By MAUREEN GILMER, Scripps Howard News Service

When Queen Victoria's beloved husband, Albert, died, the world mourned. Black was the most common color of dress, and arts evoked sentimental images of death, loss and remembrance. This period of dark interiors, somber design and fascination with both mysticism and the emerging natural sciences would have found the silver-leaf coral-bells hybrids a near-perfect plant.

Wish you could spout historic horticultural factoids as though you did it every day? This is easy when it comes to herbs, because there's a secret behind the oldest plants that links them all together by their botanical names.

Blueberries are the hottest food-bearing plant on the market due to antioxidant content and sky-high grocery-store prices. In recent decades, breeding has resulted in dozens of varieties that extend the blueberry climate limitations to include the far north and far south. There is a huge range of sizes, from rangy shrubs to squat 2-foot-tall dwarfs.

Each year on the 12th day of the 12th month, all of Mexico brings out the roses. They are cut and arranged on little shrines at home and in the marketplace -- wherever people gather and spend time.

The elections are over, the stock market is in the tank, layoffs are everywhere and Christmas is right around the corner. There's no question that this will be the leanest holiday season in recent memory.

A decade ago, Northern California froze. A weeklong period of snow and frost tested every exotic plant grown in local landscapes. It was a time for learning through observation. The way plants behaved during this time taught volumes about how various forms and species survive a rare deep freeze.

My black hollyhock taught me a lot about seed saving.She grew each year from a clump of seedlings into towering stalks decked with such deep purple flowers that they border on near black. They were grown from seeds gleaned from the gardens of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and remain today my easiest and most fertile plant.

Health care is downright expensive. How many won't see a doctor because of the cost? And maybe others stay away out of fear of painful procedures and tests that don't always offer relief or a cure. Still more just don't want to reveal their embarrassing conditions.

The trouble with tribbles is that they were born pregnant. At least that's what Dr. McCoy realized on what may be the most famous of all Star Trek episodes. Those furry little creatures reproduced so quickly they threatened to take over the Enterprise.

South of the border the chupacabra haunts the night. Far-flung farms and ranches of rural Mexico live in fear of a predator described a great living creature that is half-animal and half-bat. It flies with bat wings, baring fangs and claws used to mutilate livestock. Some believe that bats are somehow linked to this rarely seen predator, and roosting caves may be its ultimate lair.