Harevested greenery in waiting

With Christmas just around the corner, it’s time to begin decorating. At our house the Christmas decorating begins outside around the middle of November. I like to use fresh evergreens and grapevines outdoors. Because I’m rather “thrifty” shall we say, I refuse to purchase evergreen boughs. Instead, I harvest my own.

I start by making note of which evergreens are looking well enough to harvest, and which can be pruned without affecting the appearance and future shape of the evergreen.
 
Using a variety of evergreens provides more depth, texture and interest to an arrangement than using one or two varieties.

Tools needed are: hand pruners, loppers and a pail of water.

Harvest with an eye to shaping the tree and/or shrub rather than cutting willy nilly.
 
A straight cut is made to remove the branch from the plant.

Next cut the stem you’ve just harvested at a sharp angle.

Place the stem of the harvested branch into the pail of water.

Continue harvesting until you have enough materials to make your wreath, swag or planters.

When you do have enough materials, change the water in the pail, and add Christmas tree preservative.

Re-cut each of the stems (angled cut) and put them in the fresh water.

Set the pail in a cool, shaded location (garage or unheated shed) until you are ready to begin creating your decorations.

Suggested evergreens:
 

Boxwood

Cedar

Euonymus (variegated for colour)

Juniper (be sure to get stems with berries on them!)

Spruce

Yew (berries don’t last long on cut stems)

Suggested deciduous:

Redtwig dogwood

Yellow dogwood

Curly willow

Grape vine

Tree branches with interesting shapes

NOTE: do not place these stems in water

 
Accents:
 

Evergreen cones

Rose hips

Teasel

*Hydrangea blooms

*Silver dollar seed casings

NOTE: do not place these in water

* Use only where arrangement will be protected from wind, rain and snow.

No petunias allowed!

Warning: This article may be offensive to some gardeners. Reader discretion is advised!

For the life of me, I cannot believe that petunias are the annual of choice for so many gardeners! Every where I look I see petunias in gardens, hanging baskets and containers. There is no escaping them! Talk about cookie cutter landscaping!

Why? Why do so many gardeners plant petunias? What is the attraction? Is it because petunias are drought tolerant? Low Maintenance? Showy? Is it because they are easy and cheap?  For the life of me, I just don’t understand why so many people like petunias!  One theory of mine is the marketing behind the petunia. The gardening public has been inundated with adverts telling us that petunias are the wave of the gardening past, present and future. Well I say it’s time gardeners waved goodbye to petunias!

Petunias are one of the few plants that I will not allow on my property and I include calibrachoas in that ban. Now, I have grown petunias in my garden and, in my greenhouses. Thirty years ago when I was first learning to garden, petunias were the recommended annual for a novice gardener. I soon learned of their shortcomings and within two gardening seasons I came to detest petunias and my garden to be a petunia-free zone.  So intense is my dislike of the petunia, when I was operating the greenhouses, my staff could always tell when I was planting petunia seeds by the frozen scowl on my face and the constant muttering coming from the propagation area. Even with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (the most beautiful music ever composed) playing in the background, I my mood could not improve until the last petunia seed of the day was planted.

Why do I detest petunias? I find them boring, blowsy, overused and just plain ugly! Not to mention they become weedy looking by mid summer. And, they are sticky little things. The use of petunias shows no imagination whatsoever.  Why limit yourself to petunias when there are hundreds, thousands of alternatives available?  Flowers that are every bit as easy to grow, and just as colourful, not to mention more interesting. 

If you are among the millions of petunia planters out there, I encourage you to explore your local greenhouses, skip over the petunias and you will discover how much more beautiful and interesting your gardens can be sans petunias. 

The Shade Garden 2007

This small village of ours is about to enter the twentieth (yes, twentieth!) century! So long septic systems and hello sewer system! After years of planning, and construction, the municipal sewage system will is nearing completion. Now that homeowners have recovered from the shock of the rather hefty bill we each now owe the Municipality, we get to hand over more cash for the privilege of hooking up to the system and disabling our septic systems. I say privilege, but truth be know, property owners are not being given a choice. Hook up or be hooked up! I’m not complaining, not in the least. I for one am happy to be saying farewell to septic systems and drainage ditches that are ripe with the smell of raw waste. But (you had to know there would be a “but”), what distresses me more than the cost is that fact that my shade garden is about to be severely damaged! Ouch!

This weekend has been spent clearing the area for the sewer hook up. Unfortunately, that area is right through the middle of the shade garden and across the front garden. Damages to the front garden I can live with. It was brutalized last year when we had a new roof installed. Knowing the sewers were coming in, we didn’t bother fixing it. As for the front walkway that has to be removed to accommodate the sewer hook up, well, I think I should send a thank you note to the Municipality. That path has been an eyesore for years, and this is just the impetus we needed to reposition it and plant grass seed and shrubs where the walkway is now.

But the shade garden! That is breaking my heart! Today we removed the solid board fence and gate that protected the shade plants from the late afternoon sun and provided much needed privacy to the back garden. We also cut back to ground level the silver leaf dogwood that stood beside the gate. Being a dogwood, it will begin growing again shortly, and by this time next year, you’ll never even know it was levelled.

Next weekend, I must begin digging up all the plants that are in the way of the sewer lines being installed later this month. Ferns, hostas, Solomon’s seal, Jack-in-the pulpit, astible, aquelgia, violets, tradescantia and more, will all be uprooted and put into pots until the fall. That is the easy part. The difficult part will be finding a place with enough shade to protect them throughout our hot, sunny summer. And where they will not be in the direct line of fire from the feral felines and free-roaming Fido’s our village is (in)famous for.

When moving a garden, either temporarily or to a new property, there are things that can be done to insure success:

• Dig a large soil ball so there are enough roots to support the plant while it’s in its pot

• Select a pot size that is just big enough to acommodate the root ball. Too small a pot and the roots will wind around the pot. Too big and the plant will send out far too many new roots.

• Use a good quality, sterilized potting mix. Do not use garden soil which may contain insects and/or diseases. The plants may not have the strength to fend them off after being uprooted.

• Fertilize with a water soluble transplant fertilizer (10-52-10). This fertilizer targets the root systems of plants, making them stronger so they recover more quickly from their move.

• Cut back the foliage by at least one third so the plant will be able to sustain itself more easily.

• Keep the newly potted plants watered! They will be in shock after being dug up, which stresses the plants. Don’t add to the problem by forgetting to water them.

• Try to hold over the potted plants in the same light conditions as they were originally growing in.

• Protect the plants from the drying effects of the wind

The Herb Garden

A few observations:

The spring bulbs are all but done, replaced by irises, dames rocket, lily of the valley, aquilegia and bleeding hearts. The old fashioned roses have begun to send out a few brave blossoms to test the waters. It will not be long before the rest of the rose buds follow.

I have noticed the irises and lilacs are producing smaller flower heads than in previous years. At first, I thought ours were the only ones blooming on the small side, but travelling the county, I see a good many in the same condition. The same with the aquilegias.  A result of the extreme cold and deep snow of this past winter perhaps?

Now that the perennials have leafed out, the effects of a cold winter and a wet spring can really be seen. We have lost all of our foxgloves, delphiniums, lupins and perovskia and a few ferns. Will they be replaced or will we take this opportunity to redesign the gardens, adding different plants? We won’t make that decision until the summer when we’ve had a chance to live with what’s left and given our imaginations time to dream up new landscapes.

The bridal wreath spirea hedge at the front of our property is blooming more prolifically that ever before! I was beginning to think that the hedge I fantasized about when we first planted it would never happen. How nice to be wrong!

This weekend has been set aside for planting up container gardens. Having learned my lesson a couple of years ago when I potted up forty-three container gardens, this year I’ll stick to five or six. Oh wait, I’m already at six, so maybe I’ll limit myself to nine.

Year two for the “new” herb garden and it is already too small! The perennial herb plants have grown like crazy leaving no room for annual herbs. Guess the annual herbs will have to go into containers. So much for limiting container gardens to nine! This fall we will have to seriously re-think the size of the herb garden. I foresee an expansion in the future.

Come to think of it, our entire yard seems to be shrinking more and more every year. Hmmm. Either the gardens have to be downsized, or we have to eliminate most of the remaining lawn area. Or we have to move to a property with more land!

If you were around in the sixties, you probably remember the patchouli craze. Patchouli incense was considered totally groovy. Sitting around someone’s basement, listening or jamming to folk, rock or psychedelic music, there was always a stick of patchouli incense burning to add to the illusion of being one of the “cool kids”.

Here we are a couple (?) of years later and I still love the scent of patchouli. So much so, that I will go out of my way to find patchouli incense, candles and oils (not so easy these days). I have grown patchouli. It’s not a difficult plant to grow (except in this house, which sounds the death toll for every exotic plant I bring into it).  But I have grown it successfully indoors before. 

When planted in a container, Patchouli loves vacationing outdoors for the summer.

Patchouli (Pogostemon cablin)

Tender Perennial

Hardy in Zone 11

Full to part sun (loves the heat)

Rich, well drained soil

Tiny white flowers bloom in late summer/early fall

Can be grown well in pots if fertilized regularly

Withstands heavy pruning

Propagate by seed or cuttings

Natural insect repellent

Disease tolerant

Use dried leaves as a fixative for potpourris

 Oils used in perfumery and aromatherapy

Patchouli is not  commonly offered at most garden centres or greenhouses. You’ll have better luck finding it at your local herb farm, or it can be ordered from Richter’s Herbs.

The spathiphyllum was the first plant to show signs of cold damage. Some of the leaves began wilt, then, turn brown. The Chinese Evergreen just to be different, exhibited brown patches on the mature leaves. The newer leaves simply turned yellow. The African violets were the hardest hit. Their leaves were browning and curling, the flower buds went black.

Cold Damage on African violet leaves

To help these poor plants recover required some TLC. First, I cut off and flower buds to help the plants concentrate their energy on recovering instead of blooming. The next thing was to remove all of the damaged leaves at their base.

I then began fertilizing them for two weeks with a 20-20-20 water soluble fertilizer applied at half strength every time I watered them. I opted for a balanced fertilizer so that each part of the plant would receive enough food to help them regenerate themselves. The third week after the power outage, I switched to a starter fertilizer 10-52-10, again applied at half strength. This will be applied for another two weeks. By using a starter fertilizer, new and, stronger existing root development will occur. This will boost the plants feeding system, giving them the strength they need to fully recover. Once the plants are showing signs of producing new growth and roots, they will be put back on their normal diets, either 20-20-20, 15-30-15 or 15-8-15 depending on the plant.

On an added note, when the power was restored, I gathered the plants all up from their various locations in the house and placed them under grow lights to further aid the recovery process.  Most of them have been returned to their normal spots, but a couple of the violets are taking their time to recover, so they are still under lights.

Poinsettias, red in particular, are the most favoured to plant to give and receive at Christmas. How and why this Mexican native became so popular is due to a man named Joel R. Poinsett, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico in 1828. He was the first one to introduce the showy plant which bears his name, to North America.  Because poinsettias burst into full colour during the Holiday Season, and its bright red bracts resemblance to the Star of Bethlehem, it’s soared to fame as the plant to represent Christmas. In the century and a half since its first appearance on our continent, it has not lost it popularity.

When plant breeders got a hold of the poinsettia, they introduced white, pink, marbled, mottled, burgundy, and every shade of red imaginable. Not content with just offering us a variety of colours, they began playing with the foliage and we now see curly leafed and variegated leafed plants.  If you are not of big fan of red poinsettias, there is now a multitude of colours for you to choose from.

The coloured petals of the poinsettia are not really flowers, but bracts. The flower is actually the tiny yellow centre of the bract.

Poinsettias are very easy to care for. If you don’t have a green thumb or much time to fuss over a plant, then the poinsettia is for you!

-          As soon as you get the plant home, remove the protective sleeve. This prevents damaging ethylene from building up.

-           If you’ve purchased the poinsettias as gifts, but don’t intend on giving them right away, remove the sleeve until just before you deliver them.

- Place the poinsettia in a bright location, away from cold drafts. They deeply resent cold.

- Poinsettias do not like wet feet! Keep the soil on the dry side, but do not allow the plant to wilt. That just shortens its life.

- When to water? When the pot feels light. If the bracts (leaves) are beginning to wilt, you are not watering soon enough.

- Remove the decorative pot cover before you water.

- When you water, drench the pot, being careful not to splash the foliage.

- Fill the pot to the rim with water and allow the water to drain out the bottom of the pot. I usually water them in the kitchen sink to be sure they

  are well drained.

- After ten minutes or so, replace the decorative pot cover and you’re done!

- You should not need to fertilize the poinsettia over the holidays.

When the season is done, toss the poinsettia on the compost pile. If you are up to experimenting, you can attempt to keep the poinsettia over until late spring or early summer. At that point, cut back any weak growth and set it outside for the summer. Bring it indoors in early September, and you’ll be ready to force the poinsettia to show colour for your next Christmas.

Here’s an annual that we grew for the first time this year. Based on its performance, it won’t be the last!

Perennial, grown as an annual in colder climates (hardy to 40F)

Light: full sun

Height:  28” – 34”

Width: 16” – 18”

Flowering: mid to late summer

Flowers: tiny pink singles, star shaped flowers maturing to bright red berries on tall, slender, multi branched stems

Leaves: chartreuse, mounding

Watering: keep on the dry side

Fertilize: once a month using 15-30-15

Other: drought tolerant, heat loving, very low maintenance

Pests: insect resistant

Diseases: disease resistant

Uses: containers, borders, naturalized areas, makes a great stand alone (accent) plant

All in all, I have to say that Talinum is one of the best container plants I have ever grown! I am very satisfied with it and can see it becoming a staple in our gardens.

I will be attempting to dry stems of Talinum seed heads to incorporate into indoor arrangements this winter. I’ll let you know how that works out!