What’s Blooming: The Swiss Cheese Plant

by Jack Donovan, Horticulture Intern, Gardens on Spring Creek

Our Butterfly House Monstera deliciosa, also called a Swiss cheese plant, is blooming for the first time in four years!

This perennial evergreen vine is native to Mexico and Central America, growing in Zones 10–12. Commonly grown as houseplants, these plants often fail to reach their full potential. Luckily our Butterfly House provides an ideal spot for this specimen.

Monsteras rarely bloom in homes, because they require conditions and space that approximate their native, rain-forest habitat. Thus, our Monstera is a must see! With a white spadix (a spike that has tiny flowers on it) growing to approximately 10 inches, the bloom will eventually produce an edible fruit that tastes like pineapple and banana. The plant’s perforated “Swiss cheese” leaves, called fenestrations, are believed to be an attempt by the plant to capture more sunlight or, possibly, to see their large leaves through high winds undamaged.

Here are three photos of the bloom, starting with a close-up and zooming out to show the enormous size of the plant. Can you still see the blooms in the two larger photos? They are there!

Our Butterfly House Monstera deliciosa, also called a Swiss cheese plant, is blooming for the first time in four years!

When Plants Fight Back

By Andrew Scott, Horticulturist for The Gardens on Spring Creek This is the second installment of a two-part feature on plant defenses. Read Part I online at North Forty News . Caffeine, nicotine, morphine, cocaine ... sounds like the ingredients label on an old-timey cold medicine, right? These molecules are actually all alkaloids, some of the most common chemical deterrents deployed by plants. As the adage goes, the dose makes the poison. While people can (and do) ingest these alkaloids for their psychoactive effects, they prove to be much more deadly to a small insect that weighs all but a few tenths of a milligram. The sap of opium poppies ( Papaver somniferum ) contains morphine, a potent sedative (via Daniel Prudek , Hodder Education Magazines) Still, alkaloids have a strongly bitter taste, which animals have learned to associate with the toxic effects they can have. Eating green potatoes isn’t likely to kill you, but solanine, the alkaloid that triggers this change...

Blooming Blurbs: Funky Flowers

by Ben Stickland This week, we are exploring The Gardens and looking at plants with funky and unique flowers! Different shapes, textures and colors are a great way to add interest and drama to a garden, and we will be highlighting how these cool plants can do just that. Round-headed Garlic ( Allium sphaerocephalon) Round-headed garlic, sometimes called drumstick allium, is a perennial flowering bulb in the Amaryllidaceae (onion/amaryllis family). It is native to Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa, and is well-adapted to the high and dry conditions of the Colorado garden. Drumstick allium sports slender gray-green leaves and will send out a 2-3 foot flower stalk in early summer. It is notable for being one of the last Allium species in the garden to bloom, reaching it’s peak in early July in Fort Collins. Unlike other Alliums , the flower is egg shaped and has a unique bicolor effect as the flowers change from light green to a deep magenta. Drumstick alliums prefe...

Monarchs and Marigolds in Día de Muertos Celebrations

By Angie Fuentes The Gardens on Spring Creek Community Engagement Assistant Monarchs Each year, right around Día de Muertos, millions of monarch butterflies arrive like clockwork to the misty mountains of central Mexico. Their appearance during this sacred time holds deep meaning for the communities of Michoacán and the State of Mexico, where the butterflies are seen as the returning souls of ancestors visiting the living. For generations, the Purépecha and Mazahua peoples, two Indigenous groups native to this region, have watched the skies fill with these migrating monarchs, their wings shimmering like a flowing river of orange and gold across the Sierra Madre hills. The butterflies’ arrival has been carefully observed since pre-Hispanic times, marking a spiritual moment when nature and the human spirit move in harmony. According to oral traditions, the spirits of the departed return on the butterflies’ delicate wings, joining their loved ones during Día de Muertos to celebra...

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