JOHNSTON COUNTY HOME HORTICULTURE

North Carolina is the second largest producer of Christmas trees in the United States!  -- second only to Oregon.  North Carolina produces more than 6 million Christmas trees each year, valued at $98 million - and is about 15 percent of the nation's natural Christmas trees. 

Holly plants  are dioecious, which means 'two houses'.  Essentially this means there are boy hollies and girl hollies.  The girl holly will not bear the beautiful red berries unless there is a boy holly within a reasonable distance that can provide pollen.  Other plants are monoecious, 'one house', ie. corn, in which both the female and male reproductive parts are on the same plant. 

Bristlecone pines, a species of the California conifer, are among the oldest organisms alive.  A bristlecone, named Methuselah, is about 4,768 years old.  It was a young tree when humans invented writing.  Methuselah also recently became a proud mama.  A dozen healthy saplings sprouted from seeds taken from the pine cones of Methuselah.  One will be presented to the U.S. Botanic Garden on the grounds of the Capitol, although it is unlikely to be planted there. The only other known offspring of Methuselah, cultivated in the 1970s, all died because they were sent to low-altitude locations. The tree's secret location in the White Mountains is 2 miles above sea level. - NY Times.

The North Carolina State Fair , now celebrating its 150th year, was founded in October 1853 by the State Agricultural Society. The fair was planned to offer premiums to farmers who developed better practices for crop improvement, or designed and built more effective implements. Immediately plans were underway toward the first State Fair to spread constructive agricultural information.

Rat Snake - This common, familiar snake occurs throughout North Carolina.  Adults living in the Mountain and Piedmont region are black while those in the Coastal Plain area are greenish with 4 dark stripes running the length of their body.  They are non-poisonous and kill their prey by constriction.  They can range in size from 3 1/2 - 7 feet long.   They climb well and often ascend trees in search of birds, eggs and small mammals.

Bamboo, the world's tallest grass, has been recorded as growing as high as 130 feet.   It has also been known to grow up to 4 feet in a 24 hr. period (and you were worried about kudzu!)

The Ginkgo biloba tree is commonly planted along streets.  It was once thought to be extinct, but was discovered in China in the mid-1700s.  It has lived on Earth for over 150 million years, dating its origins back to the Jurassic Era and the dinosaurs.  Ginkgo biloba is often referred to as a 'living fossil' because it has remained virtually unchanged during all its time on Earth.  It is one of the oldest trees still living on our planet.  For you botanists out there it is actually classified as a deciduous gymnosperm.   

The tea you drink comes from the leaves of a camellia.  Camellia sinensis is used in commercial tea production.  The varying chemical content and flavors of teas are due to different growing conditions and the fermentation processes of the leaves.

Roughly 25% of all prescription medicines  in the US are derived from plants. 

Archaeologists have recovered remains of sunflower seeds  dating back to the year 800 AD.

Kudzu vines grow up to 1 ft./day.  It is estimated to cover 7 million acres in the southeast and takes over 120,000 new acres every year.  Roots are tuberous and get up to 7 in. in diameter.  Kind of scary, isn't it?

The largest seed in the plant kingdom weighs 60 lbs.  It's the seed from the Coco de mer, or double coconut palm.

Ladybugs  can eat 40 aphids in an hour!  They can also eat bean thrips, beetle grubs, scales, spider mites, whiteflies and most soft body larvae.  Basically, they are good guys that eat the bad guys.  Invite them into your yards with welcome arms!

Who would have thought that lawns and golf courses are good for the environment? USDA's Agricultural Research Service found that turfgrass captures and stores excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, acting as a greenhouse gas scrubber. The study examined soil records from Denver-area golf courses and learned that trapping carbon in the soil lasts up to 31 years in fairways and 45 years in greens. http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2003/030603.htm

Saffron is the most precious and expensive spice in the world.  It comes from the dried stigmas of the saffron flower, Crocus sativus Linneaus. Each flower contains only three stigmas. These filaments must be picked from each flower by hand, and more than 75,000 of these flowers are needed to produce just 1 pound of Saffron.

Crocus sativus

A standard garden hose puts out 20 G./minute.  A hose left on by mistake can waste as much as 28,000 gallons in just 24 hours.

7 lbs., 12 oz. is the weight of the world's largest tomato  (that's 1 lb. heavier than I was when I was born - yikes!) grown by Gordon Graham of Edmond, Oklahoma - as listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Plastic from Corn Sugar?  Plant starches are being broken down in natural sugars that form plastics through a process of fermentation and distillation.  NatureWorks is now producing fiber products made from plant sugars instead of petroleum.  Their fiber is being used to make comforters, pillows and mattress pads.

What looks a little like an octopus and can live for 1,000 years? It's the odd Welwitschia (well-WITCH-ee-a) plant, which grows in desert areas of Namibia and Angola, two countries in Africa. The Welwitschia  has only two leaves that shred into many long, leathery pieces as they grow. Welwitschias  provide shelter for small desert animals and are an important part of the web of life in the desert.  - from National Geographic

A mystery solved... DNA studies have finally solved a long-standing horticultural puzzle -- where do orchids come from? It turns out that orchids  are a member of the asparagus family, which, beyond the title vegetable, includes vanilla, agave and daffodils. Until now, scientists believed orchids were relatively new plants, evolutionarily speaking. The DNA tells a different story. It looks like it is actually the oldest member of the Asparagales family. Source: NY Times. P.S. It takes 1.25 million orchid seeds to weigh 1 gram.  Orchids have the smallest known seeds.

North Carolina is the leading producer of sweet potatoes in the United States, producing 38% of the nation's supply on 40,000 acres.  Johnston, Nash, Sampson and Wilson County are the top producers in North Carolina, each producing over 500,000 hundredweight of sweet potatoes.

Glow worms, lightningbugs and foxfire are examples of biological light production, called bioluminescence (for short, believe it or not!)  The light comes from a chemical called luciferin being oxidized.  The insects control the light by controlling the air supply.  As soon as they let the air in, the chemical flashes.  Most of us have seen the lightningbugs twinkling around in our summer lawns, but you may not have seen the glow worms, which are the larva stage of the lightningbug beetles, or foxfire, which is a glow in the dark fungus which grows on dead wood, preferably oak.  Keep your eyes peeled for these amazing things!

They are one of the world's most efficient pumps, with large specimens drawing hundreds of gallons of water a day from roots to leaves! They keep us cool in asphalt jungles, diminish noise levels, clean the air, and help stem global warming. Through their food-making process, trees make our lives, well, livable! Many species of wildlife from beetles to blue jays are utterly dependent on trees for shelter, nesting, food, and food storage. With a resume like that, it's a wonder we so often take trees for granted. 

In the story of the three wise men, they came to Jerusalem bearing gold, frankincense and myrrh. We all know about gold, but what of the other two?  Frankincense and myrrh are both resins, the dried sap from trees.  Frankincense comes from the Boswellia genus of trees while myrrh come from the Commiphora genus.  Myrrh was once used to soothe sore throats and was an embalming agent.  Frankincense was a vital part of Hebrew worship and was used as incense in the temple. 

Apple seeds  contain a small quantity of cyanide which renders the seeds quite bitter tasting.

11,700 years old - The approximate age of the oldest known plant, the Creosote Bush , growing in the Mojave Desert.  (That's A LOT of candles when birthday time rolls around!)

In a wildlife phenomenon still not fully understood by scientists, hundreds of millions of North American monarchs migrate each year - up to 3,000 miles - to Mexico. In their winter colonies, they mass together in clusters on fir trees. The butterfly sanctuaries and the spectacle, which is considered an endangered migratory phenomenon, have become a popular ecotourism destination.

The expression "You Are What You Eat" is certainly true for Monarch caterpillars. They eat only milkweed, which contains chemicals that make the Monarchs taste bad to predators.

Ladybugs (technically ladybird beetles) are good guys because they eat insects that feast on our plants, especially aphids. A female ladybug can chow down about 70 aphids in a day -- 5,000 in her lifetime. Ladybug larvae have the biggest appetites, which is why it's important to recognize these babies so we don't mistakenly squish them. They look like tiny black humpback alligators.

Ever eaten tree bark?  I bet you have!  Cinnamon is from the bark of the Cinnamomum zeylandicum tree.  The bark is peeled from the sprouts of these trees, then set out to dry and rolled up into quills.  The remaining peeled sticks and twigs are the preferred mulch for the gardens of the folks in Seychelles.  What a wonderful smelling mulch that must be!  And for those who aren't up on their world geography (which definitely includes me! I had to look this stuff up) this is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean, in Eastern Africa, northeast of Madagascar (another island off of Africa).  So, they are really out in the middle of a lot of water!

The word 'tulip' comes from the turkish word for 'turban'.

  The beautiful color-swirling appearance of these tulips is referred to as a 'break'.  It's caused by a virus.  Wish the viruses I got made me do neat, colorful stuff like that.  But alas, guess I'll have to leave the fun up to the tulips.  

Jack-in-the-pulpits , a bulb, actually change their sex, an ability botanists call paradioecious.  All the flowers are pollen-producing males, until the tuber is mature and then the flowering stalk produces female flowers and bears seeds.  If growing conditions deteriorate, the plant reverts to producing only male flowers.

In a few species even the leaves are reproductive.  Kalanchoe , nicknamed the 'maternity plant', or 'mother of thousands', is one example.  Kalanchoe can be vegetatively propagated simply by placing a leaf in to a soil medium.

New research has turned a long-held belief on its side.  Seeds were always thought to have needed to come in contact with liquid water in order to germinate.  It has now been discovered that the presence of water vapor, not necessarily liquid water, is required for germination.

The ancient Greeks believed mushrooms  came from Zeus's lightning because they appeared after rains and reproduced and grew inexplicably.  Although we understand more about mushrooms and where they come from now, much remains to be learned.  While some species are edible, others contain dangerous toxins.

Chestnut Comeback
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the arrival of chestnut blight, which killed the most dominant tree in regional forests, the gigantic American chestnut. Breeding blight resistance into chestnuts has proven difficult, but steady progress is now being made. It is possible that ten years from now, one of the trees you can plant with confidence will be a chestnut. Already, the American Chestnut Cooperator's Foundation offers seed nuts to interested supporters. And the American Chestnut Foundation sells both seeds and seedlings to members. These are all experimental breeding lines that may show some resistance to chestnut blight.

Though Black Widow bites occur infrequently, it's the female who does the biting by using her large fangs.  One reason the male Widow seldom bites is its size:  It is smaller than the female and doesn't possess large enough fangs to penetrate the skin. 

Kiwifruit contains 600-1000 tiny edible seeds inside each fruit.  It contains 2 x the amount of vitamin C that oranges have and can be stored up to 8 months.

Nyctitropism - The tendency of leaves or petals of certain plants to assume a different position at night.