Park Seed Memories

Herb Society Selects Top Ten Herbs

The newest Park Seed catalog has left the nest and is winging its way toward millions of customers even as I write. When you get yours, be sure to check out page 21 and the special Herb Garden Collection described there. Representatives from the Herb Society of America, undoubtedly the most knowledgable herbarians around, selected their top ten favorite herbs as part of their 75th anniversary celebration. And Park Seed is very proud to join in the celebration by presenting this collection to the public for purchase.

Park Seed has likely been offering herb seeds since 16-year-old George W. Park published his very first list. I know that my 1899 catalog refers to herbs. Today's catalog certainly has a long list of herb seeds, including ten that are certified organic.

The idea for this 75th anniversary collection grew out of conversations at the 58th Garden Writers Association annual meeting in 2006. Stephanie Turner, our Director of Seed Product, worked with HSA Education Chair, Susan Betz to start the ball rolling. Susan Belsinger agreed to chair the ad hoc committee, which included Madalen Hill, Art Tucker, Chuck Voigt, Jim Adams, Francesco DeBaggio, and Gloria McClure.

According to an article in the Fall 2007 HSA Newsletter, "Belsinger charged the committee with selecting herbs that could be grown from seed ... 'that we cannot live without--herbs that we always grow--ones that we can recommend from experience.'"  Along with Betz, Belsinger, the committee, and all of the Herb Society of America, we at Park Seed hope this list will inspire you to make herbs an integral part of your gardening experience. Here is a list of the final top ten herbs:

• Dill Fernleaf
• Borage
• Calendula
• Cilantro Santo
• Basil, Mrs. Burn's Lemon
• Basil, Large Leaf Italian
• Basil, Thai Siam Queen
• Parsley, Italian Plain Leaf
• Sorrel
• Savory

Sadly, I'm herb-illiterate--I really don't know much about Borage, Calendula, Sorrel, or Savory. I guess I have some studying up to do! Fortunately, the Herb Society website has some great information available, including free, downloadable profiles.

Since I've never even heard of Calendula (above right) before, I started my research by looking for it. The HSA provides a terrific little book that you can read online or download to print. As it turns out, Calendula has been selected as the Herb Society of America's International Herb Association's Herb of the Year for 2008. [Corrected 2/7/08] I also learned what a versatle player this powerhouse herb can be. Here's just a teaser from the HSA site:

"Legend and history surround the plant ... . Unlike many herbs where the foliage is aromatic, calendula boasts its beauty in the flowers of many colors and shapes. Calendula offers something for everyone – as a colorful flower in tussie-mussies, or for its color and flavor in cooking, potpourri and in medicine, both past and present."

In case you are wondering, a tussie-mussie is a small, fragrant bouquet. When you start exploring the world of herbs, the door is also opened to fascinating facts about history, horticulture, folk medicine, and much, much more.

Got to sign off now--I want to go read some more goodies from the Herb Society website. See you later! And if you've got herbal info or interests to share, please email me at ckuhl@parkseed.com.

Herb Society of America Celebrates Diamond Jubilee!

I've mentioned here before the importance of partnerships when it comes to success for Park Seed and Wayside Gardens. Well, looking ahead to 2008, we are proud to accent our long-standing relationship with the Herb Society of America (http://www.herbsociety.org/) as they celebrate 75 years of studying and celebrating herbs. According to their website, their mission is to promote "the knowledge, use and delight of herbs through educational programs, research, and sharing the experience of its members with the community."

As fellow members of the gardening community, we share their sense that herbs are amazing plants full of use and delight, and worthy of special attention. Some, like Large Leaf Italian Basil (left) offer rich flavors to enhance our cooking. Others have medicinal qualities, and still others are valued for their fragrance or even their valuable economic and  industrial uses (e.g., dyes).

Today and for the next several days, I'm going to explore the Society, its history, and Park Seed Company's relationship with it, as we kick off the Diamond Jubilee of the Herb Society of America (HSA)!

My information about the organization's history comes from the Herb Society's official history, written by Dorothy G. Spencer and published by HSA in 1995.  According to this book, in 1932, a group of gardeners approached a staff member of the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard about giving them some botany lessons. The staffer, Dr. Edgar Anderson, agreed to participate, and he and the garden club ladies launched a weekly study. They began by focusing on "rosemary, their chosen plant, for which they grew, dried, and mounted specimens for future dissections and microscopic examination and library research. Later they studied horehound in the same detail."

By 1933, this group of dedicated women was ready to organize into an official society. They envisioned reaching out to "others from throughout the horticultural world who shared their scholarly interest in these vital plants." And each of the seven charter members brought special talents and commitment to the organization that helped it thrive and grow: Adeline Philbrick Cole, Anne Shirk Burrage, Harriet Adams Brown, Corinna Searle Mitchell, Florence Bratenahl, Ellen Greenslet, and Frances L. Norton.

Today, 75 years later, "the Herb Society of America is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization that focuses on educating its members and the public on the cultivation of herbs and the study of their history and uses, both past and present. The motto of The Society, 'For Use and For Delight,' is taken from the 17th century herbalist, John Parkinson."

I encourage you to visit the HSA website, www.HerbSociety.org, and explore the About Us page to find out about the many resources, projects, and benefits available from the Society. Who knows--perhaps you should consider joining!

Do love herbs? Have a favorite recipe or herb-use tip to share? Email me at ckuhl@parkseed.com to share with other herb aficionados!

NASA Delivers Space Seed to Park Seed

We had an exciting morning here at Park Seed last Friday. You see, it's not every day that we have a real "rocket scientist" drop by for a visit!

Our guest was Dr. Bill Kinard, who is actually a Clemson University graduate, a mechanical engineer, and a long-time member of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration team at Langley Research Center, Virginia. Dr. Kinard brought with him almost 1 million Cinnamon Basil seeds that spent a year orbiting the Earth while attached to the International Space Station.

The Cinnamon Basil seeds were taken aloft on July 4th, 2006, on space shuttle Discovery as part of mission STS-121. They were one of the experiments in MISSE 4. MISSE stands for Materials International Space Station Experiments, a series of experiments that attach a sturdy "suitcase" or Passive Experiment Container, to the outside of the International Space Station to test how various materials stand up to the rigors of outer space. Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-118) retrieved the MISSE suitcase and brought the seeds back to Earth on August 21, 2007.

The NASA photo at right shows the Passive Experinent Container as it appeared in July, 2007. At this point, it had been exposed to space conditions for about 11 months. The photo below left shows Dr. Kinard sharing a laugh with our own Dr. Jim Alston. Some smart-aleck--er, that would be me--asked "So exactly how many Ph.D.s does it take to open a seed can?!?"

Park Seed and NASA have been working together since 1983 on a variety of projects. As with all of those projects, Park Seed donates the seeds that are sent into outer space, and never sells the space-exposed seed. They are used for research only. And in the majority of cases, the space-exposed seed are distributed to school teachers and students around the country--and even around the world!--to get kids excited about science.

NASA is still working on exact plans for how to distribute the MISSE seeds that were delivered to us Friday. Until then, we'll pack them and store them in our environmentally controlled seed vault. And when we know for sure how these seeds will be shared, I'll let you know here. (Or send me your email address, and I'll gladly send you a personal note when I have the information.)

Happily, if you or a teacher you know wants to get involved with a "Seeds in Space" project, you don't have to wait for the MISSE 4 seeds. Right now, teachers can sign up for NASA's Engineering Design Challenge: Lunar Plant Growth Chamber. Visit NASA's educator resource website for information about this and other engineering challenges and to sign up for the Lunar Plant Growth Chamber challenge.

Participating classes design and build (or buy) a plant growth chamber, such as one might use for growing crops on the Moon someday. To test those plant growth chambers, NASA and Park Seed will send free Cinnamon Basil seeds--one pack of space-exposed seed and one pack of control seed that stayed on Earth. We've even provided detailed instructions online (at a 6th grade reading level) for how to grow your Cinnamon Basil seeds at our sister site, www.SuccessWithSeed.org.

The last two pictures here show how seed were stored and sealed in the cap of the seed cylinders. By the way, there is a very good reason why the good doctors had to struggle a bit to open the space seed cylinders. When they were being packed and prepared for space travel, Dr. Alston and NASA "clean room" technicians went to great pains to make sure that the cylinders were very carefully tightened and properly torqued. To see step-by-step how the Cinnamon Basil seed were prepped for space travel, check out the Space photo album elsewhere on this blog.

Topsey-Turvey Tip for Protecting Precious Plants

Wayside Gardens is lucky to work with wonderful breeders and growers from around the world. For example, we are proud to offer products from Proven Winners Color Choice and even sometimes do joint promotions with them. Last year, Wayside Gardens and Color Choice offered professional garden writers an opportunity to trial some flowering shrubs in their own gardens. We were delighted to receive an email from garden writer Lorraine Ballato, who had a great tip for protecting tender plants that you plant late in the season. Here's what Lorraine told us:

"Once they're in the ground, I make sure these late-planted beauties get proper love and care until the ground freezes. Once the ground freezes, I place a nursery pot over the plant and hold it in place with a rock (lots of them in the Connecticut hills where I am). Then, like a magic trick, I remove the pot about March 1 and let the plant acclimate to the season, and we're off.  I've used this technique now for the last 2 years, and it has been very successful."

I wanted to share this nifty topsey-turvey tip with you, so I wrote Lorraine and asked for her permission. She was kind enough to give me the go-ahead, and she also provided more info for you:

"Hi, Claire!

"Glad to share my tip with other gardeners.  It has proven very successful for me in a range of situations.  Here's when I have used it and will plan to continue using it:

1.  Late season planting of irresistible bargains where I'm not confident of the plants' ability to get established before the season really closes;

2.  Foliage plants that take a long time to get going in the spring but for which I'm very impatient (see attached photo of heuchera 'caramel' [above] from being covered in fall 2006.  It emerged full and lovely in early spring 2007 and just got better!);

3. Newly rooted "starts" of plants I'm trying to propagate and protect from the elements as they get going;

4. Young shoots of plants that deer don't usually bother, but will try when the plants are small in the off-season just because they are right under their noses when the deer are "cruising."  One bite is all it takes to eliminate these young saplings.

I use the inverted containers in areas of the garden that aren't usually visible from passing neighbors and cars--only from the house or not at all, since it looks like an invasion from a foreign planet, especially with snow cover.  I also wait until the ground has frozen and ensure there is no mulch or anything comfy inside the container so rodents aren't tempted to make it their winter home."

Thanks, Lorraine! Maybe once you are snowed in, you can send us a snapshot of your "alien landscape." In case you are interested in knowing more about Lorraine, here's a snippet from her professional biography:

Since retiring from corporate America, Lorraine has been able to turn her passion for gardening into a second career as a free-lance garden writer and communicator.  She has contributed to the section on “woodies” for the White Flower Farm Spring catalogs, to a regular monthly column in a lifestyle magazine circulated to over 15,000 homes in northwest Connecticut, and to numerous other publications in the area. Lorraine continues to add to her horticultural knowledge through her work at a nationally-recognized mail order/retail nursery and as an Advanced Master Gardener.

Got a great gardening tip? Photos of favorite plants? Please share them by emailing to ckuhl@parkseed.com. I love hearing from you!

Tip of the Gardening Hat to Hard-Working Hubby

I received one more email from my new friend, Brenda. She just wanted me to make sure that everyone knows what a great gardening partner she has, so she's offering this tip of the hat to her hubby!

"My husband deserves the credit for my green thumb this year. He turned over the  basement  (in  Feb) and made my germination station. He bought the lights and  assembled the shelves. (I spent probably $200 on seeds!) This was our  first real growing  season in the  house; we are first-time home owners, and I had a blank canvas. I couldn't have done it without him! I  enjoy the selection from  Park Seed--I  like to have a yard that is different from what most get  locally. I have  had  several passers-by ask about the  plants, wanting to know what this is and that is. I guess I will never be too old to  play in the dirt!.

Thanks again,
Brenda"

Brenda, we at Park Seed certainly believe that playing in the dirt is a great idea at any age! Thanks again for your kind words and commitment to starting with seed.

Brenda's Best (plus Puppy Pix)

I got a great response from Brenda Ledford, providing me with pictures of her amazing puppies (breeder: Mark Bergo), and also a couple of flowers she started from seed (see bottom of post). She even included a list of her favorite seeds from last spring and summer. Enjoy!

Claire, you have my permission to use the letter. Sadly, I did not take as many pictures of all the successes as I would have liked. I will attach what pictures I did take of the seed that I purchased from Park Seed. I will also attach the photos of Junior (upper right) and Dexter (lower right).

I had great success with these seeds, but didn't get pictures:

Lupine Sunrise--very beautiful and the first lupine I have successfully grown from seed. I have tried for years, but Park's Lupine is my only success.

Fiber Optic grass--very nice and compact. It fit perfectly in my border.

Zinnia cutting blend--great!

Celosia Flamingo Purple--this plant performed beyond expectation. Most of them grew to be about 4-5 feet tall and about 3 feet wide. Very nice folige to fill in the garden while waiting for those later pink blooms.

Geranium Hybrid Summer Showers--this performed great. I will be overwintering this one indoors, so I can enjoy the blooms a little longer!

Zinnia Elegans Candy Stripe--performed up to expectation. Very interesting with the stripes. My neighbor girl loved these.

Eucalyptus--this did well.

Campanula Pearl Mix--this performs very well. The flowers were lovely.

Angelonia--this was great, and continued to bloom until a couple days ago (first frost).

Salvia Splendus Compacta Blaze--this did very well. It got bigger than any Blaze salvia that I have ever planted.

The two seeds that I have pictures of are the Verbascum Southern Charm (Loved this plant. The colors were great and it too bloomed until frost for me) and Echinacea purple coneflower. This also was great.

Thanks, Brenda

P.S. I will take more pictures next growing season since I know you have use for them. - B

Brenda, thanks for sharing your enthusiasm and your personal list of seed favorites. I look forward to bulletins from your garden throughout the coming spring! Dear Readers, please let me know what seeds and plants--and puppies!--you've had success with. Or which ones are on your wish list for the coming spring. Just email me at ckuhl@parkseed.com.

No, Really...a CHEEZ-IT?!?!?

I'm happy to report that I succeeded in getting a picture of Denise Bruner (see Bruner's Backyard Beauties) in her Halloween costume. What would YOU think if you looked down the hallway from your office and saw this??

Denise is a writer, and she is often found doing intensive research on the flowers, plants, perennials, and shrubs she writes about. She is so into research, actually, that I'm told she scoured the Internet to find out exactly how many little indentations each Cheez-It cracker has along each side. Now that's commitment to quality!

In case you are wondering, Denise was not the only Park Seed/Wayside Gardens associate decked out in crazy garb for Halloween. Our new HR Director sponsored a contest, and lots of folks got into the act. I believe Customer Service won an overall award for particpation. Too bad all those callers on October 31 couldn't see the reps they were talking to...Beverly in her poodle skirt, a fearless young gentleman in his Las Vegas showgirl outfit, and my favorite, Bob the Bearded Lady. Here's a photo of some of my buddies showing off their..ah...creative flair. See if you can spot the two school teachers, Minnie Mouse, Pebbles Flintstone, our Cheez-It, of course, a Red Hat lady, and....where's Waldo? (You may remember "Waldo" from an earlier blog entry....) 

And if you are wondering about my costume, I wore a nice suit, thus disguising myself as the scariest thing in Corporate America. Management!! Keep smiling!

Dexter and Junior's Mom Likes Park Seed

  As Special Projects Director, I have lots of interesting and unusual things to do almost every day. For example, in addition to tending to the care and feeding of this blog, I also play a role in managing two other websites that are sponsored by Park Seed Company and Wayside Gardens. These sites are both intended to provide helpful gardening advice to anyone who's interested.

One site is www.SuccessWithSeed.org, which focuses on the joys and challenges of starting with seed.   The other site is www.ThePlantCoach.org, intended to be the personal fitness trainer for your garden. It has tons of gardening tips, most of them submitted by readers and Park/Wayside customers.

Both sites offer forums where visitors can share ideas directly, and they both invite readers to send in their gardening questions. Our award-winning garden writer, Anne Moore, handles the questions with style, grace, wit, and a whole lotta horticultural knowledge. (She's a Master Gardening, and has been playing in the dirt pretty much her whole life.)

Recently, she fielded a question from a dog-lover who was concerned about whether her garden might contain plants poisonous to puppies. Anne helped her out by sharing some links to good information on the topic. We were both quite excited to receive this really nice note:

"Thanks so much for responding. Of all the seed catalogs I inquired at, you are the only one who provided information. This demonstrated Park Seed's integrity to care about its customers in a way that will bring me back year after year. I had quite an extensive seed order last year and will look forward to purchasing more this year. For your enjoyment I have included a picture of Dexter and Junior. Enjoy! Brenda Ledford"

We love helping gardeners find information and success! I've emailed Brenda to see if she'll tell me more about her garden and send me pictures of puppies Dexter and Junior to use here. Anne tells me they are the cutest pups ever! Send your comments and pictures to me at ckuhl@parkseed.com, and visit www.SuccessWithSeed.org or www.ThePlantCoach.org to ask Anne your burning questions.

Bruner's Backyard Beauties

A while back, we took a peek at the bog garden that my colleague Denise Bruner is creating in her home garden. She's a dedicated gardener, of the young-and-hip variety! I only wish I could show you a picture of her in her award-winning Halloween costume. She came as...a giant Cheez-It!

  Anyway, Denise was kind enough to share some definitely NON-cheesey photos from her garden.

First, on the left, there's a photo of the red cypress vine that she is nurturing. And on the right, a shot of an orchid that is thriving in this year's warm South Carolina autumn.

My favorite photo, though, is this amazing Jungle Gold Impatiens. Doesn't look like any impatiens I've ever seen!

In a Southern Living article, editor Steven Bender (a hilarious gentleman!) confesses that the first time he saw one of these in a friend's garden, "I considered sneaking over at night and stealing it. "

Let's play gardener's True Confessions! What unusual flower or plant would you consider swiping for your garden? Or better yet, send me some pictures of the unsual and amazing items already growing in your garden. Do you have something so odd that you can't identify it? Share your picture with me, and I'll ask the horticulturists at Park Seed and Wayside Gardens to give you an expert opinion. Email me at ckuhl@parkseed.com any time with photos, stories, and gardening questions. I love hearing from you!