Factoids and Tidbits

This post was supposed to be filled with factoids and tidbits but upon looking over my last few posts, it seems I have already included most of them.  However, I do have a few that were discussed during the workshop at the Home and Garden Show:

As you know, the tomato is actually a fruit, not a vegetable but do you know why it was once considered a vegetable?  I would have thought it had something to do with the fact that we grow it in our vegetable gardens.  No, wrong.  In the 1800's growers sold tomatoes as vegetables to avoid the taxing on fruit!

Easter lilies and diefenbachia are just a couple poisonous plants out of many.  Poisonous plants contain substances that, when ingested, cause illness or death.  This is a defense against predators!

Vegetable gardens require at least 6 hours of full direct sun each day.

Poinsettias need 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of total dark from September to December to allow the bracts to change colour.

Tulips are originally from Turkey.  When selecting your tulip bulbs in the fall, look for "perenialized" on the packaging.  Perenialized bulbs have been grown/developed to bloom year after year.  Not all tulips will.

Ipomaeia (sweet potato vine) hates cold winds.

Which of these did you already know?