Horticulture Happenings

Horticulture Happenings By Nate Tscheann, Director of Horticulture Introducing Garden Explorer, Our Online Plant Database

By definition, botanical gardens are supposed to maintain an active record of their plant collections. A wellmaintained plant records database helps maximize the value of a garden’s plant collections by increasing the potential for educational opportunities, research, conservation and enjoyment of the gardens. It also helps us maintain a historical record of our plantings and make decisions about future plantings.

Over the past few years we have had major changes to the outdoor gardens at Myriad with hundreds of new plants being added each year. In order to effectively manage our plant records, we purchased a plant collection management program called IrisBG. Our horticultural staff has been working diligently over the past couple years to input the plants in our collection into this database, fill in relevant information and add photos. This software has already been proving useful internally. Now we are making this useful resource available to the public by providing online access to the database through Garden Explorer. Garden Explorer is an online tool created by IrisBG with several cool features that allow a more in depth look at our plants and gardens.

The primary feature is the search feature. Guests can search for a specific plant by common or scientific name or a group of plants in a certain family or in a specific area of the Gardens. Clicking on any of the plants returned in the search results will give information on that plant including photos, if available, and even show all the locations of that plant on a map of the Gardens.

Guests can also use the map feature to explorer the plant collection by zooming in on an area of the map to reveal the plants in that section. Guests with mobile devices that have GPS can actually use the Garden Explorer map out in the Gardens. It will track their movement throughout the Gardens and help them find a specific plant or simply reveal more information about the plants around them.

Another fun feature of the Garden Explorer site is the option to select a tour through the Gardens. These thematic tours are prepared by our knowledgeable staff and include detailed descriptions of highlighted plants. Current tours available include drought tolerant and colorful plants for each season and fragrant tropical plants of the conservatory. Look for additional tours in the future that might highlight medicinal, edible, pollinator plants, staff favorites or other groups of plants. Tours can also be accessed on a mobile device.

For our guests without access to a mobile internet device, we will be installing a computer in the Visitor Lobby of the Crystal Bridge Conservatory with access to Garden Explorer this spring. We will also be providing print-outs of some of our seasonal self-guided tours at this location.

Memorial Day Weekend Prairie and Pollinator Plant Sale Friday and Saturday, May 27 & 28

This year’s Oklahoma Gardening School generated so much enthusiasm about prairie gardens that we decided to invite two of our speakers and local nursery owners back for a plant sale! We are pleased to have Bill Farris, owner of Prairie Wind Nursery in Norman, and Marilyn Stewart, owner of Wild Things Nursery in southeastern Oklahoma, setting up shop at our Pavilion for a special two-day sale with a special Members’ Preview sale Friday, May 27, 9-10am.

Bill’s nursery specializes in native plant material including unique herbs, perennials, and groundcovers while Marilyn specializes in native and wildlife plants with an emphasis on larval host plants for butterflies and moths. Bill and Marilyn will be selling an assortment of prairie and pollinator-friendly plants and herbs and Oklahoma natives. They will both be on hand to answer questions and share information about some of their favorite plants.

Food of the Gods

By Anna Cook, Conservatory Specialist

Did you know that Americans consume around 3 billion pounds of chocolate per year? Considering this, it’s not surprising that one of the most popular plants in our Crystal Bridge is the chocolate, or cocoa, tree. The plant itself has a colorful history. Many ancient cultures considered it sacred. Its scientific name, Theobroma cacao, means “food of the gods.” The Aztecs even used the beans as a form of currency and had many rituals to honor the plant and its sacred fruit.

Chocolate has had many uses over the years from drinks and culinary dishes to popular holiday gifts and has even been utilized for therapeutic purposes. Even with all of chocolate’s uses, many of our visitors are surprised to find that such a tasty treat comes from such an odd looking seed pod. The pod is somewhat football-shaped, and unlike most fruit, it grows right off the trunk or larger branches of the tree. They turn a golden-yellow color when ripe, and once harvested, they must go through quite a process before they become the delicious, sweet chocolate that we are so fond of.

Once picked from the tree, the pod is cut open to reveal cacao beans covered in a sweet-tasting white By Abby Curry, Gardener about one of my favorite plants in the entirety of the Myriad Gardens, my choice came as a surprise to some. Perovskia atriplicifolia, known commonly as Russian sage, will not be winning any grand beauty contests and could almost be described as modest. A flowering perennial in the though it is closely related. Its bright, fresh scent immediately draws one in for a closer look, and with careful inspection, the beauty of Russian sage can be truly appreciated. Its dainty, delicate blue and lavender-colored blossoms are arranged in long branching panicles, which can reach up to 15 inches in length. Typically, the total height of Russian sage reaches between 2 and 4 feet, but its airy appearance gives it an almost ethereal quality in the garden. pulp. The beans and pulp of hundreds of pods are piled together and left to ferment for about a week. As they ferment, the beans absorb the flavor from the pulp, Chocolate tree pod growing in the Crystal Bridge transforming them from a bitter-tasting seed to something closer to cocoa. After the beans are dried, they can be shipped to processing plants around the world. While at the processing plant, the beans are roasted and their shells removed, leaving only the cocoa nib, which is the main ingredient in chocolate. The cocoa nibs are squeezed at extremely high pressure, separating the nibs into cocoa butter and cocoa powder. These ingredients are mixed back together with Matthew Janda various other ingredients to make all the different kinds of chocolate we see today.

Here at the gardens, we utilize our chocolate tree’s ripe seed pods as teaching tools. They are used in many of our educational classes to show visitors what chocolate looks like at the very beginning. The chocolate tree is just one of the many plants we have that grows edible fruit. It’s always good to know where your food comes from, so swing by the Gardens and take a look; you may just learn

Roberta Rowland

Russian Sage-Delicate Durability

When I was approached to write an article mint family (Lamiaceae), it is not actually a sage,

something new about what you chew. It reaches for the sky and thrives in full sun, and also does extremely well in drought conditions. Even with a bit of neglect, Russian sage holds up splendidly during our long, hot summers making it perfect for the Oklahoma gardener who may not have time to water their plants every day.

All of these aspects make Russian sage a hidden gem not only for humans, but for wildlife as well. If you’re looking to attract some winged friends to your garden, this plant will bring them buzzing straight for you. It’s beloved by bees and butterflies alike, and with blooms lasting all summer, you can be assured the pollinators will appreciate this fragrant beauty.

David Jameson

Horticulture Staff Updates

Nate Tscheann has been named Director of Horticulture and Matt Janda was named Gardens and Grounds Manager. Welcome to the Gardens David Jameson, Gardener, and Roberta Rowland, Conservatory Specialist. Together with Abby Curry, Anna Cook, Josh Berry & Kerry Rapp, they are the team that make sure the Gardens are beautiful all year long.