walterandersen.com facebook.com/walterandersens twitter.com/walterandersens online store videos San Diego’s Independent Nursery Since 1928 TM JUNE 2018 Are Magnolias Endangered? By Ken Andersen doesn’t mean that is how many will be available as it takes a few years to get them up to size or to graft them. This year they sold out. Consequently, the next crop won’t be sufficiently large enough to ship until at least this fall. IN THIS ISSUE Are Magnolias Endangered? 1 Other growers are in the same boat. How To Prune Book Is Back! 1 The plants they may sell are small and below standard size, but if a customer What’s In A Name? 1 is desperate, sometimes they will sell a History of WAN: History Books 2 few. Because of the long lead time on Rose Show Winners 3 crops like this, once growers fall behind To Do List: June 3 or sell out it can take a very long time Don’t Forget Dad! 3 to make up for it. We have seen this Old Ben: Bumblebee Hummers 4 Well maybe not, but right now Mag- recently with citrus trees, which are Old Ben’s June Specials 4 nolias can be about as hard to find as starting to make a comeback, and an endangered species! At press time, Garden Classes & Specials 5 avocados where availability is still we only had four in stock in Poway; Time For The Fair 5 extremely short. three deciduous and one evergreen. So, when you are shopping for some- The problem stems from availability thing you think should be readily avail- from the growers. Every year they try able and if it’s not, this may be the to estimate how many plants they will reason. Be patient, because as soon need for production and how many as crops are released we bring them they will sell. For example Monrovia into the stores. We are always happy Nursery grows more than 13,000 to search for plants for you. Magnolia grandifloras each year. That • How To Prune Fruit Trees & Roses Is Back! By Ken Andersen How to Prune Fruit Trees and Roses is back in an updated edition! We took time after the last printing to re-edit the book. There are updated chapters, captions and illustrations and four new What’s In A Name? chapters on backyard orchard and fruit By Ken Andersen tree care. New content was provided by Tom Spellmen of Dave Wilson Nursery (our premier bare root fruit tree pro- Every once in a while botanists will vider) and Stark Brothers Nursery of change the botanical names of plants Louisiana. With the changes, this book to better identify which family they is your ultimate resource for planting, belong in. This is usually based on growing, and maintaining fruit trees analysis of the flower form. and roses. The books are available now While this usually doesn’t mean much in both stores for $10.99. • to the average gardener or plant continued p2 06.18 2 History Of WAN: Looking At The What’s In A Name? History Books continued from p1 By Ken Andersen enthusiast, it aids botanists in the Seventh in the series. Read all the articles scientific community. We recently starting with the December, 2017 news- letter at www.walterandersen.com/ encountered an interesting name news/newsletters. change when what we had been sell- ing as Stachys Bello Grigio (cousin A few ledger books are the oldest busi- of Lamb’s Ear) was determined to ness records we still have at the nursery and boy, do they tell a story. These not be a Stachys at all! large books hold meticulous detail of A recent delivery noted the change the daily operation of the store. The and a call to the grower and a bit of oldest dates back to 1946, the same research confirmed it. Stachys Bello year that the first bikini bathing suit Grigio was in fact Senecio Bello was displayed, the U.S. dropped an Grigio, a plant in no way related to atom bomb on Bikini atoll, and Tide detergent was introduced. Stachys! Senecio Bello Grigio (Sene- cio niveoaureus) is actually a close By that year, the nursery was well relative to another garden favorite established at the Rosecrans location Dusty Miller (Senecio cineraria). and the company was quickly approach- One of WAN’s old ledger journals ing its twentieth anniversary. This was Dusty Miller has also gone through a Lumber, now Dixieline Lumber; Kniffing’s also the year that the new store building Nursery in El Cajon; Mission Hills Nurs- name change and is now Jacobaea (still standing) was completed. There ery; Benton Roofing; Mission Chemical; maritima. Both plants fall into the are notes in the ledger that indicate the and Monrovia Nursery. One I wish I had Asteraceae family (Sun Flowers) and new building cost $4,620 to construct more information about was Jender- are found all over the world. There along with $372 in new paving near the are more than 1,200 species which street. The architect’s (Hans Andersen, sen’s Petunia Gardens. Walter Sr’s. older brother) fee for the Other intriguing tidbits in the journals makes it one of the largest flower- building was $141. There is a notation of were charges for telephone service at ing plant genera in the world. the value of the inventory on hand as of $36.62, electrical service for $4.50, The change is not completely sur- January 1, 1946 listed as $19,193. When and water at $30.83, all costs for the prising as Senecio is the Latin term adjusted for inflation that would give it month of January. Memberships in the for old man, referring to the gray a present value over $245,000. Today, Better Business Bureau and San Diego hairs commonly found on plants in the company’s inventory is valued at Chamber of Commerce were noted as that family. The mistake was dis- more than three times that amount! well. The nursery is one of the longest covered when some of the plants Reviewing the suppliers from those running members of both organizations. bloomed in green houses and the days reveals some interesting names. A couple other interesting notations growers discovered the flowers were Sadly, many of these companies are no are OB Garage and Egyptian Service longer in business. Surprisingly, though and ferry fees! more like Sun Flowers and not the two lipped flowers typical of Stachys. there are some still open! Some of There are also pages with sales history the names of those now shuttered and information about customer’s ac- Senecio Bello Grigio (niveoaureus) businesses are LE Cooke which ceased counts. Some of the more notable grows in high altitudes, 10-15,000 operation this year; David’s and Roy- customers of the time were Ruben H. ft., in Ecuador and Colombia. There- ston, our long time bulb supplier; Fleet, C. Arnholdt Smith, Albert Frost Germains, a dry goods distributor; S & fore it can take cold weather. This (of Frost Hardwood), and the Golden, should be one tough addition to M Nursery, a local bedding plant grower Marston, Jessop, and Burnham fami- your garden. formerly based in Chula Vista; McBride lies. Some of these families are still our • Distributing, a local dry goods and customers today. chemical supplier; Butler’s Mill, a local soil and dry goods supplier; Western Though the era of hand entry of account- Metal, hardware supplier (their building ing has been replaced by modern is now part of Petco Park); and Orange computers and software, these old led- County Nursery. Some of the names gers sure have stories to tell. • of companies still around include Dixie 06.18 3 - Rose Show Winners TO DO LIST: June By Melanie Potter FERTILIZE For lawns, use Marathon Fertilizer for tall fescue, and Bonide DuraTurf Weed & Feed to feed grass and control broadleaf weeds. Feed ornamentals with Gro-Power. Feed vegetables with Gro-Power Tomato and Vegetable Food or E.B. Stone Organic Tomato & Vegetable Food. Feed Citrus, Avocado, and Fruit trees with Gro-Power Citrus and Avocado Food. Feed palms and tropicals with Gro-Power Palm Tree This year’s entries Kathleen Strong’s ‘Alakazam’ and Tropical Food. More than 100 entries were submitted Section H - Best Mini Flora/Mini PRUNE for the 19th annual Poway Rose Show Bouquet that was held in May. The winners were: William Wallace ‘Heather Sproul’ Ornamentals for shape. Dead head roses, Dahlias and other flowering Section A - Best Hybrid Tea or Section I - Best Floating Bowl Grandiflora Kathleen Strong ‘McFarlane’s Own’ plants. Prune stone fruits after William Wallace ‘Randy Scott’ harvest. Section J - Best Mini Flora/Mini Section B - Best Single Stem Floating Bowl PEST CONTROL Floribunda John & Barbara Lester ‘Power Point’ Susan Streeper ‘Sparkle n Shine’ Look for slugs and snails; apply Section K - Most Fragrant Rose Sluggo and Sluggo Plus. Watch for Section C - Best Old Fashioned Type Kathleen Strong ‘Evelyn’ John & Barbara Lester mildew, rust and rose slug on roses; Section L - Best Fully Open Variety spray with Bayer 3 in 1 Insect Disease ‘The Impressionist’ Kathleen Strong Section D - Best Old Garden Rose ‘Eyeconic Lemonade’ and Mite Control. Eliminate sowbugs, Kathleen Strong ‘Tangerine Jewell’ earwigs, cutworms, slugs and snails Section M - Best Non-Classified Rose in vegetable gardens with Sluggo Section E - Best Miniature/Mini Flora John & Barbara Lester Kathleen Strong ‘Alakazam’ ‘Golden Wings’ Plus. Keep fliesaround trash cans under control by using fly traps that Section F - Best Mini Flora/Mini Spray Andersen’s Choice Award for John & Barbara Lester Best Non-Awarded Rose can catch them before they invade ‘Tattooed Daughter’ Bob & Marty Kolb ‘George Burns’ your trash.