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Vol. 2, No. 9 — September 15, 2006
In This Issue:
Chrysanthemums
New Tree Selector Web Site
September To-Do List
Spotlight Special: New Oak Hybrids
What's Blooming
Local Gardening Events
Welcome to the
Washington Garden Enews!
This is the free sister publication of Washington Gardener magazine.
Both the magazine and enewsletter share the same mission and focus — helping Washington DC area gardens grow — but our content is different.
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address timely seasonal topics and projects; post local garden events; and, include a monthly reminder list of what you can be doing now in your garden.
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The September/October 2006 Washington Gardener magazine has been mailed to all subscribers and single issues can be purchased directly from Washington Gardener or at area Borders and B. Dalton book stores. This issue focuses on shade gardening including a feature on Hosta care and lists of great shade plants for our region. Also in this issue is an interview with landscape legend, Wolfgang Oehme, Fig growing tips and fabulous recipes, a trip to Oatlands Plantation, and much, much more.
Chrysanthemums
I’ll confess I had a longtime aversion to chrysanthemums. Both their smell and commonness turned me off. But last year I had a change of heart. I discovered a whole new world of mum growing that goes far beyond those sold in bunches at your local florists.
Chrysanthemums are an asset to any perennial garden. They provide quiet foliage all through the growing season and then set bloom right when most everything else is finished. From gold to pink to white and maroon, there is a color for every planting scheme. Don’t limit yourself to just the pompon cushion variety either. A personal favorite of mine mum is the Sheffield Pink (pictured here), which looks like a peach-colored daisy on tall stems. It is terrific for cutting and is especially nice planted next to Autumn Joy sedum.
According to Gary Mangum, president of Bell Nursery, who supplies plants to Home Depot throughout the Midatlantic, “Yellow is the most popular mum color for us.” Bell Nursery has taken the love of mums to the next level by breeding giant mums that are upwards of three feet across! “We find that people get instant gratification by covering a lot of area and getting a lot of color with fewer plants,” said Mangum. “We have seen a huge growth in the popularity of the giant mums each year they are in the stores.” Home Depot expects to sell 30,000 of the giant mums in the region this year, doubling last year’s sales, as well as selling 500,000 of Bell Nursery’s regular sized mums.
Whether giant or mini or in between, mums deserve a place in your garden. Here are some chrysanthemum growing tips:
- Mums are ideal container plants and can then be planted after blooming.
- Be sure you select plants that are cold hardy and healthy.
- Plant in full sun and give them space. They need good air circulation.
- Every three years divide the plants in spring.
- They need good drainage and a light mulching in spring helps.
- Pinch them back before July to create compact, bushy plants with more blooms.
- Provide extra mulch for winter protection and do not cut them back until early spring when some new basal growth begins to emerge.
- A hard frost will turn the blooms brown, so if you know a freeze is predicted, you can give them protection to prolong the bloom life by covering with a frost blanket.
Both Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA, and Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD, hold chrysanthemum shows each autumn. The displays include a variety of chrysanthemum colors and forms – from cascading baskets to topiary to single, large blossoms. Plan a visit to one or both to get an overview of the mums available to you.
If you find yourself growing more interested in breeding and cultivating chrysanthemums, you may want to join a local mum enthusiast group.
The Potomac Chrysanthemum Society (PCS). The club holds an annual plant sale each May in various locations around the beltway. All plants are $1.25 and selection is wide. The club also hosts monthly meetings at the Twinbrook Library in Rockville, MD, and other regular events such as a plant exchange. For more information, contact the PCS President Carol Cunnick President at cccunnick@hotmail.com.
The Old Dominion Chrysanthemum Society is based in Alexandria, VA, meets monthly at the Falls Church Community Center in Falls Church, VA. Fir details, contact Jeanne Malone, president of the chapter, at jeanne.malone@cox.net.
Happy Growing!
Kathy Jentz
Editor/Publisher
Washington Gardener
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Local Gardening Events
Here is a selection of upcoming events (September 15 - October 15) in the DC area of interest to gardeners:
DC
Woods Walk—The Amphitheater & Native Plants
September 21, 10:00am
National Cathedral, meet at the George Washington statue on Pilgrim Road, NW, Washington, DC
Anne Elsbree of the All Hallows Guild will discuss the amphitheater revitalization. She’ll also talk about the hundreds of native plants that live on the amphitheater’s surrounding five acres. Please note that a Bird Walk precedes this tour. Please wear sturdy water-proof shoes. Pets must be leashed. Walk cancelled in case of heavy rain.
Fee: $0/Free. Preregistration is not required.
For more information: call 202.537.2319 or go to: www.cathedral.org.
HerbDay! Festival
October 14, 10:00am-4:00pm
United States Botanic Garden Conservatory, 100 Maryland Avenue, SW, foot of the U.S. Capitol
Spend the day in the USBG Conservatory celebrating the importance of herbs. Discover the significance of herbs in our lives and the many ways herbs can be used safely and creatively for health, beauty care, and culinary enjoyment. Throughout the Conservatory there will be demonstrations, tours, children’s activities, discussions, and information tables. You won’t want to miss this amazing opportunity to learn more about herbals.
Fee: $0/Free. Registration is not required.
For more information: call 202.226.4082 or www.usbg.gov
Green Festival DC
October 14, 10:00am-8:00pm and October 15, 11:00am-6:00pm
Washington Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Place, NW, Washington, DC
Tasty food, great music, and 300 green businesses as well as films, workshops, yoga, and other types of movement class. Washington Gardener magazine will be in Booth 306. Also a packed program of inspiring speakers including Sylvia Hoehns Wright, Washington Gardener magazine's EcoSavvy columnist. Sylvia will speak at 2:00pm on Saturday, October 14, on Eco-scapes, outdoor living at its best!.
Fee: Adults $15 each day. $7 each day for students/bikers/seniors. Kids under 12 and volunteers are free. Preregistration is not required.
Special Discount for Washington Gardener magazine subscribers get 2 people into the festival for the price of 1! Contact: editor@washingtongardener.com and put GreenFest Discount in the email subject line.
For more information: visit: www.GreenFestivals.org.
MD and PA
Chesapeake Ecology Center Native Plant Demonstration Garden Tours and Volunteer Garden Care Day
September 23, 9:00am-12:00noon
On the grounds of Adams Academy at Adams Park, 245 Clay Street, Annapolis, MD
The Chesapeake Ecology Center is pleased to announce a Garden Tour on the grounds of this 10-acre demonstration site. The date of the tour is September 23. It will be led by Anne Arundel County Master Gardeners and other volunteers from 9-10 A.M.
The garden will also be open from 9-12 to give the public the opportunity to contribute volunteer time to various garden projects such as mulching and weeding. Volunteers will learn about garden maintenance and more details about the native plants on site. Visitors can come for the tour, volunteer sessions, or both.
The native plants at the site make excellent garden plants. They are low maintenance, adapted to the local climate and soils, and attract and support native wildlife. They also need little or no extra water, pesticides, or fertilizers.
The Chesapeake Ecology Center demonstrates conservation landscaping techniques including five rain gardens. Rain gardens are shallow and saucer-shaped designed to collect and purify rain water. They also have groundwater recharge and flood control benefits.
Fee: $0/Free. Registration is not required.
For more information: www.chesapeakeecologycenter.org
Mr. Stier’s Bulb Sale
October 7, 12:00noon-5:00pm
Riversdale House Museum & Grounds, 4811 Riverdale Road, Riverdale Park, MD
Visit the Riversdale Historical Society's booth during Riverdale Park Day to buy tulips, crocus, and daffodil bulbs.
Fee: $0/Free. Registration is not required.
For more information, go to www.pgparks.com or call 301.864.0420.
Washington Gardener Autumn Open Garden Day
Columbus Day, October 9, 3:00-6:00pm
826 Philadelphia Ave (Rt. 410), Silver Spring, MD
Back by popular demand! Washington Gardener magazine will host one Open Garden Day this fall. Come by with your garden questions and see our trial garden in progress. You can sign up for subscriptions or renew in person. You can also buy back issues, current issues, and gift subscriptions. Additionally, we will have guest artists and various plants for sale. The Open Garden is rain or shine. We are an easy walk from both the Silver Spring and Takoma Park metro stops. Also, several Metro and Ride-On bus routes pass nearby. If driving, please pull in our driveway off of Fenton Street - this is directly across from the Public Storage building.
Fee: $0/Free. Registration is not required.
For more information: www.washingtongardener.com.
VA and WV
Virginia Native Plant Society's Plant Sale
September 16, 11:00-4:00pm
Green Spring Gardens, 4603 Green Spring Rd., Alexandria, VA
In conjunction with the Fall Fling: Butterfly Fest, the the Potowmack chapter of the
Virginia Native Plant Society holds its big fall sale. Washigton Gardener magazine will be exhibiting in an adjacent booth.
Fee: $0/Free. Registration is required.
For more information: www.fairfaxcounty.gov or call 703.642.5173.
Fashion in Bloom
(formerly known as Eastern Performance Trials)
September 23, 8:00am-12:00noon
George Washington's River Farm, headquarters of the American Horticultural Society, Alexandria, VA.
Sponsored by the organization Garden Centers of America (GCA), the event will feature some of the biggest names in the green industry. The GCA’s Fashion in Bloom is a horticultural event that will showcase top-performing plants and the hottest new offerings for spring 2007 from 35 world-class companies.
Fee: $0/Free. Registration is not required.
For more information: www.ahs.org or call 703.768.5700.
7th Annual Parkfairfax Native Plant Sale
September 30, 9:00am-2:00pm
3601 Valley Drive, Alexandria, VA
The sale features many top-quality nurseries from VA, MD,
and PA offering beautiful and uncommon native perennials,
shrubs, and trees for sun or shade! Twelve vendors will be at the Parkfairfax sale, making it their largest
sale yet and one of the largest native plant sales in our area.
A few of these vendors do not come to our local area for any other plant sale. The sale is entirely organized and run by volunteers.
Fee: $0/Free. Registration is not required.
For details, call 703.671.8416 or go to http://home.earthlink.net/~sknudsen/.
For even more area garden event notices than we can't possibly squeeze in here, become a member of our free online discussion group. To join the email list serv, just send an email to: WashingtonGardener-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
To submit an event for this listing, please contact: editor@washingtongardener.com.
Our next deadline is October 12 for the October 15 edition of this enewsletter featuring events from October 15-November15.
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Spotlight Special: New Oak Hybrids
The Landscape Plant Development Center's cooperative oak breeding project with Cornell University is working to develop oak trees that withstand difficult urban landscapes. The Center has also been working with Cornell researchers to improve the rootability of the trees. Together, the Center and Cornell already have over 200 combinations of oak trees, some of which are nearly 6 feet tall.
"We have combined native cold-hardy trees with much shorter southern and desert species that can tolerate heat, drought, compacted low oxygen soil, road salt and the concrete-induced high pH soils common to cities," said ornamental plant breeder Peter C. Podaras of the Landscape Plant Development Center based in Mound, MN. "Smaller-sized trees require less long-term maintenance and do not interfere with power lines. We believe these new extremely vigorous hybrids have excellent potential as the ultimate street trees and for backyard landscaping."
According to the Chronicle Online daily news from Cornell University: “Project leader Nina Bassuk of Cornell's Urban Horticulture Institute and Cornell Ph.D. candidate Naalamle Amissah have developed a new cloning technique called clonal propagation that allows oaks to develop their own root system, rather than growers having to use the traditional and difficult grafting method. Nurseries will evaluate the new propagation method for quickly getting the new varieties into commercial production.”
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What's Blooming
Our readers reported the following blooms and items of interest in their gardens during the first week of September:
Jim Dronenburg of Knoxville, MD, has:
Begonia grandis (pink and white forms)
Buddleias (various davidii hybrids and B. lindleyana)
Bulbine fruticosa (bedding plant)
Caryopteris (two forms)
Ceratostigma plumbaginoides (plumbago)
Clerodendrum trichotomum
Cyclamen hederifolium
Dianthus (annual)
Hedychiums
Hemerocallis, (Autumn Prince and Autumn Minaret, I think)
Heptacodium miconioides
Hosta plantaginea
Impatiens (normal hybrids, and I. balfouri)
Lagerstromeria
Lycoris straminea
Lycoris sprengeri and sanguinea
Pollia
Roses, various
Salvias, various
Zephyranthes
Ursula Sabia Sukinik of North Bethesda, MD, has:
Agastache Foeniculum
Alcea rosea
Anenmone Japonica
Begonia 'Dragon Wing Red'
Brugmansia ‘peaches and Cream’
Calendula
Callicarpa D. ‘Issai” (berries)
Canna x generalis
Caryopteris ‘Sunshine Blue’
Chrysanthemum leucanthemum "Becky"
Clemartis paniculata
Coreopsis verticillata 'Moonbeam'
Echinacea purpurea
Eucomis autumnalis
Eupatorium dubium
Helianthus tuberosus
Hibiscus 'Kopper King
Hydrangea 'annabel'
Hydrangea quercifolia
Hypericum perforatum
Impatiens
Lantana
Lobelia cardinalis
Lonicer
Lonicera sempervirens
Mazus reputans
Mirabilis jalapa
Nicotiana ‘Sylvestris’
Nicotiana alata 'Lime Green'
Otocanthis ‘Caribbean Blue’
Oxalis regnellii 'Triangularis'
Panicum virgatum 'Shenandoah'
Passiflora ‘Star of Surbiton
Pentas spp
Perovskia 'Blue Spire'
Persicaria microsephala ‘red dragon’
Physostegia virginiana
Plumbago auriculata
Pseuderanthemum alatum
rosa ‘Meidiland’
rosa' knock out'
Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue'
Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’
Zantedeschia aethiopica
In your editor's own garden in my MD/DC-border site:
Alyssum
Anise Hyssop
Anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’
Aster ‘Monch’
Balsam
Black-eyed Susan
Buddleia
Caryopteris
Coleus
Clematis ‘Sweet Autumn’
Coreopsis ‘Moonbeam’
Cosmos
Crepe Myrtle
Datura
Dianthus (annual)
Echinacea
Fuchsia ‘Garten Meister’
Gallardia
Geraniums (annual)
Goldenrod
Hydrangeas
Hosta
Impatiens
Lavender
Leptodermis
Liriope
Marigolds
Morning Glory vines
Mums
Obedient Plant
Petunias
Phlox - pink, tall
Rhododendron PJM
Rose of Sharon, Rose mutabilis, meidiland white, meidiland rosa, knock out
Russian sage
Salvia
Sedum Autumn Joy
Snapdragon
Spiderwort
Sunflowers
Toadwort
Trumpet Creeper vine
Verbena on a stick
Wiegelia (second wave)
Cheval Force Opp in Dunn Loring, VA, has:
Asteromoea Mongolica, kalimeris
Cyrtanthus elatus, Fire Lily
Begonia grandis, pink
Boltonia asteroids ‘Ping Beauty’
Buddleia davidii ‘Peacock’ Purple Emperor
Canna X generalis
Cleome hasslerana, Spider Flower, Violet Queen, Helen Campbell
Echinacea Sundown ‘Big Sky Series’ Coneflower
Eupatorium cannibium flore plena
Eupatorium maculatum, Joe-Pye Weed ‘Purple Bush’
Gaillardia ‘Mandarin’ Blanket Flower
Helenium ‘Mardi Gras’
Hibiscus syriacus, ‘Diana’
Lagerstroemia , Natchez, Orlando, Crape myrtle
Liatris scariosa ‘White Spires’ Gayfeather
Liatris Microcephala, Dwarf Liatris
P. paniculata, ‘Nora Leigh’
Persicaria virginiana ‘Painter’s Palette’
Rudbeckia hirta ‘Prairie Sun’ Gloriosa Daisy
Rudbeckia laciniata ‘Green Headed Coneflower’
Salvia guaranitica ‘Blue Anis’ Sage
Sanguisorba tenuifolia atropupurea, Burnet
Sedum spectabile ‘Brilliant”
Solidago rugosa ‘Fireworks’ Goldenrod
Tagetes patula, Marigolds French Brocade, Red Metamorph
Zinnia elegans, Persian Carpet
Compare to last year's September blooming lists in our September 2005 issue. Let us know what is blooming or of particular interest in your garden during the first week of October. Please include your name, city, state, and a plant list in alphabetical order. You may also send low-res digital images. Send to editor@washingtongardener.com by October 12 and we’ll note it in our October 15 issue.
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September To-Do List
We've completed a whole year of garden to-do lists for our region. Last year's September list can be found in our September 2005 issue. Here are a few more tasks and chores to add to the previous listing:
- Leave hummingbird feeders out until October 15.
- Start bulb planting of early spring bloomers at the end of the month.
- Watch your pumpkins and squash for harvest when their rinds harden fully
- Divide ornamental grasses.
- Cut herbs and flowers for drying indoors.
- Plant strawberries in a site with good drainage for harvest next spring.
- Look out for slug eggs grouped under sticks and stones – the size of BBs and pale in color.
- Plant cover crops in vegetable gardens and annual beds (for example, rye, clover, hairy vetch, winter peas).
- Begin conditioning the Christmas Poinsettias and Christmas cactus to get them ready for the upcoming holiday season
- Attend a local garden club plant exchange.
- Save seeds for the 2nd Annual Washington Seed Exchange on January 27, 2007.
- Bring Amaryllis indoors before a hard freeze. Repot every other year at this time. Store in a cool, dark place and do not water until the flower buds or leaves emerge.
Your annuals will be reviving now with cooler temps and some rain. Cut back any ragged growth and give them some fertilizer. They should put on a good show until the first hard frost.
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New Tree Selector Web Site
The Tree Selector web site is designed to help guide you through the process of tree selection, and provide a list of possible trees for your project in the northeast United States, hardiness zones 2 – 7 (the greater DC area is zone 6 and 7). It is also designed to provide extensive cultural and maintenance information. It features many photographs and an easy-to-use search engine. You can select trees according to soil types, sites, and plant attributes. The site information was assembled through a grant from the USDA Forest Service Northeast Region in cooperation with Rutgers University and University of Florida.
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Next Issue
The October issue of Washington Gardener Enews will cover Apple Picking Time.
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Edited by Kathy Jentz
Contact: editor@washingtongardener.com or 301.588.6894.
©Washington Gardener 2006
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