Articles

Celebrate the Wintery Beauty of Florist’s Cyclamen

Even when not in bloom, cyclamen leaves continue to look lovely.

Florists’ cyclamen (Cyclamen persicum hybrids) is a great imposter.  Despite the Latin name persicum, they are not from Persia (modern-day Iran) but hailed from nearby countries, including Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Algeria, and Tunisia. Though the graceful flowers might make you think of orchids, cyclamens actually reside in the primrose family, Primulaceae.  The leaves are also cleverly disguised, with patterning that might be mistaken for marble or damask fabric.

Subterfuge aside, florists’ cyclamens beguile holiday plant buyers with their ravishing good looks, and every winter multitudes of them find their way into homes, offices, houses of worship, and other public and private spaces.

Cyclamen with Dancing Flowers and Swirling Leaves

Rising 6 to 10 inches tall and equally wide, cyclamen plants dazzle with basal mounds of heart-shaped leaves marbled in silvery shades.  They almost swirl before your eyes. Slender stems support nodding buds that resemble tightly furled umbrellas. Once open, each bloom features five backswept petals that may be pink, red, violet, lavender, white, or in combinations of two or more of these colors.  The petal edges are either smooth or exuberantly ruffled.  The combination of swaying stems and vibrant colors has led more than one observer to liken a pot of cyclamen in full bloom to a flock of butterflies. 

Cyclamen’s Wild Ancestors

Cyclamen persicum is the primary wildflower descendent to most cultivated Cyclamen.

In the beginning, Cyclamen persicum was a pretty wildflower that barely hinted at the charms of its modern domestic descendants.  The species made it to Europe around 1700, but breeders first took an interest in them in the early nineteenth century and have been working on them ever since. Most breeding occurs in England, continental Europe, and Japan.  All of that breeding and propagating work set the stage for cyclamens to burst onto the mass-merchandising scene nearly 50 years ago.

New Cyclamens Get Bigger and Better

Bigger flowers in more diverse color combinations are sought by plant breeders.

Consumers have always loved big flowers, so breeders have made that trait a priority.  Once they bulked the flowers up, plantsmen produced larger plants with a wider range of flower colors.  Double flowers and those with contrasting picotee petal edges also emerged from the selective breeding process. Each year it seems that the flowers get bigger, bolder, and more numerous.

Fragrant Cyclamen

One trait that was all but lost in the breeding process was fragrance. But that began to change around 2000, when hybridizers started crossing Cyclamen persicum with a fragrant Mediterranean species, Cyclamen purpurascens.  The resulting plants were somewhat smaller than standard florists’ cyclamen, but boasted pronounced fragrance, sometimes reminiscent of roses. Now scented varieties are available in many places—to find them just follow your nose in the greenhouse section of a well-stocked nursery or garden center.  One beautiful and fragrant variety to look for is the exceptional, hard-to-find, Cyclamen purpurascens ‘Green Ice’.

Holiday Cyclamen Care

With the right care, cyclamen make reliable, lovely house plants.

Fragrant or not, all florists’ cyclamens need care once they arrive home from the store. “Care” means removing the decorative foil around the pot and positioning it in a cool place with bright, indirect light. A surplus of direct sun will caused scorched leaves.

If you want to repot it after the holidays, use a quality medium like Fafard® Ultra Potting Mix with Extended Feed, and make sure the top of the root ball is level with the top of the soil in the new container. (Click here for an overview about how to repot house plants.) High humidity is a plus, so mist regularly or place the pot atop a saucer filled with pebbles. Add water to the saucer, but make sure the base of the pot is not submerged. Cyclamen appreciate moisture but detest wet feet. Water when the top of the soil is dry and aim the spout of your watering can around the edges of the pot. 

Post-Holiday Cyclamen Care

Even when not in bloom, cyclamen have decorative leaves.

With proper care, a cyclamen with some open flowers and a few buds should bloom for three or more weeks. Once the bloom period is over, gradually cut down on watering. It is not uncommon for plants to go into a natural dormancy in summer, which corresponds to a summer dry period to which they are acclimated. This is the point when most people throw a cyclamen out, thinking that it has died. Instead of doing that, you may want to try for a second cyclamen act. 

Move the pot to a cool, moderately dry location for a few weeks and then, attempt a resurrection by soaking the soil thoroughly and bringing the pot back to a spot with bright, indirect light. Wait until you see signs of sprouting before watering again, and resume a regular watering schedule. Feed with commercial houseplant fertilizer according to package directions. With a bit of luck, the cyclamen will begin its growth cycle anew.

If for some reason the cyclamen has actually died, skip the guilt and purchase another one.  The death was probably not your fault.  When thousands of plants are raised in a carefully controlled environment, and forced into bloom at a specific time, they may not have a second season’s worth of energy. Ironically, in the Victorian language of flowers, cyclamens, which seem so bright and cheerful during the winter, are symbolic of goodbyes. 

Cyclamen buds look like closed umbrellas.

Potted Holiday Trees: Selection and Care

Potted Holiday Trees: Selection and Care Featured Image

Small or large potted holiday conifers are fragrant, fresh and provide living beauty in the home, but which should you choose for outdoor planting, and how do you care for them after the lights and glitter are shed? The right care will ensure their longterm health. Here’s how to give them what they need for success.

Know Your Trees

When picking a live tree, know what kind it is, and make sure that it will fit into your landscape and grow well where you live. Don’t be fooled by the initial size. Many potted trees sold as tiny specimens grow very large. Truly compact trees sold during the holidays, such as dwarf Alberta spruce (Picea glauca ‘Conica’, USDA Hardiness Zones 3-6) or lemon cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa ‘Wilma’, Zones 7-10), can be planted in large, outdoor containers for several years. But, those that mature to a large size must be planted in the ground. So, you must know your trees.

Miniature Christmas trees with ornaments
Beware! Many holiday trees sold as potted miniatures will grow very large.

Here are some of the top holiday trees sold in North America. Each grows best in certain areas of the country. All of the full-sized evergreens mentioned need lots of space, sunshine, and well-drained soil.

Firs

Potted fir trees
Be sure to have a planting spot in your landscape for larger potted trees.

Chrismas firs have soft, flat needles, a perfect conical shape, dense branching, and wonderful wintery aromas. They make good landscape specimens, where they are hardy, and all grow to become large, regal trees.

Balsam fir (Abies balsamea, Zones 3-7): The remarkably hardy balsam fir is a fragrant, soft-needled evergreen that grows best in colder climates with cooler, more moderate summers. It has a dense, conical habit and standard forms can reach a whopping 50 to 75 feet when fully mature, so don’t plant one in a small yard or close to the house.

Frasier fir (Abies fraseri, Zones 4-7): Comparable in growth, habit, and fragrance to balsam, Frasier fir is an Appalacian species from the southeastern United States that can take warmer summers, but because it grows in the cooler mountains it cannot take the intense heat of the Deep South. At full size, it reaches 30-50 feet.

White fir (Abies concolor, Zones 4-9): A fir for the Midwest and alpine West, white fir is more tolerant of areas with warmer summers. It has a conical habit with dense branching and soft, attractive, upright needles with a silvery cast. When mature, it can reach up to 60 feet.

Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii, Zones 4-8) is not a true fir, despite its name, but the pine is a good choice for those living from Pacific Northwest down to the Southwest. Soft-tipped needles cover its branches and when grown as a specimen tree it reaches 40-80 feet and has a broadly conical habit with more open branching than that of true firs.

Pines

Potted Christmas tree inside a home
Potted Christmas trees should be well watered while in the home.

White pine (Pinus strobus, Zones 3-8) is one of the most common native pines grown for Christmas trees. It is distinguished by its long, very soft needles, which some homeowners really favor. It makes a good landscape tree with open branching and can reach 50-80 feet.

Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris, Zones 3-7) is still sold but has fallen out of favor as a Christmas tree because of its painfully prickly needles. As a yard tree, it is equally undesirable because it’s prone to many pests and diseases. This is one to avoid.

Spruces

Dwarf Alberta spruce (Picea glauca ‘Conica’, Zones 3-8) is the most common potted holiday tree and is almost always sold as a pre-decorated, miniature for indoors or outdoors. After the holidays, it can be planted in pots for or in the garden. Eventually, dwarf Alberta spruce can reach 10 to 13 feet high but is very slow-growing, so it can be grown in pots for some time before planting in the ground.

Indoor Care and Transition

Christmas Tree
Indoor conifers should be kept inside no more than ten days.

All of these evergreens need cold winter weather to grow well, so bringing them into the warm indoors for too long can be detrimental to their health. Keep them in a cool garage or covered patio before bringing them inside. Once indoors, make sure that you place a basin below the pot for watering and keep the tree well-irrigated. Maintaining a cooler room temperature will reduce stress. Don’t keep them inside any longer than ten days, a week is better.

After the holidays, remove all decorations and take your tree outside. Very hardy varieties can remain in their pots if kept close to the home. Just don’t let the pots dry out. If the ground is warm enough to be worked, plant your tree straight away.

Planting

Getting ready to plant a potted evergreen
Getting ready to plant a potted evergreen.

All of these conifers like their soil to be slightly acid, rich in organic matter, and well-drained. Black Gold Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss and Fafard® Premium Natural & Organic Compost are the best amendments to use at planting time. (Click here for the Morton Arboretum’s tree-planting instructions.)

Potted holiday trees are a long-term investment. While they decorate your home and bring joy to your family, care for them well. And, once planted, they will reward you with continued outdoor beauty for years to come.

Rustic Harvest Décor from the Garden

Rustic Harvest Décor from the Garden Featured Image
Festive red rowan fruits sit among a nest of fallen leaves.

After the leaves have fallen, the well-fortified garden is filled with a wealth of late-season branches, berries, hips, dried grasses and flower heads for rustic fall décor. Early fall is when they are at their brightest and most beautiful for indoor and outdoor decorating.
Spring and fall are the best times to plant ornamentals that remain pretty through winter. Crinkly dried hydrangea flowers, puffy grass seed heads, berried and hipped branches of hollies and roses, and colorful twigs and greens all look seasonal and appealing when arranged for display. Gather them for Thanksgiving or winter holiday table displays, or place them in pots outdoors to keep your home looking festive.
Here are some of our favorites to plant and enjoy for harvest décor.

Grass Heads

Simple containers of dried grasses and wildflowers
Simple containers of dried grasses and wildflowers look elegant and earthy indoors.

Broom Corn (Sorghum bicolor): As the name suggests, the canes from this annual ornamental grass are used for broom making, but their glossy, pendulous seed heads of burgundy brown are also very showy. Start broom corn in spring for fall harvest. Outdoor displays of these seed heads will also feed winter birds.
Pearl Millet (Pennisetum glaucum): This is the common millet that’s grown for pet store birds, but its bold, upright heads of grain look equally attractive in the garden and arrangements. The warm-season annual grass must be planted in spring, after the threat of frost has passed. The eye-catching purple variety ‘Purple Baron’ looks especially pretty in the garden. If used in outdoor displays, expect birds to pick away at the seeds.
Perennial Grasses: There are many perennial grasses with seed heads that are slow to shatter in winter. Airier grass heads include switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and maidengrass (Miscanthus sinensis; this grass is invasive, so choose a non-to-low-seeding variety like ‘Hinjo’ or ‘Silberpfeil’ (aka. ‘Silver Arrow)). The foxtail stems of perennial fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides) are also especially pretty when dry.

Flower Heads

Dried flower heads with evergreen branches
Dried flower heads look pretty when arranged with evergreen branches.

Amaranth (Amaranthus spp.) and Celosia (Celosia spp.): These closely related plants bear everlasting flowers that hold their color and looks for a long time, especially when harvested in fall and hung to dry. Purple amaranth (Amaranthus hypochondriacus), Cockscomb (Celosia argentea var. cristata), and spike celosia (Celosia spicata) are some of the best types for drying.
Hydrangea (Hydrangea spp.): By fall, hydrangea blooms are papery and ready to harvest. Clip the stems for any indoor or outdoor bouquet.
Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera): Stems of lotus seedheads are sold for top dollar at craft stores, but if you have a large, water-holding pot, you can grow them at home and collect and seed heads in fall for arranging. Start lotus in late spring; fill the bottom of your pot with a 1:2 mixture of Fafard Premium Natural & Organic Compost and heavy topsoil to a depth of 4-6 inches. Nestle a lotus rhizome in the mix, and then add 12-15 inches of water to the pot. As the weather warms, your lotus will quickly grow and bloom. Add fresh water as needed, and divide the rhizomes at the end of the season, if they outgrow the pot.
Dried Wildflowers:  Collect common roadside wildflower seed heads along public thoroughfares. Choice options include the heads of teasel (Dipsacus fullonum), goldenrod (Solidago spp.) and milkweed pods (Asclepias spp.). These look wild and wonderful gathered in rustic containers beside ornamental squash and greens.

Berries

Winterberry in vase
A simple vase of winterberry is all you need to brighten an indoor table.

Choose any bare-branched, bright berries or hips for fall and winter displays. Those wishing to grow their own should consider growing pretty berried trees, like rowan (Sorbus spp.) and hawthorn (Crataegus viridis ‘Winter King’); winter birds will flock to their branches, too. Shrubs with lasting berries include winterberry (Ilex verticillata, read more about growing winterberry here), firethorn (Pyracantha coccinea), and shrub roses with bright hips (Rosa spp.).

Branches

Dried stems with pumpkins
Even the most rustic, impromptu arrangements of dried stems look appealing in fall.

Colorful and textural twigs add vertical interest to any bouquet or pot. The most brightest are red twig dogwood (Cornus sericea, click here to read more about growing red twig dogwood), which hold their color of red, orange, or yellow-green. Twisty branches, like curly willow and contorted filbert, are also texturally appealing alone or with berries and blooms. Evergreen branches of all kinds will add substance to your holiday displays.

Arranging

Outdoor pots with greens, broom corn, curly willow, and red twig dogwood
These outdoor pots filled with greens, broom corn, curly willow, and red twig dogwood are placed according to height, color, and texture. (Image by Jessie Keith; Newfields, Indianapolis, IN)

The key to a good mixed vase or potted arrangement is choosing a suite of plant materials with different colors, textures, and heights. Considering the piece’s overall form before starting (click here for a more detailed DIY outdoor holiday arrangement how-to). Or, your can take a more simplistic, modern approach and fill a container with a single grass, branch, or floral element. Design your containers to fit your personal style, and you will always be pleased with the result.

Holiday Spices: Origins and Use

Holiday Spices: Origins and Use Featured Image
Ginger root offers one of the most classic holiday flavors. (image by Anna Frodesiak)

Chilly winter holidays call for warm spices, especially spice rack all-stars like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger. Over the centuries these kitchen staples have inspired their share of drama–sparking wars, financial speculation and great journeys of exploration. That’s a lot to contemplate as you stir up a batch of holiday gingerbread.

Mostly though, holiday spices conjure memories of delicious tastes and aromas. A few of us get our holiday spices from specialty vendors, but the majority of us buy them in jars from the grocery store. Those spice jars may be small, but when you open them, the aromas and tastes will transport you to kitchens in every era and all parts of the world.

Scrumptious Cinnamon

Cinnamon sticks
Most don’t know that cinnamon stick is the inner bark of a tree. (image by Bertrand Thiry)

Sweet, richly flavored cinnamon comes from the inner bark of several trees in the Cinnamomum genus. Arguably, the best cinnamon is Cinnamomum verum, native to Sri Lanka, and sometimes labeled as “Ceylon” cinnamon. Supermarket cinnamon is derived from the more assertively flavored bark of the related cassia cinnamon tree.

Prized from ancient times, cinnamon is sold either in sticks (called “quills”) or ground form. It is an integral part of the spice mixtures sold as “apple pie spice” and “pumpkin pie spice”. Cinnamon loves company, especially fruits of many kinds, not to mention chocolate and coffee. It has been used in just about every kind of pastry, sweet bread, and dessert—from comforting cinnamon rolls to rice pudding—as well as in savory dishes like tagines and biryanis.

Ginger’s Bite

Gingerbread cookies
Gingerbread tastes like the holidays. (image by Jessie Keith)

Ginger or ginger root, with its sweet/sharp flavor, comes from the rhizome of a tropical plant, Zingiber officinale, native to Southeast Asia. It can be used in many forms—fresh, dried, candied and crystallized. Everyone is familiar with its holiday star turn in gingersnaps and gingerbread, but it is also integral to German pfeffernüsse cookies. Crystalized ginger makes a great after-dinner sweet after heavy holiday meals. With its heat and sparkle, ginger works well with apples, pears, plums, and pumpkin.

If you live in a frost-free climate or have warm indoor space, you might want to try growing ginger at home. Start with a plump, fresh grocery store ginger root. If you grow your ginger in a container, fill it with a rich, high-quality potting mix like Fafard® Professional Potting Mix with Resilience™. Soak the rhizome for a few hours, then plant, barely covering it with potting mix.

Place in a sunny spot indoors or light shade outdoors, water regularly, and the ginger will eventually develop long, strap-like leaves. In about eight months you can harvest bits of the root, but it will take a year or two for the plant to sprout tall spikes of colorful flowers. In cold weather climates, bring ginger plants indoors before the first frosts and mist regularly to compensate for dry winter air.

Comforting Nutmeg

Holiday Plate
Eggnog, gingerbread, and other holiday treats get their great flavor from holiday spices.

The word “nutmeg” inspires visions of eggnog, custards and fruit pies, but its range is actually much wider. Familiar in whole and ground form, aromatic nutmeg is the seed of a tree, Myristica fragrans, native to the Banda Islands of present-day Indonesia. Nutmeg is inextricably linked to another spice, mace, which is made from the lacy red covering of the nutmeg seed.

Dairy products get along famously with nutmeg in sweet or savory dishes. Cooking guru, Julia Child used it liberally in her classic recipe for spinach quiche and also added a grating of fresh nutmeg to traditional béchamel sauce. On the sweet side, nutmeg is lovely in fruitcakes, bread pudding, quick bread and just about anything made with pumpkin, squash or sweet potatoes.

Piquant Cloves

Orange pomander (image by Wendy Piersall)
Pomanders make great natural gifts. (image by Wendy Piersall)

Like nutmeg, cloves are produced by a tree native to the Indonesian island group once known as the “Spice Islands”. The cloves that we make into pomanders or insert in the rind of baked ham are actually dried, unopened flower buds harvested from an evergreen tree, Syzygium aromaticum. Cloves share membership in the myrtle family with allspice, a frequent traveling companion in holiday recipes.

Like ginger, cloves have a sharpness and piquancy that is a particularly good complement to rich, unctuous flavors, like beef or pork. They are also a stock ingredient in spice blends for mulling cider or wine. Pear and plum dishes benefit from a hint of clove, while spice and fruit cakes would lack depth without them. Use cloves—whole or ground–carefully, the little buds pack a flavor wallop.

Fresh spices taste best when ground or grated just before use. Store them in sealed containers away from direct sunlight. Ground spices lose flavor fairly rapidly, so use them up, lest they remain to haunt the cupboard like the ghosts of holidays past.

All About Amaryllis

The bright, bold blooms of Amaryllis add to the holiday festivities. (photo by Maureen Gilmer)
The bright, bold blooms of Amaryllis add to the holiday festivities. (photo by Maureen Gilmer)

Amaryllis are emblems of the winter holiday season, their bold, flamboyant flowers decorating everything from greeting cards to wrapping paper to the holiday table itself. Known botanically as Hippeastrum, they trace their origin to a number of Hippeastrum species that inhabit the anything-but-wintry forests and slopes of tropical South America. Plant hybridizers have interbred these species over the past 250 years, ultimately producing the showy-flowered, large-bulbed amaryllis hybrids that populate garden centers and bulb catalogs in fall.

Amaryllis gifts
Amaryllis, and other bulbs for forcing, can be found pre-forced or boxed for winter forcing.

Obtaining Amaryllis

Purchased amaryllis bulbs put on a lavish display with ridiculous ease. Most come from overseas growers, who have conditioned the bulbs to provide immediate gratification upon planting. Take an amaryllis bulb, half-bury it in a free-draining potting mix (such as Fafard® Natural & Organic Potting Soil with Resilience™), add water, and – voila – it happens. Plump, spear-shaped buds arise on thick fleshy stems, achieving spectacular full bloom within a few weeks after planting.

Many amaryllis are sold pre-installed in a plastic pot. More satisfactory, however, is a deep clay pot, which provides ballast to counterbalance the weight of the huge blooms. Plant the bulb with its top half exposed, to give the roots maximum growing space. Bright light and relatively cool temperatures (60 to 65 degrees F) result in stockier growth, which also discourages toppling. An east-facing windowsill is ideal.

Bringing Amaryllis to Bloom

Bringing purchased amaryllis to bloom is a cinch. Coaxing it to repeat the performance is a trickier proposition. To rebloom, the bulb needs a period of dry rest, approximating what its ancestors experience in the wild. In their native habitats in eastern Brazil and in the foothills of the Andes, most Hippeastrum species produce flowers and foliage during the spring and summer rainy season, becoming quiescent when the weather turns drier in fall and winter.

Amaryllis hybrids in cultivation require a similar wet/dry treatment. Regular watering and feeding after bloom, followed by withdrawal of water in summer, will typically trigger a new round of flowering when watering is gradually resumed in late fall. Many amaryllis fanciers move their plants to a partly shaded outdoor location after the last frost date, bringing them back inside for their dry rest period. Plants generally do best if left in their containers and repotted only when absolutely necessary (once every 4 or 5 years should do).

Amaryllis 'Dancing Queen'
Amaryllis ‘Dancing Queen’ is a pretty double form. (photo by Pam Beck)

Dutch Amaryllis

Hybrid amaryllis bloom in a variety of colors, sizes, and shapes. Best known are the large-flowered Dutch hybrids, with immense, wide-flaring, six-petaled blooms that owe much of their form and coloration to the red-flowered Bolivian native Hippeastrum leopoldii. Old-time favorites from this group include ‘Red Lion’ (introduced in 1958), pink-striped ‘Apple Blossom’ (1954), and white, crimson-edged ‘Picotee’ (1958). More recent introductions – such as velvety burgundy-maroon ‘Red Pearl’ and tangerine ‘Naranja’ – are gradually supplanting some of the old standbys. Also relatively new to the scene are a race of Dutch Hybrids that bloom in 4 to 6 weeks from planting, rather than the typical 8 to 10. These “Christmas-Flowering” amaryllis come in the customary range of whites, pinks, and reds.

Double Dutch Amaryllis

Other hybrid groups include double-flowered Dutch Hybrids (such as purple-red-striped ‘Double Record’ and pure white ‘Ice Queen’) and miniature amaryllis. The latter have the appearance of scaled-down Dutch Hybrids, bearing 3- to 4-inch (rather than 8- to 10-inch) blooms on somewhat shorter stems (10 to 16 rather than 18 to 24 inches).

Butterfly Amaryllis

Hippeastrum aficionados have many more groups of hybrids to explore, as well as the species themselves. Selections and hybrids of the butterfly amaryllis, Hippeastrum papilio, offer several takes on its curious green and maroon, asymmetrical flowers (look for ‘Grafitti’ and ‘Papilio Improved’). Hippeastrum cybister has lent its narrow-petaled, spidery form to a growing number of hybrids including ‘Chico, ‘La Paz’, and ‘Emerald’. And trumpet-flowered amaryllis such as raspberry-striped ‘Santiago’ and candy-pink ‘Estella’ – with elongated, funnel-shaped blooms – are becoming increasingly available from bulb sellers.

Amaryllis in different stages
Amaryllis bulbs at different stages of forcing. (photo by Maureen Gilmer)

Gardeners in USDA zones 7 and warmer can even try amaryllis in the garden. Hardiest of all is St. Joseph’s lily, Hippeastrum x johnsonii, whose trumpet-shaped, crimson, white-starred flowers (on 2-foot stems) have ornamented Southeast U.S. gardens since the mid-nineteenth century. So, too, have the dazzling crimson blooms of oxblood lily, Rhodophiala bifida, which look for all the world like dwarf amaryllis (indeed, the species was formerly included among the Hippeastrum). Both make wonderful subjects for gardens from the Mid-Atlantic southward, the trumpets of oxblood lily providing a late-summer echo of St. Joseph’s lily’s spring display. Dutch Hybrids (and many other Hippeastrum hybrids and species) are candidates for gardens in the lower South, where they’ll winter over with minimal protection.

Whatever their season or place of bloom, few bulbs bring greater cheer than the members of the Hippeastrum tribe.

Holiday Cooking with Fresh Ginger

Gingerbread cookies
Fresh ginger makes gingerbread cookies taste even better!

Whether you cook something sweet or savory, fresh ginger (Zingiber officinale) has a traditional place at the holiday table. Its bright, spicy flavor adds something special to cookies, cakes, and festive starters that will encourage family and friends to keep coming back for more. The key is choosing the freshest roots from the store or (even better) your own potted ginger plant.

Growing Ginger

Ginger is wonderfully easy to grow as a potted houseplant, if kept in a sunny window. Just provide it with a well-drained pot of fertile Fafard Professional Potting Mix, water moderately, feed monthly with an all-purpose water soluble fertilizer and you’ll be set. If planting ginger root for the first time, be sure to plant it with its horn-like buds facing upwards and sink it 1-2” below the soil’s surface. Store-bought roots will work very well or you can purchase plants from retail greenhouses like Logee’s. One choice cultivated variety is the Javanese ‘Sunthi’, which has smaller, more pungent roots, but it is hard to find in commerce.
Starting with the good stuff always makes recipes taste better, so be sure to go for the firmest, nicest ginger roots for your holiday cooking. Here are several fresh ginger recipes that will make the best use of them:

Lemon glazed cake
Tart lemon glaze makes this moist, seasonal cake taste extra good.

Fresh Ginger Cake with Lemon Glaze                

This oil-based cake is very flavorful and moist. The addition of tart lemon glaze makes it even more decadent. Begin by buttering and flouring a bread pan and heating the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. All wet ingredients should be at room temperature.
Wet Ingredients
2 large eggs (room temperature)
¾ cup vegetable oil
¾ cup hot water
¾ cup granulated sugar
Dry Ingredients
2 cups cake flour
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon Kosher salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
½ cup packed, macerated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon lemon zest
Glaze
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
½ cup powdered sugar
Directions
Combine all of the dry ingredients (except the sugar) in a sieve over a large mixing bowl and sift the ingredients. Next, add all the wet ingredients, except the ginger, lemon zest, and eggs, to another large mixing bowl and whisk until smooth and light.
Combine the molasses mixture to the dry ingredients and fold in the ginger and eggs, using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, until fully combined. Then transfer the batter to the baking pan. The cake should be baked for around 45 minutes.
Test the cake with a bamboo skewer and make sure it comes up clean before removing the cake. Before the cake cools, whisk the glaze ingredients together, skewer holes across the top of the cake and pour the glaze over the top—allowing it to sink into the cake and harden. Once cool, take a knife along the cake edges and remove the cake from the pan.

Gingerbread with Fresh Orange Zest

This fresh gingerbread tastes extra good with the addition of orange zest.
Crisp gingerbread ready for decorating!

For years I sought out the best gingerbread recipe and finally settled on a conglomerate of recipes gathered from a variety of places.
Wet Ingredients
¾ cup salted butter
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup dark molasses (not black strap!)
¼ cup warm water
1 tablespoon fresh crushed ginger
1 tablespoon fresh orange zest
Dry Ingredients
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon cloves
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
A healthy pinch of salt
3 ¼ cups sifted flour
Directions
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy then mix in the molasses and water. Sift the dry ingredients then add them to the wet until fully combined (be sure not to over mix).
Flour your hands and pull the dough together into a flattened ball and chill for at least 12 hours. Before you roll the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Flour up a board and pin and cut your dough in two. Roll out the dough to around 1/4 inch thickness. Be sure to keep the board and pin floured to stop the dough from sticking.
Cut out your shapes and reroll any excess dough, though try not to overwork it as this results in tough cookies. Place the rolled cookies onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for eight to ten minutes, depending on how large or thick your cookies are. The less baked, the chewier the cookie. Allow the cookies to cool before decorating. Royal icing is the best for decorating and gel food coloring provides the deepest colors.

Roasted Eggplant Dip with Ginger

This yummy fresh eggplant dip is a little smoky and a little spicy.This creamy, nutty, gingery eggplant dip tastes great with pita, crackers, and fresh vegetable crudités.
Ingredients
1 large, fresh Italian eggplant
3 tablespoons almond butter
1 tablespoon full fat Greek yogurt
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons macerated ginger
1 clove finely minced garlic
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground fennel seed
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon flatleaf Italian parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Remove the top of the eggplant, cut it in half and place it flat side down on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Roast it until it is completely soft. This should take around 45 minutes. Once cooked, allow the eggplant to cool. Scoop out the soft eggplant and add it to a food processor. Briefly heat the coriander, cumin, and fennel seed in a heated pan with two teaspoons of olive oil—a minute or two should be enough. Add all of the ingredients to the food processor and pulse the dip until smooth—adding salt and pepper to taste.
This dip tastes best if the flavors are allowed to marry for sein the refrigerator. Bring it to room temperature before serving.

Enjoying and Growing Pecans

Pecan fruits in their natural form. (photo by Roger Culos)
Pecan fruits in their natural form. (photo by Roger Culos)

In many American households, Thanksgiving just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without pecans. Whether in the shell, or roasted, or lacing the syrupy matrix of that Southern staple, pecan pie, this most American of nuts is a near-must for the holiday table.

About Pecans

The story of pecan’s journey to the Thanksgiving table begins, fittingly, in the forests of North America. Native from the central Midwest to northeastern Mexico, Carya illinoinensis (as pecan is botanically known) is a towering presence in rich lowland forests throughout its range, growing to a lordly 180 feet tall (and supported by a massive trunk that can reach 7 feet in diameter). American Indians prized and often planted the nuts, thereby increasing the species’ abundance and distribution. European settlers followed suit, cultivating Carya illinoinensis not only for food but also for furniture, tools, and firewood.

Pecan-growing went commercial in the nineteenth century after farmers learned to propagate superior varieties from cuttings (rather than growing random plants from seed, as formerly). Today, United States nut-growers from the Southeast to southern California harvest and sell hundreds of millions of pounds of pecans annually, supplying some 80 percent of the world’s crop (with Georgia, Texas, and New Mexico leading the way).

Pecan pie is an expected seasonal treat at the Thanksgiving dessert table.
Pecan pie is an expected seasonal treat at the Thanksgiving dessert table. (image by Joe Hakim)

Not all of this pecan poundage is the same, however. Scores of pecan varieties have entered cultivation since the mid-nineteenth century, each differing in various important characteristics such as nut quality, hardiness, climatological preferences, disease and pest resistance, and precocity (i.e., bearing age). Moreover, recommended cultivars for commercial and home use vary markedly from one region to another (most agricultural extension services provide lists of the best cultivars for their respective states).

Pecan Varieties

Southeast gardeners who would like to experience the thrill of growing their own pecans might want to try:

‘Elliott’, noted for its exceptionally flavorful, relatively small pecans, borne on disease-resistant plants.
‘Gloria Grande’, which bears annual (rather than alternate-year) crops of large, thick-shelled nuts.
‘McMillan’, a disease-resistant, precocious, prolific bearer of medium-sized nuts.
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Varieties for Southwest and southern California gardens include:

‘Apache’, whose large, thin-shelled nuts are reliably produced each year.
‘Western’ (‘Western Schley’), widely grown for its sweet-fleshed, prolific pecans.
‘Wichita’, an alternate-year bearer of tasty, medium-sized nuts.

Growing Pecans

Whatever the region or cultivar, pecans require ample space, hot summers, and USDA Zone 5b or warmer winters, and grow best in fertile, well-drained, humus-rich soil (sandy or heavy soils can be amended with a rich compost such as Fafard Premium Natural & Organic Compost Blend). Pecan flowers ripen most of their pollen before or after they’re ready to receive it; consequently, for maximum production plant at least two cultivars with different pollen seasons. Most cultivars begin bearing within several years of planting, their green-husked fruits splitting to disgorge the brown-shelled, sweet-fleshed prizes within.

Pecan aficionados who can’t grow their own – but would like a sampling of named varieties (rather than the anonymous, uniform offerings of their local grocery store) – can shop at mail-order retailers such as Bass Pecan Company and Georgia Pecan Farms. In pecan-growing regions, a few commercial orchards still operate retail stands, where shoppers can browse through piles of freshly harvested pecans in search of the perfect variety for their holiday pies. For cooks who take their Thanksgiving pecans seriously, nothing could be closer to culinary bliss.

Pecan trees
Pecan trees are tough, beautiful, and produce lots of pecans once mature. (image by Bruce Marlin)