THE
TAPROOT
The Quarterly Newsletter of the Tri County Master Gardeners
Fall in Full Bloom
Shannon Cavanaugh 2006
The sweet smell of fall hangs in the air in the Lowcountry and with the turn of time comes new colors in the garden. Finding plants that bloom from August until frost is an easy scavenger hunt. Just take a tour of my garden and enjoy nature’s expression of self.
(Ipomoca alba)
It’s always a full moon at our place on Folly Beach. We often call it a “three moon” night and sometimes we’ve counted as many as ten. The Moonflower (Ipomoca alba) is a beautiful saucier-size bloom that grows on a vine. It blooms in the evening and through the night until early morning. It gives off a sweet scent. The Moonflower attracts many types of nature, such as the Carolina Sphinx Moth. These moths resemble hummingbirds.
Once the flower goes to seed in late fall, collect the brown pods, remove the seed and store in a cool, dry place until spring. Then reseed directly in the ground. You may want to first soak the seeds in water overnight. Plant by covering seeds with half-an-inch of soil and water. Allow to go slightly dry between waterings.
(
Salvia leucantha).
Another favorite that borders our garden fence is Mexican Sage (Salvia leucantha). This is a plant that you can almost forget about even in the sun and it just keeps on giving you joy. The blooms typically start in August and continue to fall, but this year with the cooler wet weather, it is blooming later. The beauty of this plant is not only its bloom of purple or magenta flowers, but it’s a perennial and it spreads and spreads.
Salvia madrensis
Another perennial in the salvia family is the Salvia madrensis. It is often called Forsythia Sage and what a stunner! It is one of very few salvias that bloom yellow. It blooms 12-inch limbs of a canary yellow. The large green leaves are heart shaped. No wonder the humming birds love it. Again it typically blooms late August until frost, but it is getting a later start this year. Here in the Lowcountry, it grows as tall as 10 feet with a spread of 4-5 feet. In frost prone areas such as zone 7, it requires mulching and usually gets only 3-5 feet tall.
Forsythia sage is native to Mexico, where it grows at elevations of 5000 feet. Like many of the large-leaved salvias, forsythia sage grows well in partial sun. Ideally, in the Lowcountry, it likes early morning to noon sun and then some afternoon shade in the hottest part of the day.
Purple Mayan Pepper
Let’s not forget our vegetables either! Peppers are still HOT looking in the garden here in the Lowcountry even until December depending on the weather and if you have planted it in an area that will create a micro-climate during the cooler months. This Purple Mayan Pepper is a conversation piece even if you don’t eat the peppers. The peppers turn from purple to yellow to orange to red. Some have called mine a Christmas tree. I like to think of it as nature’s attempt and inspiration to compete with artists like Georgia O’Keefe or Picasso. You can plant it in the ground, raised bed or I like to grow it in my grandmother’s old tin bucket from Arkansas.
There’s something about the rustic can with its peeling red paint and its shedding of skin that reminds me of fall. Some folks grow it just for its ornamental value, but my husband loves to pick all the colors and make a hot vinegar sauce. The redder the pepper the hotter. Fire!
Zebra Aloe
I will end the tour with another favorite of favorites in the succulent family. This is called Zebra Aloe (Aloe maculata). Its Latin name means speckled or marked. I just call it my freckled friend. You will find it growing all over Charleston and the islands. It loves to spread its babies, pups as they’re known. Here at Folly Beach it blooms twice a year.
As you can see, here in the Lowcountry there is no fading into fall without a last passionate stand of color in the garden. Our plants demand that we pay full attention!
Getting Your Gourd...Seeds
Jenion Tyson
A while back, I
wrote about growing and preserving bottle gourds - today, I want to share how to harvest the seeds. I know it seems fairly straightforward, but since Robin found a few decorative gourds at Goodwill, some that still had seeds in them, I decided to do some seed saving.
Unless you're going to make a ladle or a birdhouse, it's probably best to make a small hole at the bottom of the gourd to collect the seeds. You need the hole to be large enough for the seeds to fit through, but not enough to ruin whatever you may want to make with the gourd in the future. I got out my electric drill and used a 9/16 inch bit - these are larger bits that look more like Neptune's trident than the spiral ones we're used to seeing.
I wasn't sure if this would crack or break the gourd when I drilled into it, but, almost without exception, I ended up with very round holes. On one of the gourds a small piece chipped off the edge of the hole, but it was pretty small.
Once there is a hole in the gourd, it's pretty simple after that. I put a bag over the gourd and shook the seeds out. That's it. Once it's empty you can use it for your craft project, whether it is a birdhouse, a ladle or carving designs into it, like the ones we have. There are so many choices.
Visitors to My Yard
Becki Trickey
Luna Moth
Behind the Bushes
Darren Sheriff ‘07
When you are out plant shopping at one of the big box stores or even your local favorite nursery, have you ever stopped to think about how much work went into that plant? Why it might cost as much as it does? Or why the plant next to it, even though it is the same size, costs way more?
I was at one of those big box stores not too long ago and heard somebody asking some of those very questions. I also heard, "it is just a plant, WHY is it so expensive?!"
Working in the nursery trade now for almost 10 years, I have learned a LOT! So, I thought today I would help explain; Why that plant is so expensive and what all goes into one.
I will start at the very beginning with propagation.
At the nursery I work at, this is the time of year that we send a bunch of the girls out into the field to take cuttings. As you can imagine, this is very time consuming. You don't want to take too many from one individual plant and ruin the look of that particular plant. So each plant might have two or three cuttings taken from it. They will probably take anywhere from 5000 cuttings on up, depending on what type of plant we need more of. They then have to sit there and prep the cutting. Length, amount of leaves still on it, angle of cut on the bottom, etc. If you have ever done any propagating, you know the routine. Now multiply that by thousands. They then dip it in a rooting hormone and stick it in pots filled with the soil medium.
Sounds pretty labor intensive doesn't it?
That cutting that they just stuck?
It will be ready to sell in the size pot shown above, in about 2 years. That is an average, there are some species of plants that root and grow quicker. Something like, Ligustrum will root and grow MUCH quicker than say, a Camellia.
In that two years, a few other things happen that will add to the cost.
Things such as fertilizer. It will get fed 2 or 3 times, depending on the species.
It will be repotted a couple of times. It starts out in a rooting tray. Then gets put into a one gallon pot. Finally a three gallon pot. There is also the labor involved in repotting it. Every time a plant gets touched there is labor involved. Even at minimum wage, that can get expensive. You don't work for free, right?
Speaking of labor, there is the process of spacing them out. When the plants are little they can be kept "can tight". The edges of the pots put up right next to each other. As the plants get bigger they need to be spread out so they have room to grow, allow air space to help prevent disease, and allow the water to get down into them better. I mentioned that these plants will be at the nursery for a couple of years, in that time frame Winter will rear its ugly head. While the plants that we grow are adapted to our Zone 8 growing area, that is when they are in the ground. They are a little more cold sensitive up in the air, as it were, in those pots. So, those plants need to be moved to a cold frame. More labor used. They will still get chilled, but not frozen should we have a bad Winter. My boss was telling me he learned a valuable lesson one year. An entire bed of Society Garlic froze to death because they were not protected. We are talking thousands of plants here. That's a bunch of money lost. I know what you are asking, why not keep them in the cold frame all the time?
Answer: The cold frame is covered with plastic. In the Winter, while dormant, they do not need as much sun and can be covered this way. During growing season, they need sun. So, labor can be used to move the plants, OR, labor can be used to put up and take down the plastic covering each year. Are you starting to get the idea that labor is your biggest cost?
Okay, then there is the cost of the potting soil each time it is transplanted. Plus the cost of the pot. On average, the price of a one gallon pot is 15 cents. The price goes up to 45 cents for a three gallon. The pots are petroleum based and the price fluctuates with the cost of oil, we know what that means right now.
I have not even mentioned the cost of electricity to run the pumps to water these plants, every day.
Photo courtesy of North Carolina Cooperative
Extension
When you are out choosing your plants and you have the choice between one that is beautiful, full of nice green leaves, no holes in the leaves and no weeds in the pot, compared to a half eaten, weedy specimen, which one will you pick?
The way the nursery sends those beautiful plants is with the use of insecticides and herbicides. Believe me when I tell you those things are NOT CHEAP! For a relatively inexpensive herbicide, to cover about an acre of plants, it can easily run you $300+. Then there is the labor to apply said products. There is that L word again.
The cost to weed these plants by hand is even more outrageous.
Oh yea, don't forget the cost of putting the plants on a truck to ship them. The cost of the driver, fuel, truck maintenance, etc.
Photo courtesy of http://gardenershelpinggardeners.com
I bet by now you are seeing the pattern here. If all of this were not enough and you have ever taken any kind of business class, you will understand the next phase, Supply and Demand. The recent economic downturn scared a lot of growers. They were afraid to plant any new liners for fear the plants would just sit there and not get bought. This has caused a gap in supply. Remember the two year time frame? If you don't plant anything or very little, the plants can't suddenly grow and be the right size to be sold. There were a few growers that rolled the dice and planted, but there are certain plants that just can't be found right now. Want a couple of examples?
Viburnum suspensum
Three gallon Viburnum suspensum are extremely hard to come by and when you do, they are pricey. Supply and demand.
There are also larger things that are getting tough to find. Fifteen and thirty gallon Podocarpus macrophyllus.
Podocarpus macrophyllus
Everybody kept buying the smaller ones and there were very few left to pot up to a larger size. Again, supply and demand. If you have the larger sizes you can get more money for them.
Again, I mention the two year growing time. Tree growers are in an even longer window and there will be shortages of trees in the very near future. They have to think 5-10 years out.
I am not trying to make you feel sorry for the nurseries, they will come through this. What I want you to take from this article is this; the next time you pick up a plant to purchase, ponder how many people have touched it in it's life. Think about all the time and money spent on it, then consider, is $6.95 or whatever the price, REALLY such a bad deal?
And remember, There is always more, Behind the Bushes. Happy Growing!
Book Review
Yvette Richardson Guy 2003
Wicked Plants, The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 2009)
The Drunken Botanist, The Plants That Create The World’s Great Drinks by Amy Stewart (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 2013)
Amy Stewart, the author of both the above books, was educated in anthropology, but turned her passion for plants into a career researching and writing about some neglected, mysterious branches of botany. Her entertaining, informative and best-selling books led to frequent appearances on CBS Sunday Morning and Public Radio. Wicked Plants and The Drunken Botanist easily draw the reader into Stewart’s amazement at the often unpredictable ways human beings and plants interact with each other.
Wicked Plants uses an A-Z dictionary approach to guide the curious through over two hundred of the Plant Kingdom’s most unfriendly members. The entries are classified as: intoxicating (such as henbane, betel nut), deadly (oleander, yew, castor bean), dangerous (jimson weed, sago palm), painful (habanero chile, nettle), destructive (kudzu, water hyacinth) or illegal (opium poppy, marijuana). Equally captivating the clueless and the more knowledgeable reader, Stewart digs into the history of each plant to explain the circumstances of its relationship with people. The story of the subtitle is a fine example of her approach.
The prairie meadow plant called white snakeroot (Ageratina altissima or old name Eupatorium rugosum) killed 34-year-old Nancy Hanks Lincoln, Abraham’s mother, on the Indiana frontier in 1818. She struggled with “milk sickness” for about a week before she passed away. Several of her neighbors also died of milk sickness that same autumn. No one knew for sure that white snakeroot was the culprit behind this dreaded disease commonly found along the expanding American frontier. People noticed that a calf whose mother ate white snakeroot would stagger and eventually die, but the connection to sick humans who drank the same cow’s tainted milk was only slowly recognized. In the early 1800’s, Anna Bixby arrived in western Kentucky after studying a little medicine (not much was available to her), and she noticed that milk sickness showed up seasonally suggesting a botanical cause. She charted the cases of milk sickness in humans and cows for several years. Goats, Bixby noted, would not eat white snakeroot and never exhibited milk sickness symptoms. After studying all her data which included input from an elderly Shawnee woman, Bixby concluded white snakeroot was the cause of the disease. Milk sickness symptoms of weakness, vomiting, tremors, delirium and sometimes death were caused by tremetol, a toxin in the plant transferred to the milk of cows that ate it. She organized children to pull up as many white snakeroot plants as possible from grazing areas and nearly eliminated milk sickness from the vicinity by 1834. Local and state authorities ignored Bixby’s reports; a woman doctor out on the frontier was not taken seriously. It would be the 1920’s before white snakeroot was widely accepted as the cause of milk sickness.
Stewart gives that same fascinating thorough treatment to all her nefarious plant subjects including nightshades, mandrake, tobacco and many more. She even provides an endnote on antidotes and where to visit poison gardens (yes, gardens of poisonous plants exclusively).
The plants in The Drunken Botanist offer a far more pleasurable experience to human beings. The book resulted from an epiphany that struck Stewart while standing in a liquor store looking at the shelves with a horticulture colleague. They could assign a plant genus and species to every bottle: bourbon was Zea mays (corn), Polish vodka was Solanum tuberosum (potato), beer was Humulus lupulus (hops, a close cousin to cannabis) and so forth. She concluded a liquor store in fact was an exotic garden and set out cataloging the contents.
Stewart assumes almost every plant on earth has been fermented, distilled or at least used to flavor alcoholic beverages, so she settles on 160 she finds most interesting. The result is a wonderful trek through myths and legends as well as valid histories and many recipes. Some of these plants have medicinal stories worthy of their own books. Cautioning against experimenting with unknown plants which could prove to be the last creative flourish of a budding bartender, Stewart comments that many plants have powerful chemical defenses (see Wicked Plants).
The stories attached to some intoxicating drinks are ancient and rich while others are just marketing. Drambuie carries an old but suspect legend that is also an advertising dream. This Scotch (barley, peat) based liqueur has a complex recipe including honey, saffron, nutmeg and other spices. According to tradition, during the failed attempt to restore his family to the British throne in 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie found sanctuary on the Isle of Skye in northern Scotland. To thank the islanders, he gave them his cherished and secret royal family recipe for Drambuie. Clan MacKinnon jealously held the recipe until the late 1800’s, when they shared it with the owner of a hotel on Skye. From there Drambuie, still produced in Scotland, spread to France, the United States and the rest of the British Empire pulling its legend along like a glowing marketing halo.
While The Drunken Botanist is not a cultivation “how-to” book, Stewart does recommend that gardeners step from behind the bar and plant their own cocktail gardens. She suggests growing herbs (such as mint, dill), flowers (rose, jasmine), fruits (apple, lime), and vegetables (celery, tomato) which require no special preparations to brighten up the flavors of intoxicating concoctions. Like brewers, distillers, vintners and bartenders, Stewart observes gardeners are endlessly curious and inventive.
Both of these books are entertaining and enlightening casual reads, but they are valuable reference tools as well.
Tibouchina grandiflora
Becki Trickey
A friend grows these
Tibouchina grandiflora in Mt. Pleasant, although the plant typically grows in the tropics. It has hairy leaves and panicles with several flowers. They overwinter these in the garage. Aren't they gorgeous?
The Meeting
David Baird 2012
It was one of those warm nights that you get in Charleston. You know the ones when spring is gone, but summer has not quite gotten here yet.
I was walking down the street to the meeting, that I needed to attend, and took a shortcut through the church cemetery. It was the quickest way to the church where the meeting was going to be held. I felt nervous and more than a little uneasy. I knew that I really needed to go to the meeting but I had never gone before and did not know what to expect. We all sat in metal folding chairs in a large circle facing each other. The leader come in and said hello to everyone and asked me to start. I swallowed hard, then stood up and said “Hi my name is David and I’m addicted to seeds”; the group answered in unison “Hi David”.
But we are getting ahead of the story. I was first introduced to growing things from seed by a great teacher in my early years. She rolled up a piece of paper and put it in a glass full of water. She placed bean seeds between the paper and the glass so we could see them. About a week later the magic started. At first a roots started to appear and soon after that a leaf. I was hooked.
Well all of us, as Master Gardeners, have our favorite plants. Maybe it’s a pepper plant that really does well in our area, or a flower that just has the most spectacular blooms. Sometimes it’s just something for fun like the seeds that I received last year from my local “Pusher” Carol. I saw the luffa plant while visiting one of her projects teaching kids down in North Charleston. In my mind I remember her coming quietly over to me and whispering “Psst…. Hey buddy, do you want some seed?” (I am sure that she remembers the meeting a little differently). Well I had a great deal of fun growing those seeds, harvesting them, using the luffa’s in the shower, and yes, harvesting some seeds at the end of the year for next year’s crop.
Well a lot of things have happened since then but I have never lost the thrill of watching things grow from seeds. Now my addiction is spreading. I am saving more and more seeds from my favorite plants to re-grow them the next year. Of course when you do that it is easy to collect far more seeds then you could ever possibly use so……. What to do with all of those extra seeds? What to do? What to do?
What if we collected our seeds and then got together for a seed swap. Or better yet, what about a “Seed Library”. People could come in and browse through the library of seed packets that other Master Gardeners have donated. If you see something that you might like to try you could check out a package or two, take them home and grow them, and then at the end of the year return new seeds from your harvest to the Library for someone else to enjoy the next year. What if? What if??
Well if you haven’t gotten hooked on starting things from seed, I want you to think about it. You could donate collected seeds to our library and check out new items that you would like to try. But be careful…… Saving seeds and growing things from seeds can be very addictive. It is said to be a gateway drug for the really heavy stuff. If you are not careful you may soon find yourself taking “Cuttings” from plants and maybe falling into the really hard stuff of thinking about “Grafting”.
If talking about this starts your Master Gardner heart rate to rise, do not face this alone. Send me your contact information and I will put you into our support group. We will keep in touch by email and see if we can’t get our library going. Maybe in the fall we can even have a meeting with a training class and a seed swap. I will be glad to start the meeting. I will stand up and say “Hi my name is David and I am addicted to seed”.
dbaird@sc.rr.com
843-514-6526
Banquet Awards
Thank You!
Jan Litton 1998
Chairman, Esprit de Corps Committee
Those of you who were unable to attend the Tri-County Master Gardener Annual awards banquet on Tuesday, September 19
th missed a fantastic night. We enjoyed good food and good friends and celebrated the accomplishments of the best volunteers in the state. We had over 80 people in attendance, including Master Gardeners and their guests, and our MG coordinator, Amy Dabbs. It was also wonderful to have Extension agents and employees Mark Arena, Harry Crissy, Kim Counts, Angela Crouch, Guinn Garrett, Donna Purvis, and Jennifer Schlette there to support the Master Gardeners.
First, as Chairman of the Esprit de Corps committee, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to the TCMGA Board of Directors for supporting this annual event. Thanks to the commitment from the Board to underwrite the majority of the cost of the banquet, we were able to keep
your cost to a minimum. Where else can you have cocktails, a delicious “all you can eat” catered meal, dessert, and beverages for $15.00 a person?
I was fortunate to have Jean Braxton, Dianne Hogon, Rue Lucas, and Terry Ritchen to help with decorations again this year. Not only did they put together the gorgeous table arrangements, but arrived early, and along with Amy, Carolyn Acuff, and Jo Kuhn, helped to transform the rather drab atmosphere of the Creative Arts building into an inviting and colorful venue for our dinner.
This event would not have been possible without a lot of people working together to make it happen. Amy was able to secure the Creative Arts building at the Exchange Park free of charge, thanks to the terrific working relationship we have with their staff. Amy also arranged to have tables and chairs delivered and set up on the day of the event, which saved a lot of time and effort on an otherwise very busy day, and until the crowd got really large, we even had some nice background music, thanks to her efforts!
As always, our Master Gardener photographer Marcia Rosenberg was everywhere, taking pictures of all the fun. Don’t be surprised if you see your smile on the Post & Courier’s society page or on Facebook! A huge thank you to Marcia and also to Pris Wright and her husband Marti, who made sure everyone had a chance to purchase our “must have” Master Gardener merchandise!
Once again, our meal was catered by Charleston Bay Gourmet, from Mt. Pleasant. Their friendly, helpful, and professional staff was a delight to work with, and as always, they served a delicious meal that seemed to satisfy everyone’s taste buds.
We had Master Gardeners in attendance from the class of 1996 to the most recent graduates from the on-line class of 2013. To all who came out to celebrate, thank you for attending and for your enthusiastic volunteer spirit. Everyone working together makes the Tri-County MG program a strong and vibrant group, and the best program in the state.
Queen's Tears Bromeliad
Jenion Tyson 2012
May 2009
My Queen's Tears Bromeliad (Billbergia nutans) surprised me back in January when it started growing a flower stalk. These plants have always surprised me - ever since I got my first one at a plant swap at least five years ago. I see them at almost every plant swap now, so I'll bet that everyone that attends them regularly has one.
First, a little about bromeliads: They are native to South America. They are epiphytes, or "air plants", which means they have very few roots - they get most of their nutrients and water from the air. Some have suggested that they are slightly carnivorous, obtaining nutrients from insects that fall into their water-filled cups.
August 2010
More traditional varieties of bromeliads are sold in garden centers, usually a single rosette already in bloom in a decorative pot. Their blooms tend to be long-lasting and people will get rid of them when the blooms die. Bromeliads will bloom only once per rosette, so it is important to encourage the growth of additional rosettes.
They seem like very tropical plants, but many do well here in coastal SC given the right conditions. The first few years I had them, they went completely neglected, even to the point of letting them stay outside during our coldest nights. Despite this they survived and bloomed most years. I have since planted them in our shade garden, which gets a little morning and afternoon sun, and shade the rest of the day. Some people recommend anywhere from almost full sun to almost full shade. My experience is that mine could use a little more sun - the flower stalk seemed a little too elongated, like it was stretching for the light.
March 2011
Being epiphytic, they can live almost anywhere - growing on the side of a tree or planted in the ground. They have few roots, just enough to anchor them, and they get their moisture and nutrients from the air like the name suggests. They like humidity and, when it rains, their cups fill with water. If yours is in a pot, you will need to fertilize - everywhere I looked recommended a diluted, balanced, liquid fertilizer, but few mentioned foliar feeding. This may be preferable since bromeliads are epiphytes.
My Queen's Tears bromeliad has bloomed at such random times of the year, that I had to look up their bloom time - any time of the year - that's what one site said, but I suspect it's usually spring through fall. I find this interesting - there are ways to force your bromeliad to bloom. One way is to add a little Epsom salt (Magnesium sulfate) to their water. The other way is probably better known, especially with other plants - place an apple next to the plant and cover both of them with a plastic bag. Leave them together for a week or more - the bromeliad should bloom within the next 1-2 months.
As you can see from the photos, my bromeliad has bloomed almost every season throughout the years. I think it didn't bloom in 2012, because that's when I transplanted it into its current home, our shade garden under a giant live oak. But obviously it must like being there if it resumed blooming the next year. I hope this has given you some information about this plant, and I hope everyone will look for it at the next plant swap - I have no doubt that someone will bring one. Thanks for reading!
EVERY PLANT HAS ITS OWN STORY
Yvette Richardson Guy 2003
I have been Master Gardening for ten years, and for a few years I worked at Drayton Hall, a property of The National Trust for Historic Preservation, on the Ashley River. My avocation and my occupation crossed paths frequently. At Drayton Hall, there were programs for students, elementary age and older, about agriculture on a Lowcountry Colonial plantation. To assist Drayton Hall’s educators, I grew rice and indigo in big pots. Conducting public tours of the house and the grounds, I was surprised how often gardening came up. Questions concerning the grand oak trees and their Spanish moss were common. To visitors from Canada, Ireland, or Colorado, moss draped live oaks were as unusual as alligators, and alligators were right up there with dinosaurs on the exotic scale. Magnolia trees excited comment as did sweet gum trees. Any tree producing a cone or ball that did not resemble a pine cone was considered peculiar. Azaleas, gardenias, camellias, beauty berries, and a thorny orange piqued the curiosity of visitors from off.
Sometimes I was the gardening student instead of the teacher at Drayton Hall. One occasion stands clearly in my memory when a handful of us nature-loving souls tried to keep up with renowned botanist and professor emeritus, Richard Porcher. He is the author or co-author of Lowcountry: The Natural Landscape, A Guide to the Wildflowers of South Carolina, The Story of Sea Island Cotton, and a book on South Carolina rice culture among other publications. Dr. Porcher is an extremely energetic, amusing and informative field guide. Before setting off at a brisk (and I mean BRISK) pace across Drayton Hall’s lawn toward the marsh, he paused a second to point his worn walking stick at the new landscaping around the museum shop. Slowing to admire the plantings, I immediately fell behind Dr Porcher who was explaining things nonstop as he marched. I sprinted to catch up as he talked, never breaking his stride, about the honey locust tree beside Drayton Hall: the mother tree went down in Hurricane Hugo, this was a root sprout, is it disturbing an archaeological site, should it be saved or not, and more. (The honey locust was removed in 2012.) I learned to keep moving if I hoped to hear the constant stream of fascinating information. Dr. Porcher did linger a moment to announce, “Every plant has its own story!”
Entering the Marsh Walk, Dr. Porcher had us touch the barbed seeds of needle grass to understand its name and to identify it correctly. In midstride, he directed his walking stick at a yaupon holly explaining this native was the source of an American Indian caffeinated tea, but only the youngest leaves were used and the berries avoided. Otherwise, the meaning of its botanical name, Ilex vomitoria, would become evident. With a swing of his walking stick, our attention was focused on a popcorn or Chinese tallow tree, a malicious invader of native wetlands he wanted to see eradicated from Drayton Hall property. Pausing on the bridge over the rice trunk gate, Dr. Porcher enthusiastically explained the tidal flow flooding system for rice fields. Looking at the remnants of the reservoir pond, I hustled to catch up to Dr. Porcher who was yards ahead saying something about the Cherokee rose at the end of his walking stick. That may be the state flower of Georgia, but the Cherokee rose was an eighteenth century import from China (sorry, Georgia). We were reminded, “Every plant has its own story.”
Marching on through the marsh we learned to distinguish a dwarf palmetto (Sabal minor) from an infant South Carolina state tree palmetto (Sabal major): the state tree has thin filaments curling off the edges of the leaves. Dr. Porcher’s walking stick pointed accusingly at a large bush of Elaeagnus and another and another. The Asian import had become relentlessly invasive. Drayton Hall’s grounds staff worked hard to eliminate Elaeagnus, but it was impossible to stop. Dr. Porcher turned happily to a native swamp dogwood, buckeye and red cedar. Stopping (yes, stopping) on the boardwalk, he proposed a nature trail to meander through hundreds of acres around Drayton Hall. Dr. Porcher animatedly described how the marsh, the Ashley River, the cultivated rice terrain, the phosphate mining remains, the vestiges of the manicured landscape, the layers of history, the plants and of course their stories would fit into this design.
Reluctant to end our unique afternoon hike, we lingered. Suddenly Dr. Porcher was off aiming his walking stick at the trees beside the pond calling out, “Is this a native red mulberry or an imported white mulberry?” Encountering our lack of mulberry knowledge, he explained the two types then took a side trip into the ill-fated American silk industry. This was important because, as Dr. Porcher mentioned again, “Every plant has its own story."
