by Kent Petterson

Trees and Shrubs of Minnesota
By Welby Smith
ISBN 9780816640652
University of Minnesota Press
November 2008
$59.95

It has been over 50 years since C. Otto Rosendahl wrote the book Trees and Shrubs of the Upper Midwest, the last comprehensive flora of the woody plants of Minnesota. With the release last November of Welby Smith’s book Trees and Shrubs of Minnesota, we now have a long-awaited and completely revised guide for woody species identification in Minnesota.

This is a beautiful as well as useful book. Smith has gathered his life’s work on these plants and given us a book to be treasured. The heart of the book is organized around pages that are color marked along the edge by plant genus, listed alphabetically.

Each species within the genus receives two pages of information. The left-hand page is a complete description for the named species, with common name and distribution maps. On the facing right-hand page are color photographs by Smith of that species’ flower, leaf, bark and seed.

My initial look found two nuggets of information included for each species. First, the flower and fruit photographs are dated, so you know when you should be in the field to study those aspects, and second, the description contains derivation information for the species name. This kind of detail shows just how much information regarding each species has been provided in two easy-to-use pages. I’m sure further study will no doubt bring out many more small details that make this book great.

Although this type of book is often thought of as a technical work for professionals, this book’s feel and look will make it attractive to novice users as well. Along with the photos are wonderful botanical illustrations of each species in winter, drawn by artist Vera Ming Wong. Some readers will recall the earlier Wong/Smith collaboration on Orchids of Minnesota, a book that is currently out of print and unavailable even as a used book. With a press run of 3,500 copies, you would be advised to get your copy of Trees and Shrubs before this, too, is out of print.

I have had the opportunity to see many comparable books for other parts of the country and world. My personal opinion is that this book sets a new standard for presentation and production for a flora of this or any type. Published by the University of Minnesota Press with credit to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Trees and Shrubs of Minnesota deserves a place on your reference shelf. Its price tag might make it a stretch for some, but it is worth the price.

Kent Petterson is the owner of Terrace Horticultural Books, St. Paul, MN. 651-222-5536. terrace@winternet.com. www.terracehorticulturalbooks.com

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Welby Smith, author of Shrubs and Trees of Minnesota, will be at Terrace Horticultural Books this Saturday, April 4th, at 1:00 p.m. to sign and discuss the book with our customers. The showroom is open 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. for the day.

Smith’s book will be discounted 20% as will the entire stock of over 16,000 items, including seed catalogs, seed packets, unframed botanical art, ephemera and other interesting artifacts of gardening. Lots of bargains and wonderful usable books for learning how to grow your own food, or develop your own garden.

by Jessica Hanson

I think I was about 10 years old when I planted vegetables for the first time in my parents’ garden. I thought I would put seeds in the ground, they would grow, and a few months later I would pick all the delicious vegetables that had sprung up. It sounded so easy and simple, but I was obviously in for a rude awakening. As most of us know, nothing about gardening is ever that simple. We wind up with insects, fungi, rabbits and weeds that have no regard for our master gardening plan. The forces of nature seem to have a mind of their own.

While modern commercial farming uses industrial-strength fertilizers and pesticides to fight these forces of nature every step of the way, most small-scale gardeners these days skip the weed killers and chemical fertilizers in favor of more earth-friendly alternatives. After all, a love for nature is what drives so many of us to garden in the first place. We use compost, we pick the caterpillars off the tomatoes and drown them in soapy water, we leave out partial cans of beer for the slugs. We get down on our knees and weed by hand. And weed. And weed some more, even though the weeds are always back a few days later, just as prolific as before.

What do we love about gardening when it is so much work? Is it the satisfaction of watching something beautiful grow? Providing ourselves and our families with nutritious food? The meditation that comes along with taking an hour to get our hands dirty and interact with nature? What about observing the interactions going on within the natural world? Learning about nature through direct experience? Learning how to work with nature instead of against her?

I remember the first guided plant walk I went on in junior high biology; I must have been about 12 by then. The guide at the nature center stopped and pointed to plantain (Plantago major), a common weed growing along the side of the road, and said that the First Nation peoples of Minnesota had used that plant as a styptic to stop bleeding. This knowledge struck me hard, and I don’t think I paid attention to anything else during the rest of the walk. Instead I saw plantain everywhere we went, a common weed that I had pulled out of the garden before with distaste, but now it suddenly had a purpose. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “What is a weed? It is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” With my new knowledge, plantain had virtue. I couldn’t wait to cut myself sometime soon so I could rub some on my cut!

I realized that other weeds might have functions as well. I remembered playing in a patch of creeping charlie on the side of our house as a little girl and thinking that the purple flowers were so special. When I showed them to my dad, he explained to me that creeping charlie was not a valuable plant, but instead a weed and a pest. Could he have been wrong? I pulled out a field guide and learned that creeping charlie had once been used to clarify beer. Even though I wasn’t going to be clarifying beer anytime soon, this common plant now had purpose for me as well. This was only the beginning for me. I decided that plantain and creeping charlie might not be the only common weeds with hidden virtues. Maybe, just maybe, everything in nature had value.

It’s been 20 years or so since that revelation, and since then I’ve learned that every weed in my garden has a purpose that was important to someone or another throughout history. Some of them were carried by European colonists across the Atlantic so they wouldn’t be without these precious herbs in their new home. Some of them are packed with more nutrition than spinach. Some of them I use in my acupuncture practice to treat arthritic pain, fibroids, and seasonal allergies. I tincture my weeds in vodka, I pickle them, I roast them, I sneak them into soups and salads. And of course, I make a first aid salve from plantain and homemade beer with creeping charlie. For me it’s all part of learning to work with nature instead of against her. And nature, after all, is a pretty good teacher. I can’t wait to learn what else she has to teach me.

Jessica Hanson is on the Board of Directors at the North Country Herbalist Guild. Visit www.nchg.org for more information about their valuable monthly meetings. For more information on using the wonder of weeds, check out these resources: A City Herbal by Maida Silverman; Stalking the Healthful Herbs by Euell Gibbons; Rose Barlow’s website at www.prodigalgardens.info; and Steve Brill’s website at www.wildmanstevebrill.com.

Members of the North Country Herbalist Guild will be available in the Herb section to answer questions during the sale.

By Mr. Yuk

Some of the plants sold at the Friends School Plant Sale have the “Mr. Yuk” tag on their cards on the sale tables, to identify them as poisonous plants. Here are a few comments from Mr. Yuk, to clarify issues about poisonous plants. These comments refer only to the plants, and not to plants treated with an insecticide, which might render any plants poisonous or dangerous.

These comments do not address allergies to particular plants, medicinal uses of some plants, or tolerances and insensitivities to particular poisonous plants.

What are poisonous plants?

Any type of plant may be poisonous: house plants, garden plants, woody plants or trees. A plant is “poisonous” if it contains a substance that causes chemical injury to something (human or some other animal) that ingests (eats, swallows, licks) or touches the plant. Occasionally, breathing in the scent of the plant or its burned parts can be toxic or irritating. We see this in Minnesota, where burning poison ivy releases the irritant oil, urushiol, into the smoke, causing internal problems for anyone who breathes the smoke.

Are there different types of plant toxicity?

There are three general categories that describe how poisonous plants affect humans and other animals. The time required for development of symptoms varies with the individual poison.

1. Lethal plants: Some plants are lethal if you eat, lick or swallow the poisonous part of the plant.
2. Plants that cause digestive problems or pain: Some plants will not kill you, but eating them can make you very uncomfortable.
3. Skin irritants: Some plants can cause itching, irritation, swelling, rashes.

Are all parts of a “poisonous plant” poisonous?

Plants generally have roots, stems (shoots), leaves, flowers, seeds or bulbs. Whether or not an entire plant or just parts of the plant are poisonous depends on the particular type of plant. In addition, the amount of poison contained in a plant can vary with the age of a plant, the season, and growing conditions. Last, whether or not a plant is poisonous depends on who you are (human adult, human child, or another type of animal.)

Why do plants have poisonous substances?

Plants contain poisonous substances for their own protection — to repel insects and animals that graze on plants.

Do the poisons hurt the plant?

No.

Are human adults and children affected the same way by poisonous plants?

Some plants are toxic to children, but are not lethal or irritating to adults. Because of their physical immaturity, children are more sensitive to many chemicals that do not necessarily cause the same reactions in adults. Remember that there are special formulations of drugs for children, and some medications are OK for adults, but not for children. Dosage is dependent on age, maturity of metabolism, health, weight, and other medications you may be taking. Similarly, plant toxins may affect different people differently.

What about animals?

Different animal species have different metabolisms and different populations of microorganisms living in their guts, which can detoxify some plant poisons, resulting in different sensitivity to plant toxins. For convenience, the plants at the Friends Plant Sale have only been classified with respect to toxicity to humans. If you have questions about animal sensitivities, you should check with your veterinarian.

How can I find out more information?

Many plants have the same or similar common names. This can be confusing and misleading when trying to identify poisonous plants. Latin names are the best way to insure that the information you are seeking applies to the plant you are concerned about. Many poisonous plant databases have plants identified by Latin names and common names, to help you find the plants of interest. Here are several online databases that are easy to use with either the common or Latin name. Remember that just because a plant is not listed, it is not necessarily nontoxic.

• Nationwide poison emergency number: 1-800-222-1222
• Minnesota Poison Control System: Plant Guide
• Cornell University Poisonous Plants Informational Database
• University of Pennsylvania’s Poisonous Plants Home Page
• Cornell University: Plants of special concern to animal species
• ASPCA: Ten Most Common Poisonous Plants

How can I garden responsibly with poisonous plants?

1. Inform yourself about the toxic plants and plant parts on your garden plants. 
2. Be aware of the population (human adult and child) with easy access to your garden.
3. Isolate plants that have lethal consequences, so that they are not easily reached by anyone who can be harmed by ingesting them. For example, you might plant monkshood and Datura in the backyard, where casual traffic will not easily encounter these toxic plants.
4. Choose to plant only edible or harmless plants in the front yard or any place that children will have easy access to these plants.
5. Because berries can be an attractive nuisance, choose to plant only those species that bear edible or harmless berries. 
6. Choose to plant nontoxic species that will grow in similar conditions and have similar appearances. For example, if you are planning a rainwater garden, high bush cranberry is a nontoxic alternative to winterberry.
7. Educate your children. Teach them to avoid eating or sucking on any plant parts until they have been positively identified as safe.

Mr. Yuk, AKA Sara Barsel, Ph.D., is a local scientist, educator, and passionate gardener. She volunteers for the Friends School Plant Sale as Mr. Yuk because she values the plant sale, maintaining healthy life forms, and responsible gardening.

From the 2008 catalog

Clematis vines are spectacular in bloom, some varieties yielding not only a primary season of bloom but also a later, lesser flush of flowers, and their seed heads can be very attractive. They provide vertical accents in our gardens as well as cover for less than attractive spots—think chain link fences! Additionally, some clematis are happy to drape over walls or ramble as ground covers. They can produce large (4–6”) flowers or masses of tiny flowers, and the vines vary in potential height from under 4’ to over 25’. They are hardy and long-lived plants.

How They Climb

The vines climb by twisting leaf stems around a support such as a trellis, open-frame obelisk or tuteur. Any frame over 1/2” around is too large for the stems to grasp, but larger frames can be adapted by using netting, wire or string. Since clematis vines vary in height, more than one type can be grown together on a trellis, possibly with different flowering times, with a shorter-growing variety covering the bare lower stems of a leggy taller one.

Traditionally, roses are used as a living host for clematis, and viburnums, barberries, smokebush and cotoneaster are also possibilities. If using a shrub as a support, plant the clematis about two feet away and guide it into the rose/shrub so that the clematis won’t be in competition with the host plant for water and nutrients.

Planting

Clematis should be planted in the spring, in a generous-sized hole with good soil and added compost. Set the plant in the hole about two inches deeper than it was grown in the pot; this encourages new stems. Use a 2–4” mulch, being careful to keep the mulch well back from the stems, and be sure the plant gets plenty of water.

All clematis, young and mature, need lots of water—some growers recommend a minimum of one gallon per week to as much as four gallons per week for each plant.

Pruning

The pruning of clematis seems to be a hang-up for some gardeners. Clematis are divided into groups by pruning needs and time of bloom.

Group I — Large-flowered clematis. Divided into A: early blooming, and B: late blooming.

Group II — Small-flowered clematis. Divided into A: early blooming, and B: late blooming.

Group IA, the early, large-flowered clematis, benefits from light pruning in early spring when the buds begin to swell. Starting at the top and working down, take out dead growth and trim shoots back to the first pair of strong buds. If you have a tangle of stems at the top, prune just below the tangle. Example of this type: Clematis ‘Miss Bateman.’

Group IIA, the early, small-flowered clematis, benefis from tidying. In late spring or early summer, after flowering, trim the shoots only enough to neaten if necessary. Example of this type: Clematis macropetala ‘Blue Bird.’

Groups IB and IIB, the late, large-flowered and late, small-flowered clematis, take hard pruning. In early spring, when the buds begin to swell, cut stems to within about one foot from the ground, leaving two to four sets of buds per stem. Example of Group IB: Clematis Jackmanii. Example of Group IIB: Clematis texensis ‘Duchess of Albany.’

Some final tips:

• Never prune into strong woody stems; the clematis may use this as an excuse to die.
• Do not prune in the fall.
• Save the tag that comes with your plant. It should tell you when your variety blooms and suggest pruning times.

Long-time Plant Sale volunteer Ceil wrote in to tell us about her proven method for protecting her newly planted bulbs from roaming garden critters:

“Henry saw these in my newest flower bed a few weeks ago and said I should take a picture and send it to you.

“I use whatever sticks I find on the ground (and over the years I have way more than I need) and poke them around and among freshly planted bulbs (and other flowers that rabbits and squirrels like to eat) to protect the bulbs from being dug up and eaten by said r’s and sq’s. It discourages them and the method works!”

I asked Ceil if she removes the sticks in spring, or what, and she sent in this picture in response — the sticks are still there, and the blooming tulips and daffodils outshine them.

Here’s a preview of the sale! Look what’s waiting for you!

Above: A684 Brush-Cherry Topiary p.48

Above: A 681 Banana ‘Rowe Red’ p. 48

Above: Another amazing cart!

At a terrific talk given by Donald Mitchell, conservation biologist, Master Gardener, and hummingbird specialist from the University of Minnesota, I learned which flowers not only attract hummingbirds but also give them the most nectar.

Perennials

Coral Bells (Heuchera sanguinea ) The coral bells that are not red-flowered or that have been bred more for their fancy foliage than for their flowers tend to provide less nectar.

Bee Balm (Monarda didyma ‘Jacob Cline’ ) Look for other red-blooming, mildew-resistant varieties.

Beardtongue (Penstemon barbatus ‘Scarlet Queen’ )

Native Wild Flowers

Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis )

Royal Catchfly (Silene regia )

Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis )

Annuals

Salvia (Salvia coccinea, Salvia splendens, Salvia guaranitica ) As a rule, hummingbirds get more nectar from the salvias that are annuals to us here in Minnesota and salvias native to the Americas. The earlier-blooming salvias will be in bloom during our short summers and thus be more available to the hummingbirds.

Flowering Tobacco (Nicotiana langsdorfii, Nicotiana mutabilis)

Torch of Texas (Ipomopsis rubra)

Climbing Plants

Honeysuckle (Lonicera ‘Dropmore Scarlet’ and Lonicera sempervirens)

Trumpet Creeper (Campsis radicans)

Cardinal Climber (Ipomoea x multifida)

Glory Bower Vine (Eccremocarpus scaber)

Firecracker Vine (Mina lobata)

(Photos from Wikipedia)

Some lucky plants have names that entice you to buy them: Baby Bunny Bellies, Fairy Foxglove, Bells of Ireland, Cupid’s Dart. Other plants, through no fault of their own, have less appealing names: Bloody Dock, Lungwort, Bitter Root, Viper’s Bugloss, and this year’s best worst name, Ratstripper.

Bloody Dock (Rumex)

Any plant name that contains words like false, weed, wort, snake, goat, bleeding, or dead, tends to be off-putting enough that, when we are putting the catalog together, we do try to choose a more attractive name if the plant has several common names. Which would you rather have in your garden: Mountain Death Camas or Elegant Camas? Sneezeweed or Helen’s Flower? Liver Balm or Fairy Foxglove?

Of course, when a name like Spiderwort is the most widely known common name, we use it, even if there’s a prettier but obscure name like Blue Jacket. (Thankfully, we don’t have to use another of Spiderwort’s common names: Snotweed!)

But perhaps you are a gardener who is not turned off by medicinal, anatomical, frank, or lurid common names, but who rather relishes them. Perhaps you enjoy knowing that “wort” has nothing to do with warts: it simply means “herb” or healing plant. A Lungwort, despite the way it sounds, is not a nasty disease symptom, but rather a plant that in folklore was thought to cure lung problems because the speckled leaves resemble a lung. And just look at how cute the plant actually is! All of the plants mentioned here are wonderful plants, beloved of gardeners.

So, my question is, would we be as fond of a rose if it was called, say, Thorny Blackspotleaf or Bleeding Pierce-flesh?

And my second question is, does anyone know how Ratstripper, a handsome evergreen groundcover, got its verminous name?

In the catalog:

P 037 Baby Bunny Bellies (Tradescantia) p. 7
A 056 Bells of Ireland (Moluccella laevis) p. 40
P 094 Bitter Root (Lewisia) p. 8
P 273 Bloody Dock (Rumex sanguineus) p. 12
P 250 Cupid’s Dart (Catananche caerula) p. 11
N 022 Elegant Camas (Zigadenus elegans) p. 30
P 274 Fairy Foxglove (Erinus alpinus) p. 12
P 335 Helen’s Flower (Helenium ‘Mardi Gras’) p. 14
P 474 Lungwort (Pulmonaria ‘Gaelic Magic’) p. 17
P 607 Ratstripper (Paxistima canbyi) p. 19
P 646 Spiderwort (Tradescantia ‘Sweet Kate’) p. 20
P 719 Viper’s Bugloss (Echium) p. 21

Do you like to grow strange plants? Not just plants you don’t know, but really odd plants like something out of a Dr. Seuss book?

Last year I grew the inedible, just-for-fun Nipple Fruit (Solanum mammosum) and was pleased that the unusual and knobby yellow fruits kept everybody guessing what they were: Eggplant? Tomato? Squash? The plant itself is large (48 to 60 inches tall) and seemed to need either support or pruning because the fruit is rather heavy. It’s really not too soon to be thinking about Halloween!

Another strange plant that we are selling again this year is a 10-foot vine charmingly called Love-in-a-Puff because of its balloon-like seed pods which contain seeds marked with a tiny heart (hence its Latin name Cardiospermum.) An annual vine with attractive foliage and cute white flowers, Love-in-a-Puff would love to cover any chain-link fence for you.

It is hard to beat Lion’s Ears (Leonotis) for quirky personality. It is a tall, square-stemmed, aromatic annual whose flowers are fascinating at every stage of their development, as their curving orange tubes sprout out of spiny globes. Last summer, I was constantly asked the plant’s name. Kids loved it. Even now, almost a year later, gardeners and neighbors are still talking to me about this one plant. Now that I know that Leonotis is not only a freaky, fun plant but is an exceptionally easy, ever-blooming plant, I plan to buy at least three at the sale (the photo shows what just one little plant quickly turns into!)

If you want to grow a flower that is even more prickly, and perennial, try one of our Globe Thistles (Echinops) this summer. We have a brand new 24-inch steely-blue one called ‘Baby Globes,’ a medium-sized 24- to 48-inch dark blue one called Echinops ritro, and a giant 60- to 72-inch silvery white one called ‘Arctic Glow.’ I rather like ‘Arctic Glow,’ both because monster size tends to increase a plant’s “strangeness factor” and because its colors remind me of an unusual and appealing color-themed garden I saw last summer: silver and various shades of red and pink.

We may be used to seeing Horsetail (Equisetum) growing in the wild, but once it’s in a garden it is clear that it deserves to be in our group of strange plants: it is just as straight as can be, 24 to 36 inches tall, with neat little joints like a bamboo. Note how this perennial Horsetail has been planted in this garden (Chanticleer in Pennsylvania) so that its spreading habit is safely contained. A pot would also work, if you buried it in the ground for the winter. Its stem walls are so full of silica that they are abrasive and were used by Native Americans and early settlers to polish wood and even silver.

These unusual fuzzy orange flowers called Kangaroo Paws (Anigozanthos) are from Australia, a country that seems to specialize in seriously strange plants, more of which are becoming available to American gardeners every year. This year we will also be selling a red variety — let us know if you like them, because next year we could order them in pink, yellow, green or bi-colored. These Kangaroo Paws are 24 inches tall, just the right size to create an impact in a container, but we could offer ones twice that height if our customers are interested.

Finally, a strange plant actually named ‘Dr Seuss’! It is an Angel’s Trumpet (Brugmansia) with huge, fragrant yellow-orange blooms, similar to the Brugmansia shown here and newly available at the sale in a gallon container. This tropical tree can be brought inside for the winter — I know this is true because one of my neighbors has a small forest of them in pots in his front yard! There will also be a new peach-colored Angel’s Trumpet.

Wouldn’t it be fun to plant a whole garden of Dr. Seuss-like oddball plants? Do you have any photos of bizarre Friends School Plant Sale plants you have grown? We would love to see them!

Some garden designers say that foliage is primary, that flowers are just so much “colored straw” or that summer annuals look “like a dog cemetery.” Forget about those fleeting flowers and just have nice, long-lasting foliage? I’m not quite ready for that!

And yet, all the designer-y harping on the beauties of leaves has definitely made me appreciate foliage a lot more than I used to. It also doesn’t hurt that there are so many new plants available with variegated, burgundy, chartreuse, black, and even brown foliage! Check out some of the foliage plants that we have for you this year.

Stoplight Foamy Bells (Heucherella ‘Stoplight’)

Margaret Wilson Cranesbill (Geranium ‘Margaret Wilson’)

Imperial Banner Toad Lily (Tricytis ‘Imperial Banner’)

Maple-Leaved Saxifage (Mukdenia ‘Crimson Fans’)

Prairie Fire Sedge (Carex ‘Prairie Fire’)

Lime Zinger Elephant Ears (Xanthosoma ‘Lime Zinger’)

Evelyn Weidner Begonia (Begonia ‘Evelyn Weidner’)

Molten Fire Amaranth (Amaranthus ‘Molten Fire’)