Did You Know? Tulips Are Like Onions

In honor of one of the few flowers soon to bloom here in Minnesota despite our repeated snow covered mornings, I thought I would share a bit of trivia about tulips. 

Contrary to popular belief, tulips are not native to Holland. The flowers originated in South Central Asia in what is now Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. The name tulip is thought to come from the Turkish word "dulband" which means turban which the tulip flower is thought to resemble. Dulband is translated to "tulipa" in Latin. 

In 1636-37, Holland had "Tulipmania" where the price of a single bulb was more than the cost of a house at the time. Rare bulbs were sold for exorbitant sums (up to $100,000 by today's standards) and to have tulip bulbs at your home was as impressive as having say, a Ferrari today. Eventually, thousands of tulips varieties were brought to market and there was a "Tulip Crash". Yet, tulip cultivation still remains a large part of the Dutch culture. 

Tulips are unique in that the flower stems will keep growing after they are cut. Snip a couple of stems from your garden and put them in a vase of water. The stems will grow up to an inch or more. Cut tulips don't need any special care in a vase except lots and lots of water. They are thirsty plants and need water added every day. 

Lastly, if you're in a pinch, tulip bulbs can be used in place of onions. Which is interesting but mostly irrelevant. Who has more tulip bulbs than onions? I guess if your tulips have gone awry, which they tend to do after several years of multiplying, it might be a good way to cull down the tulip bed. 

Did You Know? Geraniums Aren't Really Geraniums

When is a geranium not a geranium? When it's a pelargonium!

Uh, yeah. Which is what exactly? Pelargonium is the correct botanical name for the tropical plants we commonly grow as annuals and call geraniums. Sometimes they are referred to as garden geraniums or possibly storksbill geranium (although that's a new one to me). Perennial in only the warmest of climates, here in Minnesota we start these popular plants in January from cuttings and seeds to have them ready for sale in May. Being tropical, they need lots of time to grow from a single leaf or seed into the full blooming plant we all know and love. 

Image: Tom Curtis / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So what, then, is a geranium? An actual geranium is a perennial plant (yes, even here in zones 3 and 4) that really looks not much like a pelargonium at all. It's often referred to as hardy geranium or cranesbill geranium. The beauty of this perennial besides the fact that it is hardy here in Minnesota is that it doesn't like rich soil. So that tough place in your garden where nothing else will grow? Try cranesbill geraniums. This plant also stands up fairly well to drought and blooms profusely. A perfect perennial in my book!

So why do these two disparate plants have the same name in the first place? While both these plants are still in the same botanical family, they were originally in the same botanical genus as geraniums. It was only about 220-some years ago that the plants were split into two separate clans and it just hasn't caught on yet. Old habits die hard! 

At any rate, both of these plants are excellent choices for gardeners. What they do have in common is that they are both easy to grow and flower beautifully. Whether you choose a garden geranium or a hardy geranium, chances are you'll be pleased with it's performance.

Did You Know? Peppers Have More Vitamin C than Oranges

Image: lobster20 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Bell peppers, sometimes known as sweet peppers, are another fruit we like to use as and call a vegetable. They can be red, orange, yellow and are often eaten green. Part of the Capsicum genus that includes all hot peppers, bell peppers differ from their hot cousins in that they lack capsaicin, the chemical that makes most peppers hot. This is due to a recessive gene that eliminates the capsaicin and makes bell peppers sweet rather than spicy. 

What bell peppers lack in heat, they more than make up for in nutrition. For starters, bell peppers provide more vitamin C per serving than oranges. In addition, bell peppers are an excellent source of vitamin A in the form of the antioxidant, beta-carotene. For a really power packed pepper, choose a red bell which has more vitamins (over twice the amount of vitamin C compared to a green pepper). Red bells are also one of the few foods that contains lycopene, another antioxidant that may reduce the chance of certain cancers. 

When choosing peppers, conventional wisdom says that 4-lobed bell peppers are better for cooking because they are firmer and stand up to cooking better. If looking for a pepper to munch on, choose a 3-lobed one as they tend to be much sweeter. 

Did You Know? How the Daisy Got its Name

Daisies are synonymous with cheer and for good reason. They were originally called "day's eye" because the yellow center resembled the sun. As with most names, over time day's eye became simply daisy. 

There are no shortage of daisies either. There is the Common Daisy, a common European species which is considered the quintessential daisy and then a whole host of other plants that are also called daisy. What gives?

Blue-eyed Daisy

Actually the name daisy can be applied to any flower in the asteraceae family which is more commonly called the aster, daisy or sunflower family. It includes many of the plants we commonly plant in the garden such as marigolds, zinnias and calendula among many others. The name aster means star so often in the garden biz, daisy has come to mean any star shaped flower with a solid eye. Most times the eye is yellow but can be blue as in osteospermum or blue-eyed daises or black as in black-eyed Susan's.