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Home , Erythronium americanum, Erythronium umbilicatum, Weeder

The Gardener’s Dirt

Johnston County Center APRIL 2014

Shawn Banks Feature Extension Agent Agriculture - Cool ? Consumer Horticulture By Joanne King

Inside This Issue Here are some suggestions for working handy when digging where roots may smart in the garden. Many gardeners need to be removed or when Feature Article...... 1 consider some of these to be “must transplanting and small shrubs. haves” based on their functionality and (Photo: agriculturesolutions.com) Feature ...... 2 ease of use. Others are just plain cool! Upcoming Events.... 3 The photos are representative of the Mid length tools for raised beds: products which are carried by various Raised bed gardening has become very Be Creative/Native 4 manufacturers at garden supply stores popular and and online. because of this, Yard Villain ...... 5 makers Folding pruning saw: Pruning saws have started What’s in Season..... 5 are handy saws for smaller jobs cutting making mid- branches up sized tools. Garden Tasks ...... 7 to 4 inches in Hand tools are diameter. too short, and The folding long handled Contact Us mechanism rakes and secures the are Johnston County Cooperative Extension blade in its awkward. 2736 NC Hwy 210 own sheath Mid-length tools Smithfield, NC 27577 for protection when not in use. You can enable you to reach across your bed (919) 989-5380 Phone (919) 934-2698 Fax carry it in your pocket and not hurt and are a more comfortable size. Here johnston.ces.ncsu.edu yourself. Of course, once it is extended are two from raisedbeds.com. One is a be careful. It is very sharp and is two-in-one and , the designed for proper contact with the other is a . (Photo: Distributed in furtherance of wood, making a clean pruning cut. raisedbeds.com) the acts of Congress of May 8 and June 30, 1914. North (Photo: iskars.com) Carolina State University and Angle hand weeder: The angle hand A&T State Hand pick: The pick is great when weeder University commit themselves you need to dig in hard features a to positive action to secure equal opportunity regardless or rocky soil. With serrated blade of race, color, creed, national sharp tines on one side on one side for origin, religion, sex, age, and an shaped pulling grass veteran status or disability. In addition, the two Universities blade on the other, the and weeds, a welcome all persons without pick axe is built for the hook on the regard to sexual orientation. tough stuff. It is also end for pulling North Carolina State University, North Carolina A&T State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and local governments cooperating. weeds in patio and driveway cracks and a forked family from Asia are rapidly growing in popularity end for prying up tap rooted weeds. And for the and in the number of selections available in local left handed gardeners, here is a tool that is nurseries. available in a left-hand version. Why grow epimediums? First, for the unique Seven-in-One Garden Multi-Tool: A trowel-like spring bloom! Ranging from the small, rose-pink that truly multitasks. It serves as a lowers of E. ‘Roseum’ up to the large, reddish- trowel or transplanter, has a serrated edge for purple blooms of Epimedium grandilorum ‘Red mulching or opening Queen’, the columbine or orchid-like lowers are plastic bags, a ethereally suspended from arching stalks. The sharpened straight spikes may be short with few lowers, or up to 3 edge for cutting sod feet long with a profusion of the “cups with spurs” and notches along the along its length. The stalks begin emerging from blade that serve as a the ground with E. ‘Pink Elf’ at Plant Delights twine cutter. The Nursery in early March. The lowering stalks handle end is strong hover and dance in the breeze for as long as a enough to use as a month, with most common varieties blooming small mallet. Is that through April. A few specimens, such as E. 'Sunny seven? (Photo: amazon.com) and Share' and ‘Spritzer’ may even bloom sporadically through the summer! Bloom color Plant Nanny: Not really a tool, but cool varies widely; white, yellow, pink, or purple with nonetheless, the Plant Nanny waters your plants varying shades, tints and combinations, such as when you can’t. People have devised other the raspberry-spurred, yellow cup of E.x omeiense methods that reuse liter soda bottles but this 'Akame'. One of the more spectacular is E. 'Amber product is easy to use and attractive in patio pots, Queen', topped in April and May with 2' long especially if you use a pretty colored wine bottle. spikes adorned with abundant bright yellow, Ceramic stakes are spider-like lowers tipped with orange-red. Wow! designed to release water into the soil via a reservoir The second reason to grow fairy wings is the held in an inverted wine or foliage! may be edged, speckled, mottled, plastic bottle. The inverted netted; chocolate, red, bright green, chartreuse; bottle attaches to the stake heart, ear, or arrow- shaped; mahonia-like or which is inserted in the delicate; new foliage in one color that matures to planter. The stakes, which another. If the lower color choices don’t tempt are 5 inches long, release you, the foliage will! Even E. x versicolor water directly into the soil. 'Sulphureum', a very common cultivar, has lovely, Two sizes are available, for either wine bottles or elegant two-toned yellow blooms and surprising, plastic soda bottles, to it the openings of either stunning foliage of reddish-brown netted with bottle. (Photo: plantbuddy.com) FEATURE PLANT

Fairy Wings, Bishop’s Hat Epimedium spp. By Margy Pearl

Do you have fairy wings? If your irst thought is about old Halloween costumes, you may be missing out on an aptly named and amazingly varied group of shade perennials! Beautiful and hardy, these woodland wonders of the Barberry green veins. In fact, the entire group of x versicolor has an outstanding variety of foliage and lower choices! Many cultivars are Where to Purchase Epimediums: evergreen,while others are completely deciduous. Plant Delights, Raleigh; Big Bloomers, Sanford; But, especially with this year’s bitterly cold winter, Hudson’s Hardware, Clayton the old foliage should be removed before the new Possibly: Campbell Road Nursery, Logan’s Trading lower spikes, then the foliage, emerges. After Company, Homewood Nursery, or Atlantic Avenue cutting back the old foliage and before the spikes Nursery, Raleigh and Garden Hut, Fuquay-Varina appear, the plant will beneit from a light ( call to check, not on website). application of mold or compost.

Third reason to plant epimedium? It’s so easy to grow! It’s a rhizome that will eventually spread to UPCOMING EVENTS form a clump, either dense or loose, depending on the variety. One of its best uses is as a ground All Bugs Good and Bad Webinar - Friday, April 4, cover, or living mulch, under trees. While 2014 at 2pm. Dr. Thomas N. Mather, Professor & generally drought tolerant, most specimens will Director, Center for Vector-Borne Disease and fare better in part sun to light shade with a rich, TickEncounter Resource Center, University of organic, moisture -retentive soil. Ph should be Rhode Island will be our presenter, covering a about 6.2-6.5. Be careful of E. grandilorum wide range of things you need to know about cultivars; they do not do well in alkaline soils. Old, keeping yourself safe from ticks this summer. To reliable E. x versicolor 'Sulphureum' is one of the join the webinar visit https://learn.extension.org/ few specimens that enjoy deep shade and very dry events/1381. conditions, competing successfully with more aggressive tree roots. Also, especially hardy in Southern Ideal Home Show - April 11-13, 2014 very dry sites are Epimedium x rubrum, E. x at the State Fair Grounds in Raleigh, NC. Master warleyense, E. x perralchicum, E. x versicolor and Gardeners will be there to answer questions and Epimedium pinnatum ssp. colchicum. do presentations on gardening topics. Shawn will be doing a presentation about pruning on Friday, Are deer a problem for you? Me, too! Epimediums April 11. For more information about the show are highly deer resistant. That’s a great fourth including prices visit https:// reason to include these beauties in your shade www.southernshows.com/hsr/. garden! Plant Sale-A-Bration -Saturday, April 12, 2014 Other common names for epimedium are 9:00am - 2:00pm at Johnston Community College barrenwort, which refers to the plant's use in in Smithield, NC. The Master Gardeners will have herbal medicine for fertility, and horny goat weed. a table set up to answer gardening questions and I’ll leave that explanation to your imagination; talk with people about soil testing. We will also which brings me have a section where we will be selling grafted to propagation tomatoes for $4.00 each. These tomatoes are and the last reason grafted onto a rootstock that is resistant to almost to grow all soil dwelling diseases. If you've had trouble epimedium! with tomatoes wilting in the garden in the past try Propagation by one or two of these grafted tomatoes to see if they division is fairly will produce better for you.For more information, easy and it works! contact Minda Daughtry, (919) 209-2184. After lowering, make sure you cut Clayton Farmer's Market - Saturday, April 26, off a large piece of 2014. Master Gardeners will have a table set up to rhizome, leave two answer gardening questions and talk to people thirds of the about soil testing and soil test results. foliage on the rhizome and trim the roots to 4-5”. Plant, water when needed, enjoy, and let me know when you have enough to trade! lavender-brown in E. umbilicatum, yellow in Be Creave, Go Nave! americanum, though this is not always a reliable characteristic. Flowering Season: One of the early spring April Native Plant of the Month is: wildlowers. Bloom time is earlier in E. americanum umbilicatum(late February- April) than the Yellow trout-lily, American trout-lily, Dog-tooth American (late March-April). violet, Eastern trout-lily, Fawn lily, Site: Moist, well-drained, humus soil; partial Erythronium umbilicatum shade to shade; rich woods and bottomlands from Dimpled Trout Lily, Dog-tooth violet, Serpent's New Brunswick to and westwards to Tongue, Adder’s Tongue Ontario and Arkansas. Plant Erythronium by: Margy Pearl where they will receive ample sunlight in March and April, but progressively more shade later on. Seen as early as February at the North Carolina Mulch with a light layer of fallen leaves in autumn. Botanical Garden, Dimpled Trout Lily, Other Species: The White Dogtooth Violet (E. Erythronium umbilicatum, sometimes called "dog- albidum) has narrow, mottled leaves and white, tooth violet," is the common Trout Lily in central bell-shaped lowers, often tinged with lavender on North Carolina. Much rarer is the American Trout the outside. Lily (Erythronium americanum). Propagation: Dig and divide clumps of plants For the ultimate plant detective, the Dimpled when leaves start to yellow or sow from seed. Trout Lily (E. umbilicatum) has a dimple (umbilicum -belly button!) where the style Natural Settings: attaches to the ovary (rounded end of the seed Swift Creek Bluffs Nature Preserve pod); the style (dried stem) does not stay on the 7800 Holly Springs Rd. . The E. americanum lacks the dimple and has Raleigh, NC 27606 a style that stays attached.. In the spring, bloodroot and trout lily kick off a Common Name Origins: festive wildlife season that begins mid-February. Trout Lily refers to the similarity between the leaf North Carolina Botanical Garden markings and those of the brown or . Mason Farm Road Dog-tooth Violet (although it is from the lily Chapel Hill, NC 27517 family) refers to the tooth-like shape of the white Be sure to check out stream banks on your walks underground . in the area. They do exist in the wild! Foliage, Form and Habit: A pair of tongue- Where Bulbs Can Be Purchased: (try them shaped leaves 4-6 in. long; pale green and mottled instead of tulips!) with purplish brown. Young plants often have FYI- Nursery catalogs emphasize the importance only one leaf. Plants spread freely by means of of planting these bulbs immediately when you underground stems and make a delightful ground receive them because they are short-lived once cover in dappled shade. The plants are only in dug! growth from late winter to late spring so the Bluffview Nursery ground cover effect is ephemeral. www.bluffviewnursery.org/ Flower: With a height of up to a foot in 4155 Hills Creek Rd, McMinnville, TN 37110 bloom,the stem (931) 815-2632 terminates in a The Vermont Wildlower Farm handsome, large, http://www.vermontwildlowerfarm.com/trout- pendulous, lily- lily.html like lower, an PO Box 96 inch across, with Charlotte, VT 05445 strongly 1.855.8GOWILD (846-9453) recurved, bright Eastern Plant Specialties yellow in color, often tinged with http://www.easternplant.com/searchplants.asp purple and inely dotted within at the base, and Rahway, NJ with six stamens. The anthers are usually 207-504-4405 Plant Delights Nursery, Inc Currently unavailable but you can use this link to disease carrier. There is a website listed below ask them to be offered again: that may be helpful in identifying the tick. Once http://www.plantdelights.com/Erythronium- you have the tick identiied you will be better umbilicatum-for-sale/Buy-Trout-Lily/ equipped to speak with a doctor, if needed. 9241 Sauls Road Raleigh, NC 27603 I’ve heard many methods of removing ticks. The Phone: 919.772.4794 TickEncounter Resource Center from the Email: of[email protected] University of Rhode Island says the best way to For native plants, in general: remove ticks of any size or species is to use pointy If you have a several hours and the interest, this tweezers like those found in the cosmetics section link is the list of Native Plant suppliers for NC! of the pharmacy. http://www.ncwildlower.org/natives/ sources.htm Ticks are prevalent in our area as soon as FYI- Cure Nursery in Pittsboro is listed as temperatures begin to warm in the spring and all wholesale but they replied to my inquiry that they through the summer and into the fall. Recent will sell to Master Gardeners, please call ahead! research is inding that some ticks may even be active on warm winter days. If you are going into an area where you are likely to come in contact with ticks, tuck your pants into your socks and your shirt into your pants. Ticks climb up to ind a YARD VILLAIN good place to attach. One last item, okay maybe two. A tick must be attached for a minimum of 24 hours before it will Ticks transmit the disease into its host. If the tick is By Shawn Banks removed within 24 hours of beginning to feed, it is very likely you will not get sick. There will be a 45-minute webinar on ticks through eXtension on Friday, April 4 at 2:00pm eastern time. The title of the webinar is Get TickSmart: 10 Things to Know, 5 Things to Do. You can watch the webinar live by going to https://learn.extension.org/events/1381 or you can watch a recording of the webinar from the same location about a week after the original broadcast.

WHAT’S IN SEASON Here is an insect, small in size, which produces a great fear in many people, rightfully so in many cases. Ticks are known to carry some pretty nasty Malabar Spinach diseases, like Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Basella aldba Spotted Fever. Yes we have both of those diseases here in North Carolina. Not every tick carries the By Tina Stricklen disease. Here are a few things that you should know. If you are looking for an attractive and edible climbing plant that will effectively block a view, When a tick bites you, do not throw it away. It’s then Malabar spinach is for you! Hailing from the important that you identify the tick species. The far-lung regions of India, Basella alba isn’t a tick may also be needed to test the tick for the spinach at all. What appeals to the vegetable presence of a disease if that species is a known gardener is the spinach-like taste of this plant and its ability to thrive INGREDIENTS in summer heat • 2 tablespoons olive oil where regular spinach wilts. You • 1/2 cup shredded carrot (from about 1 must provide a medium carrot), inely chopped sturdy trellis or • 1/2 cup yellow onion, small dice some type of vertical structure • 2 medium garlic cloves, inely chopped for the vigorous • 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as twining vine since needed it can grow up to • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, 10 feet in a season. plus more as needed The heart-shaped leaves are meaty • 20 ounces baby spinach, washed and after they • 2 medium scallions, inely chopped (white become larger than one inch they develop a and light green parts only) viscous or mucilaginous (slimy) texture. For this reason, use the smaller leaves raw in a salad but • 1 cup sour cream cook the larger leaves in quiches, stir fries, and • 1/2 cup mayonnaise soups. The succulent leaves are a rich source of vitamins C and A as well as iron and calcium. • 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce • 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice Malabar spinach can be sown directly after fear of frost or start indoors up to six weeks before the • Saltine or Ritz crackers, crostini, carrot last frost date. Plant them in a full-sun location sticks, celery sticks, or thick-cut potato about a foot apart. This is a tough plant as it is chips, for serving disease and pest resistant and grows quickly once the summer heat cranks up. A noteworthy INSTRUCTIONS cultivar is ‘Rubra’ because it produces red stems, creating another exotic and beautiful aspect to any • Place a quadruple layer of paper towels on vertical garden. a cutting board and set aside. Place a ine- mesh strainer in the sink. Treat this • Heat the oil in a large straight-sided frying plant as an pan over medium heat until shimmering. annual in our Add the carrot, onion, garlic, measured salt Zone 7 and measured pepper and stir to combine. gardens. In Cook, stirring occasionally, until the my vegetables have softened, about 6 minutes. experience, if Transfer to a large bowl and set aside. you leave the plant after the • Return the pan to medium heat, add half of fall frost, you the spinach, season with salt and pepper, can expect and stir to combine. Cook, tossing those once occasionally with tongs, until the spinach deep purple seed heads to drop and germinate. is completely wilted, about 4 minutes. Add Beware that the following spring will bring lots of the remaining spinach and cook, tossing seedlings for your garden as well as all your occasionally, until completely wilted, gardening friends. about 3 minutes more. • Transfer the spinach to the strainer in the Malabar spinach can be substituted for regular sink. Using a ladle, press on the spinach to spinach in many recipes. You may substitute squeeze out as much liquid as possible. larger leaves for baby spinach by cutting out the ribs before proceeding. • Place the spinach on the layered paper towels, cover with a second quadruple layer of paper towels, and press any fertilizing. Submit a soil sample to be additional liquid out of the leaves. Discard tested (it’s free) to determine if fertilizer is the paper towels, inely chop the spinach, needed. Use a slow-release, balanced and transfer it to the bowl with the fertilizer immediately after blooming. vegetables. Apply it around the drip line of the shrub, • Add the scallions, sour cream, mayonnaise, according to label directions. Worcestershire, and lemon juice and stir • Special fertilizers for ‘acid-loving plants’ to combine. Cover tightly and refrigerate are not necessary; our soils are suficiently until the lavors meld and the dip is acid naturally. thoroughly chilled, about 2 hours. • Watch for black spot and powdery mildew on roses – common problems in our humid climate. Although these diseases make the foliage look bad, the plants generally do well anyway. Rose Diseases • Watch for lace bugs, the most common pest on azaleas. APRIL GARDEN TASKS Look for whitish, stippled leaves with CARE shiny dark lecks on the undersides of • Grass clippings are the leaves. If found, a great source of treat with nitrogen. Practice horticultural oil (an grasscycling , a insecticide). Be recycling practice sure the spray where you leave reaches all parts of the grass clippings the leaves and stems, including the on the lawn to undersides of leaves. return nutrients to the soil. This could • Annual lowers such as zinnas, reduce the amount of nitrogen needed in moonlowers, cleome, gloriosa daisies and fertilizer for the year by 25%. Clippings sunlowers can be seeded in mid April. may also be composted (they’re a great • Let spring bulbs die down naturally. nitrogen source), or sprinkled onto Remove lower heads after the petals fade, lowerbeds as long as they’re not allowed and allow the foliage to die down to mat together. naturally. Do not fold, twist or braid • Warm season lawn seed may be planted foliage. Once the foliage falls over, it can be toward the end of the month. Call us for a removed. Leafy companion plants can hide copy of ‘Carolina ’ which tells you yellowing bulb foliage. Tender bulbs such exactly when and how much seed to plant. as ranunculus and anemone can be dug and stored when their foliage begins to TREES, SHRUBS & ORNAMENTALS yellow. At the end of the month, plant summer bulbs like caladiums, lilies, • Renew mulch around trees, shrubs, and in gladioli, dahlias, and elephant ears. garden beds. Make sure mulch does not • Prepare new lower beds by loosening and touch the bark of trees or shrubs and amending the soil. All plants perform extends to the drip line of young trees. better when their roots can spread in • If rambunctious perennials have loose, organic soil. Till the soil and reproduced too freely, remove and pot the incorporate organic matter, lime and excess plants. Pass them along to friends fertilizer – according to soil test results and family. New gardeners will be thrilled (free kits available at this ofice) Plant to receive free plants. Dividing Perennials perennials now so they can become • Don’t overfeed azaleas and camellias. established before hot weather sets in. These shallow-rooted plants are not heavy feeders, and can be damaged by over- VEGETABLES & handle sun. Even sun-lovers will need a few days in the shade, to get used to the • Check tender shoots of vegetables and intensity of sunlight, before going out onto emerging perennials for aphids. If found, a sunny patio. spray off with water. • Watch out for and control ireblight on apple, blackberries and pear trees (including ornamental varieties). Affected branches look like they’ve been burned with a blowtorch. Control this bacterial disease by pruning diseased limbs back to 1 foot beyond the diseased area. Be careful not to let infected foliage touch healthy foliage (yes, it’s that contagious), and disinfect tools between cuts to avoid spreading the disease. Discard rather than compost the infected limbs. • Plant turnips before April 15. Plant pole beans, carrots, and winter squash after April 15. • Cucumbers, corn, pumpkins, snap beans, watermelon, and cantaloupe may be safely planted at the end of the month. • Thin cool weather crops that were seeded last month. • Pick off blossoms of strawberries planted this season. Let plants mature a year before they bear fruit. • Keep tomatoes well-watered to avoid blossom end rot.

HOUSEPLANTS

• Divide overgrown house plants. • Gradually introduce houseplants to the out- *** If you would like to receive this of-doors for newsletter monthly via email, send an email their summer “vacation.” Give them partial shade at irst; to [email protected] asking to be experiment to see which of them can added to The Gardener’s Dirt email list. •