Posts tagged with Amy Stewart

0 comments

July 20, 2010

Ask Dr. Bleedingheart

Bleeding Heart BlossomsDear Dr. Bleedingheart,

I’ve leaving in a few weeks for a vacation with extended family at a beach house that we’ve rented for a week. Do you have any tips for surviving the week with family while still having fun?

Thanks,

Beach Mom

Dear Beach Mom,

What you need is a project.  Fathers, fathers-in-law, and grandfathers in particular need some handy little project they can complete together over a case of beer.  They’ll be out there for hours and they won’t speak, except to ask whether there’s an extra charger for the cordless drill, but somehow they’ll have a great time and feel like they’ve bonded like never before.

Pick something non-essential so it doesn’t feel like too much of a chore.  For instance, can you pour concrete paving stones and have the kids embed seashells in them?  That’ll get the guys working on mixing concrete and the kids collecting shells.  (This assumes, of course, that you’re not going home by train and could actually bring some heavy paving stones back with you.)

Or get everyone involved in building a sculpture of found art.  There’s something about driftwood that brings out the sculptor in all of us.  Somebody will have to be handy with a glue gun, a drill, or rolls of wire. A spot of bright sea-green paint might be in order. Be sure to incorporate “found” garbage into it, so that you’re leaving the beach cleaner than you found it.   (Here’s a hint:  Start one of these projects by yourself, and take the Tom Sawyer/Aunt Polly approach of being highly skeptical about whether anyone else is really qualified to help. That’ll get them begging to participate.)

If you can’t bring your sculpture home with you, perhaps the owners of the beach cottage would appreciate a piece of yard art.  Failing that, take inspiration from Andy Goldsworthy and create an art project out of natural materials that will simply wash away with the next high tide.

Amy StewartAmy Stewart is the author of From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms, and the New York Times bestsellers Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers and Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities. Find more from her at Garden Rant.

Submit your own horticultural question to Dr. Bleedingheart by emailing it to: katie [at] algonquin [dot] com

0 comments

June 28, 2010

Ask Dr. Bleedingheart

Bleeding Heart BlossomsDear Dr. Bleedingheart,

I’m attending a housewarming party for a young couple who love good food and outdoor entertaining. I want to get them something useful and enduring–maybe to help with their garden or to use in the kitchen. What’s new in the world of DIY home and garden products? Or would it be best to go with an old standby?

Thank you,

Giftless

Dear Giftless,

Ah, yes, the socially awkward housewarming gift.  You bring a nice bottle of wine to someone who has a giant wine cellar, and it’s like delivering a truckload of manure to a dairy farm.  Bring the same nice bottle to somebody who drinks their wine out of a box, usually over ice and sometimes with a splash of Sprite on top, and—well—it’s like delivering a truckload of manure to a studio apartment.  Either way, it’s unappreciated.

But the phrase “outdoor entertaining” is encouraging.  It’s not quite the same as “gardening,” is it?   “Outdoor entertaining,” like “outdoor living,” is one of those trendy phrases that suggests that a person might have a garden, even if they don’t actually do any gardening.

And for those people for whom “garden” is a noun, not a verb, the solution is easy.  This time of year, one simply cannot have too many herbs in one’s outdoor entertaining space.  Go down to the garden center and pick up as many interesting varieties of basil as you can find.  A good garden center will have Thai basil, purple basil, lemon basil, a small-leafed Greek basil, and the regular broad-leafed basil you see everywhere.  Buy a simple clay pot for five to ten bucks, cram all the varieties of basil into one pot, and you’re done. Don’t worry if they’ve already got a herb garden—no one can have too much basil.

Amy StewartAmy Stewart is the author of From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms, and the New York Times bestsellers Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers and Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities. Find more from her at Garden Rant.

Submit your own horticultural question to Dr. Bleedingheart by emailing it to: katie [at] algonquin [dot] com

0 comments

May 21, 2010

Ask Dr. Bleedingheart

Bleeding Heart BlossomsDear Dr. Bleedingheart,

I have recently adopted some pet snails.  Now they are having snail babies! The soil in the terrarium has little tiny bugs in it; I think they might have come from a medium-sized stick I put in there. I want to replace the soil to get rid of the bugs, but am a little concerned about moving around or touching the snail eggs. Do you think it would be okay if I took them out really quickly to clean out the terrarium?

Signed,

Living with Snails

Dear Living,

Wow.  And I thought it was weird to keep earthworms as pets.  Are you sure that these snails were, in fact, really up for adoption?  I’d hate to think of their snail families searching for them all night long, leaving “Missing Snail” slime trails on the sidewalk in hopes that someone will see their cry for help and bring their loved ones back.

But let’s assume that your snails are happy in their new environment.  After all, they’ve started a family.  Most snails, as you may know, are hermaphrodites, so as the eggs hatch you’ll get to witness a glorious experiment in communal, gender-free child-rearing.  Sounds like a good topic for a book.

As for the tiny bugs and the cleanliness issue:  These are snails!  They don’t want you to clean up after them. They want to live among dirt and muck and rotting leaves.  The presence of bugs, spiders, worms, and other living creatures will only make them feel more at home.  Will the bugs eat their eggs?  Maybe.  But that’s nature, and snails, after all, are part of nature.  For all we know, the snails are going to eat the eggs.  Let it go.

If you want to clean up after a pet, get a puppy.  But if you’re raising snails, make their environment as earthy as possible.  Embrace the mess.  Sure, the French place snails in sterile containers filled with nothing but cornmeal to clean out the snails’ digestive systems.  But then they eat them!  And that’s no way to treat a pet.

Amy StewartAmy Stewart is the author of From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms, and the New York Times bestsellers Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers and Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities. Find more from her at Garden Rant.

Submit your own horticultural question to Dr. Bleedingheart by emailing it to: katie [at] algonquin [dot] com

0 comments

April 8, 2010

Spring Salute to Earthworms

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Earthworms:

1. There are about 2,700 varieties of earthworm

2. Worms are hermaphroditic: they have both sets of sexual organs and line up head-to-tail to mate.

3. The largest earthworm on record was found in South Africa and measure 22 feet in length.

4. Earthworms prefer a healthy, vegan diet.

5. Baby worms hatch from a cocoon that is smaller than a grain of rice.

If you want to make some earthworm friends, get yourself a worm bin and start composting. One pound of worms (about 1,000) can eat up to half a pound of food per day. Just throw your veggie scraps, shredded office paper, coffee grounds, eggshells, dryer lint, and plain grains into your bin and let them turn it into fertilizer. Here’s how.

For more tips and new ideas about using worms to make your garden grown, listen to the Wiggly Wigglers podcast.

And for the ultimate guide to all things earthworm, check out Amy Stewart‘s book The Earth Moved: On The Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms. She covers everything from Darwin’s studies on earthworms to their vital role in maintaining our planet’s health–these little guys do the dirty work, behind the scenes (or under our feet, as the case may be).

-Susannah

2 comments

February 18, 2010

Ask Dr. Bleedingheart

Bleeding Heart BlossomsDear Dr. Bleedingheart,

Help!  It’s February and I’m going crazy!  The days are short, the sky is grey, and the garden is buried under dirty, slushy snow.  I’ve become so irritable and downtrodden myself that even my best friends can’t stand to be around me.  Winter has seriously gotten me down.  Do you have any ideas for helping frustrated gardeners get through the long, dismal winter?

Signed,

Snowbound

Dear Snowbound,

As it happens, I do have a suggestion for gardeners who are feeling weighed down by the short, gloomy days of February.  It’s called Puerto Vallarta.  Seriously, honey, pack your bags and get out of town.  It’s warm down there, the bougainvillea is blooming, and the papaya trees are fruiting. What you need is a margarita and a beach chair.

You thought I was going to suggest that you read a seed catalog or force some paperwhite bulbs indoors, didn’t you?  No! Screw the seed catalogs. If this were 1910 I’d be telling you to read a seed catalog and sprout a bulb on a windowsill.  But this isn’t 1910, is it?  We live in a modern era of cheap jet travel, and for this we should be grateful.  Find yourself a recession-friendly travel package to Mexico, Hawaii, or even Miami.  Throw a mystery novel and a sarong in a bag, and go to a place where they’ve got real plants in bloom.  Life is short; avail yourself of the pleasures of the tropics. Trust me, you won’t regret it.  Gather ye coconuts while ye may.

Amy StewartAmy Stewart is the author of From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms, and the New York Times bestsellers Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers and Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities. Find more from her at Garden Rant.

Submit your own horticultural question to Dr. Bleedingheart by emailing it to: katie [at] algonquin [dot] com

2 comments

February 11, 2010

V-Day Revisited: Flower Confidential

Sunday is Valentine’s Day. When you were small, this meant bringing your mother Cheerios in bed and leaving an intricate paper heart on the desk of the 1st grade heartthrob. There was something thrilling about emptying your decorated shoebox at the end of the day, poring over the little cards, trying to discern who was probably super in love with you. It was nice. And I feel like we all grew up and something changed and Valentine’s Day has been zapped of a lot of it’s sweetness.

We all get so crazy this time every year, following the same, absurd formula for romance: Candy + Flowers + Candlelight = Love. But this formula isn’t so foolproof, because even a bouquet of flowers can come with unpleasant connotations. Have you ever thought about by what process flowers end up on your table? Today we’re featuring Amy Stewart‘s Flower Confidential. Stewart dives into the multi-billion dollar flower industry, investigating the life of the average flower: genetic manipulation, factory farming, and its international journey from the grower to the vase on your counter top. It’s a revealing look at what’s not-so-romantic about the average flowers most people purchase (not to put a damper on the festivities, or anything)–but it also offers wonderful and decidedly romantic options for flowers that haven’t been genetically manipulated, factory farmed, or sprayed with pesticides.

It makes me yearn for the days when a jagged, glittery, hand-made Valentine really made my heart skip a beat. Because whether you’re single, attached, or somewhere in between, the beauty of V-Day is that it’s about love not romance. Everyone loves someone and Sunday is the day to remind them of that. So, I’m proposing a return to the Elementary School version of Valentine’s Day, where you tell the people you love that you love them in an original, creative way.

If flowers are a Valentine’s-must for you, a good alternative to the mass-produced flowers in your grocery store would be to buy from vendors that stock from local farms. Buying local is better for the flowers, for the community, and for the earth (no emissions from international shipping!). Try something like Local Harvest to locate an organic flower vendor in your area. Also, VeraFlora is the eco-label for cut flowers. At their website you can find farms that have agricultural sustainability certification. And there’s always Organic Bouquet, a flower delivery company that Stewart touts in her book–their arrangements are spectacular. Some of us at Algonquin have ordered flowers from there and the recipients were amazed by how fresh and long-lasting the flowers were.

So go tell all those neat people that you love them! Of course, if you have no Valentine this year, you can always be mine.

-Susannah

P.S. Leave us a comment: Tell us your original Valentine’s Day plans!

0 comments

January 15, 2010

Ask Dr. Bleedingheart

Bleeding Heart BlossomsDear Dr. Bleedingheart,

Should I worry that crickets have decided to move into my basement this winter? Thankfully, they are rather polite tenants and respectful of quiet hours. Although generally nondestructive, they are eating the cat food, which shows some poor judgment on their part – without an ample supply of Friskies, the cats very well might turn to crickets for their morning snack. Is the cat food just the start? Will they soon terrorize my basement like a 7-year locust, or are they simply harmless crickets looking for a place to stay when it gets chilly?

Dr. Bleedinghart, should I let them stay through the winter months, or would I be better off kicking them out on the cold, hard curb?

Signed,
Chirping Worried

Dear Chirping,

Never fear.  Some people love the sound of crickets chirping.  Some people believe crickets bring good luck.  Some people feel that the natural sounds of the world—the crickets, the foxes, the wind and the rain—are the most peaceful and soothing sounds one could hear while falling asleep.  I don’t suppose you’d be one of those people, would you?

If you’re not, that’s okay.  It’s your house; you should get to decide who lives there.  Just be glad we’re dealing with crickets, not unemployed in-laws looking for a place to stay until they get back on their feet.  As uninvited guests go, crickets are both harmless and easy to get rid of.

Start by sealing up any cracks or gaps in windows, walls, doorways, and so forth.  Then walk around the house and see if you have any cricket condos right up against the walls.  Stacks of firewood, piles of bricks or stones, and weeds and grass around the foundation might be inviting crickets inside.

And if you still hear chirping after you’ve tried those changes?  Get simple, non-toxic glue traps at the hardware store or garden center.  Put them down near the source of the chirping, and pile a little cornmeal in the center of each trap. Within a couple days, the crickets should be glued helplessly down.  What happens next is up to you.

And seriously, about the in-laws:  unemployment’s on the rise, and everybody’s broke after the holidays.  This is a good time to make it known that your guest room is infested with black mold and both your bathrooms are under renovation.  As with pest control, prevention is the best cure.  Good luck.

Amy StewartAmy Stewart is the author of From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms, and the New York Times bestsellers Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers and Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities. Find more from her at Garden Rant.

Submit your own horticultural question to Dr. Bleedingheart by emailing it to: katie [at] algonquin [dot] com

0 comments

December 16, 2009

Ask Dr. Bleedingheart

Bleeding Heart BlossomsDear Dr. Bleedingheart,

My girlfriend and I are about to spend our first Christmas together, and already we’re having problems.  She insists on getting a real tree, not to mention garlands, wreaths, mistletoe, and just about any other living thing she can get her hands on.  I say we should get an artificial tree, or just not have one at all, before we allow a tree to be cut down in the forest. I thought she was a pretty eco-friendly gal, but now I’m beginning to wonder.  What’s next, an SUV and a plastic water bottle?

Signed,
I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas

Dear Dreaming,

Ah, the clash of holiday traditions.  And to think you haven’t even made it to food, in-laws, or the age-old Johnny Mathis vs. Perry Como debate. (Personally, I’m a Dean Martin girl no matter the season.)

The good news is that your girlfriend isn’t quite as anti-environment as you might think.  Christmas trees don’t come out of forests; they come from tree farms, where they are grown in rows the same way you’d grow corn or tomatoes. And a tree farm can be a surprisingly Earth-friendly operation: remember that young, growing trees sequester quite a bit of carbon from the atmosphere. Supporting your local tree farmer can be every bit as worthwhile as supporting your local beet farmer.

And believe it or not, organic Christmas trees are available.  Go to GreenPromise.com (http://www.greenpromise.com/resources/organic-christmas-trees.php) for a list of organic tree farms in 22 states.

But if the idea of a dead tree in the living room is too much to take, consider a live tree in a pot.  Ask the friendly people at your local garden center to help you choose a variety that will do well year-round in your climate, and remember that potted trees get heavy.  Don’t try it unless you have an easy way to wheel it in and out of the house as the seasons change.

And remember that a little flexibility around the holidays can be a go a long way. If she’s a Southerner, you’re going to eat a bite of black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day whether you like it or not.  Look at it this way:  if the black-eyed peas themselves don’t bring you luck, making your girlfriend happy surely will.

Amy StewartAmy Stewart is the author of From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms, and the New York Times bestsellers Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers and Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities. Find more from her at Garden Rant.

Submit your own horticultural question to Dr. Bleedingheart by emailing it to: christinag [at] algonquin [dot] com

0 comments

December 8, 2009

Our Fruitcake-Free Holiday Gift Guide

Don’t want to give Dad a pair of GoldToe socks again this year? We don’t blame you. That’s why no matter who’s on your list, Algonquin has the perfect gift…

For Her

Going Away Shoes

Dinner DiariesLast BiteGoing Away Shoes
By Jill McCorkle

Eleven short stories, full of longing and laughter, from the “guardian angel of short fiction.”

The Dinner Diaries: Raising Whole Wheat Kids in a White Bread World
By Betsy Block

A humorous, life-changing book on mom’s mission to achieve the ultimate of all makeovers: improving the family meal. Complete with helpful charts, food lists, recipes, tips, and suggested culinary and farm programs for kids.

Last Bite: A Novel of Culinary Romance
By Nancy Verde Barr

Casey Costello, an executive chef at morning television show, is too busy for men…that is until she’s unexpectedly whisked off her feet by the adorable Danny O’Shea, a rising chef from Ireland who seems like he may be more trouble than he’s worth.

For Him

Hard Work Boone

Far Bright StarHard Work: A Life On and Off the Court
By Roy Williams with Tim Crothers

An inspiring memoir from the head coach of the UNC Tar Heels Men’s Basketball team.

Boone: A Biography
By Robert Morgan

This rich, authoritative biography offers a wholly new perspective on a man who has been an American icon for more than two hundred years.

Far Bright Star: A Novel
By Robert Olmstead

Napoleon Childs, an aging cavalryman,  leads an expedition of inexperienced soldiers into the mountains of Mexico to hunt down Pancho Villa and bring him to justice.

For the Gardener

Wicked PlantsA Rose by Any NameThe $64 TomatoWicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
By Amy Stewart

An A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend.

A Rose by Any Name: The Little-Known Lore and Deep-Rooted History of Rose Names
By Douglas Brenner and Stephen Scanniello

With full-color art throughout, this eclectic little volume is a marvelous miscellany starring what is arguably the world’s most popular flower.

The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden
By William Alexander

Part humor tale and part garden memoir, The $64 Tomato follows Bill Alexander on his journey from organic idealist to pragmatic food producer, and from eager backyard gardener to tired gentleman farmer–taking time along the way to reflect on ecology, nature, and the meaning of it all.

For the Foodie

The Feasting SeasonSouthern BellySeasoned in the SouthThe Feasting Season
By Nancy Coons

Meg Parker is a harried mom in a lackluster marriage until she lands a dream assignment: to write a guidebook about French history. Follow her adventures as lamb daube, paella and rosé, bull steak and anchioade, Brebis and strawberries awaken her senses.

Southern Belly: The Ultimate Food Lover’s Companion to the South
By John T. Edge

Spark a delicious road-trip with this guide to savory, Southern restaurants!

Seasoned in the South: Recipes from Crook’s Corner and from Home
By Bill Smith

Structured around the seasons and the freshest seasonal foods, this cookbook offers up marvelously uncomplicated recipes— Tomato and Watermelon Salad, Fried Green Tomatoes with Sweet Corn and Lemon Beurre Blanc, Pork Roast with Artichoke Stuffing, and his signature dish, Honeysuckle Sorbet—the new bistro food of the South.

For the 20-Something

Our NoiseHemingway & Bailey's Bartending GuideRock OnOur Noise: The Story of Merge Records, the Indie Label That Got Big and Stayed Small
By John Cook with Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance

The exuberant story–in words and pictures–of a much-loved indie record label that, despite the odds, has become a major success story.

Hemingway & Bailey’s Bartending Guide to Great American Writers
Illustrated by Edward Hemingway; Text by Mark Bailey

The perfect blend of classic cocktail recipes, literary history, and tales of the good old days of extravagant Martini lunches and delicious excess.

Rock On: An Office Power Ballad
By Dan Kennedy

Kennedy chronicles his misadventures at a major record label. Whether he’s directing a gangsta rapper’s commercial or battling his punk roots to create an ad campaign celebrating the love songs of Phil Collins, Kennedy’s in way over his head in this power-ballad to office life and rock and roll.

For the Travel Enthusiast

A Thousand Days in TuscanyVery Washington DCNew Orleans, Mon AmourA  Thousand Days in Tuscany: A Bittersweet Adventure
By Marlena de Blasi

In search of the rhythms of country living, Marlena and her husband move to a barely renovated former stable in Tuscany with no phone, no central heating, and something resembling a playhouse kitchen. They dwell among two hundred villagers, ancient olive groves, and hot Etruscan springs. Together, they discover the soul of Tuscany and explore all the land has to offer.

Very Washington DC: A Celebration of the History and Culture of  America’s Capital City
By Diana Hollingsworth Gessler

A travel guide with character, this fact-filled keepsake offers all the history, beauty, charm, and culture of our nation’s capital city. Also included are an index of sites and a useful appendix of addresses, Web sites, Metro stops, and phone numbers.

New Orleans, Mon Amour: Twenty Years of Writings from the City
By Andrei Codrescu

New Orleans has been author Andrei Codrescu’s hometown for over twenty years. This collection of essays is an epic love song , a clear-eyed elegy, a cultural celebration, and a thank-you note to New Orleans in its Golden Age.

For the Pet Lover

My Therapist's DogFirst DogsEnslaved by DucksMy Therapist’s Dog: Lessons in Unconditional Love
By Diana Wells

An intriguing exploration into the rewards of relationships–both the canine and human varieties–begins when the author agrees to dog-sit for her therapist. What follows is an exploration of our canine connection: what we name our dogs, how we breed them, how we’ve explored the wilderness with them, the kinds of literature we write about them, why we love them, and, most important, what we can learn from them.

First Dogs: American Presidents and Their Best Friends
By Roy Rowan and Brooke Janis

A lighthearted romp through American history, packed with drawings and paintings from early America, plus photographs, starting with Abraham Lincoln’s Fido all the way to Obama’s Bo.

Enslaved by Ducks
By Bob Tarte

Bob gets more than he bargains for when he marries Linda and moves to rural Michigan: there’s Binky, a belligerent rabbit who craves high voltage wires; Ollie, a tyrannical parakeet who brutally attacks the Tartes; and Stanely Sue, the gender-bending parrot; and more. This hilarious account gives us the other side of animal ownership: the complicated logistics of blending species under one roof, the intricate routines that evolve before you realize it, and ultimately, the distinct and insistent personalities of every animal inside—and outside—the house.

-christina

0 comments

December 3, 2009

Algonquin Loving from the AHS Book Awards Committee

Scott Calhoun, who sits on the American Horticultural Society’s Book Award Committee, recently announced his top three picks for the 2010 prize — and two of them are published by yours truly! Says Calhoun, “This year, the quality of the writing and depth of the research is shining through.”

Read below for his Algonquin picks and praise, and check out the full article on his site here. -christina

Calhoun's PicksLucinda Fleeson’s Waking Up in Eden: In Pursuit of an Impassioned Life on an Imperiled Island is vastly different from The Brother Gardeners, but no less compelling. As the print newspaper business enters an uncertain and depressing twilight, Fleeson leaves her successful career as a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter for a job at the National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kauai. Her firsthand personal accounts of garden politics, seemingly doomed native plant conservation efforts,  horseback riding, and outrigger canoeing are all top-notch, but perhaps what Fleeson does best is articulate her own emotional terrain.  The way she chronicles her transformation from cultured urbanite to a woman who realizes that there is “no enjoyment difference between attending the opera in London or a potluck with friends on Kauai” is fun to witness. For anyone hoping to go fearlessly into  middle-age, or boldly navigate a path out it, Fleeson’s memoir could easily serve as a template.

And lastly, we come to the prolific Amy Stewart’s latest work, her smarting little tome of pain and suffering by horticulture: Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities. The book is organized reference style, and each plant’s deadly, toxic, or inflammatory qualities are relayed like a well-told campfire ghost story. Consider the way Stewart begins her description of Mala Mujer (bad woman): “A group of teenagers went hiking in the Mexican desert and came back with a mysterious rash. The next day, one girl went to the doctor complaining of red itchy spots on her hand…” Each time I looked up a plant that I knew well in Wicked Plants, Stewart’s research was spot-on and presented in a lively (or should I say deadly?) manner. Such was the case with sacred datura, or jimson weed, a plant whose white flowers Georgia O’Keefe choose as the subject for some of her most sensuous paintings. Because it is so pretty, I sometimes specify this plant for use in clients’ gardens, but every once in a while a story appears in the local paper about some teenagers who were hospitalized after eating its seeds. In the garden outside my office, I have bushel loads of sacred datura growing, but after reading Stewart’s description of the effects of ingesting tropane alkaloids, I lost my desire to experiment. The American colonists fed jimson weed to the British soldiers who were there to put down colonial unrest; Stewart coyly remarks, “The British soldiers did not die, but they did go crazy for eleven days, temporarily giving the Americans the upper hand.” Although the fact-filled writing is the main focus of Wicked Plants, the wonderful etchings and morbid drawings make the package complete.

From Scott Calhoun’s Desert

« Older Entries