The next meeting of the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society will be on Wednesday, October 18 at 7:00 PM at SIGN on North Street.听 Our special guest speaker will be Sonja Pawliw telling us about growing terrariums. Terrariums are a beautiful and interesting way to 鈥済arden on a tabletop鈥� and Sonja will tell us what we need to get started and maintain a terrarium.听 Please join us. Everyone is welcome!听 You don鈥檛 have to be a member to come to the meeting.
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A dear friend recently gave me a wonderful and interesting garden gift, and I鈥檇 like to tell you about it. Make a cup of tea and sit down with me so that I can tell you about a fascinating plant, new to me, the wild cucumber.听 Have you heard of it?
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The wild cucumber belongs to the gourd family, but it鈥檚 the more dainty and delicate cousin.听 It has thin, stretching vines and delicate, pale green leaves, smaller in shape than a gourd, and similar to a maple leaf.听 The interesting thing about this little vine is the 鈥渃ucumbers鈥� that look like miniature kiwis with prickles.听 The plant is an annual that likes moist soil and will grow in part shade to sun.听 It will reappear in our gardens because it seeds itself when fall comes.听 The little cucumbers ripen as we get into September, pop open, the seeds fall out, and hopefully come up next year.听 The seeds look like cucumber or watermelon seeds.
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If you are a gardener who likes to know the two-dollar, arm-length names of plants, the wild cucumber is called 鈥淓chinocystis lobata鈥�.听 What does it mean?听 鈥淓chinos鈥� is Greek for hedge-hog; 鈥渃ystis鈥� means just what you鈥檇 think: a pouch or sac.听 鈥淟obata鈥� is from Greek 鈥渓obos鈥� for lobe, which describes the little cucumber itself, and if you see one that has dried and burst open, the name really fits because the inside is a hollow chamber.
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Though it is called a cucumber, it is not for eating.听 This plant is purely for ornamental enjoyment in our gardens. 听 Some information that I perused called this interesting little plant a 鈥渨eed鈥�, but as gardeners we know that the word 鈥渨eed鈥� is often in the eye of the beholder!听 As a wise man once said, 鈥渁 weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered鈥�.听 听 听 听 听
I have seen it growing along a fence at our friend鈥檚 home, and it looks beautiful; very delicate and a wonderful backdrop for other flowering plants that grow in front of it.听 However, in the right (or wrong!) situation I suppose it could be considered unwanted.听 But since it is an annual, it is likely easier to control than some invasive and aggressive perennials.
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If you鈥檇 like to try this pretty little plant, ask some fellow gardeners who have the plants for some seeds and scatter them in your garden where you鈥檇 like them to grow.听 This is the time to acquire them for next year, because the seeds need a period of freezing then thawing in the spring to germinate.听 Hopefully next spring you鈥檒l be enjoying your own wild cucumbers!听 They are lovely in the garden while they are growing, and later in the season, the dried pods can be used in dried arrangements, if you would like to prolong the beauty of your garden to enjoy indoors.
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I鈥檇 like to remind you to visit our website, www.yorktonhort.ca to see what鈥檚 happening with the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society.听 You鈥檒l find a list of upcoming events, as well as articles about various gardening topics.听 And if you鈥檙e looking for horticultural information on a provincial level, you can visit the Saskatchewan Horticultural Association鈥檚 (SHA) website at http://icangarden.ca for a list of their activities and other gardening information.
Good luck with your garden clean-up. Have a great week!
