Garden Plants – Highly Adaptable Organisms

Adaptability – Garden plants, with few exceptions, are highly adaptable organisms.

They have originated, or have been developed from plants that have originated, in all sorts of areas where sunlight, temperature, moisture, soil texture and fertility, and also parasites, are subject to wide variation, daily, seasonally, regionally, and every other which-way. And so most garden plants can be grown by most gardeners – if they couldn’t they wouldn’t be “garden plants” – and so, too, as often as not, if you ask half a dozen gardeners how to grow a certain plant you get exactly six different recommendations.

Of course every plant requires a minimum of this-and-that and can only stand a maximum of that-and-this – heat, water, nitrogen, or anything else – and as long as what you give the plant is within all the minima and maxima your plant lives. It’s only when you go below or above in something that it sickens and dies – perhaps because of your neglect or perhaps because of your excessive pampering.

Anyway, it’s wonderfully stimulating to think that you could grow most garden plants if you wanted to – or if you had the space and the time to do so – and that sooner or later you at least will grow a great many plants that you haven’t grown till now. Heck, I was even slow to install landscape lighting and they require almost no work.

Probably our being able to think that way has a lot to do with our also thinking of gardening as the best of all possible hobbies – our thinking, or rather our knowing, that there’s an endless variety of plants we can grow and that sometime we’ll actually grow as many of them as our fancy dictates and our time and space permit.

This fall, I’m sure, nearly all of us will plant something we haven’t tried before-many of us, in fact, will plant dozens of things. And even if one or two of our new things fail, those that succeed are certain to induce our planting more new things in the spring and still more a year from now. Some of us, indeed, will ‘actually decide this fall what we’re’ going to plant six months, a year and two or maybe three years hence!

Winter And Tender Plants

We must realize that many of the perennial plants we grow in our gardens need special protection to live from year to year.

Some bulbs, corms, and tubers need to be dug and placed in storage for winter because they do not survive the temperatures out of doors. Those needing such treatment include gladiolus, cannas, dahlias, potatoes, tuberous begonias and others. In milder climates, some of these can be left outdoors, but they would freeze in our region.

Many of the perennials we grow benefit from mulching as a form of winter protection. These include chrysanthemums, strawberries, and many other plants. A layer of clean straw applied so it covers the perennial bed to a depth of two or three inches usually suffices. Some mulches, like leaves, become wet and soggy, reduce soil aeration and smother the crowns of some plants. Don’t apply winter mulches until after the plants have been subjected to some light frosts.

Raspberries benefit from complete covering with soil especially where winter snows are unpredictable or uncertain. To make this easier, raspberries should be grown in a hedge-row or hill system. When ready to cover, prune out all old canes that have borne fruit, since their productiveness is over – that is another of my backyard landscaping ideas. Bend over the young canes, and cover them completely with soil. Do not prune out any young canes until spring. Uncover the canes in spring as soon as the frost is out of the ground.

Mouse and rabbit protection of trees and shrubs is always important where these rodents arc likely to cause damage. They can kill trees and shrubs by girdling at the base of the plants. Repellents containing endrin for mice and nicotine, nicotine sulfate, Arasan and Tersan for rabbit control are effective. These products are brushed or sprayed on. Mesh wire fences around the base of trees are often used.

The mounding of tender hybrid tea and floribunda roses is advised in most of our region. Wait until after some light frosts have occurred. Don’t do any pruning. Mound the bases of the plants up to six inches with soil. Put a 12-inch wire fence around each plant and fill in with leaves or other mulch so at least 12 inches of the canes arc protected. Long ends poking out of the mulch should be left unpruned until spring.

When Was The Magnolia Kobus Introduced To This Country?

Magnolias are among the most beautiful trees, and the early-flowering kinds are near the top of the list for spring display. The Kobus magnolia is one of the most pleasing, and fortunately it is also one of the hardiest.

This species is native to northern Japan, and its vernacular ‘name Kobushi was used as a source for the scientific name, Magnolia kobus, as well as for the common name we use. The plant was introduced to this country in 1865, when Thomas Hogg, President Lincoln’s representative in Japan, sent seeds home to New York and the progeny was distributed principally by the Parsons nursery at Flushing. Kobus is quite similar to the star magnolia, M. stellata, which was being featured as a novelty at the same time and by the same nursery. The star magnolia, however, is native to the southern portions of the Japanese islands, and in general it is more shrublike in habit.

Flower differences between the two are quite pronounced. Kobus has six to nine obovate petals of traditional magnolia form, while M. stellata has 14 to 20 narrowly oblong or strap-shaped segments which open rather flat into a less formal bloom. Star magnolia is notable for setting buds freely even when quite small, and it must be admitted that Kobus does not have this beguiling habit.

It is a much more rapid grower, however, and soon surpasses the 6- or 7-foot size when flowers are usually produced. It is of particular interest that the hybrid between these two Japanese species, M. loebneri, seems to combine the best traits of both parents. It promises to make a small tree of the more graceful habit of Kobus, and its flowers have ten to twelve, or more, large obovate petals and are larger than those of either parent.

The leaves of Kobus magnolia typically measure from 3 to 5 inches long, but a variety from northern Japan has larger leaves and much sturdier growth. This is variety borealis, Hokkaido magnolia, which was introduced in 1892 by Professor Sargent of the Arnold Arboretum at Boston. Vigorous plants of Hokkaido magnolia frequently grow 3 to 4 feet in one year, and it is not surprising that in its native forests it makes massive, columnar trees 80 feet high. Unfortunately, this variety does not bloom until well grown, and it also takes too much room for inclusion in many gardens.

One Of A Garden Asset – Coldframe

In the Northern garden during march sow grass seed on level or near level areas, especially if your lawn was made last fall. This will help build a thick stand of ground and may be done whether the grass has thawed or is still frozen. The seed will germinate early. Plant food, if needed, can be applied later. Rolling may be done later, also.

Dormant Spraying

A thorough spraying now, while trees are dormant and before new growth on evergreens begins, will do much to head off trouble later. Many gardeners wait until insects and disease have gained a foothold before going into action. A dormant spray is used to control scale insects on lilacs, euonymus, pachysandra and fruit trees. The material used is miscible oil, obtainable commercially under various trade names. Each spray must be used as directions indicate. Oil cannot be used on Japanese maple, beech, sugar maple or larch. Nor should it be used on evergreens like the spruce. Dormant sprays should never be applied when the temperature is below 45 nor if the leaves show as much as inch of green.

Soil for Coldframe

A coldframe is your greatest gardening asset, but it needs attention for maximum results. See that good drainage is provided and that all the glass is in place. Prepare the soil in accordance with its use. For seeds and seedlings, use a 6-inch layer of a soil mixture containing 1 part each of soil, sand and lea fmold. (Peatmoss or well decayed compost may be substituted.) All ingredients should be sifted through ; inch screen. To a bushel of this mixture, add 1 tablespoon of superphosphate and tablespoon of agricultural lime. If you sow seed in pans or flats, set these on a layer of sand in your coldframe until the transplanting stuge. Until the weather gets warm, cover the sash at night with hay or mats, Also draw the soil up around the outside of the coldframe for greater insulation.

Cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, celery, onions and even tomatoes can he sown in your coldframe, as well as sweet peas and larkspur in 3-inch pots. All can be transplanted within the frame or, with the exception of tomatoes, set outdoors sometime in April. Watering, when needed, should be done in the morning. Avoid opening the sash suddenly. A rush of cold air in a warm frame may cripple your plants

Topical Info On Holly Trees And Various Types

While American and English hollies are the two species most closely identified with holiday use, several other kinds should not be neglected. From China, home of more species of evergreen hollies than any other comb try, three at least should be considered. The Chinese or horned holly (I. cornuta), with glossy, spiny leaves, is grown freely in warmer parts of the country. Its large red berries, less shiny than those of American and English hollies, turn dark sooner when branches are brought indoors.

Burford Holly Is Tops

In this country, the horned holly is more often a large shrub, attractive enough at all seasons of the year to be used as a specimen. The variety Burford (I. burfordi), which originated as a bud sport on a tree in Atlanta, has most of the characteristics of its parent, except the large spines. Burford is smaller than its parent, and is known particularly for its ability to set a heavy crop of berries without pollination.

Another red-berried kind, indigenous to China, is the Perny holly. A neat, pyramidal small tree, attaining a height of 20 feet in this country, its great charm lies in its compact, upright growth, its small, sharply spined leaves and its flattened red berries. This variety is somewhat hardier than the parent. Like all other Chinese hollies, it prefers a light, well drained soil, supplied with humus. Excellent specimens may be seen growing in Ohio and Indiana.

Kinds for Everywhere

Other hollies cannot be overlooked for other sections of the country. For the south and the west coast, there is the hummock holly (I. cumulicola), a small tree with recurved leaves and large red berries. Dahoon holly (I. cassine) and yaupon (I. uomitoria) are also native to the southeast and will do well as far north as the District of Columbia. I. fargesi, with lance-shaped leaves up to four inches long, is an attractive species, but so far as known, no female trees have been brought to this country.

All hollies are dioecious, which means that there are male and female hollies, but male and female blooms are not borne on the same plant. To have berries on the female tree, therefore, a male tree of the same species must be planted nearby. One male tree that produces a heavy crop of flowers can pollinate many females, but only of the same species. Male and female holly trees look alike and only when they are in bloom can they be distinguished. The male tree flowers more profusely, because blossoms are usually three or more on a stem, like cherries, while the female flowers of the berry producing trees, except in rare instances, appear singly.

Avoid Deep Planting

Most species thrive in a light, open, well-drained soil containing ample humus. Annual mulching with peat, peatmoss, old sawdust or other slowly decomposing vegetable matter will benefit all species. Even American holly, which is found growing naturally on the edge of a marsh, will seldom prosper if planted in a moist situation. Shallow planting is essential. More hollies die because of deep planting than from any other cause.

After a holly is five feet tall, sprays or branches may be cut from it without harming the plant. In fact, light annual pruning stimulates latent buds into growth. Thus the pruned tree is nearly always more compact than the one that is allowed to grow freely. Holly may be sheared formally or may be kept at two to 12 feet in height.

Success In Grape Growing – A Pruning Achievement

Success in grape growing depends greatly on pruning. Best time for this is the early months of the year. A warm day in January or February when the ground is clear of snow is ideal, but the job should be accomplished before the middle of March when the sap rises.

Pruning is perhaps the most important skill the vineyardist must master. He must realize that fruit is borne only on wood of the present season which arises from wood of the previous season. This means that last year’s new wood is the only source of buds which grow into shoots bearing probably one to four clusters of grapes each.

The problem becomes (first) one of cutting back a limited number of good canes to a few buds which will produce as many new bearing shoots as the vine can support, and (second) cutting off entirely all remaining (even good) canes which would over-tax the vigor of the vine. With experience the grape-grower learns to tell from the looks of the cane, the size and growth of the vine in the previous year, and the variety’s characteristics for bearing, which and how many buds to leave.

He must constantly plan ahead for new wood low on the vines, so that the vines do not have to spend too much of their energy maintaining a great amount of unproductive wood. This necessary balance between fruiting canes this year and new wood for next year’s crop is difficult both to explain and to achieve, but usually the tendency of the beginner is not to prune severely enough.

More trimming and shaping comes after the grapes have bloomed and set the bunches. Each fruiting cane tries to grow on out into a long leafy cane beyond the three or four clusters which have formed. To make the plant use its strength for the fruit, these should be snapped off at about the second joint beyond the grapes. New shoots will try to grow at these points and often at the joint opposite the grape cluster, but these should be kept broken off as summer progresses. Keep just enough foliage to support the plant properly by making food and to shade the fruit. Usually the bunches of grapes should be thinned by about one-third so that they will ripen faster and more evenly.

Rooting Plants Simplified – Layering

Layering is a safe, sure, simple way to increase many types of plants, and particularly the climbers and danglers with which this book is concerned. The first requirement is that the plant have long, lax or drooping stems – which vining plants do. The rest is easy, because the stem is not severed from the parent until the new plant is well rooted and can survive on its own. Humidifying devices, bottom heat, and close protection are seldom called for.

Garden plants layer readily, sometimes even spontaneously. And layering is equally easy for indoor or greenhouse vines. A wandering stem or runner is simply pinned down on the soil in a nearby pot, and severed when it is securely rooted.

Ground layering in the garden takes place at the base of the parent plant. Loosen and lighten a small section of soil, and mix in some peat or other humus to help hold moisture. Select a firm, semiwoody stem, and open the thick skin in one of several ways to speed up rooting. The stem can be nicked underneath with a sharp knife, or split and held open by a small piece of toothpick or match, or simply twisted just enough to break the outside skin and separate a few of the inside tissues. Some plants insist on rooting at or near a node, others don’t care where. And some softer stems don’t even need to be nicked.

Now, bend down the long branch and bury the portion to be rooted in the prepared soil, leaving the tip section of the branch sticking up. Anchor it with a stone, clothespin, or crossed sticks. When the buried stem is well rooted, cut the old branch between new and parent plant, and transplant or pot the offspring.

Simple ground-layering can be modified or embroidered so that more than one plant is produced from each operation. In serpentine layering the stems are covered with soil at intervals, with sections of the stem looping up in the air between. Multiple, or continuous, layering works on plants and vines that root readily all along the stem or branch. The entire stem is buried, except for the tip, and new plants that come up at intervals are cut apart and transplanted.

Air layering is a procedure for thick, upright, canelike stems. The stem is nicked or opened near a node or not, depending on the plant; and that section of the stem is enclosed in a ball of moist sphagnum moss. This is held in place by a firm bandage of polyethylene, a plastic that permits passage of air but holds in moisture, tied to the stem at each end of the ball with soft cord. Check occasionally to make sure the sphagnum has not dried out. When you see roots inside the plastic, cut off the stem just below that point and pot up the new plant, its root ball intact in the moss.

Garden Adventures For Snowy Evenings

Most Enthusiastic gardeners agree that gardening is a grand adventure with thrilling experiences at almost every turn. Yet as I look around among my gardening acquaintances. I am amazed to find that many miss much of the joy of their hobby by limiting their activities to the few short months of summer.

There are many ways the hobby of gardening can be an absorbing enterprise the entire year, and one of them is by allowing the seed and nursery catalogs to carry you through strange and exciting adventures during the winter.

There is an idea abroad among matter-of-fact gardeners that a seed or nursery catalog is merely sales literature for ordering plant materials. Their catalogs are discarded after their needs are ordered so as not to clutter up the house. They miss the pleasure and instruction which can be theirs from the correct use of catalogs.

To make clear what one gardener thinks is correct use, let me recount a few of the exciting adventures that have come my way during the years in which I have let seed and nursery catalogs be a part of my year-round living, but please overlook the perpendicular pronoun if it becomes too prominent!

Let us assume that this winter evening a raging blizzard prevents you from going out. A new seed catalog has arrived in the day’s mail. Your evening is not lost, because your catalog will provide you entertainment if you will approach it in the right manner. As you sit down in your snowbound living room, let us suppose that your catalog falls open to the muskmelon section and that your attention is directed to one of the new hybrids.

Its description is so enticing you wonder what gardeners did before the days of hybrids. Then begins a delightful journey into the past, and if I happened to be the snowbound gardener, the journey would go something like this: I would reach for my file of old catalogs to be reminded of some of ths; good old varieties perhaps no longer available. I could no doubt recall the first time I tasted the superb quality. Then my glance might fall on an old Maurice Fuld catalog, and fancy would surely run rampant, finally coming to rest, no doubt, on a Japanese variety-perhaps, with “the sweetness of `honey dew’ and the delightful flavor of a high quality pear.”

From here, I might travel the uncertain road followed by De Candolle throughout the world in his search for the muskmelon’s origin. I would see Africans on the banks of the Niger gathering and eating little wild plum-sized melons which Thonning named Cucumis arenarius; and inhabitants of Northern India eating the wild form, which Roxburgh called C. turbinatus. A variable plant with fruit from the size of a plum to that of a lemon, its flesh may be sweet, insipid (such as some of the modern kinds we grew the past sunless summer) or slightly acid.

My mental wanderings would next take me to the hills of Persia, now Iran, where in modern times the world’s best melons are grown. Then, if I had more time and did not get too sleepy, I could follow the muskmelon from its introduction into Europe, perhaps about the beginning of the Christian era, to the present, savoring many of my own cultures during the years that I have grown muskmelons. Eventually I would return to the new hybrid described in my new catalog.

As you can see the world of the landscape and garden does not only happen in the greenhouse or outside in the dirt.

New Planting Need Special Attention

Young or newly transplanted vines are more likely to survive their first winter in a cold climate if they receive some special protection. Questionably hardy vines, or those planted in exposed areas, may need protection every year of their life. In any case, a vigorous, well-grown plant has the greatest chance to resist winter damage.

All vines in general, and evergreens in particular, need plentiful moisture in the soil until it freezes. This is your best insurance against late winter and early spring “burning,” in which warmth and sunlight draw moisture from the leaves before the soil is thawed and the roots are ready to send up moisture from below.

For extra protection, mulch the soil over the vine’s roots with several inches of buckwheat or cottonseed hulls, salt hay or straw, ground corncobs or sugar cane, or similar material. Snow is an excellent mulch, while it lasts.

Or make an eight-inch mound of soil over the roots and around the base of the stems, and wrap the rest of the stems in burlap. In extreme climates, loosen the roots on one side of a deciduous vine, lay its trunk or stems down in a trench dug out from the other side, and cover the whole with soil until early spring.

Don’t plant vines and kentia palm in open areas where gusty winter winds can whip them loose from their supports. After a sticky snowstorm. gently push or shake off heavy drifts caught by upper branches. Or provide a windbreak of trees or shrubs, or a screen of burlap or evergreen boughs.

In any climate, keep in mind that plants can stand a gradual drop in temperature more readily than a sudden frost or freeze, particularly if it occurs very early or very late in the dormant season. When unseasonal cold threatens, the simple expedient of covering the top of a vine with a tent of newspaper or plastic overnight may often save its life.

Wood – Where Winterizing Roses Starts

Roses need to be “winterized” for the season. The bushes should be checked closely for dead or diseased wood which should be removed; competing branches that cross or rub need to be corrected; it is also wise to remove or shorten unusually long canes that might be injured by high winds or snow and ice.

Faded blooms and unopened buds killed by frost should be removed, and it might be well to remove the few remaining scraggly leaves in this fall clean-up. Paint any cuts with a pliable tree paint to prevent dehydration or the entrance of disease or cane borers. An application of two cups of slow-acting bone meal dug into the soil around each plant will be available when growth starts in early spring. Soil can be pulled up around the base of the canes to provide protection against severe freezing. Although planting is recommended in some areas, it is not best in the South of mid-America. February is the most desirable time for planting or replanting of roses.

Perennials

In removing the killed tops of these plants, leave about two inches of stem. These stubs will help mark the permanent plantings. Many successful gardeners remove about one inch of the top soil around perennials and replace with a top dressing of clean sand as a sanitary measure. This is good practice for garden cleanliness.

Dormant root perennials just like philodendron plants can be planted throughout this month. Many are available at the local seed stores and plant houses. Peonies are available and should be planted this month. Select the three to five eye divisions for best results. In planting, remember they are heavy feeders. Supply them with a good amount of available plant food. Keep the tubers out of direct contact with manure or commercial fertilizer as rotting can be caused by it.

Window Boxes

These can be kept bright and exciting all winter by planting with dwarf evergreens or young evergreens that can be transplanted to a permanent location in the spring. Even tips of evergreen branches can be plunged into the soil of window boxes where they will make a pleasing show for weeks at a time. Plan regular displays of permanent materials throughout the winter in an otherwise uninteresting area.

A Thanksgiving theme for November, Christmas for December, snow scenes for January, and on and on – this is another chance to interest the child or provide an interesting “window scape” for a shut-in. With a little imagination, window boxes can become a wonderful part of garden activities.

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