Seasons Greetings From Baltimore City

The lighting of 34th Street in Hampden

The Miracle on 34th Street

Me, this past Saturday.

Happy Holidays Everybody!

Cyclamen, Cyclamen Everywhere

My garden has been neglected this month, to say the least.  Whether distracted by business or the holidays, my free time has been absorbed by many things other than garden care.  However, my garden has clever ways of reminding me it is still there and lately it is Cyclamen who have garnered my attention.  Their leaves and flower buds are popping up everywhere.

I first encountered hardy Cyclamen in Bavaria.  My girlfriend and I were driving to Bad Reichenhall in Germany when we came across Thumsee, a beautiful lake and popular swimming hole, just west of the city.  We parked the car and decided to take a hike on a path around the lake.  While dodging a group of nude seniors who were trying to coax us into the water, we stumbled upon, quite literally, a patch of blooming cyclamen.  The flowers were tiny, but the tubers can grow to be quite large and here they emerged from the soil like bulbous rocks.  The flowers had delicate wing-like petals, but what struck me most, was that among the cyclamen patch where distinct groups whose leaves had different markings from the next.  I was hooked.

Various Cyclamen Leaf Markings From My Urban Garden

According to The Cyclamen Society, “The genus is notable for the fact that although it is small, there are species which flower in every month of the year”.  The thing I find most interesting is the important role of ants in the germination process of many Cyclamen seeds.  Ants are attracted to a sticky coating on the seeds, so they collect seeds from the plant and carry them away, often to their home.  There they eat the sticky coating and then discard the seed.  Oddly, it is the removal of this coating that makes the seeds particularly viable for germination.

Here's a trivia question to you all - Which species of hardy Cyclamen shoots up flowers before its leaves and is blooming now? I don't know and this one is my garden.

Below is a time lapse video I found on YouTube of a Cyclamen blooming. Enjoy!

Appalachia Needs Your Help

Hello Blotanists – I’m calling on you because I believe you share my respect for our planet and are willing to spend a few moments of your time to help.  -I’m also quite aware of the power of Blotanical bloggers!

A friend of a friend of a friend… is involved in a noteworthy project to create more sustainable jobs for coal miners and reducing negative environmental impacts of Mountaintop Removal in Appalachia.  This group is taking real action to make a difference.

If you have a few moments and are willing to help, go to Brighterplanet.com and vote for Community Biopower Association: Institutional Empowerment in the Coalfields of Appalachia.  You can vote up to 3 times for the project and you can submit all three votes at once.  They are currently only 50 votes behind the first place project. Voting ends on Sunday, November 15th. If you have not voted before, you have to create a log in. The log in is easy and the site promises not to use your email for any purposes other than verification.

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Thank you to everyone who voted for this project.
Voting is closed and the project came in a very close second.

Ghosts, Goblins and Ghouls

All Hallows moon, witches soon.

Well, my neighbors have been at it for weeks and finally my Halloween decorations are up as well.  Below are some images for your enjoyment.

Ghost

Aconitum napellus

Goblin

Arisaema sikokianum berries

Ghouls

Gentiana scabra

Spiders

Hamamelis virginiana

Bleeding Heart

Dicentra x ' king of hearts'

Witch

Ipomoea alba seed pod

Claws

Eryngium agavifolium

Eyeballs

Taxus bacatta 'fastigiata'

Here, one of my neighbors has some decorations quite different from my own.

Happy Halloween Everyone!