January has always been a good month to sort through my collection of old seed packets and organize/alphabetize them to make it easier when ordering new ones. It’s amazing how long the seeds can last if stored correctly. I always write the year on the envelope as soon as they arrive.

Through the years I have appreciated the wonderful and generous offer to members of the media from Renee’s Garden Seeds to select some samples to trial in our own gardens. Among our recent choices have been pole green beans ‘Emerite Filet’, pickling cucumbers ‘Endeavor’, and Romaine lettuce ‘Caesar Duo’. Other favorites have been ‘Heirloom Pepperbox’ poppies, ‘Color Fountains’ cleome, and ‘Rose BonBon’ cosmos.

I’m reminded of the unsolicited packages of seeds that we received a few years ago. The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources asked that any Massachusetts resident who received an unsolicited shipment of seeds report it to them. The mysterious mailings of seeds sent with return addresses in China were real, but the specific motive was mysterious, to say the least.

So far this year there has not been much snow and in general, it has been warmer than usual. Rhododendron leaves curl up and droop during the cold, and they’re good weather forecasters when we take a look outside.

We really don’t have to worry about the rhodies since that is how they protect themselves from dehydration, a process called “thermotropism.” Their leaves will reach their tightest curl at zero degrees and “look more like green beans,” as we recently read in an article.

One thing about the pandemic is that I’ve not been attending club meetings or friends’ get-togethers as in the past and spend much of my time reading and trying to learn something new. “There’s always something new to learn,” as I like to tell my grandson.

Some recent bits of new info include: Bamboo is the fastest-growing woody plant in the world. It can grow 35 inches in a single day. Wow!

A fun fact: Banana trees are not really trees. They are actually the world’s largest “herb.” Since farmers prune them to the ground after they fruit, they’ve been given the misnomer of “trees” because of their size. The banana fruit is botanically a berry and the flowers are edible.

According to the Heritage Museums & Gardens in Sandwich, Mass, the number of daylily cultivars is estimated to be above 70,000 different types (!), with more than 10,000 available for sale at nurseries throughout the U.S.A.

When it comes to plant/flower identification, if you have a smartphone and the Google app, you can scan what you’re looking at with your camera and Google will tell you what it is! (All I have to do now is to learn how to use a smartphone. Sigh! Maybe my grandson will help me?)

In the meantime, I’ll try to take better care of our house plants, which now include two lovely, recent Christmas plant gifts: a potted Gaultheria procumbens full of red berries and a seedling of a Prunus serrulata (Japanese Flowering Cherry).

And, if by any chance someone should tell me that I’m ordering too many garden seeds, I’ll just walk away. I don’t need that kind of negativity in my life (LOL)!

A Happy and Healthy New Year to all!