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GardenOpus

🌱Gardening & Botanical insights from award winning Horticulturist, Author, Designer & Consultant Robert F. Gabella.😎 across Social Media.

An award-winning Horticulturist and project consultant, my education in Ornamental Horticulture, Business Management and Leadership plus 3 decades in the trenches of the Horticulture industry offer a unique perspective into a many-faceted world that even seasoned gardeners find puzzling. My work in the industry has involved B2B young plant and proprietary genetics brokerage, landscape services con

sulting and project management, wholesale and retail sales management, procurement, business process consulting, information technology - plus authorship of high-impact features for B2B trade and home gardening periodicals. Book Previews at: http://www.GardenOpus.net

On the Web: http://www.GardenOpus.com and http://www.OpusEmpowered.net

YouTube: http://www.YouTube.com/GardenOpus

Via Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/GardenOpus

06/17/2026

🌱🔥SMOKE & FIRE. Shimmering, smoldering colors of officinalis 'Zeolights' aka 'Triangle Flashback' (Frank Morton/Wild Garden Seed, ca. 2008) are hard to describe, they change with light & bloom stage.🌞 A reliable favorite borne on vigorous, healthy plants and a nice variation from the typical orange or yellow.

Calendulas are often grown for the kitchen garden as well, petals add flavor & color to soups, rice, grains & baked goods as "poor man's saffron" - and both petals and extracts are often used in soaps & cosmetics.😎
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06/05/2026

🌱🤎💛Overflowing with love for ( ) x 'Yarai' (Hiroshi Shimizu by Carol Warner, 2011; 🥇Randolph Perry Medal 2021). Petite flowers in a delicious honey brown, striated mulberry - & those SIGNALS! Just stunning! Beautiful fresh green foliage & compact but graceful plant habit!

Pseudatas are interspecific crosses of the (invasive in North America) European Yellow Flag - L. pseudacorus, with traditional Japanese Iris - L. ensata. Early entries into this class had genetically influenced mismatch quirks such as yellowish foliage and inconsistent growth habits. This is a next generation hybrid of a Pseudata backcrossed to an L. ensata, and it is a star performer! These plants are not considered invasive and it is WORK to get them to set viable seed. - .

05/10/2026

🌱FUTURE FAVA BEANS:
Vicia faba 'Vroma' (Johnny's Seeds, 2014). Nice to know I can be away for a week & these just keep moving along - the coolish moist weather certainly helped. The thick, dense plants & concentrated flower set are impressive - and flowers are exceptionally beautiful! These flowers are also notably larger than those of older, taller cultivars like 'Windsor'.

05/08/2026

🌱❤️💛 For as I prepare to leave Savannah, Georgia after a conference, (Woodland ) brightens a cloudy day at . A beloved from the Southeast to Midwest US, it's also a favorite in cultivation. - - as in 🐭☠️👻 DON'T EAT, CHEW, SMOKE, DRINK OR OTHERWISE TEMPT FATE. Or - if your goal is to win a Darwin Award - FA&FO!😅

05/07/2026

🌱🌳As a conference I've been attending in beautiful Savannah, Georgia wraps, finally had a chance to walk around the historic Riverfront District during daylight hours (will post some intriguing nighttime pics later).

Nothing says "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" quite the way does. Though not a moss at all but an epiphytic flowering plant related to those little air plants people bring home for bathroom decor - usneoides is actually a , related to Pineapple. 🍍 Most often drapes the heavy limbs of virginiana (Southern ) a massive spreading Evergreen characteristic of the US Southeast. Weaves its way into countless 👻 ghost stories, Gothic Southern Yarns, and 😱 murder mysteries - and an iconic symbol of Savannah. - Bromelia or Pineapple Family; and - Beech Family

04/20/2026

🌱🥶 FREEZE WARNING. To think just a few days ago it was 85°F/29°C in many suburban Chicagoland locations, this morning may drop as low as 27°F/-3°C. Oh...80s again by midweek.🔥 Spring yo-yo continues - with April just an amped-up version of March.
AccuWeather

04/19/2026

🌱💛 A rescue, couple months back $1 landed a clearance bag of bertonlinii 'Grand Soleil d'Or' (Unknown, pre-1770) into my cart. AKA N. tazzetta ssp. aureus/ssp. bertonlinii. Fragrant & beautiful but not Winter hardy here, will keep potted. Typically offered at retail or online with the indoor bulbs, such as Paperwhite Narcissus. - .

04/18/2026

🐝🐝🐝Nice work Pete!

04/14/2026

🌱🌷Irresistibly contagious beauty of Darwin Hybrid ( ) 'Pink Impression' (D.W. Lefeber & Co., 1979) infected with ( ). Aphids & contaminated tools are the primary vectors of transmission. I'll remove the several infected plants to prevent further spread.😷

The wildly speculative Dutch of 1636 spun out of control because of such flowers, not understood at the time to be caused by a pathogen. The speculative market led to futures wagering on unharvested bulbs of Tulips that later did not exist. Whole fortunes were lost & Tulipomania is now in wider use describing irrationally speculative markets.😎

03/08/2026

🌱🤍💛 Though a bit of a stretch for , ( ) 'Lemon Star' (N. L. van Geest, 2000) SLIGHTLY touches the yellow side for Hippeastrum, especially if you squint.😅 Not loud like some, but a quiet beauty & prolific, with sequential stalks over a long period. -

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