Indholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2019 i Horticulture

“I love this computer! It is easy to read and to use! I get photo updates from my children and grandchildren all the time.”– Janet F. Have you ever said to yourself “I’d love to get a computer, if only I could figure out how to use it.” Well, you’re not alone. Computers were supposed to make our lives simpler, but they’ve gotten so complicated that they are not worth the trouble. With all of the “pointing and clicking” and “dragging and dropping” you’re lucky if you can figure out where you are. Plus, you are constantly worrying about viruses and freeze-ups. If this sounds familiar, we have great news for you. There is finally a computer that’s designed for simplicity and ease of use. It’s the WOW Computer, and…

IF IT’S HARD for you to push a shovel into your garden’s soil, it’s even harder for plant roots to penetrate it. Soil scientists refer to this as soil compaction, or compressed soil that is reduced in volume. Soils are composed of three major things: air, water and solid materials. It might seem counterintuitive, but a healthy soil should have only about half of its volume full of the solid materials. The other half should either be empty or consist of water. That empty air space is critical to ensure that gas exchange (carbon dioxide and oxygen for and from plant roots) and water can move throughout. Compaction occurs when there is less air space. Soil is compressed, or higher in density. The solid materials of the soil include mineral…

Meditation, the ancient practice of gaining clarity through mindfulness, is quickly taking root in popular culture. There are apps that remind us to breathe, yoga poses to connect mind and body and podcasts to help center our thoughts. Though there are myriad ways to find focus, any nature lover can attest that the simple act of stepping outdoors releases us from our daily trappings and provides a wide-open venue for heightened awareness. Gardens are intrinsically linked to peacefulness and reflection, though they are teeming with life. Perhaps a garden’s dichotomy, how it exists between calm and vitality, invites us to quiet an unruly mind. Meditation gardens are intimate spaces created for unwinding and reflecting, away from the noise and clutter of daily routines. Because meditation is a deeply personal experience,…

1 Andrena hirticincta This species of mining bee is a specialist pollinator also known as an oligolectic bee. These specialist pollinators are generally found only on a small number of plant species. This one prefers Aster and goldenrod (Solidago) species. 2 Leaf-cutter bee (Megachile sp.) Milkweed flowers are a favorite of leafcutter bees, such as this Megachile species. They have a distinctive abdomen, where the dorsal, or upper, surface is black and the ventral, or underside, is covered with hairs. The hairs catch pollen to spread. 3 Sweat bee (Sphecodes aroniae) This species of sweat bee has a distinctive marking that identifies it: the all-red abdomen, which also determines that it is a female. The males have additional black markings on their abdomens.…

‘HONEY ROSE’ FOAMY BELLS HEUCHERELLA ‘HONEY ROSE’ The variety ‘Honey Rose’ has the pinkest foliage of any heucherella, with toasty coral-pink leaves that add warm color and lovely texture thanks to purple veining. The foliage remains year-round in warm regions; it persists into winter farther north but then the plant dies back until spring. Masses of tiny white flowers appear along stalks that rise above the foliage from early summer to midsummer. The flower stalks top out at about a foot tall. HABIT: A perennial that forms a mound of foliage 8 inches tall by 13 inches wide. ORIGINS: All heucherella plants are crosses between coral bells (Heuchera) and foamflower (Tiarella), two North American natives. Heucherella ‘Honey Rose’ was bred at Terra Nova Nurseries and released by Blooms of Bressingham.…

IN 2016 AND 2017, my corner of the Internet was brightened by the delightful story of Tim Wong, a young scientist who devotes his off time to restoring the California pipevine swallowtail to San Francisco’s parks and gardens. Following his efforts, pipevine swallowtail populations in the city boomed. People called him “the butterfly whisperer.” How did he do it? He just kept planting regionally appropriate pipevines. Pipevine (Aristolochia) is a genus of mostly vining plants found throughout the world. They contain aristolochic acid, a toxin that certain butterfly species and their larvae store in their bodies, making them unpalatable and even dangerous to predators. In the eastern half of the United States, two native vining species are most widely planted to support swallowtails: the bigleaf pipevine (A. macrophylla; USDA Zones…

FOR MOST OF MY LIFE I have driven past assorted turf farms in the South County area of Rhode Island, where I live. They are pleasant to gaze upon in all seasons of the year but look especially vibrant in spring and fall. Though my lawn has always been pretty decent, I have to admit to some envy of the high quality and uniformity of those expansive fields of lush green grass. No patches of dead sod. No unsightly discoloration. No bare spots. Just imagine hundreds of acres of picture-perfect, estate-quality lawn. All of us who like to grow things look for tips on how to grow them better or faster. With that in mind I lined up a few visits with local farmers for whom the grass is always…

The fact that Treetop offered no place to “dig in” was fine with Roxana Robinson when she was just a summer visitor to the Litchfield County, Conn., property. But ownership opened up a whole new relationship. Standing back and looking at her beloved family summer home in 2009, she knew that she needed someplace to garden, and unfortunately the land offered no obvious outlets for that sort of pursuit. In fact, the terrain was so devoid of earth-cultivating opportunities that Roxana’s husband, Hamilton, figured she was retiring her work gloves. Wrong. Although initially stymied, she called in friend and landscape designer Patrick Chassé for input. The redistribution of earth Chassé suggested was so radical that Roxana really could not visualize what he had in mind. “Steep ravine beside the study/garage?”…

1 Flower longhorn beetle (Brachyleptura rubrica) Flower longhorn beetles have a distinctive long, tapered abdomen and long antennae. The Cerambycidae family to which they belong spends the larval stage in decaying wood. Adults can be seen munching pollen on various flower heads (see below). In doing so, it picks up copious amounts of pollen that it can spread to other flowers. 2 Pennsylvania leatherwing beetle (Chauliognathus pennsylvanicus) These leatherwing beetles arrive in droves from late summer into early fall, landing on goldenrod (Solidago), black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia) and mountain mint (Pycnanthemum) flowers, to name a few. As they munch away at the pollen, their bodies attract pollen grains that get deposited on subsequent flowers. 3 Tumbling flower beetle (Hoshihananomia octopunctata) Tumbling flower beetles, with their hunchback shape, belong to the Mordellidae…

IS IT POSSIBLE to fall in love with a plant? I think it is, because Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) have charmed me since the first time I saw them one late April morning as I was driving a country lane in Berks County, Pa. A flash of blue on the ground deep in someone’s woodlot intrigued me, so I pulled over and went to investigate. I thought it might be a thick stand of Siberian squill (Scilla siberica), but the shade of blue was too light. Whatever it was had naturalized over at least an acre of moist bottomland under the dappled shade of those trees. The flowering plants grew about a foot to a foot-and-a-half tall. Little packets of flower buds peeked out from between the eight-inch, purplish gray-green,…

THE CUCUMBER is a heat-loving vegetable that is seeded or transplanted after the last spring frost. For many gardeners, that’s their only planting of cucumbers. In my garden, I plant cucumbers two to three times for the longest season of high-quality fruits. The growth and production of most cucumber plants slows a few weeks after the harvest begins. Succession planting stretches the harvest by at least month. When seeding or transplanting a second crop, keep an eye on soil moisture. Warmer summer weather means the soil dries out more quickly, and that can make it more difficult to establish the second planting. I’ve had success with the following varieties in succession planting. The Asian variety ‘Suyo Long’ has long, slender fruits with a sweet flavor and crisp texture. Expect the…

1 Parasitic bee fly (Lepidophora lutea) Bee flies are found in the Bombyliidae family. Lepidophora species are recognized by their humpback shape—the hump created by muscles that makes them strong flyers. Here you see pollen grains attached to the hairs around the fly’s mouthparts. The pollen gets transferred to the next flower the insect visits; they love Rudbeckia flowers. 2 Wasp mimic syrphid fly (Spilomyia longicornis) On first glance, you swear that you’re looking at a wasp, but a closer look reveals only two wings, a characteristic of flies. (All wasps have four wings.) You’ll also notice this fly’s amazing eyes, the patterns of which are species specific. These syrphid flies are more than pollinators. Their larvae hunt aphids which also aids garden plants. 3 Feather-leg Fly (Trichopoda sp.) If…

For some gardeners, snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus) is one of those flowers that evokes memories of their parents’ or grandparents’ garden. It is a nostalgic plant that can foster an emotional tie to the past, and it’s also quite useful. Tall varieties can be used as fresh cuts in floral arrangements and dwarf and medium varieties can be used in containers and garden plantings. Snapdragons are native to the Mediterranean region and parts of the Middle East and North Africa. Snapdragons are usually grown as an annual in most US gardens, even though the plants are winter hardy in USDA Zones 7 through 10. The genus name Antirrhinum comes from the Greek words anti, meaning like, and rhin, meaning nose or snout, which describes the shape of the flowers. There are…