OK – the contests are closed.

The one that got a lot of you writing with various descriptions turned out to be a brain teaser. I thought I was pretty clear that I wanted the botanic description of the flower but folks kept giving me the plant name. (in a variety of forms and formats I note) :-)

So (insert drum roll here) the answer is that this flower can be described as “verticillaster”. This means, “a false whorl, applied to a pair of opposite cymes that are more or less confluent and seem to surround the stem” (Hortus Third) In other words, one flower comes up out of another flower and although they look like complete and fully formed flowers, they aren’t. This is found mostly in the Labitae or mint plants (Phlomis and Leonotis are two prime examples)

And nobody got it. So, I’ll have to work on another brain teaser. :-)

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However, renaming the tag lines for the newsletter generated a firestorm of creativity. Wow! You guys are great.

I’ve done the first sorting (well over a hundred entries) and have identified the top ones. Now, I’m going to take a few days to let those thoughts mellow and go back at it next week to pick the winners.

I’m going to ask some friends to help me pick so I’ll have several opinions on this one.

And I’ll contact all winners directly to ask you which of the ebooks you’d like. Note that I have three currently available – organic lawns, lavender, and vegetable gardening guide.

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If anybody is in Toronto and wants a flower show in two weeks…

Geranium, Pelargonium and Fuchsia Society of Ontario

Annual Show and Competition - August 21, 2005 held at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, 6 Garamond Court, Toronto, Ontario, M3C 1Z5
Plant set up: 10 - 11:30 am
Judging: 11:30 am - 1:30 pm
Viewing: 1:30 - 4:00 pm
Admission is zero cost

New Articles for You

All my new articles are listed here. Click on the archives link at the site to see others.

I’ve written a ton of articles in the past two weeks. There’s a new area at www.simplegiftsfarm.com on garden design that will see an article a week up. The first one on raise bed gardening design went up yesterday. Other articles include: herbal caraway, helenium, and anemone coronaria. A list of blue flowers went up on the perennial site (see the lists page for the url).

Want to ask a question? Click here to ask a gardening question.www.gardening-tips-perennials.com/askagardeningquestion.html

Your Questions Answered

Do You Want to Grow Lavender?

After the gladiola has bloomed I see there are "seed pods" where the flowers were. Are they plantable and how should I use them. I have not noticed them before and can't find any answers.

A: Glads will produce seed. Treat them like any other perennial seed. Keep cool for the winter (crisper of frig) and then plant in Feb/March indoors to get started. Transplant outdoors to grow on. There’s instructions on the websites if you search for starting seeds.

A glad also produces tiny corms around the base of the main corm – they’ll be hanging on the corm when you dig it up. These can be stored in the same way as the bigger ones and planted out the following year. They’ll take two to three years to produce a flowering sized corm but its an easy way to increase the numbers of glads you grow.

I’m glad you asked. :-)

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Sprayed my silver lace two weeks ago for Japanese beetles. All beetles seemed gone. Vine was lush, green, fasting growing less than two days ago. Now large portions of vine - leaves dryed up and yellow and large parts of vine look dead? What can I do to save it? - will it grow back this season if I cut it down? Have one silver lace plant at each of four posts for large arbor. Any advise to save would be appreciated.

A: Hmmm, there must be a lesson here. Likely not to use the wrong pesticide and or one in an aerosol can that will “burn” the leaves of the plant you’re trying to kill.

Can you save it. If it was lush and growing well, it will likely resprout leaves. Or if you cut it to the ground in the fall, it will likely throw new shoots next year. You obviously can’t bring those dead leaves back to life.

I’d be tempted to spray the entire plant with a fish emulsion and/or compost tea to try to feed whatever foliage is still alive. I’d also brew up some compost tea (instructions on the www.organic-gardening-tips.com website) and feed the roots (soak ‘em) with that.

Cut it back? Depends on how much damage it sustained and how many leaves are still there. You’re in Indiana so you’re going to get winter and the objective is not to get it growing too lush this fall. I’d leave it alone for now and then cut it to the ground after it goes dormant. Let the roots throw new shoots next spring. Feed it well with compost then.

p.s. next time use an organic solution – you’ll be much happier

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I have planted some annual asters and they have all grown beautifully, but there is something affecting the leaves ,it is in the early stages, but a few of the plants have leaves that are speckled with brown splotches and want to turn upside down the whole stem twists.?? I have bought some insectcidal soap spray but do not see any insects. Have you any suggestions?? Thank you Anne

A: Sounds like one of the many, many, many leaf spot fungus problems that Asters regularly get. Could also be powdery mildew. Get a fungicide programme going and you might save them. Do a search for botrytis and you’ll get a spray programme using lime sulphur and baking soda alternately that works very well on a broad range of fungal problems.

You’ll most often see these problems developing right about now in plants that are packed together just a “tad” too tight or without adequate air circulation or just because they’re asters and fungal leaf problems go hand in hand with this darn plant.

I note that some of the new perennial asters claim to be mildew resistant.

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How do you turn a Pink Snowball Bush into a White Snowball Bush?

A: You don’t. You dig up the pink one and plant a white one.

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we have a maple tree that is spliting very badly yet the tree is growing a good 6 inches each year can we do anything to help the tree from spliting any futher? or should we be worried?

A: Well, every now and then I see this question and every now and then I wonder about trees a bit.

Splitting trees are usually a result of poor grafting coming to light. The old fashioned view was that there was a temperature difference between the bark and winter temps and this made the bark split. This old viewpoint may have some causal factor still but the research on ornamental trees (Shigo) points to the graft or root damage of some kind as the source of the problem.

The question remains, will the tree grow out of it or will it die? And the answer to that is that I haven’t a clue.

If you keep your tree stress-free and feed it properly and water it the way it demands, it may very well outgrow the problem.

If you stress the tree, it will likely throw up its roots and turn itself into firewood.

Worry – well, I’m not worried because it’s not my tree but the last one that went that way on me, I cut down. Mind you, I also decided that the tree was in the wrong spot as well so that helped the decision.

What you SHOULD NOT DO is succumb and “treat” the tree split with tree wound dressing. This stuff is the worst idea you could have. It will keep the bacteria and fungi locked inside the tree where they have damp, moist conditions and they are protected from the drying and killing effects of the sun and wind.

I’ve known trees that have opened and split every winter and spring, closed up again later in the season and lived quite happily. Mind you, the gardeners worried every year that this would be the last. Somebody has to worry about the tree so I guess it’s the gardener’s job. Good luck

Remember – stress free. Replicate beneficial nature for your tree.

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I have flower boxes at my second floor east-facing windows. They are quite shallow (5") and narrow (6"). In the summer, I fill them with annuals. I would love to have them filled with flowering bulbs next spring. How would I do this? With such a narrow, shallow space, would the bulbs freeze (I am in zone 5.) if I plant them directly in the box in the fall? Can I refrigerate the bulbs over the winter and then force them timing so that they will just be coming into bloom mid-April when danger of frost in past? I could give the bulbs plenty of sun, but cannot give them a COOL, sunny position. Ideally I would like a mix of tulips and narcissus with staggered bloom time from mid-April to the end of May. I would add one of the taller varieties of grape hyacinth, as well as pansies to have something cascading. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

A: OK – I have this question several times this week in various forms so perhaps it is a good time to think about next year’s bulbs. You all know about my bulb site at http://www.flower-garden-bulbs.com so you’ll be able to find info there on forcing and growing bulbs.

Here’s the short answer. If you freeze bulbs solid in small containers, they’ll die. That’s the direct answer to growing them outdoors in pots or window boxes or anything other than the ground. If you can stop them from freezing, you’ll be fine.

And I can hear you saying, “But they freeze in the ground!” Well, yes and no. A bulb develops anti-freeze like compounds to help it survive freezing temps but like the anti-freeze in your car, it is only good to a certain point. Once you get below that point, the bulb dies. Small containers in cold climates will get to that point. Small containers in warm climates will not have enough cold temperatures to put the bulb through complete dormancy and flower bud initiation. It’s a fine line.

So what’s to do? Plant bulbs in individual pots or pots that will fit inside your window boxes or big planters. Put them into cold storage as per instructions for forcing bulbs on the flower garden bulbs page above. Keep them in storage until you want to force them outdoors. If they are in small pots, they can be artfully arranged and crammed together (still in their pots) and then the surface can be covered with peat moss or other mulch to cover/disguise the pots. This is how the pro’s tend to do it and how flower shows definitely do it. All those blooming bulbs you see in spring flower shows are sitting in pots covered by mulch.

Or, arrange with a nearby greenhouse to purchase pre-chilled bulbs next spring for a spring planting. The pre-chilled bulbs are readily available through bulb mailorder companies or specialist bulb places. You can find them by running a search for “pre-chilled bulbs” on google. Use the pre-chilled bulbs and plant up your planters.

I note that Southern gardeners will have to use pre-chilled bulbs and treat them like annuals.

From My Garden To Yours

This column comes the official notice that my tomatoes are ripening; I had the first red one last weekend. The crimson tide of tomatoes is about to begin and with it toasted sandwiches slathered in butter and garlic, with a bit of basil and parsley. Summer vegetable gardening is about to pay off in a handsome way. The tomato patch has been the most productive part of the garden this year and if there was any doubt in my mind about the value of double digging, adding a lot of compost and organic matter, it has been officially dispelled. I confess there wasn’t a doubt as I’ve seen this kind of soil improvement digging work several times in the past but it does feel rather satisfying to see it proven again.

I hope you haven’t given up on your vegetable garden yet. There’s lots more you can be doing to extend your harvest right up to the bitter end and, dare I say, heavy frost. It seems rather ludicrous in the midst of a wicked heat wave to be planning for cooler fall gardens but this is exactly what I want you to consider this week.

To begin with, as my gardens prove, you don’t have to have a huge area to sow a few vegetables. At a visit to fellow garden writer Marj Mason Hogue’s (www.masonhogue.com)garden a month ago, I saw how she had incorporated her vegetables right into her flower beds and managed to make it all look rather stunning. You can tuck a few attractive chard plants here and there and with their red stems and bright green leaves, they are quite pretty plants. The darker red leaves of some lettuce are also attractive in their own right. Just because you don’t have a so-called “vegetable garden” does not restrict you from having a few fresh vegetables and herbs to enjoy during our fall season.

If you like fresh salad greens, these plants are perfect for a fall gardening project. In fact, if you want to save a few bucks, what you’ll spend on salad greens in the grocery store next week will easily purchase enough seeds to feed you all fall from a very small garden space. And seeds are your avenue for success. You’ll want to firm the areas (gently) you have chosen to grow your fall salads. Scatter seed so that the seeds are two to three inches apart on that firmed soil. Then barely cover the seed so wandering birds can’t enjoy it but do not bury it deeply. Keep the area moist and in a week or so, you’ll see tiny shoots emerging. Grow these shoots (a little organic fish emulsion fertilizer works wonders here) until they are just touching each other and then start thinning the smaller ones out. Eat the thinnings, you’ll find they are very tender and tasty. Grow the larger plants until they touch again and thin again. Eat the thinnings. See the pattern? This is easy gardening. When you’re left with one or perhaps two plants in that area, you can either harvest individual leaves off the plants or harvest the entire plant for a salad all by itself.

So what can you plant? What about lettuce. There are a lot of very good coloured leaf varieties available such as ‘Red Sails’, ‘Ruby’ and even ‘Salad Bowl’ Romaine lettuce handles the cold temperatures really well and you might look for ‘Rouge d’Hiver’ or ‘Freckles’ to combine colour and cold tolerance. Then you might want to add a few really tough plants such as ‘North Pole’, ‘Arctic King’ or ‘Winter Marvel’ all lettuce that will handle very cool temperatures and keep on producing.

Quite a few gardeners think that Kale tastes better once it has been heavily frosted. Again, there is a wide variety of kale leaf colours to pick from. And yes, you can eat the fancy varieties that are sold as bedding plants. If you want attractive plants, try one of the ‘Redbor’ names, you won’t go wrong. I note that traditional kale leaves with their blue tones are attractive when planted next to red leaf lettuce. If you’re planting kale, then you had better plan on growing Swiss chard as well. This is the undisputed queen of the cold weather salad crop. Grow a variety such as ‘Bright Lights’; this variety has a variety of colours in the ribs of the plant that will really brighten up the garden. You’ll easily find some of the red-ribbed varieties on seed racks so do plan to add this plant to your fall garden.

And what about spicy arugula, mustard greens, cress, broccoli raab (a sprouting broccoli that is stir fried) or Mache (corn salad) to liven up the salad. The slightly bitter endive and radicchio will balance the salads taste so add them sparingly. If you’ve ever wanted to try Oriental Greens, this is the time to add mizuna, tatsoi, pac choi, and bok choy to your garden list. The oriental leafy vegetables are easy to grow, tasty and extremely cold hardy. These will be some of the last plants left standing in the late fall. Even radishes, if planted now, will add some zest to your fall table.

A few dollars worth of seed and you’ll have all the salad stuff you want for the fall. Even if you don’t make those cold hardy varieties the mainstay of your kitchen table, they will provide a great source of fresh flavours. So do plan ahead and visit a seed rack near you this week. Plant and harvest right up until the dreaded frost-word becomes a reality in your neighbourhood.