GARDENING TIPS

"Crape Murder" and other Horrible Things

Submitted by Ed Olsen, Salisbury Garden Club, Piedmont District

Oh my gosh!  As a horticulture professiional I don't know how these companies can get paid to murder these poor crape myrtles.   I know that everyone sees what they do to the trees at the shopping centers and then they ask their landscape company to do the same.  "Stop the Insanity" (remember that catch phrase?)!  I wish these companies would "Just Say NO."  What a vicious cycle.

Please, please don't commit "crape murder" this year.  Prune your crape myrthles the correct way.  February is the right time to do this task.  Check out this web page from the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service on how to correctly prune a crape myrtle, www.yorkcounty.gov/vce/programareas/hort/crape_myrtle_pruning.htm.  Please fee free to direct anyone to this extension web page.  The more people know about the correct way to rpune crape mrytles, the better.

Crape myrtles can be such beautiful looking small trees.  Most only grow to be 10-15' tall.  Look at the beautiful stand of trees down the median of Huguenot Road in Midlothian.  Contrary to opinion, these trees do not get murdered because the state does not have the money to do it, but because they know that you should not.  If a crape myrtle will be too tall for you to use, select another plant before you subject it to harsh pruning.  Remember--Right Plant, Right Place.

While we are on the subject of pruning small trees, I recently saw some other murdered trees.  Some dogwoods and maples were recently murdered in the local area.  Apparently the owners of these trees either thought that what is done to crape myrtles should be done to all parking lot trees, or some landscaper thought it was a chance to make some easy money.  Either way, these trees will now be completely destroyed because of the pruning!

Another website to look at from the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service is: www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/nursery/430-455/430-455.html.  This site tells you how to prune correctly.

You can also go the VCE's home page at:  www.ext.vt.edu and type PUBLICATION PRUNING in the search bar.  You will get a great list of publications to help ou prune all types of trees and shrubs correctly.

Learn more about "GROWING AND SHOWING" by clicking on one of the following horticulture tips:

• Butterfly Gardening
• Indoor Plants
• Propagating Popular Pass-along Plants
• Improved Cultivars
• How to Make Softwood Cuttings

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BUTTERFLY GARDENING

Butterflies like flowers with a landing platform such as members of the aster family or flowers in clusters at the top of the stem. In my garden, they enjoy purple and white cone flowers, red and yellow gaillardia, coreopsis, buddleia and scabiosa ‘Butterfly Blue’.

This last one was visited by a butterfly the first week in December and again in February. Of course, we had a mild winter, but if you keep scabiosa deadheaded, it will bloom the entire garden year. Butterflies also like the Ixora that I grow indoors all winter and put out to bloom in the summer.

Hummingbirds visit the honeysuckle fuchsia (Fuchsia triphylla) as soon as I bring it outside. Its flowers are the red tubular form they like. Red impatiens in hanging baskets or planters on the deck are sure winners, too.

I have three hummingbird feeders that I put out around April 20 and bring in about the end of September. In my garden, they prefer the small flat feeders with red flowers that identify the holes. I have one of the tall ones, and the hummingbirds always empty the two flat ones first. Use 1 part sugar to 4 or 5 parts water, boil it to sterilize it and it will keep in the refrigerator for a month. Clean and refill the feeders twice a week and you will have entertainment all summer. Be sure to put it where you can watch from the house.

Butterflies need “baby food”, too. The larva of the Monarch eats milkweed leaves. Grow Asclepias tuberosa and keep it deadheaded and it will re-bloom. Fritillaries lay eggs on violets. Virginia’s state butterfly, the Tiger Swallowtail, lays its eggs on the tulip tree, Liriodendron tuplipfera, so their larval food is plentiful.

In Paris, the Garden of the Tuileries had butterfly plants in profusion, zinnias, asters and sunflowers among them. In the gardens of the Palais Royal were planted Verbena bonariensis, a prime butterfly attractor.

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IMPROVED CULTIVARS

AAS does not advertise the AAS Award Winners so look for them in magazines, newspapers, garden club bulletins and cooperative extension agents. In 67 years of AAS Winners, there have been 323 AAS Flowers, 255 AAS vegetables and 17 Bedding Plant Award Winners. AAS has introduced a total of 595 Award Winners since 1933. The AAS Gold Medal Award is reserved for breeding breakthroughs.  Also check places like Plant Society Handbooks and monthly publications for checking the best selections.

Try the 1999 Gold Medal Winner tomato 'Juliet'.  The one ounce sweet tomatoes are produced in clusters like grapes on long vigorous indeterminate vines. The shape is an unusual elongated cherry type, easy to hold for cutting. The improved quality is the crack resistance.

Other winners are:  zinnia ‘Profusion Cherry’.  Single cherry rose and ‘Profusion Orange’ are carefree, few pests bother, and are resistant to foliar diseases such as powdery mildew and bacterial leaf spot that no other zinnia can claim. In the full sun garden, plants will reach about 18 inches and spread about 20 inches. Heat and drought tolerant, these zinnia plants are easy to grow.
 The winning marigold 'Bonanza Bolerno' is distinct because the flower is gold with red petal tips in a unique design, no flower pattern is the same.

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INDOOR PLANTS

It is a challenge to grow a plant well. We have to give careful consideration to the kinds we select, not only from an aesthetic point of view, but also in meeting the plant’s requirements for successful growth and flowering in the home environment.

Growing and caring for our indoor plants gives us an inner satisfaction and pleasure. As one writer stated, “if you are all nerves, twitchy, and find yourself doing one thing and looking around for what comes next, then it is time to relax. Go into houseplants, and discover serenity.”

Now is the time to prepare your indoor plants for the winter. Look them over carefully for insects and/or diseases. Discard any infected plants. Readjust your watering and feeding schedule for winter conditions. Consider the placement of your plants to take advantage of the best light conditions. See that humidity levels are properly maintained around your indoor plants.

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PROPAGATING POPULAR PASS-ALONG* PLANTS

*PLANTS SELDOM SEEN IN GARDEN CENTERS OR CATALOGS

PROPAGATING BY LAYERING
Forsythia is probably the best example of a shrub that layers itself without help.

Breath of Spring or Winter honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima)
     Usually you smell Breath of Spring long before you see its insignificant flowers. From January to March small, creamy white blossoms give off a light, sweet, lemony scent. It will grow into a large, woody shrub, so plant it at the edge of the yard or woods where its scruffy appearance won’t offend. Propagate by layering, or digging up volunteers, or root tip cuttings in June.

The Winnsville Rose
     This local climbing showpiece has lost its original name, but in June has been known to stop traffic on Rt. 6. Roses can be propagated by layering or by cuttings taken in June.

Harlequin glorybower (Clerodendrum trichotomum)
     This beautiful little understory tree has huge, heart-shaped leaves and large bunches of fragrant white flowers on top of reddish bracts. As each star-shaped flower falls, it gives rise to a metallic blue berry nestled in the bract. Volunteers sprout vigorously in spring and can be dug and moved even into summer. This is the northern end of their range so in severe winters they (like crape myrtle) may die back to the ground, but will recover.

Kerria japonica
     In mid-spring Kerria is a fountain of golden pompom blossoms, with sporadic bloom all summer. It prefers shade as the sun tends to fade the blossoms. It spreads rapidly by underground runners, so can be divided from the mother plant. You can also root cuttings or layer it.

Spearmint
     I call this a passalong plant because my start came from my family’s mint farm in Michigan, which was once the mint capital of the United States when mint was used extensively in medicines. This is a superior strain, but like all mints can be invasive. Just pull up a stem with roots attached and replant and stand back!

Gooseneck Loosestrife (Lysimachia clethroides)
     Also known as summer spirea, this two-foot perennial will grow in sun or shade, and prefers a moist spot. But the best place to show it off is in a bed of its own in the middle of the yard where you can mow around it to keep it in bounds. The friend who passed it along to me dug it out of a circle eight feet in diameter. Just pull a rooted slip in spring, or dig it in the heat of summer-it won’t care.

Magic Lilies or Naked Ladies (Lycoris squamigera)
     The light pink flowers from these bulbs have a wonderful fragrance and a colony of them in the yard is a sight. Thick strappy foliage emerges in early spring and dies down in early summer. Then the flowers spring up overnight in August. The time to divide them is just after the foliage dies, while they are dormant. Plant them 5" deep.

HOW TO MAKE SOFTWOOD CUTTINGS

A softwood cutting is one taken from new growth.  New growth roots quicker than older root growth usually in 8 to 10 weeks.  A fast rooting process is vital to a cutting’s survival since it can only live a limited time without roots.  This is why it is almost impossible to root a branch that has been broken or cut off a shrub or a cut Christmas tree.  Making cuttings from these plants involves trying to get roots from wood that is at least two years old.  For best results, select cuttings from young wood that snaps like fresh string beans.  If the cuttings are soft and rubbery and do not snap, they are not suitable.

Plenty of moisture is also essential if the cutting is to survive.  When the air around the cutting is moist, the leaves give off much less moisture, thus reducing the chances of wilting.  It is possible to create a miniature greenhouse by enclosing the potted cutting in polyethylene plastic.  Plant the cutting in a pot and completely enclose the pot with plastic.

Since the plastic is permeable to air and impermeable to water vapor, carbon dioxide and oxygen can flow in and out, and water vapor can be retained inside the plastic.

For small lots of cuttings, use clean clay pots of about 6" in diameter.  Each pot should hold about 6 cuttings.  A good mixture for rooting the cuttings is 1 part sphagnum peat, 1 part clean sand, and 1 part vermiculite or perlite.  Early morning is the best time to take cuttings.

With a sharp knife, make the cut about 1/4" below a node (the junction of a leaf and stem).  Remove the lower leaves, leaving two or three at the top.  Cuttings should be planted immediately, but they can be stored for a few days in a slightly moist plastic bag in the refrigerator.  A hormone can be used to speed rooting, - Rootone or Hormodin.  In about eight weeks, check the cuttings to see if they are rooted.  When roots are about one inch long, the cuttings can be planted in individual pots or in the garden outdoors.  Shade them for a week or two after transplanting to help them become established.  Don’t forget to keep them watered!

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