Fresh Dirt

Plant a threatened native species -- the Denver Botanic Garden Series from Botanical Interests makes it easy

2009-11-20T08:12:00-08:00

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Panayoti Kelaidis, the senior curator of the Denver Botanic Gardens, approached the Broomfield, Colorado seed company, Botanical Interests, about offering a new line of seeds to preserve native and threatened species some time ago.

The partners in this project took their time before introducing this line to make sure the offering was a group of plants that homeowners would have success with -- drought-tolerant, easy to care for, and beautiful. The series is now here, and it was worth waiting for.

Below are three species from the series. As usual, Carolyn Crawford's gorgeous botanical artwork makes you want them all. There are a dozen more species in this welcome new line. Check them out here.

Is your aspidistra blooming?

2009-11-19T08:27:48-08:00

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

I’m always delighted when I discover an aspidistra flower—a surprise I rank right up there with noticing a shooting star or finding a robin's nest with eggs in it.

It’s the flower’s location that strikes me: right at ground (or potting-soil) level. It turns out that the blooms are pollinated by amphipods, which are tiny terrestrial relatives of both fleas and shrimp.

My aspidistras (A. elatior, also called cast iron plants because they grow in low light with minimal care) seem to produce at least a couple of rounds of bloom per year. My garden notes say that one pot full of them flowered in June, and now they're at it again in November.

If you haven’t grown this plant, it’s one of the easiest indoor subjects around, thriving on a certain amount of controlled neglect. If you kill one of these, it will almost certainly be a long slow demise caused by overwatering. The good news is that all you have to do to reverse the process is sharply curtail your irrigation.

It was once thought that there were only a few kinds of aspidistra, all from Asia, but recently several dozen more species have turned up, and some have started to work their way into the nursery trade. You can buy the plain green species, plus several named varieties that differ mostly in kind and intensity of variegation from Plant Delights Nursery.

Whatever kind you get, check out the soil every time you water. Sooner or later, a rather wonderful flower will appear.

Be adventurous -- plant a new apple variety next year

2009-11-18T08:28:00-08:00

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

I loved Jim's recent post about Kevin and Marty Hauser's quest for better apples for mild climates, which lead to their backyard business, Kuffel Creek Apple Nursery. It is thrilling to know I may have more choices in my mild beach climate than `Anna' -- a reliable but pretty dull apple, I've always thought. Below are the three from Kuffel Creek I find most intriguing -- that's `Enterprise' on the left; `Williams Pride' in the middle; and `Terry Winter' on the right.

Anyone tried any of these yet in Sunset zone 24?

Surfing garden blogs, I see that many home gardeners are stretching the boundaries re apple varieties. Tom at Tall Clover Farm on Vashon Island in Washington, for instance, is growing `Espopus Spitzenberg', said to be Thomas Jefferson's favorite apple, and `Belle de Boshoop', which, as he says, is almost worth growing for the name alone.

And, if I'm not mistaken, the apples his bulldogs Boz and Gracie are eyeing in the photo below are `Bradley's Seedling.' Read Tom's post to see what he has to say about how all these varieties and more are doing in his climate.

What about you? Have you tried any varieties that weren't supposed to work in your climate that proved to be winners anyway? Or have you rediscovered a wonderful heirloom variety worth bringing back? Let us know.

How long is your growing season?

2009-11-17T08:00:00-08:00

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

Killing frost is the horticultural version of The Grim Reaper. Usually stealing into the garden on a calm, clear, dry autumn night, it cuts down all remaining summer fruits and flowers. It is worth noting on your calendar because it marks the end of the growing season, which began with the last killing frost of spring.

Once the growing season starts, you plant beans, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, melons, peppers, squash, and tomatoes. Then you start counting.

When the seed packet says you have an 85-day tomato, or a 110-day pumpkin, it’s giving you the number of days between planting and harvest. But your growing season better be significantly longer than that.

Here’s why.

•For starters, actual days to harvest depends on location. If you’re growing warm-season crops in a climate that gets warm days, mild nights, and plenty of moisture, plants mature fast. But if you’re growing the same varieties along the coast, where summers never get very hot, plants mature very slowly. Many national seed sellers assume optimal growing conditions for their days-to-harvest numbers. So a tomato that might mature in 85 days in Ohio might take 125 days to mature along the mild Oregon Coast.

•Days to harvest clocks the time from planting to the day your pick your first fruit. But plants can bear for weeks or months after that first fruit. So an 85-day tomato could keep producing fruit from day 85 to day 145. That means you really need a 145-day growing season to let you get the most from your plants.

The best way to calculate your garden’s growing season is by writing down first and last frost days (start now!) The second best way is by looking up your town’s historical weather information on one of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s regional climate center databases. These vary widely in ease of use, but you're in luck if you live in the West, which has a complete, easy to use climate center. Navigate to your state, your city, then click on the link to "Freeze Free Probabilities," which gives you growing season information.

You can also get map-based information from the Internet Accuracy Project.

I could close with warnings and disclaimers, but you know the drill: nature does what she wants, when she wants. Just get to know her better by writing down last and first frost dates as they occur in your garden, and you'll be a better gardener for it.

New television program on drought-tolerant garden begins tonight on PBS

2009-11-16T08:23:35-08:00

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Getting Native, a television series about the beauty and craft of landscaping with native and Mediterranean plants premieres tonight at 6:30 p.m. on PBS station KVCR. The series is sponsored by Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden.

"Each episode focuses on a front yard renovation project, using sustainable design and drought-tolerant plants planted in the most appropriate locations to maximize water conservation and to create a great-looking living space."

Check your local cable or satellite guide for the channel. I'm TIVOing this right now before I forget.

Create holiday crafts from the garden

2009-11-16T07:54:00-08:00

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Many botanical gardens offer wreath-making demonstration or other gifts-from-the-garden classes right about now. Take advantage of them. They're a bargain. Here's a new venue in Southern California:

The Farm and Food Lab at the Orange County Great Park, November 21, 10 a.m. to noon.

"Holiday Crafts from the Garden -- Create some wonderful hand-made gifts for those hard-to-buy-for people on your list from your own garden. Join the California Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners of Orange County as they demonstrate a selection of garden gfit ideas to make for the holidays, incuding a holiday wreath."

The class is free. Parking is $8.

The Orange County Great Park is located off the 5 Freeway and Sand Canyon in Irvine. It's a little tricky to find. Check directions on the website before you go.

Can't make it? Check out our How to Make a Wreath in 4 Easy Steps.

Already an expert? Share your know-how. See How To Host A Wreath-Making Party.

Q&A: How do I paint [on] plants?

2009-11-14T08:00:00-08:00

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

Question I have some beautiful indoor plants. I'd like to add different colored stripes to the leaves. These are big plants (pretty much trees) with long green leaves. I think it would be a cool art project to paint different colored stripes (one per leaf) on them.

Will this kill the plant?

Any advice on a paint that wouldn't harm it it? I just like art projects and think it would be cool to have different colored stripes on the ordinarily green leaves. Any advice would be helpfull!

Thanks! —Brian

Answer For more than a decade in Europe, and about 5 years in the United States, growers have painted live poinsettias (pictured above) for the Christmas market. They use a proprietary paint formula. But florists also use paint—a lacquer-based spray paint that is widely available—mostly to color cut flowers without damaging them. Sold under the Design Master label, it's also listed for use on foliage. I personally haven't used it, so I can't give you any personal experience that speaks to its performance on live plants over the long haul—but it's promising. Give it a try and send me pictures.

—Jim McCausland

Recycle a broken skateboard or surfboard into garden art

2009-11-13T08:07:00-08:00

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

The above wall pieces--the work of North Carolinian artist George Peterson--are all made out of broken skateboards. Peterson carved designs in them with a chainsaw, burned parts for texture, and painted them with several layers of milk paint, wax, and rust. By the time he's finished, you'd swear the boards were ancient African shields.

I found this wall art in George Corman's email newsletter, Gardening Insights. The Tucson garden designer found Peterson's work on-line, fell in love with it, and persuaded the artist to let him be his apprentice for a few days. He worked with Peterson on these pieces while he was in North Carolina. The "shields" are destined for shows in Washington D.C. and Philadelphia later this month.

Not many of us will be able to duplicate Peterson's level of craft, of course, but doesn't it make you want to find an old skateboard or surfboard and bang it up at bit and see what you could do? I don't own a chain saw or a blow torch, but I've got all kinds of house paint and could go for a Jackson Pollock splash art effect. Or I could glue on layers of straw and bark and go for a Anselm Kiefer look. And I've got bare block walls that need some garden art. What would you do with a broken skateboard or surfboard?

***

Incidentally, George Corman is pretty artistic himself. And, if you live in the Tucson area, you can see his bee habitat sculptures and other garden pieces this weekend, Nov. 14-15 as part of the Tucson-Pima Arts Council's open studio tour. Also see our blog post about these pieces.

Persimmon celebration -- Public puckering allowed

2009-11-11T12:49:31-08:00

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

The Japanese persimmon (Diospyros kaki) is worthy growing for its beauty alone even if you don't think you like the fruit. Our Western Garden Book summarizes its virtues this way:

"It reaches 30 ft. tall (or more) and at at least as wide. Has a handsome branch pattern and is one of the best fruit trees for ornamental use; makes a good small shade tree and is suitable for espalier. Leaves are light green when new, maturing to dark green, leathery ovals 6-7 in. long. Foliage turns vivid yellow, orange or red in fall (even in mild climates). After leaves drop, brilliant orange-scarlet, 3-4-in. fruits brighten the tree for weeks and persist until winter unless harvest."

If you live in Orange County or close by, you can find out more about persimmons at the annual Persimmon Party held in Pitcher Park in Old Towne section of the city of Orange. It will be held this coming Sunday, November 15th, noon to 3 p.m. There will be fruit and baked goods for sale and other persimmon products -- persimmon salsa sounds intriguing.

Pitcher Park, if you've never been there, is pretty charming all by itself actually. It's a small park in the middle of a residential area that shows evidence of its original rural origins. When Henry and Grace Pitcher gifted the property to the city of Orange, the city decided to maintain the barn -- it is now the Orange County Fire Museum. They also retained Henry's original honey house, where the Orange County Beekeepers have an exhibit and store gear. Here's a hint of what Pitcher Park looks like.

If you can't come to the Persimmon Party, but I've made you hungry for persimmons, try some of Sunset's persimmon recipes. Or try this Persimmon and Cinammon Oatmeal recipe I found on the White on Rice Couple blog while browsing for a full image of a persimmon tree. (The top left photo is their image. So are the two below.)

The truth about chile peppers

2009-11-10T08:00:00-08:00

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

Photos by Paul Bosland

We love chile peppers, but we’re a bit confused about them.

For example:

—In spite of what your dictionary may say, it’s "chile," not "chili."

—Though we follow Christopher Columbus’ error in calling them peppers, chile peppers are unrelated to black pepper.

—Though habanero chiles are botanically Capsicum chinense varieties, and though chiles have been essential ingredients in Asian food for centuries, all chiles are American natives.

—Though bell peppers, cayennes, jalapeños, and many others are botanically C. annuum varieties and are grown as annuals, all chiles are actually perennials.

—The hottest chile in the world is neither ‘Orange Habanero’ nor ‘Red Savina’, but India’s ghost chile, ‘Bhut Jolokia’ (pictured at left, below). This one and its near relations are more than four times as hot as the nearest runner up, 'Red Savina', and about half as hot as pepper spray.

—And while we love chiles for their pungency and heat, the capsaicin that gives them these traits is colorless, odorless, and tasteless. That’s why a heatless jalapeño or habanero still tastes like a chile pepper.

You’ll find all this truth-telling in The Complete Chile Pepper Book by Dave DeWitt and Paul Bosland (Timber Press, Portland, 2009; $29.95 hardbound). Nobody is better suited to set the record straight than these two men, who are professors at New Mexico State University. DeWitt has written more than 30 books about chiles, and Bosland has bred more than 30 chile varieties. Between them they can tell you how to choose, grow, harvest, skin, powder, smoke, and dry chiles; and how to combine them in everything from garlic cheese to tiramisu. The book even offers a recipe for white chocolate 'Ancho' chile ice cream.

They start the book with their "hundred (or so)" favorite chiles, then get into garden design, container-growing, and control of pests and diseases. Along the way you'll learn about their quest for the world's hottest chile pepper, and pick up useful tips about how to stop the burning that capsaicin causes on your skin (rubbing alcohol), in your mouth (ice cream), and in your eyes (an ocean of eye drops and time).

Just published, this book will be the standard reference on chile peppers for a long time to come. I give it my three-chile rating, which translates as hot-hot-hot.

Report from the Late Show

2009-11-09T06:00:00-08:00

By Julie Chai, Sunset associate garden editor

At the recent Late Show garden show, we were thrilled by all the inventive displays. There were so many amazing creations that it's hard to narrow them down, but here are a few of our favorites. Above, garden designers Suzanne Biaggi and Patrick Picard created the Future Feast with edibles planted right into a tabletop. Produce doesn't get any fresher than that!

We also loved the way designer Beth Mullins turned tires inside out and used them as planters in her display:

And in the vendor area, East Bay sculptor Marcia Donahue offered ceramic bulbs. We can wait to see what they come up with next year!

Great setting for garden classes

2009-11-08T08:46:00-08:00

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Does this look like a fun setting for a garden class or what?

This is the sideyard of Marianne Taylor, an avid gardener living in the Los Rios Historic District in San Juan Capistrano. (If you've ever strolled through this charming area--it's one of the oldest neighborhoods in the state of California--chances are you've walked by and admired this large, flower-filled, corner property.) Janet Crowther, another avid gardener and a friend of Marianne, often told her. "People would pay to sit in your yard." That gave the two women an idea. They've started a garden seminar business called Goin Native. The class emphasis is on hands-on experience and all sessions will be held in Taylor's backyard.

The next class -- "Holiday Gifts: Going Green" -- recycling old teapots, boots, or other fine items into decorative gift containers -- will be held on Saturday, December 5. You can register for this and upcoming classes through the San Juan Capistrano Community Services Department. Phone 949-493-5911.

Classes already scheduled for 2010:

Lose the Lawn. January 26 and February 20

How to Stretch a Costco Bouquet in Multiple Valentine Arrangements -- Feb. 9

Victory Gardens -- March 6 and March 23

Here's Marianne (on the left) and Janet (on the right). Yes, they're a much fun as they look. I had a great time with them in Los Rios and am looking forward to a return visit.

If you sign up for one of these classes, make a day of it. Los Rios merits it. My colleague Jim did a post about that very subject awhile back.

I highly recommend a bite at The Ramos House Cafe. The cafe is very casual but the menu is quite sophisticated. Mac n' Cheese with Smoked Veggies and Lemon Gremolata. Duck Cakes with Baby Spinach & Warm Mustard Dressing.

And I am going to have one of those sensible things some day instead of always opting for the desserts. But I've got to tell you their Warm Berry and Banana Shortcake is heaven.

Also check out Ito Nursery while you're in the neighborhood. It's the oldest nursery in San Juan Capistrano. Doug Ito is the man with the peony advice I posted recently.

Low-maintenance gardening: the real thing

2009-11-07T08:00:00-08:00

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

A garden can be a consuming passion—at least until you feel it consuming you. When Val Easton found herself in that spot, she knew it was time to move on, this time to a gem of a low-maintenance garden she made for herself. It kept her passion for gardening alive and spawned a terrific book, The NEW Low-Maintenance Garden (Timber Press, Portland, 2009; $19.95).

Because the book is rooted in Easton’s personal and recent experience, she makes her case with formidable authority: “Somewhere along the way to plant collecting and competitive gardening, we forgot the ancient notion of the garden as a place of respite, an oasis remote from worldly cares and chores. We forgot nature’s ability to soothe, renew, and nurture.… [Her] ability to work her magic on us is dependent on our slowing down and looking closely, not on our constant efforts to improve upon her.” Easton calls gardening as it was meant to be “the feast we forget to partake of.”

In the end, she found that low maintenance wasn’t about gardening lite—she wanted “the exhaustion ... taken out, not the fulfillment”—it was instead all about design. Thus her mantra: “Design before plants, think geometry, and invest in infrastructure.”

So how did all this work out in her own landscape? The book gives you a peek through the lens of Jacqueline Koch. In addition to vignettes of Easton’s own garden (see below), you get a look at a passel of other high appeal, low-maintenance gardens and parts of gardens that are scattered like jewels across North America. You look and say “I want this,” realizing that your desire has everything to do with the sanctuary garden that Easton is calling you back to. Low maintenance is just the part of the equation that gives you the time to enjoy the sanctuary you create.

Fruit for your cereal from one container

2009-11-06T08:34:00-08:00

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Here's another good idea I picked up from Teena Spindler and Kay Evans's talk on "Creating A Beautiful, Edible Garden" at the Annual Garden Seminar of the Master Gardeners of Orange County:

Plant a blueberry bush in a large pot. Then underplant it with strawberries. (I'm inclined towards Alpine strawberries because they don't develop runners and stay in nice neat mounds.)

Since blueberries like acidic soil and much of the West has alkaline soil, growing them in containers is the only realistic option. (You can tell yourself you'll keep amending the soil, but it's so much easier to control pH in a pot.)

But even if I had acidic soil, I think I might grow blueberries this way just for the pretty factor. And the strawberries, especially, would be much easier to harvest.

Dave Wilson Nursery's recipe for a soil mix for blueberries in containers

More info on growing blueberries from Sunset

Blueberry recipes to try when your crop exceeds your cereal needs

The recipe I'm hoping I'll have enough berries to try out this summer -- Blueberries in black pepper-Syrah syrup

Got too many root veggies? Ivy Manning can help

2009-11-05T08:00:00-08:00

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

In autumn, every food gardener, CSA subscriber, and farmers-market shopper faces the same dilemma: more root crops than they know what to do with. How do you prepare all those earthy-looking potatoes, celeriac roots, crispy carrots, and frost-sweetened parsnips?

Portland chef Ivy Manning knows—wrote a book about it, in fact. Called The Farm to Table Cookbook (Sasquatch Books, Seattle, 2008; $29.95), its recipes take you through the harvest year, making the most of everything from the first greens of spring to the last persimmons of autumn. By organizing recipes seasonally, Manning writes that she can “help you get a feel for an intuitive way of cooking that uses ingredients when they’re at their peak.” And that’s exactly the right starting point for anybody who wants to relearn the pleasures (and good sense) of using local, seasonal, vine-ripened produce.

More than just a compendium of recipes, all beautifully photographed by her husband Gregor Torrence, The Farm to Table Cookbook has how-to-choose-it sidebars, backgrounders on major ingredients (I love the pear and tomato primers), and meet-the-producer sections that introduce you to some of the growers responsible for local bounty.

Most of the recipes are Manning's, but she's also included some from several renowned Northwest chefs, from Maria Hines at Tilth in Seattle, to Fearn Smith at The Farm Café in Portland.

Ivy (her photograph here is © John Valls, 2009) is a food writer, chef, cooking instructor, and omnivore married to a vegetarian. This combination definitely informs Ivy's blog, and inspired Manning's next book, just published, called The Adaptable Feast (Sasquatch Books, Seattle, 2009; $23.95). It's filled with flexible recipes, each of which is adjusted during preparation so that part will delight a vegetarian or vegan, and part will appeal to an omnivore. The book guides you in preparation of full-on meals, quick fixes, cocktail snacks, and advice on how to maintain a mixed pantry and handle the ethical intricacies of food preparation.

Wabi-sabi at work in the Anderson Japanese Gardens

2009-11-04T08:08:00-08:00

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

The transitory nature of beauty is a concept to be cherished, believe the Japanese. They even have a term for it, "wabi-sabi". Seasonal changes may not be dramatic in Southern California, but they can be found and should be embraced as Southern California writer Debra Baldwin suggested and demonstrated and we blogged about recently.

Want more drama? How about these recent shots from the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, Illinois?

The photos were taken by Jean Warboy, a Sunset "alum." Warboy used to be a book designer for Sunset. And obviously she hasn't lost her great eye. You can see more of her photos of this garden on Facebook.

The creator of the Anderson Japanese Gardens, Hoichi Kurisu, is well-known to Sunset's readers in the Pacific Northwest. He was the director of landscaping of the Japanese Garden in Washington Park in Portland, Oregon between 1968-1972. And later his firm, Kurisu International, spectacularly repaired and improved The Heavenly Waterfall in that garden when it was damaged in a severe ice storm ini 1997.

Quince: the fruit you grow for fragrance

2009-11-03T08:49:48-08:00

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

Walking through a friend's entry garden yesterday evening, I was enveloped in a cloud of fragrance that made me pause and breathe it in again and again. The scent, which spreads far even on damp autumn nights, was from the fruit on a gnarled old quince tree, which I'm sure many people take for a late pear.

Not many gardeners grow it any more, probably because this astringent fruit is only edible (and really very good) after it's been cooked into pies or preserves. Fruiting quince (Cydonia oblonga) is often confused with spring-flowering quince (Chaenomeles), a shrubby relation always grown for its early spring flowers, and sometimes also grown for its ornamental fruit.

Every year my quince-growing friend gives me one of these woolly yellow fruits that I put on my desk to perfume the room. But this year I'm thinking it makes more sense to get myself a tree. Then I can perfume not just a room, but much of the garden with one of the most evocative fall fragrances I know.

More about Dymondia

2009-11-02T08:11:00-08:00

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Though it has been over a year since our blog post on Dymondia margaretae, the carpet-flat South African ground cover shown below, we are still getting comments and questions about it because more and more people are taking out all or part of their lawns and looking for substitutes.

Phil's recent question seemed like one a lot of readers might have. I quote him below:

"We have a space of about 200 - 300 sqf. We purchased flats of Dymondia for it. What size clumps should be planted and what should be the correct spacing? The area had a lawn before which we sprayed a few times and lightly tilled. We are in Southern Cal. about 15 minutes inland. What would be the expected time frame for it to fill in and what's the best way to handle grass that keeps growing through? "

Though I have literally seen D. margaretea in hundreds of gardens--and liked it every time--I don't have it in my own garden and had no personal experience regarding growing it. So I went to an expert, Randy Baldwin, general manager at San Marcos Growers, a wholesale nursery in Santa Barbara that propagates the plant. Here's his answer.

"I tell people to plant this plant as close as they can afford. But, if the area is irrigated and the soil decent, this plant can grow fairly fast, and a one-foot spacing would be adequate. It would fill in within 6 months, assuming you planted in late winter through spring in an area with full sun and regular irrigation. Buy flats if you can and cut them into squares. As long as each piece has nice roots, they can be as small as one inch. But test out a few to see if you need to make bigger squares to get clumps with roots before cutting up the whole flat. If you can't find flats, break up one-gallon plants into multiples.

Regarding weeds, this plant can eventually do a good job smothering out new weed seed grasses, but when the Dymondia is young and there is space between plants, diligent hand-weeding is a must. Site preparation ahead of time really is the key, though. You need to get rid of the grasses that were there before you plant. If you are dealing with Bermuda, it often takes repeated treatments of an herbicide used during the grass's growing season and while it is being irrigated so that the Bermuda thoroughly takes in the herbicide. There are selective post-emergence herbicides that work on grasses that do not harm broadleaf plants, but my observation is they don't do a great job in controlling Bermuda. Also I am not sure whether Dymondia is tolerant of these herbicides. If a homeowner wantsto go this route, they should talk to a pest control advisor for specific recommendations. And, even so, I would test a small area first before treating the entire planting."

Thanks, Randy, for such a thorough answer. I'm sure a lot of our blog readers will find this immensely useful.

Rye ergot and witch trials

2009-10-31T09:49:58-07:00

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

I'm very interested in Amy Stewart's work, so I was happy to see Sharon's post about her yesterday. But I think Stewart probably overstated ergot's part the Salem witch trials—if it had any part at all. (Ergot is a fungus that infects grain and can cause hallucinations and erratic behavior in those who eat it.)

My great grandmother, 10 generations back, was a woman named Rebecca Nurse, who was hung for being a witch in those trials. I've spent a lot of time reviewing the trial transcripts to see what really happened. In a nutshell, it started with two girls, cousins, who had seizures that the adults around them blamed on witchcraft. It is these seizures that Stewart attributes to ergot—a charge that has been refuted by academics, and which doesn't make sense to me based on what followed. The afflicted girls singled out a West Indian slave girl named Tituba and two women who were social outcasts as witches. To deflect the anger of the community, they falsely implicated others, who implicated others, who implicated others.

In Rebecca Nurse's case, her family had had a property dispute with the family of the woman who accused her of witchcraft. During the trial, the accusers contended that Nurse used supernatural arts to inflict great pain on them. To bolster their case, when she cocked her head to the side during the trial to hear something more clearly (she was 71 years old, and reportedly hard of hearing), a couple of her accusers jerked their heads to the side and screamed. That kind of thing was obviously theatre designed to get a conviction.

As it happened, Nurse was acquitted by the jury. But sadly, this was before the day when one couldn't be tried twice for the same offense. Nurse was in the presence of others who had been accused when one of them said "she was one of us." When Nurse didn't respond, the jury took it as assent that she was a witch like them. But other explanations are more likely: she didn't respond because she didn't hear, or if she did hear, she didn't respond because she understood "one of us" to mean "one of those falsely accused." But then her accusers and the jury went to the governor and convinced him to override the innocent verdict and hang her, which he did, even after receiving a petition from dozens of people who put their own necks on the line by supporting her.

After the execution, the thing mushroomed until so many people were accusing so many people that the governor finally said "enough!" No more charges were entertained, no more trials conducted, and the thing died away as quickly as it came.

Rebecca Nurse's conviction was reversed posthumously, one of the girls who had charged her admitted to having fabricated the charges—and her house is now the Salem Witch Museum.

John Greenleaf Whittier wrote the following, which is on Rebecca Nurse's granite monument in Danvers, Massachussets.

O Christian Martyr who for Truth could die

When all about thee owned the hideous lie!

The world redeemed from Superstition's sway

Is breathing freer for thy sake today

Read Amy Stewart but go listen to her, too, if you have the chance

2009-10-30T08:27:00-07:00

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

I have read and enjoyed all of Amy Stewart's books from her first From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden to her most recent, Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities. But I heard her speak for the first time on the 17th of this month at the excellent Annual Garden Seminar of the Master Gardeners of Orange County.

Turns out Stewart is as interesting in person as she is in print. Low-key, drily funny, full of surprising facts told entertainingly. If she comes to your area, don't miss her. Check her speaking engagement calendar here.

Some tidbits from her book mentioned in her talk, which was based on Wicked Plants:

. Rye ergot, a fungus that grows on rye, especially after wet winters, may have caused the deranged behavior that lead to the Salem witch trials. The fungus causes wild hallucinations.

. The ghastly symptoms of pellagra, a syndrome caused by a diet containing too much corn, could have inspired the myths of vampirism in Bram Stoker's Dracula --- pale skin that erupted in blisters when exposed to the sun, sleepless nights, an inability to eat normal food, and a morbid appearance just before death.

But the most important thing I learned from Amy's lecture was that Sago palms are one of the most toxic plants your pet may encounter. All parts of the plant, but especially the seeds and leaves, contain carcinogens and neurotoxins. I was grateful to know this because there are Sago palms all over my neighborhood. Now I know I need to be attentive when I take Lucy, my Cavalier, for her daily walks because she thinks everything is edible.

To find out what other plants that might be harmful to your pets' health, visit the ASPCA website.

You might also want to check out our article on dog-friendly landscaping.