The Christmas Rose and Lots of New Plants!

Season 5, Episode 7, December 21, 2022

On this week’s episode, Dee and Carol talk about new All-America Selections for 2023, a book on birding, and the Legend of the Christmas Rose.

If you ask us, the Christmas Rose, Helleborus niger, is gaining in popularity as more gardeners discover that it really, truly, actually does bloom in the wintertime when there is little else in flower.

If you have any vintage Christmas dishes or postcards, look closely at that flower you thought was a rose, and you’ll see it is probably a hellebore. Then use your new-found knowledge to impress your family and friends!

But before you go off and do that, step away from the hustle and bustle before Christmas, settle in with your favorite hot beverage, and listen to this week’s episode, full of information about new plants for 2023!

Here are some links with more info:

Flowers:

Coleus ‘Premium Sun Coral Candy’, perfect for containers!

Salvia ‘Blue by You’, a lovely perennial salvia hardy to zone 4B

Snapdragon ‘DoubleShot™ Orange Bicolor F1’, so pretty!

Leucanthemum ‘Carpet Angel®’, a groundcover Shasta Daisy

Colocasia ‘ROYAL HAWAIIAN® Waikiki’, the first All-America Colocasia winner

Vegetables:

Jalapeno Pepper ‘San Joaquin’ (National Winner)

Kabocha Squash ‘Sweet Jade’ (National Winner)

Tomato ‘Zenzei’ (Regional Winner)

On the bookshelf:

Slow Birding: The Art and Science of Enjoying Birds in Your Own Backyard by Joan E. Strassmann  (Amazon Link).

We also mentioned another book, The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds by Julie Zickefoose (Amazon Link)

The birding movie we mentioned: The Big Year

Dirt:

The Legend of the Christmas Rose: Five Christmas Paintings and Their Interpretations by Henry E. Jackson, M.A. (1914). (Good used copies if you search enough. Reprints if you must.)

The children’s book Dee mentioned: The Miracle of the First Poinsettia: A Mexican Christmas Story by Joanne Oppenheim. We’d love to say good used copies are available but the prices! You might want to check it out from your library.

Rabbit Holes:

Carol’s blog post about her grandmother’s school assignment.

Merry Christmas!

The usual stuff:

Affiliate link to Botanical Interest Seeds.  Book links are also affiliate links.

Email us anytime at TheGardenangelists@gmail.com  

For more info on Carol and her books, visit her website.  Visit her blog May Dreams Gardens.
For more info on Dee and her book, visit her website.  Visit her blog Red Dirt Ramblings.

Merry Christmas!

On Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.
On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.
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