NOSTALGIA

Nostalgia can be a series of giggles and sadness. That was the emotion I felt looking at a picture of Wanda Curl and John "Norm" Say celebrating Wanda's 90th and Norm's 85th birthdays in 2014. Both Wanda and Norm were very active Master Gardeners. Norm's classes on pruning and plant propagation were part of MG training and Spring Seminars. 

The topic of plant propagation often brought the two of us to a "tongue in cheek" discussion of which book was best. Was it his favorite, Sex in the Garden by Tom Riker, a 1976 book explaining plant reproduction based on sources dating from books written in the 1900's 

                                          OR

my favorite, Six-Legged Sex, The Erotic Lives of Bugs written by James Wangberg.  The conversation always ended with an agreement to read each other's favorite.  As with many times in life--we never got "round to it".

The nostalgia trip made me think of more contemporary book titles that have titillating titles.

Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World, came to mind.  Pollan links four fundamental human desires-sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control along with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana and the potato.  Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind's most basic yearnings.

A Garden of Marvels-How We Discovered That Flowers Have Sex, Leaves Eat Air, and Other Secrets of Plants.  Author Ruth Kassinger ran the guilt of murdering her kumquat tree while other plants receiving the same treatment thrived.  The book published in 2014 is the result of trying to answer the question of why the tree died.  One question leads to another and another and finding or trying to find answers.  During the seventeenth century no one understood what a plant was or was not.  Old myths and fables were still believed.  To believe the barnacles that grew on trees hatched into geese, to believe that asparagus grew from crushed rams' horns, and that plants could birth animals atop their stalk seems comical now.

In 2009 Amy Stewart received the American Horticultural Society Book Award for Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities.  Who would have thought that the beautiful and delicate blooms of the Bleeding Heart have a dark side of containing toxic alkaloids that cause nausea, seizures and respiratory problems.

In 2011 Stewart published Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army & Other Diabolical Insects.  Stewart identifies 15 of the many phobias related to the insect world.  Who knew that Lepidopterophobia is the fear of butterflies or Cnidophobia is the fear of stings.

After being introduced to Amy Stewart's writing I read The Earth Moved-On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms.  One of the reviews was "Part humorous, part serious and 100 percent informative", it was every bit of that.  Did you know the Palouse region of Washington State used to be the home of the giant Palouse earthworm, Driloleirus americanus?  It is a pinkish white earthworm, two feet or longer when fully extended, that smells like lilies--rush it to the nearest university for documentation.  Your fame on the nightly news will be guaranteed as there hasn't been a sighting in over 20 years.

It's refreshing to occupy our minds with something besides the extended period of hot weather and gardens not quite up to where they always have been at this time of year.  I am still waiting for a big harvest of tomatoes and I'm not alone.

The Giant Palouse Earthworm