The Hortisexual

It’s love at first whiff.

Sorry gals. No expensive, store bought eau de whatever stirs the sap like the sweet scent of lilac wafting on a balmy evening breeze.

Lilac is the perfume of spring.

My lilacs bloomed earlier than usual. I expect them at the start of May. The flower buds broke dormancy way ahead of schedule given the mild winter. But a prolonged April chill helped the cascade of seductively scented purple, pink and white blossoms linger longer.

If you plan to prune your lilac, hurry! Now is the time to grab the clippers.

Next spring’s flowers are conceived this season. Lilacs bloom on old growth. Prune now so you don’t cut off the developing buds. View image

Also, immediately clip faded blossoms before the flowers go to seed to pump all the plant’s sexual energy into forming more abundant blooms for 2009.

Pruning is great for shaping and rejuvenating lilacs. A light trim will stimulate lateral (side) growth for a bushy effect. For older plants cut a third of the old wood back to the ground. Flower buds will develop on the emerging new shoots in the next couple years, while the plant continues to produce flowers on the remaining old branches.

Mulch and water lilacs consistently throughout summer and fall. Your nose will be rewarded next spring.

#@**%8!!# voles!

Casualty count: two-thirds of the 350 Darwin tulips planted last October.

Collateral damage: two nearby shrub roses; roots gnawed to pencil points by vole incisors.

Planting spring-flowering bulbs is a gardener’s most hopeful act. We tuck them beneath autumn-cooled soil, and wait faithfully four dreary winter months for their resplendent spring awakening.

And so it was all through last winter. I didn't see any telltale signs of vole activity: no entry or exit holes in the tulip beds, no surface zig-zags from underground tunneling.

In March the tulip foliage poked through the soil right on schedule.

By the start of April the stems were several inches tall.

But each morning, backing out of the driveway I noticed a small “bald spot” among the stems. So subtle was the gradual expansion of the bare patch, I thought at first it was time to update my eyeglass prescription.

On closer examination I found tulips either pulled under ground or stems being supported only by a collar of surrounding soil -- the bulbs devoured. View image

I’ve come to accept the fact that total extermination of the voles is not gonna happen. I’ll just have to learn to co-exist in the same garden space with the vermin. Kinda like tolerating Mets fans at Citizens Bank Ballpark. You know they’ll be in the stands whenever the NY nine come to Philly, so we put up with them while enjoying the game.

BTW, if you don’t know the difference between moles and voles (and a lot of folks don’t), moles munch on bugs in the lawn and soil; voles are vegan. To get rid of moles simply eliminate their favorite cuisine. Apply the same logic to voles and you have to eliminate the garden.

Voles are such prolific reproducers they could make a bunny blush. Females mature to mating stage within a few weeks. A single female can put out five litters a year, averaging three to five offspring a pop. My postage stamp-sized yard may have as many as two dozen voles inhabiting it.

So here’s my three-part plan for keeping the upper hand this gardening season: traps, poison, and barriers.

Traps: Peanut butter applied to the bait trigger of a common mouse trap is all the tech you need. Place traps under a clay pot next to active vole holes (they think they are still in the tunnel). Drizzle a bit of peanut butter down the hole to draw them out.

Tip: Don’t set the trigger on the trap for the first week so they get comfortable taking the bait. This will boost your kill rate.

Poison: Supplement trapping by lacing peanut butter with anticoagulants such as mouse or rat poison. That's because the little suckers somehow manage to swipe the peanut butter without getting caught about a third of the time.

More potent stuff is available, but should only be applied by a licensed professional, and in a bait trap device to protect pets and kids. One of the most commonly used single-dose toxicants
for vole control is zinc phosphide. Zinc phosphide is a Registered Use Pesticide available as
a concentrate, or in pelleted or grain bait applications. As a Registered Use Pesticide, application must be done by a certified pesticide applicator.

Hardware cloth barriers: For new plantings, shape baskets of ¼ inch wire mesh to protect roots. View image

Make hardware cloth baskets large enough to create an amply wide barrier; feeder roots will grow through the openings in the mesh while the major roots stay beyond the reach of voles.

As for my tulips, next October I'm going to wrap every bulb in a little hardware cloth sleeve . . . even if it takes me a month to complete the job!

Is there a hotter topic than global warming?

You can’t turn on the TV, radio, surf the ‘net, pick up a newspaper or magazine without seeing green. Even Sports Illustrated featured a climate change cover story. View image

I’ve been around long enough to see environmentalism go from long-haired radical to so mainstream even Democrats and Republicans are hugging the same trees.

Our culture elevates environmentalists to rock star status. Some even get to take home an Academy Award. View image

Fortunately, protecting the planet has become almost second nature for most of us. My teenage daughter would never think to drop a soda can or cardboard Pop Tart box in the trash bin under the sink. That stuff gets recycled.

When I was her age recycling meant dating the same girl more than once.

The big fear with climate change is greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide (CO2) are causing ornamental cherry trees to bloom in January.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the average household is responsible for the emission of almost 60 tons of CO2 annually. Charging all those iPods and cell phones, burning heating fuel, cruising the ‘burbs in SUVs, along with products we consume day in and day out add up to a pretty hefty carbon footprint.

Yikes!

If you’re searching for someone to save us from a climatic cataclysm, just look in the back yard.

Anyone who gardens is an eco-hero.

Let’s start with the three letters every gardener should know: IPM - - Integrated Pest Management.

More than $5 billion is spent each year in the U.S. on fossil fuel-derived fertilizers that leak chemicals into the ground and accelerate the release of greenhouse gases. The basis of IPM is simply this: healthy plants are less vulnerable to insects and disease. You can significantly curtail the use of chemicals by monitoring and accurately diagnosing landscape problems, and then employing cultural, biological and limited chemical control strategies. Rutgers has a terrific fact sheet about IPM. Download file

Composting vegetable food scraps and coffee grinds, sawdust, ashes, leaves and grass clippings makes for an excellent homemade soil conditioner and helps keep trash out of landfills.

While you’re at it, return grass clippings to the lawn instead of bagging ‘em and placing them at the curb. Grass clippings are rich in nitrogen.

Growing vegetables, fruit and herbs in the home garden saves energy. Home-grown produce rack up fewer “petroleum miles” than tomatoes trucked long distances to your table. They taste better too!

Planting trees is another way to do something about climate change. A single tree can absorb up to a ton of CO2 over its life. Trees and shrubs in the home landscape also conserve energy. Trees shading A/C units, windows and walls, especially planted on the west and southwest side of a house can reduce the energy used for air conditioning and heating by 20 to 50 percent.

While we’re on the subject of trees, composting leaves in the fall instead of blasting them with a gas-powered hurricane can help clear the air. The pollution spewed from a leaf blower in one-half hour is equal to the emissions from driving 2,200 miles - - that’s as much air pollution as driving 15 round trips on I-95 between Longwood Gardens and the New York Botanical Garden. Oh yeah, and the fewer mountains of leaves in the street, the less gasoline and oil being burned by those noisy township vehicles that lumber along sucking up curbside foliage.

Planting native species and xeriscaping cuts down on watering, pesticides and fertilizers. Get a copy of Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants, from the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. View image

And if nothing else, when you’re out in the garden, you’re not using all those kilowatts running the TV or computer!

So next time a neighbor chides you for spending too much time working in the garden, just tell them it isn’t easy saving the planet!

P.S. – Happy Earth Day!

Photo credit: Green Mountain Energy Company

Why is it so hard to find Hershey’s Cocoa Shell Mulch in South Jersey?

I randomly called 26 garden centers in Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and Mercer Counties looking for it. I found only one store carrying it: Dambly’s Garden Center in Berlin (856-767-6883).

I also called The Hershey Company. Played phone tag with the media relations dept. for a couple of days. I’ll let you know what they say when I finally connect.

It’s available in abundance at nurseries in and around the town of Hershey, PA. In fact it’s cheaper out there too, by almost half. But by the time you factor a tank and a half of gasoline and family tickets to Hershey Park, your true cost per bag is probably closer to 100 bucks.

The stuff is good. It’s 100% organic. No dyes. Suppresses weeds. Conserves moisture and improves soil texture. Deters insects (slugs hate it!). Keeps its looks for a couple seasons. Lightweight and easy to spread - - it only takes a one inch layer to be effective.

Cocoa shell mulch adds organic matter and nutrients to the soil as it breaks down, unlike manufactured mulches that actually rob the soil of nutrients. It contains nitrogen, phosphate and potash.

It’s even environmentally PC. The Hershey factory in central PA generates more than 10,000 tons of the stuff annually making chocolate goodies, that would otherwise end up in a landfill.

I’ve even heard a gardener claim it repels deer.

Oh yeah, and it has the enticing aroma of brownies baking in the oven. Mmmm.

Cocoa shell mulch has all the ingredients of a status symbol: it’s hard to acquire, it’s expensive, it’s exotic. I can just imagine McMansioneers bragging: “My landscaper won’t let anything but Hershey’s Cocoa Shell Mulch touch the inside of his wheelbarrow.”

It may even have sex appeal: “Yo baby, wanna check out my perennial bed? It’s mulched with the husks of roasted cocoa beans imported from Honduras.”

Kinda put’s a whole new spin on chocolate and roses as an aphrodisiac.

Opening Day.

That eagerly anticipated date on the schedule which warms soul and soil.

The sun has finally ascended from its winter-long horizon hugging. Clouds no longer carry the threat of wintry mix, but instead offer welcomed shade on long, lazy afternoons in the stands.

Emerald green turf, thick as Cole Hamels’ mane, glistens with the dew of still-cool nights.

The Orioles, Cardinals and Blue Jays are back.

A well-worn glove, retrieved from the shelf where it lay since last October, releases the satisfying aroma of leather, evoking memories of seasons past.

I grip the familiar contour of the tapered wood handle of my favorite trowel.

Yes, hope springs eternal this time each year for gardeners too.

The “hot stove” deals and acquisitions of January and February, reaped from the tempting offerings of nursery catalogs, and combined with several returning veterans, promise a winning lineup in the mixed border this new season.

There’s Misanthus sinensis ‘Gracillimus,’ a lanky ornamental grass that can handle the high heat. View image

Caladium ‘Thai Beauty,’ is a steady utility player looks equally good in the mixed border or showcased in a container. View image

Standing just 15 inches tall, Verbascum ‘Sugar Plum’ is a powerful, pastel purple shortstop. View image

‘Blanket Flower’ Gaillardia x grandiflora has shown the stamina to go extra innings well into autumn. View image

Geranium ‘Rozanne’ got all the buzz this winter on the covers of catalogs and in pre-season gardening magazines after taking honors as 2008 Perennial Plant of the Year. View image

Heliopsis 'Prairie Sunset', a Ruthian specimen that pounds out golden-orange flowers from early summer to fall atop robust tall plants, anchors the lineup. View image

A late-bloomer with some pop is lavender-blue Aster x frikartii. View image

Still hanging on after taking MVP honors back in ’97 as Perennial Plant of the Year is Salvia ‘May Night.’ View image

On the mound, of course, is South Jersey Pinelands league standout, ‘Pitcher Plant’ Sarracenia purpurea. View image

Tinkering with the roster is irresistible. A couple of trades are contemplated: shall I finally send down Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Pia’ to a minor bed with more afternoon shade, and call up Geranium cinereum “Memories’ to The Show? Meanwhile, Astilbe will likely start the season on the DL after going under the knife to be divided.

As June rounds third toward the Independence Holiday, the collection of perennials and annuals should really being showing their stuff. By the start of July, Calibrachoa ‘Cherry Pink’ will be busting out in blossoms like its on steroids.

But a few short weeks after the All-Star break, when the delphinium have surrendered to the dog days of August, after powdery mildew strikes out the zinnias, and Japanese beetle have made the purple coneflowers look like bush leaguers, I will sigh the perennial late-season refrain of Phillies faithful (Baseballus frustratii): “wait till next year.”

Gardening is as rooted in American presidential history as campaign mud-slinging.

Last February I penned a Presidents’ Day article for The Inquirer’s Home & Design Section about the Father of Our Country as mail-order gardener.

Twice during the summer of 1787 George Washington took a break from the grind of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia to drop by Bartram’s Garden, the historic nursery credited with producing America’s first printed plant catalog. Later, after returning home to Mount Vernon, GW placed an order from the nursery’s catalog for more than 200 shrubs and trees, including - - you guessed it - - a cherry tree. Download file

So who will be the next Gardener-in-Chief?

While political pundits focus this primary season on liberals, conservatives, women, African-Americans and young people, the largest voting block is being overlooked like a peony past its prime.

According to the National Gardening Association, 83% of Americans participate in the country’s # 1 hobby. I’ll bet there are more than a few Democratic superdelegates with green thumbs.

I want to know what ground the Democrat and Republican frontrunners have staked out on key garden patch issues.

We know the major candidates’ respective positions on illegal immigrants. But what about the thorny topic of invasive plant species?

What are their plans to bring the U.S.D.A. Hardiness Zone Map into the 21st century? The “current” map is based on temperature data collected at the beginning of the Kennedy Administration. Come to think of it, Barack Obama would probably embrace the connection to JFK.

On foreign policy, will they impose sanctions against China in retaliation for the insurgency of Asian longhorned beetles that slipped into U.S. ports concealed in wooden crates and have since turned tens of thousands of maple, birch and willow trees in NJ and NY to sawdust? View image

I want to hear Tim Russert get into the weeds with the candidates about whether they endorse the principles of Integrated Pest Management.

And what can gardening tell us about the kind of prez each of the major candidates may blossom into?

Will John McCain turn out to be prickly and dry like an Arizona desert landscape?

Is Hillary a hands-on gardener, or does she delegate the dirty work to landscape contractors and their crews of “guest workers” like her affluent Westchester County neighbors?

Mr. Obama has perhaps the most expansive experience in horticultural diversity, spending stretches of his life among the tropical flora of Hawaii’s Zone 11 and the cold-hardy prairie plants of Illinois Zone 5. But can he tell Hibiscus from Heliopsis?

In a few more weeks the field of candidates will be pruned down to two. I sure hope one or the other grows on me by Election Day.

Photo credit: Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station

I keep a pint of Jack Daniel’s with my gardening supplies. Every now and then I pour a shot.

Strictly for horticultural purposes, of course.

Seriously. A little nip of booze keeps Paperwhite Narcissus from growing tall and flopping over, according to scientists at Cornell University’s Flower Bulb Research Program in New York.

Lab time was never such fun when I was in school! Can’t you just picture the gang in lab coats downing shots with the bulbs, all in the name of science.

When they sobered up, the researchers published a paper about their findings. Diluted solutions of alcohol result in Paperwhites that are 1/3 to 1/2 shorter, without sacrificing flower size or scent.

Check out the research paper, titled “Pickling Your Paperwhites” at: http://www.hort.cornell.edu/department/faculty/wmiller/bulb/Pickling_your_Paperwhites.pdf

BTW, stick with the hard stuff. The Cornell researchers advise against beer or wine, as the sugars cause major problems with the plants. Gotta admire the thoroughness of their study.

Here’s what you do: Plant bulbs as usual in gravel or other medium and add plain water. After the roots have sprouted and the stems are an inch or two tall, add a “cocktail” of 1 part gin, rum, vodka or whiskey (don’t waste the good stuff!) to 7 parts water with each subsequent watering.

It actually works!

The down side is your room smells like the morning after a frat party, at least until the Paperwhites emit their distinctive perfume.

No word from Cornell on whether cigarette smoking stunts Paperwhites growth too.

Cheers!

What a gorgeous spring day. Too bad it happened in January.

The thermometer outside my house topped out at 66 degrees. Global weirding.

Remember back to last January when cherry blossoms were popping out before the Christmas decorations came down?

I run hot and cold about this waiver from winter weather. On the one hand I’m not dipping in to my daughters’ college fund to feed the furnace. But the gardener in me wouldn’t mind a good old-fashioned frozen-tundra-and-snowpack-till-March kind of winter.

For one thing, it would help put a chill on the reproduction activities of promiscuous rodents like voles, chipmunks and squirrels. And since voles don’t hibernate, a string of days and nights in the 0 to 5 degrees range might make popsicles of a few of them.

Seasonably cold temps also help control pathogens and other pests all snug and cozy in your garden soil.

Some plants actually benefit from “real winter.” Peonies fail to bloom in spring if the soil doesn’t get cold enough in winter to complete dormancy. Peonies need 30 - 60 nights of freezing temperatures.

While a string of 50 and 60-degree days may be easy on home heating bills, they can be hard on the home landscape.

When plants awaken too early from their winter slumber dormant buds begin to swell. The first buds to open on spring blooming plants are the flower buds. They’re also the most sensitive to cold weather.

For some species of spring flowering plants like lilac, forsythia, and azalea, that may mean reduced bloom. The flower buds on these plants form on the previous season’s growth. During winter dormancy, a protective scale covers the buds, providing a shield from cold temperatures. Once buds swell and break the protective scale, the buds may freeze and die.

That’s it; show’s over. They won’t regenerate until next summer.

Other plants, especially ornamental trees like cherry, quince, and plum, may get a second chance. A lengthy cold spell can replicate dormancy and induce a new round of bud development.

Leaf buds are less sensitive to cold than flower buds, so there should be plenty of foliage to feed gypsy moth caterpillars in spring and early summer.

Over the long haul plant hardiness is also affected by unseasonably warm temperatures winter after winter. Once plants get used to warmer weather, they can’t take the normal cold. It’s called de-acclimatization.

Kind of like your Jersey relatives who move to Florida and then keep turning up your thermostat when they come back north to visit.

Other landscape problems include frost cracks in tree bark, root injury from frost-heaving, and dessication of evergreens such as pine and rhododendron.

Wrap young, thin-bark trees, such as maples and fruit trees, with light colored tree wrap up to the first limbs to prevent cracks and splits.

Snow cover is usually the best guard against frost-heaving. Since Nature isn’t cooperating so far this winter, use wood chips or the boughs of that discarded Christmas tree to insulate the soil and prevent fluctuations in temperature. Mulch vulnerable areas just before a cold snap is forecast.

And be sure to keep susceptible landscape plants watered if the warm weather continues, especially in the sandy soils predominant in parts of South Jersey. Burlap screens and windbreaks can be used to shelter evergreens. Anti-transpirants, or anti-dessicants, can also provide some protection by reducing the amount of moisture lost by the plant.

As the saying goes, you can’t do anything about the weather. You can take steps to protect your plants or help them recover. And if the climatic flip-flop persists, you can always consider replacing your pines with palms.

Happy Thanksgiving.

And my roses are blooming like it’s Labor Day.

I shot this photo today . . . the third Wednesday in November.

What other landscape plant blooms from Memorial Day until Thanksgiving? I’d like to see a peony do that.

Even though autumn temps are spring-like and buds are swelling on rose bushes, don’t be fooled into pruning or fertilizing.

Let those late blossoms turn into hips. Any deadheading or pruning at this time of year could result in new growth that won’t have a chance to harden off before the real cold weather finally shows up, causing dieback and stem damage. Same with fertilizing. You should have stopped fertilizing back in August. Roses need to toughen up before winter.

On the other hand, go ahead and give the plants a deep drink. Roses and other shrubs always need water from the soil for the root system, even in winter dormancy. Especially considering how dry it’s been in our region over the last several months.

Also, clean up leaves and debris from around the plant that could harbor fungal spores until next spring.

The bottomline: preparing your roses for winter began last spring and summer. If you kept your roses healthy by watering, weeding, fertilizing, pruning, controlling diseases, and fighting off insects, they should be in good shape to face the winter.

Meanwhile, I’ll be real impressed if Rosa ‘Prairie Harvest’ is still blooming in the front yard on Christmas!

Finally planted my tulip bulbs. A couple hundred in all.

Planting spring flowering bulbs has to be the greatest act of faith there is in home gardening. Once you bury those bulbs all you can do is believe what you can’t see for the next five months or so: that six inches underground roots are developing (hopefully) to support leaves and stems that will eventually poke through the soil, reach skyward and bust out in blossoms.

My faith isn’t completely blind. I take measures to help my bulbs survive attacks from above and below.

Into the hole with each bulb I toss sharp gravel and castor oil granules to keep voles from snacking all winter on my Darwin Hybrids. (A couple years ago I dug out all the soil and lined the bottom and sides of my tulip beds with chicken wire. That stopped voles from tunneling in; now they just go over the top and down!).

I also sprinkle crushed red pepper flakes on the beds after planting to keep squirrels from digging up the bulbs. Same stuff you put on pizza. Nothing sends a message faster than a snoot full of capsaicin to train rodents not to nose around my flower beds. (NOTE: you’ll need to refresh your red pepper flakes after a rainfall; it only takes two or three applications for squirrels to get the idea).

Those pesky pests haven't got a prayer!