The Amazing Adventures of Archibald Esq.
Horticultural Hound: The Dangers of Snail Bait
If your two-legged beloved is as keen on gardening as mine is, you’ll know that snails are the bane of the dedicated gardener. Especially in wet areas such as England. But much as they may be tempted to put down poison to control the shell-encased slugs of garden destruction, it’s best that they don’t.
You may want to tell your two-legged that snail bait is toxic and can be fatal to dogs. The active ingredient of snail bait is usually 1 per cent iron phosphate. Now iron phosphate is relatively safe for dogs, but it can still be toxic to canines if they ingest enough of the stuff.
Read on…
Posted 13 Jun 08
A Horticultural Hound: Tulips
Just the other day I was trotting through a tulip bed. They were still, even so late in April, coming into flower. Apparently Istanbul has a Tulip Festival. Come to think of it there’s also a tulip festival in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Which raises the issue that not all flowers get their own festivals. I mean, there’s Orchid Shows, and meetings of horticultural societies devoted to the growing of carnations, sweet peas and the like. But not that many flowers that have actual ‘Festivals.’
Tulips are bulbs that are not as showy and extravagant as the lily, nor as heady-scented as the hyacinth, but that have, in their extreme simplicity of flower-form, an understated and luxurious elegance and grace.
All of this got me curious ’bout Tulips. What are they and why do horticulturalists esteem them so highly? So I decided to do a little digging.
Read on…
Posted 23 Apr 08
Horticultural Hound: Dog Flower
Dog Flower — Trillium erectum — is a houndish plant listed by the RHS Horticultural Database. A native of Eastern North America, this plant has been given the RHS Award of Garden Merit, meaning it is an exceptional plant that is not difficult to cultivate.
Other accepted names are: BIRTHROOT; AMERICAN SHAMROCK; BATHROOT; BETHROOT; BLOODY NOSE; BUMBLEBEE ROOT; DEATH ROOT; DOG FLOWER; GROUND LILY; HERB PARIS; INDIAN BALM; LAMB’S QUARTERS; LAMB’S SUCCORY; NOSEBLEED; ORANGE BLOSSOMS; RED BENJAMIN; SQUAWROOT; STINKING BENJAMIN; TRUE LOVE.
These lovely woodland plants are the red variety of trillium. The white trillium are known as trillium grandiflora.
Trillium blossom in early spring and pepper the twinkling woodland floor with patches of colour.
Posted 14 Apr 08
A touch of topiary razamatazz
Just rest your peepers on these fine figures! Methinks these topiary dachshund figures will add distinction to any garden or terrace.
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Posted 11 Feb 08
Horticultural Hound: Mad Dog’s Berry
Solanum dulcamara is the accepted name in the RHS Horticultural Database for Mad Dog’s Berry.
Mad Dog’s Berry ranges across Europe, North Africa and South West Asia.
As the illustration shows, bittersweet nightshade – aka Mad dog’s berry – is a very beautiful plant. So much so that one may be tempted to think the name “bittersweet” originated from the dual nature of the vine: namely, that the plant is so destructive, yet so beautiful. Needless to say the term ‘nightshade’ is also an overt warning: the berries are poisonous.
Read on…
Posted 21 Sep 07
Horticultural Hound: Dog’s Ribs
Plantago Lanceolata is often — like other doggish plants — considered to be a weed, but by the good folk at Plants for a Future is valued as both edible and useful as a medicinal plant.
Dog’s rib, for example, is said to help with bee stings: rubbing a crushed leaf on a bee or wasp sting the plant will help take the sting away.
Plantago lanceolata is listed by the RHS Horticultural Database. The natural habitat of Dog’s Ribs is grassland, roadsides; it is a common weed of lawns and cultivated ground — the bane of golf club groundskeepers! It grows on neutral and basic soils throughout Europe — including Britain — from Iceland south and east to Spain, northern and central Asia.
Read on…
Posted 27 Aug 07
Horticultural Hound: Dog Rowan or Dog Eller
Dog Eller or Dog Rowan is an accepted name in the RHS Horticultural Database for Viburnum opulus. This plant has a range of Eurasia.
The ‘Gaitre-Beries’ of which Chaucer makes mention among the plants that ’shal be for your hele’ to ‘picke hem right as they grow and ete hem in,’ are the deep red clusters of berries of the Wild Guelder Rose, a shrub growing 5 to 10 feet high, belonging to the same family as the Elder, found in copses and hedgerows throughout England, though rare in Scotland, and also indigenous to North America, where it is found in the eastern United States.
Other names include GUELDER ROSE; CRAMPBARK; CRANBERRY; DOG ELLER; DOG ROWAN; EUROPEAN CRANBERRY BUSH; EUROPEAN CRANBERRY TREE; GATTEN; GATTEN TREE; MARSH ALDER; OPLE TREE; RED ELDER; ROSE ELDER; SNOWBALL TREE; WATER ELDER; WHITTEN TREE.
Dog Rowan, or Rose Elder, is a large attractive shrub that is often found in the wild in bogs. They are showy in spring for their large 4-5″ clusters of small white flowers. In late summer the fruit turns bright red and remains on throughout the winter. In the fall the leaves become scarlet.
Read on…
Posted 13 Jun 07
Horticultural Hound: Dog Hobble
Leucothoe fontanesiana is an accepted name in the RHS Horticultural Database. Other accepted names include Dog Hobble, Drooping Laurel and Switch Ivy.
Dog hobble is a native of South Eastern America. It is a common shrub of streambanks in the Mountains, and has leathery evergreen leaves.
The arching stems can be so dense that they make traversing terrain difficult for dogs (as well as for humans), hence the name Dog hobble.
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Posted 30 May 07
Horticultural Hound: Mulch Alert!
Now you all know that I’m a keen horticultural hound. Yup. Nothing I like better than to have a nose around the garden… Ah! The smell of the greening leaves! To nose a delicate wild violet nestled in under the lavender… To feel the delicate fronds of a feathery fern as they brush my ears… Awoof! Nothing could be better!
Which is why I was very shocked to learn (via the RSPCA) that some garden mulches sold in many garden centres around the country could be potentially lethal to dogs.
Well, happily little feet’s composter has been producing lots and lots of green manure (and hey! It really looks like green/black manure!), so we won’t be needing to purchase any mulch this season, but I thought it best to alert those who aren’t so lucky to the dangers of a common gardener’s mulch: cocoa mulch.
Now most doggy people know that chocolate is poisonous to dogs. But mulch? Garden mulch? So needed to keep in moisture and deter weeds? Well - yes. If dogs eat cocoa mulch it can poison them in just the same way as chocolate poisons dogs — and the culprit is the chemical theobromine.
Read on…
Posted 14 May 07
Horticultural Hound: Spotted Dog
Spotted dog is an accepted name of ‘Pulmonaria officinalis’ according to the RHS Horticultural Database. It is a plant of European origin and distribution.
It is a perennial plant in the family of Boraginaceae, Genus Pulmonaria.
Like some dogs, the leaves of this plant can be (and often are) spotted. Unlike dogs, it bears flowers — ranging from blue to pink.
Again like dogs, Pulmonarias can take up a lot of room in the garden in a relatively short time. You have been warned! On the other hand, they make admirable and excellent ground-cover plants.
Read on…
Posted 11 Apr 07
Horticultural Hound: Dog’s Leek
Dog’s leek (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) is a plant listed in the RHS Horticultural Database.
Other common names include the bluebell, wild hyacinth, bell bottle, calver keys, common English bluebell, cover keys, crake feet, crow bells, crow leek, cuckoo flower, dog leek, dog’s leek, fairy flower, harebell, spreading bluebell, squill and wood bells.
This perennial woodland flower is a native of Britain, where it is a protected plant. The mass growth of dog’s leek is thought to indicate ancient woodland. It has been cultivated since 1500 in Europe and is reputed to have special fairy powers.
Read on…
Posted 05 Mar 07
Horticultural Hound: Dog Fennel
Helenium autumnale is an accepted name in the RHS Horticultural Database.
Dog’s fennel is, without doubt, one of the most attractive perennials for the late-summer garden. It is sometimes said that the name ‘Helenium’ comes from Helen’s flower, of Helen of Troy.
Another common name for members of the Helenium genus is sneezeweed, which is somewhat misleading as native Americans used this plant to cure hay fever.
Other names include Autumn Helen Flowers, Autumn Sneezewort, Dog Fennel, Oxe Eye, Smooth Helen Flower, Swamp Sunflower and Yellow Star.
Read on…
Posted 01 Nov 06
Horticultural Hound: Dog Berry
When I was small - well… smaller than I presently am (of which it’s fair to say is pretty darned small!) little feet used to call me a gooseberry. ‘Cause, she said, you’re too small to be a goose, my ‘lil gooseberry. Awoof!
Only later did she realise that ‘gooseberry’ was a saying used to describe a third party on a date - like a younger sister accompanying her older sister and her older sister’s beau to the sock hop a Saturday night. As a kind of physical buffer to human friskiness… Which isn’t me at all, as I am largely in favour of all things to do with kisses and cuddles! Awoof!
Needless to say, it caused her not an inconsiderable measureable of mirth to discover that the ‘dogberry’ is a type of wild gooseberry (Ribes cynosbati) of eastern North America. The dogberry bush bears large, prickly berries.
Dogberry is also sometimes used as a term for a wild mountain ash (Pyrus decora) - also of eastern North America. Indeed ‘Dogberry’ is the generic name for the fruit of either of these plants.
Other common names include Red Twig Dogwood, Western Dogwood, American Dogwood, Redstem Dogwood, Red Dogwood, Kinnikinnik, Squawbush, Creek Dogwood, California Dogwood, Red-stemmed Cornel, Redbrush, Gutter Tree, Red Willow, harts rouges, Poison Dogwood, Shoemack, Waxberry Cornel, Dogberry Tree.
The dogberry is a reputedly gorgeous tree that adds what some gardeners call ‘interest’ from spring through fall. In the spring there’s the delicate clusters of white flowers, followed by orange fruit, then the glorious fall leaf coloring. As a tree it is not hardy to frost and needs a relatively mild climate.
Read on…
Posted 29 Sep 06
Horticultural Hound: Dog Bane
Dog Bane (Plectranthus ornatus) is a type of plant of the genus Apocynum, having milky juice and bell-shaped white or pink flowers. The apocynaceae are commonly known as dog’s bane as well as Indian hemp and bitter root.
As the name suggests, the plant is the ‘bane’ of dogs. In other words, dogs tend to avoid contact with the plant, and indeed, some garden guides suggest planting dog bane as a way of deterring dogs from entering gardener’s areas - where houndish digging and the letting of doggish waters is not always welcome. Awoof!
Read on…
Posted 30 Aug 06
Horticultural Hound: Dog Daisy
Oxeye or Dog Daisy, Leucanthemum vulgare
Dog daisies present a wonderful show in early summer, often along roadside verges. Flowers are over an inch across, like small garden marguerites, borne singly on stalks a foot or so high.
A member of the Asteraceae family, the Daisy is a perennial with a flat, spreading growth habit forming dense mats of rosettes in short grass and gravel. The name is a shortening of the original “day’s eye” as the flowers only open during the day.
Daisies spread mainy by seed. They tolerate constant cutting and can still flower. The oval basal leaves may be smooth or slightly hairy and may or may not have a toothed edge. Usually the leaves have a broad tip which narrows towards the base.
Young daisy leaves can be eaten in salads and there are a number of homeopathic remedies based on extracts from the whole plant.
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Posted 12 Aug 06
Horticultural Hound: In Praise of Thrift
Sea Pink or Thrift bears the Latin name Armeria maritima. The one in the garden is a ‘Splendens.’ SuperWoof to Thrift! What a plant! A gentle mound of grass-like foliage above which arise tiny pincushions of delicate pink flowers, like little coloured bobbins that nod gently in the breeze. Wonderful!
Ah, the pleasure I get nosing those pink pincushions… nuzzling my schnozz into the petals.. then watching them bob and sway.
Little feet picked up the plant at the garden shop by Kenwood House, which just adds to the reminiscent delicacy of the moments of tender enjoyment I get from lying by this plant, and from time to time sniffing it’s fragrance of green growth and all that bears the scent of summer.
Read on…
Posted 01 Aug 06
Horticultural Hound: Crested Dog’s Tail
Crested Dogs Tail - Cynosurus cristalus - is a 75cm tall tufted perennial of grassy places over a great range of soils.
A native of British grasslands, it is a constituent of ancient meadows and chalk downlands and can withstand cold and dry conditions. It is a short grass that is leafy at the base and should help to give a good bottom to a sward. These elegant grasses flower in plumes from June to August and are the food plant of the Meadow Brown Butterfly.
Not only is the Crested Dogs Crest the foodstuff of the Meadow Brown Butterfly, it’s also favoured by horses. Because of this Crested Dogs tail may be included in horse paddocks ; even though its nutrient value might not be high it is particularly liked by horses, and it’s best to keep one’s horses happy, aroof!
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Posted 24 Jul 06
Horticultural Hound: On Giving a Fig
Where did that saying ‘I don’t give a fig’ come from? Well, never mind. Despite the saying, the story of figs has become even more interesting since it has emerged that figs were the first agricultural crop of the earliest two-footed people.
Seems the cultivation of figs takes agriculture back over 1,000 years from previous estimates, and archaeological signs of the cultivation of figs has been found at a site in the Lower Jordan Valley dating back to 11,400 years. Woof!
Read on…
Posted 03 Jul 06
©2008 Roleta Archibald, Awoof!™