MAY 2020 YARD AND NEWSLETTER Container – Trellis in a Pot

Article and Photos Submitted by Dianne Wagner, Minnesota River Valley Master Gardener It is springtime and the urge for many people is to ‘get into the garden’. Is it the additional light of each new day, is it the sunlight and gentle breezes that greet us, or maybe it’s just the change of temperature. No reason is needed – we just want to get outside and be creative with some soil and plants.

Many folks don’t have access to a plot of land, and thereby allege Morning glories are vigorous annual that really take off in hot they can’t garden because there is only a balcony, or shared weather. Don’t forget to water them! common area that is managed by a professional service provider. Enter the container and the entire field of container gardening. Almost every plant that can be grown in a conventional garden can be grown on a smaller scale in a container. Containers come in a variety of sizes – see what you might have tucked aside in your garage or elsewhere. Then decide what would work best in that particular pot. I decided to plant something that would give me height, color, and constant flowering. I chose Heavenly Blue Morning Glories and a Cardinal Climber.

Nursery helpers are a great guide to what would work best for your container gardener. They will consider your space allowances and sunlight availability. My plants will get full sun and space to grow upward. Morning glories are vigorous annual vines that really take off in hot weather. They will bloom until frost. Cardinal Climber is a fern like foliage covered with red trumpet-shaped flowers. Good for Hummingbirds! I can’t wait to see the blue and red flowers in the morning hours. © 2018 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved. University of Minnesota Extension is an equal opportunity educator and employer. In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, this publication/material is available in alternative formats upon request. Direct requests to 612-624- 0772 or [email protected]. Printed on recycled and recyclable paper with at least 10 percent postconsumer waste material.

Planting Vines in a Container Time Required Step 2: Create Climbing Structure- 1 to 2 hours Continued I used cable ties. (Using two cages Supplies Needed instead of one makes a tighter grid for Pot – will require the plants to climb). If desired, secure drainage holes the small form as the finial Garden gloves at the top of the tomato cages using 2 Wire coat hangers small-gauge wire or twine. I used one Purchased potting soil of my husband’s pickle balls as a 2 Conical tomato cages finial(don’t tell him). Pliers 2 Cardinal Climber plants Step 3: Plant Cardinal Climber or or Hops Vine (or whatever you 2 Golden Hops plants havechosen) 2 Blue Morning Glory plants Fill the pot with potting soil. Small topiary wire form to use Plant the cardinal climber in the center of as a finial (optional) the container.

Step 1: Insert Hangers Step 4: Plant the Morning Glories Bend both coat hangers into L shapes; Depending on the size of the tomato place in pot, leaving hook even with the cage structure, reach through the eventual level of the soil. bottom of the cage and insert morning glories into soil or, if room allows as Step 2: Create Climbing Structure mine did, insert on outside of cage. Put first tomato cage into pot right Wind plants around the cage so side up and thread cage legs through foliage fills in at the bottom before pot drainage holes and adjust height. moving up. Check growth daily. Water Hook coat hanger over cage to hold in place. as needed. Position second tomato cage upside Enjoy! down onto first cage and wire together.

Extension Corner By Shane Bugeja, County Extension Educator

WILD RAMPS: THE HUNTED HARBINGER OF SPRING

Growing up in Iowa, I remember the first green thing I would see after three (maybe four) snowy months was wild ramps (Allium tricoccum). We were fortunate to have a significant part of the backyard in woodlands, and it was always a treat to see them carpet much of the forest floor. My mother would gather a handful once a year out of a thousand and make a great pesto out of them. Granted, the garlic smell seemed like it lasted a year in the kitchen. SolarizationOddly, the Innearby The Garden park, which had similar soils and habitat for ramps, had precious few of them. SolarizationIt was strange In The to meGarden that our little patch of woods had oodles of it, but acres and acres around us did not. Soon I learned why; one of the first emerging plants in spring was also one of the first to be plucked by people—and they were not content with an annual pesto.

Identification The word “ramps” always was interesting to me as the common name for Allium tricoccum. Indeed, it has other names that make more sense such as wild leek or wild onion. Ramps may have come from the Old English word for onion or garlic, “hramsa”. Note, there was no Allium tricoccum in Europe back then, but there was a related species, Allium ursinum. Also called bear garlic, the European ramps are almost a dead ringer for our North American ones. Thus, when Europeans arrived here, ramps seemed like a fine name for Allium Ramps emerging in early April, one of the first woodland plants. tricoccum— used and munched on Photo by Shane Bugeja much the same way their bear garlic.

Wild ramps emerge early, typically by April in dense clusters. Being one of the first out of the ground also makes ramps highly susceptible to certain invasive plants such as garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata)—which also wants a head start in spring. Thus, finding a large patch of ramps often indicates a healthy forest ecosystem.

Favoring cooler, moist but not wet environments, ramps are a finicky type of plant. It also enjoys rich, deep, and moderately drained soil. Ramps tend to grow best under trees that leaf out later in the year, so precious sunlight can dapple through the canopy for as long as possible. Literature about ramps usually lists maple (Acer spp.) as an example of a good companion tree. However, in our wooded lot hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) and black cherry (Prunus serotina) seem to play nice with them too.

A ramp’s central stem is rather short and not well defined above the ground with rubbery, hairless leaves loosely bound together. Often the leaves are a lighter shade of green and depending on the type of ramps it may have a reddish stalk. Their bulbs are only slightly larger than a green onion’s, and the whole plant will have a sulfur-like, garlic smell if disturbed. Later in the summer, 4 to 7-year-old plants will send a leafless flower stalk (also called a scape) where it will bloom into a small globe of whitish flowers. The flower can be hard to see, as its leaves significantly shrivel or can even be absent at this time. Other woodland plants such as stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) or Virginia waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginianum) can hide or “photobomb” ramps, making it more difficult to spot certain times of the year. During the fall and winter months ramps release their small, black seeds to the ground, taking up to 18 months before they germinate.

Two varieties of wild ramp exist, burdickii and tricoccum. Occasionally, you may see these ramps listed as separate species. Variety burdickii (also called narrow leaf wild leek) has thinner leaves than variety tricoccum and lacks the reddish color on their stalks. Their flowers also differ slightly and may even pollen at different times. Thankfully, both varieties are edible and smell garlicky. Please note the pictures on this article are of variety tricoccum, as this is the type of ramps that are present near my Ramps ready for food prep, note the reddish leafstalks, lack of a family’s home. clear stem, and whitish bulb. Photo by Shane Bugeja

Use and Overharvesting Most parts of wild ramps can be eaten, from leaf to bulb. Unfortunately, it keeps rather poorly, and some dry the leaves or pickle them to eat later. In states such as Tennessee or West Virginia, ramps are frequently fried with meat or eggs, and often accompany festivals celebrating the plant.

If you decide to forage for ramps in Minnesota, follow all local and state laws, and never eat any wild plant without knowing definitively what it is.

If you do decide to forage, be on the lookout for several woodland plants that are lookalikes. These include bluebead (Clintonia borealis), trout lilies (Erythronium spp.) or the extremely toxic lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis). All these Ramps leafing out in late April, note the mottled trout lily leaves plants will lack the garlic smell of in the background. Photo by Diane Bugeja ramps.

Still, even this “smell technique” is not foolproof, as the smelly residue of a wild ramp can carry its odor across your fingers. This can trick you into thinking the next plant is a ramp when in truth it is a lookalike.

Its choice edibility is in dangerous combination with its botany. As mentioned earlier, wild ramps could take as much as seven years to produce seed, and even then, can take more than a year and a half until the seeds germinate. Granted, older ramps can reproduce vegetatively. This is perhaps even more common than seed germination in the wild, but this does not equal fast recovery. In the US, ramps are so desired that many states on the east coast and in Appalachia have them as a threatened or even endangered species. In Canada, harvest of them is strictly regulated in provinces such as Quebec.

What is a sustainable harvest of ramps then? This question is not an easy one. Having one rule makes a lot of assumptions about the density of ramps and the health of the environment. One technique is to only harvest leaves. A Canadian study found only a limited impact on plant survival, provided it was a later in the spring and only ½ of the leaves were removed. If bulbs must be harvested, a University of Tennessee experiment suggested no more than 10% can be harvested in a given area over a ten year period. Remember this is just to keep the population stable. If people harvested 95% of wild ramps instead, the scientists estimate almost 150 years until the wild ramp population would recover. Bear in mind that Minnesota has only been a state for 161 years (almost 162 as of this writing). So next time you want to harvest these unique plants, value them as much as the beautiful state we live in.

Further Resources on Ramps:  Chamberlain, J. Beegle, D., and Lajeunesse Connette, K. “Forest Farming Ramps”. 2014. National Agroforestry Center, United States Forest Service. https://www.fs.usda.gov/nac/assets/documents/agroforestrynotes/an47ff08.pdf  Chayka, K, and Dziuk, P. “Wild Leek”. 2020. https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/wild- leek  Hilty, J. “Narrow-Leaved Wild Leek”. 2020. https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/woodland/plants/nl_wildleek.html  Hilty, J. “Wild Leek”. 2020. https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/woodland/plants/wild_leek.htm Virtual Learning and Events:

GARDENING FROM THE GROUND UP: Webinar series, 4 workshops across 4 days (May 12-15, 2020) all taught by University of Minnesota Local Extension Educators from across Minnesota. Register today: Z.UMN.EDU/GARDENUP

ANNUAL PLANT SALE: Unfortunately, this year’s Annual Plant Sale has been cancelled due to COVID-19. In the meantime, please support your local nurseries and garden centers.

© 2020 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved. University of Minnesota Extension is an equal opportunity educator and employer. In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, this publication/material is available in alternative formats upon request. Direct requests to 612-624-0772 or [email protected]. Printed on recycled and recyclable paper with at least 10 percent postconsumer waste material.