The Gardening News The Newsletter of the Men’s Garden Club of Englewood October 2011 Issue No. 12.01 Editor’s Notes Caring For Your Palm Trees The Coming Year With this issue of the newsletter we start If we had fewer palm trees in Florida our landscape would be more similar to the several new projects which I hope you will Carolinas. We have many palms, yet there seems to be confusion as to how to care for find interesting and useful. Last year we them. This article is in two parts. It will try to give some direction regarding the use of focused on flowering plants. This year our fertilizer for your palms while the second part will be about how and when to prune focus will be on plants that have interest- those palms. ing and colorful leaf structure as well as A simple fertilizer plan would be to apply a slow release fertilizer with microelements more on taking care of what is in your three or four times a year, following the directions on the bag. The following list of garden. The article to the right onCaring “DOs” and “DON’Ts” should help you make some decisions. For Your Palm Trees, is a good example. DOs A second focus in the newsletter will • Read the directions on the bag. be a Gardening Glossary. The last one • Fertilize only when the soil is moist, especially when using a quick release material. was printed about eight to ten years ago • Water quite thoroughly after fertilizing. and some of our long time members will • Try to under-fertilize rather than over-fertilize your palm trees. Under-fertilized, remember it. The new Glossary has many they just don’t grow as fast; over-fertilized, they may die. new entries and expansions. It is designed • Pick a fertilizer with an approximate 3-1-3 NPK ratio. Previous opinion was to use a to be placed in your Directory Notebook. 3-1-2 ratio, but more recently opinions have changed to the use of higher potassium If you haven’t picked up your Looseleaf fertilizers. A 15-5-15 ratio would be ideal. Notebook do so at the October meeting. • Use a slow release fertilizer. It is more expensive but better for the plants and less The Glossary has 28 pages and so with labor intensive. four pages, two pages of paper printed on • Use a fertilizer with supplemental magnesium and calcium. These two elements are both sides, in each newsletter it will take very important for palms. a minimum of seven issues to receive the • Use a fertilizer with ample microelements. Lack of these cause all sorts of growth entire Glossary. Also, I have suggested we maladies. When planting palm trees, avoid separate applications of microelements sell the Glossary, with a decorative cover, immediately as these too can cause burn. at our annual Plant Sale. It could be a • Do consider organic fertilizers. Use of items such as blood meal, bone meal, fish emulsion and manure can be used successfully. money maker if handled correctly. • Fertilize completely around the plant, distributing the granule over the entire root Continued on page 2. Continued on page 3 Tuesday, October 11, 2011 at 10:00 A.M. Next At the Elsie Quirk Library, Englewood Al Squires – member Native Plant Society Meeting Native Plants in Home Landscaping October 2011 The Gardening News Page 2 Editor’s Notes President’s Message from page 1. — Jim Sciarello, President A third item of interest will be the new Directory which I will bring to the As I write this I am thinking about how fast the time goes and where the October meeting. It has been a long haul summer has gone. We are now starting the second half of our 2011 meet- with many changes and corrections but ing year. I hope all of you have had an enjoyable summer and accomplished I feel confident we have it right. Fingers all you set out to do. crossed. A name and address data base is very The majority of the members that did not head north were active helping tricky. It is like trying to grab a soapy out at Paul’s yard. We were busily tending to our seedlings and cuttings three year old in a bath tub. It is always and propagating plants for the scholarship plant sale in December. The slipping away. As an example, yesterday committee did have a successful “early bird” plant sale in August. The I found out that, Joe Simek, our Vice majority of our expenses were covered from the proceeds of that sale. If President, had moved from Port Charlotte to Venice. His new address is you did not know it already, Paul’s Yard was selected to be on the Lemon in the next column near the bottom of Bay Garden Club’s garden tour. The tour will be on the weekend before the page. Data base changes are a natural Thanksgiving. Consult your local paper for dates and time. Since there occurrence and we have to expect them— will be many people visiting Paul’s yard during the two days of the tour we people move, change internet providers decided to have another “early bird” plant sale. More information will be and email addresses, and more. Through the year there will be more changes and provided as the date approaches. I will try keep you up to date on them in The Scholarship committee will be meeting with Mary Jo Holleran, The Gardening News. My suggestion is to Lemon Bay High School scholarship liaison, next month. The committee write out those changes and paste them into your Directory or make the changes has put together some guidelines for selecting a recipient in 2012. We will directly in the Directory. There should be discuss these with Mary Jo in order to find the most eligible student. room after each entry. We have speakers for the remainder of this year but the Program Commit- In any case, if you see errors in the tee is still putting together the speaker list for the beginning of 2012. If Directory or you have a Glossary you have any ideas or suggestions please let Joe Simek, or one of the com- correction or addition, I would like to receive that information. Many more mittee members, know. entries in the Glossary are anticipated in For our October meeting Tom Duch was able to arrange for Al Squires, of the future but they must have relevance the Native Plant Society, to speak. Al will make a presentation on the use to our gardeners on the southwest coast of Florida. Those that don’t apply to our of native plants in home landscaping projects. This should be a very inter- sub-tropical Florida gardening will not be added to the Glossary.. Continued on page 4. The Gardening News is published by the Men’s Garden Club of Englewood each month there is a club meeting. We meet each second Tuesday at 10:00 A.M. during October to May at the Elsie Quirk Library, 100 West Dearborn St., Englewood Florida (474.3515) except in January when we have our annual luncheon meeting, and in May when we have a picnic. Officers Newsletter Editor President: James Sciarello Secretary: Royce Neidlinger Frederick Kreutzer, Ed.D. 374 Eden Drive 195 Jennifer Drive 4307 Manfield Drive Englewood FL 34223 Rotunda West FL 33947 Venice FL 34293–5253 941.474.6147 941.697.8665 941.497.5259 email: [email protected] Vice President: Joseph Simek Treasurer: Don Harvey 5788 Magnolia Road 405 Lemonwood Drive Please address any articles, graph- Venice FL 34293 Englewood FL 34223 ics or questions about the newslet- 941.496.9222 941.473.0025 ter to the editor at the above postal Consult your Directory for email addresses. or email address. October 2011 The Gardening News Page 3 Caring For Your Palm Trees — from page 1. Food for Thought distribution area (approximately the mid-day shadow of the plant). Because of the Every garden, no matter how small, needs tubular histology of the palm’s vascular structures, lateral transfer of nutrition is a garden bench. Writer Derek Fell tells usually minimal. us that “a garden without seats is like a • Consider working the fertilizer into the soil if possible. theater without a stage.” Garden benches • Add fertilizer to organic top-dressings, i.e. wood shaving, over the garden. Many are much more than furniture; they are growers use top-dressings of organic material as a regular part of their palm tree often the focal points of our gardens. care. The right bench in the right place can do • Find a fertilizer that works for you and stick with it. Fertilizing is one of the most wonders for a garden. Wooden benches, important aspects of palm tree care. especially teak ones, look very good in • Consider also fertilizing in the winter. However, this is controversial. The theory flower beds. Teak mellows to a wonderful is that the plants can absorb elements needed to maintain strength during cold silver-grey, complimenting most flower weather and be prepared for spring growth, when the weather warms. On the other colors. A bench in the right place allows hand others say it encourages winter growth of vulnerable new fronds. (Editor’s you to observe nature close-up. note. Why would you under-fertilize during the year and then feed in the winter? We are growing a palm tree not a yak.) Because palms have only one growing bud, DON’Ts it needs to be protected from the elements • Don’t over-fertilize as this can lead to plant injury.