Next weekend will be Mother’s Day on May 9th. Here are a few ideas for your mothers who are enthusiastic gardeners!

Mix plating of culinary herbs: This is a simple project and makes a wonderful gift for any gardener who likes fresh herbs for the kitchen. Just pick a nice an attractive ceramic pot and fill it with good potting soil, and then plant four 4″ potted herbs.  Creeping herbs like rosemary, thyme and oregano will cascade from the top of the pot. Plant some upright herbs like parsley, sage and chives in the center of the pot. Tie a bow around around the top of the pot, and a Mother’s Day card and you have a thoughtful gift.

Assemble a European basket: Find a nice woven basket with a handle. Place inside of it potted flowering herbs and some attractive flowering plants. Add some packets of seeds, a hand trowel and some gardening gloves and a card. Tie a ribbon to the handle and you have another beautiful homemade gift.

Hanging Flower Basket: A hanging basket of flowers also is a great gift item. You can make it yourself or buy one from your local nursery.  Tie a ribbon to it and add a card.

Wish all of you Mothers a happy Mother’s Day.

Western Columbine

Columbines (Aguilegia spp) are a great plant to grow for their intricately shaped flowers, good color ranges, frilly fern like leaves, and some have a long bloom period.  They are perennial and will reseed easily.  Columbines rely on hummingbirds to pollinate them so there is a good symbiotic relationship.

The nectar is secreted in the long tube of the flower and collects in a bulge at the base, making it the ideal source for humming birds.  Plant them en masse for extra effect along walk ways and patios.

You can find them in seed catalogs and as plants at high quality nurseries in the early spring.  I like to get starts and seeds from friends.

There are seed catalogs that focus on native plants which contribute to their hardiness and accessibility by hummers.   Four to experiment with are:

1. Aquilegia Canadensis, Canada or wild red columbine.  Native from Manitoba and Saskatchewan to Ontario and
   

   Canada Columbine

   Quebec south through much of the eastern United States.  The flowers are red and lemon yellow in midspring to midsummer.  Plants grow two feet tall and one foot wide.  Wild red columbine is also a larval food plant for the columbine dusky wing butterfly.

2. 

   Rocky Mtn Cloumbine

   Aquilegia carulea, Rocky Mountain columbine. Erect blooms are bicolor in lovely shades of blue and white.  Plants grow 1 to 2 feet tall and bloom from June to August.  This is the state flower for Colorado and includes the mountains of southwestern Montana and central Idaho to northern New Mexico and Arizona.

3. Aguilegia chrysantha or golden or yellow columbine. The horizontal-facing canary
   

   Yellow Columbine

   yellow flowers look like little rockets.   They have a long bloom from April to September making them especially appealing.  Plants grow 2 to 3 feet tall with a nearly equal spread.  They grow in mountain canyon seeps in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan desert regions, and are found from west Texas, southern New Mexico, southern Utah, and Arizona and Mexico.

4. 

   Western Columbine

   4. Aquilegia Formosa, western columbine.  Formosa means beautiful.  It reaches 1 ½ feet tall and bears dangling yellow and red blooms in late spring through early summer.  The spurs are only about ½ to ¾ inch long and point upright, making them ideal for hungry hummers.  They are found in meadows and damp areas of western mountains, the Pacific Northwest, and Alaska.

5. Aquilegia longissima, Long Spur Columbine, relies on the sphinx moths with their
   

   Long Spur Columbine

   extra long proboscises to effect pollination; hummer tongues are too short for them to successfully feed on this plant.  This species has particularly large flowers with spurs that are 4 to 6 inches long which makes them inaccessible to hummers.   They are native from west Texas to southern Arizona and northeastern Mexico.

The splitting of slate is all done by hand. The slate is soaked in tubs of water. Then using a special chisel made in the blacksmiths shop it is hit with a large hammer down the grain of the slate block. It takes a skilled craftsman to see the grain of the slate and hit the chisel in just the right place to split the slate. Slate products such  as walking slates and flagstones can be used as garden decor in your lawn and garden.

This 70 year old man is punching the holes into roof slate that allow it to be nailed in place. This is all done by pumping the machine with his feet. No electric motor, it is all being done by human power the  way it has been done for centuries. Slate products such as stepping stones and flag stones can be used for lawn and garden decor.

Linda tells about how she over came the winter cold in her greenhouse to keep her plants safe and growing.