May '07 - Gardening News

 

Gardening Web

Cue in Kew

Gardeners outside the U.K. can empathize with Adam. As the Gates of the Garden of Eden clanged closed behind he, Eve and the sleazy serpent, he could only regret that never again would he set foot in those verdant hectares.

So it must be for most of us botanizing outside the Scepter’d Isle. London is at the very top of the list of the world’s most expensive cities. As far as safety is concerned, even without terrorists, National Geographic recently advised visitors to exercise caution.

Fortunately the magic of modern-day communications enables one to call upon Kew at any time. Not just for the living collections but one of the world’s greatest herbariums. It is also one of the oldest. Commencing over 200 years ago, it now contains approximately 7 million specimens collected from around the world. These represent 98 per cent of all flowering plant genera, preserved as pressed dried specimens or in spirits.

Some is already online. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is engaged in building an electronic Herbarium Catalogue. Initiated in 2002, and growing all the time, it contains images and information of specimens gathered from the collection labels. Almost a quarter million specimens are now available, while other databases offer about the same number.

A great resource for the serious researcher, a wonderful place to visit for every gardener.

www.rbgkew.org/herbcat

The Gardener’s Color Wheel

The association between successful garden planning and an artist’s appreciation of colour has long been recognized. Historically in China, it was held that one had to be both painter and poet to successfully create landscaped gardens. In the late 19^th- and early 20^th-century England, Gertrude Jekyll turned from painting to perennials due to failing eyesight and left a legacy still studied today.

Colour can be confusing to amateur and professional gardener alike. Some claim that the ability to think in colour is limited. If this be correct, it would explain the state of many a landscape, to say nothing of the contents of catwalks elsewhere.

In an attempt to alleviate this at a horticultural level, The Gardener’s Color Wheel has been created. Developed by Sydney Eddison, author of The Gardener’s Palette and Gardens To Go, it is designed as the blurb says, ‘to create exciting color combinations for the garden and understand color relationships.’ Eddison, a former set designer, has been gardening for almost half-a-century and has taught a course called Color for Gardener at the New York Botanical garden for many years.

Pedantics may complain that ‘color’ is spelt in that crème-de-la-crème of all oxymora, American English. However, they may be assured this does nto affect the use of the device in any way. More information is available at the web site, including how to order, although in Toronto at least Curries, the well-known arts supplies store, is carrying it.

www.colorwheelco.com/garden/

Wallace’s Wasp

Thanks to his support for the founder of the theory of natural selection, biologist Thomas Henry Huxley was designated Darwin’s bulldog. Should then, the Natural History Museum, London, U.K., become known as Wallace’s wasp? Perhaps it would be only fitting.

The NHM recently launched a major online exhibit dedicated to Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) – and yes, that is the correct spelling of his second name. The naturalist was born in Usk, Gwent close to the English-Welsh border. Just 19 years old, he headed to the Amazon region on a decade-long plant collecting expedition. Two years after he returned from there, he left for the Malay Archipelago in 1854, spending another dozen years away from home and hearth.

Health in tropcial climes can be somewhat precarious even today, as all who have dwelt there can attest. It was distinctly problematic in the 19^th-century. Collectors such as Wallace spent a proportion of their time sprawled in bed, hammock or chair recovering from fevers. During such, an observant Wallace outlined a theory of evolution.

In 1858, he wrote from the Moluccas to Charles Darwin in England, revealing his revolutionary idea. Darwin had spent the better apart of two decades formulating the same but in far greater detail. At the Linnaean Society meeting the same year, Wallace’s letter was read along with a paper by Darwin, followed by the famous The Origin of Species the following year.

Acknowledged today as the co-founder of the theory of evolution by natural selection, Wallace went on to lay the foundations for zoogeography. His establishment of a demarcation line between the fauna of Australia and that of Asia is now known as Wallace’s line.

www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/collections-at-the-museum/wallace-collection/themelist.jsp

Horticultural Happenings

Toronto Cactus & Succulent Club

15 May – meeting commences 7:30 p.m. at Toronto Botanical Gardens, Lawrence & Leslie; visitors welcome; more at http://torontocactus.tripod.com/meetings.htm

Greater Toronto Water Garden & Horticultural Society

27 May – meeting at Toronto Botanical Garden, Lawrence at Leslie, commences noon with greet, eat and meet, for more, visit www.onwatergarden.com

Toronto Entomologists’ Association

24 February – DNA Barcoding of Lepidoptera with speaker Paul Hebert; 1 p.m. in Room 113, Northrop Frye Hall, Queen’s Park Circle East, Toronto; www.ontarioinsects.org

Toronto Mycological Society

18 May – meets 7:45; for venue and further details www.myctor.org

East York Garden Club

17 May – meets 7:30 p.m. at Stan Wadlow Community Centre, 373 Cedarvale Avenue; also has an excellent web site full of timely tips at www.eygc.ca

Beach Garden Society

15 May – meeting commences 7:30 p.m. at Adam Beck Community Centre, 79 Lawlor Avenue, Toronto

Toronto Field Naturalists

Visitors and children are welcome at all TFN free outings but please, no pets. Walks go whatever weather prevails – check with 416-661-0123 and dress according to the forecast. Most walks begin and end close to TTC routes. Bring binoculars, camera, notepad plus, if desired, a snack and beverage.

High Park Events

More information, please visit www.highpark.org, or call 416-392-1748

Tuesdays, May – Knee-High Naturalists Tuesday Afternoon Club 1:30 to 3 p.m.

1 & 15 May – Spring Cleanup 6:30 to 9 pm

5 & 19 May – High Park Saturday Morning Naturalist Club for Kids 9:30 a.m. to noon

6 May – High Park Day

6 May – Native Plant Sale noon to 4:30 pm

12 & 20 May – High Park Ramblers Hiking Club for Kids 9:30 a.m. to noon

20 May – Spring Clean Up 10:30 am to 1 pm

Humber Arboretum

Located on the West Humber River in northwest Toronto, worth visiting for the gardens, forests, meadows and wetlands also has nature programs for schools and community groups, and workshops for teachers. Staff train students in Humber College’s School of Horticulture. Some of the many events this month:

5 May – turtle trekking

12 May – frolicking frogs

19 May – scurrying squirrels

26 May – river romping

For details, visit www.humberarboretum.on.ca

Rouge Valley Hikes

Free hikes on Sunday afternoons organized by the Rouge Valley Conservation Centre, 1749 Meadowvale Road, north of Sheppard Avenue East, Toronto; more information at 416-282-8265,

Ontario Daylily Society

26 May – meeting commences 10 a.m. in Rooms 3, 4 & 5 at the Royal Botanical Garden, 680 Plains Road East, Burlington: club plant sale and babysitting program

Southern Ontario Orchid Society

6 May – monthly meeting commences noon the Toronto Botanical Garden, Lawrence at Leslie; for details please visit www.soos.ca

Southern Ontario Nut Growers Spring Auction

6 May – a rare event that’s not to be missed commencing 10 a.m. sharp at the Toronto Botanical Gardens, Lawrence East at Leslie; apart from an assortment of nut trees there are expected to be also offered some exotic fruit trees and shrubs, all of which may be grown here.

Oakville African Violet Society

30 May – meeting commences 7:30 p.m. White Oaks High School, North Campus, 1055 McCraney Avenue, entrance west side of building behind greenhouse; more at http://members.tripod.com/~oavs/

Hamilton & District Chrysanthemum & Dahlia Society

14 May – meeting 7:30 p.m. at the Royal Botanical Gardens Centre, 680 Plains Road E., Burlington

Hamilton Naturalist’s Club

14 May – monthly meeting commences 8 p.m. at the Royal Botanical Gardens, 680 Plains Road East, Burlington; topic this month: Protecting the Extraordinary Alvars of Carden Plain with speaker Ron Reid.

Heritage African Violet Society

22 May – monthly meeting 7:30 p.m. Holy Trinity Anglican Church Hall, 120 Fennell Avenue East, Hamilton,

Ontario Rock Garden Society

12 May – monthly meeting commences noon at Toronto Botanical Gardens, Lawrence & Leslie; visitors welcome; for more information, visit www.onrockgarden.com.

Ancaster Horticultural Society

21 May – monthly meeting 7:30 p.m. Old Town Hall, 300 Wilson St. E., Ancaster

Burlington Horticultural Society

9 May – monthly meeting 7:30 p.m., Seniors’ Centre, 2285 New Street, Burlington

Orchid Society of the Royal Botanical Gardens

28 May – monthly meeting Rooms 3 & 4 at the RBG Centre, 680 Plains Road East, Burlington, commencing 2 p.m.

Casa Loma Gardens

Four acres of gardens can be visited free on Tuesday evenings from 4 p.m. to dusk at the famous Toronto ‘Castle on the Hill’ from May through October; more at www.casaloma.org/gardens

Toronto Botanical Gardens

Formerly known as the Civic Garden Centre, nirvana for area gardeners with many ongoing events and courses, plus a superb library, book and gift stores; Lawrence at Leslie; at www.torontobotanicalgarden.ca

Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton

The place to head for horticultural happiness west of Toronto; many meetings, courses and much more; located at 680 Plains Road East, Burlington; more information www.rbg.ca

3 & 5 May – RBG Auxiliary Plant Sale in the Arboretum; a fund-raising event featuring many rare and unusual plants offered for sale.

5 May – Cooking in the Wild: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Nature Centre; members $30, non-members $35

5, 12 & 26 May – Spring Wildflower Walks: commence 9:30 a.m., last 2½ to 3½ hours; members $7 each walk, non-members $10 each walk.

6 May – Spring into Bloom: Rock Garden displays collections of tulips, azaleas, evergreens and more 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

8 May – Lavender Blue: all about the herb; 7 to 9 p.m. at RBG Centre; members $23.50, non-members $28

11 to 13 May – Growing & Using Herbs: 7 to 9 p.m. at RBG Centre and Country Lane Herbs; members $85, non-members $95

13 May – Mother’s Day Brunch at the Gardens Café; reservations phone 905-527-1158 extension 540

19, 20, 21, 26 & 27 May – Lilac Celebration: experience one of the world’s premier Syringa collections in the Lilac Dell 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., along with entertainment, food and more.

27 May – RBG Wine Tour: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. commencing at the RBG Centre, bus tour to wineries, dinner; members $90, non-members $100

Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens

Almost 100 acres established in 1936 in conjunction with the Niagara Parks School of Horticulture and located 6 km north of the Falls, this is worth several visits during the growing season. The rose garden with 2,400 roses is world famous; also noted are perennial gardens, vegetables and herbs, rhododendrons, butterfly garden and conservatory and the arboretum. www.niagaraparks.com/nature/botanical.php

Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa

Heavy on horticultural history, despite the agricultural association, once threatened now preserved thanks to the Friends of the Farm and home of many events of interest to gardeners; more at www.friendsofthefarm.ca

May Lilac Tours – dates dependent upon season, guided tours of the farm’s lilac rows in the Ornamental Gardens; a must to learn Canada’s history and contribution to the species; free admission

6 May – Historical Walk at the Central Experimental Farm with Kathleen Fletcher; 2 – 3:30 p.m., Building 72, Arboretum; members $12/non-member $15; register by e-mail to: thefarm@cyberus.ca

13 May – Plant Sale with many speciality growers and nurseries 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the parking lot, K. W. Neatby Building, Carling Avenue; admission $5 or donation to Food Bank

Canada Tulip Festival

3-23 May: Ottawa www.tulipfestival.ca

Maplelawn Historic Garden

Historic Ottawa walled garden is open daily, dawn to dusk, without charge for “quiet enjoyment.” Restored and maintained by volunteers since 1993, well worth visiting; www.maplelawngarden.ca

Rideau Hall

The landscaped grounds of the Governor General’s Ottawa residence are open 8 a.m. to one hour before sunset; details www.gg.ca/visitus

Acorus Restoration

13 May – Mothers Day Walk on the Farm, spring wildflowers,

26 May – Prairie gardening commences 10 a.m. Ontario prairies

Acorus operates a large native plant business near Walsingham, Ontario. www.ecologyart.com

Butchart Gardens

Until 14 June – Out on the west coast they want you to Celebrate Spring at Butchart with one of the finest displays in the world; the public gardens are a short distance from Victoria, B.C.; more at www.buchartgardens.com

Tournament of Sand Sculpture Champions

9 to 13 May – The estimable Landscape Architecture bimonthly saw fit to run a page on this annual event in Harrison Hot Springs, B.C., sponsored by The Vancouver Sun. The incredible sculptures are stabilized with special materials and last until at least early October. Now here’s something different for the garden! For details, go to http://harisand.org/toc.html

Merlin’s Hollow, Aurora

12 May – 181 Centre Crescent, Aurora: organic garden with over 200 different perennials owned by gardener and landscape architect David Tomlinson and Dierdre Tomlinson; hours 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; plants for sale on this day and the other three in June and July when they are open to the public. Phone: 905-727-8979

Rose Show

19-20 May – Cheekwood Botanical Garden, Nashville, Tennessee for those rosarians who just can’t wait or are eager to see Al Gore’s infamous MacMansion; more on the rose show at www.cheekwood.org

Carnivorous Plant Show

4 May to 4 November – Conservatory of Flowers, San Francisco, California (www.conservatoryofflowers.org) Alas, no triffids to environmentally dispose of meanie greenies, bungleaucrats, perfidious politicians or other awful offal but a fascinating look at these ever-popular and mostly insectivorous plants.

News of Interest to Gardeners

When the Financial Post features gardening front-page centre that NEWS. According to that illustrious newspaper, now celebrating its 100^th year of business:

• Value of the gardening industry in Canada: $3.8-billion
• Average annual rise in sales of hardware and lawn and garden products since 1998: 16.1%

·         Number of Canadians who like to garden (up 13% from 2005): 9,300,000

In an accompanying article it was revealed that only walking exceeds gardening as Canadians’ favoured physical activity. The reporter, it is pleasant to add, was one Hollie Shaw.

Landscaping

• “I have a passion for plants. I love native plants but also enjoy introduced species. I think trees are magical and majestic, but I take pleasure in a green carpet of turf . . . I don’t understand those that condemn one type of plant in order promote another. I don’t understand the need to politicize horticulture. I don’t feel the need to discriminate. I am not an eco-racist.” Tony DiGiovanni, Landscape Ontario executive director, writing in Horticulture Review.
• “Many of our horticulturally-minded group were sending home huge majolica birdbaths, planters and large heads of women with beards and moustaches to decorate their gardens. I was tempted, but Allan wasn’t. ‘You can buy all that stuff at Home Depot,’ he said.” Sondra Gotlieb reports on her Sicilian vacation in the Weekend Post.
• G-Sky’s Green Wall Panels form living walls for commercial and home use, inside and out – we learn from a product review in Landscape Architecture. “Living walls are more visible from the ground than green roofs, notes the publication, and the plants can form company logos, whimsical designs and other decorations (www.g-sky.com).
• The Skystream 3.7 brings wind power to your back door, is another suggestion from Landscape Architecture magazine. A “residential power appliance” and “the iPod of wind power,” according to Arizona-based Southwest Windpower, it can be erected in your backyard on towers up to 110-feet tall, which must be at least 20-feet higher within a 300-foot radius. Designed for lots of at least a half-acre it would seem somewhat unsuitable for city backyards, however, even if bylaws permit.
• The very latest in gardening statuary is offered by – who else – Canadian Tire. Deceased Chinese emperors were guarded in the after-life by hordes of life-like soldier statues. Now the very same can guard your garden. On sale recently for less than $15! Imported from those friendly folk who brought you emerald ash borer and Asian long-horned beetle for you garden, SARS for yourself and poisoned vittles for your pets.

Lawns

·         Toronto’s climate change plans shift into high gear with Mayor Miller’s active promotion. According to the Toronto Star, when asked if he was going to invest in a push mower, he replied: “I should. My yard’s about the size of that chair.” So what is he using to mow the miniscule patch right now?

·         Front lawns paved over for parking in Gomorrah-on-the-Lake are environmentally unsound, declare city politicos. The solution? Raise the annual fee 18% and use the estimated $280,000 to hire four enforcement thingies to jump on naughty taxpayers parking illegally in such fashion.

·         “I have lost track of when I first noticed that Greens were engaged in a war on chemicals, but it has been a long time,” writes Alan Caruba in The War of America’s Lawns as reported in the online newsletter Newsletter@americasnewssource.com.

·         A weed-infested lawn has been defined as a pain in the crabgrass. But because it is intolerant of shade, notes the renown magazine Horticulture in its spring planting issue, “maintaining a vigorous stand of the desired turf grass through proper mowing, fertilization and soil care is the best defence against this type of opportunistic invader.”

Trees

·         The Toronto Star raises alarm over NGO reports that logging, roads and other human disturbances are reducing Ontario’s boreal forest ability to combat climate change and shelter wildlife. The Star, Canada’s largest circulation newspaper, is printed on pulp paper produced from trees.

·         Presumably you have to be an optimist to survive in Russia. Residents of Stavropol are reported to have attempted to save the trees of their beloved forest from being axed by a developer by hanging on each a picture of President Vladimir Putin. Or so the daily Izvestia reports, carefully avoiding that Colonel Putin was a member of the KGB that, amongst other responsibilities, guarded the infamous gulags where millions of humans were cut down.

·         The mayor of Canada’s largest city, plans to increase Toronto’s tree cover from 18 to 34 per cent of the city’s area by 2020. City Forester Richard Ubbens is not so sure. “It has taken 100 years to have what we have today,” he said. “To double it, realistically it will take another 100 years.”

·         And no less than 1,141 trees on a 5-acre woodlot are to be destroyed to build homes near Manse Road, Toronto, for a housing project backed by Habitat for Humanity. Perhaps a picture of Mayor Miller affixed to each tree will save the day.

·         Over 300 of Toronto’s trees are also facing the chop in the verdant acres at 1001 Queen Street West. The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) to develop and “urban village” for treatment in a “community setting.” In less politically correct days, it was known as the Provincial Lunatic Asylum.

• Each individual tree has a unique DNA code, reports Michael Kesterton in The Globe and Mail. Australia’s Simmonds Lumber will use the science to verify that all trees it receives from Indonesia are legally logged.
• Over half of the world’s magnolia species are close to extinction. Of the 245 wild species, 131 are at risk from over-harvesting and habitat degradation, according to a report by Botanic Gardens Conservation International and Fauna and Flora International reports the weekly New Scientist.
• An 80-foot oak tree is claimed to have crashed through the roof and into the kitchen of a South Carolina woman’s home seconds after she finished washing the dishes and stepped outside for a cigarette.
• “If you need further evidence that hysteria is outpacing science in the global warming debate, consider the study published this week about the Northern Hemisphere forests actually causing significant global warming,” notes Steven Milloy at the well-known www.junkscience.com [Newsletter@americasnewssource.com]

Shrubs

·         “The dirt road that leads to Jean Lafleur’s former house in Belize . . . is bathed in the aromas of bougainvillea and hibiscus bushes,” reports Alex Dobrota to The Globe and Mail, a fact that will fascinate those who have gardened in the tropics or struggled to raise them in less salubrious climes.

Flowers

·         Much to the relief of those addicted to a certain TV crime series, the Osteospermum hybrid Soprano® series of annuals continues to be available thanks to Proven Winners (www.provenwinners.com). Of course, it might be inadvisable to grow any in the vicinity of cement blocks. ‘Soprano’ was originally introduced as a companion to the ‘Symphony’ series, as all keen gardeners know.

·         In order to finance his law education, French politician Nicolas Sarkozy delivered flowers

Vegetables

·         Unfortunately, all references to Allium cepa are eliminated from www.onion.com actually the site of a satirical newspaper, while www.rottentomatoes.com tracks the very worst movies, a labour-intensive pursuit during the last few decades.

• “I don’t mean just wars. Wars are Spinach. Life in general is the tough part.” Ernest Hemingway, letter to Marlene Dietrich, 27 June 1950 revealed in the Boston Globe.
• McDonald’s agrees to pay more for its tomatoes so that Florida piece workers receive a raise. Florida tomato pickers were receiving about US.45¢ for a 14.5 kg bucket of fruit – no overtime, no benefits, no rights other than to keep on picking. McDonald’s paying an additional 0.1¢ per pound will raise this to about .77¢ per bucket for the pick of the crop.
• “To dream of three aubergines is a sign of happiness,” maintains a Turkish saying, according to Chani Blue, writing in the Epoch Times.
• ‘Skyfarms” are the answer to raising food for expanding urban populations, theorizes the alternative weekly NOW. A 21-storey facility would produce the equivalent to a 420-hectare traditional farm and feed 35,000 people. Such a ‘vertical farm’ would cost $113-million to build, says the magazine. An admittedly quick calculation indicates it would cost $2-trillion just to feed Toronto’s humbled masses, excluding overruns if government contractors had anything to do with it, as they would have to since NOW is horrified that “mega-corporations” are “already sniffing around.”

Fruit & Nuts

·         Contrary to its manufacturer’s claims, that tasty blackcurrant syrup Ribena contains almost no trace of vitamin C. The two schoolgirls whose research led to the claim have caused GlaxoSmithKline to be brought to New Zealand court, where the company was fined NZ$227,500 ($188,855). Of course the 14-year-old pair were too young to appreciate the advantages of Ribena added to gin or vodka.

·         A British supermarket chain labels its yoghurt thus: “Wild Blueberry Yoghurt. West country yoghurt blended with Channel Island cream. Wild blueberries from selected Canadian fruit farms.” A reader of the ‘Feedback’ feature of the Brit-based New Scientist magazine questions the use of the word “wild.”

Beverages, Herbs & Spices

·         Perfume experts identified the scent of “vanilla” coming from the alleged remains of Joan of Arc, leading French scientist Dr. Philippe Charlier to report in the journal Nature that the few pieces of the gallant Gaul are fakes. Why vanilla? According to Agence France-Presse the molecule vanillin is produced as a body decomposes, but not when it is burnt, as France’s patron saint was in Rouen, Normandy on 30 May 1431.

Houseplants

·         Sansevieria, a.k.a. snake plant or mother-in-law’s tongue – is making a comeback, according to interior plantscapers. It fits in well with the somewhat sparse open look that is finding favour, especially in modern commercial buildings. Shades of the 1920s and 1930s Art Deco!

·         Ken MacQueen writing in Maclean’s labels fanciers of cycads, that ancient group of primitive plants, “cycadophiles.” Cycads are “the next best thing to a pet dinosaur,” headlines the magazine.

·         It costs $100,000 per year to water the indoor plants at Toronto’s City Hall and other city buildings. In an attempt to bring spending under control, this service comes under the watchful eye of Councillor Rob Ford, who wants it axed along with several other much more expensive items.

·         Sign seen by a New Scientist ‘Feedback’ reader at a craft fair stall selling cacti: “One of the hazards of modern life is computer screens, which give off radiation. Cacti grow in deserts with strong sunlight, which has very high levels of ultraviolet. So buy a cactus and stand it in front of your computer screen to absorb all that harmful radiation.” We would add that such is bound to prickle your fancy but there is no truth in the claim that cacti spread prickly heat.

For the Birds

• How does a flock of birds tell how to change formation, and then regroup?  They do it by communicating through signal reception – either in sight or sound, suggests research using mathematical models by Raluca Eftimie, a PhD student at the Mathematical Biology in the department of Mathematic and Statistical Sciences of the University of Alberta.
• Alas, the ivory-billed woodpecker seems to be extinct after all, reports New Scientist. The video recording made two years ago has been discredited, says the weekly magazine. A video analysis of the common pileated woodpecker to be published in BMC Biology shows it has the colour pattern and wing-beat frequency thought to be unique to the ivorybill.
• An “interspecies altercation” is being blamed for the death of a 32-year-old man at the Moscow Zoo, reports Maclean’s. He was discovered dead in his underwear in a pool of blood along with some vodka below the cage’s occupant, a Siberian owl. According to a zoo spokeswoman, “the owl is still in a state of shock.”

Bugs and Other Thugs

·         Some people think toads are just great in the garden. Then there is a 1.9-pound monster male cane toad from Australia’s Northwest Territory, believed to be a record. The poison glands on the back of such a toad’s head are said to kill a crocodile in minutes.

·         B.C.’s pine beetle is heading east with dire repercussions. A University of Alberta school of business study presents a doomsday scenario, writes Paul Marck in the Financial Post.  Vast tracts of dead forest, falling trees and massive forest-fire hazards are predicted with $23-billion commercial timber at risk.

·         A German researcher has linked cellphone radiation to the mysterious disappearance of millions of bees around the globe, reports the Toronto Star. The research showed that bees refused to return to their hive when cell phones were placed nearby.

·         The strange and unexplained malady has been dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), reports the journal Science. Scientists around the U.S. have set up a CCD working group in an endeavour to find the answers – and fast. Honeybees account for 80% of the country’s pollination services and, notes Science, the almond trees are already in bloom.

·         If you can’t beat ‘em, eat ‘em: Brit based New Scientist notes that more than 1,000 insects are served up around the world. The female gypsy moth is 80 per cent protein, we are told, while ants have a lemon tang, fire ant pupae taste of watermelon and giant water bugs of mint. On 6 April a talk was given on the subject at London’s Natural History Museum, accompanied by tasty morsels.

·         The Sirex woodwasp, a potentially serious threat to pines and possibly other conifers, is reported from southern Ontario after making its first North American appearance several years ago in upstate New York. It is native to Eurasia and North Africa.

Weeds

·         Allelopathy, the ability of some plants to exude natural herbicides, is well documented. In the search for new, environmentally friendly weedkillers, scientific research is heating up, reports Janet Ralof in Science News. A fescue for lawns known as Intrigue has already arrived from Cornell University, but even more potent controls are being developed elsewhere, from Japan through Spain and Germany to the U.K.

Compost

·         Some supermarket packaging can now be composted. Vancouver-based company Earthcycle sells moulded cardboard-like packages to contain such produce as cherry tomatoes, reports the weekly New Scientist. They are made out of the husks that are by-product of palm oil production. Wal-Mart is using the same material to hold kiwifruit, the magazine notes.

• If there’s such a thing as being too successful, then T.O.’s green bin composting program is it, says the alternative weekly NOW. A third of our residential waste is organic, says the magazine, and some 100,000 tonnes of it is collected and turned into compost for gardens annually. Residents flock like ants to the piles of black gold made available free on Environment Days.

·         Compostable plastic packaging isn’t always the answer, notes New Scientist. The material only degrades under industrial composting conditions, which aren’t yet available to many consumers. “If you think using a biodegradable material is going to have big environmental benefits, you’re probably going to be rather shocked,” says Susan Selke of the School of Packaging at Michigan State University in East Lansing.

Pesticides

·         From that font of wisdom, the Toronto Star: “Thursday’s Active Nutrition special section included mistakes. In a story about organic food, a list of minerals was inserted and incorrectly called pesticides. Pesticides are derived from these minerals.” Maclean’s got a chuckle out of this.

Fertilizer

·         A toxic substance, melamine, used in making fertilizers and plastics in China has been found in samples of the poisoned pet food that has sickened and killed thousands of North American pets, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. China denies the accusation.

·         The official Xinhua news agency in China reported that about 140 children and teachers may have been hospitalized after a fertilizer plant discharged a “huge amount” of sulphur dioxide.

Gardeners

·         Maurice Fitzgerald, 59, an Oxfordshire, England, gardener, is the ninth Duke of Leinster, Ireland’s premier dukedom. The Secretary of State “is satisfied that the evidence produced on behalf of Maurice Marquess of Kildare establishes his claim to have succeeded to the Dukedom of Leinster.” A San Francisco construction manager had disputed the present duke’s claim. But, as the rightful heir said, “None of this is about money; there is none.”

Gardening in the City

·         Dread leaf blowers come under attack once again from Toronto Councillor Michael Walker, where the city hall’s council chamber is noted for its quiet, orderly procedures. However, Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong rejected the idea: “If you’re going to ban leaf blowers, you might as well ban lawn mowers, and that’s not a practical idea either.”

·         Toronto’s Parks & Wrecks Department proposes to hire 11 “park rangers.” Earlier the same bungleaucrats had suggested closing down several city swimming pools in an attempt to reduce expenses.

·         “We could kill people in an epidemic or a heat wave, or we could grow trees,” Toronto city councillor and environmentalist Gord Perks.

·         “The plan is to double the size of our existing tree canopy. Hopefully this now means we can spare the water to keep green alive in those godawful concrete planters.” NOW, the alternative weekly magazine seems to have doubts on Mayor Miller’s plans for Sodom-on-the-Lake’s precious trees.

·         Hellmann’s Urban Gardens, sponsored by the famous name in noshing, announces community gardens in five Canadian cities. In Toronto ten plots, each four by eight feet, will be located in a parking lot at Gerrard and Bay. Eager downtown gardeners can look forward to just a soupçon of vehicle exhaust to challenge the flavour Hellmann’s delicious mayonnaise.

• Trees remove tonnes of pollution from the air and save cities millions by reducing demand for energy, notes the alternative weekly NOW.  Yet T.O. lags far behind U.S. cities when it comes to promoting and caring for our urban canopy, says the magazine. The provincial and federal levels of government provide no funding for urban tree planting. The cost of watering remains a big issue, and seedlings in concrete planters typically die within seven years, rarely growing to the leafy state required to produce an eco benefit.

Science and the Gardener

·         Nominative determinism? Canadian director for the plant biosafety office is Stephen Yarrow while the Toronto deputy city manager who worries about dog poop in park garbage containers is one Richard Butts. Noted also is Barbara Bramble of the Washington, D.C.-based National Wildlife Federation.

·         Extensive agricultural; irrigation can significantly affect local climate, according to research at the University of California, Merced. One-twelfth of that state’s land is irrigated, notes Science News.

·         What determines the final size of the plant? After a century of scientific speculation, Arabidopsis plants finally reveal the answer: It is the epidermis that both drives and restricts shoot growth, reports the journal Nature.

·         Some plants take decades to mature before reproducing; others complete their entire life cycles in a year, notes Natural History. A new study shows that when it comes to global warming, fast-maturing plants might have a “leaf-up” on slow maturing plants because they can evolve more quickly in response to climate variations, suggest scientists at University of California, Davis.

·         Silk moth caterpillars click their jaws audibly when threatened by predators, Sarah Brown and her colleagues at Carlton University, Ottawa, have demonstrated, notes the weekly New Scientist. The caterpillars go on to vomit a substance whose chemical composition remains unknown but has proven distasteful to ants and mice.

·         Puzzled why your up north friend’s perennials survived the winter and yours joined the great compost heap in the sky? The temperature below snow cover can be as much as 10ºC difference from that of the air, writes Sid Perkins in Science News.

·         An 8-metre-tall, phallus-shaped fossil found 150 years ago on the Quebec coast has baffled scientists ever since. Not any longer though, thanks to a U.S. research team who say it was, in fact, a “humongous fungus.” Any resemblance to the Bloc Québécois is purely coincidental.

Weather

·         There will be 17 named Atlantic hurricanes this “very active” year with a 74% chance that one will hit the U.S., predicts William Gray’s National Hurricane Center team at the University of Colorado. A safe distance away from the site of the action, they use global oceanic and atmospheric temperatures to arrive at Gray’s anatomizing of the situation.

·         Meteorologist Jennifer Lopez of the Weather Channel apparently proposes to make Global Warning a National Security issue in the U. S. of A., according to Newsletter@americasnewssource.com, leaving Jack Layton and Elizabeth Mays green with envy.

Travel

·         Brit tourism bungleaucrats rule that William Wordsworth’s Daffodils requires updating to a rap version, allegedly to attract a younger audience why presumably will then make the hills of the poet’s beloved Lake District come alive with the sound of, er, music. The wretched rap is even online at www.golakes.co.uk/wordsworthrap. Visit Victoria, B.C. instead of backward Britland.

·         Planning to visit gardens this season? Travel no further than Grey and Bruce where normally private gardens of this scenic area await you May through October. A donation of fee, usually $2 or $3, is all it costs. Included is the famed Larkwhistle Garden at Dyers Bay, near the head of the incredibly botanic Bruce Peninsular. Check www.ruralgardens.ca for details.

Genetic Modification

·         A U.S. federal judge in California has ordered farmers to halt planting Roundup Ready alfalfa seed, reports the journal Science. It is the first time that a court has withdrawn a genetically engineered crop from the market. An alfalfa specialist at the University of California, Davis, predicted that the ruling “will cause very much consternation in agriculture.”

Kyoto Kafuffles

·         Gore-boosting Barbara Boxer has solicited a donation from Canadian climatologist Tim Bell, reports Judi McLeod at Newsletter@americasnewssource.com. Babs, a California senator, has not removed the global warming doubter’s name from her hit list, despite Bell’s beliefs.

·         Enveloping your municipality in trees will not compensate for carbon release of the population, writes Daniel Boyd of Hoorn, Netherlands in a letter to New Scientist. Hoorn, he points out, has a population of 50,000 and therefore would require 25 million trees. Giving each tree 25 square metres would require 625 square kilometres of fertile land, considerably larger than his town.

·         Thanks to bovine flatulence, cattle produce 4% of the world’s greenhouse gases, notes Maclean’s magazine. Now, thanks to the wonders of German scientific research, there comes a pill to control Bossy’s gaseous outbursts. At least one drawback remains: the pill is the size of a human fist.

·         Indoctrination of grade school students in global warming is said to be “strait out of Hitlerjugend” by MIT’s Professor Richard Lindzen, who also believes that Al Gore is “either cynical or crazy.”

Environment

·         Toronto councillors turn down deputy city manager Richard Butts suggestion to fine people for dumping their doggy-do in parks garage receptacles – all 1,200 tonnes per year of it. Instead he wanted pet owners to take it home. Meanwhile Vancouver is contemplating composting dog waste and using the methane produced to heat and light city park washrooms.

·         Prime Minister Harper’s official residence, 24 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, is no shining example when it comes to energy conservation. The cost of heat and electricity for the year ending January 2007 was $57,000. The good news, according to the National Post, is that in his final year in residence, Jean Chretien burned 20% more gas than the Harpers.

·         “Right now my heart is pounding, my palms are sweaty and I’m sitting between two men, I’m not sure what is happening.” Toronto councillor Glenn DeBaeremaeker on the city’s proposed climate change plan, as reported by the Toronto Star.

·         Global warming will make the Earth spin faster, weekly New Scientist reports on investigations by Felix Landerer of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany. The news will doubtless throw greenies into a tizzy as they consider that by the year 2200 the length of their days will be reduced by 0.12 milliseconds – if the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is as correct as any of the UN’s other bureaucratic bodies, on whose estimates the research was based.

·         Ethanol made from crops other than corn won’t account for any of the U.S. biofuel production before 2016 without new government subsidies, Bloomberg News reports Iowa State University agricultural economist Dermot Hays telling as conference. “Switchgrass never works, biodiesel never works,” he said.

·         Biofuels bandwagon hits a rut, says one of the world’s leading science journals. Lucy Odling-Smee reports in Nature that soaring corn prices in the United States are putting new investment in ethanol production on hold even as five Democratic senators propose higher biofuel targets.

·         “In order to commemorate Earth Day with the appropriate PC spirit and chutzpah, the “Al Gore Institute for Saving the Earth by Ending Global Warming and Electing Al President” has sanctioned at least ten ways to celebrate Earth Day,” writes the American satirist John Lillpop [Newsletter@americasnewssource.com]

Law and the Gardener

·         Want to peddle petals on the streets of Toronto? A proposed increase in the cost of a Flower Vending Permit will raise the annual price to $1,104.89. Of course, there is no fee for beggars – yet.

·         “In Oakville . . . the mayor and council spend their days debating on how to tax the cutting of trees on private property. Yes, that includes the residential lots some people have spent small fortunes landscaping.  You would be allowed to cut one free tree if it is a certain diamter and the town’s arborist consents. Thereafter, you would have to pay a tax, starting at $200 per tree,” writes resident R. S. Chanyi to the Financial Post, suggesting we can next expect a tax on breathing air.

·         Israel’s pro-cannabis Green Leaf Party advises that marijuana is not kosher for Passover. Rabbis have classified C. sativa with peas, beans and lentils, also off-limits during religious observances. This doubtless puzzles taxonomists but delights at least some Jewish users who take the view that cannabis must then be kosher for the rest of the year.

Business

·         You might wish to check the source of that paper coming from China or Thailand. Liao Jun at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base in Sichuan, China is seeking paper mills to process panda poo rich in excess bamboo fibre into “high quality paper.” The idea emerged from a visit to Thailand, where he and fellow researchers discovered elephant excrement being similarly utilized.

·         “U.S. Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi, winner of the Cesar Chavez award from the United Farmworkers Union, uses non-union workers of her Napa Valley vineyard,” reports Peter Foster in the Financial Post.

·         Quebec’s maple syrup producers have their knickers in a knot over a quota system set up by the province’s syrup marketing board.

·         A proposal by a Ugandan-Asian company to grow sugar cane in Uganda’s largest natural forest resulted in riots by local residents, who stoned two “Asians” to death, according to a police spokesman.

·         China supplies one-third of Canada’s import market for all garden peas – fresh and frozen, conventional and organic, writes Pamela Cuthbert in Maclean’s magazine. China is also the third-largest producer of the world’s organic foods but according to a 2006 UN report on organic farming in China and India, “a large proportion of organic products are sold informally without certification controls.” An “image problem” indeed, if nothing worse.

·         Turf is North America’s largest agricultural crop, writes Tony DiGiovanni, Landscape Ontario executive director, in Horticulture Review.

·         According to an item in a recent issue of the Brit-based New Scientist, an advertisement for a desktop PC claimed it “occupies less than 10 times the space of modern tower PCs.” The name of this wonder computer is ‘Acer.’ Of course, as any Canadian knows, Acer is the maple family that raises several questions concerning this computer, amongst them its actual size and the construction materials. Breadboards, perhaps?

Health

·         “Traditionally, tea tree oil is used for lice removal, but there’s no evidence it gets rid of them. People have claimed rosemary, peppermint and lavender work. They might make you smell nice, but that’s all. I know people who have tried turmeric. There’s no evidence that any of it works.” Heather Boon, assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy advices alternative weekly NOW’s Elizabeth Bromstein on head and body lice treatments.

·         The list of Chinese food exports rejected at American ports reads like a chef’s nightmare, reports the Associated Press. Among those cited are pesticide-laden pea pods, filthy plums, drug-laced catfish and crawfish contaminated with salmonella – and, of course, melamine-contaminated gluten destined for pet food.

·         A species of wasp cultivates the antibiotic-producing bacteria Streptomyces to protect their underground brood cells from fungal infection, reports New Scientist. German researchers at the University of Regensburg say the discovery is promising: “New antibiotic genes are always of great interest,” says Martin Kaltenpoth.

·         Health Canada adds a 1,500 per cent mark-up to the cost of medical marijuana it supplies to the country’s 514 federally licensed patients, according to Kenneth Jackson writing in Metro Toronto commuter tabloid. Almost a third of these patients, 149, are in arrears.

·         Genetically engineered tobacco plants at the University of Western Ontario produce drugs that could prevent juvenile diabetes. Other similar Canadian research holds out hope for rapid production of flu vaccines, insulin drugs to combat coronary artery disease although most are being held back by a lack of funding, reports the National Post’s Tom Blackwell. Of course, Greenpeace dislikes the idea, led by their GM expert, Eric Darrier. Is there any progress Greenpeace has been correct in challenging?

• Seven months after the World Health Organization reversed its deadly 30-year ban on the use of DDT to fight malaria, the anti-DDT movement is up to its old tricks, reports Steven Milloy at www.junkscience.com   [Newsletter@americasnewssource.com]

·         Arachibutyrophobia: the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth, according to Dr. Stephen Juan at the University of Sydney, Australia.

·         Lachanophobia is the excessive or morbid fear of vegetables; isn’t it wonderful what you learn from gardening?

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