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Tuesday, October 24, 2017

October 24, 2017, Kim’s Weekly Garden Newsletter

Hi Gardeners
 
Tithonia still blooming, bee still buzzing
The leaves have left the bur oak by the driveway, hastened by the high winds and rain we had last night.  It’s amazing how many leaves one tree has, the yard and flower beds are covered.  The fall color hasn’t been very good this year and I suspect we’ll lose the leaves of most trees before they color up much.  The sugar maple in the pasture is losing leaves that have just a touch of yellow. When I look out the window near my desk I am mostly seeing bare trees now, the redbud is the one blast of shimmering gold against the gray sky.

Our weather is going to turn sharply colder in the next few days and a freeze is likely tomorrow night.  Right now there are still many annuals in bloom, zinnias, tithonia, petunias, salvia, sweet alyssum, bacopa, and the landscape roses, toad lilies sedum and dahlias are still blooming strongly.  I was outside on the beautiful Sunday we had collecting seeds.  Tithonia seedheads are very prickly things; like a ball of thorns, they must be designed to keep the birds from eating the seeds.  I waited almost too long for the Love in a Mist seed pods, they were scattering their seeds as soon as I touched them but I managed to get some.

I finished planting my bulbs this weekend. I was tucking them under the hosta in front and noticed I have a lot of baby hosta seedlings coming up.  I always get too ambitious with the bulb catalogs and then when it’s time to plant them- about 400 this year- I am searching for spots where I won’t be digging into bulbs already there.  I look at my pictures from spring for help identifying bare areas but when I get there I am sometimes surprised. 

Planting bulbs in the fall, especially new varieties and species I don’t have, gives me something to look forward to in early spring.  Every spring is unique, different bulb combinations blooming at the same time, new colors, little surprises everywhere. 

Inside the houseplants are settling in after their summer vacation outside and adjusting to indoor light.  One of my hibiscuses lost most of its leaves but in just the last week shiny new leaves have popped out and today the plant has 5 large flowers. The hibiscus variety Kona, which has pink double flowers, has been blooming since I brought it inside. I have a Thanksgiving cactus blooming already and my streptocarpus all have a good flush of bloom. The bouvardia and fuchsia are blooming and so is my orange jasmine.

My husband got ambitious this year and collected about a bushel of black walnuts for shelling.  We have a bumper crop this year and few squirrels to collect them. We usually let someone else have them, if anyone stops and asks, because of the work involved before you can use them.  My grandfather collected several bushels every fall from his trees and spent the winter cracking them when he had free moments.

I warned Steve about his hands turning black from handling the hulls but he still managed to get black thumbs.  First you have to remove the green husk, then crack the hard shell, and then pick out the nut meats.  He sat in the house while it rained yesterday and cracked nuts.  He had to use a cement block and a big hammer to crack them. After a couple of hours he had about 3 cups of nut meats. (I hope he’s motivated enough to finish the job.) That’s why those nuts are so darned expensive to buy.  I will be using them to make some great cookies and cakes.
 
Tithonia seed head


Seed Collecting

Speaking of collecting seeds (nuts are seeds), it’s that time of year when many gardeners are collecting seeds to grow next year. This is a great idea if you grow old, heirloom style plants, plants that are expensive or hard to find or you are just curious about what the plants will look like in the second generation after all that wild plant sex in the garden this year. 

Make sure the seeds you want to collect are ripe.  Generally this will mean a brown dry seed pod or a very ripe fruit.  Dry seeds can simply be stored in small clean jars; several paper bags or packets of different seeds can be stored in one jar.  Plastic bags can be used to collect dry seeds but since there is usually a little moisture left in the seeds it’s better to transfer them to paper packets that will absorb a bit of moisture.  Seeds sealed in plastic bags are more likely to mold. 
Seeds and seedpods of woodland nicotiana

I like to use envelopes from junk mail to store seeds, they can be taped shut. A bit of powdered milk can be twisted inside a tissue and placed in jars of seeds to absorb moisture also.  Dried rice added to a jar with paper packets can also be helpful to absorb moisture.

Larger seeds like beans need to be spread on a screen and dried in a warm place for a week or so before storing. Corn should be dried on the cob for a few weeks before being removed from the cob. Seeds need to be separated from moist fruits and dried on a screen also.  Some moist fruits, like that of tomato, are best left to rot in a safe place.  Once the fruit has disintegrated wash the seeds in cool water and spread them out on a screen to dry.

Do not dry seeds for planting in the oven or worse in the microwave.  Don’t laugh- someone once asked me why none of the seeds they grew germinated the next year.  After questioning I found they dried them in the microwave.  Drying in the oven may kill the seed embryos and drying the seeds in the microwave will certainly destroy them.  If the seeds are for eating or cooking drying them in the oven is fine.

One of the most vital parts of seed saving is to label the seeds. Believe me; you won’t always remember which seeds are which next year.  Do it at the same time you collect the seeds and make sure the writing doesn’t smear to where it’s illegible. If you deliberately crossed two varieties of plants make sure to write the parent’s variety names on the packets.

When your seed packets are filled store them in a cool dry place that mice and insects can’t get into.  A cool to cold place for storage is important for many types of seeds.  Some plants have special seed storage quirks you’ll needs to consider.  There’s a page with lots of seed information in the list to the right of this blog and there’s a section about special needs of some seeds.

The seeds from newer hybrid plants may not be such a good idea to save as the second generation is often a hodgepodge of inferior types, and it makes better sense to purchase new hybrid seeds next year.  This is also true if you enjoy trying different varieties each year or if a certain variety didn’t do well for you. 

Many gardeners like to share and trade seeds.  Collecting seeds from your garden may be a way to meet other gardeners in your area and also get varieties of plants that may be hard to find.  Many seed pods make excellent dried flower arrangement material too.

Fall seed sowing of common garden flowers

You may think the planting season is over when the leaves fall off the trees but there are some common garden flowers that drop their seeds in the fall.  Those seeds need a period of cold to germinate and may need the freezing and thawing cycle to crack a hard seed coat and allow moisture in for germination.  You may have some of the garden plants that require these conditions in your garden and they will self- seed for you if left alone.  If you don’t have the plants and want them in your garden now may be the time, before the ground freezes solid, to sow some of those seeds.

Seeds that can be sown in the fall include: bachelor's button, coreopsis, cosmos, echinacea, flax, larkspur, moss rose, marigolds, milkweeds, morning glory, nasturtium, pansy, poppy, strawflower, sweet pea, verbena, viola and zinnia.  Buy the seeds or collect dry seeds from friend’s plants if you don’t have them.  Some of these may also be planted in early spring.  Some wildflower and grass seed may also be suggested for fall planting.  Check the label, plant description or a reference.  Chances are if nature drops the seed in late fall it likes fall planting.
Bachelors buttons

When you are collecting seed from the garden remember that seeds from hybrids like most marigolds and zinnias you purchased in a garden center last spring will not come true from seed.  That is they will probably not look like their parent.  But that said they are often just as pretty although you may get a range of sizes and colors.  And you could get something unusual and exciting if you experiment.

What to do

Clear a spot in the garden of vegetation and loosen the soil.  Sprinkle the seeds over the area. You may want to sprinkle them thickly as some will not germinate.  You can thin in the spring.  Very small seeds like poppy seed should not be covered but press them against the soil.  Larger seeds like morning glory seed should have a loose layer of soil about a half inch thick placed over them.  Don’t water the seeds; it tends to wash them into clumps or away from your prepared area.  Nature should take care of the watering for you. 

You can apply a very thin layer of mulch such as pine needles or chopped straw but don’t use leaves or anything that mats over the seeds and don’t make the mulch deeper than a half inch.  (Poppies, larkspur and moss rose will germinate better if not mulched.) Make sure to mark the spots where you sow the seeds.  Some may wait until warmer weather to emerge so don’t be in a big hurry in the spring to plant over them, thinking they didn’t sprout.  If you have trouble with birds pecking at your seeds cover the area with netting.

It’s not too late to plant the seeds until the ground freezes solid.  After all nature will still be dropping them, even after the snow falls in some cases.  It’s an easy, inexpensive and effective way to get more plants into your garden.

Marigold

Sleeping with plants

Should you keep houseplants in your bedroom?  The answer is absolutely yes, if you have a suitable spot for them.  There’s an old myth that plants absorb oxygen at night and therefore are dangerous to sleep by.  While it’s true that plants take up some oxygen at night and don’t give off as much as they do in the day there’s absolutely no way that plants will deprive you of oxygen as you sleep.  You could have a room that’s tightly closed up full of plants and still not have to worry.

During the day when plants are in light and are photosynthesizing (converting light into a simple sugar), they give off oxygen as a waste product of that process.  That’s really good for us animals, because we can’t produce our own oxygen. At night or in darkness plants cease photosynthesis but continue to use a little oxygen for life processes.  

When the glucose that’s produced by photosynthesis is broken down to be used by the plant, waste products of carbon dioxide and water are released through plant pores. This process, called respiration, happens around the clock if the plant is alive. All living things use respiration to break down food into useable energy for growth and maintenance of the organism.  Plants are releasing carbon dioxide in the daytime as well as the night and using oxygen too, but they are also taking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere- usually at a much higher rate than they give off during the day.

Who wouldn't want to sleep with these beauties?

The amount of carbon dioxide released by plants at night is harmless to humans, even if the room is packed with plants.  I think many people confuse carbon dioxide with carbon monoxide, which can be dangerous to people in relatively small amounts, but doesn’t come from living plants.  Carbon monoxide comes from burning fossil fuels or wood.  (Carbon dioxide is also produced by fires but in smaller quantities.)  While too much carbon dioxide could also harm you it’s very rare to be poisoned by it and certainly houseplants, even in a closed room, are not going to produce enough carbon dioxide to harm you.

Any small amount of carbon dioxide released by plants at night is offset by the additional benefit plants have for indoor air, cleaning it of harmful pollution particles.  If a person has allergies to molds though, plants in the bedroom might trigger that allergy in some circumstances.

Sleeping with pets or another person in the room uses much more oxygen and produces much more carbon dioxide than plants do and most people are fine with those scenarios. Astronauts slept with plants on board will no worries, and a space craft is a prime example of a closed system.  You shouldn’t worry about sleeping by plants either.

How old is your houseplant?

I have a Snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciate) that I brought home from my mother’s last year when she decided she could no longer care for it.  She got the plant from her mother before she died. The plant is verifiably 50 years old and it’s probably older. The plant is 5 feet tall and about 2 feet wide.  I have a smaller sansevieria that came from an arrangement at my great grandmother’s funeral, roughly 30 years ago.  Also at my house is a Thanksgiving cactus that’s about 30 years old.  In our family houseplants are passed down through the generations.

I know that there are other people out there who have houseplants that are pretty old by any standard, often passed down to them by family members.  I was curious and decided to do some research to see what the oldest houseplant was and where it was.  The Guinness book of world records says that the oldest houseplant (actually the category is potted plant) is a prickly cycad (Encephalartos altensteinii) that was planted inside the Palm House of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, Surrey, UK in 1775.

However I see that as soon as this was announced many other conservatories and greenhouses around the world disputed the record and countered with records of their own. If you goggle oldest houseplant you’ll probably be referred to the cycad at The Royal Botanical Gardens but other research will give you even older examples of indoor plants.

I guess it all depends on what you consider a houseplant, or indoor plant.  Bonsai plants are probably some of the oldest potted plants and many have well documented records.  These oldest plants are generally in conservatories or museums and not maintained in homes.  An Italian Bonsai museum has a ficus bonsai over 1,000 years old.  There is a Japanese White Pine bonsai at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum in Washington that’s over 400 years old.  It was in Hiroshima Japan when the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945 and survived. It was tended by 4 generations of the Yamaki family before it was donated.

As far as an ordinary houseplant kept in the home I came across the story of a Christmas cactus belonging to the Kraft family of Bozeman, Montana.  Martha Kent, the family’s great, great grandmother brought it from Pennsylvania on a wagon train about 1864.  The family has documented each owner of the 3 x 3 feet cactus since then. 
 
Thanksgiving cactus
Houseplant species that live the longest tend to be those that are adaptable to many conditions and tough enough to survive some neglect.  Every species of plant has an estimated lifespan, but just like the human lifespan that can vary tremendously even within a species.  If a houseplant is lucky enough to land in a home where it’s well cared for, and it’s lovingly passed down to another person who takes care of it, it may outlive its original owner and possibly several owners.

The longest lived houseplants are considered to be: cacti, Schlumbergera or Zygocactus, (Thanksgiving, Christmas cacti), sansevieria, Jade plants, euphorbias, (Crown of Thorns), kalanchoes, agave, Chinese evergreen, Ficus, philodendron, pothos, and various types of bonsai.  That’s not to say other species can’t live a pretty long time.  I have spider plants here that are 15 years old.  My mother has a Chinese hibiscus that’s 20 years old.  A friend had a 30 year old Norfolk pine; I have one that’s 12 years old.

The greenhouse industry estimates the average life span for a foliage type houseplant is only 4-6 months.  That’s pretty sad considering that many types of houseplants can easily live 20 years or more with good care.  When you buy a houseplant research its care needs thoroughly.  Think about the plant as a long term commitment not as a temporary decorating prop.

Who will take your plants if you die or can no longer care for them?  You may want to think about this if you are a plant lover and leave some written instructions. If you are considering passing the plant along to another family member make sure they know about its care and document the time you have had the plant in writing so that any interested family member can keep the record updated. 

If no family members want the plant maybe a friend will continue its care.  You might consider donating a large ancient plant to a local public conservatory, (a living museum for plants), call and ask if they would want it when you can’t care for it any longer.  You could ask garden clubs and Master Gardener Associations if they have a member who is interested.
 
My elderly sansevieria 
If you are buying plants at estate sales- and I have seen some very large, old plants offered for sale, see if the sellers have any idea of how old the plant is.  You may hear some interesting stories to go along with the plant.  Don’t pass up the plant because it’s old, it may outlive you. And write down those stories if you get them.

It’s pretty amazing to think of people caring for house plants on a long hard wagon train journey, or on a ship crossing from the old world and in the drafty, cold houses in the wilderness.  If they managed to keep plants alive for 50 years surely we can manage it in our modern climate controlled homes.

Normal needle drop of evergreens

Every fall a lot of people panic when they see the needles of their evergreens, particularly pines, turning golden and falling off.  What they don’t realize is that evergreens must shed their old needles at some point just like deciduous trees shed their leaves.  Some evergreens or conifers, shed their needles a few at a time, others have a more massive seasonal shedding.

Pines typically shed 2 -5 year old needles in the fall.  White pine sheds its needles every 2 years, scotch pine every 2-4 years, red pine about every 4 years.  Drought and other stresses can cause heavier than normal needle drop.

Some other conifers, such as larches, bald cypress and dawn redwood, actually shed all their needles and look as bare as their deciduous counterparts through the winter.   If you were not aware of this you might think the tree had died and cut it down- a big mistake.

Spruces, cedars, yews and other plants we consider to be evergreen tend to drop old needles irregularly and don’t cause as much concern to homeowners because the smaller needle drop doesn’t draw much attention.   Needle loss on the inside of the tree, involving just a layer or two of needles is seldom cause for concern.  Evergreens will also lose needles where the tree has become too dense and shaded in the interior and this is normal too.

In normal needle drop, the needle layers closest to the trunk turn yellow or brown and eventually fall off.   As long as the outer needles toward the tip of the branch remain green and the tree looks healthy there is no problem.   Pines do not replace the needles that fall off, this area of the tree will remain bare, growth and new needles occur on the ends of branches in the spring.

Pine needles, or other evergreen needles, should be left beneath the tree if possible.  This is what nature intends for them to do, provide mulch for the tree to conserve moisture and breaking down to return nutrients to the soil.  If the needles fall on walkways though, they should be removed as wet needles can be very slippery.

Some people worry that evergreen needles added to compost piles or used as mulch around other trees and plants will make the soil too acidic.  Unless you have an awful lot of pine needles this effect is negligible. Pine needles can take a while to break down in a compost pile, so if you need compost quickly you may want to make a separate pile for needles.

It’s important to identify the trees in your landscape, to find out whether they are pines, spruces, yews, arborvitaes, larches so you can look up information to see what’s normal for that species of tree as far as needle loss goes.  There are many tree guides sold that can help you identify trees. 

If you have a question about tree disease, or still worry about your tree dropping needles, take a sample to your local Extension office.  There is an Extension office in nearly every US county and you can generally find the location in the phone book in the government section.  To find your Extension office you can go here:  http://npic.orst.edu/pest/countyext.htm

A good sample contains part of the area you are concerned about- yellowed or discolored needles and some healthy needles. A dead branch is not usable and neither is needles gathered from beneath the tree.  The branch sample need not be large.  Many Extension offices have someone who can examine the branch and give you an answer on the spot, which is generally free of charge. In some offices branches will be submitted to the diagnostics lab and there will be a small charge.
Fall needle drop in white pine

Easy Broccoli Soup

Fall is the perfect time to make soup.  This is a slow cooker recipe that lets you do other things, like read a good book or pass out Halloween candy, while it’s cooking.  If you use freshly harvested broccoli for this recipe soak the heads in a large tub of cold water with a ½ cup of salt added for about 10 minutes.  This will soak out any hidden insects.  The recipe makes about 6 cups of soup.

3 cups broccoli florets, if frozen thaw and drain
1 8 oz. jar of Cheese Whiz™
1 can of condensed cream of celery soup
2 cups half and half or cream
1 thinly sliced small onion
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon white pepper

Place all of the ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on high for about 3 hours or until the broccoli is soft.

Put soup in blender or use a hand blender and blend until smooth.  Soup will be thick.

Serve hot with croutons or warm bread.  This soup freezes well also.

October

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.

The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.

Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;

At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!

For the grapes' sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—
For the grapes' sake along the wall.

-Robert Frost-

Kim Willis
 “He who has a garden and a library wants for nothing” ― Cicero

© Kim Willis - no parts of this newsletter may be used without permission.

And So On….
Do you have plants or seeds you would like to swap or share?  Post them here by emailing me. You can also ask me to post garden related events. Kimwillis151@gmail.com

Find Michigan garden events/classes here:
(This is the Lapeer County Gardeners facebook page)
An interesting Plant Id page you can join on Facebook

Here’s a seed/plant sharing group you can join on Facebook

Newsletter/blog information

If you would like to pass along a notice about an educational event or a volunteer opportunity please send me an email before Tuesday of each week and I will print it. Also if you have a comment or opinion you’d like to share, send it to me or you can comment directly on the blog. Please state that you want to have the item published in my weekly note if you email me. You must give your full name and what you say must be polite and not attack any individual. I am very open to ideas and opinions that don’t match mine but I do reserve the right to publish what I want. Contact me at KimWillis151@gmail.com

I write this because I love to share with other gardeners some of the things I come across in my research each week. It keeps me engaged with people and horticulture. It’s a hobby, basically. I hope you enjoy it. If you are on my mailing list and at any time you don’t wish to receive these emails just let me know. If you know anyone who would like to receive a notification by email when a new blog is published have them send their email address to me.  KimWillis151@gmail.com


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