April 2018 Turnip News Master Gardeners Prince William Editors: Maria Dunbar Stewart Rebecca Arvin-Colón Inside this issue: Earth Day Garden Tea 2 MG President’s Message Upcoming Events and MGPW 3 Meetings—At a Glance An Honor. It is an honor to be part of an outstanding Board Container & Small Space Gardening 4 of Directors that is dedicated to representing the Master Gar- Landscape Ready for Spring 5 deners of Prince William (MGPW) in the best way. Thank you for your support and all you do for our organization. Teaching Garden Workdays 6 Saturdays in the Garden 7 Board Member Changes. Thanks to our two departing board members. First, Janene Cullen for her leadership as our The Frozen Side of Herbs 8 Treasurer. Due to Janene’s thoroughness she received high ku- 9-12 In Praise of Apples dos from the MGPW auditors over the past two years. Second, Upcoming Events and Meetings 13 Jeanne Lamczyk for her tireless efforts to support the organiza- Native Seedling Sale 14 tion as our Member-At-Large. Jeanne constantly sought feed- Compost Awareness Day 15 back on how to make our organization even more effective. Wel- come to Christina Hastings as our new Treasurer and Spencer Donations for Spring Plant Sale 16 Williams as our new Member-At-Large. Both have impeccable Community Shredding 17 credentials and will be superb additions to your Board or Direc- Drinking Water Clinic 18 tors. Gardening with Wildlife in Mind 19 Index to “Turnip News” 20 PUZZLER 21 Turnip News Recertification Meeting. Thanks to the superb presenters. Much valuable information was shared. Your Board and Virginia Cooperative Extension appreciate you taking time to provide us feedback on how we can guide the organization to better fill your needs. My observation has been that high performing organizations, like ours, have members and leaders who are 1) technically knowledgeable and 2) attuned to making sure personal interactions are positive and fulfilling. Your Board is interested in your input on both areas. Let us know your thoughts over the coming year. MGPW in 2018. I know you join me in looking forward to this coming year with optimism. To- gether we will do our part to improve the environments in our county and cities for the betterment of our citizens, plant life, and critters. It will be a good year. Thanks for all you do. - Larry Lehowicz, President, The Master Gardeners of Prince William, Inc., [email protected] 2 Turnip News Upcoming Events and MGPW Meetings—At A Glance April THURSDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY 5 7 8 Manassas Plant A Row Produce Container & Small Bluebell Festival at Collections Start Space Gardening Merrimac Farm WEDNESDAY SATURDAY SATURDAY 11 14 14 Getting Your MGPW Board Saturday in the Landscape Ready Meeting Garden for Spring SATURDAY SUNDAY SATURDAY 21 22 28 Billi Parus with Prince William Making Herbal Ice Earth Day Compost Awareness Cream Garden Tea Day SUNDAY 29 BioBlitz May SATURDAY SUNDAY THURSDAY 5 6 31 Saturday in the Dale City Plant A Garden and Row Produce Composting Class Plant Sale Collections Start 3 Turnip News 4 Turnip News 5 Turnip News 2018 Teaching Garden Workdays Join us at the Teaching Garden—9535 Linton Hall Road, Bristow—on any of the below scheduled workdays to help keep our garden looking beautiful! Email Leslie Paulson at [email protected] with any questions. Tuesday Mornings, Saturday Mornings, 9:00 a.m. – Noon 9:00 a.m. – Noon April 3, 10, 17, and 24 April 7 and 28 May 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29 May 19 June 5, 12, 19, and 26 June 2 July 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31 July 7 August 7, 14, 21, and 28 August 4 September 4, 11, 18, and 25 September 1 October 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30 October 6 November 6 and 13 Thursday Evenings, 6:30 p.m. – Dusk April 12, 19, and 26 May 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31 June 7, 14, 21, and 28 July 5, 12, 19, and 26 August 2, 9, 16, 27, and 30 September 6, 13, 20, and 27 6 Turnip News 2018 Saturdays in the Garden Also join us at the Teaching Garden for Saturday in the Garden! Register online at www.pwcgov.org/grow or by contacting the Extension Horticulture Help Desk at 703-792-7747 or [email protected]. Saturday Mornings, 9:00 a.m. – Noon April 14 - Plant Propagation Increase your knowledge and success making new plants through seed starting, cuttings, layering, and division. May 5 – Best Practices for Your Landscape and MGPW Plant Sale Speakers will cover lawns, annuals, perennials, bulbs, vegetables, and tree care. This class will help you come up with a plan to keep your landscape healthy and sustainable. June 9 – Container Gardening Container gardening know-how is in high demand, particularly in suburban settings. Learn how to create a container garden for your patio, terrace, or entryway that is both functional and gorgeous. Discover techniques for getting your plantings to thrive. Vegetables, ornamentals, and irrigation will be covered. July 14 - Spectacular Salvias and Comforting Cut Flowers Get to know the popular cultivars of the genus Salvia that grow well in Northern Virginia. Also, learn how you can have cut flowers all growing season long. August 11 – Growing Herbs This class will teach you the basics of growing your own herb plants. Learn the soil, light, temperature, fertilizing, and climate requirements for the basic culinary herbs. See our herb garden and wall of herbs at the Teaching Garden. September 8 - Native Shrubs for the Home Garden and MGPW Plant Sale There is a native shrub for every location and desired seasonal interest. This class will help you decide which native shrub for your landscape is right. October 13 - Fall Weed Identification and Management This class will focus on common broadleaf and grassy weeds found in our landscapes and turf and includes a walk to see these weeds up close and personal. 7 Turnip News 8 Turnip News In Praise of Apples by Abbie Panettiere and Vincent Panettiere pples are my favorite fruit, but alt- local farm animals, disease or other pests, and hough I’m very familiar with them the warming climate. In the article, Glausiusz A when it comes down to crunching on quotes Newton on the subject: one, I was aware that there was much more to know in addition to their delicious taste. Know- “One of these threatened species, ing that their recorded history goes a long way Malus sieversii—a wild apple that back, I decided upon a little research and won- Newton describes as ‘small but dered if any of the descendants of the originals highly colored with a very nice are still with us. sweet flavor’—is one of the key ancestors of all cultivated apples Malus sieversii is thought to be the ancestor of grown and eaten around the apples we see today. As it turns out, they are world. So rich and unique is this native to southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, species, Newton says, that on one Tajikistan, and Xinjiang, China. There are said wild apple tree, ‘you can see more to be ancient forests of these ancestors of the variation in apple form than you modern apple still living in various places. see in the entire cultivated apple From the descriptions, they have had similar crop in Britain. You can get varia- success that weeds have in surviving from gen- tion in fruit size, shape, color, fla- eration to generation by coping on their own vor, even within the tree, and cer- with their surrounding situation. Their genome tainly from tree to tree.’” has not been effected by generations of careful selection and backcrossing. Apple trees are thought to be the earliest trees to be domesticated, perhaps in Central Asia The cultivation of apples, while breeding in de- 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. Alexander the Great, sirable traits such as taste, color, shape and in the midst of conquering the world, is said to size, may breed out qualities such as disease have found dwarf apples in Kazakhstan in 328 resistance, which the apple tree needs to sur- BC. The development of the Silk Road, begun vive. Parenthetically, “good” traits may be put during the reign of the Han Dynasty when Chi- back in by backcrossing a hybrid with one of its na opened trade with the west in the year 130 parents or an individual genetically similar to BC, helped the spread of apples westward its parent, in order to achieve offspring with a along these routes as humans, horses, and genetic identity which is closer to that of the camels ate the apples and discarded the seeds parent. by the wayside. This process also helped in the genetic crossing of the species, creating new An article by Josie Glausiusz in a 2014 Nation- varieties along the way. al Geographic covered the ancient apples. A British forest conservation ecologist, Adrian “Modern” apples were brought into this country Newton, visited forests in the western Tien in the 17th century. The first known apple or- Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan to conduct a chard was planted by Reverend William Blax- survey of these trees, which are currently un- ton in 1625 in Boston. der threat by being cut down for fuel, grazed by 9 Turnip News The modern apple tree, Malus pumila, is a sity of Minnesota and was scheduled to be dis- member of the Rosaceae family. All of the carded but, after being saved from this fate, breeding and hybridization over the centuries was released commercially in 1991. This is one has produced more than 7,500 known cultivars of the most popular varieties available today of apples presently, which are bred for different and is, it turns out, about as far from a wild purposes such as cooking, eating raw, and also plant capable of living without the defensive for the production of apple cider.