WSU Spokane County Extension Master Gardeners The Lowdown
March 2015 HORTSENSE & PESTSENSE
Extension Information NEW AND IMPROVED!
Dr. Jeremy Cowan 477-2145 Regional Horticulture Specialist [email protected]
Tim Kohlhauff 477-2172 Horticulture Program Coordinator [email protected]
Anna Kestell 477-2195 Education/Clinic Coordinator [email protected]
Master Gardener County Site http://www.spokane-county.wsu.edu
Master Gardener Foundation of Spokane County http://www.mgfsc.org/
WSU Master Gardener Site http://mastergardener.wsu.edu
HortSense Fact Sheets http://hortsense.cahnrs.wsu.edu
On Line Timelog Reporting: http://ext.wsu.edu/Volunteer/logon
Inside this issue:
State MG Conference
Book Review
Book Review
Armchair Gardener
Continuing Education Upcoming Events 12 The Lowdown Page 2 2015: a year to celebrate soil
By: Laren Sunde It’s easy to smell a rose or harvest vegetables without appreciating the earthy mass of hardworking tiny organisms, decomposing matter, and minerals that made it all possible. We know soil is essential to about 96 percent of the world’s food supply. And we know that for humans this is a pretty necessary part of not being dead. But it’s still easy to forget just how important and fragile soil is to life on earth even with all our Master Gardener training and our passion for gardening. It’s a shortcoming expe- rienced by modern people as we walk on asphalt, get our food in stores and buy clothes made of polyester. And that’s why the United Nations has declared 2015 the International Year of Soils. It’s time to recognize the value of the stuff that’s beneath our feet. The Food and Agriculture Organization, a U.N. agency based in Rome, has organized 120 soil-related projects and events around the world this year. In the United States the Soil Science Society of America and the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Services Agency are leading the cause to raise awareness about soil as a precious resource. Our WSU Spokane Master Gardeners will be jumping on the bandwagon. The International Year of Soils (IYS) Committee first met in early January. Marilyn Carothers, one of the committee members declared at Winter Meeting, “I’m on fire!” when describing why she is involved with spreading the word about the importance of soil and soil stewardship. It is safe to say that all committee members feel the same enthusiasm and are looking forward to providing a local focus to soil appreciation. Look for de- tails about our events and available resources in the Lowdown, on Facebook, Happy Monday, at the Clinic and at our events. The Master Gardener IYS Committee will be concentrating on helping people understand that healthy soils are alive, active and moving — critters everywhere, doing interest- ing things to make the soil fertile and capable of sustaining plant life. You don’t have to be on the IYS Committee to help. You can invite your friends to attend our public showing of the documentary, Symphony of the Soil. Look for details in the coming weeks for dates, times and locations. When you volunteer at community gardens or give talks to groups, mention the U.N. International Year of Soils and our Master Gardener involvement. If other clubs you belong to need a speaker, consider suggesting someone on the 2015 Master Gardener speakers’ list to talk about soils.
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Most importantly, increase your own knowledge about the soil. If you think learning about soil is dull or boring or challenging it might be time to have an epiphany and find your WOW POW moment with soil. Check out the series of monthly videos produced by the Soil Science Society of America: www.soils.org/iys/monthly-videos. Did you know we have 70,000 different types of soil in the U.S. alone? Or that you can look up the soil profile of your own yard and garden on the Internet with an accuracy to within just a few horizontal inches? (http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app) Or that certain plants prefer a bacteria rich soil while other plants prefer a fungi rich soil because of the way they uptake ni- trogen? Contact anyone on our IYS Committee: Mary Beth Shinn, Carol Albietz, Marilyn Carothers, Eberhard Schmidt, Kathy Callum, Ryan Herring, Laren Sunde, Sue Malm, or Jennifer Wengeler if you would like to join the IYS Committee, have a suggestion, or find a good soil related educational resource.
Check out the announcement on page 6!
Geri Odell 5-Mar Dan Muhm 23-Mar
Susan Richardson 25-Mar Patti Stimson 27-Mar Peggy Jeremiah 29-Mar
We are glad you are with us! The Lowdown Page 4
The Potting Table By Mia Marcum-McCoy
It’s time… Let’s propagate! The Master Gardener ‘Garden Fair’ is almost here and everyone can help. Check the list below for some simple ways you can contribute to the plant sale this year. Dig and divide Soak in water to sprout roots (Mint sprigs, sweet potatoes, etc.) Start from seed (get ideas on what to sow from the list on pg. 5)
Keep in mind some plants may need a little plant spa time in a greenhouse to “juice” up. We want our plants looking stellar for the sale. And if they are feeling good, they are looking good. Who doesn’t like some spa time? The Master Gardeners have several greenhouses available for this purpose. Please contact Denise or Julie for information on where to take your plants.
Dig and divide ~ do it yourself or get someone else to do it. We love a good ‘Dig Party.’ To plan one or have one planned for you, contact Denise Eaton
Seed-starting: Remember that starting seeds requires a sterile, soil-less mix. You can purchase a “Seed-Starting Mix” or make your own using the following recipe:
Mix Type Recipe Seed Starting Mix (for starting seeds in flats) 1 part peat moss or coir 1 part vermiculite or perlite
Seedling Mix (for seedlings that have 2 parts organic matter developed their first set of true leaves) 1 part peat moss or coir 1 part vermiculite or perlite
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(Continued from page 4) the following seed starting table was provided by Susan Mulvihill at the MG Win- ter Meeting. See susansinthegarden.blogspot.com for information (including videos) on how-to seed- starting.
Vegetables Varieties Approx. start date Artichoke Green Globe, Imperial Star Feb. 15 Celery Tango Mar. 1 Cucumber Marketmore, Straight eight, Lemon, Socrates Apr. 12 Eggplant Orient Express, Rosa Bianca, Traviata, Aisan Trio, Mar. 1 Italian Trio
Melon* Alaska hybrid, Minnesota Midget, Snow Leopard, Apr. 12 Canary Tweety, Athena
Pepper Corno di Toro, Sunset mix, Cayenne Blend, Canary Mar. 1 Bell, Jalafuego, Yolo Wonder, Ace
Pumpkin* New England Pie, Casper (white), Winter Luxury Apr. 12 Squash, summer Romanesco, Goldmine, Cavili, Sunburst pattypan Apr. 12 (scallop), Lucky 8 or Eight Ball
Squash, winter Cream of the Crop white acorn, Spaghetti, Sweet Apr. 12 Dumpling, Sweet Meat, Lakota
Swiss Chard Bright Lights, Rainbow Blend, Peppermint Stick, Pot Mar. 1 of Gold
Annual flowers Varieties Approx. start date Calendula** Pacific Beauty, Zeolights Feb. 21 Coleus (any) Feb. 1-15 Cosmos Celebration in Pink, Sea Shells, Bright Lights, Mar. 7 Double Click Mix
Marigold French or Signet types Mar. 7 Zinnia Persian Carpet Mix, Summer Solstice, California Mar. 7 Giants, Northern Lights, Zahara or Profusion series, Zowie
*Note: selecting short-season varieties of these vegetables is critical: under 75 days for melons, 80-100 days max for pumpkins and winter squash. The shorter the better!
**edible flower- grow organically. Other seed starting options include herbs such; basil, cilantro, parsley to name a few. The Lowdown Page 6
Date/Family Time at the Movies!
The International Year of Soil Committee would like to invite Master Gardeners and families to view “Symphony of the Soil” co-starring John Reganold, Regents Professor of Soil Science at Washington State University, and featuring the beautiful Palouse. "Drawing from ancient knowledge and cutting edge science, Symphony of the Soil is an artistic exploration of the miraculous substance soil."
There will be two showings here at the Extension: Tuesday, March 24 at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday March 25 at 2 p.m.
Snacks will be provided. Viewing time: 104 minutes Please RSVP # of people in your party and which viewing date to Laren Sunde @ [email protected]
SPRING CLASSES
Composting Tomatoes from Seed Saturday, March 7 Saturday, March 7 9 a.m. - noon 12:30—3:30 p.m.
Berries & Small Fruit Home Orchards Saturday, March 21 Saturday, March 21 9 a.m. - noon 12:30—3:30 p.m.
Growing Perennials Growing Herbs Saturday, March 28 Saturday, March 28 9 a.m. - noon 12:30—3:30 p.m.
Home Greenhouses Saturday, April 18 9 a.m. - noon
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FOXGLOVES I CAN’T BEAR TO LEAVE BEHIND By Eva Lusk As we’re starting to think about moving to a smaller house and garden, I’m looking for the plants that I can’t possibly leave behind. I’ve already potted up some of my favorite plants, but I keep thinking of others that I really don’t D.parviflora want to be without, either.
Fortunately I’ve let the foxgloves (Digitalis spp.) go to seed over the years, because there are now quite enough to take with me without leaving gaping holes in the garden. And since they’ve already moved from one botanical family to another, moving to another garden must seem pretty routine.
Before the new genetically researched APG classification system arrived on the scene, foxgloves belonged to the Figwort Family (Scrofulariaceae). Now, however, they have their own tribe, the Foxglove Tribe (Digitalideae), in the Plantain Family (Plantaginaceae).
Even though all of the plant is toxic if you eat it, foxglove are a mainstay of many gardens, mine included. Bees love them, crawling right up inside the flowers. Hummingbirds and butterflies are also attracted to them. The toxins don’t seem to affect them. Rabbits and deer avoid munching on my foxgloves, and that’s a real boon.
Foxgloves provide the digitoxin in the heart medication digitalis, which is used to treat arrhythmia. The most common source for the digitoxin is Grecian foxglove (Digitalis lanata). Improperly administered, however, digitalis can kill, and has been used deliberately throughout the centuries to commit murder.
Foxglove lore says that growing them near other plants can help stimulate growth and resist disease, and growing them near apples, potatoes and tomatoes improves the storage ability of those plants. In flower arrangements, foxgloves can make other plants last longer. I haven’t actually experimented to see if there is anything to these claims.
The most common foxglove is (Digitalis purpurea) is an impressive, stately biennial. The botanical name comes from the Latin word for finger and purple. And sure enough, the flowers are most often purplish pink, and some white ones, too. Although common foxglove is also found in the wild, it is not a native plant, but one that escaped from early gardens and naturalized itself.
Though the second-year plant dies after flowering, it reseeds itself and thus continues to thrive in the garden—sometimes showing up where you don’t want them. If your seedlings are in the wrong place, just dig them up for our plant sale or move them to another spot in the garden. Most like part shade as well as sunshine.
D. purpurea also has a number of cultivars. ‘Pam’s Choice,” has large white flowers with purple speckles inside. ‘Alba’ flowers are pure white. ‘Apricot Blush’ has showy spikes of apricot to peach
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colored flowers. The dwarf foxglove, Digitalis purpurea ‘Foxy,’ is just under three feet tall, and produces spires of large, dangling bells in pastel shades. All of these are biennials, so let them go to seed.
Another very attractive biennial is the rusty foxglove (Digitalis ferruginea) ‘Gelber Herold.’ The flowers are yellow with rusty touches on the inside. The flower spike rises 3-4 feet, and the plant will send up new flower shoots if deadheaded. In order to keep it in the garden permanently, however, I always let at least one flower spike go to seed.
The Strawberry Foxglove, (Digitalis mertonensi), is a hybrid of D. purpurea and D. grandiflora. It’s a perennial, but a short-lived one—about three years in my garden. It’s quite lovely--tall, with large, crushed- strawberry colored flowers. Let it go to seed, too, so that it doesn’t die out.
Digitalis parviflora has been in the same spot in my garden for quite a few years although there’s some controversy about whether it is a biennial or a perennial. It sports dense spikes of small orange-brown flowers covered in silvery hair. It’s been easy to grow, even in dry shade, and has kept coming back. I do make sure that it also has a chance to reseed.
My oldest and most reliable truly perennial foxglove has been in the garden for more than 15 years. The large yellow foxglove (Digitalis grandiflora) is very handsome, usually about three feet tall, and blooms for a very long time. The tubular flowers really are quite large, soft yellow with brown markings on the inside.
Small flowered foxglove (Digitalis lutea), another charmer, has dense spikes of small, pale yellow flowers that last for quite a long time. It’s about three feet tall, slender and quite delicate looking. It, too, has been around for many years.
The green foxglove (Digitalis viridiflora) is quite similar to D. lutea, except that the flowers are a very pale greenish yellow color. If you’re not looking closely, you could almost think they were the same.
Willow-leaved foxglove (Digitalis obscura) is actually a small shrubby perennial, only about a foot and a half tall. The narrow, gray-green leaves usually stay evergreen throughout the winter, and the tubular flow- ers of my plant are a rusty burnt-orange with reddish speckles inside. This perennial foxglove needs very good drainage, or it will rot out and disappear from the garden.
I’ve planted it near the foxglove penstemon (Penstemon Digitalis ‘Husker Red’ which also detests overly wet roots, as do most other penstemons. Penstemons like foxgloves are former Figwort Family members (Scrofulariaceae) that have been reclassified as Plantain Family members (Plantaginaceae). Foxgloves, however, belong to the Foxglove Tribe (Digitalideae), while penstemons are part of the Turtlehead Tribe (Cheloneae).
D. lutea I’m also very fond of penstemons—though I’ll save that topic for another time. The Lowdown Page 10
LOWDOWN SELF STUDY QUIZ
Complete the Self Study Quiz and earn 1 hour Continuing Ed.
1. Put the following in descending order, from the largest group to the smallest group. Class, Family, Kingdom, Phylum-Division, Order, Species, Genus
2. Why do we us scientific names? Check all that apply. A. They are absolutely definitive and never duplicated. B. They are used by people of all countries. C. They are usually descriptive. D. They show a systematic relationship to other organisms. 3. A client has brought a plant into the Plant Clinic; you know it is a genus Rosa within the family Rosaceae because: .
4. The best time to prune roses is: A. Beginning of dormant season B. End of dormant season C. Beginning of growing season D. End of growing season 5. Put the following perennials in order from most likely to thrive to least likely to thrive in Spokane given our zone 6 USDA hardiness rating: a. Physocaprus opulifolius ‘Monlo’ b. Nerium oleander ‘Calypso’ c. Spiraea canfoniensis
6. Name three advantages to using native perennials in your landscaping.
7. Which can be propagated from root cuttings? Lilly-of-the-Valley Black Eyed Susan Phlox Sedums Convallaria majalis Rudbeckia hirta P olemoniaceae spp. Sedum
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8. Match the symptom to the disease.
1. Yellow spots on upper sides of the leaves A. Botrytis Blight and downy fuzz on the underside.
2. A fungus that shows yellow or brown spots B. Powdery Mildew on the leaves & sunken lesions & blisters on the stems.
3. A fungal disease where leaves, stems and C. Anthracnose flowers blacken, rot, and die.
4. White or gray powdery coating on leaf sur- D. Downy Mildew faces that won’t brush off.
9. Which of these are propagated from rhizomes? Bellflower Cornflower Iris Hosta
Cranesbill Geranium Peony
10. What are 2 signs a perennial needs dividing?
Bonus question: For whom was Manito’s Perennial Garden named?
February Lowdown Quiz From Nicole Martini, Master Gardener State Program Leader Answer Key: I think you will all be happy to know that the updated Hortsense website has 1. www.gardening.wsu.edu launched. The new Hortsense website offers many new capabilities that I’m 2. March 7 sure you’ll find very useful. You can search the database, for instance, and de- 3. Only you know this one fine your search. The bulletins will be available in a printer-friendly format and you’ll be able to email a link directly to the relevant bulletin straight from the 4. False website. Carrie Foss (WSU Urban IPM Director and manager of Hortsense) and 5. True her team have been working hard on revising the new website, and they in- 6. Huge importance! volved Master Gardeners in the process to help determine what changes needed to be made. Stay tuned for the debut date of the improved Hortsense 7. 50+% website. 8. Pet friendly plants I also want to announce the new state Master Gardener Program Facebook 9. Maidenhair & Stink Bomb page and Twitter account. Like and follow these sites for statewide happen- ings, continuing-education opportunities, and new research relevant to the 10. False MG Program. You can access both sites from the state Master Gardener Pro- 11. Naked Seed gram website: http://mastergardener.wsu.edu/.
Calendar of Events MARCH Monday 2 CLINIC OPENING DAY!!! Thursday 5 MG training: Weeds & Pesticides 6 pm—9 pm Saturday 7 Public Education: Composting 9 am—12 noon Public Education: Tomatoes 12:30 pm—3:30 pm Monday 9 MG Foundation Board Meeting 1 pm Backyard Conservation 5 pm—7:30 pm Thursday 12 Herbaceous Landscape Plants 6 pm—9 pm Friday-Sunday 13-15 Home & Garden Show Saturday 14 CABIN FEVER 8 am—4:30 pm Monday 16 Backyard Conservation 5 pm—7:30 pm Thursday 19 MG training: Trees & Woody Landscape Plants 6 pm—9 pm Saturday 21 Public Education: Berries & Small Fruits 9 am—12 noon Public Education: Home Orchards 12:30 pm—3:30 pm Monday 23 Backyard Conservation 5 pm—7:30 pm Tuesday 24 Symphony of the Soil viewing 6:30 pm Extension Rms A, B, & C Wednesday 25 Symphony of the Soil viewing 2:00 pm Extension Rms A, B, & C Thursday 26 MG training: Turf Grass 6 pm—9 pm Saturday 28 Public Education: Growing Flowers 9 am—12 noon Public Education: Herbs 12:30 pm—3:30 pm Monday 30 Clinic ID 3:30 pm—5 pm Backyard Conservation 5 pm—7:30 pm PCS training 5:30 pm APRIL Thursday 2 MG training: Backyard Forest Stewardship 6 pm-9 pm Thursday 9 MG training: Plant Propagation 6 pm-9 pm Monday 13 MG Foundation Board Meeting 1 pm Thursday 16 MG training: WaterWise Landscaping 6 pm-9 pm Saturday 18 Public Education: Home Greenhouses 9 am-12 pm Thursday-Friday 23-24 Garden Fair set up Saturday 25 GARDEN FAIR! Monday 27 Clinic ID 3:30 pm-5 pm PCS training 5:30 pm
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