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HORT CUTS
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STILL SPROUTING AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
Many a gardener watches and waits for signs that their carefully planted seeds are sprouting. That wait is most likely weeks. But at Michigan State University, a celebration ensued after seeds buried on campus 142 years ago successfully sprouted.
William James Beal, a 19th century professor of botany at MSU— then known as Michigan Agricultural College—carefully buried those seeds in 20 bottles back in 1879. His goal was to help farmers by determining just how long the seeds would remain viable, but sadly he didn’t live long enough to find the answer. Last spring, a Michigan State team unearthed one of Beal’s bottles and successfully germinated the seeds he had buried. And the longest plant biology experiment in the world continues.
“Seeds don’t live and die like other organisms,” said Marjorie Weber, MSU assistant professor of plant biology. “They are more like zombies that can hang out in the soil for incredibly long periods of time, seemingly dead and then suddenly germinate. We’re trying to understand why and for how long this phenomenon happens.” Weber, the first woman to be part of the team, is an expert in ecology and evolution.
There are still four bottles buried by Beal yet to be exhumed from a secret location on campus. One bottle will be dug up every 20 years, and the experiment will be complete in 2100. The MSU team is already planning an encore to continue the work beyond 2100.
WINTERLAND WONDERLAND
Our gardens are sources of healing and strength. But what’s a gardener who lives in a four-season climate to do in the winter? “Yes, it is dark out. Yes, it is cold. But winter can be glorious, too. Getting out into—or just admiring— the garden during this long season can enrich our lives and nurture our tenuous connection to nature,” says Cathy Rees, author of Winterland (Princeton Architectural Press, 2021).
This beautiful book— loaded with stunning photos by Lisa Looke—is a wonderful inspiration for those headed into the dark days of winter. Rees, an intrepid gardener in Maine, provides little tips for big impact in your winter landscape. The book features sections on designing, contrasting, embellishing, caring, and sharing. Winterland also offers great inspiration for photographing your garden and natural surroundings.
THE MOTHER OF PEOPLE-FOCUSED LANDSCAPES
She was an accomplished landscape designer, yet Marjorie Sewell Cautley (1891–1954) is among a number of pioneering women landscapers whose work is rarely spotlighted. A 1917 Cornell graduate, who also received an M.A. in city planning from the University of Pennsylvania, Cautley focused much of her design work on urban landscapes. She believed fervently in engaging community members in the design and construction of the public spaces in their neighborhoods. Notably, she focused on the needs of women, particularly mothers and children, when designing common spaces and was attuned to how they would actually live in the spaces. Among her most notable landscape designs are Sunnyside Gardens, Phipps Garden Apartments, and Hillside Homes—all in New York City— and Radburn, in New Jersey. She is credited with championing native plants and sustainability, as well as enhancing community through landscape design.
WALK IN THE PARK
One of Frederick Law Olmsted’s design treasures is Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York. Prospect Park: Olmsted and Vaux’s Brooklyn Masterpiece (Princeton Architectural Press), by David P. Colley and Elizabeth Keegin Colley, offers some fascinating trivia about the park, which opened in 1867: • An old Native American trail became East Drive. • The park cost $9,919,370 to build (equivalent to $183,352,181.95 today). • Before the park was built, farmers let their animals roam on the land. Even once the park opened, animals roamed freely. In 1872, 44 pigs, 35 goats, 18 cows, and 23 horses were impounded. • Park construction workers were paid $1.70 per day. • Archery was a popular activity in the park in the late 1800s. • You couldn’t picnic in Central Park, but you could in Prospect Park. • Before the likes of central air conditioning, people slept in the park on hot summer nights. MEET AUDREY III
It’s not quite the Little Shop of Horrors, but it is an amazing discovery made by researchers from the University of British Columbia and the University of Wisconsin. A twelfth carnivorous plant lineage has been discovered— Triantha occidentalis, aka western false asphodel. The research article announcing the discovery of this new lineage was featured in an August 2021 issue of the PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). T. occidentalis is unique in that it sets its sticky traps next to its insect-pollinated flowers— sweet little white globed shaped-blooms. Because T. occidentalis has been found close to West Coast urban centers, researchers feel there may be more carnivore species to be discovered.
Clockwise from
top: Professor William James Beal. Courtesy of Michigan State University
Triantha occidentalis, western false asphodel. Photo by Ben Legler
Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Photo from Pixabay
Marjorie Sewell Cautley. Photo courtesy of Cornell Archives
Photo by Lisa Looke, courtesy of Princeton Architectural Press
Hort Cuts is compiled and written by TRD Assistant Editor Dawn Borgeest, Rochester Garden Club, Zone III
