“I refuse to have an emotional attachment to a piece of ground. At one end of the scale it’s called patriotism, at the other end of the scale it’s called gardening.”
   –Bob Shaw

Dr. Chlorophyll’s thanks to Marci Thomas, who hand-delivered this amusing article by Chris Woods that appeared in Green Prints “The Weeder’s Digest” entitled The Obsessed Gardener. Are you one? Take the test.

NORMAL GARDENER	OBSESSED GARDENER
You won’t leave town when your tulips are in bloom.	…or your daffodils, your lilacs, you wisteria, your roses, your clematis, your lilies, your asters…
You have a charge account at the local garden center.	Your spouse buys all your Christmas presents there.
You invest in fine gardening tools.	You keep spare tools in your car for gardening emergencies.
You value all things, great and small.	You cheered when Bambi’s mother died.
You have a compost heap.	You take its temperature every day.
You can’t believe you ordered so manybulbs this fall.	It wasn’t enough.
You know the Latin names of your plants.	You use them in conversation with the plants.
You love to grow and cook your own vegetables.	Cook? Who has time to cook?
You are proud of your baby carrots.	You carry pictures of them in your wallet.
You can crush a Japanese beetle in your bare fingertips.	You love the sound it makes when you do.
You would never kill a ladybug.	You bring them inside for the winter.
You have dirt under your fingernails.	What fingernails?
You buy well-composted cow manure to top-dress your garden.	You buy a cow.
You teach your children the wonders of gardening.	Children? Who has time for children?
You love gardening more than anything.	“And what’s wrong with that?!”

DEAR DR. CHLOROPHYLL:
A rose by any other name might smell as sweet and all that, but it’s the hips that interest me. More specifically, with the summer cold season upon us, it is the vitamin C in the hips (seed pods) that I want. Which rose produces the most Vitamin C?

All roses produce vitamin C in their hips (as well as vitamin A, iron and calcium) with the Rosa rugosa group especially outstanding in this regard. Rugosas are Asian species that are quite drought-tolerant in the maritime climates and virtually disease-free. The single or semi-double flowers come in shades of wine-red, pink and white, bloom repeatedly and are wonderfully fragrant. The flowers are followed by masses of tomato red hips just packed with vitamin C and quite edible unless you bathed them in toxins during the growing season. Eight different forms of these horticultural and pharmacological treasures are available at a wonderful old Berkeley nursery near you.

NANCY NON SEQUITUR

“I never hold a grudge. As soon as I get even with the SOB, I forget it.”
   –W.C. Fields