There’s “only” 55 more days until Christmas. Catalogs are pouring into our mailbox. Most go straight into the recycling pile, but a few I set aside, saving them for a break in the holiday frenzy. I don’t keep the gift catalogs, or the home décor catalogs. I only save the important catalogs… the seed catalogs.
The gardening season is over for the year, but next season’s garden is already germinating in my mind. Regimented rows of bush beans spread their leaves toward the spring sun, lettuce forms tight rosettes and huge broccoli plants are crowned with enormous heads of perfect buds. No hail has punched holes in the leaves; hungry cutworms have yet to fell a single stalk.
You won’t see them being ridden on Halloween, they’re no good for sweeping, and they aren’t caused by witches. Instead, witches’ broom is the term for a dense cluster of leaves or twigs growing haphazardly among the branches of a plant, usually a shrub or tree. At times, the appearance of the broom is strikingly different from normal growth, as in the example shown at left.
Cold-resistant flowering cabbage takes the stage after tender annuals have succumbed to Fall’s first frosts. Flowering cabbage isn’t really a flower, but a loose head of large ruffled, fringed, or smooth leaves in vibrant combinations of cream rose, purple, and green. Although grown as an ornamental, flowering cabbage, also known as ornamental or flowering kale, is completely edible.
“Mom, can you fix it?”
“Don’t throw that away!”
As summer’s flowers fade, plants that produce berries take center stage. Branches covered with bright red berries make cotoneasters especially attractive now, but they offer year-round interest. In spring, tiny but abundant white to pink flowers may be obscured by the shiny round green leaves. Foliage turns orange-red in fall. Finally, the berries persist into winter, or until the birds pick them clean.
The hardest part of growing cotoneaster is pronouncing it correctly (it’s “ko-TON-ee-AS-ter”). These shrubs thrive with little attention, handling poor soils, full sun to afternoon shade, and moderately low amounts of water. New shrubs should be coddled a bit until vigorous growth begins. Give plants room to spread, pruning only to remove oldest wood and enhance appearance. As with all members of the rose family, cotoneasters are occasionally susceptible to fire blight; some new varieties are tolerant of this disease. The many different species in cultivation vary in hardiness. Most will survive zone 4 or 5 winters, but check the label for the variety you are purchasing.
Sex in your Garden, by Angela Overy
Mountain Plover 