Newsletter Cochise County Master Gardener High on the Desert

Vol. 13, No. 5 MAY 2002 The University of Arizona and U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperating

Inside this issue: Potting Up Aquatics or round styles. They have to be lined with untreated burlap. This has to be done Cuttings ‘N’ Clippings 2

Renewal Notice 3 For the water garden it is best to keep to keep in the soil, but eventually the plants in submerged containers. Planted in roots will find their way into the pond. The Virtual Gardener 3 the bottom soil, most aquatics would This makes them unattractive to me. I May Reminders 3 personally prefer containers without either take over the pond or get choked Wildlife Habitat Garden 4 out by more aggressive species. Container holes. For the water gardener who keeps a Agent’s Observations 5 planting allows plants to be easily moved “clean pond,” few nutrients are available and confines invasive species. This to the wandering roots of an aquatic plant Bisbee Farmer’s Market 6 month’s topic is how to pot up aquatic outside of its container. Consider that if a plants. pond is free enough of excess nutrients to prevent the growth of green water algae, There are several types of aquatic pots how many nutrients can be present for available. Keep in mind the most impor- higher plant forms? tant goal is to confine the soil because spilled soil will dirty your pool and give Most aquatic plants such as water lilies nutrients to the algae. The mesh-type or marginal plants grow from water- containers are called “laundry baskets.” saturated soil from which they get their

These containers are available in square (Continued on page 2)

Cochise County Cooperative Extension www.ag.arizona.edu/cochise/mg/ 1140 N. Colombo, Sierra Vista, AZ 85635 450 Haskell, Willcox, AZ 85643 (520) 458-8278, Ext. 2141 (520) 384-3594 P AGE 2

(Continued from page 1) and functions as a biological filter Cuttings because it gives the nitrifying food. They need to be fertilized bacteria a place to hold on to. In case ‘N’ with special pond fertilizer tabs. you have fish, especially Koi, it These are available in aquatic helps to prevent uprooting. The Clippings shops or some hardware stores. bigger the fish, the coarser the T Saturday, May 4 from 9:00— Standard terrestrial pots with gravel. After potting and before 10:00 a.m. a free Water Wise drainage holes can be used, but placing the pot in the pool, wet down Workshop will be held at the the holes in the bottom should be the soil to remove all air and to avoid University of Arizona South called plugged up with stones, untreated “bubbling out.” It is advised to place When Do I Water? burlap, or pond liner. That keeps the pot into the pond gently. Water soil and fertilizer contained. lilies can be placed on the bottom of T Also on May 4 from 9:00— Using black or dark green the pond. Marginals do better with 1:00 p.m. a self-guided low water containers lessens their visibility. no more than one or two inches of landscape Xeriscape Tour will be Since most aquatics are shallow water over the crown. Once a year held sponsored by the Cochise rooting plants, select wide the plant should come out of the County Master Gardeners and mouthed containers that are pond and the soil should be renewed Water Wise. Call the Cooperative wider than they are deep. and fertilizer added. You will see Extension Office for a map. This is after one year the soil is black mud also a free activity and open to the The most commonly recom- and smelly. Also water plants grow public. mended soil for planting aquatics fast and need to be divided. Have fun is “heavy garden loam.” This with your water garden. T Cochise County Master Gar- term can mean different things in deners will meet May 8 from 5:00- various parts of the country. Here 7:00 p.m. at the Sierra Vista our heavy clay mixed with Library. builders sand is just right. Do not ever use potting mix as it is too T The Bisbee Bloomers will light and full of nutrients. Being hold a garden tour on Saturday, light, it can float out the pot and May 11 beginning with a 9:00 a.m. having nutrients it will feed the lecture on butterfly gardening at 47 algae and cloud the water. Fill Wood Canyon. At 10:00 a.m. a some of your loam mixture into self-guided tour of 9 gardens in your pot, place your fertilizer Old Bisbee, Warren, and San Jose tabs, add some more loam, then will begin. Maps are available for a place your plant and give it some small fee from the Bisbee C of C, more loam. Now add a layer of the Southeastern AZ Bird Observa- sand, about an inch, and finish it Plant of the month: HORSETAIL – tory, or by calling 432-8073. off with gravel. The gravel Equisetum hyemale should be river rock and needs to A native species here in Arizona. It T The June 1 Water Wise be washed well. The gravel keeps can be grown inside or outside the workshop is Lawn-B-Gone and the soil and the plant in the pot pond. Keep in mind outside the pond Native Grasses with Jim Koweek it is very invasive and it can take of Diamond JK Nursery, Sonoita, over your garden. It can take some AZ. The free workshop takes place drought and is very difficult to get at the University of Arizona South, rid of. It is better confined to a pot. 1140 N. Colombo, Sierra Vista at The hollow stems are green with 9:00 a.m.

black bands that give it a bamboo- Robert E. Call like appearance. Extension Agent, Horticulture Angel Rutherford, Master Gardener Carolyn Gruenhagen Editor P AGE 3 • NOTICE • This will be your last Cochise County Master Gardener Newsletter unless you have completed and forwarded an update form to the Willcox or Sierra Vista Cooperative Extension Offices by the end of May 2002. Call the Willcox or Sierra Vista office for information. You may also sign up electronically on our Web Site: www.ag.arizona. edu/cochise/mg/

The Virtual Gardener—A Rose by Any Other Name As everyone knows, most plants The names themselves are usually ing materials and money. John C. have both a common name and a derived from Latin or Greek roots or Fremont visited him to learn about scientific one. The scientific names are are Latinized versions of words from plant collecting before embarking on preferred by botanists because unlike other languages. Sometimes the names his western explorations. He botan- common names they uniquely identify are purely descriptive and sometimes ized with Charles Parry in Colorado a plant and are part of a large classifi- they are based on the names of people and with Asa Gray in Virginia. His cation system that shows family (often the botanist who discovered the association with the Englishman relationships between plants. Many new plant). Henry Shaw, who resided in St. Louis people are put off by the scientific and dreamed of building a Kew names because they are unfamiliar and Michael Charters, an amateur Gardens in the New World, resulted in are sometimes difficult to pronounce. botanist from California, has put Shaw's Garden, now world famous as It somehow seems easier to say together a Web site (http://www. the Missouri Botanical Garden. “mesquite” (now there’s a nice Anglo- calflora.net/botanicalnames/index. Saxon name for you!) than Prosopis html) containing an extensive list of Palmer Agave (Agave palmeri) glandulosa or “Prickly Pear” rather the names and meanings of plants of Named after Edward Palmer (1831- than Opuntia phaeacantha. What you Southern California. Since Southern 1911), an Englishman who spent his may not know, however is that there is California and Southern Arizona have adult life in the United States explor- a rich and interesting history behind many native plants in common, ing and collecting more than 10,000 many of the scientific names. Michael’s list provides a resource for plants from Florida, the Southwest, us as well. His brief biographical Mexico, South America and the Before we discuss some of those sketches of the botanists whose names islands off Baja California. He was a interesting names, we need to briefly have become immortalized as plant botanist, employed by the Department talk about how plants get those names names are particularly interesting. of Agriculture, who led the expedition in the first place. The scientific naming Here is a sampling. in 1891 to collect samples of exotic system we use today was developed flora and fauna across a large part of during the 18th century by the Swedish Apache Pine (Pinus engelmannii): California and Death Valley espe- botanist Linnaeus who developed a Named after George Engelmann system that gave every plant two (1809-1884), a German-born St. Louis (Continued on back page ) names a genus name and a species physician and botanist, and prolific name. You might think of the species author on cacti, North American name as the given name of the plant conifers and oaks. Like many other May Reminders and the genus name as the family famous botanical explorers and name. The botanist who first publishes collectors, he began his career in the description of a newly discovered medicine, but soon was spending more Þ Deep water plant has the honor of naming it. If the time with his plants. He became a Þ Plant warm-season crops plant fits into an existing genus, the conduit between plant collectors in the Þ Check tree ties botanist can only invent a species West and professors John Torrey and Þ Control pests name. Otherwise the botanist can Asa Gray in the East. He sent out Control weeds invent both a new genus and a new fellow Germans like Augustus Fendler Þ species name. to explore little known western (The bulletin Controlling regions, supplying them with collect- Weeds—is available from the Cooperative Extension Offices.) P AGE 4 Creating a Wildlife Habitat Garden—Basic Design Ideas

Last month I stated that the best provide berries, fruits, seeds, cides – they kill insects that approach to a habitat garden is nuts, nectar, and will attract attract wildlife to the garden in DIVERSITY. The more types of insects from spring until fall. the first place. A beautiful foods and habitat niches you can · What! Attract insects to the habitat garden can and should be provide, the more animals you can garden? YES! Birds consume had without the use of pesticides. attract. Currently our habitat insects for their protein needs. Too much neatness and tidiness garden yard list consists of 46 Insects are especially important may actually make your garden species of birds and 57 species of for nesting birds to feed their less attractive to wildlife. So butterflies in addition to lizards, young. have a ball and let the garden get toads, snakes, rabbits, dragonflies, · Remember that it’s not necessary a little “wild!” bees, spiders, bats, turtles, ants, to install a habitat garden all at moths, squirrels, and other assorted once. Take it slow and plant one Next time: Basic #1—Water insects. area at a time. · You may want to only create a Here is this month’s homework: habitat garden in the back of the · Find out which wildlife species garden to allow it to be more are in your area and which “messy.” Closer to the home the plants they use for food garden can be more formal and sources. There are regional the use of decorative rock mre plant differences which can liberal. determine how well they will · Deep rock mulches can be a thrive in your garden. problem for wildlife. They are · Evaluate your garden style or hot, difficult to walk on, and GM preference (formal vs. infor- seeds and insects can “escape” mal) and decide how much into the gravel. If you can, time you want to spend provide a space using “living Cheri’s “What To-Do” maintaining the garden. An mulches.” When designing a List informal garden will be easier garden place plants so at matur- May in the High Desert is to care for than a formal one. ity they will create their own Garden may chores include: “shade mulch.” This requires usually windy, hot, and dry.

Watering planting a natural garden so Keep working on irrigation Mulching & Weeding plants will grow into each other · systems. Deadheading annual for con- ever so slightly but not so much It’s a good time to use your tin uous bloom that unnecessary pruning is · garden map to fine tune the Tip pruning larval food plants required. The ratio of the mature hydro-zones. For more info to produce new leaves for caterpil- garden would be enough plants see the November 2000 lar food to cover ½ to ¾ of the ground newsletter issue. Early spring mowing of habitat space as opposed to the wide The insects are here! Nest- wildflower and grass meadows expanses of gravelscapes with a · ing birds will begin con- plant here and there so often seen suming less seeds sources Using your map decide where you today. Use native grasses and and switch to eating and want to create, add, or retro-fit wildflowers to fill in the spaces feeding their young protein habitat niches: between plants. This also allows rich insects. · Begin researching what plants plants to fertilize themselves Be sure you are irrigating you want to add to the garden. with fallen leaves and dead plant · the garden to the correct Select and group plants into debris. rooting depths. For more plant communities (thickets) info see the December according to water require- REMEMBER! 2000 newsletter issue. ments. Use wildflowers, The balance of nature will take care shrubs, and trees that will of itself - reduce the use of pesti- P AGE 5 The Agent’s Observations I planted some poplar trees will regrow from crowns and/or last year and want to plant roots. Freeze incidents will occur Q some more. I know they use from time to time causing plant quite a bit of water but are damage. Saguaros grown in fast growing and I like the shade they Cochise County as ornamentals are provide. My neighbor claims that the a good example. The constrictions roots of poplar trees will invade the that you observe on the trunk and city water line and cause it to break. arms of the saguaros were usually Is that true? caused by freezing temperatures that cause growing points cells to Poplar trees, as well as die. Prune back all of the dead cottonwood and willow stems and branches on the affected A trees, are native to rivers, plants to the new growth. streams and washes in May in Southeastern Arizona. Arizona. They require a lot In previous years my During June in other parts of the of water for good growth. Root apple and peach trees nation fruit abortion occurs and is invasion of sewer lines, septic leach Q have produced large called “June drop.” For a full crop lines or irrigation pipes that have amounts of small fruit. of apples and pears only 10-20% of water in them intermittently does How can I produce larger the fruit needs to mature; for occur. I have not heard or seen tree fruit? peaches or nectarines only 5-10%. roots plugging up constantly pressur- To thin apples and pears use ized municipal waterlines that are Most fruit trees produce scissors to cut off or fingernails to properly constructed. more flowers, which if pinch off excessive fruit at the A properly pollinated, will stem. For peaches and nectarines Some of the plants in my produce more fruit than use a “Kentucky Bumper.” This is yard have brown leaves and the tree can mature. Cell a broom stick with a piece of split are dried out. Will my ash, division within the fruit occurs for garden hose attached at the end. Q fig trees, and oleander only two to six weeks, depending Wiggle the hose around the fruit. recover from this damage? on variety, and then cell division Fruit will rain down! Finish What caused it? stops. Cells enlarge over the rest of thinning by hand to achieve proper the growing season, usually two to spacing. Thin so that one or two Yes, they should recover. five months depending on variety. fruit are spaced about six to eight The damage you see is from Think of the fruit as a “package of inches apart on branches. Generally A cold damage. The damage cells.” By thinning fruit during the it takes 30-40 leaves to produce could have occurred during cell division period there are fewer enough photosynthate (food) to the winter or the early fruit but more cells per “fruit mature a fruit. Thinning is not spring. During freezing temperatures package.” Tree leaves can only practiced on almonds or other nut the new tender leave tissue is dam- manufacture enough food to trees, apricots, cherries, figs, or aged, turns brown and dies. New produce a certain number of fruit plums, however they will experi- leaves will grow from secondary cells. The question becomes one of ence “June drop.” buds. During the summer they will having a lot of small “packages” or look normal. Plants that took hard fewer large “packages.” Fruit and Robert E Call freezes like your fig and oleander nut trees will abort excess fruit in Extension Agent, Horticulture

Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture, James A. Christenson, Director, Cooperative Extension, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, The Univ ersity of Arizona and Arizona Counties cooperating. The University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is an equal opportunity employer authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function without regard to sex, race, religion, color, national origin, age, Vietnam Era Veteran’s status, or disability. The information given herein is supplied with the understanding that no discrimination is intended and no endorsement by Cooperative Extension is implied. Any products, services, or organizations that are mentioned, shown, or indirectly implied in this publication do not imply endorsement by the University of ARIZONA COOPERATIVE EXTENSION U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE PRSRT STD Cochise County POSTAGE & FEES PAID 450 S. Haskell Avenue USDA Willcox, AZ 85643-2790 PERMIT NO. G268 OFFICIA L BUSINESS PENALTY FOR PRIVATE USE $300

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(Continued from page 3) Edward Palmer, John G. Lemmon, naturalist. He was not popular with cially. He suffered personal and and Sir Joseph Hooker, son of those he associated with, and he professional tragedies such as the William Hooker and like his father died at the early age of 44 after death of his young bride from yellow the Director of Kew Gardens in enduring a wet winter trapped in a fever, and the losses of several of his London. He was a member of both forest of giant fallen redwoods. collections. After his death his field the Mexican Boundary Survey and notes sat neglected on a shelf for more the Pacific Railway Survey, but he Until next time, happy surfing. than fifty years. He did however have was better at discovering new two hundred species named after him, species than at describing them. Gary A. Gruenhagen, Master Gardener and Professor Asa Gray named a One of his most beautiful finds [email protected] genus, Palmerella, after him. was Lilium parryi, the lemon

Parry Agave (Agave parryi) Named lily. Few American botanists for Dr. Charles Christopher Parry have covered as much and as (1823-1890), an English-born Ameri- many different areas as he did. can botanist and botanical collector Bisbee Farmer’s with the Pacific Railway Survey who Autumn Sage (Salvia greggii) visited the Southwestern mountains Named after Josiah Gregg (1806- Market and deserts many times and is reme m- 1850), frontier trader and author, bered in the names of more than a who sent many specimens to Dr. score of California native plants. Beginning May 4, 2002 an old- George Engelman in St. Louis from During his long career, he became the fashioned Farmer’s Market will little known areas of the southwest. trusted colleague of many major be held in the Warren District’s In 1849 he traveled to the north- naturalists such as John Torrey, Asa western corner of California where Vista Park, Bisbee, on Saturday Gray, George Engelmann, John Muir, he hoped to find gold, and continued mornings from 7:30—11:30 a.m. Charles Wright, Edward Green, his somewhat erratic quests as a