Dynamite Deutzias!

Deutzia gracilis 'Nikko Dawn'

I've never completely understood why Deutzia don't get more attention.  Homeowners sprucing up their yards and Avid gardeners alike seem to ignore them.  Some can get somewhat large (6-8' tall and wide) and they require some annual pruning maintenance post-flowering to look their best; but so does Physocarpus, and all varieties of that fly off the shelves. 

Deutzia generally have multiple seasons of interest.  They are heavy bloomers, usually in late spring here, with white to pink flowers that last for weeks.  Foliage is attractive, generally pest and disease free, and dear resistant.  Fall color is often quite good, turning shades of burgundy or plum.  Many varieties are hardy to at least zone 5, though some twig dieback can occur.  After flowering it's beneficial to remove old ugly stems to keep plants looking best.  Deutzia is tolerant of many soil types including clay soils, as long as soils aren't too wet. 

So what Deutzias do I like?  Most of them!  A couple of years ago I picked up D. gracilis 'Nikko Dawn' when Asiatica was shutting its doors.  This is a wonderful and beautiful variegated selection of 'Nikko'.  It will stay compact just like 'Nikko', in the 2' tall x 3' wide range and seems like a pretty good grower.  I just stuck a bunch of cuttings, hopefully a good percentage root and we can offer them for sale next season.  Rare Find offers this as 'Nikko Variegated'.  They also obtained it from Asiatica, not sure why the difference in name.  Spring Meadow nursery has introduced a very similar variety to the Proven Winners line called Crème Fraiche™, it should start showing up at garden centers next year.

Deutzia gracilis Chardonnay Pearls™

Speaking of Proven Winners, a number of years ago they introduced a beautiful golden form of D. gracilis called Chardonnay Pearls™.  Bright gold foliage, white flowers, compact 2-3' tall and wide habit all in a plant for partial shade sounds like it should be an easy sell.  Gardeners don't seem very excited about it though and it seems to sit on the retail bench.  Mine have performed beautifully and are currently ready to explode into bloom.  Fall color is a beautiful burgundy.  I need to trim a little twig dieback off every spring, but they fill in nicely.  I have four of them, that alone should give you an idea of how I feel about this variety. 

Deutzia setchuenensis var. corymbiflora

My most recent purchase in this wonderful genus is Deutzia setchuenensis var. corymbiflora.  Despite being known in horticulture since 1895, this is not well known in gardens.  I first encountered it last year when we got some in from Monrovia.  They were so heavy with blooms, you could barely see any foliage.  They arrived again this year and I picked one up immediately.  This one is a little bigger, reaching 4-6' tall and wide.  Most of what I read says summer flowering; Missouri Botanic Garden however has a flower chart showing it to be in bloom in May and June.  Time will tell what the average bloom season is for Wisconsin.  I will try to root cuttings of this one as well.

Deutzias need more love!  If you're out plant shopping and spot one of these beautiful plants, pick one up and squeeze it in somewhere.  Trust me, your landscape doesn't need another spirea!

Deutzia gracilis Chardonnay Pearls™

Snail & Slug Prevention AKA DIE SLUGS DIE!!!

Snails and slugs are an annual problem for gardeners.  Your plants are looking great one day and the next they're full of holes and slime trails, and tender fruits like strawberries are devoured.  On the list of gardening things that anger me, these bastards are near the top.  (Rabbits are still worse, they start out all cute, fuzzy, and innocent until one day... BAM!  Just like that they become crazed mammalian plant destroying machines.  But that's a topic for another time.)

How to control them is the big question.  There are lots of answers.  Personally, I don't have time to mess with beer traps or night-time forays into the garden to hand pick them from plants.  Not that I mind night-time forays into the garden, but I'm not doing it to pick slugs.  I'd rather pick strawberries.

Being a Hosta guy with over 300 varieties, controlling these evil menaces to society is important to me.  I want people to come over and say, "hey, nice Hostas" rather than "oh, you have slugs eh?"  In the ornamental gardens, I use Sluggo Plus or Espoma Earth Tone Bug & Slug Control.  They are basically the same product, containing Iron Phostphate and Spinosad as active ingredients, I generally find the Sluggo brand to be cheaper.  Spinosad helps to get rid of other pests such as earwigs as well. 

This year spring is behind a bit, so I haven't done an application yet.  Generally I apply the granular baits as soon as the snow is completely thawed.  This is usually mid-late March here.  An early application like this will kill snails and slugs when they start to become active, before they have the chance to create more little hellions.  I do a 2nd application in early May, to kill any survivors of my initial onslaught.  Usually this will keep the population down through the summer, though new snails and slugs may migrate from the surrounding areas.  I also do a fall application in September to knock down the population of new snails and slugs that may decide my gardens make a great place to overwinter.  Welcome to the Bates Mollusk Motel.

Both of these products are OMRI listed organic and advertised as safe for kids and pets, but there is some debate to whether they are actually safe or not.  One of the unlisted inactive ingredients is EDTA.  EDTA is a chelating agent used widely in cosmetics, the medical field, and even in food items; by itself it has a fairly low acute toxicity and a low incidence of organic pollution.  Iron phosphate, one of the listed active ingredients, is even safer for use and is present in large amounts in the environment and generally considered non-toxic.  It's even non-toxic to snails and slugs.  So how does it work as the active ingredient?  By combining it with EDTA, the combination breaks down in the gut of the organism that ate it, releasing a lethal dose of iron in the form of FE3+.  There's a long and interesting article about it here.

The other active ingredient, Spinosad, is an insecticide that is derived from bacteria and has a unique mode of action.  I won't get into the boring details, but unique modes of action are generally a good thing in the pesticide world.  It tends to be difficult for insects to develop resistance to such insecticides.  Spinosad is highly toxic to bees when sprayed directly on them, but dried residue shows very low toxicity.  Spinosad has high efficacy, a broad insect pest spectrum, low mammalian toxicity, and a good environmental profile.  There has been one study that showed an increase in mutagenic tendencies in rats given a daily oral dose of 37.38 mg for 60 days.  It should be noted that this is far above the acceptable daily intake of .02 mg.  I'll still happily use spinosad for organic gardening after reading the above study.

So what about vegetable gardens?  Well, if you don't have kids or pets and you don't accidentally ingest these baits, you should be fine.  They will still break down to fairly harmless organic chemicals in the environment.  For our vegetable garden, we use Diatamaceous Earth.  DE is the fossilized remains of a specific group of algae.  These fossilized remains are very sharp and will slice into the soft bodies of snails and slugs, as well as deter harder bodied pests.  It's a very satisfying thought isn't it?  It's been fairly effective for us and it's affordable and easy to apply. 

So what's your favorite method of snail and slug eradication?

Really Cool New Plants Added to the Catalog!

We're really excited to be vending at two events this year, the Manitowoc Garden Fair and the American Hosta Society Convention.  Because we're excited, we want YOU to be excited too!  So we're buying some really awesome plants in to add to the catalog!  The first batch is here and potted up, the next batch will be coming next week or the week after, and the 3rd batch will be ordered next week.  Pictures will be added to plant descriptions in the catalog as soon as I have a chance to take photos.  

Calycanthus x raulstonii 'Hartlage Wine'

I won't tell you what's coming until it's here, because I don't want to have to say "sorry, that didn't show up." But the first round of plants is here, and features some very rare varieties:

Acer pseudoplatanus 'Esk Sunset'

Disanthus cercidifolius 'Ena Nishiki'

Hydrangea anomala petiolaris 'Early Light'

Calycanthus x raulstonii 'Hartlage Wine'

Parrotia persica 'Lamplighter'

Quercus dentata 'Pinnatifida'

Hydrangea anomala petiolaris 'Early LIght'

Hamamelis vernalis 'Blue Moon'

Though it's still winter here in Wisconsin (and many places- when will it end!?) my Vernal Witchhazel is blooming away.  It got a bit of an early start in the storage house.  Of course, not wanting to miss anything I brought it home.  It was outside for about a week, but then the forecast was single digits for overnight lows and it came into the kitchen.  Now it goes back outside, hopefully it's just warm enough for some pollinators as I'd love to grow seedlings.

'Blue Moon' is reportedly a seedling of H. vernalis, but there is some possibility of it being a hybrid.  It's been a moderate grower in its container for me and it will finally find a spot in the landscape this year.  The flowers are a beautiful amethyst-purple and by everything I've read they should be strongly fragrant.  Mine however, is not.  At first I thought it was because of the cold/bronchitis/zombie plague that I'm getting over; but I've gotten at least SOME sense of smell back and there's no scent.  While I'm disappointed by this fact, the flowers are incredibly beautiful and this plant is worth growing just for the flower color!  Hopefully, this is a fluke of the crazy weather we're having and it will be fragrant in the future.  Foliage is a nice blue-green all summer and changes to a beautiful yellow for fall.

For whatever reason, it seems the general gardening community has ignored witch hazels.  Which is unfortunate.  They're often the first thing (or in the case of H. virginiana, the last thing)) to start blooming in my gardens.  They provide color and fragrance at a time when there is very little of both to experience in the landscape.  On top of that, they usually have fantastic fall color in shades of yellow, orange, red, and burgundy.  If you have room for a large shrub, pick one up.  You won't be disappointed!

Aster Evaluation

Symphiotrichum oblongifolium 'October Skies'

I just got done reading the latest plant evealuation notes from Chicago Botanic Garden.  This issue: Asters.  With 116 taxa, this was the largest comparitive evaluation trial they've done to date.  The trial list uses the current nomenclature, which I'm still adapting to.

 I wasn't too terribly surprised by any of the results, except S. lateriflorum 'Lady in Black' getting 5 stars.  This variety had always been short lived for me (2 years or less), in more than one garden situation.  I will apparently have to give it another try.





Symphiotrichum oblongifolium 'October Skies'

Not surprising, and I'm happy to see, five different S. oblongifolium were trialed and all five got four stars or better.  They recommend using these instead of the common S. nova-belgii or S. nova-angliae.  'Raydon's Favorite' got five stars, I'll have to give this one a try.  Not trialed was 'Dream of Beauty', which is a very soft pink variety.  Mine is still fairly new, so no comparison to my 'October Skies' yet, but so far it is very nice.  S. oblongifolium 'October Skies' is my favorite aster so far, despite being a little floppy and needing a grow-through support. 

Eurybia macrophylla 'Alba'

I'm also happy to see Eurybia divaricatus & E. divaricatus 'Eastern Star' getting five stars.  I love white wood aster, and it's highly under-rated.  I'm hoping to add 'Eastern Star' to the catalog in the near future.  The other wood aster to do well was S. drummondi, which received four stars.  We may add this one to the catalog as well in the future.  Another one we'll be adding is E. macrophylla 'Alba', which wasn't trialed.  The natural form of E. macrophylla received a respectable enough three stars.  This lower rating was due to poor rust resistance and all other qualities reported were excellent.  I haven't seen rust on 'Alba' in my garden; it may or may not be more resistant.  I'd love feedback if anyone has had rust problems on it.

There are three asters I haven't grown that I'll now be adding to the gardens.  A. tataricus 'Jindai' got five stars and I've read nothing but good things about it from a number of sources.  A. tongolensis 'Wartburg Star' got four stars and I've seen it a number of times but have never grown it.  S. ericoides 'Snow Flurry' got five stars.  I've seen heath aster in the wild on many occasions and have always liked it. 

Aster ageratoides 'Starshine'

There is one aster I've seen that wasn't trialed here and I've been waiting impatiently to get a hold of.  In July 2010 I toured the Ball Hort trial gardens and saw Aster ageratoides 'Starshine'.  Its habit and bud coverage impressed me immensely.  It's now coming on the market, and I'll be adding it to the garden when I can.

You've got mail!

So I finally mosied out to the mail-box today, I was pretty lazy about it since Thursday is junk mail day.  However I got this big white plastic mailer bag. 

 

 

In case you can't read it well... it's from Spring Meadow Nursery.  The Proven Winner Colorchoice Shrub peeps. 

 

 

Nifty... what could it be???

 

Cool a Tshirt... I can always use more of those!  But wait... there's more to it...  the front says Plant Geek!  I think they were thinking of me when they made this shirt. 

 

And a Plant Geek pin!  Best mail I've gotten in a month!

 

 

Thanks to Stacey Hirvela, admin for the Proven Winners ColorChoice Facebook page for sending me this cool loot!

Amorphophallus konjac - Corpse Flower

I have a confession to make.  Since my last post in fall, I've been feeling planted out.  I didn't want to think about plants, and that's no way for a plant geek to feel.  Hence, no posts.  I'm starting to feel back to normal now, which leads to a 2nd confession.  I've been thinking about plant sex a lot lately.  (And apparently so has Joseph at Arrowhead Alpines)  Most recently about Heuchera breeding (more on that in the future), but it started thanks to a recent event:  My Amorphophallus konjac are sending up flower stalks! 

Amorphophallus konjac is the hardiest in this aroid genus.  I bought my first one in 2004 from Plant Delights Nursery, and since then they have grown and multiplied quite readily enough that we sell them and it doesn't look like we're in any danger of ever running out of them.  It's a prolific species when it comes to offsetting.  But they've never flowered, despite the description of "3-4 years from flowering size."  It's taken 9 years for that first one, and only 6 years for the first offset I got from it.  Apparently I didn't treat the first one well enough in the first couple years of life, which slowed it down. 

In any case, A. konjac is really easy to grow and the best candidate if you're new to growing Amorphophallus or aroids in general.  Despite being zone 5 hardy, I do grow mine as potted plants.  I pot them up every year in May or June depending on how our crazy spring is going.  They like it warm, and generally don't emerge until late June.  I've learned to use a bigger pot than necessary, as I've had the growing corms break plastic pots.  I use a well drained soil-less mix and a slow release fertilizer like Osmocote and plant them about 2-3" deep.  I keep them slightly moist, making sure I don't let them dry out completely. 

I keep them in the sun for warmth until they sprout, at which point I move them to partial shade.  Keeping them in morning sun or late evening sun is fine, just avoid sun during the hottest part of the day.  Once they sprout and are actively growing, I will also use a water soluble fertilizer like Miracle-Gro Pro once every 2 weeks.  This regimen has lead to fast growth and significant annual increase of the corm size. 

Once the plants go dormant in fall I first remove the foliage.  Then I remove the corm from the pot and clean off all of the soil, watching for offsets.  They're usually pea sized or a little bigger.  Of all of the plants I store in winter, these are the easiest.  Just set the bare corm on a shelf somewhere cool.  Usually I put mine in the basement, just don't forget about them in spring!  You can use the same method if you plant them in the garden and dig them up in fall.

If you want to try planting them in the garden, a couple things are important.  Well-drained soils are a must.  It isn't usually the cold in zone 5 that kills them, but the moisture.  If it's too wet in winter/spring, they will rot.  As Amorphophallus konjac grows, a well forms around the shoot on the corm.  To prevent this from collecting water in the garden, plant the corm on its side.  The shoot will find its way to the surface without a problem.  Also, plant them fairly deep.  Corms can get very large, mine are bigger than a softball right now and they can get bigger than a basketball!  I will be planting out some offsets this year, and will be placing them 6-8" deep.  Also, winter mulch once the soil is frozen will keep the soil from thawing and re-freezing too quickly once spring arrives. 

If you've never encountered Amorphophallus konjac, they're a really cool aroid.  They're related to Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema sp.)and Peace Lily.  The corm sends up a single palmate leaf on a mottled stalk.  Flowering is an event I've looked forward to with excitement and dread. They typically bloom in spring, then the flower fades and the plant rests until late June when it sends up a leaf.  Even in storage in the cool temps of my basement (55-60 degrees), mine have sent up their flower stalks.  I was hoping they'd wait until the outdoor temps (it's 21 degrees today... kind of warm) were a little more moderate and I could keep them in the garage or the screen porch.  They get their common name from the aroma of the flowers.  They're pollinated by flies.  The best way to attract flies?  Smell like a rotting corpse.  The same thing happened with my Sauromatum venosum -check it out here.