My story about the giant agave in Baltimore's Conservatory and Botanic Garden, which was nipped by frost and will die without producing its once-in-a-lifetime flower plume, piqued the interest of Baltimore Sun researcher Paul McCardell.

Its common name is Century Plant because that's about how long it takes before it matures and blooms -- and then dies. But it is tough to track its bloom cycle because nobody is around for the whole hundred years.

But Paul found several news articles in the archives of The Sun describing this rare occurrence.

In June 1897, there was a story in The Sun about a giant agave at the White House that had send up its fast-growing flower stalk and was set to bloom at any minute. Records suggest it had been at the White House for 70 years.

There was also a report in a July 1881 edition of The Sun describing a collection of agaves in Patterson Park (under a headline "Our Suburban Parks.")

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Jed Kirschbaum

 

 

In October 1907, at Evergreen, the Charles Street home of Mrs. T. Harrison Garrett, a 35-year-old agave sent up a 28-foot stalk and was reported by The Sun to be in full bloom.

In September of the same year, a century plant at the East North Avenue home of a woman only identified as Mrs. Dell "was in bloom last night and was the object of admiration from many of Mrs. Dell's neighbors and friends."

Meanwhile, in July of 1895, an agave was blooming on the Catonsville property of August Auer & Sons with more than 1,000 buds, according to The Sun. Mr. Auer planned to cut the plant up and give pieces of it away as souvenirs when it died.

And finally, The Sun carried a lengthy and overwrought story in July 1902 describing the blooming of the plant at the St. Paul Street home of Mr. Douglas H. Thomas.

"Persons passing on the opposite side of the street looked in wonder at the stalk without knowing what it was or guessing that this plant, after a century of stagnation, was about to burst forth into blossom."

Clearly, a bloom so rare is worth the purple-est prose.

 

Posted by Susan Reimer at 1:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden news
        

Ilex x meserveae

Photo and text by Marian Hengemihle

If you are seeking berries and beautiful holly foliage, these hybrids are the plants for you.

Meserve hollies are an entire group of hybridized plants including Blue Hollies, the China Series, and others.

The growth habit of these broadleaved evergreens ranges from dense and shrubby to pyramidal. They can serve as hedges, specimens, understory plants, or informal barrier plantings.

Cultivars sport blue-green or green shiny leaves with spines on the leaf margins. Small white flowers are produced in April/May and attract pollinators. Female plants produce bright red berries in autumn. You will need a specific variety of male pollinator nearby for good fruit set.

Robins, catbirds, and mockingbirds relish the berries and can take refuge in the canopy. Most hollies in this family grow to about 8 feet in height and width, but it varies by cultivar.

Prefers moist well drained soil in full sun to partial shade. Plants are cold hardy but avoid windswept locations that dry out leaves. Little pruning is needed for these carefree evergreens

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Jed Kirschbaum

It is a tragedy of botanical proportions.

A giant agave basks in the warmth of Baltimore’s Rawlings Conservatory and Botanic Gardens, its spike of flower buds shooting through the roof and toward the sky.

The cactus, a resident of the conservatory for decades, is known as the Century Plant for its long life.

But a recent frost claimed its yellow petals before they could open and now, the agave will die without doing what it does just once during its time here on earth – bloom.

 “I called the director of the Santé Fe Botanical Garden,” said Kate Blom, the conservatory greenhouse manager. “I asked him if there was any hope that it would bloom. He said, ‘I wouldn’t think so.’”

Blom was stunned when she returned from vacation in September to see a flower spike shooting out of the center of the cactus, which is at least 8-feet tall and 10-feet wide. Normally, a flower spike will appear on a succulent in June, she said.

“It was growing a foot a day,” she said of the 30-foot spike, which is about six inches in diameter. “You could literally stand here and watch it. It was our own beanstalk.”

The staff removed a panel of glass from the roof of the Desert Room to allow the spike to keep climbing. And they waited, cameras at the ready, for the enormous plume of pale yellow flowers that were certain to pop open at any moment.

It didn’t happen.

And a deep cold Sunday night appears to have dashed any hope that it will.

“Suddenly, it has turned into a Charlie Brown Christmas tree,” said a saddened Blom, looking up at the shriveled buds.

The Agave americana, a variety called “Marginata” for the yellow edges on its green leaves, will decline and die over the next few weeks, Blom predicted. The once-in-a-lifetime plume of flowers takes all the plant’s energy.

However, a secondary and smaller spike of flowers with a few buds on it remains inside the glass roof of the conservatory. Staff will cut back the large, wilting flower spike and replace the missing pane of glass in hopes that those buds in the smaller spike will warm and open and produce seed for an offspring.

That’s because the agave has not produced any “pups,” baby versions of itself that spring up under its sprawling limbs and carry on after the parent plant dies.

“No babies,” said Blom.

There is no record of the arrival of this agave at the conservatory in Druid Hill Park.

“Somebody probably donated it when it got too big for their house,” Blom speculated. That happened, she said, 30, 40 or maybe 50 years ago. No one knows how old agaves are because they generally live longer than the people around them.

When it dies, it will leave a giant hole – in the conservatory and in the hearts of staff members who have been waiting for months for its final bloom.

For her part, Blom is sanguine. 

“The Pollyanna in me says, ‘Oh my. A whole new landscaping opportunity

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Garden news
        

Nobody was happier than I was to open my Christmas presents last year and find a soil knife and a pair of Felco pruners.

And they say gardeners are hard to buy for....

It is that time of year again when we offer our suggestions for what to purchase the gardener in your life.

This year, we turn to our friends at Garden Rant, where contributing blogger Susan Harris has done her retail homework and is making a list and checking it twice.

Among her suggestions? Hand tools (such as soil knives and pruners) are always a hit, as are hats, birdfeeders and weather instruments, compost bins, rain barrels and rain gauges.

Check out Susan's list, but then take a look at the readers' comments. Among the suggestions of the Garden Rant followers are gift certificates for some of our favorite catalogs, such as Old House Gardens and Brent and Becky's Bulbs.

Hint. Hint.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Garden gifts
        

Photo credit: Michael Lemmon

Haemanthus albiflos
 
Haemanthus albiflos is a beautiful bulb that grows in the the cool, shady areas of the coastal region of South Africa.

In late autumn or early winter, they form small white clusters tipped in bright yellow that resemble a shaving brush, giving it the common name “White Paint Brush.”

It prefers light shade and a well-drained soil. This plant does best in warmer climates but is easy to maintain in pots and can be brought indoors in frost prone areas.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore's Rawlings Conservatory
        

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Amy Davis

I am writing about poinsettias in the AT HOME section of The Baltimore Sun, thanks to the folks at Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville, who allowed me to visit their greenhouses, with literally acres of plants, and to watch staff member Kerry Kelley "paint" poinsettias in magical colors.

Thanks also to Baltimore Sun photographer Amy Davis for her wonderful photo gallery of poinsettias.

Since the topic is poinsettias, I thought I'd share the advice of the folks at Ecke Ranch in Southern California, one of the premier growers of the holiday plant, on how to choose and care for your poinsettia:

• Select plants with stiff stems, good bract retention and no signs of wilting, breaking or drooping.
• Be wary of plants displayed in paper, plastic or mesh sleeves, or plants that are too closely crowded in a sales display. A poinsettia needs its space, and the longer a plant remains sleeved, the more the plant quality will deteriorate. Crowding can reduce air flow around the plants and cause premature bract loss or other problems.
• Examine the plant's soil: it's best to avoid waterlogged soil, particularly if the plant appears wilted. Such a condition could signify irreversible root rot.
• When transporting the plant, protect it from chilling winds and temperatures below 50° F. Re-inserting the poinsettia into a sleeve or a large, roomy shopping bag will usually provide adequate protection for transporting the plant home when it is cold and windy.
   

• DO place your plant in indirect sunlight for at least six hours per day. If direct sun can't be avoided, diffuse the light with a shade or sheer curtain.
• DO provide room temperatures between 68 - 70° F. Generally speaking, if you are comfortable, so is your poinsettia.
• DO water your plant when the soil feels dry to the touch.
• DO use a large, roomy shopping bag to protect your plant when transporting it.
• DO fertilize your plant AFTER THE BLOOMING SEASON with a balanced, all-purpose fertilizer.
   
• DON'T place plants near cold drafts or excessive heat. Avoid placing plants near appliances, fireplaces or ventilating ducts.
• DON'T expose plants to temperatures below 50° F. Poinsettias are sensitive to cold, so avoid placing them outside during the winter months.
• DON'T overwater your plant, or allow it to sit in standing water. Always remove a plant from any decorative container before watering, and allow the water to drain completely.
• DON'T expose your plant to chilling winds when transporting it.
  

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden tips
        

My colleague Chris Kaltenbach is all about Christmas trees in the LIVE section of The Baltimore Sun.

He is writing about the Festival of Trees at the Timonium Fairgrounds, an annual extravaganza of decorating.

Plus, he has all kinds of advice on how to take care of your tree. 

Me? I have the cutest artificial tree. I know. That's bad for a garden writer.

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Barbara Haddock Taylor

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Garden tips
        

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Jed Kirschbaum

Q: I still have a row of turnips and carrots in the vegetable garden.  The tops are frozen but are the roots still okay to eat?

A: You'll need to dig some of your remaining root crops to determine their eating quality.  Root crops planted in late summer or early fall can often be overwintered in Maryland if covered with a deep blanket of straw or chopped leaves after the tops die back.  A thick mulch insulates the edible roots.  Unprotected carrots and turnips tend to lose their eating quality when they shrivel and rot due to repeated cycles of freezing and thawing temperatures.

Q: I love using fall leaves to mulch my garden. My southern magnolia tree sheds a lot of leaves which I would like to grind up and use as mulch. However, people have told me that the leaves aren't good for the soil. What’s your take on this? Should I add lime or something?

A: Magnolia leaves are tough and decompose slowly, so they make a long-lasting natural mulch under magnolia trees. We have no idea why they would be a problem.  If you grind them up, you certainly can use them as mulch around other plants. Virtually all organic materials end up at a neutral pH of 7 after being composted, so acidity is not a problem and lime is not warranted to correct a low pH.  In fact, lime is not recommended for compost piles because it interferes with the microbial activity.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Any of us from the Mid-Atlantic who have made the spring pilgrimage to the U.S. Arboretum outside Washington to see the astonishing azalea collection will be dismayed to learn that there are plans to destroy it.

Don Hyatt, recognized as a national authority on azaleas, reports in Washington Gardener magazine that the azaleas will be cut back and the stumps painted with an herbicide.

The reasons given by Scott Aker, garden unit leader of the Arboretum, include the fact that the display on Mount Hamilton is too popular with the public, and the Arboretum doesn't have the parking or the restroom facilities to handle the crowds.

Aker sites other reasons, including the fact that the origins of these enormous azaleas are not documented, but Hyatt, in his article, refutes each point.

For gardeners, the Arboretum azalea display is right up there with the cherry blossoms on the Tidal Basin. Perhaps more so. 

The azaleas occupy between three and six acres of the 446-acre Arboretum. Thanks to the work of volunteers, they are not overgrown or in decline. Some are more than 60 years old.

Historically, Hyatt writes, the azaleas are from the collection developed by the first director of the Arboretum in a breeding program that prodeced the first large flower azaleas hardy in the Mid-Atlantic.

Hyatt concludes his piece in Washington Gardener with the names, addresses and phone numbers of USDA officials who might be influenced to halt this irrevocable decision.

Azaleas part of Washington, D.C.'s spring signature. It would be a crime for them to be destroyed because they are too beautiful.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Garden news
        

Dwarf Alberta Spruce

Picea glauca ‘Conica’

Text and photo by Ellen Nibali

With a perfect “Christmas tree” shape, dense foliage, and extremely slow growth, dwarf Alberta spruce has been a favorite since discovered in 1904. Remember--it’s “Alberta” as in Alberta, Canada, a much cooler environment than Maryland.

Fairly adaptable nevertheless, this spruce likes well drained moist soil, full sun, and will tolerate some shade. Baking drought and reflected light (e.g. off house siding), however, can lead to spider mites. Encourage predator insects that eat spider mites by only spraying with horticultural oil or soap or simply hosing them off the tree.

The thin needles of Alberta spruce give a fuzzy appearance. Growing only 2-4” yearly, it can reach 10-12 feet in height, so give it space to spread. The pyramidal shape lends itself to balanced and formal designs as well as shrub and mixed borders.    

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Photo credit: David Simpson

"Glass House of Dreams" is an extraordinary pictorial history of Baltimore's Conservatory in Druid Hill Park, extolling the beauty of what might be the second oldest such structure in the United States.

Written by Margaret Stansbury, who was instrumental in the preservation of the conservatory, and with photographs by David Simpson, the coffee table book tells the story of the Victorian structure of glass and steel that opened in 1888 and, with its exotic and tropical plants, was a refuge for city dwellers.

My colleague, Fred Rasmussen, describes the book and the history of the conservatory in his column in The Sun.

In addition, The Sun has posted a gallery of photos from the book.

Build on the land sold to the city by Lloyd Nicholas Rogers in 1860, the conservatory, Rasmussen writes, may, for a moment, trick the visitor into thinking "he has gotten lost and ended up instead in Belle Epoque London, Vienna or Paris."

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore's Rawlings Conservatory
        

At Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville

Saturday, 10-4 pm: Poinsettia Showcase at Homestead Growers. Free round-trip shuttles between the poinsettia growing facility and the Homestead Gardens retail store in Davidsonville.

11-1 pm: Live music with Bayfield Brass

6pm: Grand Illumination Carols with Annapolis Chorale

Sunday, 10 am-4 pm: Poinsettia Showcase at Homestead Growers. Free round-trip shuttles between the poinsettia growing facility and the Homestead Gardens retail store in Davidsonville.

12-3 pm: Live music with Project Natale

Posted by Susan Reimer at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden events
        

Q: Is it too late to mulch around shrubs and perennials?  Does timing cause problems?

A: In fall, it is early mulching, not late, that can be a problem. Wait to apply fall mulch until after several killing frosts.  Mulch applied too early may retain abnormal warmth in the soil.  This can cause new growth to start, resulting in damage to the plant.

Keep mulch a few inches away from trunks to discourage voles from tunneling up to bark and gnawing on it over the winter.

Also, mulch piled on perennial crowns encourages rot, so go lightly there.

Q: I hear you can buy special worms that eat kitchen garbage year-round inside your home.  It sounds weird but I'm curious.  How do you get started?

A: Indoor composting with red wigglers, called vermicomposting, is becoming popular with the gardening public.  These redworms (Eisenia foetida) are especially suited to the task because they live and reproduce in confinement and they can eat their weight in kitchen scraps each day. The end result is a rich, composted plant food.

All you need to get started is a plastic or wooden box with plenty of holes for air circulation, moist newspaper strips for bedding, 1-2 pounds of redworms and, of course, kitchen scraps, that is, coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable cores and peels.

The worms can reside comfortably in a kitchen closet or basement and will not crawl out unless they are very unhappy (no food or too wet).

For information on suppliers of redworms and ready-made vermicomposting kits, read our fact sheet "Indoor Redworm Composting" on our website or call us.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Q_and_A, University of Maryland Extension
        

Baltimore Sun photographer Barbara Haddock Taylor

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Wordless Wednesday
        

Amy Stewart, author of the top-selling "Wicked Plants," is ready to release her next book, "Wicked Bugs," and she is using this hilarious video to promote it!

Posted by Susan Reimer at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Garden books
        

Willow oak

Quercus phellos

Text and photo by Ellen Nibali

No leaves to rake up?  Under a big shade tree?  Sounds like a dream, but willow oaks come closest.

The long, thin leaves, so unusual for an oak, disperse by autumn winds and can seemingly disappear in the landscape. Mowing speeds up their decomposition.

Leaves unfurl yellow-bronze in spring, maturing to a deep green.  Fall color ranges from yellow to bronze to reddish-browns.

This east coast native reaches about 40-60 feet or higher in a highly favorable spot.  Pyramidal in youth, willow oaks become more spreading and oval with age. Saplings may need pruning to encourage a single leader.  Very flexible in its cultural requirements, willow oak prefers moist well-drained soil.  Transplant when dormant.     

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Elizabeth Tova Bailey's award-winning essay, "The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating," became the basis for a lovely memoir by the same title.

It tells the story of Bailey's battle with a dibilitating illness and her relationships with the most unlikely of characters -- a small woodland snail.

Confined to her bed, she is visited one day by a friend who brings her a gift of a potted plant. The next morning, Bailey notices that a small hole has been eating out of the envelope on her bedside table, and she discovers that her potted plant is home to a snail.

She finds that she and her visiting gastropod have much in common: both are confined to their homes, both move slowly, but accomplish much. They share a journey of resilience and survival.

I have two free copies of this little book to give away, and I will make a random choice from among those posting here. Don't forget to include your email address so I can contact you if you win. I promise not to share it.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Garden books
        

Photo credit: Susan Harris

Three years ago, Susan Harris ripped out her front lawn in order to grow food.

But there wasn't enough sun, so she relocated her vegetables to containers on her sunny deck and replanted her front yard with various ground covers.

Not because she thinks lawns are inherently evil (especially if you don't load them with nitrogen fertilizers), but because she wanted to plant things that would please the human eye and invite wildlife.

This week, I visited the Takoma Park garden blogger's experiment and saw for myself how delightful a lawn-less lawn can be. 

Susan, who writes for a variety of blogs, including Garden Rant, began by planting an assortment of thymes, plus mazus, clover, creeping Jenny and lots of creeping sedums.

Since then, she has found that the sedums and the creeping Jenny does best and so she has tweeked her planting arrangements.

Perhaps the easiest way to reduce your lawn, if you don't want to eliminate it all at once, is to increase the size of your borders, and Susan did that, too. Now they are deep and generously planted with shrubs and perennials.

She also put down some stepping stones because, no matter what the claims of those who market "steppable" plants, they aren't very.

Photo credit: Susan Harris

Susan also took out the grass in her backyard, too, a stretch of narrow property that extends down a hill and deep into neighboring woods. Again, she extended the borders, added stepping stones and low-growing plants that would not obscure the view.

"Then for the remaining ex-lawn, the dominant plant is Sedum sarmentosum, which arrived here as a weed. It was already thick around the dry streambed, so I removed several plugs, planted them in the bare space, and in three months the ground was completely covered. Other weeds I allowed to stay are the edible purslane and the native smartweed (Polygonum pensylvanicum), which blooms in fuchsia."

Susan removed her lawn, in part, because she doesn't like mowing. And there are plenty of arguments against using fossil fuels (gasoline) in order to maintain nature.

If you, like me, have a DH who loves his lawn and loves to fuss over it, (He rented and unloaded --and used -- an aerator last week and was sore for days.), then perhaps you can meet in the middle: Deeper borders, more island beds, slightly less grass.

After all, turfgrass does prevent erosion, cool the earth and send oxygen into the air around us.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Weekend Chores
        

 Croton Codiaeum variegatum pictum

Photo credit: Virginia Williams

Michael Tortorello writes in The New York Times that his house has always been a halfway house for houseplants.

"Halfway between a cozy berth in someone else’s home and a pauper’s grave in my backyard."

In this light-hearted essay on what I will agree are the toughest plants to keep alive, Tortorello asks some experts for their advice on what to try.

And there is a slide show of houseplants as well.

Orchids are on the list. I will agree that they are tough to kill. Re-blooming is another matter entirely.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 1:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Houseplants
        

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Amy Davis

When you set your holiday table, don't even THINK about putting a big, old vase of flowers in the middle of things.

We are all about tablescapes this season, made with more than flowers: Fruit, vegetables, and grandma's old china compotes!

We at The Sun asked three party planners and one party thrower to decorate their tables for the holidays and let us take pictures and ask their advice.

The results are stunning, to say the least. From Sascha Wolhandler's Thanksgiving table to Curt Decker's sparkling Christmas table. And the food takes center stage at Jerry Edward's Christmas Eve dinner.

Check out the story, the tips and the photo gallery and you will never put carnations in a vase again.

Bonus: My colleague Richard Gorelick has a scallop recipe from the photo shoot on dining@large.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden how-to
        

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Jed Kirschbaum

At Valley View Farms in Cockeysville.

Department 56 Days
Join Us for "Department 56 Days" - a weekend of celebration. There will be demonstrations, guest speakers, drawings to win special prizes, and a signing. Select pieces and display items will be available at discounted prices. Doors open at 7am - first come, first served.

Saturday, 12:00 p.m. -- Valley View architect, builder and instructor, John Hessler, will be giving a live demonstration on how to build a Department 56 village of your very own.

Sunday, 12:00-4:00 pm
Department 56 artist Tom Bates will be here to talk about the inspiration behind Department 56 village houses and accessories. He will sign any Department 56 pieces purchased at Valley View Farms during this two-day event.

Gardening Tips for Late Fall
Saturday, 10:00 a.m. -- Carrie Engel discusses "putting the garden to bed" today. Be prepared to cover a slew of other gardening topics for Valley Views last tip session of the year.

Ornament Personalization
Every Saturday & Sunday, November 13 - Christmas
Valley View's in-house artist, Carey Wilkerson, will personalize any ornament you purchase at Valley View Farms for free. Carey will be here on the weekends to write the name of a friend, family member, or even a pet to add that special touch to your ornament.

At Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville.

Friday night is Ladies Night from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., with holiday magic, tasty treats, special vendors and discounts. Go to Homestead's website and print out your 25 percent off coupon

At Behnke's Garden Center in Beltsville,

Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. -- The annual open house and craft fair features a select group of local crafters and Behnke's Christmas displays. Find unique crafts (and possible gifts), created by  crafters and artisans. Enjoy a cup of warm cider and stroll through our beautiful flowering plants, perfect for the holidays.

Sunday, 1 p.m. -- Workshop: Forcing Paperwhite Bulbs in a Vase. Plant fragrant, paperwhite bulbs in a decorative vase to take home and watch grow and bloom. You will receive a rectangular, decorative glass vase, polished stones, paper white bulbs to plant and a set of bulbs to take home for a later planting so you can enjot them again. Fee: $15.  To register call (301) 937-1100 or stop by the Information Desk in Beltsville.

At Brookside Gardens in Wheaton

Saturday, 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. -- "Color Your World with Flowers" Nancy Gingrich Shenk, Floral Designer. Registration is $15, but you can register a friend for $1. Register for course #120611 online at www.ParkPASS.org, by phone (301.962.1451) or by mail. Check www.brooksidelearning.org for specific program details.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden events
        

"Patriotism on the Farm," by Raquel Bowley

Today, our thoughts turn to soldiers, so it is the right time to report on a project to recruit veterans to be farmers - an occupation that can use their youth, strength and discipline.

Organic Gardening magazine writes that the nonprofit Farmer-Veteran Coalition has been contacted by more than 130 veterans and active duty service men about becoming farmers, and 30 already have farms or are in the process of starting one.

It is a California organization that homes to take this effort nationwide.

It is a win-win situation, the magazine writes. Soldiers return to uncertain employment, the farming population is aging and can use the strength of those under the age of 30. And the country is demanding more and more locally grown or organic food.

In addition, those who return from war with wounded hearts can find peace and solace working the soil.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Garden good works
        

A: Bulbs do not store well for long periods of time—a few weeks at most.  It is best to plant them immediately.  When this is not possible, store them in the vegetable crisper of your refrigerator (cool and dry).  Discard bulbs that become dried up or mushy.  You can plant until soil freezes.  In a pinch, plant them in containers that drain and cover them with a big pile of mulch or leaves. Plant out in ground next year.

Q: Woodpeckers are drilling holes in the cedar siding of my house.  I have tried everything, including insecticides to rid possible insects in the wood, re-staining the house, and an array of scare and noise devices that cost me several hundred dollars. When I fill a hole, they either re-peck it or peck a new one. My house exterior is deteriorating and I am losing insulation, which the birds scatter to the winds. Various agencies say the birds are protected.  I need a solution now!

A: Woodpeckers are not easily driven from their territories. Tactics need to be used as soon as the problem is identified, before territories become well established. Wooden houses in suburbs or woods are most apt to suffer damage. Cedar and redwood siding seems to be preferred. One misconception is that woodpeckers drill only in search of insects. Many species communicate with one another by drumming on wood or even metal such as gutters or downspouts. Deterring woodpeckers requires persistence. Drape problem areas with a plastic mesh netting. Birds do not like to fly onto or under netting. If birds move to a new location, move the netting.  Metal barriers, such as hardware cloth, over damaged areas also discourages them.  Suet may distract nuisance birds in the winter.  You may need to use a combination of tactics. For more help contact the Nuisance Information Wildlife Line at 1-877-463-6497

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

If you waited this long to bring in some basil, you are in trouble.

But it isn't too late to repot some heartier herbs and bring them inside so you can enjoy them during the winter months.

The blogger behind North Country Maturing Gardener, who lives and gardens in New Hampshire, offers this advice:

Dig up a few healthy looking sections from the garden and rinse off the leaves AND the roots, to make sure you aren't bringing anything indoors you don't want.

Repot the herbs in a clean pot in a soil-less planting medium, such as vermiculite. Whatever you do, don't use soil from the garden.

Keep the "soil" damp but not soaking and put the herbs it in a sunny window.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Garden tips
        

And if you keep your container gardens on the deck or otherwise close to the house, you might have even more time before you must attend to them.

But attend to them you must, or you risk cracked pots, frozen plants and complaints from neighbors about unsightly debris!

My personal container garden guru, Kerry Michaels, of about.com gives these steps for protecting your container garden from frost.

• To protect tender plants from cold or frost, first give them a big drink, Kerry says. Soil retains more heat of it isn't dry. And plants have a better chance of survival if they aren't stressed by drought.
• You can move them inside at night and out again when the temperatures warm up. Kerry puts hers on a wagon and drags them in and out of the garage.
• Cover your plants at night, when the soil releases the heat it has collected during the day. You can do this with something as handy as a bucket or a milk jug with the bottom cut out.
• For larger gardens that can't be moved, make a tent with a wood frame, heavy plastic, fabric or burlap.
• Or make a cold frame -- which is nothing more than a small greenhouse. You can use old windows, or simply line up bales of hay in a square around your gardens and put clear plastic over the top.
• You can buy cold frames, too, Kerry says. From simple to elaborate.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Container gardening
        

Baltimore Sun photographer Gabe Dinsmoor takes note of the signs of fall.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Wordless Wednesday
        

Can we pick 'em, or what?

Debra Lee Baldwin's book, "Succulent Container Gardens," praised by Garden Variety early this year, is No. 5 on Amazon.com's list of top 10 home and garden books for 2010.

I liked Debra's book so much, I planted my own succulent containers this year, and I was thrilled with the results. Very dramatic plants with other-worldly growth patterns. AND I NEVER HAD TO WATER ONCE ALL SUMMER!

The other books on the Amazon.com home and garden list?

Bill Bryson's "At Home: A Short History of Private Life," was the No. 1 seller in the category.

"From Seed to Skillet: A Guide to Growing, Tending, Harvesting, and Cooking Up Fresh," by Jimmy Williams, was No. 2

"The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love," by Kristin Kimball, was No. 3

"Bark: An Intimate Look at the World's Trees," by Cedric Pollet, was No. 4

"The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self Reliance in Uncertain Times," by Carol Deppe, was No. 8

And -- this will make you smile -- "A Perfectly Kept House is the Sign of a Misspent Life," by Mary Randolph Carter, was No. 7.

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Categories: Garden books
        

 

"Just about now, I remember that the trees on this farm will be bare for the next six months. It always comes as a surprise."

Verlyn Klingenborg writes about the rural life in essays for The New York Times. In this week's offering, he talks about the change of seasons on his farm and about how he is still in August, though he can feel January creeping up behind him.

Those of us who love the mild autumns of the Mid-Atlantic still grieve the loss of summer because we know that winter is at hand and it is a dark, long, sometimes sad time.

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Categories: Garden inspirations
        

Mitchella repens

Text by Ellen Nibali

Photo by Virginia Williams

This delicate ground hugging plant is that prized rarity—a native evergreen ground cover.

Its highly fragrant flowers are borne in white or pinkish pairs over a long period spring to summer. These are followed by red berries (drupes, really) that appear from fall into winter, giving it four charming seasons of interest. Slowly, it forms a dark green mat about 2” high, provided you have a spot it likes—and it’s not unreasonable.

An Eastern woodland native, it needs full shade and acid soil, moist but well-drained, that is as much like a forest floor as possible. Amend soil generously with leaf compost, peat, or ground pine fine amendments where necessary.

Purchase as a container plant with a good amount of native soil attached.

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Categories: Plant_of_Week, University of Maryland Extension
        

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Kim Hairston

“Mums, Mischief and Merriment,” the fall garden show at the Rawlings Conservatory in Druid Hill Park, runs through Sunday, Nov. 21.

The medieval theme includes a lady dragon made of mums and her glittering mosaic egg, knights, and towering castle walls. There are shields and banners and a stockade.

Oh. Right. And 40 varieties of mums, including 1,300 in pots and hundreds more in the body of the dragon and in the hanging mum "balls."

The Conservatory is open Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free, but a $5 donation by adults is suggested.

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Categories: Baltimore's Rawlings Conservatory
        

Photo credit: Associated Press

I woke this week to a hint of frost on the garden. Just enough to let me know the garden clock is ticking down and I'd better get my fall chores done.

I took a minute to check on my Internet gardening friends to see what they are up to in November. Here are some of the chores on their lists.

Sara Barrett of The New York Times talked to Barbara Pierson, nursery manager at White Flower Farms in Litchfield, Conn., and this was her advice:

• To protect roses from freezing and thawing, mound two shovelfuls of garden soil, compost, shredded leaves or composted manure at the base of the plant -- after the ground freezes. Make sure to pull it away in the spring.
• Let most of the perennials die back on their own. The green leaves are still sending energy to the crown where next spring's "eyes" will emerge. When foliage turns yellow or transluscent (such as hostas) cut them back to within a few inches of the ground. Cutting back peonies will prevent next spring's flowers from getting gray mold.
• Remove the seed heads of phlox, but let the leaves and stems turn yellow. Cut monarda now, she said, because it is a garden bully. Cut late blooms off the echinaceas but leave the foliage.
• Keep weeding! Chickweed is a winter annual and it will go crazy in the spring if you don't dig it out now.
• Plant your new bulbs now, and spread some bulb food on top of the spots where last year's bulbs are.

Meanwhile, Lisa Ueda lists seven fall gardening mistakes that will cost you money on the blog, Colc Climate Gardening.

They are:

1. Letting fall leaves lie.

Running them over with a mower so their chopped up bits can decompose in the lawn is one things. But leave them as they are on the ground can provide cover for voles, which can eat hostas and other plants to the ground.

In addition, tromping through the garden in the spring to clean out these leaves will needlessly compress the cold, wet soil.

2. Not protecting your marginally hardy plants.

Playing outside your temperature zone is fun, but if you don't protect these plants you will lose them.

3. Neglecting to divide perennials.

Once you see a dead center in a clump, you have waited too long to divide your perennials and you are in danger of losing the whole business.

4. Ignoring diseased foliage.

Make sure you remove any plant leaves suffereing from powdery mildew or blackspot. It will make your garden healthier next year.

5. Forgetting to shop for end of season sales at your favorite nursery.

You might find plants you have always admired for only pennies on the dollar.

6. Waiting too long to plant out container plants that you've been nurturing from seed. If you don't, they might not survive the winter in the containers.

7. Not prepping clay pots for winter. Cleaning, drying and storing pots can help eliminate any diseases. Lisa recommends using hyrogen peroxide. And let the pots dry thorough so they don't crack during a freeze.

 

 

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Categories: Weekend Chores
        

Each year, more than 1.5 million third-graders in 45 states are given hands-on gardening experience growing colossal cabbages. At stake is a $1,000 scholarship from Bonnie Plants.

The free O.S. Cross, or "oversized," cabbage plants are delivered each year to students whose teachers have signed up for the program on line www.bonnieplants.com.

If nurtured and cared for, cabbages can grow bigger than a basketball and tip the scales at nearly 40 pounds!

At the end of the season, teachers from each class select the student who has grown the “best” cabbage, based on size and appearance.

The winners in each state are then randomly selected by the state's head of agriculture

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Categories: Garden contests
        

Bonsai: Junipers
Saturday, 9:00 a.m. -- Martha Meehan discusses the care and pruning of junipers, winterizing outdoor bonsai material and caring for tropicals in the winter.

Giant Pumpkin Seed Counting Contest
Saturday, NOON -- Valley View Farms cuts open its giant orb, "Rolling Thunder", to see how many seeds are inside. Meteorologist Tom Tasselmyer from WBAL-TV will be the master of ceremonies. The first person to guess the exact (or closest to) number of seeds will win a $300 Valley View Farms gift card. Second prize is a $200 gift card and third prize is a $100 gift card.

At Homestead Gardens in Davidsonville:

Saturday and Sunday: Open House Weekend. Get a preview of the Homestead's holiday treasures.

At the Cylburn Arboretum, Baltimore

Saturday 9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Volunteer to help members of the Maryland Rose Society put the roses to sleep. Mulching, pruning and general clean-up work will be the order of the day. Gather around 9:30 in the garden. If interested, please e-mail Karen Goldstein at karen.goldstein@cylburnassociation.org.

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Categories: Garden events
        

Cherry Laurel photo courtesy of Dave's Garden

Q: Is it too late to transplant an aucuba or an Otto Luyken cherry laurel? I was told fall is a great time to transplant.

A: There is a short list of plants that do not respond well to fall transplanting. Broad-leaved evergreens are on the list.  This is probably because their wide leaf surfaces lose moisture throughout the winter.  In the process of transplanting, some roots are usually lost or damaged and thus cannot supply as much moisture as the plant needs.

If you are able to dig a big rootball that does not disturb your plants’ roots, they may weather transplanting just fine. Water them during any dry periods this fall.

Q: Holes are appearing in the yard, larger than our usual mole and vole holes. We thought they were rat holes, but we probed them with a stick and they don't seem to go into tunnels. There are so many holes it looks like someone roto-tilled the yard!  Will this damage tree roots?

A: Squirrels dig holes to bury or retrieve nuts.  Early fall is also the season when animals hunt for grubs.  Skunks are typically the culprit, but raccoons, opossum and fox also dig holes in search of grubs.  All of these grub predators are nocturnal. If holes are rather clean and small, it could be birds.
 
You can temporarily lay down netting, screening, or chicken wire to keep them off the area. People have reported success spreading Milorganite, a sewage-based organic soil amendment, as an animal repellant.

There is no point in treating the spot with a grub control product now.  Grubs will soon move deep in the soil for the winter, then pupate into beetles and leave next spring. If anything, this type of animal digging activity may benefit trees by loosening and aerating the soil. 

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Baltimore Sun photographer Kim Hairston captures the optimists in my garden. Apparently, they weren't listening when the frost warning was announced.

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Categories: Wordless Wednesday
        

Leave it to The New Yorker magazine to publish a heavily researched, highly literate and mildly amusing chronicle of a leaf-blower controvery in California.

The article is titled "Blowback," and it is a "Letter from California" written by Tad Friend.

You can't access it online, unless you have a subscription to The New Yorker (and then you don't really need to access it online.)

But if you are not a subscriber, you can read a copy of the Oct. 25 issue in your local library or catch a glimpse of it in your local bookstore -- until they ask you to stop reading magazines you aren't going to purchase.

Anyway, the protagonist in the story is Peter Kendall, who complains that herd of leaf-blowers operated by the workers employed by his wealthy and anal-retentive neighbors is making him deaf -- and sick.

"And then we try to enjoy a salad from our organic garden, and it's covered with a fine dust thrown up by those two-hundred-plus-mile-an-hour bazookas -- a biohazard buffet of diesel soot, brake-lining particles, fungi, mold, spores and animal fecal matter," Kendall tells the magazine.

Is that a good quote, or what?

Among the background tidbits the magazine reports is this: leaf-blowers were invented in Japan in the 1960s to blow insecticides onto fruit trees and onto crops when somebody came up with the idea to remove the chemical cylinder.

And they actually came in handy when Los Angeles suffered a water shortage in the 1970s and they were used instead of hoses to clean sidewalks and driveways.

Things have deteriorated in the California town of Orinda to the point where Kendall's detractors are suggesting that if he wants quiet, he should try a coffin.

As one who will be using a leaf-blower to get the leaves out of her garden this fall (that's the only time we use it), I am suddenly feeling very self-conscious.

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Categories: Garden news
        

Parthenocissus quinquefolia

Photo and text by Ellen Nibali

The magenta pink leaves of Virginia creeper bring surprising fall color wherever it grows - and it grows just about anywhere.

Birds relish its blue berries and spread them liberally. A great food source for wildlife, it can grow in full shade to full sun, city to sandy seashore, and just about anywhere in between.

Its five leaves are arranged in fan-like clusters (palmate). It’s often confused with poison ivy, but poison ivy has clusters of three leaves and the vines are hairy, whereas Virginia creeper vines are not.
  

Little adhesive discs hold this native vine on rock walls, fences, or trees. In trees it is loose so it doesn’t strangle like some vines. It also scrambles like a ground cover.

The adhesive cups are difficult to scrape off if painting is required. Volunteer plants are easy to either transplant or pull up.    

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According to the Obamafoodorama blog, the 1,500-square-foot garden produced 400 pounds of produce during last month's fall harvest alone, including the first-ever White House pumpkins grown on White House grounds. About 100 pounds of that harvest was in sweet potatoes alone.

The fall vegetables from the garden also include peppers, kohlrabi, lettuces, broccoli, eggplant and herbs. School children who helped first lady Michelle Obama harvest the vegetables also weighed them.

"We've gotten a lot of food out of a pretty small space," senior policy advisor Sam Kass told the Foodorama.

Other White House vegetable garden numbers, courtesy of The Week.

$200
Cost of the seeds, mulch, and other supplies needed to start the garden last year, according to the assistant White House chef who oversees it

23
Number of fifth graders who helped break ground for the garden

55
Number of different kinds of foods — mostly vegetables — grown in the first year

0
Synthetic fertilizers or pesticides used.

1,000
pounds of food the garden produced last year

1,600
pounds of the food the garden produced this year

4
Number of new vegetables — bok choy, cauliflower, artichokes, and mustard greens — added to the garden in 2010

4
Weight, in pounds, of a particularly large sweet potato from this season's harvest 

134
Amount of honey, in pounds, the White House beehive had produced, as of April

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Categories: White House Vegetable Garden
        

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Barbara Haddock Taylor

Although we have a fireplace in the living room - in perfect working order and positioned nicely across from a very comfortable couch -- I think my husband and I are going to use his birthday present much more often that we use the fireplace.

I bought him a fire pit.

It cost less than $50 at Home Depot and I purchased an asbestos mat to place it on so it doesn't do too much damage to the grass (or start a raging brush fire.)

We pull out our portable camping chairs, invite some neighbors, open a couple of bottles of beer or wine, and we are set to go. As the nights get colder, the fire is wonderfully cozy.

The only problem? What do do with the wood ash, which can pile up pretty quickly in the dish.

My first thought was the compost pile, but as I learned in my Master Gardening classes, the ash is fine enough to fill up the cracks and crevices created by the other material in the compost and drive out the needed oxygen. A little bit of wood ash is not bad, however, and I might be able to sprinkle some as I layer in other materials.

What about the garden?

For advice, I turned, as I often do, to Marie Iannotti of about.com gardening. You can read her advice for yourself, but the bottom line is, wood ash can raise the pH of acid soil, just as lime does, so you shouldn't use it around your acid-loving plants, such as rhododendron and azeleas, or crops such as blueberries.

Wood ash contains potash, or potassium, and it is good for developing root strength and structural strength in plants, and helps them stand up to stressors.

As always, test your soil's pH before adding wood ash. And never assume that if a little is good, a lot is better.

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Categories: Garden tips
        

My guess is, we will be seeing more of these: books about how aging baby boomers manage their gardens - a hobby meant for younger knees and backs.

I wrote this summer about Sydney Eddison's book, "Gardening for a Lifetime."

And now garden author Paige Dickey is set to publish "Embroidered Ground: Revisiting the Garden," in February.

She spent 30 years building the perfect garden and now finds that cutting back is what she must attempt.

New York Times garden writer Anne Raver, who lives and gardens in our own Carroll County, writes about the 70-year-old Ms. Dickey and 76-year-old husband as they work at cross purposes in their Salem, N.Y., garden: She wants to subtract, but he still wants to add.

Photo courtesy of Paige Dickey

"A husband is all very well," Ms. Dickey writes in her new book, "but a husband in the garden is a mixed blessing.”

In addition, photographer Randy Harris has produced a beautiful slide show of the house and gardens.

Ms. Dickey's new book - she has written several about the garden -- is due out in February.

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Categories: Garden books