Another Anniversary!

 I started this blog at the beginning of February, 2013. I am celebrating its 8th anniversary.

How very long ago 2013 seems! 

I started writing this blog to make good plant stories more available. For example, a Supreme Court decision that decided the tomato is a vegetable; several plants native to the Americas became such a part of Eurasian cultures so fast that by the 1700 people thought they were Eurasian plants, for example chili peppers, and plumeria (aka frangipani and Indian temple tree). 

red flax, Linum grandiflorum, a plant I grew because I'd read about it.

                                             It is as pretty as it was described to be.

                              chili peppers, Capsicum sp., The photo was taken in Suzhou, China

In the process of writing, I've encountered stories I had no idea about...that's a personal benefit of writing this blog. For example; onions were a favorite food of the Egyptians who built the pyramids, eaten raw like apples. The largest organism in the world is an aspen tree. Every cultivated plant has dozens or thousands of varieties, not just roses and apples, but four o'clocks and mangoes.

four o'clocks, Mirabilis jalapa

Reading for this blog makes me curious about ever-another plant. That leads to searching seed catalogs to try growing goji berries and peanuts, and, to my own surprise, corn, which I hadn't planted in a decade. This often sounds like a garden blog, but in fact my garden is where I experiment growing plants, not an attempt at a well-groomed artistic space or a major food source. 

Well, mostly. I like cut flowers, so I have lots of flowers, annual and perennial, that make my garden a joyful space. And there are a lot of edible plants in my yard, some of which we eat when available.

I also grow native plants, because I'm interested in them. Often I'm just interested, but sometimes there's a specific question. For instance: will coevolved pollinators find my single, isolated yucca plant? The yucca, soapweed yucca, Yucca glauca, native to my area, has grown where I planted it for 15 years, without flowering. When it flowers I will look eagerly to see if the obligate pollinator, the yucca moth, Tetigula sp., finds it. I have only the one plant; I think its nearest yucca plant neighbor is three houses down the street and I don't know if there are moths there. It is a tiny experiment about the relationship of native plants and their pollinators.

The yucca I bought as a small plant,
at least 15 years old but has not flowered.

In addition to cool stories, this blog is written to gather botanical information and share it. That often teaches me something new, as I dig into the subject. A nice result. 

Of course, I have days when I think "what am I going to write about next?!" I'll reach 500 blog posts about the first of June; there's a lot I've already done. But then I get excited about an idea, and I stop complaining about my self-imposed project. 

Thank you for reading!

Comments and corrections always welcome.

Blogs referred to:

aspen - Plant Story--Aspen, Populus tremuloides, widespread and speading - link 

frangipani - Plant Story--Fragrant Plumeria, Frangipani, Temple Tree - link

goji - Plant Story--Tasty Goji Berries, Chinese Wolfberries, Lycium species link

onions - Plant Story--the Indominable Onion link

tomato - Plant Stories--The Rise of the Tomato - link

yucca -Plant Story: Small Soapweed, Yucca glauca - link

Kathy Keeler, A Wandering Botanist
More at awanderingbotanist.com
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