Garden seminar coming to a place near you?

I just got back from British Columbia where I spoke to 2 garden club/Master Gardener groups.  It’s always easy for me to do seminars in BC or along the west coast, but I rarely get a chance to go elsewhere.  Many times it’s the expense that keeps groups, especially garden clubs and nonprofits, from bringing in speakers.

So here’s my idea:  I keep a gift account budget here at WSU with the donations people make towards my educational program.  Occasionaly I’ll make an equipment purchase, but for the most part it’s intact.  And today it hit me – why not use it to help fund travel throughout the US (or elsewhere?) to give educational seminars? 

So before I go any further with this thought, maybe some of you can give me feedback.  Would your institution/garden club/or other group be interested in having me give a seminar on some aspect of sustainable urban horticulture?  Just post a reply in the comments with your general location.  I’ll see if there’s enough interest to pursue this further.  I’d probably try to organize this trip for sometime in late February-early March of 2011.

Mystery berry revealed

You guys are just too smart – I was hoping to trap someone into guessing a Vaccinium species. But no, you all knew this was a Taxus spp. (yew):

Because Taxus is a gymnosperm, this reproductive structure is actually a cone.  It’s botanically incorrect to call it a fruit of any sort, as the term "fruit" refers specifically to angiosperms. Taxus cones are modified for seed dispersal to include an edible, fleshy aril (very good, @GardenHoe!), whose taste and color are attractive to birds. The seed (which is toxic, like all vegetative parts of the plant – you’re right, Jimbo!) passes through the gut undigested.

The toxin in Taxus is the alkaloid taxine.  Like many alkaloids, it’s a potent neurotoxin. Other alkaloids you’re more familiar with include caffeine, nicotine, and codeine.

What’s old is new again

While the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) continues to expand in the upper Midwest (see http://www.emeraldashborer.info/files/MultiState_EABpos.pdf  for a current infestation map), EAB is old news here in Michigan, especially in the southeastern part of the state.  Efforts to restore urban and community forest canopy lost to EAB will continue, however, for the foreseeable future. In 2003 we established an Ash Alternative Arboretum MSU Tollgate Education Center in Novi, MI – which is near ‘Ground Zero’ for the EAB infestation in North America.

 

The planting offers some insights into selecting alternative landscape trees to replace ashes.  A couple of elm cultivars, in particular, have emerged as shining stars in the demonstration planting that includes five specimens of 37 different species and varieties.  All trees were planted as 1½”-2” bareroot liners by Tollgate volunteers.  Tollgate farm manager Roy Prentice has overseen the maintenance of the planting.

 


Accolade elm (Ulmus japonica × wilsoniana ‘Morton’)  Compared to most of the other selections planted in the arboretum at Tollgate, Accolade elm looks like a man among boys.  Growth of these trees has been outstanding – the trunks of the trees have grown fast enough that they have split off their plastic rabbit guards (see photo).  Like Triumph elm, Accolade elm has dark green glossy leaves and develops into a large tree.  Although elms are often thought of ‘ugly ducklings’, both Triumph and Accolade are quickly developing well-formed vase-like crowns.

 


Triumph elm (Ulmus ‘Morton Glossy’) has also done very well at the Tollgate planting.  This elm develops a vase-like crown with age and has dark green, glossy leaves.  A large tree to 55’.

 

The elms are part of series of elm cultivars that have been developed with high tolerance of Dutch elm disease.  Most of the new elms are hybrid crosses with Asian and European elm species, though selections of American elm that are tolerant of Dutch elm disease are also available in the nursery trade.  The irony in all of this, of course, is that native American elms were devastated by another introduced exotic pest, Dutch elm disease.  As elm trees were rapidly lost during the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s, ash trees became a popular replacement due to their ease of transplanting, growth rate, broad site tolerance and pest resistance (yet another irony).  Now we’re promoting elms to replace ashes.

 


Street scene before and after Dutch Elm Disease.  Photo: theprincetonelm.com

The moral of the Dutch Elm Disease and Emerald Ash Borer stories is that it’s critical to avoid over-reliance on one species or even one genus – even a native one.  In Michigan some of our urban and community forests are over 50% maple.  As global trade increases and the potential for destructive pests to hitch-hike around the world rises, the best hedge against catastrophic tree loss is to plant a broad and diverse array of adapted trees.

Friday mystery

I just got back from Nanaimo BC, where I had gooseberries with my afternoon tea.  Below is another "berry" found on a commonly used ornamental.  (I use the term berry loosely – as you may know, the botanical definintion for berry excludes fruits like strawberry and raspberry, which are aggregate fruits.)

I’ve photoshopped this so that only the two "berries" are visible. On Monday I’ll post the entire photo, along with some botanical fun facts! See if you can guess what this is before then.

Shear lunacy

I subscribe to Digger magazine, the industry publication from Oregon Association of Nurserymen.  I am always curious about trends in the nursery industry and this magazine is a good way to find out what home gardeners are buying.

The cover feature of the May 2010 issue is on topiary. While I can appreciate topiaries in formal gardens – with dozens of gardeners to keep them shaped up – I think they are poor choices for most home landscapes.  Shearing plants to maintain a particular size or shape is a never-ending activity that most homeowners will tire of quickly.  Nevertheless, the magazine reports that topiaries are becoming more popular for home landscapes, especially along the East Coast. The article showcases the newer topiary shapes – stars, crosses, angels, even cacti – in addition to the traditional spirals and poms.

The article warns growers that skilled employees are needed to prune topiaries properly, and that the time commitment to create and maintain topiaries is significant.  One grower states “it’ll take a fair amount of time to shape it, and then you’ll be trimming it lightly a couple of times a year until you sell it.”

Curiously, the article says nothing about either the time commitment or pruning skills needed for homeowners who purchase topiaries.

Even more curious…the subsequent issue of Digger is devoted to sustainability. Seems a bit of a disconnect there.

 

 

Visiting Virginia

The first thing that I did, gardening wise, when I moved to Minnesota from Georgia was to try all of the plants that I had grown to love in the South in the North — hoping beyond hope that perhaps someone had made a mistake when listing the hardiness zones of these plants.  The result was a mess of dead lacebark elms, Japanese maples, and butterfly bushes.  One plant that I did find could live, albeit just barely, was the beautyberry — a purple fruiting shrub that would survive as a perennial in Minnesota, just barely getting up to my knee — just enough to tease me.

Today I’m giving a few talks in Blacksburg VA and visiting fellow GP Holly Scoggins.  She runs the Hahn gardens here and has some truly beautiful specimens of many plants that I covet, beautyberry among them.  I am so jealous of people who live in the South and can grow this stuff to its full potential!

In this photo I share a beer with a large, lush beautyberry.  I think it might have been more impressed by a higher caliber beer. 

Creative Uses For Old Water Breakers

Why, oh why, can’t someone engineer a sturdy, long-lasting, horticulturally-correct water breaker.

We have, at last count, six hoses in use at our very spread-out garden & farm.  I go through a lot of breakers, and am down to two, which I rotate around.  In dire need of some new ones (as well as a huge bale of TP), I perused the garden aisle at our local big box (rhymes with “Target”).  Pistol grip schnozzles abound – these things that propel the water
like a 95 mph fastball.  Just what your plants want. Some had the “dial” for various water flow patterns, but these are never satisfactory.  Not a single real water breaker for plants among the 20 choices. So I shall do mail-order from FarmTek.

Dramm seems to makes the only functional water breaker, but alas, most of what’s in my busted-breaker-bucket are old Dramm heads (at $10-$12 a pop). Their commercial line is a bit better than the consumer items, where a rainbow of colors seems to be more important than structural integrity.  Anyone who’s worked in a commercial greenhouse has used their aluminum models or the plastic RedHead soft flow breaker, The only solid brass item in their line is the super-fine Fog-it Nozzle… I’ve had the same one since 1996.

A solid brass version of the full-size breaker would be great.  The point of failure (always) is the interface between the screen plate and the body/shell.  I hate replacing things. I’d pay for quality.

Hammer Time!
Obsoive.  My ingenious partner uses a water breaker body to keep bamboo from splitting (further) when pounded.  Principle of transference of impact from smaller area to larger surface, etc.  Tomato stakes finally installed!

Mystery photo uncurled!

There were a few brave souls who ventured to ID the mystery plant – a trunk shot is not particularly helpful, I know.  But I was hoping that its contorted nature might help a little.  (It wouldn’t have helped me at all, but you all know by now that I am NOT a taxonomist.)

So our mystery tree is a curly willow (Salix matsudana):

…which may or may not be synonymous with Salix babylonica.

In any case, it’s an interesting tree that’s relatively cold hardy.  Like many willows, it has weak wood and is prone to breakage.  But in the right location (away from targets) it could be a lovely specimen.

Plastic grass and organic gardens

One of the best cures for writers’ block for a Garden Professors is to spend a little time in front of the tube watching home gardening shows.  Now, to be sure, there are useful nuggets of information that can be gleamed from an hour or so of gardening or landscaping on HGTV or PBS Create.  But there are moments when I just stare at the TV in disbelief and go, ‘Have these people lost their frickin’ minds?’

 

A recent case in point, a half-hour gardening show devoted to installing an ‘allergy free’ backyard for a youngster, we’ll call him Billy, with environmental allergies.  Let me state up front I am in no way minimizing the seriousness of environmental and related allergies.  I suffer wicked seasonal allergies (yes, I know, poor career choice) and I have several close friends whose children have severe allergies.  I realize allergies can seriously affect quality of life and, in the cases of some food and insect allergies, can be a matter of life or death.  And I realize that a parent will do just about anything to keep their kid healthy.  Nevertheless, some of the practices promoted on this show strained all manner of credibility.

 

First, since Billy is allergic to grass, the landscaper replaced all of the grass in the backyard with synthetic turf.  Grass allergies are among the most common allergies but what is it about grass that most people are allergic to?  Pollen.  According the National Institutes of Health just keeping grass mowed is a simple preventative measure to reduce grass pollen.  Synthetic grass may have issues of its own with molds and there are remaining uncertainties regarding the safety of the used-tire derived crumb rubber used in some fake turf.   And if Billy has issues with pollen, I saw a much bigger problem looming like an 800 lb gorilla as the camera panned back from the picture-perfect synthetic lawn: Trees, specifically dozens of oaks and pines in the woodlots beyond the backyard.  I joined the show part way through but the overall landscape looked like the Southeast, perhaps Georgia or the Carolinas.  Even if the fake turf does reduce grass pollen in the back yard, Billy will scarcely notice as a yellow-green cloud of tree pollen envelops his house every spring.

 

Next, in addition to wanting a place to play, Billy wanted a vegetable garden.  Actually, given Billy’s obvious disinterest during this part of the show I don’t think he was really that interested in vegetables but the producers knew they couldn’t fill a 30 minute show with just fake turf.  Assuming Billy really was into vegetables the solution, of course, was an organic garden.  Why an organic garden is a panacea for allergy sufferers was never explained in the show; apparently pollens and molds don’t hang out in organic gardens.  The choice of vegetables was curious as well.  Billy got to plant squash and watermelons; guess no one bothered to tell Billy that cucurbit allergies are among the most common food allergies for people predisposed to pollen allergies.  For good measure, Billy got to plant some corn – doubt that could ever produce any pollen…

 

Bottom-line: take the info from the garden shows with a grain of salt and consider the source of the information.  Often times these shows are limited to whatever local source they could dredge up.  Do you really want to rely on a landscape contractor to make decisions about your child’s allergies and health?  Enjoy the shows but keep your skepticism handy and be ready to do some fact checking on your own.