We stayed with friends in Portland and drove out to our bookstore events and then back to Portland each night. We appeared at Powell’s at Cedar Hills, Beaverton, Oregon, on Thursday, March 11. Next we went to Grassroots Books and Music, at The Art Center, Corvallis, Oregon, on Friday, March 12. And after that we went to Third Street Books, McMinnville, Oregon, on Saturday, March 13. Whew! That’s a lot of driving and it’s only the beginning. Next we go to Northern California.

We parked our car, with signs, in front of the bookstores as soon as we got there.

Every place we went we were greeted with the posters telling people where we’ve been and where we’re going next.

The bookstores displayed our book prominently in attractive displays.

And we spoke to the group, letting them know how the book evolved and how it’s structured. Then we held a mini plant clinic and used the book’s diagnostic flow charts to diagnose plant problems for people. When people bring plants to us for diagnosis at these bookstore events they have a lot of fun with the book. It’s a bit like being a forensic scientist on CSI. Like being a detective and that makes using the flow charts almost like a game. It’s fun. And that’s a good thing.

Kathryn speaking at the Idaho Horticultural Society Symposium in Boise.

Our whirlwind of activities landed us at the Philadelphia Flower Show and the Idaho Horticultural Society Symposium week before last. We presented slide shows and seminars at both events.

 When people describe the Philadelphia Flower Show as the biggest flower show in the country, they’re not kidding. It is a mob scene, crammed with exhibits, vendors, and visitors. Long lines form to enter each seminar and exhibition space. And the waits are all worth it. This year’s theme “Passport to the World” inspired exhibits that represented New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Holland, and India.

 I thought all the exhibits were extraordinary. A gigantic hot-air balloon made of flowers floated above a stage of musicians and scarcely clad Bollywood dancers. It reminded me of car shows I’ve attended in the past.

Tree ferns and palms rose above a lush understory of white lilies in New Zealand. A tropical display featured huge bromeliads. The South Africa exhibit was a favorite. Small grass huts fitted with tools, everyday items made entirely from plant material, and elaborate masks adorned the walkway through the middle of the exhibit. Protea flowers and grasses predominated. I found it creative and evocative.

The shipping containers painted with lively graffiti decorated with cut flowers and grasses were apparently provocative. The Philadelphia Enquirer condemned the display as glorifying graffiti. I did not find it so. I found it rather, to be about “plants in cracks”. Life blooms wherever it can. A subtle statement of hope. One of these shipping containers featured a study of extreme contrasts. The totally functional and ordinary container held an elegant and sophisticated table setting of fine china and crystal decorated with purple Vanda orchid flowers.

Although the show is several weeks in the past, the exhibitor’s creative endeavors stay with me. I’m grateful for my first opportunity to go to “the biggest show on earth.”

 The same week we went to Philadelphia, we also blew into Boise, Idaho, for two gracious days of sun and spring weather.

 The Idaho Horticultural Society does an amazing job with their spring symposium. Plant aficionados from all over Idaho gather to take classes to improve their growing techniques. They also gather to share their passion. Teaming with the Idaho Botanical Garden the Horticultural
Society is involved with many incredible projects, and they do a great job.

David speaking at the Idaho Horticultural Society Symposium in Boise.

The Society runs a series of contests as part of the symposium. Individuals, neighborhoods, and community gardens compete in categories such as “Best Community Project”, “Most Improved Front Yard”, “Best Dryland”, “Most Sustainable”, and others. The contest is only open to non-professionals and the contestants enter photographs.

 I looked over a display of the winner, and thought about what a great way to get more people involved in gardening, in beautification, in civic participation. I saw lots of thoughtful effort on display.

 We returned home after these events, briefly, to finish packing and then we took off on our driving tour of the West. We’re driving south through Oregon now, visiting bookstores and posting blogs along the way.

The theme of the show this year was “Passport to the World”, and exhibits highlighted the flowers of South Africa and other exotic locations. Of course, I was particularly enamored by the orchids, as usual. And the display by Waldor Orchids was exceptional. Their display represented the National Orchid Garden of Singapore and allowed us to imagine what it must be like to be there, in Singapore, seeing the orchids in the garden.

Here are some photographic highlights of the beautiful orchids we saw.

A splash-petal Cattleya hybrid with a peloric gene that makes the petals similar to the lip.

A bright red cattleya alliance hybrid that looks like a Sophrolaeliocattleya to me.

A spectacular Vanda, probably close to Vanda rothschildiana a hybrid between Vanda coerulea and Euanthe sanderana.

The lovely Ascocendas, hybrids between Vanda and Ascocentrum, are delightful and colorful miniature vandas.

Oncidiums, sometimes called "dancing ladies" in Hawaii, are always lovely.

On this, my first trip to Bellingham, I discovered what a delightful town it is. Kathy, at the Village Inn, greeted us with an enthusiastic, “Oh, I should have recognized you. I have your book.”  Making us feel a little like the Olympic athletes who were also staying there (overflow from the games in Vancouver, just across the border). Naturally this welcome warmed my heart immediately and made me very predisposed to love Bellingham.

Robert, our host at Village Books, was equally kind and welcoming at this great bookstore filled not only with great books, but intelligent readers. I overheard some fascinating discussions about books as I wandered the store. As wanton book-o-holics David and I had to be very careful not to fill our van with books.  This may have been a dangerous place to begin the tour. But we survived. And we only bought four books. Whew.

 We had a good turnout for the talk and even sold and signed some books We got some great questions, such as: “What is the white stuff covering the soil in our houseplant pots?” Naturally we asked some questions and found that these folks were new to growing plants. We asked about their water and fertilizer practices, because we thought perhaps that the white substance was salt build-up in the potting media. But no. So we asked if tiny black bugs flew up into their faces when they moved the plants? Yes. Okay, those are fungus gnats. And is the white stuff soft and fluffy? Yes. Okay, that is a fungus that grows on the potting media. Use a mulch such as decorative stones or sand on top and that will cut down on the fungus problem and help to control the fungus gnats. We signed their new book and they went away happy.

We ate breakfast the next morning with a flowering plum. The early spring exuberance encourages and energizes us for the road ahead.

Today we are in Philadelphia, about to venture into the huge Flower Show at the convention center next door to our hotel. We traveled all day yesterday to get here. Got a great night’s sleep and are ready to roll. We look forward to giving a lecture tomorrow (March 3, 2010) here at the Flower Show.

We invite you to share your stories of the greenworld, and welcome you to join us at one of our stops on the road. See our events page for all the details (www.ddandkw.com/events)

Kathryn Wadsworth

A February Friday, unusually warm and sunny. Spring is here. Friends already lay out their soaker hoses, sow seeds indoors, and move seedlings out into their cold-frames. We’re going to miss all that this year, as we travel to talk about our book, and other topics from the greenworld. We won’t bemoan the loss too much. Surely an exciting journey lies ahead. David and I love a road trip.

The second event on our book tour is behind us. David and I gave a talk at the Port Townsend, WA public library last week. This low-key chat with our “homies” in the town where we live was a perfect send-off for the tour. Next week we’ll be in Bellingham.

At the library we talked about how we developed the book – our book – from inchoate thoughts about the questions we must ask when someone else asks us, “What’s Wrong With My Plant?” A very common question, btw.

Looking at the notes, it seems unlikely that we could corral the wayward notions and make a logical flow of questions, answers, and diagnoses, doesn’t it?  We started by recognizing that other references about plant problems require that you know the name of your plant. Lots of us don’t know this. Of course, David does, because he is a botanist whose PhD is in plant systematics – the very people who make up these names. But he doesn’t count.

What we see on our plants are symptoms, not Latin names. Symptoms – like spots, or holes, or distortions, which we see on plant parts – like the leaves, the stems, or the fruit. So, we sorted through the symptoms, the plant parts on which symptoms occur, and found tell-tale characteristics that illustrate a certain disorder, disease, or pest.

It took time, some nutrients, some nurturing, but we made it. It turned out alright.

As we prepare to travel, we’re going through a similar process. Sorting through belongings. What to take? What to put in storage? What to get rid of as a bad idea. (Whose idea was it to buy that hideous plaid jacket anyway?)

We identify the tell-tale characteristics of intrinsic value or usefulness. We store possessions that are truly useful or have sentimental value. We take those that will help us succeed on the road. We also take those that will bring joy to the journey, such as the new little teapot and cups. It’s kind of fun figuring out what we really care about, and lightening our load of extraneous possessions.  

In other words: Spring Cleaning

We invite you to share your stories of the greenworld, and welcome you to join us at one of our stops on the road. See our events page for all the details (www.ddandkw.com/events)

David Deardorff

It’s time to get started on the vegetable garden for the coming season so you can grow your own healthy, organic food again this year. Many of us have already started seedlings indoors to transplant out to the garden or the cold frames as soon as weather permits. Kathryn and I have come up with a checklist of ten things to consider before you plant. Each item on the list helps to prevent pests and diseases in your vegetable garden. All ten of them acting in concert really gives you a leg up for a successful and productive year.

1. Sanitize. If you didn’t get around to cleaning up old left-over garden debris last autumn, do it now. Pay special attention to any dead plant material from diseased or infested plants and get it out of your garden. Fungal spores, insect eggs, and bacteria lurking on old infected dead leaves lying on the ground can quickly infect your new plants and ruin your produce all summer long.

2. Right plant, right place. Be sure and read the instructions on the seed pack or the vegetable start plant label and put your plants in the best location to meet those requirements. If your plants have the right amount of light and water, the correct temperature, and the proper soil they won’t be under stress. And stress, as we all know, predisposes our plants (as well as ourselves) to attack by pests and diseases.

3. Light and air flow. Most vegetable and fruit plants want full sun and free air movement. Plants that do not get enough sunlight will be weak and spindly, and won’t be able to produce very much food for you. Free air movement helps foliage dry quickly and helps to avoid diseases and pests so don’t crowd your plants, give them space.

4. Genetic resistance. If you have a choice, choose cultivars that are genetically resistant to diseases and pests. Less disease and fewer pests means less work for you and more produce. Sounds like a win-win to me! Most all of these disease resistant cultivars have been developed through traditional plant breeding techniques.

5. Manage water. Set up your garden so that your watering practices deliver water to the root system, not to the leaves. Keeping the leaves dry goes a long way to avoiding diseases. In general, keep your plants evenly moist for best results. Allowing your plants to get extremely dry and then flooding them to get them extremely wet results in uneven growth, deformed foliage, and reduced yields. Also try to group plants according to their watering needs.

6. Proper temperature. Some vegetables like tomatoes and sweet corn, and fruits like melons are warm season crops. These are plants that flourish in hot humid weather. Other plants like cabbage, lettuce, and spinach are cool season plants that flourish in cool temperatures. If you put warm season plants in the ground in early spring while soil and air temperatures are still quite cool, they will not grow well and may be stunted. Conversely, cool season plants planted in mid-summer may simply flower and set seed while still very tiny.

7. Build soil. Creating healthy, biologically active soil is the best way to build healthy plants. Incorporating dead plant material (not diseased!) into the soil feeds micro-organisms that break it down into simple nutrients that will ultimately feed your plants. Feeding the soil results in a complex ecosystem filled with fungi, bacteria, insects, worms, and other critters that help to out-compete the ones that want to damage your plants. Compost and organic fertilizers incorporated into the soil are excellent sources of dead plant material with which to feed your soil. Mulch placed on top of the soil around your plants will also eventually break down and feed the soil.

8. Polycultures. A polyculture is where you put lots of different plants into the same location. Corn, beans, and squash, for example, is a traditional polyculture developed by the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest centuries ago. The corn, beans, and squash are all planted together in the same bed. You can mix vegetables and fruits into your flower beds and vice versa. The important benefit you get is that it makes your plants harder for pestiferous insects to find. It also makes it difficult for fungal and bacterial disease to jump from plant to plant.

9. Rotation. Don’t put a plant in the same location where you grew it last year. Move your plants around from year to year to make them moving targets. It helps to avoid the build-up of soil-borne pests and diseases. There are lots of crop rotation systems and schemes, you can choose one of these or just create your own system, one that works for you. Many people find that a three-year rotation system works well.

This hornworm caterpillar was eaten alive by a parasite.

10. Beneficial organisms. There are lots and lots of insects and other critters that are willing and able to eat the insect pests that want to eat your produce before you do. Many are predators, like lady bugs and lacewings, and some are parasites that lay their eggs inside other insects. And then there are beneficial nematodes that attack and kill insects that live in the soil. Many birds are also insectivorous and can help to get rid of insect pests for you, and so can frogs, toads, and spiders. If you manage your garden to protect these beneficial critters, they will help you manage the pests.

Kathryn Wadsworth

Well, we did it! Last week we held the first event of our book tour with a talk at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. There may be no better place to get inspired for the road ahead.

Display gardens at big shows always have an idea or two that can be incorporated into small gardens and home landscaping. Vendors always have enough stuff to sink several container ships, yet they also make attractive displays, offering useful tools, lovely plants, and often, solid information. We visited with the folks at Seattle Tilth and the Northwest Horticultural Society. We admired some of the new, more ergonomic pruning and digging tools.

We particularly appreciated the well-executed designs of two displays: “A Family’s Little Farm in the City,” designed by Jessica and Noah Bloom. NW Bloom( www.nwbloom.com) and Seattle Tilth (www.seattletilth.org) collaborated on the installation; and “Crops for Clunkers,” designed by Colin McCrate, Brad Halm, and Noel Stout of the Seattle Urban Farm Company (www.seattleurbanfarmco.com)

Jessica Bloom’s design provided detailed views of the many creative ways for any home gardener to grow their own food in a small urban or suburban setting. Using recycled materials, one can create a raised bed out of almost anything.

Crops for Clunkers, from the Seattle Urban Farm Company displayed the most creative use of recycled material. The installation also demonstrated extremely useful techniques for any small space garden. We saw a very clear example that you can use almost virtually anything as a container. Techniques such as the vertical planting bed along the side of the truck illustrate what you can do on the side of a building, on the balcony of an apartment, or in containers indoors (if you choose the right plant material, of course).

Gardens also provide refuge, and we often venture into the greenworld to seek serenity.

Wherever we have lived – the Desert Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, and Hawaii – David and I have always grown our own food. We also experience our garden as the gateway to the natural world. We combine food, medicinal herbs, and flowers for ourselves and beneficial insect partners. We grow polycultures for both sustenance and beauty.

We invite you to share your stories of the greenworld, and welcome you to join us at one of our stops on the road. See our events page for all the details (www.ddandkw.com/events)

David Deardorff

In my blog last week I wrote about visiting the Northwest Flower and Garden Show many years ago with my mom and dad and several siblings. We all spent a lot of time viewing the fabulous orchid displays. Last week Kathryn and I spent a wonderful time at the 2010 show. We presented a seminar on Sunday afternoon, we went to hear other experts speak, and we visited the fabulous displays. I found myself enchanted by the orchids once again at an elaborate display installed by the Northwest Orchid Society and featuring a large number of Paphiopedilum orchids, warts and all.

Paphiopedilums, known as slipper orchids, have fascinating flowers featuring warts, hair, and beautiful colors. The lowermost petal is shaped like a pouch, giving rise to the common name, slipper orchids.

Some boldly flare open with their petals spread wide.

Some are attractively curvaceous, rather seductive and feminine (to me anyway).

And some have an elaborately developed lip. This might actually be a Phragmipedium hybrid, the new world counterparts to the paphs.

Almost any Paphiopedilum is an excellent choice for a companion plant in your home. In general, they prefer the low light conditions and the warm nighttime temperatures found in most of our homes.

Kathryn Wadsworth

David and I are wandering the Northwest Flower and Garden Show this week, and giving a talk on Sunday (February 7, 2010). The display gardens are beautiful, as always. Some are even spectacular.  But only two garden installations serve to truly inspire an urban gardener in these times. Since David and I are particularly interested in sustainable, organic food production for urban dwellers we found that these two gardens had the most to offer: “A Family’s Little Farm in the City” and “The Truck Farm.” (More on that in my next blog). “A Family’s Little Farm in the City” certainly lives up to its promise: to “demonstrate how a family can live sustainably in the city.” A small dwelling – actually a barn, but it could be modified – with solar panels, a quiet patio serving as a front porch, vegetable beds, an edible forest, compost bins, rain barrels, and bee hives. All thrive on this tiny plot of land.

I love this chicken tractor. The hen industriously scratches and pecks, tilling the soil for you. She can retire to her little shed to lay her eggs. Talk about a valuable partner!!  This is probably my favorite item in the display.

We’ve built cold frames from discarded windows for thirty years, but it is really treat to see one so well-built and attractive.

Rain barrels make sense no matter where you live. There are so many places in the world where water is a problem. Anywhere along the west coast of North America, the summers are dry. In the Southwest U.S. it’s dry all the time. Even the east coast of the U.S. experiences prolonged periods of drought. Catch water off any roof and storing it for later use is a great idea.

And what garden would be complete without some domestic animal companions and helpers?

David Deardorff

We’ve been coming to the Northwest Flower and Garden show in Seattle for years and it’s always exciting to see what’s new, see the extravagant displays, and hear experts speaking on various subjects. We’re really looking forward to coming back to this lavish display of the latest and greatest in the gardening world. This year, the show starts on Wednesday, Feb. 3 and Kathryn and I are presenting a program on Sunday, Feb. 7.

I remember the first time I ever attended the show. It was many years ago. Kathryn and I went with my mother and father, and several of my siblings and their spouses. It was quite a family affair with all of us crammed into the orchid displays oohing and ahing over the amazing orchids. At the time, Kathryn and I owned an orchid nursery and tissue culture laboratory in Hawaii and my father had a greenhouse full of orchids in the backyard of his home.

BLC Larry's Gem, a hybrid in the Cattleya alliance.

This photo is of BLC Larry’s Gem, a hybrid created by Kathryn and me in our orchid nursery in Hawaii and named in honor of my father, Larry. We registered it with the Royal Horticultural Society in Great Britain, the official registrar of all orchid hybrids.  BLC Larry’s Gem is in the Cattleya alliance, with very large flowers on a large vigorous plant. Most members of this alliance are tricky to grow as houseplants because they want more light than some other kinds of orchids.

Phalaenopsis orchids come in white, pink, yellow, and can be spotted or striped as well.

Phalaenopsis hybrids are much easier to grow in the home than Cattleya alliance orchids. Called moth orchids, they prefer the low light levels and warm temperatures found in the average home.

Paphiopedilums, or slipper orchids, also have flowers in a wide range of colors.

Paphiopedilums, or slipper orchids, are also easy to grow as houseplants. Like moth orchids, they prefer the shaded warm conditions provided by the average home.

At the Northwest Flower and Garden show you will see numerous examples of these and many other kinds of orchids. Check it out. You’ll be glad you did.