#Ruellia humilis (Wild Petunia)

[wsjyuyuyuau]

What would Colt be like in your AU?

https://brawlstars.fandom.com/wiki/Colt

Name: Colt

Series: Brawl Stars

Gender: Male

Status: Alive

Family: None as of Now

Flower Motif: Wild Petunia (Ruellia humilis)

Flower Meaning: Untamed Passion

Weapon of Choice: Dual Pistols

Associated With: Interdimensional Hero Club (Ally)

Hero Form Appearance: A combination of a gunslinger’s getup and YuYuYu’s Hero Form outfits. The undersuit of the outfit is a jet black so the periwinkle and light purple of the main outfit can stand out. The main outfit starts out periwinkle, but as you near the lower half of the sleeves, pants, and the tailcoat, it shifts gears to a light purple. The accent colors of the outfit are white, black, red, and dark blue. The boots, belt, fingerless gloves, and bandana all have subtle patterns inspired by the wild petunia, and the only other accessory Colt wears is a wild petunia shaped brooch. The flower’s petal shape can be seen in the tailcoat and short sleeves.

Full Bloom Gauge Location: Right Fist

Guardian: Jersie (Based on The Jersey Devil)

Favorite Food: Cornbread and Chili

Parallel To: None

Bio: Colt is the star attraction at Starr Park! His good looks, charisma and gun twirling tricks win over any audience, except maybe Shelly.

[faguscarolinensis]

Ruellia humilis / Wild Petunia at the Denver Botanic Gardens in Denver, CO

[teapot-tulip-mouse]

Are you looking to add some fun chaos to your eastern US native garden? Of course you are! Wild petunia, Ruellia humilis, is a great plant to build your seed bank. It likes sunny and sandy spots, and after a year or two will reseed prolifically. I’ve tried transplanting some of the volunteers and they did well. Plus it’s a host plant for the common buckeye and a source of nectar! And I love the fuzzy leaves and nicely mounded growth habit.

[thebashfulbotanist]

Ruellia humilis, wild petunia, is a cute native flower found throughout the eastern part of the United States, often in meadows or prairies. They’re not true petunias at all, being in the family Acanthaceae, rather than Solanaceae. While common in some areas, they seem to have a patchy distribution. Wild petunias are occasionally used as ornamental plants, especially in native plant gardens. These were found growing wild in a remnant prairie associated with an early white settler cemetery in Iowa. 

[thebelmontrooster]

The Quest For Truth: Wildflower ID Part 1

The Quest For Truth: Wildflower ID Part 1

Convolvulus arvensis (Field Bindweed) on 6-24-19.

Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you all well. I guess the title of this post could get some attention for many reasons. Many of us are on a quest for the truth about something because, after all, the truth will set you free. We wonder about the truth of who we are when traditional religious teaching leaves us asking questions we are told…

[debunkshy]

Wild Hairy Petunia Ruellia humilis West Dane Conservancy, WI 9 July 2020

[lunabegonia]

(Ruellia humilis, wild petunia by Robert Pavlis)

 Ruellia humilis has a number of common names including prairie petunia, fringe-leaf wild petunia, hairy ruellia, hairy wild petunia and the fringe-leaf ruellia. With so many names you would expect this to be a popular garden plant but it’s not. It is quite rare in cultivation. That’s hard to believe since it is easy to grow and flowers for a long time – late spring to fall

[wendyimmiller]

A Gentle Plea for Chaos

Is there any reason to welcome chaos? It is the inevitable balance to stagnant order. In the Grand Garden, chaos is vitally necessary for life to thrive. Mary Vaananen joins us for her 4th Guest Rant.

Moody chaos in the author’s garden

THE BRITISH AUTHOR Mirabel Osler’s wonderful book was published in the 1980s, a time when British gardening was of a certain tidy proper look. Mirabel’s gentle plea was for gardeners to allow the magic back into their gardens by handing back the reins (just a little or a lot) to Mother Nature.  Self-sown plants weaving a tapestry within garden beds was, to Mirabel, idyllic, unplanned and imperfectly perfect.

Since her book was published in 1989, others have come along speaking the same language. Cultivating Chaos, Sowing Beauty, and Planting in a Post Wild World all look towards making sustainable plantings that are beautiful, with natural spaces as role models. Planting the way nature plants.

Chaos in horticulture is de rigueur these days…on trend as the influencers would point out. Think Oudolf and Lurie. Catch the Dutch Wave! Or prowl the wild artfulness of the German steampunk Landschaftspark. Chaos is cool.

Ms. Osler was a fan of Christopher Lloyd (an original influencer) and perhaps her visits to Great Dixter ignited a love of, or fueled her fires for, the exuberant and (seemingly) only slightly tamed landscape.

I would love to accompany Mirabel on a stroll through the Lurie garden in downtown Chicago. Though not the swooning type, she might have to pause and take a seat to regain her composure. I know I did.

Lurie Garden downtown Chicago summer 2019

Chaos is not a warm fuzzy British grand-mum kind of word. We evolved to remove chaos in our surroundings if at all possible, increasing chances of survival. Like a black walnut tree with its juglone defenses, we tend to keep competition at bay and sight-lines open. As we have evolved, so too have plants developed clever systems of ensuring their survival. They outwit us most times.

Meet Ruellia humilis…WILD PETUNIA…a member of the Acanthaceae family. The Genus was named for Jean Ruel (1479-1537) French physician and botanist. All about Ruel, and Charles Plumier (the monk who became botanist to king Louis XIV of France), who named the plant for Ruel, at another time.

Ruellia humilis

I don’t think anyone suspects chaos in humility. Ruellia humilis…humilis meaning humble or low… has a widespread native range throughout Eastern North America from Pennsylvania to Florida and west from Minnesota to Texas. Its low-ness, about a foot high, makes it perfect as a path edger, in a rockery or front of a sunny border. Bloom times vary with the region, but here in my garden it gives forth its dusky lavender flowers beginning the end of June through September…during the hot dry months when many other plants are finished with their business. Flowers are one and done…open in the morning and are closed and hanging limp by evening. Good thing there are so many.

This humble hardy petunia depends on chaos for its perpetuation. In October, seeds “explosively dehisce” from the seed pods. That’s a new phrase for most of us. Explosive dehiscence characterizes the entire Acanthaceae family (around 4100 species) and is probably the most interesting method of seed dispersal nature has invented yet. Click for a video on seed dispersal

Seedpod of Ruellia ciliatiflora image by Erin Tripp University of Colorado

Triggering the explosions are small, hooked stalks…a modified funiculus (remember Funiculi, Funicula? Click the link for a lively listen) cradling each seed that eject them from the capsule as the seed pods dry. Think Jai alai.

Research done by a trio of undergraduate physics majors on Ruellia ciliatiflora at Pomona College in Claremont, CA worked out what happens in that moment of explosion that launches the seeds so far.  The seeds launch with extreme backspin contributing to the aerodynamics. “It just looks like this gentle, beautiful motion” Dr. Dwight Whitaker Professor of Physics at Pomona, said.

Beautiful, gentle chaos?

After typing the word chaos into Dictionary.com, and yielding

Noun

a state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organization or order.

I realize the precision of the Ruellia seed capsule and the synchronization of the seed launch is anything but chaotic. It is elegant indeed. A sowing all-star, this WILD PETUNIA has proven very hardy, vigorous and adaptable. Yes, it will seed around the area…figure a 10 ft radius. I have not experienced it being overzealous. If it appeals to you, site it well and enjoy it here and there.

Ruellia humilis in July

Mirabel wrote:

The very soul of a garden is shrivelled by zealous regimentation. Off with their heads go the ferns, lady’s mantles or cranesbill. A mania for neatness, a lust for conformity—and away go atmosphere and sensuality. What is left? Earth between plants: the dreaded tedium of clumps of color with earth in between. So the garden is reduced to merely a place of plants. Step – one, two. Stop – one, two. Look down (no need ever to look up, for there is no mystery ahead to draw you on), look down at each plant. Individually each is sublime, undoubtedly. For a plantsman this is heaven. But where is lure? And where, alas, is seduction and gooseflesh on the arms?

The bare earth in between plants begs for growth. No matter if you are a proud plant specimen spacer, or rely on mulch (the tinted concealer of the garden world) to fill the void, nature abhors a vacuum.

Happy re-seeding chaos in the author’s garden

You can plant re-seeders or you can let nature take its course (chaos grab bag). Either way, what appears without any creative blurp from me often looks looser and more natural—imperfectly perfect as Mirabel might say. The opportunist has grown into its place.

We know that less tidy gardens are better as habitat for insects and wildlife. When insects thrive, the whole system does. And allowing natural re-seeding keeps the dreaded tedium of bare patches of earth from exposure, drying, and weed takeover. Again, plant the re-seeders (weeds) you want to see.

A little chaos brings something intangible…call it vibe or atmosphere. Maybe don’t call it anything. The buzzing and humming of indigenous garden inhabitants stream an awesome soundtrack, don’t they?

The earth has her chaos, and the natural chaos of tornado, tsunami, earthquake…any of her big acts… inevitably brings change, sometimes big change. I can’t help feeling these current times and events are an act of nature…a seed launch into new territory. Perhaps we need to learn a gentle tolerance for the chaos within ourselves and the world.

Natural chaos.

Designed for change.

[Mirabel Osler was the author of 8 books on gardening and travel. She died in 2016.]

Mary Vaananen shelters in place in Louisville, KY. She is the North American manager for Jelitto Perennial Seeds, headquartered in Germany.

A Gentle Plea for Chaos originally appeared on GardenRant on July 1, 2020.

The post A Gentle Plea for Chaos appeared first on GardenRant.

from Gardening https://www.gardenrant.com/2020/07/a-gentle-plea-for-chaos.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

[turfandlawncare]

The Winners Are Only on the Garden Rant

Rose Cooper a.k.a. Rose Bush judges the contest.

The I-Must-Have-This-Plant contest, that was begun a week ago, has been a huge success. There was not one clinker among 11 entries.

i asked my one and only Rose Bush to be the unbiased judge. I wanted to plant all of these wonderful real and make-believe plants in my Salvisa garden this year after reading the descriptions.

Linus had me early on. We are Comrades in Spurge, it turns out.  Be proud and say it loud: “Submit to this spurge; purge the urge to exclude this spurge.” Here’s to more Allegheny spurges.

I will not be able to resist Teresa’s Ardisia japonica ‘Chrimen’ that grows into “a delightful ankle-high forest…”  I’m going to find one…

I have no idea how Ann Rausch’s Hydrangea ‘Ruby Red Slippers’ escaped notice until now. Where have I been?  I will be keeping my eyes peeled for the “large, cone-shaped blossoms that arrive white and advance to a dazzling ruby red.”

I had to stop for a minute when Beth wrote about “a charming Hazel.” I went out with Hazel one time, but she wasn’t a nut with “twisty-turn stems.” It has been a few years. Bravo for Corylus ‘Contorta’.

I’m in total agreement with Anne Young on the red buckeye. It is a perfectly wonderful small tree that “checks all the boxes.”

Jenny, of course, I want a “darling deciduous coral berry with a dash of pizzazz.”

Diane, you read my mind. I love the tall and elegant daylily ‘Autumn Minaret.’ The more the merrier.

Jennifer, how dare you write about promiscuous plant sluts on the wholesome family-oriented Garden Rant? (I’m glad you did!) Perilla…Oh, my god.  “Thought it’d be a great filler. Now she’s struggling to find her hand tiller.”

My good friend, Guest Ranter and former Jelitto Perennial Seeds colleague had a good one, too.  I feared a revolt if I showed any favoritism. “Growing in cracks… (a damn petunia) gone wild. A dry rocky slope… (or open meadow) can be trialed. Humilis humble…(submissive?) not a chance. Born in North America….. (not England) not France.” I immediately made a note to order seeds of Ruellia humilis from Jelitto.

The Japanese roof iris is one of my all-time favorite go-to perennials. Eric S. rode a sweet wave with the white blooming Iris tectorum ‘Alba’. “Its wide strappy leaf blades continue to grow with clumps forming arching fountains of celery green in places where deeper green foliage add contrast to make them pop.”

Dee Cee’s entry for hoary puccoon (Lithospermum canescens) was an impassioned plea for a lovely native that is seldom planted—and should be planted more. “Get ready to brighten up the border or that difficult spot with this cheerful yellow fellow!

Rose said it was a tough call to choose between the top two winners, but the contestants above shouldn’t be disappointed. All of the contestants have earned a catfish dinner with cole slaw and spicy fries at the Family Affair, in Salvisa, KY, whenever you’re passing this way. Let me know. Lunch is on my dime.”

Joe Schmitt is our esteemed runner-up. I don’t know anyone else who could have concocted a hybrid between a Penstemon and a Eucalyptus, but we never had a glimpse inside Joe’s tool shed until he cracked the door open this week. Heaven’s knows what else lurks inside there.

The grand winner was Anne’s “purple prose.” (Her grand prize is a copy of Planting in a Post-Wild World.)  Rose and I blushed at Anne’s audacity to unleash the galloping spearmint, but then we like a good mint julep during the Kentucky Derby weekend, so there are exceptions.  “I can’t walk past my spearmint without stroking his copious emerald, spear-headed leaves to inhale his refreshing, rejuvenating fragrance… He propagates wantonly, spreading his roots wherever he goes…I share a piece of him wherever friends are willing to take him into their beds. It’s hard to imagine a garden without him.”

Only on the Garden Rant.

Congratulations everyone.

The Winners Are Only on the Garden Rant originally appeared on GardenRant on February 12, 2020.

The post The Winners Are Only on the Garden Rant appeared first on GardenRant.

from GardenRant https://ift.tt/3bzdhtu

[wendyimmiller]

The Winners Are Only on the Garden Rant

Rose Cooper a.k.a. Rose Bush judges the contest.

The I-Must-Have-This-Plant contest, that was begun a week ago, has been a huge success. There was not one clinker among 11 entries.

i asked my one and only Rose Bush to be the unbiased judge. I wanted to plant all of these wonderful real and make-believe plants in my Salvisa garden this year after reading the descriptions.

Linus had me early on. We are Comrades in Spurge, it turns out.  Be proud and say it loud: “Submit to this spurge; purge the urge to exclude this spurge.” Here’s to more Allegheny spurges.

I will not be able to resist Teresa’s Ardisia japonica ‘Chrimen’ that grows into “a delightful ankle-high forest…”  I’m going to find one…

I have no idea how Ann Rausch’s Hydrangea ‘Ruby Red Slippers’ escaped notice until now. Where have I been?  I will be keeping my eyes peeled for the “large, cone-shaped blossoms that arrive white and advance to a dazzling ruby red.”

I had to stop for a minute when Beth wrote about “a charming Hazel.” I went out with Hazel one time, but she wasn’t a nut with “twisty-turn stems.” It has been a few years. Bravo for Corylus ‘Contorta’.

I’m in total agreement with Anne Young on the red buckeye. It is a perfectly wonderful small tree that “checks all the boxes.”

Jenny, of course, I want a “darling deciduous coral berry with a dash of pizzazz.”

Diane, you read my mind. I love the tall and elegant daylily ‘Autumn Minaret.’ The more the merrier.

Jennifer, how dare you write about promiscuous plant sluts on the wholesome family-oriented Garden Rant? (I’m glad you did!) Perilla…Oh, my god.  “Thought it’d be a great filler. Now she’s struggling to find her hand tiller.”

My good friend, Guest Ranter and former Jelitto Perennial Seeds colleague had a good one, too.  I feared a revolt if I showed any favoritism. “Growing in cracks… (a damn petunia) gone wild. A dry rocky slope… (or open meadow) can be trialed. Humilis humble…(submissive?) not a chance. Born in North America….. (not England) not France.” I immediately made a note to order seeds of Ruellia humilis from Jelitto.

The Japanese roof iris is one of my all-time favorite go-to perennials. Eric S. rode a sweet wave with the white blooming Iris tectorum ‘Alba’. “Its wide strappy leaf blades continue to grow with clumps forming arching fountains of celery green in places where deeper green foliage add contrast to make them pop.”

Dee Cee’s entry for hoary puccoon (Lithospermum canescens) was an impassioned plea for a lovely native that is seldom planted—and should be planted more. “Get ready to brighten up the border or that difficult spot with this cheerful yellow fellow!

Rose said it was a tough call to choose between the top two winners, but the contestants above shouldn’t be disappointed. All of the contestants have earned a catfish dinner with cole slaw and spicy fries at the Family Affair, in Salvisa, KY, whenever you’re passing this way. Let me know. Lunch is on my dime.”

Joe Schmitt is our esteemed runner-up. I don’t know anyone else who could have concocted a hybrid between a Penstemon and a Eucalyptus, but we never had a glimpse inside Joe’s tool shed until he cracked the door open this week. Heaven’s knows what else lurks inside there.

The grand winner was Anne’s “purple prose.” (Her grand prize is a copy of Planting in a Post-Wild World.)  Rose and I blushed at Anne’s audacity to unleash the galloping spearmint, but then we like a good mint julep during the Kentucky Derby weekend, so there are exceptions.  “I can’t walk past my spearmint without stroking his copious emerald, spear-headed leaves to inhale his refreshing, rejuvenating fragrance… He propagates wantonly, spreading his roots wherever he goes…I share a piece of him wherever friends are willing to take him into their beds. It’s hard to imagine a garden without him.”

Only on the Garden Rant.

Congratulations everyone.

The Winners Are Only on the Garden Rant originally appeared on GardenRant on February 12, 2020.

The post The Winners Are Only on the Garden Rant appeared first on GardenRant.

from Gardening https://www.gardenrant.com/2020/02/the-winners-are-only-on-the-garden-rant.html via http://www.rssmix.com/