November 27, 2018 Kim’s Weekly Garden Blog

Snow on ligularia seed heads

Well winter hit us a glancing blow Sunday night.  Here in my area of Michigan we got about 7 inches of heavy wet snow.  The ground is snow covered still although some has melted because the ground was still fairly warm.  I rushed around early Sunday to get the deer netting up around the evergreens and it was in the 40’s then.  I moved the remaining lawn chairs inside the barn and thought I was well prepared.  But ugh- getting to the barn the next morning was not fun.

I am not a winter lover. I can understand how some think it’s pretty, but with my mobility issues I really hate snow. But I don’t like hot weather either, so I am not moving to Arizona or Florida. We have a chance of freezing rain Thursday night and that’s even worse.  I’m hoping this weekend some warmer weather will melt the stuff.

I have beautiful Thanksgiving cacti blooming inside now.  The Dipladenia I brought inside is blooming, it lost some leaves but seems to be recovering nicely.  It’s in a south window but also under a grow light. The streptocarpus are also blooming, as in the fuchsia.  The hibiscus still has a few blooms, but it will slow its bloom now as the days get shorter.

The geraniums on the porch are still blooming as is the Chinese foxglove.  I also have New Zealand impatiens and some wax begonias in bloom out there although the canna has quit blooming.

I packed my dahlia bulbs in wood shavings this weekend.  They have been sitting in a couple 5-gallon buckets in net bags since I dug them.  They still looked moist and plump, so I just filled in around the bags with lightly moistened pine shavings.  This is the way I have stored these bulbs for many years and it works very well.  They stay on the unheated porch in the buckets until spring.

I got a seed catalog today, but it had lost it’s cover with my address on it.  How did the mail lady know exactly whose house that catalog was sent to?  LOL.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.  It’s only 28 days to Christmas so there’s still time to drop hints about what gardening gifts you’d like for Christmas.

"From the gardener's point of view, November can be the worst month to be faced: Nature is winding things down, the air is cold, skies are gray, but usually the final mark of punctuation to the year as yet to arrive - the snow; snow that covers all in the garden and marks a mind-set for the end of a year's activity.  There is little to do outside except to wait for longer days in the new year and the joys of coming holidays."
-   Peter Loewer

Using Norfolk pines and rosemary as Christmas trees

This time of year, you’ll often see Norfolk pines and rosemary sheared into a triangle or Christmas tree shape for sale.  The idea is that people can use them for a table tree and then keep them as a houseplant.  Norfolk pines do make good houseplants but rosemary not so much.

As soon as you bring these plants home examine the pot to see if it can drain. The pots are often wrapped in decorative foil that prevents drainage.  If you want to leave the foil on the pot poke a few holes in the bottom and set it on a saucer of some sort to collect drain water.  The plants must be able to drain well after watering or they will die.

The Norfolk pine is a tender perennial.  Home conditions suit them pretty well.  They need bright light and moderate watering.  Most Norfolk pines that are sold for use as table Christmas trees are about 2-3 feet high but in good growing conditions they can get much, much taller than that.

The Norfolk pine has very flexible branches and only light decorations can be used on them.  Tiny lights can be used for a few hours a day.  Their use as a table tree should be restricted to a week or so in an area without good light.  They should not be near heat sources, over a working fireplace, over heat vents, near a heater. After Christmas move them to a bright location.  For more information on Norfolk pines as a houseplant you can read this article.

https://gardeninggrannysgardenpages.blogspot.com/p/httpsgardeninggrannysgardenpages.html

Norfolk pine

Sheared rosemary makes a much more finicky houseplant.  It does not like most indoor conditions.  It’s a semi-hardy perennial that can be left in the garden in zone 6 (some varieties) and up.  It likes cool, somewhat dry winters.  Indoors, in warm conditions, the tendency is for rosemary to drop it’s leaves and soon become a dead pile of sticks.

Just like Norfolk pines you can use small decorations and tiny lights on the rosemary plant for a week or so as a table tree.  Keep it away from any heat source.  After Christmas if you want the plant to survive until you can move it outside, move it to a cool place, temperatures between 40 and 60 degrees.  Keeping the plant in normal home temperatures usually causes problems within a few weeks.

Rosemary needs bright light, like a southern window, or supplemental lighting.  Cool greenhouses, unheated porches or sunrooms are good places for them.  Water the plants sparingly, let them dry a little between watering but don’t let them get too dry.  If you have the right conditions the rosemary may actually bloom for you in late spring.

After the danger of hard frost has passed in the spring move your rosemary outside to a sunny spot.  If you are in zone 6 and higher plant it directly in the ground.  In planting zones 5 and lower you’ll want to leave it in the pot, so it can be moved to a protected spot next winter.

Rosemary is a culinary herb but be cautious using these plants that are sold as table trees for cooking.  They have often been sprayed or treated with systemic pesticides before sale.  After a year or so, if you keep the plant alive and don’t use pesticides on it yourself, it can be used in cooking.

Here’s more about growing rosemary

Growing Rosemary

Rosemary’s beautiful flowers, fragrant foliage and wonderful taste, makes it deserve a place in every garden.  It won’t take much to make you remember the delicious taste of rosemary on fresh baked bread, but rosemary is said to improve your memory in other ways as well.

Rosemary is native to the Mediterranean coastal areas and it likes a warm, dry, sunny growing spot. Some varieties are hardy to zone 6, most are hardy to zone 7. Wet winters are more of a problem than the cold.  Many gardeners however manage to keep potted rosemary plants for many years by bringing pots to a protected spot for the winter.  A few lucky souls keep rosemary alive in zone 5 winters by planting it in a dry protected area and mulching or covering it in the winter.

In its native growing region rosemary makes large shrubby plants that can be six feet high or more. In pots or northern gardens, rosemary will not get as large, although it can make an impressive plant if grown well. Rosemary has narrow, gray-green needle-like leaves that remain green and on the plant all year.  The leaves release a strong, pleasant scent when brushed or crushed. There are varieties of rosemary that grow upright and varieties that sprawl or form low groundcovers, even varieties for hanging baskets. 

Rosemary can have blue, white or pink flowers.  The flowers are small and rather oddly shaped and appear at the ends of stems. Plants wintered inside in a cool place will generally bloom as the days start to lengthen. In zone 7 and higher rosemary planted in the ground blooms in late spring or early summer. Sometimes rosemary will bloom outside in the fall after a long growing season.

Rosemary in flower

 

Growing rosemary

Rosemary is generally purchased as a plant.  Seeds of rosemary do not germinate well, and it does not come true from seed.  Rosemary starts easily from cuttings.

Rosemary likes sandy, well-drained soil. If you plant rosemary outside directly in the ground and have heavy clay it might be best to plant your rosemary in a raised bed. Zone 6 and below gardeners should plant rosemary in containers so they can bring it inside for the winter.

The worst thing you can do to rosemary is over water it, soil in containers needs to drain well. In the landscape, place rosemary with other plants that don’t require frequent watering. A little balanced garden fertilizer in spring, as new growth begins, is all the feeding rosemary requires.

In zones 5 and below bring in rosemary plants before the temperatures go below freezing regularly. The plants can withstand frost very well even light freezes won’t hurt them.  Indoors rosemary plants should be in the brightest light possible, preferably a south window.  A cool room that stays just above freezing with high light would be ideal.  Don’t fertilize plants and allow the pot to dry before watering.  A place with good air circulation is best; some people use a small fan on their rosemary plants to help them avoid fungal diseases in the winter.

Re-pot with new potting soil and lightly fertilize before placing the rosemary back out in the spring.  In the spring wait until frost has passed before placing the plants back outside because they are not hardened off.

Rosemary responds nicely to pruning and shaping and is often turned into topiary.  It is sometimes shaped like a small Christmas tree and sold as a seasonal decoration. In the garden upright rosemary is often trimmed into hedges or topiary figures. Trailing varieties are excellent as ground covers, on banks and walls and in hanging baskets.

Some varieties

‘Arp’ and ‘Hills Hardy’ are hardy to zone 6 with protection. ‘Gorizia’ and ‘Tuscan Blue’ are upright varieties with large leaves and light blue flowers that are favored for cooking. ‘Nancy Howard’ is a large variety with almost white flowers. ‘Pink Marjorca’ is a large plant that blooms prolifically in pale pink. ‘Pinkie’ is a dwarf plant with pink flowers. ‘Blue Boy’ is a dwarf plant with blue flowers. ‘Collingwood Ingram’ is a trailing variety of rosemary with deep blue-purple flowers. ‘Golden Rain’ is a trailing variety lightly variegated with gold. “Blue Rain’ is a very good trailing variety for pots and baskets, with light blue flowers that bloom for a long period.

Using rosemary in cooking

As a cooking herb rosemary has some unique properties. It is a very strong flavoring and should be used with a light hand until you are used to the flavor. Cooking does not diminish the flavor. Most cooks prefer to use fresh rosemary in recipes.  Dried rosemary has a slightly different flavor and is very strong. The leaves do not soften much as they cook so they should be chopped finely or whole sprigs can be used that are removed before serving.

Rosemary aids digestion and is often used to season fatty meats. It is used with lamb and fish and in potato dishes. Rosemary also is a good seasoning for bread, lightly oil the top of bread dough, sprinkle with finely chopped rosemary and bake.  Rosemary is used with oranges in some recipes and used to flavor lemonade. Sprigs of rosemary can be thrown on the grill and the smoke will season grilled meats.

Other uses

Rosemary has long been used as a rinse for hair and in other cosmetic preparations. Ancient Greek scholars wore wreaths of rosemary to help them remember their lessons. The scent of rosemary is said to enhance memory.  Sprigs of rosemary are given out at weddings and funerals to signify remembrance. Rosemary was burned in early hospitals and sick rooms to cleanse the air.

Modern research is studying the antioxidant and antibacterial properties of rosemary and has found that rosemary is an excellent food preservative.

Caution

Culinary uses of rosemary are generally safe, although some people may have allergic reactions to the herb. Medicinal uses of rosemary and the handling of rosemary essential oil should be avoided by pregnant women. Rosemary essential oil is absorbed through the skin and can be toxic. It should never be consumed or applied full strength to the skin. There are reports that strong scents such as rosemary essential oil can bring on seizures and may contribute to auto-immune diseases.


I’ll soon be growing marijuana as a houseplant!

I am going to be growing marijuana as a houseplant soon.  Michigan has voted to make recreational pot legal and on December 6, 2018 we will be able to grow up to 12 plants for personal use.  Sometime next month I will try to get at least a few plants.  I know the demand will probably be greater than the supply at first.  I hope the medical growers have been savvy and started a lot of cuttings.

Twelve plants are quite generous compared to other states.  This does allow one to have plants in different growth stages, so you can keep a harvest going.  Since commercial growing for recreational use needs to be licensed and that’s going to be a year or so in the making, starting my plants now will allow me to have legal pot sooner.

My use for marijuana is going to be for medical issues I have.  I hope to obtain a high CBD, low THC strain to grow.  Pot has been specialized to a high degree, and different strains do different things to the body.  A low THC strain doesn’t make you high, it’s just calming and relieves aches and pains. When I was in college weed was vastly different and my goal then was a giggly, fun high.  You sometimes had to smoke a lot to get that, since pot wasn’t as strong then. Now I want “peace and love,”, in a neat small dose.

Yes, I could have gotten a medical use card.  But the process is expensive and complicated.  And you still had to worry that some cop would throw you in jail if you had it on you.  So, I decided to wait until it was legalized for recreational use and yippee, it was.

Marijuana does make a nice-looking houseplant.  Long, long ago I would occasionally start seeds and keep a plant for a short time.  Now most people start pot plants from a cutting, called a clone. Marijuana has separate male and female plants.  You want female plants for medical or recreational use.  If you start seeds half of them will be male, at least, unless you buy expensive feminized seeds.  You won’t know until they are quite large what sex they are.  Feminized seeds cost around $50 for 3-4 seeds.  Growers make feminized seeds by spraying female parent plants with colloidal silver or a silver thiosulphate solution.

Marijuana can be quite complicated to grow, but as I told my son who is going to set up an elaborate grow area for his personal plants, it doesn’t have to be.  I probably won’t be plopping them in a sunny window- the law says they have to be out of public view.  And since a nice plant can be worth several hundred dollars, I want them out of the view of casual visitors to my home also.  No since encouraging a robbery.

Cannabis sativa

So, I am going to grow my personal plants under grow lights in an out of the way spot.  I am not using high intensity halide lamps, those are expensive and dangerous.  Instead I am just going to use LED grow lights.  I may use some reflective material around and under them to increase the light intensity.  I read that LED string lights at the sides of pot plants as well as lights overhead makes them grow faster and bushier.

Controlling the day length is important for good pot plant production and I already have some simple light timers. Marijuana has to be kept on 12 hour or longer days for vegetative growth for around 3 months.  When the plants are around 16-18 inches high you decrease the day length below 12 hours to trigger buds.  It takes another 2 months or so for the buds to reach harvest size.  After a plant buds it will flower, make seed if you have a male flower around, and then die. 

(If you aren’t looking for a harvest then keep pot plants under more than 12 hours of light, eventually they do die, usually in a year or so.  Some people claim to have kept them as houseplants for several years.)

I am going to use a good soil-less potting medium for my personal plants.  Many people use hydroponic growing methods.  I still have to research the best fertilizing program.

I am not going to start with 12 plants.  For one thing I hear starter plants will be selling for around $20-$30 each.   I figure 3-4 will be fine.  Even if I don’t get optimal production that should be plenty of pot for me and my husband.  I will keep readers informed as I start my pot growing experience.  If any of you are going to start growing or have growing experience in a less than intense growing set up, I’d love to hear from you.

LED grow lights- light recipes to grow plants better

Using supplemental lighting has allowed people to grow plants in places where there isn’t good sunlight.  It’s been done for a long time, 50 years ago most people used tube type fluorescent bulbs.  The bulbs were refined into what is known as grow light bulbs by adjusting the amount of red and blue light the bulbs produced.  Some people still use this type of bulb or the compact “curly” fluorescent grow light bulbs. These types of grow lights do a pretty good job of growing plants, especially for a few houseplants or starting veggie seeds.  The disadvantages of fluorescent bulbs is that they have chemicals in them that are environmentally hazardous. 

Thirty years ago, or so, the high intensity metal and sodium halide lights were developed.  Indoor growers of all types that needed to grow a lot of plants quickly turned to these lights. They produce a very intense white or yellow light.  However, they are expensive, both to buy and operate.  They produce a lot of heat and pose a significant fire risk.  Most have to be professionally installed.  They need to warm up for about 15 minutes to come to full light mode.  They do produce a light that people prefer.

LED lights (light emitting diodes) came on the scene in 1963 but they were only used as indicator lights in electronics and car dash displays.  The lights were red and tiny.  It took many years before experimentation produced blue LED lights and more years to learn how to coat blue lights with a layer of phosphor to make white light.  We now have LED lights that emit far red, green, yellow and ultra violet light also.

Even though LED bulbs were very, very energy efficient and last a long time they were expensive to produce and weren’t frequently used, in homes or for grow lights for a long time. Incentives to save energy made LED lights more desirable and extensive research and development of LED lights that could replace regular light bulbs, emit different types of light and stood up to heavy use were produced. 

Over the past few years the cost of LED lights has went down considerably.  This sparked an interest in plant growers who wanted energy efficient lighting for growing plants indoors.  And since we learned to manipulate the color of light emitted from LED bulbs in all sorts of ways this led to some interesting research by plant scientists.

A quick note here about light and plants.  Sunlight is a mixture of various wavelengths of energy, each of which is a different “color” of light.  When you pass light through a prism or see a rainbow you are seeing white light being broken into various wave lengths and colors. Plants growing in the sunlight get all these wavelengths of light and use them in various ways.

When people began growing plants under artificial lights, they discovered that different colors of light caused different reactions in plants. Light color affects plant hormones and adjusting what light color plants receive can do remarkable things.  Using LEDS makes manipulating light color fairly easy.

Michigan State University has a large Controlled Environment Lighting Laboratory (CELL) for horticultural experimentation that is one of the best in the world.  Research from this lab and from the Netherlands and a few other places has transformed what we can do to manipulate plant growth – and to give plants optimal growing conditions where no natural light is available.

You may have, like me, bought an LED grow light that produces an eerie purple light.  These are produced by alternating red and blue diodes in the light. I don’t like the light color, but plants do seem to grow pretty well. I also use some LED bulbs labeled “daylight” and plants seem to grow pretty well under them too. This white light is more pleasing to humans.  But more advanced lights are on the market now.

Purple glow of LED grow light

We now know more about light than blue light promotes vegetative growth and red light promotes flowering. We know that plants need other light colors to do their best.  We have learned that each species of plant has a light “recipe” that will optimize their growth.  This usually involves a range of light colors, blue, red, white, far red, ultra violet, yellow and green. With LED lights each tiny diode can be made a different color and then a mixture of colored diodes can give plants the percentages of light colors that suit them best.

Light color can influence the color of plant leaves and even how fruits and vegetables taste.  This is because plant hormones respond to light and some of those hormones are responsible for sugar levels and production of other chemicals that affect flavor. The right light recipe gives us tomatoes that taste like they were grown outside and basil that’s sweet and spicy.  Growers can manipulate light to get plants to produce flowers when they want them to.  They can manipulate the height and “bushiness” of plants. (Controlling day length and temperature also goes into the production mix.)

Growers can grow plants under one light recipe for a while, such as 35% blue, 35% red, 15 % yellow and 15% green and then switch to another recipe for another phase of production.  We can now grow crops in an enclosed environment and give them the precise lighting they need for optimal production, sometimes better production than if they were outside in the sun.

Since LED lights emit little heat, they can be quite close to plants and they don’t heat up an enclosed space. Having lights close to plants wastes less light than other forms of lights further from the plant.  Research has found that some plants, like tomatoes and marijuana grow really well with LED lights running vertically between plants as well as overhead.  Also LED lights can be used in stacked systems, where shelves hold many tiers of plants, optimizing floor space.

Since LED lights use a lot less electricity than other lights, some growers are using solar power to run them, which really saves money, and is great for the environment. New storage batteries make night and cloudy weather power possible.

There are companies that can now take a shipping container, fit it with shelving and a watering system, add lights that optimize the growth of the plant species you want to grow and then send that container to your location.  A chef wanting to produce greens and herbs for a restaurant could put one in the parking lot. 

With these enhanced LED lighting systems areas with little natural light in winter can produce good crops.  Crops can be produced indoors; stacked systems can produce 5-10 times as much of a crop as a crop grown outside or in a hoop house in the same space. Strawberries (and other crops), can be produced all year.  Enclosed growing means that fewer pesticides are needed and less water.  Crops are protected from weather damage.

There really isn’t a reason now that crops like lettuce need to be grown in places like California and shipped a thousand miles to the east coast, even in the winter.  A warehouse or two could supply all the lettuce needed for even large cities with LED lighting.  This would be environmentally friendlier than bringing lettuce across the country.  And enclosed systems are less likely to be contaminated with E.coli and other disease organisms. Fewer workers are needed to care for and harvest crops.

Using LED lights and enclosed growing systems is how a lot of crops will be grown in the future.  Many gardeners want to grow things like greens and tomatoes but don’t have outdoor space to grow them.  Others want to grow marihuana and the law may only allow them to grow it inside. If you are considering indoor growing, consider using LED lights.

More reading

https://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/print/volume-13/issue-7/features/horticulture/science-advances-in-matching-led-lighting-to-horticultural-needs.html

https://advancedledlights.com/blog/technology/compare-led-grow-lights-like-pro/

http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/43/7/1951.full

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3949401/

http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/50/9/1293.full

"The stripped and shapely
Maple grieves
The ghosts of her
Departed leaves.

The ground is hard,
As hard as stone.
The year is old,
The birds are flown.

And yet the world,
In its distress,
Displays a certain
Loveliness"
-   John Updike, A Child's Calendar  

Quick Holiday Rum cake

This recipe uses a cake mix to save time.  Don’t worry about getting drunk because the alcohol in the cake burns off during cooking.  There’s not very much rum in the glaze so that shouldn’t affect you either, but it leaves a distinct taste.  You can substitute rum flavoring if you are worried about it.

This is an excellent cake for a holiday buffet or office party.  You can decorate it with maraschino cherries and green gum drops.

Ingredients                                             

1 pkg. spice cake mix

1 pkg. instant butterscotch pudding

½ cup melted butter

1 cup water

4 eggs

2 tablespoons rum

Glaze

1/4 cup melted butter

1 cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons rum

Directions

Mix all of the cake ingredients together with an electric mixer.  Beat for several minutes.

Pour batter into a bundt pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted near the middle comes out clean.  Try not to overbake.

Remove cake from the pan to a plate.

Mix together the glaze ingredients.  It should be thin enough to drizzle on the cake.  If it needs thinning use a teaspoon of milk at a time until the right consistency is made.

Let the cake cool 10 minutes then drizzle cake with the glaze. Some will soak into the cake.

The flavor will intensify if the cake is covered tightly and allowed to sit for a day or two.

Even when November's sun is low and Winter flaps his fleecy wings, Thy gold among his silvery snow a solace in the sadness brings.

James Rigg

Kim Willis

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And So On….

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Newsletter/blog information

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