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Show from November 20, 2005

This is Mr Tomato sitting in for Dorothy, who's visiting her daughter at Ontario Gardener, a sister publication in Toronto. I'm loving things and hating things this morning. I love to ask True or False gardening questions and I love to give stuff away. We'll do that during the second half of the show. I love to escape to garden club meetings in the dead of winter and I'll tell you later how to find one and join one.

But, as a gardener, I'm also hating something. And that something is HGTV, the alleged home and garden TV network. What happened to the G in HGTV? Don't get me started. We'll talk about that later, too, with an equally-passionate studio guest and with you, too, if you'd like to get in your two cents.

But first, a tribute to some dedicated people who have done so much to surround our lives with beautiful living things and have made our meals tastier and more visually pleasing. What I'm talking about, of course, are plant breeders. Without them, our gardens would be boring and our meals wouldn't have the taste or the pizzazz. This particularly struck me this week as I glanced through two newly-released 2006 gardening catalogues--from the local T & T Seeds people and from Stokes Seeds in St. Catherines, which is primarily aimed at the big grower.

Do you know what it takes to put a tasty cob of corn on your plate after being transported from half a continent away? Right after corn is picked, it wants to change its sugars to starch and lose the plumpness of its kernels. So what is a breeder to do? Stokes Seeds puts it into perspective. A breeder has to decrease the light sugars which have a shorter shelf life and needs lots of sunshine, and increase heavier sugars which have a longer shelf life and tolerate cloudy weather more readily. And how long does that take? Twenty years: seven years of back-cross pollinating to stabilize an open-pollinated inbred, 8 to 10 years to stabilize a new inbred or add disease resistance, then three more years to increase the inbreds and do grower trials. Now will you appreciate your next cob of corn a little more?

And that's happening with everything: We now have an orange cauliflower, called Cheddar Cauliflower, with a higher nutritious beta-carotene content, purple carrots with an orange core that should really appeal to kids, tomatoes with more cancer-fighting lycopene, and--you must check out the lilies in the new T & T Seeds catalogue. They will make you weep, they're so beautiful, thanks to breeders such as Barry Strohman in Neepawa and Dr Wilbert Ronald in Portage la Prairie.

But on now, to my studio guest, whose middle name should be "passionate" because she's one of the most passionate--and articulate--gardeners I know: Arlene Wheeler, president of the East Kildonan Gardening Club. Good morning, Arlene!

TRUE OR FALSE?

  1. Tulip bulbs have a flat side and a rounded side. True or false? When planting tulip bulbs in a pot, it is important that the round side be facing the sides of the pot. (True)

  2. True or false? Adding thyme, the herb thyme, to your cooking will slow down the aging process. (True)

  3. True or false? The usual cause of leaves turning yellow on houseplants is too much watering. (True)

  4. True or false? You can produce maple syrup from Manitoba maple trees. (True)

Announcements:

  1. Watch for the new Manitoba Gardener, just off the presses--great review of seed catalogues for 2006 --- an article on rare hardy clematis and where to find them -- and you'll find out what happens when I -- a true techno-dummy with no patience for electronics -- get my first-ever digital camera to use-- a Kodak Easy Share. You'll find out how I fared.

    2. How to choose a landscape designer.

  2. Of course, great time to order gift subscriptions to Manitoba Gardener and to Trees magazine and a copy of the Manitoba Gardener's Shelmerdine Guide to 2500 Hardy Plants--a wonderfully illustrated book that will keep you dreaming of next year's garden -- Order everything through the Manitoba Gardener website -- www. localgardener.net Every new subscription gets a chance at a Kodak Easy Share 5 megapixel camera from Don's Photo!

  3. Also on the website--a roundup of gardening events and garden club meetings, etc.

  4. And pencil in next Sunday--McNally Robinson bookstore at Grant Park--I'll be there with Dorothy and Jan Pederson from Shelmerdine giving away seeds of hard-to-find Himalayan impatiens to everyone buying the Guide to Hardy Plants or ordering a gift subscription to the Manitoba Gardener. Dorothy and Jan will autograph the Guide to Hardy Plants for you --- so what a great personal gift for a gardening friend! That's next Sunday at McNally Robinson from 1:30 in the afternoon to 3 p.m. An autographed Guide to Hardy Plants plus free Himalayan Impatiens seeds. We'll answer a few gardening questions, too.