A Paranormal Perennial

I appreciate any cultivar name that invokes thoughts of my favorite holiday: Halloween.

It is fun to stumble upon some Gaillardia ‘Goblin’, Hemerocallis ‘Bela Lugosi’, or Alchemilla mollis ‘Thriller’ and suddenly wonder, “What should my costume be this year?” One perennial in particular has a designation so dark, it can conjure up a gruesome ghost story:

Symphyotrichum lateriflorum ‘Lady in Black’
Side-flowering aster

PHOTO: Symphyotrichum lateriflorum 'Lady in Black' with frost.
A late-fall frost, not ghostly images, sets off Symphyotrichum lateriflorum ‘Lady in Black’. Image courtesy Northcreek Nursery

Symphyotrichum lateriflorum ‘Lady in Black’ was one of only seven asters to receive a five-star rating of excellence by Richard Hawke, plant evaluation manager at the Chicago Botanic Garden. The straight species, S. lateriflorum, was also among the seven, so you can see that this is one of the best asters for your garden.

The foliage of ‘Lady in Black’ is an almost black-purple color, enhanced in autumn by numerous sprays of teeny white daisies with pinkish-purple centers. A location in full sun or partial sun will produce the darkest foliage.

Side-flowered asters can grow three feet tall, and a striking effect is to plant it in front of Blackhaw viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium) or any other shrub with amazing fall color.

“Lady in Black” also happens to be the popular name for a mournful soul who haunts Fort Warren, located on George’s Island in Boston Harbor.

The myth goes like this:

In 1862, Mrs. Melanie Lanier of South Carolina tried to rescue her husband, who had become imprisoned at the fort during the Civil War. On a stormy night in January, she rowed across the freezing water with nothing more than a pickax and an old pistol. She chopped off her hair and disguised herself in men’s clothing. She snuck her way to the prison cells and signaled to her husband by whistling a Southern refrain. He signaled back, and quickly she found a way to squeeze through the bars of his cell window.

Worried about seeing the Lady in Black?

PHOTO: Victorian Lady in Black wearing mourning jewelry and clothing.
Pick your superstition: In Victorian times, seeing an owl during the day, finding a single snowdrop flower in your garden or witnessing a sparrow land on a piano all foretold imminent death.

After weeks of tunneling underground with the pickax, they were discovered. Mrs. Lanier shocked the guards and tried to shoot a Union officer with her pistol. However, the antiquated weapon backfired, and some shrapnel ended up killing her husband. She was captured, tried, and hung a month later.

Just before her death, she was given a black robe, the closest thing to a dress they could find. Visitors to George’s Island now claim to see a woman in this same black robe. The Lady in Black has been known to appear in photos, and her moans have even scared away fishermen.

Not spooked? These creepy (or dangerous) plants might do the trick!

YIKES!

While I’m fairly certain that the Dutch breeders who named Symphyotrichum lateriflorum ‘Lady in Black’ were not familiar with this particular ghost story, you can’t help but wonder if they were not aware of some other spirit dressed in dark garb, drifting or moaning down the paths of their garden.

So the next time you notice an eerie cultivar name like Geranium phaeum ‘Stillingfleet Ghost’, Hemerocallis ‘Snowy Apparition‘ or Eupatorium dubium ‘Phantom’, try not to get shivers down your spine.


©2015 Chicago Botanic Garden and my.chicagobotanic.org

Orbs of October

Color theory states that orange radiates warmth and happiness by combining the energy and stimulation of red with the cheerfulness of yellow. This is a fit description for the harbingers of autumn’s harvest, the seasonally evocative winter squash and pumpkins.

PHOTO: Atlantic Giant pumpkins.
Unbelievable, yet real: Atlantic Giant pumpkins (Cucurbita maxima ‘Atlantic Giant’) adorn beds of parsley, chard, and heirloom root vegetables.

So visually compelling is the color-saturated rind of the world’s largest fruit, and so heavy. All of this certainly explains what your fruit and vegetable team has witnessed in the Garden. There is pure joy as our visitors first glimpse the great pumpkins—ooohs and ahhhhs and squeals of delight, as folks of all ages decide how best to connect with the fruit: Is it real? Should I touch it? Should I sit on it? Hug it? Photograph it? People even talk to our anthropomorphic fruit.

But the giant pumpkins are just one part of the diverse Cucurbita garden art growing in the Fruit & Vegetable Garden this season. While they seem to be called “squash,” “pumpkin,” and “gourd” interchangeably, there is actually a science to identifying these cultivars, and pretty much everything called “pumpkin” is really a squash—although “pumpkin” is most commonly used to describe those distinctive orange orbs.

Cucurbita maxima are squash with softer rinds and flesh, growing on long vines with large, hairy leaves. Harder-skinned “winter squash” are typically Cucurbita moschata, including butternuts and acorn squash. They also have trailing vines and hairy leaves, but tougher flesh and rinds, and a ridged but still soft stem. Only Cucurbita pepo are considered true pumpkins, with tougher flesh and rinds, leaves that are downright prickly (not just hairy), and a woody five-sided stem.

PHOTO: Warted hubbard squash.
Warted hubbard squash (Cucurbita maxima ‘Chicago’s Warted’) is delicious now, and delicious later.

Cucurbita maxima ‘Chicago’s Warted’ is an heirloom developed by Budlong Gardens of Chicago. It was introduced by Vaughan’s Seed Store of Chicago in 1894. The 13-pound fruit are dusky olive green, and deeply wrinkled and warted with a classic hubbard squash teardrop shape. These gems have a fine-grained, sweet orange flesh. We planted ours way back at the end of May—perfect timing for this 110-day crop. The hubbards are versatile winter squash that can be eaten right after harvest, or stored until the flesh sweetens around the new year.

PHOTO: Australian blue squash.
Australian blue squash (Cucurbita maxima ‘Queensland Blue’ ) can be stored for an incredibly long time.

A member of the avant-garde Australian blue group of squash, Cucurbita maxima ‘Queensland Blue’ is not often seen growing in the field. While they hail from South America, the blue squash varietals grow equally as well in Australia (for which they are named) because of similar temperatures and length of growing season. We found the seed at Seed Saver’s Exchange in Iowa. This is a bottle-green keeper that, if properly harvested and well-cured with a 4-inch “handle,” will store for more than a year—maybe two. It is a fantastic eating-quality squash with smooth, rich, brilliant orange flesh.

PHOTO: Waltham butternut squash.
Waltham butternut squash (Cucurbita moschata ‘Waltham’) looks like a buff-colored peanut.

Cucurbita moschata ‘Waltham’ looks like a blocky, buff-colored peanut. We planted it in the warm soil of mid-June, which squash of this species prefer. Waltham butternut is a uniform producer that must be harvested before the slightest touch of frost.

PHOTO: Growers and staff positioning a mammoth pumpkin on a forklift.
Moving this Atlantic Giant to its current location took a full day of careful handling…and more than one forklift.

Make sure you have a forklift available before you think of growing Cucurbita maxima ‘Atlantic Giant’, which can easily grow in excess of 1,000 pounds. This squash that looks like a pumpkin surprisingly does not need much more room than the average pumpkin patch to grow, but organic compost can help boost its final size.

PHOTO: Winter Luxury pumpkin.
The champion of pie pumpkins: Cucurbita pepo ‘Winter Luxury’

Cucurbita pepo ‘Winter Luxury’ is diminutive in stature but mighty in taste. The fine, rough netting around the shell is a distinguishing feature of this 1896 heirloom. This is the gold-standard pie pumpkin that can be eaten right out of the garden. It won’t store as long as the other species.

PHOTO: Jarrahdale Australian blue pumpkin.
Stunning when sliced: Jarrahdale Australian Blue (Cucurbita maxima ‘Jarrahdale’)

Cucurbita maxima ‘Jarrahdale’—our second unusual Australian blue—is a deeply-grooved, slate-gray squash with dense, sweet, deep orange flesh and a thin skin.

PHOTO: Pink Porcelain Doll pumpkin.
Purchase Porcelain Doll (Cucurbita moschata ‘Porcelain Doll’) seed from Pink Pumpkin Patch Foundation.

Cucurbita moschata ‘Porcelain Doll’ is a pink cheese pumpkin that has become the symbol of breast cancer awareness among pumpkin growers across America. Growing this decorative hybrid will ensure a donation to research is made.

PHOTO: Small Mixed gourds.
Grown for display, these Cucurbita pepo ‘Small Mixed’ gourds are generally better food for squirrels and raccoons.

There are three basic types of gourds in the Cucurbitaceae, or squash family: Cucurbita (ornamental squash), Lagenaria (utilitarian gourds used for things like containers or birdhouses) and Luffa (vegetable sponge). These Cucurbita pepo ‘Small Mixed’ ornamental gourds are just pumpkin varieties with poor flesh quality—either too fibrous or too watery for eating—but with beautiful color and texture for use in fall arrangements. We grew these up on a trellis. They store better in a cool environment but can easily last indoors for seasonal holiday decorating.


Choosing a pumpkin this weekend?
Use these tips and know what you’re selecting when you shop:

PumpkinHandle pumpkins carefully, by using two hands to lift them. Although it is tempting to pick pumpkins up by the “handle,” a pumpkin’s decomposition accelerates once the stem has broken off.

Well-grown pumpkins should be heavy for their size, with telltale ripeness indicators like deep, saturated color, and brown stems. The rind should be hard—impenetrable when lightly pressed by a fingernail—and have a glaucous, dull sheen.

Once you get your pumpkin home, wash the rind with a mild bleach solution to remove bacteria and extend the life of the pumpkin.


I just cannot resist asking: Orange you glad you visited the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden? Learn more about pumpkins in Plant Information and The Smart Gardener.


©2013 Chicago Botanic Garden and my.chicagobotanic.org

Extreme Pumpkins

Riley Obenchain conjures a feeling of mischief and magic.

He wears a tattered straw hat, trimmed with a red poppy, that looks like something a scarecrow might wear. His bushy black eyebrows dance when he talks, bringing to mind the woolly bear caterpillars abundant in the fall. A playfulness—tinged with the macabre—also shows in the jack-o-lantern characters Obenchain creates each year for HallowFest, the Garden’s popular, family-friendly celebration of Halloween.

PHOTO: Riley Obenchain with giant pumpkins.
Riley Obenchain poses with some enormous jack-o-lantern fodder in the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden.

Obenchain’s ghoulish, yet somehow gallant, jack-o-lanterns provide a mild dose of horror while eliciting smiles and laughs. There’s the tiny pumpkin gripped in the long, pointy teeth of a massive pumpkin. The little guy has a sort of “Oh, no, Mr. Bill” look on his face. The big, toothy smile on another jack-o-lantern gives a mixed message. Obenchain describes it as an “I’m-happy-to-see-you-because-I’m-going-to-eat you” look.

“I get a lot of, ‘Wow! I could never do that!’” says Obenchain, who’s helped keep the Garden’s trams, lawnmowers, and other machinery running smoothly for 35 years, “but in actuality, anyone can do this.” Here are a few of Obenchain’s tricks and techniques, gleaned in a recent interview.

PHOTO: A white pumpkin with a shocked expression and a rubber snake in its mouth.
The removed pieces of the eyes of this “Ernie” are recycled as ears; leftover mouth pieces are used for hands.

Where do you get your inspiration?

A lot of times, the shape of the pumpkin has the idea. The pumpkin determines what you’re going to carve. How is it going to sit? Is it a “Bert” or an “Ernie”? (A Bert has a more elongated shape, while an Ernie has a round, well, pumpkin head. Obenchain is cultivating a large pumpkin this year that has a sort of crocodile look to it.) 

What are your favorite tools?

I like using old-fashioned steel knives. (The steel is more rigid than stainless steel. Obenchain uses a range of sizes and keeps them sharp. He taps them into very thick pumpkins using an old hickory log that he’s kept for years. Toothpicks, bamboo skewers, or even the occasional nail can be used to patch mistakes. A trowel with a sharpened end makes a good seed scooper.)

What sorts of other materials do you use?

Long, skinny gourds for antennaes. Gourds for ears and eyes. One year I used a forked stick for the tongue of a snakelike pumpkin. (Obenchain shows photos of jack-o-lanterns carved by nephews under his tutelage. One looks a little worse for wear, with crosses for eyes and an arrow through its temples.)

What is the biggest pumpkin you’ve ever carved?

An Atlantic Giant squash (Cucurbita maxima ‘Atlantic Giant’). It topped out at 1,010 pounds. (The record-breaker could cover a small table top. Obenchain needed a hand-pruning saw to carve its foot-thick walls. The big galoot had to be moved with a forklift. Another behemoth was so long that Obenchain had to crawl inside to scoop it out, creating the ultimate Obenchain image—a man-eating pumpkin!)

PHOTO: A devilish pumpkin with lots of pointy teeth.
Carving stalks instead of using toothpicks to inset eyeballs ensures they don’t rot out and stay in place while your jack-o-lantern is on display.

While most of the pumpkins carved for Hallowfest are from outside growers, each year, Obenchain tries to grow a few giants of his own in friendly competition with other Garden staff members. This year, he’s growing another ‘Atlantic Giant’ with seeds saved from the thousand-plus-pound monster—if the raccoons don’t get it first!

Join us for HallowFest on October 26 and 27, from 6 to 9 p.m. on Saturday and 4 to 7 p.m. on Sunday, to see Obenchain’s creations for this season.


©2013 Chicago Botanic Garden and my.chicagobotanic.org

Three Gardens of Good…and Evil

You may think of the three greenhouses as warm and cozy places to visit on a chilly fall day, but look sharp! There are dark and chilling secrets among the plants you may see there…

In the Arid Greenhouse

PHOTO: Giant toad plant.
Carrion flower or giant toad plant (Stapelia gigantea pallida) smells about as attractive as you might guess from its name.

ROT ROT ROT:  Though the star-shaped flowers of the toad plant look beautiful, they smell like rotten meat. (The scent attracts flies, which are the plant’s pollinators.) We warned you.

DEADLY SAP:  The milky sap of many plants in the euphorbia family irritates the skin and eyes…and is poisonous to humans and animals if ingested.

PHOTO: Peruvian apple cactus.
“Night owls” — bats, really — pollinate the peruvian apple (Cereus peruvanius).

THE BAT SIGNAL:  All cactus flowers last just one day—but the flowers of the Peruvian apple cactus only bloom one night, the better to attract its pollinator, a bat.

SHARP LEAVES:  Although cactus needles are nothing more than very skinny, narrow leaves, they are sharp enough to hurt. The tiny, hairlike needles can really get under your skin…ouch!

In the Tropical Greenhouse

PHOTO: Cocoa tree.
The fruit of the cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao) give us our favorite dessert: chocolate!

CHOCOLATE AND FLIES:  Think about this as you’re eating your Halloween candy: tiny flies (called midges) are the pollinators for the cocoa tree. Therefore, every bit of chocolate you eat started with a fly…yum yum.

BANANA BLOOD?  When a leaf is trimmed off the banana plant, the sap that runs out is initially clear…but then it turns purplish-brown, leaving “blood” on the clothes of those who trim it. Is that a stain on your shirt?

KILLER BUGS:  When plant-eating bugs attack in the greenhouse, we release the appropriate bug-eating bugs. Although these mini-carnivores are mostly too small to be seen by humans…wait, do you hear munching?

In the Mediterranean Greenhouse

THE STRANGLER:  A rubber plant called the “Strangler Fig” has long, creeping roots that climb over other plants, tapping into that plant’s circulatory system and eventually smothering it. Most rubber plants are harmless…did you just see something move?

PHOTO: Deppea splendens.
The colorful and elegant Deppea splendens can be found in our greenhouses.

THE SPOOKIEST OF ALL:  By tearing down forests and destroying its natural habitat, humans have caused plants like Deppea splendens to become all but extinct. The only known survivors live in botanical gardens like this one.

Happy Halloween, everyone!