Making It Grow Minutes

The Incas selected and developed peanuts from a wild ancestor 4000 years ago. The Spanish and Portuguese invaders carried the seeds to Africa, Asia and India where they quickly became part of those peoples’ diets and a crucial ingredient in many recipes. They were reintroduced to the New World as a food for the people captured in Africa and sent to the Americas as slaves. It wasn’t until Dr. Carver began his campaign promoting peanuts that they became recognized as a healthy addition to the diet of all Americans. Peanut oil in recent years has become extremely popular as its high smoke point makes it perfect for frying those Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys. It’s a monounsaturated fat which lowers the bad LDL cholesterol and contain high levels of the antioxidant Vitamin E.

George Washington Carver was born a year before the emancipation of enslaved people and was raised by a white family who treated him as a son. A somewhat sickly child, he concentrated on education but opportunities were limited for him. Eventually, he studied art at a mid-western school and through those connections was the first black student accepted at Iowa State University, earning an advanced degree. Booker T. Washington pleaded with Carver to come to the all-black Tuskegee Institute, where he did pioneering work into crop rotation. Southern farmers planted cotton year after year with dwindling yields from the depleted fields. His introduction of planting peanuts after cotton changed the face of agriculture in the south. Members of the legume family, peanuts added nitrogen to those worn out soils.

My husband has been heating up the kitchen, giving our little window unit a real workout, as our grocery store has beautiful green peanuts for sale, perfect for boiling. He fills up a big pot with water, peanuts, and salt, a little apple cider vinegar, a couple of jugs of hot sauce and then starts cooking them. It takes about four or five hours! It takes a lot of salt, more than if you were cooking pasta. Now I’ve found several peanut soup recipes I want to try – but It’ll be hard to sit and peel enough for the recipe without filling up on them – kind of like picking crabs. These recipes were developed by the person responsible for peanuts’ popularity in the United States, George Washington Carver, whose pioneering work earned him the well-deserved name “The Peanut Man.”

I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. On our visit to film at Riverbanks Zoo and Garden, we learned about displays designed to reflect the native areas of a specific animal. We started out at the sealion and seal exhibit. Obviously, there weren’t plants in the water, but curator Melody Scott Leach has planted the surrounding areas to resemble the wind-swept California coasts home to these animals. She explained that she studies photographs of the animals’ place of origin then designs topography and selects plants with similar appearance that can thrive in our climate. Her choice of distorted conifers and plants with silvery-colored foliage set the scene of that windswept habitat, heightened by the barks of those animals. For the koala exhibit, different species of the eucalyptus plants grow, as you’d expect, but the one they eat isn’t hardy in South Carolina and is shipped to Columbia.

I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. During our filming with horticulturist Melody Scott Leach at Riverbanks Zoo and Garden, we learned about what animal exhibit specialists call furniture. This means plants or other items placed inside the animal enclosure. For example, the rhinoceroses need shade but these massive animals could easily destroy trees by rubbing against them. Scott-Leach has planted trees but placed large boulders around them to keep these animals from scratching their backs on the tree trunks. But don’t think that they have to suffer an itching spot –there is a suspended brush that automatically comes on and spins its bristles against their tough hide. We watched a very content animal enjoy this feature during our filming. At the walk-through kangaroo exhibit, strategically placed fans cooled these animals on a hot September day, the exhibit keepers and the MIG team enjoyed them, too.

I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. As part of putting our toes back in the water during these difficult times, Team Making It Grow is looking for outdoor places to film. Recently, we visited Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia. There’s a special branch of horticulture for areas that involve animal exhibits. Melody Scott Leach fills that role there and she gave us a fascinating tour and explanation of that subset of gardening. The trend began in the 1980’s with the idea of immersion horticulture for zoos. Instead of just choosing plants for a beautiful display, the exhibit designers and horticulturists strive to recreate as nearly as possible an enclosure that provides animals with a semblance of their natural environment and choose plants for outside the enclosure that also reflect the areas of origin but will thrive in the climate of each zoo’s location.

I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. At our recent filming at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, we met several people who help our friend Katie Dickson by volunteering, working year round in summer’s heat and winter’s cold. We talked with some of them who said they get more in sharing friendships and learning than they give with their valuable skills. Many, many public gardens rely on generous hearted volunteers who help with greenhouses, planting and the inevitable and unfun task of weeding. Working outside with others, masked and socially distanced, is a way to stay engaged and physically active. Even our State Parks has an act passed by the legislature to allow persons to help in those beautiful areas. Last December, we visited the festival of lights at Brookgreen and everyone in the parking area was a volunteer. Find ways to get involved in the outdoors.

I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Team Making It Grow is going back out to film interesting places to share with our viewers. Public gardens seem like just the ticket in these times, especially now that the temperatures are lower. Our first trip was to Magnolia Plantation and Gardens where our friend Katie Dickson is in charge of seasonal displays for lots of WOW. We began our tour at a fabulous collection of sun coleus, many I’d never seen before, set off by the chartreuse leaves of a border of dwarf durantas – aka golden dew drops. A relaxing but visually exciting trip was the bed she’s planted for color along the path that borders the Ashley River-- where we could also watch birds fishing in the water. For the younger set, the children’s garden has a sensory theme – including ways to make noise and explore textures.

I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. If you are plagued by deer, there are two groups of bulbs made to order for your yard. First, any of the Narcissus genus members – daffodils, jonquils, and narcissus and also the Lycoris members. Some accounts say that Lycoris radiata was taken from China to Japan to plant around rice paddies as it contains poisonous compounds thought to keep rodents away. And lest we forget that all medicines once came from plants, it is part of a huge study in China where it’s being grown for the compound Galanthamine, an aChE inhibitor used to treat Alzheimer’s disease. It works better than manufactured products as it also helps improve efficacy of that compound by modulating the receptor sites.

I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Another Lycoris species often found in older gardens has a wonderfully amusing common name – Naked Lady Lilly, Lycoris squamigera. The naked part of its name is because just like with spider lilies, the Naked Lady Lily just springs up out of the ground without any foliage associated with the stem supporting the flowers. The pink is very soft but not pale and is large enough to hold its own in a container by itself. I’m not a big fan of glass containers as you see stems, stems, stems and more stems, but with Lycoris squamigera you would need just two flowering scapes to fill a small florist type glass vase. My clump is growing in part shade which all the Lycoris with seem to appreciate, i guess that’s one reason they seem perfectly at home when planted in South Carolina gardens.

Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Spider lilies are one of my favorite garden flowers for arrangements. The multiple flowers at the top of a single stem have long slender petals; they’re large but with their airy presence don’t dominate your artistry. If you’re using Oasis, a k a, wet floral foam, you’ll probably need a skinny dowel or pencil to poke a hole into the oasis first so the stem won’t collapse when you try to push it in. For amaryllis, which have hollow stems, you’ll need to buy dowels – they’re expensive, cut to the length you want and insert into the stem, then wrap the bottom of the stem with floral tape as it will curl up otherwise. For daffodils, just use wooden skewers from the grocery store to strengthen their hollow stems when making a centerpiece for socially-distanced dinner party for four.

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. I don’t think the person who gave the common name Hurricane Lily to what I’ve always called spider lilies, Lycoris radiata meant to cast aspersions on them -- These spidery looking blossoms often do pop up overnight a big rain – thus the Hurricane Lily moniker. Extremely persistent, the foliage emerges after the flowers. comes after the Unlike most bulbs, which you plant two or three in a hole two to three times time the height of the bulb, Lycoris should be buried with the top of the bulb slightly above the soil, just like you plant amaryllis in your garden; both are in the family Amarylidaceae. Many people report their spider lilies don’t always bloom each year. Too much water, too much fertilizer, planted too late? It may be like number twelve of a dozen reasons babies cry, “Lord, only knows.”

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. At a home in Saint Matthews, dating from 1880, the yard is now naturalized. But in the fall, you can see where the formal beds from probably a century ago were the planted. Almost overnight, usually after a good, drenching rain, twelve to fifteen inch tall brilliant red spider lilies, Lycoris radiata, pop up and continue blooming for almost a month. Unlike most bulbs, the foliage doesn’t emerge until after the flowers have finished blooming. These bulbs originated in China and Korea and then made their way to Japan where a ship’s captain found them so attractive he brought several back to the United States. From what I’ve read, they don’t set seeds, having babies takes a lot of nutrients that’s why people dead-heading other bulbs after they flowers. Lycoris put that energy into bulb production and making larger clumps.

Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. In an effort to stop the potential extermination of native birds being used in the millinery trade, Congress passed the Lacey Act in 1900 which made it unlawful to transport illegally procured animals across state lines. Meanwhile, a new threat emerged as Florida’s homesteaders’ act gave them preference to land under control of the General Land Office. Pelican Island was about come under this act which would allow pro-feather collecting people to buy it. Theodore Roosevelt was now president with many national issues to address, but he remembered vividly the dead pelicans he’d seen years earlier. He called a meeting of ornithologists and government wonks and asked if he could just flat out declare Pelican Island a Federal Bird Reservation. He did just that and eventually put over two hundred million acres of land in national parks, forests or wildlife refuges.

Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Although we often think of Theodore Roosevelt as a relentless hunter of trophy animals, he combined that a passion for understanding the habit, habitat and lifestyles of not only those but other animals in nature. As he waited for transit to Cuba during the Spanish American War, Roosevelt renewed an earlier interest in pelicans, this time spending endless hours observing them in nature from his posting in Tampa. Fortunately for the conservation movement, he saw and was sickened by a sixty-foot high pile of dead birds on the docks awaiting shipment to the plumage sales in New York. Coincidentally, the Curator of Ornithology at Roosevelt’s old stomping ground, the American Museum of Natural History, was attempting to purchase Pelican Island as the millinery trade was buying nearby tracts of land that were breeding grounds for the birds whose feathers they coveted.

Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Dixon Lanier Merritt, American humorist wrote: A funny old bird is a pelican. His beak can hold more than his belican. Food for a week He can hold in his beak, But I don’t know the helican.

Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. I wonder how many more hummingbird feeders we’ve added to our gardens since the pandemic started as birding resource sites report there’s been a huge interest in ornithology recently. Sadly, there was an equal fascination with hummingbirds during the times when features and even entire birds were used as adornments in the world of fashion. There was a massive use of hummingbird bodies mounted on Victorian fans. Their beautiful heads were often fashioned into dangling earrings. In the tropics, hunters would hold poles covered with glue near flowers to capture the birds before killing and shipping them to market. Catalogue entries for only three feather sales in London in 1911 give the horrifying figure of forty-one thousand hummingbird skins offered for sale; the estimate is that 223,000 birds were killed just these three events.

Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. One early falsehood spread by manufacturers of hats adorned with feathers was that the feathers were gathered from the ground. But as whole birds or parts of birds began to adorn hats the specious nature of that story was revealed. The Empress of Germany Bird of Paradise measuring over two feet from beck to the end of its exquisite tail was hunted almost to extinction and entire stuffed birds were incorporated into hats. In the United States alone, almost 5 million birds a year were killed for the millinery industry. With feathers selling for as much as thirty-two dollars an ounce, and factory workers being paid a fairly good wage of two dollars and fifty cents a week, the plumage wars became an example of conservationist pitted against people trying to make a living, with poachers eventually shooting some game wardens.

Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Woman were blamed for their heartlessness in wearing hats covered with the feathers and body parts of cruelly harvested wild birds. But with time, knowledge of the consequences of this practice prompted many socialites and educated women into campaigning against this practice. We spoke earlier of Boston socialite Harriet Hemenway who used invitation to tea parties to convince nine hundred equally influential woman to join her campaign against feathers in fashion. With the widespread authority that the Audubon society was receiving, women promoted Audubonnets – hats that were decorated with ribbons and lace. Florence Augusta Bailey promoted citizens to study birds through her writing, published in the book Birds Through an Opera Glass. And adored German opera singer Lilli Lehmann, with a commanding presence, would give autographs if fans agreed to stop using feather to an effort to be glamorous.

Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Gourds were human’s earliest containers. Their diversity in size and shape let early peoples select them for a variety of purposes. Some were cut in half and filled with food, hot rocks were added to cook those contents. Others with flat bottoms and long necks held and easily dispensed liquids. Early on they were decorated as we humans want to add beauty to our homes, be they caves, teepees, or fiber covered structures. In Kenya, where gourds were essential to life for ten thousand years, the proliferation of plastics led to a decline in their use. With the help of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, a museum there preserves the most diverse germ plasma for bottle gourds in the world and teaches woman decorating and marketing practices. I wonder if art galleries in the future display lovingly decorated Tupperware?