They Had Me at Apios americana

Apios americana in flower, Native Flora Garden, Brooklyn Botanic

Any day is a good day to get excited about a plant, but it isn't every day that you get excited about a plant that's native, has beautiful fragrant flowers and is a wild edible to boot. So I''ll never forget the afternoon that Uli picked a flower off the American groundnut vine (Apios americana) growing in the Native Flora Garden at Brooklyn Botanic garden and intoduced me to this plant via a sweet-smelling whiff. Though my garden plot at Floyd Bennett was full, my immediate thoughts were on ways to introduce it in some way to the garden, maybe in a lasagna bed or container or in the Wildlife area.

Then yesterday, when crashing a Garden Writer's Association meetup at Metrohort's annual Plantorama event at Brooklyn Botanic, I had the good fortune to listen to the two garden writers named Ellen, who among other their many horticultural talents and pursuits (teaching, writing, gardening, foraging, preserving harvests, cooking and on and on), collaborate on a local gardening blog, Garden Bytes from the Big Apple. How sweet to find among their wild foods posts, pictures of some harvested groundnuts and preferred cooking advice. Now that is something to really get excited about.