What's In This Issue

- wherein the author loses his mind and moves his farm.

Questions:

Rose bush pruning. Horseradish More on grass in sidewalk cracks Septic tank runoff Maple tree losing leaves More on tulips Honeysuckle pruing Lilac Pruning

And more....

From the Garden:

Water Makes the Garden Bloom

Doug's Notes

This is all by way of relaunching my writing career and getting serious about it again. So, I have some hopes that this newsletter will be a bit more regular in the next few months.

My new ISP has spam filtering so in order to get through it, please read the section on how to ask questions

Perennials All Season Explained Here

I've built a page to tell you about my new book called "Perennials All Season".

The book tells you how to design a perennial garden so it will be in bloom all summer long.

It also describes the best backbone plants to put in that garden.

You can see the description of the book here.

We've got questions!

I'm glad to answer questions for readers. If you have a question, it helps if you ask them in this way:

1) Hit return on your email browser to get the right email address.

2) Please **delete** all the newsletter text so I don't get it all back and have to hunt through it for your text.

3) Give me your location. The answer to a question often is determined by where the garden is located.

4) Have patience. I'll answer as many as I can in the newsletter but there's way more of you than there is of me and I simply can't get to them all. I'll do my best.

A: Terry, this is one of those big broad questions that’s kind of hard to answer in a few short paragraphs. Generally, the pruning question is something that is important and the easiest answer there is to take a cut back about 12 inches from the blossom if you are growing hybrid tea roses. Take the entire stem for sure. If you are growing antique roses, I confess I never pruned them because it was way too much work.

As for growing roses, you can read some of the articles on my other website at www.simplegiftsfarm.com/marticle.html

Or, you can purchase one of the few remaining copies of my “Tender Roses for Tough Climates” books (again at www.simplegiftsfarm.com) for full instructions.

Or, you can wait until I make it an e-book (one of this winter’s new writer projects) :-)

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Doug, I'm a big fan of growing Chile peppers, and I wanted to start growing Horseradish, but I don't know where to buy the roots for planting. Any ideas or on-line sources that you know of? Thanks for the great article on Horseradish, Chaz

A: You know you can find almost anything on the web if you go to google.com and enter the name of what you want. I got my first roots from William Dam Seeds in Ontario but if you go to a farmer’s market and find a chunk of root, you can plant that and it will grow for sure. This is one easy plant to grow and one difficult plant to get rid of. :-)

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Topic: Weeds & grass between cracks in sidewalks

Hey Doug,

I have heard from reliable sources that the best nontoxic way to rid your sidewalk of these problems is to squirt full strength white vinegar on them. Usually works with one application but tougher stuff may take two!

Hope this helps! By the way I am a partner in a small garden center in the Richmond ,Virginia area, Sanctuaries Unique Garden Center (www.sanctuariesgardens.com). I have really enjoyed your newsletters!

Thanks, Kathy

A: Vinegar works but only if it is the higher concentration stuff. Don’t bother using household vinegar (acetic acid) at the 3% concentration. It doesn’t even annoy the weeds but just gets them ready for the salad. You will find that “pickling” vinegar at 7% is more effective. There is a product out that combines acetic acid and lemon juice that is an effective “burn” type of product for killing weeds. Called “Burnout” it works well.

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We have a septic tank and this produces a "runoff". I am told this is necessary so I have to live with it BUT it creates a VERY wet area in my yard, (which cannot be mowed except in drought conditions) so I am left with a yucky black wet mess. (It does not smell bad thank God). Grass grows quite happily there, so I'm asking, are there some perennials who might just love those conditions? Flowers would be nice, grasses welcome. Any ideas??? From your newest fan, Kristi

A: Kristi – wow! I would have thought runoff from a septic system would have been a no-no and you’d want to have it fixed. That condition certainly isn’t to code in our community but …

Are there plants that take wet conditions? Absolutely! (and they’ll love the nutrient levels) See the article on bog plants at www.simplegiftsfarm.com/marticle.html You didn’t say whether it was sun or shade so I can’t be more specific than sending you to the article for more plant ideas. But the answer to your question is “yes” – lots of plants like wet feet.

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I'm a first time reader and have enjoyed this past issue very much. I have a question for you and hope that I have successfully deleted your message so you don't get it all back. Question: I live in Michigan and have a 15 year old sugar maple that loses huge amounts of healthy green leaves each spring. It appears to be very healthy otherwise. I have talked with the nursery that planted the tree for me and they always tell me that either the weather has been too wet, or on other occasions, too dry, and I should water it. I don't think they know what the problem is. Any Ideas.

A: I don’t know what your specific problem is but I can tell you that leaf drop in a tree is a direct response to stress. I’ve only seen it in drought years never (at least in my area) in wet years. (Although wet feet will kill a sugar maple) Other stress agents will also cause a tree to defoliate – herbicides drift from lawn spray, root damage from lawnmowers or whipper snippers etc. If this 15 year old tree does it *every* year, I’d be inclined to look at the management first and then soil and drainage.

If you aren’t whipper-snipping against the bark (we call this whipper-snipper disease and it will kill trees) or mowing the roots or covering them with excess soil every time they come to the surface, or digging around the roots then we can likely eliminate management. I would also ensure that there’s no herbicide activity anywhere near the root zone.

The next step is to compost the living daylights out of this tree. I’d be inclined to put an inch or two down from the trunk out to the drip line this fall and just let it sit there to be incorporated by the soil worms etc.

Next spring, I’d remember that a big tree requires several hundred gallons of water a day and once a week I’d leave the hose dripping next to the tree overnight to give it a good watering. (unless it has rained heavily) Here’s an area I can’t answer because I don’t know whether the area the tree is in tends to waterlog in the spring (causing stress and leaf drop) or has poor drainage or is too sandy so there’s no water retention.

There’s almost too many variables for a quick answer in a newsletter. The thing you have to understand is that leaf drop (in any plant) is a stress reaction. Your job is to figure out what that stress is.

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Hi Doug. I just wanted to comment on the tulip advice you have been giving. I live in AR, as you remember, and sometimes the tulips here don't fare too well either. I think it is a combination of things...weather is surely always the culprit. From not enough "winter" to too wet of a winter, all the way too a way to hot and dry spring causing premature loss of the leaves. My comment though is this, to the woman asking about "freezing them" to make them become viable and bloom. I think you may have confused her, and I would hate to think that she sticks them in the freezer hoping to have lovely tulips next year. Just a thought.

A: Thanks Joann. (This is why I like writing this newsletter – readers are almost always quick to point out when I’m not clear or when I may have missed a point):-)

To be sure – if you put a bulb in a freezer, the only thing you’ll wind up with is a frozen bulb. No flowers. In the South, if you want to force bulbs, then you can pot them up and put them in the frig for 12 weeks to cool. Or, you can purchase pre-chilled bulbs for a single years blooms knowing that the lack of cold weather won’t let the bulb reset a bud for the following year. Or, you can simply understand that we here in the north can’t grow massive Magnolia and you can’t grow great bulbs. :-)

I also note that it has never stopped a gardener from wanting something they can not grow. (I’ll never forgive that chipmunk for eating all my live oak seedlings) :-)

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I live in St. Paul, MN zone 4. I have a 5 year-old Dropmore Scarlet honeysuckle that is going wild. I can’t figure out how to prune it with all the twisting and tangled branches. I want it to grow over a railing, and it is, but now the bottom and undersides are bare branches and only the tops have leaves. Do I cut it off at ground level and start over? Is there a special way to prune these types of plants? Thanks

A: Generally, I prune these things with a chainsaw. :-) The bare bottoms are pretty typical of the plant. Once it establishes top growth, the trunk wood tends to mature and go bare. There really isn’t a “rule” for pruning them, simply grab your courage in your hand once the leaves have fallen off and start.

If you want to do something now, you can look for any dead wood and remove that at this time of year. If you have had winter dieback, then eliminating dead wood will instantly make the vine look better (this is the same for any woody shrub folks).

Cutting back now will encourage new growth and increase the bushiness of the plant. Do not do any cutting back after the end of July. You’ll only produce tender wood that will tend to be winter-killed.

Honeysuckles are not well-behaved vines that can be trained like roses to cover structures. They are a scrambly kind of plant that will head off in all directions but will eventually cover a structure.

Just watch the aphids on this plant – they’re notorious for acting as a breeding ground for this pest.

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live in southern Ontario in Trenton and have a question about Lilacs which are blooming here now. My bushes have turned into large trees. Can I prune them back to about 3 feet high and still have nice blooms next year. They have become quite woody and are not blooming well. Should I do this after the blooming period is over.

Thanks Heather

A: I know this is a tad late for this answer but a lilac blooms on old wood and pruning them back that drastically will ensure the plant will not produce blooms for next year. A drastic reduction in height like that will stress any plant severely. Some plants will not appreciate this (it depends on how old the plant is) and will respond by sending new shoots from the ground and allowing the old trunks to die.

A lilac produces flower buds (those fat things on the branches now) in the six to eight weeks following flowering. So if you prune it back right after flowering, it can produce new shoots and blooms for the following year. If you prune it anytime other than immediately after flowering, you’re likely cutting off the buds or the baby buds.

Full sun is necessary for a lilac to bloom well. If you’ve reduced that over time, then the blooms will suffer as well. And, lilacs are not small shrubs (except for the dwarf lilacs) Trying to keep them short won’t make either the shrub or you happy in the long run.

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News Releases and Interesting Sites

http://www.biodiversityhotspots.org/xp/Hotspots

A biodiversity hotspot is an area that contains a large or uniquely different collection of species that require preservation. The sites profiled on this website contain 44 % of the earth's plant species and 35% of vertebrate species but only takes up 1.4% of the earth's land area.

Sounds like something we should save!

From My Garden to Yours

Luckily for gardeners, water is the universal solvent. This means that more things will dissolve in water (eventually) than any other liquid including acids. Soak something in water long enough and it will dissolve. Not only that but water tends to stick together in drops rather than spread out evenly in a thin film. This stickiness is called capillary action. When we combine the stickiness of water with its ability to dissolve minerals and fertilizer salts, this means that plants can suck food up into their leaves. As one molecule rises up the tree, it literally drags other molecules behind it. You can see this work in your own kitchen. If you put an edge of paper towel into a bowl of water, the water will “climb” the paper towel. This is capillary action at its best and it is why watering the bottom of houseplants is often recommended. The water will eventually climb up the soil into the top of the pot and evenly water the plant.

Gardeners want to use water in adequate amounts for their plants. The number one rule in growing containers, whether they are hanging baskets, small houseplant pots or giant whiskey barrels is that every time you water the pot, you continue watering until at least 30% of the water has gone out the bottom of the pot. We want to soak the pot with each watering. My own kids learned this, often the hard way, when we had the nursery. When they watered the hundreds of pots of perennials sitting on the benches, each one had to be watered so the water came out the bottom of the pot. The monotony of watering properly wasn’t one of their favourite greenhouse tasks. The success of your containers is clearly related to how well and deeply you water your plants.

During a rainstorm when the weather guys say we received an inch of rain, we actually received 27,154 gallons of water onto each acre of lawn. Just for the record, this water weighed in at 113 tons or 226,192 pounds. This is a useful way of remembering how much water your lawn requires because the average lawn is going to require this amount of water every 5 to 7 days. Most recommendations call for between one to one and a half inches of water every week. It is best to apply this in two applications of three quarters of an inch spaced several days apart rather than a single weekly application. It is bad gardening practice to water every day once plants are established. It is only during the establishment period that we water our ornamental plants daily. By the way, the world's record for rain belongs to Mt. Waialeale, in Hawaii, where the average rainfall is 450 inches per year, its single year record is 642 inches during one twelve-month period.

The single best way to water a flower garden or lawn is by using a sprinkler. Set up the sprinkler, put a short plastic container inside the water pattern and turn it on. Let it run for a half hour and then measure the depth of water in the container. This depth is your rate of water per half hour. If your depth was one quarter of an inch and you want to apply three quarters, the time to sprinkle is one and a half hours for each section of the garden. We use a sprinkler because it is more uniform than hand watering. Hand watering is fine for containers and individual plants but for soaking a garden or lawn, a sprinkler is the tool of choice. Besides who wants to stand there carrying 113 tons of water every week?

And not only is the sprinkler the tool of choice for watering the garden, it is the tool of choice for kids (large and small) to cool off on a hot day. How many of you remember running through cold sprinklers and sliding on the sun-warmed grass? How many of you let your kids or grandkids play that same ageless game?

The Last Word

Let others tell of storms and showers,

I’ll only count your sunny hours.

Book of Sundial Mottoes

This motto chosen by Queen Alexandra for the sundial at Sandringham.