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PAS Gardens: I'll Fly Away

Broadcasting the Week of  07-12-10
Butterflies, bats, bees and birds!  In this episode of P. Allen Smith Gardens we’ll learn more about visitors who fly into our gardens.  Plus receive a recipe for grapefruit sorbet.

FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS:
Butterfly Garden and Sun Basking Station
Grapefruit Sorbet
English Butterfly™ Peacock™ Buddleia

Factoids:
Mission, Texas is home of the Ruby Red Grapefruit and referred to as the Butterfly Capitol of the World. 

Brown Bats eat 6,000 mosquitoes a day; less than 1/2 of 1 percent of bats have rabies.

Audubon’s List of the Top 10 Birds in Decline
•    Northern Bobwhite
•    Evening Grosbeak
•    Northern Pintail
•    Greater Scaup
•    Boreal Chickadee
•    Eastern Meadowlark
•    Common Tern
•    Loggerhead Shrike
•    Field Sparrow
•    Grasshopper Sparrow

How big is a butterfly?  They can range from an 1/8th of an inch to almost 12 inches!  They can fly at a speed of 12 miles per hour to 25 miles per hour but only if their body temperatures are above 86-degrees.   

Color Corner: Proven Winners® Angelonia® Angelface Blue
I remember when angelonias first arrived on the gardening scene.  I was intrigued, but not overly impressed.  With the Angelface® series the promise of angelonia has finally been fulfilled.  Super saturated bloom color, extra sturdy stems and high heat tolerance make this plant a must have for the garden.  Spires of bloom reach 18 to 24 inches tall.  It is a great choice for adding height and continuous summer color to flower borders and containers.

PEOPLE AND PLACES:
Mary Smith, Audubon Arkansas, Gillam Park, Little Rock, AR - Mary Smith leads a group of school children through the woodlands of Gillam Park where they are participating in the No Child Left Inside program.

Lauren Middlebrooks, Butterfly Enthusiast, Day Butterfly Center, Callaway Gardens, Pine Mountain, GA - Young butterfly enthusiast Lauren Middlebrooks fills Allen in on the lifecycle of butterflies and some of the reasons she enjoys the Day Butterfly Center. 

Paul Troyer, Master Gardener, Elkhart, IN - Paul is a part time landscape designer.  He advises new homeowners looking to give their house curb appeal that they be reserved about color and use neutrals up front and celebrate color in the backyard.  Paul visited us during the 2007 International Master Gardeners Conference.

Chris Green, Chef, Viking Cooking School, Memphis, TN -  Viking Chef Chris Green put the Ruby Red grapefruits from Mission, Texas, to work in this recipe for Grapefruit Sorbet.  

1-2-3 Done!™ Melting Honey Crystals

Has this ever happened to you—you open your jar of honey and it has turned into a crystallized form? Well don’t throw it out, this is a completely natural part of the process and there is a way to turn your honey back into the golden goodness you’ve come to expect.

1. Fill a sauce pan with 2 or 3 cups of water and bring it to a simmer.

2. Remove the cap from the honey jar and place it in the sauce pan of hot water. The heat will dissolve the crystals over several minutes.

3. Turn the stove off and allow the water to cool down before removing the honey jar from the pot.

In a pinch I’ve been know to simply stick the jar into the microwave, lid off, of course, for 30 or so seconds but you won’t dissolve all of the crystals this way, but probably enough to sweeten your tea.