You can brighten the holiday season for your friends, or even felines, with perfectly potted presents.
By JOHN A. STARNES JR.
Published December 13, 2003
[Photos by John A. Starnes Jr.]
The bulbs of the orange amaryllis bloom into colorful trumpets.
Cats like to nibble on grass to help their digestive system, so plant a patch they can munch whenever they want.
If you're like me and prefer giving garden-related gifts to most folks, this column provides plenty of options and you won't have to stand in line or go to a crowded mall.
But first, remember those cute seed-covered pottery gifts - the ones that produce lanky, pale seedlings? They are usually nowhere near the dense green "fur" seen in those commercials. Well, that's because a Chia is a type of salvia that needs full sun and most indoor window sills do not get enough sun; and those little "indoor herb gardens" usually disappoint for the same reason. Those potted blue spruces from Colorado fade fast and because none are exactly ch-ch-ch-cheap, both the giver and receiver are denied the long-term enjoyment of a living gift.
Tap into your creative side
To create reliable indoor potted "gardens," buy several decorative pots (with drainage holes) about 6 inches across and deep, get drainage trays, bagged compost and a small bag of dog- or cat-food nuggets. (You can spray paint clay pots in bright colors with gloss enamel.)
Fill a pot one-third full with compost, sprinkle a dozen small pet-food nuggets (as they decay they release a broad range of organic plant nutrients), cover them with 1 inch more of compost, then place three plump garlic bulbs or a half dozen shallots (pointy side up) on top of that, cover with more compost, leaving an inch of space from the lip of the pot.
For an extra bit of pizazz, add a decorative mulch of aquarium gravel, marbles from a craft store, or finely ground bark mulch. Water deeply with warm water and place in full sun in a window or on a patio. If you give the herb pot unsprouted, the lucky recipient can witness the emergence of rich green foliage that can be snipped off with scissors to use as richly flavored "chives" in soups, salads, omeletes or on mashed potatoes. When the bulbs expire, replace them with new ones from the grocery store. Growing fresh food indoors is quite a gift.
Floral-potted garden
For a floral-potted garden repeat the steps, except plant three bulbs per pot with the narcissus called Chinese sacred lily or soleil d'or (related to paperwhites). These grow more slowly, have charming daffodil-like flowers with yellow centers, and a sweet jasminey fragrance more refined than that of paperwhites, which some people find cloying.
Apartment-bound gardeners and kids will enjoy the rapid growth and the elegant perfume rarely encountered in houseplants.
Grab another pot and stick in an amaryllis bulb for spectacular colorful "trumpets" that will emerge several weeks later. When spring returns, plant the bulb outdoors to recharge.
Solution is fishy
Have a friend or relative who hasn't had luck with their potted plants?
Give them a quart bottle of old-fashioned Alaska fish emulsion. It's made from Pacific fish waste and loaded with plant nutrients. It has made people successful gardeners for nearly a century. (In Grandma's day it was called Atlas Fish Emulsion and was used on African violets, ferns, houseplants, orchids and roses.)
The smell fades in a couple of hours, and unlike those blue-soluble chemical fertilizers, fish emulsion is low in salts and offers a perfect balance of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, plus all the trace minerals found in the sea. Some folks use it for their garden plants too, especially herbs and vegetables. What better gift than success, at last, for a frustrated gardener?
Check nurseries and garden shops for fish emulsion and make sure the label reads "made from sea-going fish."
A garden for kitty
Got a friend whose cat is always munching on houseplants?
Plant-nibbling cats aren't misbehaving, their bodies need vegetative components to be healthy so they will even graze on toxic houseplants if desperate.
So, take a few pots, fill them two-thirds full of compost (omit the pet-food nuggets or the cats might dig them up) and sprinkle about two heaping tablespoons of one of these seeds: raw popcorn seeds, bird-seed mix, whole oats, wheat or sorghum (from a pet store or feed store), wheat berries from a health food store or rye grass from a garden center.
Cover the seeds with 1 inch more of compost and water deeply.
Cats prefer members of the grass family, so they'll likely ignore the sunflowers that sprout from the bird seed, but will savor the millet seedlings. Place it on a table by the sunniest window, these "cat gardens" will offer those frantic felines what their bodies crave without fear of punishment or poisoning.
Give an extra jar of seeds so the kitty garden can be replanted every four to six weeks. Both your friends and their feline will be grateful for this essential, but overlooked gift.
Roses by phone
Know someone who loves roses but finds them difficult to grow?
Call the Antique Rose Emporium toll free at 1-800-441-0002 and order an easy-to-grow, own-root, Victorian-era, old-fashioned rose.
It will arrive in a 2-gallon pot already fertilized and cut back for regrowth in the brightest place on a patio or when planted in a sunny garden.
The Emporium will mail a gift card to the lucky recipient, letting them know they'll enjoy low-maintenance fragrant blooms for many years. Beautiful Florida-loving varieties include: blush noisette, Mrs. B.R. Cant, Mrs. Dudley Cross, old blush, Maggie and Mlle. Franziska Kruger.
As more people turn to gardening to help relieve stress, the holiday season is the ideal time to slow down our frenzied shopping for expensive gadgets and instead share the priceless gift of living renewal and hope.
- John A. Starnes Jr., born in Key West, is an avid organic gardener and rosarian who studies, collects, cultivates and hybridizes roses for the diverse regions of Florida. He can be reached at his new e-mail address: JohnAStarnes@aol.com
