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Delaware County Master Gardeners |
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News for Delaware County Master GardenersVol. 13 No. 4 April, 2008 |
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Kudos to the entire team that worked on this year’s Home Gardeners’ School. It was a wonderful day. We had many first-time registrants, as well as repeat attendees, and all enjoyed the new site, four great speakers, a wonderful marketplace, Hortline live, book sale, perfect decorations, and of course, the food. Thanks to Warren Goll, Greenhouse Educator and the Greenhouse Growers who donated 100 pots of spring blooms to create the perfect setting. The HGS is over, and we move quickly into Teaching Garden season. The first clean-up is April 5. At our April 15th meeting we will work again getting our gardens ready for the growing season. We see new plants and blooms every day in the gardens. The Taylor Arboretum and Intergenerational Garden committee is also busy growing plants for the April 19th Pick-Up, and preparing the garden for the plants. If you haven’t signed up for the Teaching Gardens or Taylor, but would like to help, please contact the committee chairs. We have been invited to Miller’s Greenhouse in Wallingford for a Master Gardener Day on Sunday, April 13 from 1-4 pm. They are offering us wholesale prices on our plant selections. Millers features annuals, vegetables and herbs, grasses, and hanging baskets. Please RSVP to Nancy Novak at if you plan to attend. Our Tyler Partnership Committee under the leadership of Jeanne Skinner has arranged an Open House at Tyler on April 23 from 6-7 pm. Master Gardeners will be teaching three vegetable gardening classes at Tyler this summer, and could possibly have more classes for week-end programs. Refreshments will be available at the Open House. Contact Jeanne Skinner to RSVP. You can see that our calendar is getting full for the spring. If you would like to volunteer for any of the events, please call the committee chair. Additional help is always appreciated.
 APRIL is National Gardening Month and if you, like many Delaware County MGs, attended the Home Gardener School at Neumann College on March 29, you could not help but be filled with the excitement and anticipation of this coming month’s outdoor activities. People are ready to garden. Now, if the weather would just warm up a bit! For those of you who could not make this event because of other obligations, I would just like to share a few thoughts from my day there. Before even reaching the front door, I was overtaken by Delilah Foldes and asked to help decorate the shrubbery along the sidewalk into the Life Center. Vases and branches of forsythia inserted into the yew hedges lined the walkway, and star magnolia graced either side of the front doors. So, the mood was set! As soon as the doors opened, the smell of hyacinths and lilies drew me in, like a pollinator looking for its reward. Once inside, the smell of those flowers became stronger and enticed me along the corridor. Entering the lobby/dining area outside of the theater, I beheld copious pots of spring-blooming bulbs (hyacinths, daffodils, tulips, and Easter lilies) set into the College’s horizontal elevated planters filled with indoor foliage plants. Round tables, each holding a potted spring plant and covered with a pale yellow cloth, set the scene for a lunch that would follow the two morning sessions. Session One: Ornamental Vines was presented by Dan Long, owner of Brushwood Nursery, and a self-avowed lover of “the queen of vines”, Clematis. He showed pictures of more than 20 taxa, among which was C. Natascha, a cultivar with light purplish-blue sepals and red stamens. Beautiful! Each picture seemed to present another stunner. Another vine that piqued my interest was Parthenocissus Fenway Park, a Boston creeper that grows best in partial shade and develops chartreuse leaves! A picture of it drew oohs and aahs from the audience. Session Two: Cottage Gardening was presented by Shelley Dillard of the Morris Arboretum. She kept us laughing as she showed pictures of geraniums, poppies, delphiniums, bleeding hearts, foxgloves, hollyhocks, and many more plants associated with this type of gardening. She kept reminding us that our gardens will never look like those pictures of English country gardens, so just forget about it. One plant that again drew oohs and aahs from the audience was Amsonia hubrichtii, Threadleaf Bluestar. In spring it develops lovely, delicate light blue, star-shaped flowers, but in the fall, the feathery leaves turn a butter yellow making for a spectacular display! After a very tasty lunch with a varied menu of hot and cold entrees, Session Three: Great Groundcovers was given by Marty Kramer, Plant Curator at the Philadelphia Zoo. His message was that groundcovers don’t necessarily: 1) have to be of just one height in a planting, like all Pachysandra or Sweet Woodruff; 2) have to be restricted to horizontal surfaces; they can be found on vertical walls, as well!; or 3) have to be made with typical plants. He developed his personal property into a meadow with grasses as a groundcover interspersed with trees. No Pachysandra or Hostas for this guy.
An added benefit of this year’s Home Gardener School was a guided tour of the convent garden. At least 40 of us followed Scott Wade, Grounds Manager at Neumann for the last seven years, for the post-conference tour. Begun more than a hundred years ago when the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi came to Aston, some of the trees, like a native White Ash and White Oak, are close to two hundred years old. Other natives, like the American Holly are producing seedlings and doing well, while several native Eastern Hemlocks have been afflicted with the woolly adelgid and must be treated with systemic insecticides to try saving them. Within this section of the garden is a path that leads to 12 Stations of the Cross and a labyrinth for meditation. A small patch of Winter Aconite, a poisonous non-native member of the Buttercup Family, was the only spring herbaceous plant we saw in bloom. Closer to one wing of the building is a huge English Copper Beech, planted when the convent was in its infancy, which makes this tree at least 125 years old. For years the sisters have met under the boughs of this tree for meetings, meals, and prayers, but within a few months, this tree will have to be cut down. Tangled root growth has choked nutrient flow, rendering the tree susceptible to insect attack followed by fungal infection; it cannot be saved. In another section is a trickling waterfall with a recycling pump that uses the same water over and over. Closer to the cemetery is the grotto containing a statue of Sister Bernadette and a pond with a solar-operated fountain. There were other areas to explore, but not on this day. By 5 PM, the wind had really made the air too cold for comfort. Besides, the conference had been over for an hour! Scott assured us, however, if we wanted to come again to see the garden, and bring those of you who did not get the opportunity but would like to see it, we would probably be granted permission from the nuns, as long as we did not return with a busload! Small groups are OK. The Home Gardener School definitely energized me for this year’s gardening season. It was well attended, expertly prepared, and beautifully decorated. Many thanks are extended to the HGS Team: from the Co-chairs, to the Committee Chairs, to all the team players. Great job, Everyone!
Arbor Day Focuses
on the Young How wonderful to hear more and more about the significance of keeping the earth covered with trees to fight global warming. More personally, trees are crucial for many aspects of our daily life. Tall, wide or narrow, trees are responsible for the air we breathe. Very natural for them to absorb that horrible pollutant carbon dioxide, freshen the air and release oxygen so we can breathe. They are important for visual beauty, for cool shade in the summer and for blocking cold winds in the winter. Trees are known to stimulate relaxation, tranquility and help people recover from stress. That's why one day a year on Arbor Day, these natural resources should be honored and revered. And Arbor Day is an ideal time to educate our young people. I am leading to our celebration scheduled for Saturday, April 26 at 1 p.m. in Smedley Park. Rain or shine, it is free and open to all ages. If any of you Master Gardeners have contacts with cub scouts, brownies or church groups and would like flyers to distribute, please call or email me. I will get you as many flyers as you wish.
If you received plants for Easter keep them happy with bright light and cool temperatures. When the flowers die back, cut the flower stems off, keep the foliage alive until warmer weather permits planting . Make a hole bigger than the pot they came in, add compost and bone meal to the potting soil and loosen the roots before planting. The Hyacinth that I checked had masses of roots winding around in the pot. Tulips are hard to bring back sometimes. Lilies do well planted in good garden soil. Then there are the Chrysanthemums, which are frequently difficult to bring back, but you can try. They may not bloom again this fall but might bloom nicely in 2009. Prepare soil well, cut off all flowers and buds and plant spreading out the roots. They are heavy feeders, so fertilize a few weeks after planting and then every month thereafter. If you are revising your garden, adding to it, or starting from scratch, consider native plants for less fertilizing, watering and spraying. Plus it is much better for the environment. Many native plants look sparse and straggly in the woods, but are fuller and more floriferous when given more space in the garden. There are a few nature plant sellers within driving distance in Delaware County and from Delaware County. You might try Aquillegia Canadensis (Columbine), which likes a moist soil in part shade or in shade. The Syrphid fly larvae will take care of the aphids that may gather on them. They are spring bloomers that self-seed with ideal conditions. Replace plants every three years because they die out. Dicentra eximia (bleeding heart) blooms from spring to fall, taking a breathing spell in our hot, humid weather. Phlox divaricata (blue) and Tradescantia Virginica (Spiderwort) do well in shade. Eupatorium Collestinum (Hardy Ageratum) is 12 to 18 inches tall and has lavender blue flowers. It likes partial shade and moist fertile, acid soil. It blooms from August to October. Try some. I am sure you will like them.
Gardening Mistakes Something we have all made, and for myself, way too many to list in one newsletter. Gardening should give us pleasure, but we all have grown and learned from some of our mistakes. Avoid being disappointed by remembering these common ones.
Companion Planting I came across an article recently discussing companion planting that I thought some of you might find interesting since a new season of gardening is beginning. It talked about how companion planting became popular during the organic farming movement in the 1970s even though it has been practiced by some Native American cultures for centuries. Companion planting is all about beneficial plant associations. In other words, planting a specific mix of flowers, herbs, or vegetables in proximity to each other in order to achieve a mutually beneficial result such as higher crop yields or pest management. There are several types of companion planting methods including symbiotic nitrogen fixation, chemical pest suppression, trap cropping, and special interaction, where a vertical plant such as corn is planted next to a climbing plant such as pole beans for instance. An example of symbiotic nitrogen fixation is planting beans, which are legumes and fix nitrogen from the air adding it to the soil, next to corn and other vegetables that require larger amounts of nitrogen to grow. Marigolds planted among the vegetables secrete a biochemical substance from their roots that kills nematodes in the soil. Nasturtiums are often planted near cabbage plants so the moths will lay their eggs in the nasturtiums, which they prefer, and not the cabbages. This type of companion planting is referred to as trap cropping. If you are interested in companion planting this is a good resource: Great Garden Companions: A Companion-Planting System for a Beautiful, Chemical -Free Vegetable Garden by author Sally Jean Cunningham.
A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO GET SOME UNUSUAL PLANTS The Providence Garden Club of Pennsylvania will hold its 60th Annual Plant Sale on Saturday, May 3, at The Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades, 106 South Middletown Road, (Route 352), Middletown Township from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. If you pre-order between April 1st and April 30th, you have an opportunity to come on Friday, May 2, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. where you can pick up your order and purchase additional plants for your garden. Order Forms will be available at the Extension office or call Karen Barnes, Plant Sale Co-chair, at 610-565-2317. See last month’s Newsletter for more details.
If you are looking for a job to utilize your MG training—look here— We are seeking to hire two seasonal employees for the West Nile Virus Surveillance and Control program. Extension West Nile Virus Technicians Needed
Contact Heather Stephenson, Program Coordinator at 610-690-2655
Tyler Arboretum needs volunteers to prepare plant care labels for their upcoming plant sale. Training and additional information at Tyler, April 11 at 10 am. Greenhouse Advisory Committee is being formed. If you have interests in greenhouses, or have expertise you can share, please call Linda.
The deadline for articles to be published in the May MG Newsletter is Wednesday, May 7, 2008
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