November 27, 2012 Garden Newsletter

Well it looks like winters here.  We got about 2 inches of snow on Sunday and it is still on the ground.  It’s pretty and now that the sun is out today I think I can bear it, although I rather hope it melts today and my hose at the barn works.  We are supposed to get a gradual, modest warm up.

Don’t be afraid to go out and cut those evergreens for winter decorations now.  If you buy greens they were probably cut weeks ago.  If you are using the evergreens for outdoor decorations they will probably remain fresh through the holidays unless we get a real warm up.  You may want to hold off on indoor decorations with cut greenery for a couple weeks.  Keep the cut evergreen pieces outside in a shaded place, in water if possible.

Go ahead and pick a fresh cut Christmas tree while the selection is tops and the weather decent.  Just don’t bring it inside until a week to 10 days before Christmas.  Keep it outside in a bucket of water in a shaded area. It’s ok if the water freezes.  Cut an inch off the trunk bottom to reopen capillaries that sealed up just before plunging it in water.  Make a fresh cut on the trunk again when you bring the tree inside.

If you are going to buy a potted live tree get the hole dug where you intend to plant it.  I think you can still dig in the ground as it’s only lightly frozen.    Save the soil you take out of the hole in buckets or on a tarp.  If you can cover the soil or put it where it won’t freeze, so much the better.  After the holidays you can plant your live tree outside in the hole. 

New Plants- AAS selections

Well I promised to talk about new plants this newsletter and here are some I have discovered.  All America Selections have announced these winners.  Geranium ‘Pinto Premium Rose to White’ is the bedding plant winner.  It was introduced by Syngenta Flowers.  It has dark green zoned leaves with sturdy stems.  The flowers begin rose pink and shade to white, giving the plant a look of having two colors of flowers. 

One of the AAS vegetable selections is ‘Melemon’ bred by Known-You Seed Co., Ltd.  It is a hybrid melon, described as rather like a honeydew in taste but tangy and crisper.  It has greenish yellow small fruit with pale green flesh.  It’s early and vigorous.

Another melon was also chosen as a vegetable winner for 2013.  ‘Harvest Moon’ is a triploid, seedless watermelon developed from the old heritage watermelon Moon and Stars.  It keeps the dark green rind with odd yellow markings but is earlier, more productive and better tasting than its parent.  Bred by Seeds By Design.

A cherry tomato, ‘Jasper’ was chosen as a vegetable winner because of its vigor and resistance to many tomato disease including good resistance to late blight.  It holds well on the vine after harvest.  Very vigorous and productive, rarely needing fertilization, it is also said to have a good tomato flavor.  Bred by Johnny’s Selected Seed.

A canna that can be grown from seed and bloom the same year, ‘South Pacific Scarlet’ is a AAS flower winner for 2013.  This is a compact, basal branched canna that thrives in heat and humidity.

The last winner, Echinacea ‘Cheyenne Spirits’, is being featured prominently in many 2013 garden catalogs.  It’s an Echinacea that blooms from seed the first year, making it very affordable for mass plantings.  It comes in all colors from purple, through reds and pinks, yellows and whites.  The flowers are produced on sturdy stems that don’t need staking and the plants don’t need dead heading to bloom freely for a long season.  Drought tolerant and loved by bees and butterflies, this one looks like a hit.

MSU annual trials top picks for 2012

Michigan State University plants hundreds of bedding plants each year to trial them under Michigan conditions.  It has announced the plants that did the best in its 2012 trial gardens and has rated all the annuals grown.  You may want to look for some of these top five bedding plants when you shop for plants in the spring.

Bidens 'Goldilocks Rocks' submitted by Proven Winners stood up well to the heat and drought this year and bloomed profusely.  It has light yellow flowers on compact plants, good for bedding or containers.

Lobularia ‘Snow Princess’ also by Proven Winners also held up well in the heat, producing its’s white fragrant flowers all season.

SunPatiens 'Compact White' -  by Sakata was a top sun loving impatiens.  Its one drawback is that it is attractive to Japanese beetles.

Torenia 'Summerwave Large Violet' - by Suntory has blue flowers that do well in heat and humidity in sun or partial shade.

and MSU is suggesting it may be used as a replacement for bedding impatiens if you had problems with downy mildew this year. 

Gomphrena 'EZ Gro Gomp Purple' - by Grimes Horticulture.  This Gomphrena has violet purple ball shaped flowers that show up well in mass plantings.  It blooms all summer and can be cut for dried flowers which hold their color for a long time.  Other colors of this variety also did well in the trials.

 

You can view all the ratings and descriptions at http://trialgardens.hrt.msu.edu/

I will talk about new roses and some other specialty plants next week.

Garden catalogs

I like to look at plants on line but I also enjoy sitting down with new seed and nursery catalogs to look at in my comfortable chair.  Amazingly enough, many companies who used to require a fee for catalogs now offer them for free.  Printing is easier and cheaper than it used to be and companies are doing all they can to compete with a proliferation of new plant companies.

Print catalogs can give you tips and ideas and good cultural information on plants.  Even if you buy most of your plants locally, as I often suggest, studying the catalogs will give you an idea of what to look for and what it should sell for.   And for those who like the newest, rarest or most unusual plants catalog shopping is the way to go.

If you are searching for a Christmas gift for a gardener why not get them a gift certificate to one of these nurseries.  Most offer gift certificates and some have delightful gifts you can order- although you probably won’t want to wait for a catalog for that.

I have compiled a list of links to companies that offer free catalogs.  Click on the links and go to “request a catalog”  if necessary from the link.  Fill out the basic information and you will be mailed a catalog.  Hey, it helps the post office stay in business too.  Please remember that you may get mailings or emails in addition to the catalog.  Sometimes there is a spot where you can remove the option for additional mailings/emails if you un-check the box.

http://rareseeds.com/requestcatalog  (Bakers Creek Heirloom seeds)

http://parkseed.com/catalogrequestpopup.aspx - seeds, perennials

http://www.forestfarm.com/catalog.php  trees, some perennials

http://springhillnursery.com/catalog_request_qas.asp  flowers

https://www.plantdelights.com/inforequest.asp  many unusual plants

http://www.waysidegardens.com/   perennials, some trees, shrubs

http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/cgi-local/cataloguerequest.pl flowers, some trees, shrubs

http://www.burpee.com/about/catalogrequest.jsp  flower and vegetable seeds

http://www.richters.com/show.cgi?page=./requst2.html&cart_id=6454852.30086 herbs

http://www.millernurseries.com/signup.php  fruit

http://www.egardenersplace.com/catalog/catalogrequest14j.asp    At this location you can check boxes to receive catalogs from these companies; Edmunds roses, Vermont bean, McClure and Zimmerman, Jung, Shumways, Roots and Rhizomes, Totally Tomatoes

https://www.musserforests.com/catalogrequest.html  trees

http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/catalog_request.html  perennials

http://www.harrisseeds.com/storefront/PGCatalogRequest.aspx vegetable and flower seed

http://www.botanicalinterests.com/heirloom-seeds-catalogs  heirloom seeds

https://www.tomatogrowers.com/inforequest.asp tomatoes

http://www.territorialseed.com/catalog_request?gclid=CPf46Kmk7bMCFctcMgodFxkA6g vegetables

http://www.selectseeds.com/cgi-bin/htmlos.cgi/052563.1.066097902712049392  bee flowers

http://www.willhiteseed.com/catalog_request.php melons, vegetables

http://www.raintreenursery.com/Catalog_Requests.html trees, shrubs, rare fruit

http://www.starkbros.com fruit

http://www.jacksonandperkins.com/ roses, perennials

If you have a favorite catalog that isn’t listed here and they offer a free catalog send me a note and I’ll look it up and include the email in another weekly newsletter.

One more site you may want to visit is this Mother Earth News Magazine Sweepstakes site.  You can register to win a number of prizes, including an $11,000 homestead package that includes a cow, beehive, chicken coop, sawmill and other things.  You can also win a wood cookstove, solar generator and other things.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/sweepstakes

Check out these videos

With my new high speed internet I am now able to see video clips with ease.  I enjoyed these two videos and want to pass along the links.  The first is from a group of agriculture students from Colorado University.  They won first prize in a Farm Bureau contest with their parody of a Justin Bieber song.  Here’s the lyrics and the link.  It’s really cute and the singing isn’t bad.

If I was your farmer, I’d never let you starve
I’d feed you all your protein, calcium and carbs
I could be conventional – anything you want
If I was your farmer, I’d never let you starve

http://kdvr.com/2012/11/21/video-csu-agriculture-students-use-bieber-parody-to-sing-praises-of-farming/

The other video is actually produced with the help of two MSU journalism professors, Geri Zeldes and Troy Hale and details the story of two woman farmers who are trying to start a farm in Flint.  It’s not only the city council of Detroit that is ignorant about the benefits of urban farming; it happens in other blighted Michigan cities also.  This video really illustrates the frustration of people who want to do good things and have to deal with abject ignorance in city bureaucracy. 

 http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2012/11/flint_river_farm_documentary_p.html

Detroit and farming

It is interesting to note here that MSU is trying to promote urban agriculture in Detroit by building a research center called MetroFoodPlus Innovation Center, if they can get Detroit to approve their plans.  It will re-purpose some old buildings for indoor gardening and maybe use about 10 acres of the 40 square miles of vacant land in Detroit to garden outside. 

Did you know that Detroit still has a law on the books that says it’s illegal to sell fruit and vegetables in Detroit that were grown in Detroit?  That’s in addition to laws against farming/agriculture.   There are actually hundreds of small illegal vegetable gardens or farms now in Detroit but they can’t really put a lot of money into the endeavors because of their illegal status.  So called community gardens get a pass from the laws but anyone who wants to make growing fruit or vegetables or even nursery plants a business is at risk.

MSU tried to influence the people of Detroit into supporting the research center by inviting a bunch of them to a 2 day meeting at the Novi Research Farm in July.  They played touchy-feely games pinning up little notes - what I want -what you want- lets get together, Jumbaya, and that sort of thing.  That was so sweet but let’s see if anything ever really gets accomplished in Detroit except the waste of a lot of taxpayer money.

Reminder to Independent Master Gardeners

Get your hours entered into the old record keeping system by December 15 to re-certify for this year.  After this the site will not be available and whether or not your 2012 hours will be excepted in the new system when it is finally up is unknown.  Also if you want a copy of what you have done to date print it off the site before December 15.  Only the total number of hours will be transferred to the new site.

Go clip those greens and make a wreath.

Articles you may want to read

Around the holidays stores often feature Norfolk Island Pines for sale as they look like miniature Christmas trees. The Norfolk Island pine, (Araucaria heterophylla) however, is a houseplant, despite its name. It will continue to grow well indoors long after the holidays if it’s given the correct care. 

Read more: http://www.examiner.com/article/how-to-care-for-a-norfolk-island-pine