How Plants Work: The Science Behind the Amazing Things Plants Do
(eBook)

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Book Cover Information

Hoopla Extract Information

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    [year] => 2015
    [artist] => Linda Chalker-Scott
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    [language] => ENGLISH
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    [title] => How Plants Work
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    [synopsis] => "Makes the science of plant processes accessible to home gardeners." -The American Gardener



 Why do container plants wilt even when they've been regularly watered? Why did the hydrangea that thrived last year never bloom this year? Plant physiology-the study of how living things function-can solve these and most other problems gardeners regularly encounter. In How Plants Work, horticulture expert Linda Chalker-Scott brings the stranger-than-fiction science of the plant world to vivid life. She uncovers the mysteries of how and why plants do the things they do, and arms you with fascinating knowledge that will change the way you garden. Horticulturist Linda Chalker-Scott illuminates the fascinating mysteries of the garden in this engaging and accessible introduction to plant physiology. Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott has a PhD in horticulture from Oregon State University and is an ISA certified arborist, an ASCA consulting arborist, and an award-winning author. She is Washington State University's extension urban horticulturist and an also teaches at the University of Washington. Chalker-Scott has published extensively in the scientific literature and in popular magazines including American Nurseryman, Organic Gardening, and Fine Gardening. She also is one of the Garden Professors. From the Ground Up

  

 My first house was in Corvallis, Oregon, home of Oregon State University, where my husband and I were working on our Ph.D. research in horticulture. Our tiny front yard had enough room for a single specimen tree, in this case a lovely 'Bloodgood' Japanese maple (Acer palmatum var. atropurpureum). We were eager to update the front entry, and we replaced the 1930s era concrete steps with a basket-weave brick entry and wooden deck. The design perfectly showcased our maple, and we were thrilled with the transformation.



 Well, until the next year. Suddenly, our maple tree didn't grow so well. Many of the branches died. Finally, it was in such dire straits that we dug it up and replaced it with a much smaller tree, which thrived. But what happened to the first tree?



 I asked one of my favorite professors at Oregon State about the sudden demise. Jim Green was our department's extension specialist and didn't teach any of my graduate classes. But he was knowledgeable, easy-going, and had a wicked sense of humor. The graduate students loved him.



 Imagine my shock, then, when he turned visibly angry as I explained our landscaping changes and subsequent tree death.



 "What in the world did you think would happen," he snapped, "when you disturbed seventy-five percent of the tree's root zone in the middle of summer?"



 Wow. I hadn't even though about that. We'd dug up the existing lawn and laid down bricks and deck timbers. I remember silently cursing the roots as we dug. And they were probably cursing us back. I felt stupid, not just because I had irked Jim, but because I hadn't foreseen these consequences myself. After all, I was getting a Ph.D. in horticultural plant physiology!



 In hindsight, I think this was a defining moment for me, though I didn't know it at the time. I do know that it was during this time I became more curious as to how plants responded to different environmental stresses (besides dying, of course). Over three decades I evolved from a laboratory plant physiologist (studying how plants function and interact with their environment), to an applied urban horticulturist, and finally to an extension specialist at Washington State University. Though my career continued to change, my interest in how plants work only became more engrossing. I combed through articles on soil science, arboriculture, environmental horticulture, and restoration ecology as well as those in the more traditional botany and horticulture journals.



 While botany books describe leaves and roots in isolation from each other (and therefore have chapters called "The Le
    [url] => https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/15218328
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    [subtitle] => The Science Behind the Amazing Things Plants Do
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