NOTICE to BABYSITTERS

HADS UPDATE Hudson Adirondack Daylily Society

Volume 27 Number 11 April 2011

Officers MESSAGE FROM JAMES HEALEY, Chairman Chairman Hello folks, Jim Healey 518-438-1819 I would like to welcome Marylou Ragosta and her husband to [email protected] HADS. Marylou joined HADS at the HVCC Garden Show. I also Co-Chairman want to thank those that sat at the table on Friday, having Debi Chowdhury 518-786-1107 only one table for all 3 clubs worked out much better than [email protected] with a table for each club. I also want to thank Cindi Jones Secretary and Debi Chowdhury for all of their efforts in making this a Ceil Broady success. We ended up with no passes to get in, from here on [email protected] out I have authorized Carol to reimburse those that table sit Treasurer their entry fee. If you sat at the table on Friday and wish to be Carol Volungus 518-383-0447 reimbursed please contact Carol. I think you may have to wait [email protected] until the May meeting since I do not expect Carol to be there Past Chairman in April. Bill Jordan 518-371-5622 If you know of any member that might be ill please me know [email protected] and we will send them some sunshine. Committee Leaders Hospitality We are still looking for open gardens for the member tour Sally Schuessler 518-239-4534 scheduled for July 23, so far I believe we only have one and [email protected] that is Dave Gehrs garden he is also Chairing the event so if Library you would like to open your garden for that date please let Judith Wing 518-439-2948 him and I know soon. If we do not have any more than this [email protected] we will have to cancel the tours. Programs Melanie Mason 518-753-0356 Next month is the HADS member auction and sale if you have Out of Town Speakers something you would like to donate for the auction please let [email protected] me or Melanie Mason know so we can get it on the auction Christl Schmidt 518-462-3120 list, please keep your donation in the $25.00 to $50.00 range. Local Speakers Please get it in early as I NEED TO LOOK FOR PICTURES OF [email protected] YOUR DONATION for the Power point program. If you have Editor plants for the sale table please label them with the name and Heather Hotaling all of the plant info, color, bloom size, height, PRICE THEM AT [email protected] 60% OF THE EUREKA LISTED PRICE and any other info. Please Historian do not bring plants that you just want to get rid of, you do not Debi Chowdhury 518-786-1107 have to bring a lot of anything, if you have a plant that you [email protected] like and are willing to divide it into several double fan pieces Photography that would be great. This sale is for our newer members so Betsy Thompson518- 479-4372 that they can get a variety of different Daylilies at a reduced [email protected] price to get them going on their Daylily collection. At this month’s meeting we will be hearing about the new Publicity Gretchen Kestner 518-237-0123 portal that has been introduced to the AHS web site, Mike [email protected] and Sandy will be doing this presentation along with their regular presentation. Please plan on attending to learn more. Baby Sitter Plants Frank Almquest 914-339-3671 Linda & I will not be going to the Regional this year. My [email protected] breathing has become such that I cannot walk very far Display Garden without stopping, even with the oxygen support I have and Pat & Don Salhoff 518-439-1484 Linda’s knee prevents her from walking a lot. Since we will not [email protected] be able to enjoy the Open Gardens or the Tour Gardens we Eureka Daylily Guide have decided not to attend. So far everything is all planned Carol Volungus 518-383-0447 out except the open gardens you may want to visit on the [email protected] way there and on the way home. Attached to this UPDATE Membership you will find the application for registration, hotel information Carol Volungus 518-439-0447 and the full meeting itinerary and open gardens. I will ask [email protected] Debi contact everyone going to see which open gardens the bus will stop at. HADS website Http://www.ahsregion4.org I hope to see you all at the April 23rd meeting.

HADS 2011 Meeting Schedule Jim Healey And Agenda

April 23 (3rd Saturday not available) Sandy WELCOME TO PERSPECTIVE NEW MEMBERS! & Mike Holmes If this is the complementary issue of the UPDATE you are May 14 Member Sale & Auction getting keep them coming by joining us! We love new June 18 Baby Sitter Plant distribution members and value what you can bring to our club and in Betsy Thompson return we hope to share our love of gardening and the July 23 Member garden tours, gardens to wonderful daylily along with great fellowship! be announced later August 20 Public Sale at Faddegon’s So, on behalf of HADS and its membership WELCOME and feel September 17 HADS Picnic hosted by free to contact any officer listed to the left or Carol Volungus Peggy & Frank Almquist details later regarding membership or questions! October 15 Carol Mastromarchi "Perennials...The Bold and Beautiful"

REMINDERS: These are the deadlines for your submission to be in the next issues of the HADS DIGITAL UPDATE: April 20th , May 4th, June 7th, July 7th, August 9th, September 7th and October 5th.

HADS DIGITAL UPDATE is published nine times a year by the HUDSON ADIRONDACK 0DAYLILY SOCIETY (HADS) Please feel free to send in contributions of articles on daylilies, gardening and related subjects! Please submit to Heather L Hotaling 2104 Sewell Branch Road Clayton, DE or email to [email protected] HADS MEMBERSHIPS are available for a THE NEXT MEETING: membership fee of $5.00 per year HADS MEMBERS! At our April 23rd meeting, please welcome Please make checks payable to Hudson Sandy and Mike Holmes of Riverbend Daylilies in Xenia, Adirondack Daylily Society and send your Ohio. We “import” at least one big name hybridizer each year, request to: and this year we are fortunate to have a tag team husband Carol Volungus and wife duo in the persona of Sandy and Mike Holmes. 4 Applewood Drive Sandy and Mike garden in a zone 5 location and are very Rexford, NY 12148 aware of the difficulties of northern gardening. Sandy Be sure to add your full name, address, specializes in large (make that extra large!) tetraploid unusual telephone and email address! form daylilies, and this year’s H. ‘Wanda Evans’ will knock your socks off. With a 40” height and 20 buds on 4-way Meetings are held at the CORNELL COOPERATIVE EXTENSION of ALBANY branching, most would be impressed…until you read that the COUNTY, Martin Road PO BOX 497 diameter of the flower ranges from 10-11”!!! Voorheesville, NY 12186 Phone 518-765- 3500 Doors open around 9:15AM (For more Sandy incorporates lines from Moldovan, some Ned Roberts information contact any officer listed on page tet conversions, and several from Webster’s lines, including 1) Webster’s Pink Wonder. With such hardiness in the parentage, you just know these daylilies are going to perform outstandingly here in the northeast.

Mike travels in the opposite direction, looking for wide petals with fancy ruffles and a generous amount of toothy grins and elaborate edges. H. ‘Bengal Teeth’ is a perfect example. This year’s ‘Candy Candy’ is a simply gorgeous lavender with deep purple eye and ruffle, green throat, and it’s a northern dormant with 24 buds and 4-way branching.

Mike and Sandy have also been instrumental in the launch of the new AHS members-only web-site with more bells and whistles than you can shake a stick at. Hopefully we can talk JOIN AHS Mike and Sandy into giving us a demonstration while they are All memberships are for the calendar year, here. January through December and come with a subscription to The Daylily Journal! You can visit Mike and Sandy’s web-site at www.daylily.ws/ Individual dues are $25.00 a year or $70 for but please plan on meeting them in person at the meeting! 3 years. Dual/Family (one set of publications) $30 a year or $83 for 3 years, Youth through HADS MEMBERS! At our April 23rd meeting, please calendar year child turns 18, is $10 a year: welcome Sandy and Mike Holmes of Riverbend Daylilies in Life membership $500 Please send payments to: Pat Mercer, Xenia, Ohio. We “import” at least one big name hybridizer Executive Sec. PO BOX 10 each year, and this year we are fortunate to have a tag team DEXTER, GA 31010 husband and wife duo in the persona of Sandy and Mike (912) 875-4110 or email: Holmes. Sandy and Mike garden in a zone 5 location and are [email protected] very aware of the difficulties of northern gardening. Sandy PAYPAL ALSO ACCEPTED! specializes in large (make that extra large!) tetraploid unusual form daylilies, and this year’s H. ‘Wanda Evans’ will knock your socks off. With a 40” height and 20 buds on 4-way branching, most would be impressed…until you read that the diameter of the flower ranges from 10-11”!!!

Sandy incorporates lines from Moldovan, some Ned Roberts tet conversions, and several from Webster’s lines, including Webster’s Pink Wonder. With such hardiness in the parentage, you just know these daylilies are going to perform outstandingly here in the northeast. Mike travels in the opposite direction, looking for wide petals with fancy ruffles and a generous amount of toothy grins and elaborate edges. H. ‘Bengal Teeth’ is a perfect example. This year’s ‘Candy Candy’ is a simply gorgeous lavender with deep purple eye and ruffle, green throat, and it’s a northern Because we care…. dormant with 24 buds and 4-way branching. If you know of a HADS member that needs a bit of sunshine, please let me know. We care Mike and Sandy have also been instrumental in the launch of about our members and in their time of need we want them to know that their fellow the new AHS members-only web-site with more bells and HADS members are thinking of them I can be whistles than you can shake a stick at. Hopefully we can talk reached at 315-826-5756 or email Mike and Sandy into giving us a demonstration while they are [email protected] Susan McVoy- here. Barnard You can visit Mike and Sandy’s web-site at www.daylily.ws/ but please plan on meeting them in person at the meeting!

3 Easy Steps to Forcing Bulbs Heather L. Hotaling

Tired of the winter landscape? In 3 Bengal Teeth Peach Teapot easy steps you can get a jump start Holmes-M., 2008 Holmes-S., 2011 on spring by forcing bulbs indoors and in a short time will have spring blooms that are colorful and will smell wonderful! Light: Low to Medium Time: 1-2 Hours Skill: Easy MATERIALS NEEDED: Container (terra cotta pot) Candy Candy Wanda Evans All-purpose potting soil Mixture of bulbs Holmes M., 2011 Holmes S., 2011 Bulb Fertilizer

STEP 1: Clean a terra cotta pot that has drainage holes and fill with enough soil that the bases of the bulbs will sit at least 2 inches above the bottom and the tips are even with the rim. Mix an handful of your bulb fertilizer into the soil , being careful not to pack the soil. Ideally, bulbs need loose soil with good drainage. STEP 2: Set the bulbs on the soil with the growing tips faced up, and place bulbs close together, but not quite touching each other or the side of your pot. Sprinkle soil over the top. NOTICE to BABYSITTERS STEP 3: Cover the bulbs with more soil and water thoroughly. Put the pot Frank Almquist in a cold, dark place (35-50 degrees) and check occasionally to see if the This year we are getting our plants from Paul Owen, who was soil feels dry, if so water. Move the a guest at the April meeting last year. How can we forget his pot into a cool room with indirect great plants, enthusiasm, and humor. We purchased his all sunlight when the stems are 1-2 of his 2011 introductions. As a result he is sending many gift inches high and then into a warmer plants as well. We now will have many more plants for the spot with more light when the shoots program and will slide all that are not needed into the are about 4 inches high! member auction that will take place at the May meeting.

**Keep in mind that most bulbs will What I need from each babysitter is the status of the plant or require being kept cold for at least 12 plants in your custody. Iif the plant you are caring for has five weeks before they will bloom inside. or more fans please let me know. By now all the fans should ** You may want to make a note in be poking their heads above the soil. I want to be able to your garden journal or on the pot have enough of Paul’s plants for every babysitter, but also itself of the date you planted the help out the member auction so we do not have to buy many bulbs, the type of bulbs…. more plants from other suppliers.

** These make great gifts also, think Remember, if your plant has five or more fans, it is due back of ways that you could decorate the early at our May meeting – which is the 2nd Saturday of May. pot to make a pleasing presentation Please wash ALL the soil from the plant and place the DRY to a housebound friend or someone plant in a bag. Bring it to the meeting before 9:00 so it can be with cabin fever! divided. As always, each person with a babysitter plant will get a single fan from the clump. It is most important that Types of bulbs to try: the plant be clean and dry. Rinse off all your garden soil - Daffodils after all, you worked hard to get the soil into good condition Grape Hyacinths to grow DLs, you want to keep it in the garden. Striped Squall Danford Irises PLEASE contact me as soon as possible with the name and Netted Irises number of fans in the clump. Paper whites By now we should have all poor increasers out of the program but if you do have one, dig it, pot it and bring it in for exchange at the June meeting. If you wish to continue with your plant, feed it well with a slow release fertilizer (a good hand-full around the plant) and wait till June.

Disclaimer – HADS is not responsible if plants do not come true to the name as stated. Plants may be mixed by the supplier of babysitter material or miss-marked by the babysitter host. When the plant comes in for division, the committee trusts that it is as labeled and the folks dividing the returns may not put the correct tags on the plants. In any Friendship is Like a Flower case HADS is not responsible if the plant you win at auction is not true to its name. Friendship is like a flower, Glowing in its glory, If there any questions about the babysitter program, the Each and every seed, plants available, please email ([email protected]), or call Telling its own story. (845) 339-3671.

As each flower blooms, And then continues to grow, More of its strength and This is a submission from Julie Wilson….A very special thank knowledge, you to my friend, kindred spirit and mentor…… Continues to show.

And like a garden, It blooms much more fair, When carefully tended, By those who care. Where the Flowers Are Once in a while, Julie Wilson You come across a friend, Who is as beautiful as a flower, Good wishes and warm greetings to everyone-I thought I’s With a good heart to lend. connect with all you nice folks once again. And since we’re all lovers of flowers, this makes for an ideal subject. First and So I picked this flower, foremost though, I want to applause Heather for the great job And pulled it apart, she’s doing as Editor of the HADS Update. Thanks Heather, for And soon all its pieces, sharing your gift of creative and imaginative writing with all of Grew into my heart. us. Now, let us move on to the topic of flowers, Look around But when I realized, and you may find them or replicas of them in more places Is that this flower that grew, than you think. Flowers aren’t they wonderful? Was not leaves and petals, So many kinds, so many colors and found in so many places- But pieces of you. in gardens, in landscapes, in water features, garden centers, and florist shops. We enjoy them in centerpieces and Your love and kindness, arrangements, bouquets and garlands. They become a tasty Your strength and power, treat in salads and a colorful garnish for food presentation. Have helped me grow, Into my own little flower.

And now with our friendship, I'll never let go, And we can help others, To flower and grow.

Flower themes and arrangements are used in the creation of patterns for wallpaper, greeting cards, jewelry, clothing, quilts, embroidery, china, silverware, holiday ornaments, window panes, toys, puzzles, decorative magnets, carpeting, linens of all sorts including tablecloths, napkins, bedding, towels etc. We also appreciate flowers for their use in perfumes, colognes, soaps, deodorants, potpourri, essential oils, medicinal and cooking.

Flowers can convey profound feelings, when words fail or COMPANION PLANTS OF A DIFFERENT seem not to be enough flowers can represent Love, COLOR Congratulations, Happiness, Joy Friendship, Sympathy and Heather Lynn Hotaling Just plain….Thinking of You. A continuing monthly series……. And so folks, this is the best I can do, except that I’m sending BLACK AND BLUE A WINNING PUNCH this little “Flower of Friendship” to each of you. Most plants in this color range are limited in their flowering times but still worth the splash of color they give! A true black plant is hard to find, with most of them being more of a deep purple or blue.

We all know that there is no such thing as a true blue daylily…yet but have you Best Regards, ever thought of how few true blue Julie flowers there are overall? Here are a few I managed to hunt up… “Important Things” Family-Friends-Flowers

Chicory- this perennial plant with flowers of blue, lavender and sometimes white. Flower meaning: Attachment, Love, Relationships, Release and Sharing. This plant originated in Europe and was brought to North America, where it naturalized and became a roadside weed. The roots of this plant are baked and ground and made into a coffee- substitute which is especially popular in New Orleans.

A Favorite Garden Companion: The Caladium Gretchen Kestner When bees hum in the linden tree and roses bloom in cottage plots. Ha!, you say, as the wind howls Along the brookside banks we see outside and it is 4 degrees here in the the blue wild forget-me-nots. northeast. Only those lucky snowbirds might consider the caladium a garden ~Patience Strong~ plant. My attraction to the caladium The Forget Me Not—a flower that started many years ago when my sister blooms in the spring time and there is brought me a huge, florist-grown pot of mixed caladiums in about 50 in the species most having tiny the coldest days of February. How luxuriant they seemed! An blue flowers with 5 lobes and yellow centers. This cheery little flower re-seeds example: the photo to the right is Red Flash, from Caladium itself easily. The Chinese Forget Me Not World’s catalog. is an annual but will re-seed itself easily I have often plant caladiums around the garden, and and will bloom twice once early and once here is how I do it. Caladiums require temperatures between mid season and will die back with the 70˚ and 90˚ at all times, a quality which makes them petty first frost. This plant is a bit taller than sensitive little bulbs. Further, to start growing they need the more common earlier variety. really hot soil temperature and hot days and nights; consequently, starting them outdoors in the ground means that you may wait for what seems like forever to see leaves. Eventually, your plants will thrive if they have not gotten too cold or too soggy. I find the better way is to start them in pots indoors. My greatest success has been to start during a Morning Glory very hot week in June; they come right along amazingly “Heavenly Blue” is an annual perfect for quickly. Pot all red, all white, or mixed, depending on your climbing on a trellis or mailbox. planned growing location. Simply cover the bulbs with about 2” of soil and keep uniformly moist. The benefit of an enclosed sunporch will proved the heat they need, and if you plant early and the temps drop frigidly at night occasionally they are easily moved into the house. Remember, the hotter the better for them! When starting growth they do like a lot of moisture, but be wary of letting them be moist and cold. Salvia patens 'Oxford Blue' provides gardeners with a "true blue" choice After leaves appear, even though they are generally shade- amongst perennials. Don't confuse sage lovers, they like a lot of light. If you grow them with less light plants such as this one, which are grown they will become taller, and not enough light will make them for their flowers, with the sage plants spindly. grown for culinary purposes or for the After they are nicely started in the pots, I find it better not to disturb them. You will find that they have created a massive root system very quickly. I simply sink the pot into the ground and leave it for the season. They are supremely happy, and Mother Nature takes care of watering them. beauty of their leaves.

The Blue Poppy is a difficult plant to grow The pinks and the whites of caladiums add brightness requiring “open shade” and cool to shady spots. And, there are also sun-tolerant varieties temperatures, but is a terrific blue color which catalogs clearly mark. The type we most commonly see should you decide to give it a try. is Fancy Leaf. Strap Leaf and Lance Leaf are more low- growing, denser, and generally tolerate more sun. The Lance Leaf has a pointed leaf with a ruffled edge. Dwarf caladiums, contrary to their name, actually grow almost as tall as the Fancy Leaf types, but have smaller leaves. When deciding which size bulbs to purchase, it is important to know that the size of the bulb usually determines the number of leaves produced. While larger bulbs produce more leaves, a potful of many small bulbs may make as big a show as a pot planted with three jumbo bulbs. The sizes are graded as #3, #2, #2, and Jumbo. BLACK PLANTS...This will take you to the My favorite place from which to order is Caladium dark side of your garden for sure! World: www.caladiumworld.com 1-863-385-7661. I always The “Black Magic” viola makes a striking permit them to determine when to ship, since there is the statement. possibility that the package could become too cold in the UPS trucks and facilities and I prefer to let them take responsibility for that.

SUMMER IN WINTER LIGHT “Black Scallop” Rosemary Deen bugleweed (Zone 4) the concave leaves on this plant This winter the house is a little paradise in the small are arranged in a tight mound that will light of year’s end & year’s beginning. Anywhere there’s spread to a foot in a couple of seasons. It light in a house there can be bloom--though it is usually has indigo flowers in the early summer seasonable, like Christmas cactus. But this winter I have that will rise above the foliage. In zones color everywhere: rosy, white, dark red, blended pinks. I 7 and south it will remain evergreen or owe most to it to those volunteers I always found so should I say, everblack. welcome in the outside garden: the impatiens, with their odd habit of shooting seeds out everywhere from their uncoiling pods. It started when I found that they were coming up in the pots of the “Foliage Plants,” those no-name articles offered to green-starved people by gardening shops. Houseplants. The Foliage things had been outside in the “Ebony Pearl” Rhododendron picture this summer, in pleasant high shade, minding their own one in a woodland garden corner! The business and not bothering me while I was tending the leaves are a dark color that are best- vegetables and daylilies. Like good children. I had put suited to dappled shade and to be some pots of impatiens among them for color, and they watered with fast draining soil in the all behaved themselves nicely. summer months. In fall I brought some fresh-looking, small pots of impatiens in with the houseplants. Soon I noticed many impatiens had seeded themselves in the houseplant pots. There was even one in the Christmas cactus, exactly the same color as its flower. When the cactus finished blooming, the impatiens carried on in a friendly way all winter, and I hardly noticed the difference.

The impatiens are specially welcome in the pots of the “fancy plants,” the ones I bought because I imagined “Black Lace” elderberry has fine, filigreed how nice it would be to have a gardenia or jasmine--that true black leaves with flowers of 8 inch kind of thing--blooming in the winter and perfuming the creamy white flowers looking like white living room at night. But the fancy plants don’t bloom. lace in early summer. This plant would They don’t care to bloom. They consider me lucky if they bring a winning punch for sure! give me green leaves. They bloom outside in the summer, very quietly when I’m not looking. But the impatiens are no snobs. They plant their purple and rosy selves in among the tropical aristocrats and live happily for the day--as moralists tell us we should all do. Outside last summer there had been a color riot of impatiens blooming in the shady corner at the top of the kitchen steps. Big pots of them down to small pots. Very charming all summer, and in winter I would be willing to leave them to their freezing fate--except that the pots are “Black Jack” stonecrop has all the appeal ceramic. I invested in those beautiful things once when I of a succulent but has been cultivated for was in one of my organic, anti-plastic phases. Very cold climates! The dark foliage and rose aesthetic, but a big nuisance. I can’t leave them out to colored flowers that appear in late freeze & bust, and it’s very tedious to empty them all and summer will add a little color to the front store them. So I slid the small pots into the kitchen. And of your borders. I had Nick-Across-the-Road move the big ones in onto the kitchen table bench under the southeast window. The children who once occupied that bench seem to have grown up and moved to their own benches. I notice that the plants have even better manners. Do I ever get tired of having mostly one kind of bloom? Well, the volunteers sometimes revert to a pale salmon--not everyone’s favorite color. Some turn out to be orange--a color I much dislike. So I pull these out. Or NEXT MONTH RED COMPANION I’m going to pull them out as soon as I get around to it-- PLANTS...... though these unfortunately colored things happen to be particularly graceful plants right now. But let them get How to Build a RED leggy, and they’ll go. Some impatiens are a shade of red I WIGGLER WORM FARM specially love. Not bi-colored, but as the flower opens a While there are commercial products gold hue shimmers out from the center. Beautiful! And available I went for the homemade their abundance of bloom now is a healing power. one and so far so good! Some people Clouds of dark red mixed with some stray rose. White even keep a pail under the kitchen and purple with a few pink sprays spilling over by the sink BUT I AM NOT ONE of those breakfast table, almost as lively as the birds at the feeder. people…the back porch is close enough to take the pail I keep for my worm “food” and far enough that they aren’t IN the house….but to each As I prune my favorite colors, I save the cuttings and root them in glasses of water--which they do very readily. his/her own: And oddly enough they encourage any reluctant plant Supplies needed: cuttings placed in with them to root. When I first noticed 2 PLASTIC “TOTES” (plastic bin) with this, I thought I was imagining things, and consulted a lids (NOT CLEAR totes) good friend with a doctorate in botany. She said the 2-3 Bricks impatiens probably releases an enzyme that promotes Shredded newspapers rooting. Outdoors their seeds can endure a winter in A shovel or two of your yard dirt exposed shallow gravel paths and send up volunteers Drill and bits to make drainage and air next summer. They delight my sharp-eyed grand- holes daughter, Claire, age 8, who loves to find tiny translucent 150 or more “RED WIGGLER WORMS” frogs and minute seedlings in my garden that I am too usually available at bait shops gross to notice. So, no, I don’t tire of these generous, enterprising things. Take a lid and place it upside down where you are going to want to set When the equinox tips the year in the gardener’s your Worm Farm up. favor, and every sunny refuge becomes a hot spot, the impatiens flag. Their leaves turn whitish and drop. I pull Put bricks down on the lid so that the them all out. But it’s almost time for houseplants to “TOTE” will be raised off it a bit to migrate outdoors anyway. I can tell that the gardenia allow for drainage and air. and jasmine are plotting when to sneak into bloom. I get Nick-Across-the-Road to haul the ceramic pots outdoors. IN BOTH TOTES drill air holes around I poke around in the garden stores and gaze at flats of the upper half all the way around and tiny impatiens. But somehow there are impatiens drill LARGER holes in the bottom that popping up in my own pots--larger than the commercial will allow liquid to drain out and offerings. Maybe I’ll postpone the full Annual Spending worms to move from one bin to Spree and see what charmers come up at home, where another when one is filled with we are used to each other’s peculiar ways. Maybe they compost. won’t all be orange. My favorite cuttings already have thick, white roots--are even blooming, purple & red, in On the bottom of the first “TOTE” add their glasses of water. And tucked into one glass I see a a nice layer of worm bedding jasmine stalk rooting among the commoners. (shredded newspapers) add in a couple of shovels of dirt and add My Mom…the Worm Farmer worms. Add a little moisture and Amanda Jack Hotaling cover them up with the lid that you have drilled air holes into. They At almost 17, there are a lot of funny moments in our house worms will eat the newspapers as and my mom is usually the ring master. She doesn’t do well they get used to their new home. with “down time” so I guess I should have seen this all coming…. After about a week you can add some of the “garbage” you would normally The doctor said she couldn’t dig and bending over got her toss into the landfill ( I fed my worms dizzy so she grabbed some books and decided to get some after about 3 days with NO ill effect… reading done and maybe work on some articles for the although I did see one carrying a sign UPDATE. How much trouble could that possibly get us into? that read “I was pardoned from death by hook” Crazy…I know.

When you “feed” the worms just dig a small hole and put the material in I came home from school one day and she was excited to tell and cover it continue doing this until me she was going to be a …worm farmer! I stopped for a the bin fills up with rich castings THEN minute and asked “A WHAT?” She repeated, “ A WORM set the empty bin on top and add FARMER” I had heard it right the first time, I giggled and newspapers, dirt and start putting the turned back to making a snack….. A WORM farmer..geeze. food into the UPPER bin soon the worms will migrate up through the A few days later I came back from school and was excited to drainage holes and into the next bin see a brown paper bag on the table. I thought that mom had and the process will begin again! gone out and brought me back a snack! I asked her what was in the bag and she said “RED WIGGLERS” but I heard RED As Amanda has said they don’t have ROBIN and finished the jingle with “YUM”…. I grabbed out a fur and they don’t purr but they are container ripped it open and stared…Mom came around the truly a SERVICE PET, doing a great corner and said “RED WIGGLER WORMS…COOL EH?” Oh service for the Earth—moving it from yeah…cool. It was then that I noticed the electric drill was out place to place and leaving behind and before I could ask she announced it was time to add the castings that will nourish our plants. worms to their new composting home…the RED WIGGLER We also cut back on the WORM FARM she built while I was at school. Disappointed environmental footprint by reducing that it wasn’t a ready- made snack, I went out to the porch trash going to the landfill! with her to add our new little charges to their new home.

Cherry Blossoms and Poison Ivy? I prefer my pet with furr and if they purr, all the better but Heather Hotaling worms on the porch? We do these crazy things sometimes, all done with a ceremony or at least a corny line or two….we Early April brought in the famous have bought and released lady bugs and butterflies, planted Cherry Blossom Festival in special plants to attract hummingbirds and bees… so I figured Washington DC! What a sight to see! there must be some logic or lesson in all this too. NO ONE It was a girls weekend for my mom, could possibly be so bored to watch worms just for fun! Grace, Amanda Jack and I and we were ready… it is a sure sign of The worms were in their new home and I returned to the spring! Meanwhile, it was Dave’s kitchen to get my snack and noticed a sign and a container weekend off but he was on a mission- under it stating that the RED WIGGLER FARM WORMS would to clean out the overgrown brush in appreciate vegetable scraps cut up…hold the onion, fruit the “tax ditch” that runs behind the peels and cores (not fond of oranges but they love banana) huge border garden and make it look tea bags, coffee grounds and filters, paper towels, napkins, neater. He was also given the position newspapers, rice…. Under it in big letters, NO MEAT, OIL or to watch over Tori, the kitten who is GREASE! Healthy worms! the world’s most spoiled rescue kitty! Mom has always had this thing for worms so I guess this A timeline of the famous Cherry shouldn’t have really surprised me but I don’t always see the Blossom Festival: best in them---unless they are on the end of my fishing hook when I go fishing with Uncle George or Geoff! Mom was The plantings of cherry trees originated in quick to point out that they were not just a fishing staple but 1912 as gift of friendship to the United States from the people of Japan. In Japan a garden staple and the important work they did with our soil. the flowering cherry tree or "Sakura", as it is Our little worm farm has 150 red wrigglers and they will called by the Japanese people, is one of the reproduce as needed based on their food supply. We have most exalted flowering plants. The beauty of the cherry blossom is a potent symbol been putting in our trash according to the list and have saved equated with evanescence of human life at least 1 trash bag every week from going to the landfill. and epitomizes the transformations Japanese Culture has undergone through the ages. We went to the Philly Flower Show and one of the displays had a GREEN ROOF so of course after she took the course at In late 1909, the first gift of Cherry trees Longwood Gardens on Green Roofs she had to check it out in were sent, but inspections showed the trees person, she looked around a bit more and found a display on to be diseased and they were immediately burned to prevent the disease to be spread. Vermiculture…..worm farming and accessories! Japan was determined to make the gift and did so again in 1912. Since we started our little worm farm, our stringy little worms 1912: February 14, 3,020 cherry trees of have gotten a lot fatter and I do feel better putting household 12 varieties were shipped from garbage in a place where it can be reused and the product is Yokohama on board the S.S. Awa Maru, something that we can use in the garden. When guests come bound for Seattle. Upon arrival, they were to the garden I will be able to show them how to make a low transferred to insulated freight cars for the shipment to Washington. cost version of a worm farm that will give them the idea and will be able to show others the importance of recycling and 1913 - 1920: Workmen continued the reusing to save Mother Earth. Stewards of the Earth, a job planting of Yoshino trees around the someone has to do. Tidal Basin. The cherry trees of the other 11 varieties and the remaining Yoshino trees were planted in East Potomac Park. I see the logic and it isn’t SUCH a CRAZY thing, but I am thinking she is going to need way more worm farms to over all our gardens….but I’m not going to bring THAT UP! That 1927: April 16, the original planting of would be CRAZY! Now, all I have to do is keep her from Japanese cherry trees was commemorated by a re-enactment of the bending down every few minutes to pick up a worm and event by Washington school children. move it out of the way of the shovel and to turn it over and study it----then we will get a whole lot more done! 1934: The District of Columbia Commissioners sponsored a three-day celebration.

1935: The first "Cherry Blossom Festival" was jointly sponsored by many civic groups and became an annual event in subsequent years.

1938: So beloved were the trees that a group of indignant women vowed to chain themselves to the cherries to defy How to Interpret Daylily Catalog Lingo workmen clearing ground for the (Adapted with permission from the works of A. W. Jefferson Memorial. A compromise was reached: More trees would be planted Shucks, AHS Region 15.) along the water to frame the memorial on the south side of the Tidal Basin. Low branched -- A scape on which all the flowers 1940: Cherry Blossom Pageant was remain well down in the foliage. introduced Sunfast -- May be better than most but still is not. 1941: December 11, four Cherry trees were cut down in what was speculated as Proven Heritage -- Only the pod parent is known. retaliation for the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, although the exact reason Garden Classic -- Flower looks like HYPERION. for the vandalism was never substantiated. In hopes of preventing Takes the wind easily -- Wind will bend its weak future vandalism, for the duration of the scapes over into the foliage. war, the trees were referred to as the "Oriental" flowering cherries.

1948: Cherry Blossom Princesses were selected from every State of the Union and the Territories. From these Always stops visitors in the garden -- princesses, a queen was chosen to reign The aforementioned weak scapes will fall into the pathway as well, blocking it. during the festival. Floriferous -- Blooms out quickly. 1952: The famed cherry grove along the Arakawa River near Tokyo that was the Nocturnal -- Opens at night and wilts before dawn. parent stock for Washington's first trees fell into decline during World War II. My best so far -- All his previous introductions were Japan requested help in restoring the grove in the Adachi Ward, and the ego trips and unworthy. National Park Service shipped budwood from descendants of those same trees Bluish --This is like the terms 'lemony' and back to Tokyo in an effort to restore the 'chocolatey', which of course have nothing to do with original site. the real thing. 1954: March 30, Sadao Iguchi, the Other variations include 'hint of blue', 'blue sheen', Japanese Ambassador to the United or 'overwashed blue'. States presented a 300-year-old In any case, all blue daylilies to date are lavender, Japanese Stone Lantern to the city of Washington to commemorate the 100th and the first true blue daylily will not sell for less anniversary of the first Treaty of Peace, than $1,000. Amity and Commerce between the Of course, by then, all the blue names will have been United States and Japan signed by Commodore Mathew Perry at Yokohama used. on March 31, 1854. The lantern, made of granite, is 8 feet high and weighs 20 tons. Semi-evergreen -- This sells better than it would if The National Cherry Blossom Festival is registered correctly as a dormant or evergreen. If officially opened by the lighting of the Lantern. you live in the South, plant will prove to be dormant and vice versa. 1957: Mr. Yositaka Mikimoto, President of Mikimoto Pearls, Inc., donated the Attracts many garden visitors -- like aphids, thrips, Mikimoto Pearl Crown that is used at the mites, and Japanese beetles. coronation of the National Cherry Blossom Festival Queen on the night of Very heavy substance -- The blooms are too stiff to the Grand Ball. The crown was constructed with over two pounds of gold open fully. and has 1,585 pearls. This magnificent crown is ceremonial, and because of its Reminiscent of a Tetraploid -- Both of its parents weight, the young lady who is crowned were induced Tets. Queen, will wear the famous piece for a few brief moments. She is given a Produces up to 30 buds when established -- miniature crown of gold, with a pearl This is clump bud count. Divide by the number of topping each point, to wear for the remainder of the evening and to keep as scapes to derive true bud count. hers, forever after. Prefers filtered shade -- Dies in the sun. 1958: April 18, the Japanese Pagoda, hewn out of rough stone, was placed on Single fans only -- You will probably get only a the west bank of the Tidal Basin near the proliferation. Jefferson Memorial and dedicated. It was presented as a gift to the City of Going fast -- This means it is susceptible to crown rot Washington, D.C., by the Mayor of and does not have long to live. Yokohama to "symbolize the spirit of friendship between the United States of HM 1990 -- Hybridizer swaps with friends in other America manifested in the Treaty of Peace, Amity and Commerce signed at regions, who happen to be judges. Yokohama on March 31, 1854...." Very near white -- Gray. 1965: The Japanese Government made another generous gift of 3,800 Yoshino A garden standout -- Either its scapes are 54 inches trees to another First Lady devoted to the tall or its color combination is ghastly. beautification of Washington, Lady Bird Johnson, wife of President Lyndon Sometimes blooms double -- Occasionally has two Johnson. American-grown this time, many of these are planted on the blooms open at the same time. grounds of the Washington Monument. Lady Bird Johnson and Mrs. Ryuji Disease resistant -- The cultivar is only one Takeuchi, wife of Japan's Ambassador, generation removed from species. reenacted the planting ceremony of 1912. Wax-like blooms -- Blooms will melt in sun like a candle in the heat.

1982: Approximately 800 cuttings from May benefit from mulch -- Tender and would not the Yoshino trees at the Tidal Basin were survive north of Miami Beach. collected by Japanese horticulturists to retain the genetic characteristics of their Midseason bloomer -- Will bloom either the day trees and replace trees destroyed in Japan when the course of a river was before or the day after your local daylily show or changed. Other exchanges and gifts tour. have benefited both cities. Through this cycle of giving, the cherry trees have Ample bud count -- Low bud count. fulfilled their role as a symbol and an agent of friendship. Round and ruffled -- Sepals cannot be seen behind the wide petals. 1986 to 1988: A total of 676 new cherry trees were planted at a cost of over Often reblooms -- Will probably live to see another $101,000 in private funds donated to the National Park Service to restore the season. number of trees to what they were at the time of the original gift. Ideal for edging -- Looks like liriope or needs mass planting to offset low bud count. 1994: The Cherry Blossom Festival was expanded from one week to two weeks. Fragrant -- Was planted near a rose or oriental lily.

1997: June 17, In cooperation with the Fall delivery -- Seller wishes to use your pollen, your United States National Arboretum, proliferations, and your plant's increase for one more cuttings were taken from the documented surviving Yoshino cherry trees from the growing season, while he also uses your money and 1912 shipment to ensure preservation of the interest it earns. the Trees' Genetic Lineage. The trees will be grown on and used in replacement JC 1998 -- Hybridizer had ten friends, who happened plantings to preserve the genetic heritage to be judges, visit his garden. of the grove. Limited supply -- Hybridizer gave everything to 1999: November 15, Fifty trees propagated from the 1400+ year old friends, who happened to be judges. "Usuzumi" Cherry growing in the village of Itasho Neo, in Gifu Prefecture of $100 -- This is cost, not value. Divide cost by number Japan, were planted in West Potomac of digits to obtain value. Park. It is said that the 26th Emporer Keitai of Japan planted the tree 1500 Sold Out -- This plant probably doesn't even exist. years ago to celebrate his ascension to Often used to reserve a name permanently. the throne. The "Usuzumi" tree was declared a National Treasure of Japan in 1922. Bonus plant -- The dog that didn't sell last year.

2002 - 2006: Four hundred trees propagated from the surviving trees from the 1912 donation from Japan were planted to ensure that the genetic lineage of the original trees is preserved.

We came back home savoring the Cherry Blossoms and with hope that Spring was officially here. We arrived home to find Dave hard at work in the ditch and while Amanda went in to unpack and get some school work done, mom and I went about helping Dave load the trailer full of current vines, tree branches, sticker bushes and yes, as it turned out a variety of poison ivy we didn’t recognize! This isn’t the three shiny leave stuff—although that lives there too… but a more aggressive ivy that is extremely nasty.

Within days the three of us were covered in that famous pink lotion and trying not to scratch! Grace was so bad she went to urgent care as her face was so swollen. Dave vowed to get that ditch cleaned out no matter what---but wanted to wait until he returned from Florida to get it…..but I decided I was already miserable, itchy and PINK so I had nothing to lose by venturing back over there and hitting it with poison! A lucky weather break of 80 degree temperatures found me out there with my safety goggles, my air mask, rubber gloves, and clothes covering everything and my trusty sprayer filled with what promised to kill this unwanted enemy. I came back in quite satisfied that I was saving us from a particularly evil garden guest that simply is not wanted. I immediately took off the “contaminated” clothing and set them to wash in hot water and vinegar, sponged off with enough vinegar to make a years worth of salads, followed that with a hot shower and I got dressed again and returned to do battle with the chickweed in the Siloam bed —pleased that our itching days were limited!

A few days later, Dave gets a call with me being a total whiner---I couldn’t walk as the poison ivy was on both legs was red and itchy and moving hurt, there were places I just couldn’t reach to put the ugly pink lotion… ever patient and (amused) I’m sure he ran a bath for me with that famous oatmeal additive, and helped me spread pink lotion and drying powder on those hard to reach spots. He made me a cup of tea and handed me some great garden books and set about his day---sure I was about to curl up and take a nap. About an hour later, I was up and outside…headed to the nursery to get more plants and to talk to the old farmers about how to win the battle with the plant I now consider enemy number 1!