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Kase's CornerKase Moorleg has written many articles over his career in horticulture on various topics. We hope you find them informative and interesting! Neem Oil Diatomaceous Earth Oak Trees St. John's Wort Thunbergia Tobacco Plants Basswood (Linden Tree) Datura Neem Oil Neem oil is a broad spectrum organic insecticide. It can be used as a contact spray or as a systemic. Neem oil can effectively be used against White Flies, Aphids, Spider mites, Mealy Bugs, Scale, Fungus gnats and other insects. It has been said, that insects rather sit there and starve to death, than touch a plant that is sprayed with Neem Oil. When making a solution, read the label, because it is available as different registered products. Add a few drops of dish soap as an emulsifier and shake well. For best results, it is recommended to use the mixture within 8 hours, because it seems to lose some of its strength after that. Spray in early morning or late afternoon when the wind is down. If you are bothered with slugs, especially on Hosta's, spray with a Neem oil solution and they will not touch them anymore. The same with earwigs. Remember it is organic and is used for food crops and grain storage. Neem oil is also recommended for the control of Mildew and Black spot on roses and other plants. Neem oil is derived from the Neem tree Azadirachta indica, a native tree of India. Here is a breakdown of the many benefits from this tree: The bark of the Neem tree is used to make cosmetic, health care products and has medicinal properties. The leaves are used in medicine and pharmaceutical products. The kernels of the Neem fruit are crushed to make an oil that is used in insect and fungus controlling preparations. Every part of the Neem tree seems to be useful. Ancient herbalists have been using parts of the Neem tree to treat ailments. Note: Neem oil gets solid, even at room temperatures. Before using, put the container in a bowl of hot water. When it is liquid use one teaspoon to one liter of warm water or follow the directions on the label. Add a few drops of liquid dish soap as an emulsifier, otherwise the Neem oil stays on top of the water and also stays on top of the soil, if used as a systemic to water plants. Shake well. If used as a leaf spray, make sure to spray the underside of the leaves. Back to Top Diatomaceous Earth (Also known as 'Dio') Diatomaceous Earth is a natural environmentally friendly insecticide. Although it has been around for a long time, it is not very well known. Diatomaceous earth is a form of hydro silica and composed of the shells of diatoms, which are aquatic plants of microscopic size. Diatoms are multiplied by cell division and after their short life, sink to the bottom of the ocean or lake. Diatoms make up the main bulk of plankton, they are usually boat shaped, hence the scientific name Navicula. The sediment is found in fresh as well as in salt water and it is mined in the U.S.A., Algeria and other places with smaller deposits. Diatomaceous earth has been used in industrial filtration of beverages, chemicals and swimming pools. One of the uses in later years is the application of this material between the walls of apartment buildings for the control of cockroaches. The very fine dry powder blocks the breathing pores of the creatures, when they move through. Some chemical companies are also makeing use of it in the fight against slugs, earwigs, ants, caterpillars, snails, spiders and other crawling insects. Diatomaceous earth is also recommended for the use on pets, for the control of fleas and ticks. The powder is rubbed in the fur of cats and dogs. Diatomaceous earth can be used as a dust and also as a spray, by mixing two pounds per gallon of water. It is also used in the storage of grain, as a natural insecticide, mixed in at the rate of 7 pounds per ton of barley, rice, wheat, corn, rye and oats. Diatomaceous earth should be used more as an effective natural insecticide against certain pests. Back to Top Oak Trees Oaks are widely distributed through the temperate zones of North America, Europe and Asia. There are many species and hybrids of Oaks. However, there are tow main groups of species in Canada: the White Oaks Quercus alba, in this group are the Bur oak and the Swamp oak. The other group are the Red oaks Quercus borealis of which the Black oak and the Pin oak are part of. They are all deciduous trees, with lobed or toothed leaves. The flowers are unisexual and appear right after the leaves come out. The male flowers are drooping catkins while the female flowers are either single or in clusters on short stalks and are in inconspicuous yellow green or reddish colour. Both sexes are on the same tree. The fruit is the Acorn, which is a thin shelled nut, enclosed at the base by an overlapping cup. The acorn matures in 1 or 2 seasons depending on the species. The leaves of the White Oak species are usually rounded and lobed and the acorns mature in one season and the kernel is sweet and edible. In some countries the acorns are collected and fed to pigs. In Canada we leave them for the squirrels and the Blue Jays. The leaves of the Red Oak series are more deeply cut and toothed, the acorns take 2 seasons to mature and are bitter tasting. Oak trees are for the most part stately trees, especially the White Oak group. The average height is 70 to 100 feet (30 meters) with a diameter of 4-7 feet (2 meters), with strong branches and dark green leathery leaves, they are beautiful shade trees. The Red Oak group are similar and also make nice shade trees. There are tow oak trees that are not native to Canada. One of them is the English Oak Quercus robur, this tree was introduced here in the 17th century and feels at home in Canada, especially in British Columbia. This tree is in the same line as the White Oaks. English Oaks are excellent shade trees, they are widely planted in parks and private properties. This tree has many varieties and hybrids. One of them is the Columnar Oak QWuercus robur var. fastigiata. This is another beautiful tree that grows like a pillar and likes to hang on to its leaves during the winter, even if they are brown. Oaks are propagated by seed (acorns) and by grafting. The wood of oak trees is heavy, strong, durable, hard, close grained and brown in colour. It is used in flooring, furniture, stairs and interior finishings. It was in great demand for building boats and for cooperage, that is the building of barrels for alcoholic beverages, but these are not vanishing trades. The bark of the oak trees is known for the tannin it contains. Tannin is important for th leather industry. Tannin is also used in herbal medicine. It reduces infection and strengthen the mucous membranes. Used as an infusion for a gargle to treat throat infections. The large galls found on oak trees, the size of marbles are used to dye wools and textiles. Back to Top St. John's Wort The botanical name is Hypericum perforatum. It is named for John the Baptist and is also named Golden Flower. There are hundreds of hybrids, cultivars and species of this plant. Many of them are used as ornamental garden plants. The wild variety covers a large part of the world. It grows 2-3 feet tall and bears yellow flowers. The leaves have small oil glands and when you hold the leaves to the light, they appear to have small holes, which explains the second name of this plant, pertoratum. The Ontario Department of Agriculture has warned farmers not to put their cattle to graze in pastures that have an abundant growth of St. John's Wort because if the animals ingest this plant, their skin will be sensitive to sunlight called photosensitiation and causes blisters and sores. St. John's Wort would not be such a strange plant if it was not for the folklore and the mystic rites of this herb. In Europe, on John the Baptist Day, Jun 24th, people were hanging sprigs of St. John's Wort around pictures of saints and icons to ward off ghosts and witches. Even in ancient times, the magic potions and ghostly stories surround this plant. St. John's Wort was used in early England in religious practices and it has many legends written about it and was used for every situation from health, longevity and to tests one's chances of matrimony. To predict their chances for marital bliss, young girls were in the habit of picking a sprig of the flowers of the plant in the evening, and if the flowers were still fresh in the morning, their chances were good, if they were wilted, a dismal outcome was predicted. Germany also practiced this custom. Ancient herbalist used Hypericum as a sedative, treatment for malaria, wounds, burns and insect bites. In homoeopathy, Hypericum is used as a medication when the nervous system is involved. It has been discovered lately, that people suffering from depression, anxiety and sleeping disorders can benefit from this herb. The advantage is, that this medication from the plant can be used with no problem. The only know side effect is that it softens the skin and makes the skin sensitive to strong sunlight. It is therefore advised, that the users of this medication stay out of the sun. Back to Top Thunbergia There are many species, hybrids and cultivars of this family. In this article, we only deal with two of them. One is the Black-Eyed Susan, Thunbergia alta. This is a small annual climbing plant and is usually grown with white, yellow or orange flowers and a dark centre. Propagate from seed in early spring. This plant is often used in hanging baskets and containers. The name alta means winged or wing like, referring to the shape of the leaves. Black-Eyed Susan can also be grown indoors. The other one is Thunbergia grandiflora, not as popular as the Black Eyed Susan, but a larger stronger grower and also a beauty. Common name is Bengal Clockvine, another climber that can grow to 6 metres (18 ft.) Shiny dark green leaves and flowers that are trumpet like 7 cm (2 1/2 inches) with a beautiful blue colour. The plant blooms early and is free flowering. When my wife and I were visiting the Bahamas, some years ago, I was walking in a street in Nassau near the harbour. On one of the older buildings, the wall was covered with this climber and it was loaded with those trumpet like blue flowers. What a sight was this Thunbergia. It was at this same street that I met Telly Savalas, a movie star of KOJAK fame. He also starred with Bert Lancaster in the movie "The Birdman of Alcatraz". He told me, that he was in the Bahamas to do a commercial on rum. I took a picture of him talking to my wife. These plants were named for Carl Peter Thunberg 1743-1828, according to some historians, a Dutch botanist and physician. Although he studied in the Netherlands and was employed by the Dutch East Indies Company for several years at some time as a ship surgeon. Thunberg as born in Sweden. His work brought him to South-Africa, where he learned the Dutch language. He also traveled to Japan. At that time Japan was a closed country, only open to Protestant Dutch merchants of which opportunity he took advantage and wrote a study in 1784 of Japanese plants, called "Flora Japonica". Thunberg is called The Founder of Japanese Botanical Research. He also traveled and did plant research in the Dutch-Indies, now called Indonesia. Thunberg was a student of Linnaeus and later became professor at Upsala University in Sweden. He studied and helped the Botanical Gardens in Leiden and Amsterdam in the Netherlands and in Paris France. Note. These Thunbergia's are native to Central and Southern Africa and Southern Asia. They are excellent plants for a sun-room or an east or west window. The Black Eyed Susan will be happy in a hanging basket, while the T. grandiflora is a stronger grower and therefore needs support. Back to Top Tobacco Plants The Botanical name is Nicotiana tabacum. There were many of these plants growing in Southern Ontario. The leaves of these plants were dried and cured for the Tobacco trade. However, the products of pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco and cigars are not anymore readily available. But cigarettes are more popular and still sold in many stores. There are many species and hybrids of this plant, used for containers, bedding plants and cut-flowers. They are available in the colours red, white, pink, and mauve. They bloom all summer and some varieties are fragrant in the evening. The pergume series grow 16 inches tall and are highly scented. These plants do well in part shade and grow in height from 10 inches to 3 feet tall. When the explorers were discovering the New World, they noticed that the native people, the Arawaks of the West Indies, had dried herb leaves which they rolled together and lit and sucked out the smoke. One of the first Europeans who got to know the use of tobacco was Christopher Columbus himself. The entry in his log book for Tuesday the 6th of November 1492 reads: "The two messengers who had been put ashore to survey the country, said that on their way, they had met crowds of natives, carrying burning torches and special herbs in their hands, to incense themselves as is the practice among them.. The torches, were not to give light, but to incense oneself." Tobacco was used as a medicine and as a stimulant. In an article Bishop Barthalomeus de las Cassas (1474-1566), deals most convincingly with the use of tobacco to combat fatigue, also how rapidly one gets addicted to the smoking of this herb. He writes : "The Indians inhale the smoke of these plants, which have been twisted into the shape of a kind of a roll or torch (cigar). Then they light one end and suck and sip at the other end, while inhaling the smoke, which produces a kind of intoxication. They claim that then they don't feel any fatigue at all. The fashion of smoking also caught on among colonists, and when they were asked why they did it, their only answer was, that they could not do without it anymore." (Translated from the Spanish) The Bishop has traveled through the West Indies and South America at that time. The plant was named for Jean Nicot (1530-1600), who was the new French Ambassador to Portugal. Nicot received some Tobacco seeds while he was in Lisbon in 1560. Nicot was intrigued with this new plant and got in touch with the Cardinal of Lorraine and promised the Cardinal to send some seeds and plants to his gardener in Marmoustier. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries it was believed, that the tobacco plant had healing properties and could cure boils and running sores. Ointments and syrups were made from tobacco leaves and sold as some kind of miracle drug and the news from London England stated that heavy smokers were not affected by the plague. In the 1700's there were factories that were processing the tobacco leaves for pipe tobacco, cigars, snuff and chewing tobacco. A small percentage of tobacco was locally grown but the bulk was imported from Virginia and Maryland, two English colonies in America. These colonies supplied England in the late 1700's with an annual amount of one thousand casks, containing 80 million pounds of tobacco. This means that at this time, tobacco was an important part of the world trade. There was a time that snuff was as popular as cigarettes were in later years. Taking snuff is a very old habit. It was taken as a pulverized powder, sniffed up through a straight or 'y' shaped tube. The habit has faded out and so is that of chewing tobacco. It is difficult to pinpoint the date when the first cigarette appeared. Some say in 1832 paper was used to roll tobacco in. The reason why there is no exact date is that even in Columbus days, natives int eh Caribbean and South-America were rolling tobacco into maize (corn) leaves to smoke. A habit that has been used for a long time. The cigarette as we know it, did at first not catch on. The reason for this was that the paper they used was not suitable for the product. There are several stories about the use of cigarettes. One of them is that Giacomo Casanova in his memoirs writes about a man in the year 1766, who rolled Brazilian tobacco in paper and smoked it. It is recorded that in 1847, Russia was making cigarettes and it is also mentioned that in 1862, Germany started making cigarettes on a large scale. A factory in Dresden turned out 120 cigarettes and hour, which was for that time a large number. However, in the early days the pipe and cigars were more popular than cigarettes. In the later year that has changed and you seldom see someone that smokes a pipe. Back to Top Basswood (Linden Tree) The Basswood is also called the Linden or Limetree. Tilia americana is the only one of the Basswood family that is native to Canada. The Basswood is a deciduous tree with large heart-shaped leaves with toothed margins. It grows to about 60-80 feet with mature trees developing a broad spreading crown. Basswood is a lovely avenue tree, however, it is not very tolerant in cities with high pollution. There are several members of the Basswood family native to Eastern North America, but they have recently been classified as varieties. For instance, the Carolina Basswood is now T. americana var. Caroliniana. So is the Appalachian Basswood now called T. americana var. heterophylla and the Quebec Basswood Tilia neglecta is now also a variety of T. americana. The Little Leaf Linden (Tilia cordata) is a native of Europe and the Caucasus mountain regions. Cordata is the Latin term referring to the heart, an obvious reference to the heart-shaped leaves of this tree. This is a very attractive tree with smaller foliage and more tolerant to atmospheric pollution and is therefore widely planted along city streets in North America as well as in Europe. There have also been several hybrids developed of the Little Leaf Linden. Here are some of those selections: "Corinthian" with a pyramidal shape, "Fairview" a vigorous grower with larger leaves, "Green Spire" a strong grower with a narrow brown and "June Bride" with glossy leaves and a conical shape. These selections are all hardy to at least zone 3. Flowers: The flowers of the Basswood appear in June-July. They are not very showy and have a greenish colour. The clusters of these flowers are noted for their fragrance and nectar which attract bees and makes excellent honey. For years, Europeans have collected these flowers, including the elongated calyx to make herbal tea, said to prevent and cure colds, reduce fever and is a diuretic. Wood: Linden wood is soft, straight grained and has a light colour. It is used for cabinet making, carvings, musical instruments, models and templates, mouldings, shutters and venetian blinds. In past centuries it was used to make ship figureheads and cigar-store Indians. Bark: The name 'Basswood' comes from its inner-bark or bast. The tough fibres of this inner bark was used by Native Americans to make rope through a process called 'retting' - keeping the bark under water for several days until the soft tissue rotted away leaving a fibrous tissue. Thread was also made from the bark used to make fabric and mats. The bark was also used to bind warrior's wounds. Range: Northern and Lake states. (Quebec south to Delaware, Atlantic coast to eastern Kentucky.) Habitat: The Linden prefers moist soils of valleys and uplands. IT does not form pure stands. Because its leaves contain a high percentage of calcium and magnesium, this tree helps enrich the soil. Longevity: The Linden matures in 90 - 140 years. Did You Know? - In mythology, the Green Dryads (tree spirits) were said to be wedded to Linden trees. - To the Romans, the Linden tree was a symbol of conjugal love and fidelity. - The Iroquois carved masks from the inner bark by splitting it off from the trunk and hollowing it out from behind. - If you knock on the trunk you can hear a hollow sound. - OTZI the Iceman, whose frozen body was found in the Alps near the Austrian/Italian border in 1991 lived approximately 5000 years ago. Archaeologists discovered that the coat the Iceman was wearing was made of grass and long fibres of the inner-bark (bast) of the Linden tree. Note: The next time you're visiting Niagara Falls, be sure to travel down the Niagara Parkway to the picturesque town of Niagara-On-The-Lake and observe the Linden trees planted on the boulevard of the main street. Back to Top Datura Angel's Trumpet. There are many species of this plant, the most common for Canada is the Datura stramonium. This plant goes under the common names of Jimson weed, Thorn apple and Devil's Trumpet. The name Datura is a Lain name of the Hindustani dhatura or of the Arabic tatorrah. Jimson weed grows wild in Canada, usually in waste places and roadsides. It seeds itself very easily and is free flowering. The plant grows to about 2 to 3 feet high (60+ cm), some have lobed leaves and white trumpet like flowers that stand upwards, and are fragrant at night. There are many hybrids with yellow coloured flowers or mauve striped and double varieties. They all make very interesting garden and container plants. Most of them are easy and fast growing plants. THe leaves and seed of Jimson weed contain a mixture of toxic substances similar to the Deadly Nightshade, which can have stupefying and hallucinating effects on people. In medicine, extract form this plant is used to treat Parkinson disease, Convulsive coughing, Whooping cough, Nervous disorders and Epilepsy.
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