Friday, June 28, 2013

Taro Experiment

I have heard on the internet that it is possible to grow taro from store-bought corms. Taro is an edible root vegetable from the tropics in Asia also known as Colocasia esculenta. The has very large leaves that are grown in the ornamental garden and known as elephant ears. Having read some more information on the subject, I headed to the local Asian supermarket and bought a few corms for a very low price. The corms are way hairier than I expected, but that isn't a problem.

Taro corms
These are the future taro plants I bought.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Seeing Red

Right now in the garden, there are many flowers in bloom, many of which have reddish and scarlet hues.


Monarda didyma flower
Monarda didyma flower

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

An Intro to Walking Onions


walking onion bulbils
These are some walking onions in the garden.
One of my recent fascinations has been growing tree onions, also known as Egyptian onions, topset onions, and tree onions. These unique plants form ordinary onion bulbs underground, but have onions on top instead of flowers. The bulbils (little onion bulbs) on top are used for propagation to easily increase plant numbers. The plants rarely set seed, and I was lucky enough to get two seedlings from my whole row of onions. The plants can have varying degrees of flowerlessness (which may not be a word, but should be) and that is what I plan on showing you today. I am not sure what causes some plants to have more flowers than others, but I want to try saving any seeds the plants produce, and growing out the seedlings to see what happens. I will go in order from flowers-a-plenty to massive bulbil production. As a warning, my posts will probably be very picture heavy, as this post will be!

New Blog

I am now starting this blog to have something that allows me to share my adventures. I am currently a teenager seeking a path in the world of plants, a seemingly confusing path full of adventures and learning. Being an avid gardener and wildlife enthusiast, I am always surrounded by plants and will have tons of pictures to share. My garden tends to have many of the ordinary tomatoes, squash, and beans, but with a bit of exotic and unexpected flair. If you are reading this, stick around for some interesting shots!