Plant

Inside Westminster Abbey, eight 20-foot-tall live trees lined the center aisle during the wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William. The trees transformed the space, doing what even the most elaborate floral arrangement could not — providing a natural, living sense of permanence and an air of drama. The move was unexpected, unpretentious and bold. A potted tree on your patio or deck can have the same effect. While not every tree is well-suited for a container, there are a surprising number of options, ranging from crape myrtles to hollies.

The nation's debt to men and women who serve in uniform can never be fully repaid. But Jane Kramer believes every little bit helps. She said that's why the Howard County Garden Club undertook the project to install a Blue Star Memorial marker, honoring present and former armed forces members, in the heart of Ellicott City. At the Howard County Welcome Center at 8267 Main St. in Ellicott City, a formal dedication was held Friday at 10 a.m., with live music, military ceremonies, presentations and comments from local elected officials.

Q. We would like to plant a lilac in our yard, but do not know which variety to select. Do you have any suggestions? A. Because there are so many different lilacs it is difficult to recommend a particular variety. However, here is some information that might help. The common lilac (Syringa vulgaris) is the tall leggy plant that most people associate with the term lilac. There are many different cultivars available that produce large white to pink to purple flowers on 8- to 15-foot plants.

Robert M. Douglass, former chief engineer of Baltimore Gas & Electric Co.'s Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant, died Monday of cancer at his home in Port Republic, Calvert County. He was 88. The son of an electrical engineer and a homemaker, Robert Mann Douglass was born in Hartford, Conn., and raised in Wethersfield, Conn., where he graduated in 1942 from Wethersfield High School. He served as a paratrooper with the 11th Airborne in the Pacific and with occupying forces in Japan during World War II. After the war, he enrolled at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., where he earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1950.

Sometimes we garden writers get presumptuous and assume that everyone is growing a certain plant, so I was taken aback a little the other day when I did an informal survey during a seminar. Only a small minority raised their hands when asked if they were growing the 'Dragon Wing,' which I consider the most beautiful landscape begonia in world. The 'Dragon Wing' red begonia works great in full sun or partial shade. In full sun, the plant is more compact and the foliage develops a reddish cast.

Question: These end-of- season plant sales look great, but I'm worried about timing. How late can I plant? Question: As long as the ground isn't frozen, you can put in containerized or ball-and-burlapped plants. Fruit trees would be an exception.

Question: I have a 7-foot Dracena marginata in my living room. Recently I noticed an ammonia scent coming from the soil. It's sporadic but smelly. Any thoughts? Answer: Sounds like an overwatering issue. Saturated soil decomposes anaerobically (no oxygen is available because the water takes up all the empty soil spaces.) This process stinks — think of a swamp or sewer. Draceneas do need high humidity however. To achieve this, especially during winter months when heating systems tend to dry indoor air, create a moist atmosphere by standing plant pots on trays or saucers of moist pebbles.

Glass bottles moved briskly along new manufacturing lines - some filling with rum, others with tequila - as the plant manager explained just how groundbreaking this was for a site used to a more sedate pace. The Baltimore County plant now can fill up to 300 bottles a minute, compared with 120 to 180 before the switch, said Matt Brownlee. Diageo PLC, a multinational alcoholic-beverage company based in London, pumped just over $50 million into the facility, replacing 40-year-old equipment to speed things up. The new level of automation at the plant in Relay, off U.S. 1, requires fewer people to do the same amount of work.

Maryland farmers planted a record acreage in pollution-absorbing "cover crops" this past fall, state officials announced today, hailing it as a new milestone in the Chesapeake Bay restoration effort. With the state paying them to do so, farmers seeded a total of 429,818 acres statewide in wheat, barley and other crops before winter set in, in what scientists say is one of the most cost-effective ways to curb nutrient pollution fouling the bay.  The plant nutrients in fertilizer - phosphorus and nitrogen - are prone to wash off or soak into ground water if left in the soil after the fall harvest, contributing to the formation of the bay's "dead zone" every summer, where fish and crabs can't get enough dissolved oxygen to breathe.

W.R. Grace & Co. has opened a new manufacturing facility in Vietnam as part of its strategy to expand in emerging markets. The new facility was opened by the company's construction products division in the city of Hai Duong, near Hanoi. Grace celebrated the grand opening of the plant Wednesday. The 30,000-square-foot facility will manufacture cement additives and concrete admixtures. It will also house a sales and technical service office and a quality-control lab. Columbia-based Grace has also recently opened manufacturing plants in Chongqing, China, and Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

I was given a potted hydrangea flower as an Easter gift. Can I plant that outdoors? Mophead (Grandiflora) hydrangeas are hardy outdoors, but yours was bred for greenhouse culture and forced into bloom for the holidays, so its chances are less certain. Sometimes they make the transition fine. Because it is essentially a houseplant at this point, adjust it to outdoor temperatures slowly over several days or wait until your indoor temperatures and the outdoor temperatures are similar before taking it outdoors.

Aberdeen Tyrone D. Davis, 31, of the 400 block of Washington Street, was charged Friday with possessing marijuana. Robin D. Sloane, 54, of the 100 block of Hanover Street, was charged Friday with possessing a drug other than marijuana. Julie Tomar Paradis, 30, of the 600 block of West Bel Air Avenue, was charged Friday with failing to appear for court in a case in which she was charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol, driving while impaired by alcohol and drugs, changing lanes unsafely and failing to display a registration card upon demand.

More than 100 gloved volunteers, some in boots and others in waist-high waders, streamed along narrow paths and historic sea walls Saturday in a secluded nook of wetlands just south of Fort McHenry, their eyes scanning for trash or the perfect spot to plant a sapling. The volunteer cleanup and tree-planting event mostly centered on collecting garbage and removing large pieces of driftwood smothering growth areas for grasses. But from time to time, a more novel item turned up. "Here's a tennis ball," said Gail Hoffer, 48, a volunteer from Elkridge, who decided to join the cleanup after getting an email about it from the National Aquarium in Baltimore , where she's a member.

A recent post on the Lab Rescue Facebook page broke my heart: a woman wrote that her beloved dog died unexpectedly, and that an autopsy showed that her liver had been completely destroyed. The culprit? Heliotrope, a common flowering plant the woman had on her deck that the dog nibbled on. Most of us know to watch out for pet-toxic plants around Christmas and Easter, but we don't think that what's growing in our yards might be just as dangerous. I took a look at the ASPCA's list of pet-toxic plants this morning, and was really surprised to see that some of the things in my yard are dangerous to the Labragator.

Old Dominion Electric Cooperative said Tuesday that it will seek approval from Maryland regulators to build an electric power plant in Cecil County. The Virginia-based Old Dominion supplies power to about 550,000 households and businesses through 11 cooperatives in Maryland, Virginia and Delaware, including the 52,000-member Choptank Electric Cooperative on the Eastern Shore. The nonprofit said its proposed plant would be constructed near Rising Sun, at its Rock Springs facility.

Finally it's spring. That means baseball, hay fever and the start of painting season. "May through September are the biggest months for paint sales," says Mark Sposito, vice president of marketing for Sherwin-Williams' Eastern Division. As temperatures rise, so do the number of home painting projects, he notes. The Sherwin-Williams paint factory on Hollins Ferry Road is operating 24 hours a day, five days a week. Soon the plant will be working around the clock on weekends as well, says plant manager Mike Levitsky.

Alcoa Inc. says it will dismantle the Eastalco Works aluminum smelting complex near Frederick that ceased production in 2005. The Pittsburgh-based company says it has no plans for the 2,000-acre property about five miles south of Frederick. A spokesman says the ground will be tested for hazardous materials and chemicals. More than 600 workers were laid off when Alcoa idled the plant in December 2005, citing high electricity costs. Some local lawmakers have suggested offering the site for a federal diplomatic security training center that has met resistance at a proposed location in Queen Anne's County.

Visitors who attend Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station's Community Information Night will find answers to questions about how nuclear energy is generated, according to the owner of the plant on the Susquehanna River near Delta, Pa., just north of the Harford County border. The free event will be held in the station's training center Thursday, June 2, from 5 to 8 p.m. Station employees will be on hand to educate visitors on station operations; site maintenance; engineering practices; environmental stewardship; industrial and radiological safety; site security; and emergency preparedness.

With the swipe of an excavator, a demolition crew began taking down the abandoned Solo Cup factory in Owings Mills on Thursday, work that will clear the way for new development that was once threatened by opposition. When the abandoned plant is flattened, developers plan to build a $140 million shopping center anchored by the upscale grocer Wegmans, as well as a gym, restaurants, offices and stores. Developers say Foundry Row will open by late 2015 or early 2016. The ceremonial start to demolition at the site on the corner of Reisterstown and Painters Mill roads followed months of debate among residents, developers and Baltimore County Council members.

General Motors officially launched its new electric motor in White Marsh Tuesday, a milestone in U.S. manufacturing - and a key part of the company's bet that the electric-vehicle market is poised to grow. With production under way at the Baltimore County "eMotor" plant, GM says, the company is the first automaker to manufacture electric-drive motors domestically. The operation is small for now: About 20 employees make motors for the plug-in electric Chevrolet Spark EV, side by side with 27 robots.