COLLEGE STATION – There’s more to Texas wildflowers than just roadside beauty: Native Americans made tea from a Texas wildflower, plains coreopsis, to strengthen their blood. When the bluebonnet was chosen to be the Texas state flower, the runners-up were the prickly pear cactus and the open cotton boll. Gayfeather is also called snakeroot because…
WACO Some people think that giving house plants tap water is as good as it can get, but “I say no,’ ” says fifth grader David Dean of Woodway. And Dean does more than tout the troubles of tap. He devised a water filtering system for plants, wrote a lesson aimed at showing other…
WESLACO For more than 50 years, scientists at the Texas A&M-Kingsville Citrus Center here have been working out of surplus World War II army barracks dragged to Weslaco after the closing of the Harlingen Air Force Base. “They were old structures when they got here in 1947,” said Dr. Jose Amador, director of the…
WESLACO Fruit and vegetable breeders are no longer content with developing new varieties that resist plant diseases or produce higher yields. Today’s breeder is working alongside medical researchers to improve the human health benefits of produce. Science has long documented that fruits and vegetables are loaded with vitamins vital to good health and, in…
WASHINGTON – Dr. Doug Welsh, horticulture specialist for the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, today was named Community Gardening Coordinator, to provide advice on establishing and expanding community gardens in the state by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman. Glickman appointed at least one person for each state and Puerto Rico. Welsh already is serving as coordinator…
LUBBOCK Two horticulturists with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service received distinguished service awards from the Texas County Agricultural Agents Association at the group’s annual meeting here in July. Award recipients were Dr. Roland Roberts, Extension horticulturist based in Lubbock, and John E. Begnaud, Tom Green County Extension horticulturist. The prestigious annual award is presented…
OVERTON Contestants included Gem Dandy, Big Stripe, Huck Finn, Stargazer, Rumba, Stars-N-Stripes, Macarena, Freedom and Sultan. Though it sounds like a rock and roll band play-off, Gem Dandy and others were seed companies’ entries into the year 2000 statewide watermelon trials. The field day, held Tuesday, July 11, marked the 11th year the trials…
OVERTON — They’re not your grandfather’s watermelons, but this year’s crop will be sweet, of good quality and reasonably priced for the July 4 weekend. Shoppers aren’t likely to find many of the old varieties from their childhood July 4 holidays. Big green melons like Black Diamonds and other varieties like Charleston Grays and Jubilees…
WESLACO Recording artists often say the toughest part of having a No. 1 hit song is coming up with a second one. Dr. Yin-Tung Wang isn’t a musician, but his moth orchid research produced a top hit among nursery growers and retailers nationwide, and now he thinks he has a good follow-up. The horticulturist…
COLLEGE STATION — “Gardens are the result of a collaboration between art and nature.” — Penelope Hobhouse True, but add history into that mix as well for the best outcome, says Texas A&M University horticulturist Dr. Joe Novak. Purple martins flutter above the replica of a 19th century cottage surrounded by limestone, rock-lined beds of…
