Birds and Blooms Blog

Have you heard the term ‘life list’?  It is a term that birdwatchers use to describe the list of birds that they want to see during their lifetime.

I confess that I don’t have a life list for birds, but as a horticulturist, I have a long list of plants that I hope to see.  During my travels, I have been able to cross off a few plants off of my life list.

Top Left: Flowering Agave desmettiana, Baja Fairy Duster, Hedgehog Cactus.
Bottom Left: Flowering Ocotillo, Parry’s Penstemon and Argentine Giant Cactus.

What would you include on your life list for plants that you hope to see?  If you travel through the Southwest, maybe the flower of an agave 0r the vermillion-colored flowers of ocotillo would be on your list?

Top Left: Double-flowering hollyhock, pink hibiscus, radiation lantana.
Bottom Left: Ornamental allium, prairie fire and lupine.

Are you a lover of cool-colored blooms such as pink and purple?  How about the multi-colored blooms of bush lantana or would the tall stalks or ornamental allium topped with purple balls be a must-have for your list?

Top Left: Red bird-of-paradise, purple lilac vine and queen’s wreath vine.
Bottom Left: ‘Lipstick’ Salvia, tropical bird-of-paradise and silk tree blossom.

Do you like to search for different-colored varieties of your favorite plant(s)?  How about ‘Lipstick’ salvia?  If tropical flowers are more your thing, there is nothing to compare with the beauty of tropical bird-of-paradise.

Whenever I am traveling, I’m always on the lookout for flowering plants that I have not seen before.  Even when exploring around my hometown, I’m sometimes surprised by different flowers not often seen here.

Creating a ‘life list’ for flowering plants isn’t hard to do.  If you are crazy about roses, then create one for different rose varieties.  Maybe you love succulents and/or cacti – then create one for these types of plants.  The list is uniquely yours and you can put whatever kinds of plants you like.  As you search out plants to cross off of you list, you may find yourself inspired to use them in your own garden – you never know where gardening ideas will come from.

I must admit that I have a long list of plants on my life list that I have taken pictures of – BUT there was always one missing.  The flower of this plant is almost impossible to see up close much less photograph without a tall ladder as it is usually very high up.  However, last week I finally came within inches of this glorious flower.  I invite you to visit my gardening blog, azplantlady.com where you can see what flower I was able to cross of my life list.

How about you?  Would you ever create a life list for flowers and/or plants?  What plants would be on your list?

As the American Goldfinches near my home start to molt into their breeding colors, it’s definitely the time of year when I commonly get asked about which feeder is best for attracting these cheery birds to people’s backyards. Since feeding this species is so popular, there are many different feeders to choose from when considering your backyard bird feeding needs.

These are some of the many options that you can choose from when buying a finch feeder to meet your backyard bird feeding needs. Each of these feeders is available at Wild Birds Unlimited stores.

Most people that feed finches have had a tube feeder with traditional ports such as the green feeder in the photo above. The finches seem to like eating from these tube feeders, but they are prone to get moisture inside of them that can cause mold. You have to be sure to keep those feeders very clean. To help with easy cleaning, be sure to buy a feeder with a removable bottom.

Sock feeders, such as the white sock above, have also been around for a long time. They are very popular with finches, but they do wear out quickly. Since they are inexpensive, it’s not a problem to replace them frequently.

If your finches love sock feeders but you would like something that won’t wear out so quickly, metal mesh finch feeders are right for you. These are my favorite way to feed finches, and I have two of them outside my window right now with many finches on them. These feeders allow for more finches to be on them at the same time (since there isn’t a limited number of ports like the tube feeders), and they tend to have less of a molding problem than the traditional tube feeders. Since the air moves through these feeders, even if the seed gets wet, it dries out quickly.

For those that are having trouble with species other than goldfinches eating all your seed, such as House Sparrows, you might want to consider an upside-down finch feeder. In order to keep some species from eating out of this feeder, the ports are below the perch, making the goldfinches have to flip upside-down in order to feed. This is very hard for birds like the House Sparrow, so they tend to leave the feeder alone.

If you have questions on finch feeders, visit your local backyard bird feeding store such as Wild Birds Unlimited or submit a question in the comment box below.  What is your favorite type of finch feeder?

While planning an Early Florida Settlers’ Garden for the museum where I work, we came across something called Everglades Tomato (Solanum pimpinellifolium) that we’d never heard of before. A friend gave us a few of these small grape-sized tomatoes with the instructions: “Squish them up and bury them in a little soil. That’s all you have to do.” Boy, was she right – it was that easy!

Jill Staake Wild Everglades Tomato

These little tomato seeds sprouted in days. We divided them into small pots to give them a little more time to establish, then transplanted them to the garden in about 2 weeks. From there, with water a few times a week and plenty of sunshine, these quickly grew into sprawling plants covered in yellow blooms, followed by small tomatoes perfect for snacking on right from the vine.

These plants grew from two small tomatoes’ worth of seeds.

Everglades Tomato is a bit of a mystery. Some people believe it is native to the Florida Everglades. Others say it escaped cultivation early in the days of Florida’s Spanish settlement, or that Native Americans brought it here from other locations. Regardless of the origins, there’s no doubt this tomato grows happily in Florida’s toughest conditions, all year round. If it can survive and thrive in both winter and summer here, I know it will grow in backyard vegetable gardens just about anywhere. Though some sites list it as zones 8 – 11, these start growing and producing fruit so quickly that you should be able to grow it every year as an annual tomato plant up north.

Everglades Tomato flowers are familiar to anyone who grows tomatoes.

This is truly the tomato for people who think they can’t grow tomatoes. (Trust me… I am one of those people!) Some folks caution that this plant can get out of hand, so you may want to try it in a raised bed. We’re growing ours in compost mixed with potting soil, and it could not be happier. You can find seeds for sale on the internet, or if you happen to know someone who’s growing it, ask for a tomato or two to drop in some potting soil. You can also start it from cuttings – it’s said to be as easy as “cut a branch, stick in the ground, and keep it watered”. You can let it sprawl far and wide if you have the space, or train it up a trellis or tomato cage support.

The fruits grow in dense clusters, but there’s no need to thin them.

Do you have any experience with this plant? Tell us about it in the comments. Want to talk about backyard vegetable gardens with other gardeners? Visit our Community and join in the conversation!

When David Letterman announced his retirement recently, we heard it had something to do with birds. When we did a little more digging, we learned that his decision to retire was related to a birding experience he had with his son. They found a bird while out fishing, and they were trying to figure out if it was a juvenile bald eagle or a golden eagle (which would be fairly rare for the area they were in). He describes how he spent hours, trying to identify this bird and contact official birding groups to help confirm the ID. If you want to see the clip yourself and hear about Letterman’s bird experience, go here. It’s around 4 minutes in that he starts talking about it.

Of course, we love anytime birding gets attention, especially when it’s on a national stage like the Late Show. So we put together a little package for Letterman, including a lifetime subscription to Birds & Blooms, some bird wine and a porch swing bird feeder, made by one of our readers.

From one bird lover to another one, let me say CONGRATULATIONS Letterman. I hope your retirement (even though it won’t be until 2015) is filled with many, many great birding moments. We hope you’ll help us wish David Letterman a happy retirement filled with birds as well by writing on his Facebook page or sending him a tweet through Twitter. We want him to know that he’s in good company with the readers of Birds & Blooms.