Index:

Perennials

• Coreopsis 'Limerock Ruby'. (Distributed August 19, 2003)
• Ferns ( September 27, 2004)
• Hostas:
• Hostas, slugs and Ammonium hydroxide treatments: an update (August 4, 2005)
• Getting Our Plants Ready for Winter - new info. for Hostas. (September 30, 2004)
• Primulas
• Salvia "Purple "Knockout". (Distributed August 19, 2003)
• Sedums: Propagating sedums and most succulents.
• Tiarellas (Foamflowers)
a photo-filled web site featuring Tiarellas (Foamflowers). (March 27, 2005)
• Bringing Indoors Tender Ornamentals (e.g. Purple Leaved Fountain Grass). (September 9, 2003)

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Articles

Coreopsis 'Limerock Ruby'. (Distributed August 19, 2003)

We had a recent conversation with a customer about "Limerock Ruby" that has prompted this bit of news which was published in the most recent edition of Fine Gardening magazine. For those of you feeling pangs of guilt about having "Limerock Ruby" die over the past winter - there is some good news. Get rid of your guilt! You are not responsible!!!

It seems that we all have been fed a bit of horticultural 'hype' by some overly-optimistic horticultural promoters. It is reported in Fine Gardening that "Limerock Ruby" died throughout much of USDA zones 5 and 6. Canadian gardeners almost never had a chance of having it come through the winter even though its labels say "hardy to Zone 4".

"Limerock Ruby" was originally found in a Rhode Island garden. It reportedly needs super drainage - verging on gravelly soils. It is a wonderful, fast-growing, ruby-coloured coreopsis which gives a great show in mid-summer. It is apparently a perennial in someone else's world but around Ottawa it seems that we should treat it as an annual.

Click here for a good photo of "Limerock Ruby".

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Ferns ( September 27, 2004)

Ferns are not often purchased by our customers. This puzzles me as they offer many pluses to garden scapes. There are many which are extremely hardy and dependable in our area. Ferns are available in many sizes and there are some with intriguingly silvery-surfaced fronds and reddish stems (varieties of Japanese Painted Ferns such as 'Ursala's Red' and 'Burgundy Lace'). All offer shade gardeners a textural design opportunity to contrast ferny leaf structure with rounded or elliptically-shaped leaves of flowering perennials and shrubs. We are hopeful that this year's promotion of the Japanese Painted Fern, as the Perennial Plant of 2004, will remind gardeners of the place for ferns in the home garden.

We have a hand-out fact sheet on ferns which summarizes how to grow and use them in garden. The sheet presents the varieties that we customarily stock for sale.You can click here to easily obtain our fact sheet on ferns.

Interested in more fern information? My first suggestion is to click here to get an excellent overview on ferns.  This article, and the following one, are by Judith Jones. Judith is Saturday's speaker at the Ottawa Valley Rock Garden Society meeting. Click here for a Brooklyn Botanic Garden article on growing ferns from spores. You can also obtain (click here) an article tiltled 'Woodland Ferns for the Home and Garden' prepared by a Virginia educator. As with other areas of horticulture, there is an web page (click here) with a broad array of information on fern biology and how to grow them well. And finally, click here for access to a number of chapters of a book, produced by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, on everything you'd like to know about ferns.

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Hostas:

Hostas, slugs and Ammonium hydroxide treatments:an update (August 4, 2005)

Last Friday, before heading off for a long-weekend get-away at our daughter's and son-in-law's cottage in the Haliburton area, I checked our hostas for the presence of slugs. Parting of leaves, to look down into the junctions of leaves at soil level, revealed the beginning of another round of slug infestation.

A few days earlier I had received an email, complete with photos, from a customer who had treated (with unhappy consequences) her hostas with the ammonium hydroxide that we sell for slug control. Some of her hostas were showing leaf burn symptoms - those most susceptible to slug damage showing the worst burning. There appeared to be one side of the clumps showing the greatest browning of leaves. She felt that she had followed the spray application instructions carefully and had not allowed the diluted solution to come in contact with the leafy portion of the hosta leaves.

With her experience I decided to reduce the concentration of ammonium hydroxide on this round of spraying to see if 25 mls. per liter (the original suggested dilution of 25 mls. per 100 mls. was taken from web-based recommendations) had the desired effect on slugs. The reduced amount of ammonium hydroxide seems to do the control job required - the contacted slugs' slime coating was quickly sent into a white froth and death came quickly. I sprayed the soil around the hosta root area as prescribed (to the point of soaking to a 1/2 inch depth) to contact out-of-view slugs and slug eggs to give a better overall control.

It is now Wednesday following the Friday application and I see no signs of leaf burn on any of my treated hostas. I was extremely careful to make sure that the spray stream was stopped before pulling my spray wand up from the basal area of the hosta leaves so that no ammonia solution contacted the leafy areas of the leaves.

With the urging of our customer, we want to reinforce the need to prevent contact of the ammonia solution with the leafy area of the hosta leaf. It appears that a greater dilution of the ammonium hydroxide can achieve the slug control desired. Those who have purchased the 'Slug Ridder' from us can change to a dilution of 25 mls. of ammonium hydroxide mixed with 975 mls. of water (1:40) and still get effective slug control. There is also less chance of leaf burn from unintended contact of spray from wands that do not shut off effectively or completely upon releasing the trigger mechanism

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Getting Our Plants Ready for Winter - Some new information on Hostas. (September 30, 2004)

For the past couple of days I've been starting the fall ritual of moving left-over plants from sales benches to over-wintering locations on the ground. My chore is to keep these remaining pots of plants frozen over the winter for recovery and sale next season. A covering with a white over-wintering fleece-like blanket keeps winter sun off the pots (which are turned on their sides so moisture doesn't stand on the soil surface) and greatly reduces the major problem for successful over-wintering .... thawing and re-freezing.

In the past couple of winters hostas have posed the most over-wintering headaches for me. This year I will try a new tactic ... planting the most valuable of them in the ground in a holding bed so that they get more even moisture and temperature conditions. I have also experimented with dividing some hostas which have multiplied in their pots. Conventional wisdom has recommended hosta divisions be undertaken in the spring. But some internet research has indicated that fall division was possible. Click here to obtain the first article that gave me the idea for this fall division. Click here for a second article, by a very credible hosta nurseryman, that provides additional hosta-growing information that focuses on four seasonal growth types of hostas.

It was interesting taking the hostas out of their pots and looking at root growth characteristics. It was obvious that in some varieties new fall root growth was underway ... lots of fresh white roots were being initiated from the crown areas of the plants while much of the center mass of roots were brown, old-looking and easily teased away. My technique was to use a strong, coarse spray of water from the hose to wash off the peat-based nursery soil from the root mass. I wanted to get as many as possible of these new actively growing roots in contact with the garden soil in which they were being placed. Washing off the soil also showed where new division points were easily undertaken without cutting developing and established roots.

Given that I was experimenting with this technique, I was extra careful and gentle to untangle intertwined roots so that I could maintain the integrity of the white new growth on the ends of older roots. I was also extra careful to maintain a few leaves on the plants to allow continuing photosynthesis to help the hostas settle in and continue to grow until frost arrives. The de-soiled hostas were planted and well watered in to remove air spaces around the roots. Now it'll be interesting to see what success I've had in improving my over-wintering rate and whether the fall divisions have been successful. Perhaps I've stumbled on a new fall chore of increasing my hosta stocks in a less frenetic time of year. On the other hand, perhaps I've just found a new way to kill more plants. Life is full of rewards or pitfalls for the adventurous amongst us! (Update from memory ... the results of the fall divisions were actually very good. Some smaller plants with little root mass were pushed out of the ground by frozen soil, but in very early spring I re-set them into the soil and they were alive and growing when time to lift and pot for sale in April.)

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Primulas

The Ottawa Rock Garden and Horticultural Society (OVRGHS) has another Canadian gardening expert talking at their February monthly meeting. Pam Eveleigh is internationally known for her very pictorial web site: www.primulaworld.com.

In 1999 I visited Pam's Calgary gardens while attending the annual meeting of the North American Rock Garden Society. She lives on a typical suburban sub-division lot with beds and troughs everywhere. She obviously has a green thumb and this will surely come through in her presentation '12 Species Primulas - How to Know and Grow Them'

By clicking on the following link (http://www.primulaworld.com/PWweb/personal.shtml) you can read about Pam's background directly. Once you land on her site I expect you'll be there for a while!

Click on the following link for photos and description of her beds and toughs used for growing her primula collections. http://www.primulaworld.com/PWweb/growing.shtml

Gardeners always looking for propagation tips will enjoy her page in which she describes how she takes older leaves from the base of primula clumps and propagates, on her windowsill, new plants from them. Click on the following for Pam's explanation: http://www.primulaworld.com/PWweb/propagation.shtml

Salvia "Purple "Knockout". (Distributed August 19, 2003)

A customer recently sent us an email asking what to expect from Salvia lyrata "Purple Knockout". Would the parent plant over-winter or would she have to rely on self-seeding to have the plant come back in next year's gardens?

To be honest, I had to do some research to provide an answer to her questions. I was first surprised to discover (internet information) that the parent variety , salvia lyrata, is a moisture-loving variety of salvia found on wetland hummocks and along stream banks. I am used to the other drought-tolerant salvias. I was also surprised to learn that salvia lyrata is found in part shade in its southern US native habitat. It is said to be mildew-resistant in these high-moisture native conditions.

With the above information, I went back to looking for specific information about "Purple Knockout". The Jelitto Seed Company (from whom I bought my seed two years ago) suggests hardiness to USDA Zone 5 and growing in full sun to part shade. In our cooler northern climes we have "Purple Knockout" planted in the full sun in the roadside gardens across the road from our property. It is doing very well there. We had it there last year too, but it did not come back after last winter. (Update Feb.2, 2006. The plant has since completely disappeared completely and will need to be replanted.)

So my conclusions for salvia "Purple Knockout" ... treat it as a tender perennial and hope that it self-seeds. Being native to southern climes I would expect it to want warmer soils to germinate (also Jelitto's recommendation) so don't expect it to germinate first thing in the spring - perhaps by mid-June. Next spring, don't cultivate the soil around where this year's plants are located. Give the possible seedlings a chance to sprout and get established!

Click here for a photo of Salvia "Purple "Knockout"

Sedums: Propagating sedums and most succulents.

In wandering our gardens a few days ago, I was reminded that our stock of some varieties of sedums was depleted - especially the very showy variegated, tall sedum that many people have requested. As the tall variegated sedum (sedum alboroseum 'Mediovariegatum) available to us from wholesale nurseries is nowhere near as variegated as our garden specimens and has much coarser leaves, I gave Rob (my hard-working helper) the task of propagating some cuttings from our display plants.

Propagating sedums of all types is really very easy. For the taller upright ones (such as Autumn Joy and the variegated cultivar that we are doing), the following is our technique

First, remove (using scissors or a sharp knife) the stems that can be removed without altering the parent plant's overall form. We look for stem pieces with 10 - 12 leaf pairs. The first step is to pinched (using your thumbnails is all that is required) off the the top two leaf nodes. This 'decapitating' takes away the active growing tip of the stem and arrests further stem elongation.

The remaining stem pieces are then further cut (using a box-cutter blade) into about 4-inch long pieces. Each stem piece should contain 3 or 4 pairs of leaf nodes. Then remove completely the bottom two pairs of leaves from the stem. The remaining top leaf pair(s) are then trimmed in size (using scissors) to about 1/3 their original size. This reduction in leaf size reduces water loss from the stems as they survive and proceed to form roots.

The next step is to pre-moisten the soil mix to be used. Coarse builders sand is acceptable, but we used available soil-less mix made more porous by adding 50% (by volume) perlite. What ever material you choose, it needs to be very well draining and containing no fertilizers. We thoroughly moisten, then let drain, our mix in advance of putting the stem pieces in it. Water-logged soil is not suited for this propagation procedure - the stems require soil rich in air spaces for root formation. The drained soil is then placed in well-cleaned plant pots. We used 2-inch square by 3-inch deep pots, but size is not really an issue.

Now gently push the prepared stems (one per pot for these small pots) into the soil mix until the bottom two leaf attachment points are below the soil line. Root formation can develop at these former leaf attachment locations plus at the basal cut of the stem.

Your sedum or succulent cuttings are now ready for placement in a sun-protected location, for about 4 weeks, while root development proceeds. Your placement location should have no direct sun exposure but uniform bright light is needed by the stem cutting to maintain its good health. One good location is on the ground next to a building's north-facing foundation. During the 4 week root- formation period the pot's soil should not be over-watered. We allow the top inch of soil to become dry before before re-water the soil. Avoid wetting the cutting to prevent fungal attacks.

When root formation has become visible at the base of the pots, we then initiate fertilizing the developing plant using a diluted (1/4 strength) transplanting fertilizer with a formulation such as 10:52:10. Fertilization with this diluted fertilizer solution can be done every third water watering. Add enough fertilizer solution to have water freely escape the cutting's soil mixture. In six weeks the young plants should be ready for garden planting.

Would you like more information on plant propagation?

Click here for a propagation information bonanza.

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Tiarellas (Foamflowers)

Click here to visit a photo-filled web site featuring Tiarellas (Foamflowers). (March 27, 2005)

Terra Nova Nurseries is an industry-leader in developing new wonderfully-coloured Tiarellas. You might like to spend a few minutes (or more) gawking at the myriad of Tiarellas available to nurseries and you. We certainly have trouble choosing which ones to stock - we could devote our entire nursery to Tiarellas!

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Bringing Indoors Tender Ornamentals (e.g. Purple Leaved Fountain Grass). (September 9, 2003)

.... it is about time to consider bringing in temperature-sensitive plants. Last night, for the Gatineau Valley Gardeners, I reviewed the indoor regime for the purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum 'rubrum') that so many of you bought this season. I'll repeat the instructions here. They apply to many other plants to be brought indoors too.

Temperature-sensitive plants often do not thrive in wet soils when growing indoors. They may be prone to rotting rather than growing in the reduced light conditions found in indoor settings. In our experience it is better to under-water indoor plants during the winter months ... underwater that is - not dry them out! A cheap and good investment is a soil moisture meter - available for about $10.00 from many big box stores. Use the meter to determine when to water. I advise letting the soil surface of indoor plants become dry to the 2-inch below surface point before watering. Then water well until the soil is saturated and wait for the appropriate dry-down to occur. In our house, winter watering frequency is often about every two to three weeks at most for plants that like to grow on the dry side.

When digging the purple fountain grass for bringing indoors, you can reduce the root mass quite significantly to fit into a manageable container. Take a very sharp knife and slice off the sides and bottoms of the root mass until you are left with a root ball about eight inches in diameter and depth. Place this root ball in a 10 inch diameter deep pot, fill with soil, and water well to moisten the whole root/soil mass. I choose to immerse our pots in a pail of luke-warm water to achieve this watering. I leave the pot immersed in water for about 15 minutes to drive soil-contained insects out of the soil - you'll often see them scurrying for high ground! Leave the pots outdoors to drain well.

While it is not as necessary for the grass family, I also give the foliage of plants to be brought indoors a drenching with insecticidal soap to reduce the chance of bringing indoors a host of live, leaf-borne insects. I turn the pots upside down to spray the plants with Safer's Soap mixture as most insects are on the underside of leaves. (I often have a deep pail full of Safer's Mixture and I immerse the entire plant ... upside down... in the solution to assure every area of the leafy structure gets treated.) After about 15 minutes of sitting with soap solution on the leaves, it is time to rinse off the soap so as to not permanently damage the breathing pores of the leaves. I use the misting spray option on my adjustable watering wand head for this chore. Again the plants are sprayed both upside down and right side up to rid the leaves of soap solution. (Yes, it is a chore to keep the soil in the pots when upside down!)

The purple fountain grass is now ready to come indoors. Place the pot in the brightest window location available. Be sure to put a water-impenetrable saucer under your pot if you don't want an ugly water mark on wooden floors or fungal build-ups under porous saucers.

Don't, that is DO NOT, fertilize your over-wintering grass during the winter months. Household (even greenhouse) light levels are not high enough to sustain active growth until about mid-March. Your chore is to maintain the plant in a survival mode akin to dormancy until decent growing conditions return in mid-March. Once mid- March arrives, then you can begin to fertilize to promote active growth. Fertilize, using 1/2 strength root-inducing fertilizer (such as 10:52:10) every two weeks. Be sure to saturate the soil with the fertilizer solution. Allow the soil surface to dry out (as mentioned above)between waterings.

With these cultural practices you should have a flourishing plant by spring time. Don't be in a rush to move the grass outdoors in the spring. Early June to mid-June is soon enough to place these warm-soil loving plants outdoors - especially planted in a garden bed. They don't like the cold ... they'll be set back ... they may die ... you get the picture! But once the warm weather arrives, give them regular bi-weekly feedings (with 1/2 strength fertilizer such as 15:30:15).

Good luck and enjoy your over-wintering efforts.

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