listener supporter for as little as $0.99 per month! See how at: https://anchor.fm/gardendc/support.

The episode is posted at: https://anchor.fm/gardendc/episodes/Episode-66---Small-Space-Gardening-e14if51

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We welcome your questions and comments! You can leave a voice mail message for us at: https://anchor.fm/gardendc/message Note that we may use these messages on a future episode.

PIN THIS FOR LATER!