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Do plants get cancer? The answer is, ‘Yes’, if cancer is defined as dysregulated cell growth, but typically plant cancer is different than in animals. Plant cells have a rigid cell wall that limits metastatic spreading of cancer cells through the plant. Instead, the tumor grows as a single mass called a gall. Also, most plant tumors/galls are caused by a viral infection that disrupts the normal expression of genes.   Here is an example that I found in my garden. I think this is an onion bulb where the new shoot has developed as a tumor of abnormal stem/leaf cells.

Our club president recently had the chance to see the Butchart Gardens and loved it.  British Columbia may be a very different climate to San Diego but seeing a garden vision come to life is motivating for all gardeners.

Set on and in 55 acres of an abandoned quarry it is restorative living art.

The Butchart Gardens – Over 100 Years in Bloom – Victoria, Canada

This fine specimen (Platycerium sp.) belonging to a club member began as single frond in a small hanging basket. It has never been transplanted and thirty years later has a leaf span over 6 feet and a rhizome over 3 feet in diameter.  The small basket is still in there – somewhere.

The hot summer days are starting to stress hydrangeas that get near full sun but they are still a wonderful eye full.  If you desire fewer, but larger, blooms the secret is to remove all but one or two buds from each stem in the springtime.  The available energy for blooms will be concentrated on these fewer outgrowths.