Kwanso Daylilies Still Blooming

It's September 28 and the Kwanso daylilies are still in bloom.

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Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Garden

 Since opening in April 1974, Riverbanks Zoo and Garden has become one of the most successful mid-sized zoos in the United States, winning awards for exhibit design and animal conservation efforts. Original features included the moated exhibits for cats, bears, giraffes and rhinos, exhibits for small mammals and the 22,000-square-foot Ecosystem Birdhouse. My oh my, how it has grown!

Riverbanks, located at Columbia, SC, attracts more than 1.2 million visitors annually. That’s more than the population of Columbia Metropolitan area which is home to about 810,000 souls. It’s an easy 2 to 2-1/2 hour drive from cities such as Savannah, Charleston, Asheville, Charlotte, Fayetteville, and Myrtle Beach.

In the early 1960s, some local businessmen conceived the idea of a small community zoo for children. The initial effort was doomed, but the idea didn’t die. In 1969 the South Carolina General Assembly created the Rich-Lex Riverbanks Park Special Purpose District governed by a seven-member commission. By doing so, two counties joined the city of Columbia in the project. Approximately 100 acres of land on the Saluda River outside the city limits were leased to the commission by South Carolina Electric and Gas for 99 years at $1.00 per year.

The property is also the site of several interesting historical landmarks and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Points of interest date back to the early 1800s with South Carolina’s textile industry and the War for Southern Independence.

Construction of Riverbanks Botanical Garden began in 1994 and opened in the summer of 1995. It’s connected to the zoo by an 800-foot-long bridge over the scenic Saluda River. The Garden includes a large visitor center, a formal walled garden, an antique rose garden, an education center and a half-mile long nature trail along the riverbank. Visitors may access the Garden by walking or taking a motorized tram.

A recent addition is a modest water park adjacent to the Botanical Garden. Together with the zoo, Riverbanks is a great place to spend a day.

Follow along to see what grows behind the garden wall.

Edgeworthia chrysantha (foreground)

Crapemyrtle allee

Mixed bulb, annual, perennial planting

Hyacinthoides hispanica

Riverbanks Botanical Garden View

Riverbanks Botanical Garden View

Stauntonia hexaphylla

Bignonia capreolata

Rose arbor

Have you visited the Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Garden? We'd love to hear what you think about it. Let us know in the Comment section.

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How to Determine If A Plant Is Edible

Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia) fruit.

I don’t claim to be a fanatical foodie, though I love to cook and eat. But I am fairly serious about food, particularly native plants. My impressive credentials include:

• I used to subscribe to Gourmet Magazine;
• I’ve read Why We Eat What We Eat: How Columbus Changed theWay the World Eats by Raymond Sokolov, Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons, Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America by Fernald and Kinsey, Gather Ye Wild Things by Susan Hitchcock, and I’ve actually eaten some of the species;
• My family was overgrown with plantspeople.

One question that often enters my mind when eating any herb, spice, fruit or vegetable is, “How did someone decide THIS would be a good thing to eat?” Was it tested on "Mikey" first?

Kirsten Rechnitz, Head Instructor at Boulder Outdoor Survival School (Utah) suggests the following test for edibility if you’re in a survival situation where you have to subsist on mice and a few greens.

“The first thing you want to do is take a tiny bit of it and rub it on the inside of your wrist. And then you want to wait a number of hours to see if you have a reaction. If you don’t have a reaction…take the tiniest of bites, put it on your tongue, leave it there for a few seconds and then spit it out, and then rinse with some water. See what happens after a few hours, if you have anything going on. If you don’t, then maybe you want to take a tiny piece, chew on it, actually swallow it, take it down with some water. If you don’t have a reaction within a few hours, go for a small but larger gathering of that plant. Have that, then wait a full day and see what your system actually does. Anything like diarrhea, …itchy throat, ...stomach ache. Maybe that food isn’t actually poisonous, but it’s new to your body and if it’s causing you harm, you probably shouldn’t be eating it.”

That's one way it's done; courage born of starvation. Sylvester Stallone once remarked, “When I was a kid, my mother used to feed me mashed-potato sandwiches, Brussels sprout sandwiches; my brain cells were starving from lack of food. I'll eat anything. I'll eat dirt.”

Or, determining whether something is edible or delicious, even, can be born of an adventurous spirit.

There isn't anything I don't eat, although I'm not too keen on creepy crawly things. Other than that, I'm quite adventurous.  - Cherie Lunghi (Actress)

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FAQ: How can I tell if my holly is dead?

Q. I transplanted a large Fleming holly in the spring. Soon afterward the leaves turned brown and fell off. I've been watering and fertilizing it, but I believe it's dead. I hate to dig it up unless I'm positively sure. How can I tell if it's truly dead?

A. With a pocket knife or your fingernail, scratch several places on the stems, starting at the top and working downward. If you see green beneath, it's still alive at that point. If it's brown, cut it off.

Even if the cambium is green, the plant might eventually die. But if you care enough to keep it, continue watering when needed. Don't add fertilizer. Keep an eye out for tiny vegetative buds forming and leaves emerging. It's still possible your holly will survive.

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Foundation Shrubs for Home Security

In my recent article, Ten Simple Landscaping Ideas for Home/Land Security, the first two safety precautions were: 

1. Choose low-growing foundation and border shrubs. (Low-profile shrubs require less pruning to keep them in bounds);
2. Prune foundation shrubs to 3 feet high. (This might be necessary if you are working with an existing planting.)

The reason should be obvious; home intruders prefer to do evil in secret than in plain view.

Here are two examples.

This one shows a clean foundation planting with few places to hide.

This one exhibits a foundation planting that practically hides the house.

Which home would you choose to burgle? (Don’t get any ideas, now. Google is watching you!)

Some examples of low-growing shrubs include:

• Dwarf yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria ‘Nana’),

  

  Dwarf yaupon holly

  
  

• Carissa holly (Ilex cornuta ‘Carissa’),
• Japanese holly (Ilex crenata ‘Helleri’),
• Dwarf nandina (Nandina domestica ‘Alba’, ‘Firepower’ or ‘Filamentosa’),
• Dwarf gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides 'Radicans'),
• Buddleia 'Blue Chip' (PP19991),
• Satsuki azaleas (Rhododendron indicum cvs),
• Miniature crape myrtles (Lagerstroemia hybrids such as ‘World’s Fair’, ‘Chickasaw’, ‘Pokomoke’, etc.),
• Bird’s Nest Spruce (Picea abies ‘Nidiformis’),

  

  Satsuki azaleas

• Ground cover junipers (J. procumbens ‘Nana’, J. horizontalis‘Wiltonii’, J. conferta ‘Blue Pacific’).

This is by no means an exhaustive list.

Don’t think that tall plants are always excluded. If they're narrow, they don't provide such good places to hide. Some fine examples include:

• Sky Pencil holly (Ilex crenata ‘Sky Pencil’),
• Italian cypress (Cupressus sempervirens),
• Columnar yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria ‘Will Fleming’).

  

  Sky Pencil holly

Foundation shrubs such as these will help to make your home a safer place for yourself and your family.

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