Gardening Tastemakers--Are Consumers Losing Their Appetite?

Recycled from an older post: Invitation to a secret garden at Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park 

I know this post won't win me any popularity points with the folks who live for and/or make their living by gardening. Oh well! With the steadily souring economy having forced belt tightening all around the world, lately I've begun to wonder if gardening tastemakers and the consumers they cultivate are getting a bad taste in their mouths. And, considering the changes they've wrought on the environment for hundreds of years by promoting unrestrained, irresponsible horticulture, is it really such a bad thing? I'm in trouble now, for sure.


One of many Camellias to be found at Maclay Gardens

When we first moved to Florida, I was naive about choosing plants to add to our property. Many, if not most of them, are considered exotics and even downright invasive. I found them in nurseries and big box store garden centers. So they had to be okay, right? After all, one of the first things I noticed on entering the state with all of our worldly goods in tow was an agricultural check station. We had to stop and have the moving truck and our drilling company trailer inspected for any plant material that might be considered a threat to Florida's environment. At least that was my initial impression. However, once I started gardening in earnest, I realized that there were other, rather powerful interests behind controlling the influx of plants to the state.

Having relocated from the Midwest, I still clung to my old favorites in the plant supply business. Park Seed Company, Wayside Gardens, and Jackson and Perkins Roses continued to wow me with their seasonal catalogues, and I was thrilled to finally be able to grow some of those Zone 8 plants I had always wanted to try. And then there were palm trees and citrus trees to consider. Could I order citrus from the companies I had trusted for years? Uh-oh. There are rules regarding the importation of citrus into Florida. It's a big, big monoculture in this state. What's monoculture? The dictionary defines it as "the use of land for growing only one type of crop." According to the bee guy who spoke at the recent Butterflies, Bees, and Bats seminar we attended, some of the latest research being done on honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder indicates that monoculture style farming may be greatly contributing to the pollinator's decline. But that's another story, and this post is already getting out of hand and running away!

I've learned a lot about gardening since we first moved here, and that education is due in no small part to becoming a Florida Master Gardener. Does the designation mean I'm suddenly an expert or will it ensure my progress on a path to everlasting fame and glory? I'd rather eat dirt than become an "expert" in anything. That title and a few dollars might still buy me a cup of strong coffee, if I'm lucky. I have discovered a few interesting things along the way, like where to turn for valuable, research-based information on landscaping and related topics: EDIS--the Electronic Data Information Source of UF/IFAS (University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Services)--has over 4000 articles to help guide consumers. One of the more interesting ones I've found regarding invasive plants details quite a bit of the history behind Florida's and other states' growing problem.

It's nothing new, this introduction of plants into a once-pristine environment. According to the article referenced above, "welcoming non-native species into our landscapes for centuries [emphasis mine] has created a multi-billion dollar ornamental plant industry and a gardening public that takes this largesse for granted, selecting primarily on the basis of color, shape, and size. Today's public is unaware of the origins of most ornamental plants and of the danger some species pose to natural areas." And I've always thought the farming industry was to blame for ruining nature. Ha! John Q. Public and his cohorts are in on it too. That means me--and you, if you like to garden or golf or shop or even just admire those beautiful urban and suburban landscapes where you work and live.

So, is there any hope for recovery or at least respite from this constant assault on the environment? It's doubtful, considering the 2.5 billion dollar annual wholesale trade in plants alone here in the U.S. The Great Depression in the 1930s slowed nursery sales somewhat, but we know that slump didn't last long. Sluggish economies always rebound, and a public hungry for lovely ornamental plants will clamor for satisfaction once more. I just wish that public (including me) would exhibit better table manners by learning as much as possible from reliable sources of gardening information like EDIS. We all should be taking smaller bites and chewing slowly--thinking critically--if Florida or any other state in this union has any hope of retaining a shred of its true, natural identity.

NN/SOTS: Essential Oils, 'Instruction's Pleasant Air'

...Where being come, Instruction's pleasant air
Refreshed my senses which were almost dead,
And fragrant flowers of sage and fruitful plants
Did send sweet savors up into my head.
And taste of science appetite did move,
To augment Theory of things above...

(from Rachel Speght's A Dream, 1621)

Now that Spring is fully engaged and gainfully employed, I begin to notice the somewhat less pleasant effects of this engagement and employment: Allergies! There is pollen in them thar Camellias and other lovelies we find so attractive at first and then a bit annoying. SAM says he has been taking a Claritin tablet every day to keep from wheezing and coughing. Apparently, Tallahassee is renowned for its pollen and subsequent effects. When we lived in Illinois, Spring was my season of misery. Yes, I know; it's supposed to be a joyous occasion of renewal and celebration. It is, as long as you have an arsenal of weapons to fend off those annoying allergens. Some people choose manmade chemical weapons; some of them choose a more natural approach. Guess which one I choose?

When the handwriting is on the wall--or the bark, in this case of a pine tree--I see evidence of a great force at work in the Creation/Nature. What protects a tree from the likes of invaders such as the destructive pine beetle? Plants have a natural defense working for them 24/7: Essential oils. It's not clear why sometimes this natural defense works and why it sometimes fails. I try to employ it as often as I can. It makes more sense to me to glean from nature what works for nature than to rely on manmade chemicals produced in the laboratory.

SAM gave me a gift at Christmas that I just redeemed today: a massage from my favorite licensed massage therapist (besides Daughter). She incorporates specific essential oils into this Raindrop Massage and targets areas of imbalance in the musculoskeletal system. Boy, do I have a lot of imbalance going on there! She found it, using more pressure on areas where I needed a lot of help: the lower spine, scapular area, calf muscles. I was tempted to jump off the table at times, but I practiced something I learned in childbirth class years ago: deep breathing. It helps with the removal of toxins and relaxes the body. The oils she used found their way into my tissues via the skin as well as my respiratory system, a double whammy of introduction. The last time I got a massage from Tina Brito Stebbing, she chided me for not breathing deeply enough. I did not hear any complaints this time so I must be learning how to behave as a client. Sometimes all it takes is a little Instruction.

Please visit Ramblingwoods.com for this week's Nature Notes/Signs of the Season post and other bloggers' links to the same.

Christmas Waits for No One in a Garden

...Being now at home again, and alone, the only person in the house awake, my thoughts are drawn back, by a fascination which I do not care to resist, to my own childhood. I begin to consider, what do we all remember best upon the branches of the Christmas Tree of our own young Christmas days, by which we climbed to real life...
--from Charles Dickens' essay "A Christmas Tree," 1850--

Who better to question the various meanings and memories of Christmas than Charles Dickens? I think he surely laid the foundation for the way many of us celebrate the holiday today or at least expressed it better than anyone else. Elaborately decorated trees laden with glass baubles and homespun merriment, gifts covered with paper and ribbons tempting youngsters to sneak a peek, and calorie-studded feasts shared with loved ones and friends manage to hold their own even in these days of economic effeteness. Real life takes a back seat, if only for a day or two, when Christmas comes around. With a new job in Tallahassee driving us on to new and different experiences, SAM and I slowed the real-life pace last weekend on our visit to Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park. It's one of those places I'm sure that we will revisit now and again.

...Oh, now all common things become uncommon and enchanted to me. All lamps are wonderful; all rings are talismans. Common flower-pots are full of treasure, with a little earth scattered on the top...

--from Dickens' essay, as above--

SAM gathers strength from weekend visits and so do I, seeing him in better spirits against such a massive backdrop. I wonder how many storms this live oak has weathered over the years to achieve this stature?

Yes, on every object that I recognize among those upper branches of my Christmas Tree, I see this fairy light! When I wake in bed, at daybreak, on the cold, dark, winter mornings, the white snow dimly beheld, outside, through the frost on the window-pane, I hear Dinarzade. "Sister, sister, if you are yet awake, I pray you finish the history of the Young King of the Black Islands." Scheherazade replies, "If my lord the Sultan will suffer me to live another day, sister, I will not only finish that, but tell you a more wonderful story yet." Then, the gracious Sultan goes out, giving no orders for the execution, and we all three breathe again.

--from Dickens' essay as above--

I wondered as we walked the brick pathways through the gardens: where did these variously crafted bricks come from, and why did they all end up in this garden? One search led me to a Tallahassee blog and a helpful lady who apparently likes to walk here too. There is a story behind every block laid down on these paths, and I'm glad someone thought it worthwhile to preserve them for visitors in need of a respite from real life.

One path leads to a secret garden enclosed by leafy walls. It's beautiful even at this time of year, planted with succulents and frost-tolerant flowers. At this time of year, before the peak of camellia and azalea season, you don't pay extra to visit the Maclay estate. Six dollars admits a car-ful of people to the park and includes admission to the gardens as well as access to picnic areas and miles-long trails through the woods. What a wonderful gift!

Like silvery Christmas tinsel in the sunlight, Spanish moss covers just about every tree in sight. You see much more of it here in Tallahassee than in the Pensacola area. The air plants apparently take a long time to recover from hurricane damage, which is obviously not as much of a limiting factor in this landlocked state capital. Of course, the ambient air quality could be a determining factor in its growth habit, as some researchers have suggested. Paper mills and chemical factories in the Pensacola area could be contributing to the epiphyte's relative scarcity there. If Tallahassee's air quality suffers at all, it's probably from an overabundance of hot air, as its main industry is politics. The resounding echoes of real life--The Waits, if you will--warning us to note the change in time--or changing times--seem to fade away into Camellia Christmas beauty in this garden.

But hark! The Waits are playing, and they break my childish sleep! What images do I associate with the Christmas music as I see them set forth on the Christmas tree? Known before all the others, keeping far apart from all the others, they gather round my little bed. An angel, speaking to a group of shepherds in a field; some travellers, with eyes uplifted, following a star; a baby in a manger; a child in a spacious temple, talking with grave men; a solemn figure, with a mild and beautiful face, raising a dead girl by the hand; again, near a city gate, calling back the son of a widow, on his bier, to life; a crowd of people looking through the opened roof of a chamber where he sits, and letting down a sick person on a bed, with ropes; the same, in a tempest, walking on the water to a ship; again, on a sea-shore, teaching a great multitude; again, with a child upon his knee, and other children round; again, restoring sight to the blind, speech to the dumb, hearing to the deaf, health to the sick, strength to the lame, knowledge to the ignorant; again, dying upon a Cross, watched by armed soldiers, a thick darkness coming on, the earth beginning to shake, and only one voice heard, 'Forgive them, for they know not what they do...'

--from Dickens' essay as above--