It takes skill, technique, and dedication to be able to pull off a lavish garden. For a serious gardener who grows plants and vegetables every season, the different tasks can get overwhelming at times. But while some facts about gardening can be mind-boggling, some are silly and fun. To relieve you of your gardening stress, we will talk about the fun facts about gardening and plants. This is to spark that fire once again that has fueled you to tend for lavish gardens, to be able to realize that there is more than what meets the eye with your plants, and to be able to grasp the wonders of having plants and vegetables.
Fun Facts About Gardening and Plants
A Sunflower is made up of many flowers
The sunflower has yellow petals and a fuzzy brown center. The fuzzy brown center of a sunflower is 1000-2000 individual flowers! They are all held on together by a single stalk.
Plants react to sound
Study shows that talking to plants helps them grow. Vibration in music or your voice can affect the plant in a way that they grow better. Compared to a greenhouse with no noise, a plant can grow better beside a radio. It’s crazy.
Baking soda gives you sweeter tomatoes
When sprinkled to your soil, baking soda decreases the acidity levels of the soil. In turn, sweetens up your tomatoes.
Butterflies like flowers, but love weeds
Studies have shown that butterflies are more attracted to dandelions and clovers than flowers these days. It is because most of the flowers being grown today have pesticides that butterflies hate. Some flowers even come genetically bred to enhance their growth. But in turn, they lose their fragrance.
Famous fruits that belong to the rose family
Apples, peaches, cherries, pears, raspberries, and strawberries are rosacea. These fruits make them a cousin to the famous long-stemmed valentine’s day special, the rose.
Fastest growing wood plant
Bamboo is the fastest growing wood plant in the world. It can grow 35 inches in a single day.
Everyone loves tomato juice
The official beverage of the State of Ohio is Tomato Juice. Ohio had a significant role in making tomatoes accessible in the 1800s.
Why is it called pineapple, anyway?
European explorers coined the word pineapple. They thought that the look of a pineapple resembled a pinecone with meat that is similar to an apple. Pineapples are the only edible fruit in the bromeliad family.
Where do potatoes come from?
The first potatoes ever cultivated were in Peru, about 7,000 years ago.
How many seeds does a strawberry have?
A strawberry contains around 200 seeds. And is the only fruit that has its seed in the exterior part.
Garlic mustard is an actual plant
Garlic mustard is a member of the mustard family and is not garlic. It is a herb that typically seen in the eastern and midwestern United States.
The world’s hottest pepper
The world’s hottest pepper is still up for grabs until this day. But Bhut Jolokia is 401.5 times hotter than a regular bottle of hot sauce. It earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2007.
Grapes and wine
The first recorded process of creating wine was done by Egypt about 5000 years ago. But evidence of grapes into wine was discovered by archaeologists in Mesopotamia. The discovery dates back to 8,000 years ago.
Insect can be our friends sometimes
Insects prove to be beneficial at times. They help transfer pollen from one plant to another. They are assisting plants in procreating in the process.
Vegetable or flower?
Broccoli and cauliflower are the only veggies that are also flowers.
Fruit or vegetable?
Watermelon and rhubarb are vegetables.
Are you a morning person?
The sun during the early morning is more beneficial to plants than the afternoon sun.
Too many tomatoes
There are 10,000 different varieties of tomatoes. Sixty million tons of tomatoes are produced every year. Tomatoes are grown by about 86% of households growing their own food.
That’s berry nice to know
Pineapple is considered a berry.
The first-ever greenhouse
The first know greenhouse in history can be dated back to Rome during A.D. 30. The greenhouse was to provide Emperor Tiberius with his daily fresh cucumbers.
That nuts!
Peanuts belong to the bean family.
There is a wishbone flower
Torenia is considered the wishbone flower. It contains tiny wishbone stamens inside its petals.
Why does chopping onions make us cry?
Sulfuric compounds in the onion bring us to tears. A trick is to chill the onion first inside a refrigerator to reduce the problem.
Gardening can relieve stress
Studies have found that tending to plants and vegetation help boost your mood. Spending time to care for a plant helps the brain produce serotonin. Serotonin is the happy chemicals that are naturally produced by our minds and can combat depression. There are also certain bacteria strains in the soil, that can contribute to our serotonin production.
Conclusion
The world of gardening, plants, and vegetables, is full of mystery. It was fun listing these fun facts about gardening and I’m sure you enjoyed it, too. From far out plant genomes to learning that watermelon is a vegetable, it is truly crazy how fun facts about gardening and plants are. Hopefully, we have enhanced your knowledge about the world, and you can take this with you when you go out gardening. Find out more about garden plants.