Lady Bugs Are Here

If you're plagued by aphids and don't want to use chemicals to rid them from your garden consider getting some lady bugs (also known as lady beetles).  We now have containers of lady bugs available for your garden use.  Each container holds an estimated 1,500 of these aphid eaters.  When released at sundown (because they don't fly at night), ladybugs eat aphids, mealy bugs, scale, leaf hoppers, various plant eating worms and other destructive soft bodied pests.  After release many of the females lay eggs and the larvae hatch shortly thereafter.  The larvae look somewhat like tiny little alligators and these tiny critters are even more voracious aphid eaters than their parents.

For more information on this species of ladybeetle click this link.

Summer is Here!

The warmth of summer is here early this year! And we have lots of new plants to mark the change in seasons.  New shipments of plants have been arriving several times each week since early spring.  We still have lots of great bedding plants in many colors to add just the right thing to your garden or container. 

We have now received many shipments of trees and shrubs from Oregon as well as shipments from California to complement all the local Washington grown stock ready to get in the ground so they will be set for the summer.     We still have a good selection blueberry bushes to get into your garden.  Most of them are already loaded with berries ready to be harvested in just a few weeks.  You can still choose from new arrived vegetables ready to plant for summer harvests.  We have many varieties of organically grown greens (lettuces, romaine, spinach, mesculin and more) as well as peas, beans, broccoli, cabbage, collards, eggplants, and pak choi.  We still have tomatoes and lots of peppers from sweet mini bells to extra hot habeneros all ready to take home and get into your garden or container.  As usual all our vegetables have been grown organically for your health and safety.  Roses are looking close to perfection with healthy foliage and great blooms, most with lots of heady perfume.  You will find several new varieties of roses along with lots of traditional ones.  Check out our list of roses in stock.  You'll also find a good selection dahlias available in large 10" pots for great flower production even in their first season in your yard.

We now have an assortment of  flowering and fruiting trees for you to add to your urban orchard, including Seneca Plum, Akane and Chehalis Apples and Lapin Cherry trees.  There are espaliered and combination apple trees in addition to European and Asian pear trees allowing you to get maximum benefit from tight spaces.  Not only that, these plants can be extremely effective as ornamental plantings or screens.  Let us help you figure out a great use for some of these trees. Come on down and check 'em out.

Gift Shop

If you haven't seen the new Vera Bradley area in our gift shop come on down!  With the new spring line together with some even newer introductions there is lots of great stuff to see.  Whether it's just a little gift for a friend or relative or a new purse to add to your collection you'll find plenty to choose from.

You can also find more of that great Firefly line of jewelry with its incredible colors.  If you haven't seen it yet, while you're here take a look at the Boma sterling silver jewelry.  Stop in, say hello to Stephanie and get your hands on the coolest new stuff! 

LANDSCAPE DESIGN

If you're thinking of redoing your yard this year you'll find our landscape designers can help you with most any project you can imagine.  Whether its a complete landscape design or just a quick consultation at Magnolia Garden Center our staff can accommodate your needs. See our Landscape Services page to learn more!

We invite you to stop by and enjoy the coolest little garden center in Seattle.

Chuck's Garden Post

Rose Care

Garden Pests II

Garden Pests I

Edible Gardening

Fragrance

Blueberries

Rose Care                                                       February 10, 2009

Winter seems to be waning in Seattle and many of our plants are showing signs of coming out of their winter’s sleep.  Just like the plants, lots of us seem to feel something flowing within reminding us to start getting our garden ready for the fast approaching growing season. To be rewarded with gorgeous, fragrant flowers all summer long requires a little effort this time of the year.  There are few plants that are as satisfying with the number and quality of flowers as roses.  And despite the reputation roses sometimes have for the amount of work they may require, tending to these plants is really pretty simple.

For us in the Northwest the season often starts a little briskly in late February.  This is the time to get things in shape for the upcoming season: a little clean-up, a spring pruning, the first feeding of the year and then a little wait until the weather warms up.  The easiest way to start is to rake out the old leaves and debris from under the plants.  Dispose of all this old material.  Unless you have an efficient compost program in operation don’t try to compost this material yourself.  There are apt to be lots of fungal spores on the old leaves that could come back to haunt you later in the season so get them out of your yard.

Next up it is time to prune back the old canes to prepare the rose plant for this summer’s blooms.  The first step is to briefly assess the current structure of the plant and determine what you want the plant to look like when you are done.  How many large canes do you have and how many are you going to want to have when you are done?  The actual number is going to depend on the variety and the age and health of the plant.  If you decide that you have three good size canes that look healthy and big enough to produce lots of good flowers then you need to figure out how far down to cut them.  But the first step is to remove the other canes or branches that you will not be keeping.

My own preference is to start at the top and work my way down the plant.  This benefits me in two ways.  It allows me to remove most of the small, often thorny branches that otherwise block my access to the parts of the plant that need pruning.  And while I may have in mind which canes I think I would like to keep, working around the plant a little often allows me to see if the canes I thought were going to be keepers really deserve to be kept.  Sometimes I’ll find damage or disease on one of these canes and I’ll have to change my potential keepers.

Once we’ve thinned out the plant and are ready to get down to making the final major cuts, we need to start paying close attention to how and where each cut is made.  The usual goal is to make the rose grow primarily to the outside so we have to prune in such a way as to let the first major shoots grow to the outside.  This is done by cutting just above a bud facing in the direction in which we want the shoot to grow.  We also try to make all of our final cuts at roughly the same height on the plant.  Not only does this leave us with a better looking plant initially, the plant will send out much more even growth from similar heights.  (Most plants, including roses, put more energy into growth higher up on the plant.  So if we leave one branch much taller than the rest we often get a big strong growth shoot there with weaker growth coming from the lower branches.)

Once the pruning is complete, clean-up the cut debris.  Now it is time to give them some early spring sustenance.  Using one of the organic or Once-a-Year type fertilizers (Terosa, for example), follow the directions and mix in the proper amount around the base of the plant.  You will also want to add some magnesium sulphate (Epsom salts) at this time to stimulate new cane growth to help your plant send up new shoots later in the spring.  Now top-dress the soil under the plant with two or three inches of good organic compost taking care to leave the ground open within a few inches of the trunk of the plant.  Then take your tools, your debris and yourself and go inside and have a warm drink and congratulate yourself.  You don’t have to worry about your roses now for a few more months. 

For those of you who want to see a closer demonstration of how to prune roses and for more specific information we will be offering three rose pruning and care classes at Magnolia Garden Center.  Come on down: Saturday morning at 10:00 AM on February 28, March 14 or March 28.  Call 206 284-1161 to reserve space or take your chances and just show up.  If you want some hands-on experience bring your pruners.  Classes last about one hour. 

Garden Pests I

This spring’s sunny moments, or at least the dry periods between the showers, are offering gardeners fleeting chances to work in their gardens.  Still, we are hearing from lots of people with some common problems this year.  While not exactly pestilence or plague, insects and diseases are distressing many by their presence.  Two problems bothering many gardeners this season are aphids and fungus.

Despite conditions that seemed uncomfortable to us, the winter was generally mild for the insect population.  The cold temperatures were just barely into the upper 20s for most of the winter, which is not cold enough to kill off many of our usual insect pests.  When we started hearing about aphids in January and February we realized it might be a big aphid year.

Aphids are active here throughout most of the year but conditions usually limit their numbers.  These tiny sucking insects feed on the juices of many plants.  Usually they find the tender new foliage on which to lay their young and seemingly within a day or two the number of bugs can go from none to thousands.  Often these creatures find plants that are already in distress and a large infestation can make matters worse for a stressed plant.

Usually in the home garden attacks of aphids don’t cause much damage and are primarily more a nuisance than a threatening presence.  The first most effective approach is to try to wash as many as possible off the plant with a blast of water from the hose.  Once the young aphid is dislodged from the plant it rarely is able to reattach itself.   For those more inclined to let nature do part of the work, try ladybugs.

 Ladybugs are aphid predators. Between the familiar adults and the more voracious ladybug larvae (which look something like a very tiny black and orange spotted alligator!) they can reduce a population of aphids in your yard in a matter of a few weeks.  If you need more ladybugs in your yard you can buy containers of 1500 adults to release at home.  While many of these will find their way to your neighbor’s, enough should stick around to do the job in your garden.

If this doesn’t work fast enough there are many safe organic sprays available.  There is normally no reason to use a harsh chemical spray for aphids.  (Next time: Getting fungus under control.)

Garden Pests II

The winter, er, ah, spring …  or wait, is it actually summer???  Well, whatever season it is, it is giving us some problems that seem to be affecting lots of gardens and gardeners – the Fungus is among us!  From black spot and mildew on roses to powdery mildew on rhododendrons to leaf spot of lots of other plants, we are seeing lots of it.  And it all has the weather in common.  Damp days with temperatures in the 50s offer perfect growing conditions for many of our local fungus diseases.

Many of the fungus spores are normally found in the garden soil throughout the region just waiting for the opportunity to grow.  That opportunity comes along when a spore finds itself on a moist plant leaf at temperatures in the mid 50-degree range for a span of 5 to 10 hours.  For plants like roses growing in Seattle, that usually comes in the summer when the gardener waters in the evening, or when the dew lands on it in the early morning hours and the sun doesn’t dry it off early.  This year it is happening in the middle of the day – rain plus daytime temperatures in the 50s equals mildew.

So what can you do?  Hope for better weather?  Ignore it?  Treat it?  The treatment will depend on what plant we’re talking about.  For many plants, there are sprays available: some safe and organic, some not so much.  Often the safer the spray the less effective it is.  However, there is a relatively new organic spray (Serenade Disease Control) available. The active ingredient is a bacteria benign to us yet quite toxic to certain fungal diseases.  The label lists a wide range of diseases that are effectively controlled by this product.  The WSU coop-extension has not yet recommending it for all those diseases but it may as it tests for each. 

Another line of products contains either sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) or potassium bicarbonate.  These compounds, found in RosePharm or Remedy, alter the environment on the leaf surface making it inhospitable for fungal colonies to grow. 

Edible Gardening

Between the cold blustery rains, the snow, sleet and thunderstorms we’ve seen paltry few mild and sunny days this year.  Spring hasn’t allowed us to stop and smell the flowers.  Now that May is here, flower gardening interest is finally starting to build. However, excitement in another category of gardening has been evident since early this year – edible gardening.

Recent concerns about costs and carbon footprints especially related to transportation have turned attention to fresh-from-your-backyard grown food.  Across the country there is tremendous attention to “eat local” and “grow your own food”.  We have always had a loyal following of gardeners buying organic tomatoes, basil, cucumbers and lettuce.  They are asking for French Crisp and Merlot lettuce, prize-winning Momotaro tomatoes, golden beets, Kaffer lime trees (leaves for Thai cooking) and lemongrass. 

One of the most rewarding things we see is the excitement the gardeners have while planning their garden and then thinking about the great fresh salads and other dishes they’ll be enjoying in a few weeks.  We spend a good part of the next several months salivating over the various foods they talk about preparing. 

While some city farmers are pulling out their lawns to install edible garden beds, one needn’t go to that extreme.  There are many locals successfully growing crops with good yields in mini-gardens or just containers.  The key is matching your crops to your “farm”: whether an entire backyard or a few small pots on your deck. 

Here are a few suggestions for the container gardening crowd.  For tomatoes in smaller containers select determinate types.  These are usually smaller in size and don’t require such a large container to get maximum yield.  Leaf crops such as lettuce, romaine, arugula, etc. are great crops for small spaces.  Harvest the larger leaves from the outside of the plants for small salads whenever desired.  For pepper fans, jalepenos, Anaheims or even Bell’s make great container plants.  I plant three pepper plants in each large (18 – 24” wide) pot and grow them in a warm sunny spot.  Add a generous amount of compost (Gardener & Bloome makes an absolutely amazing vegetable compost) to your fresh potting soil, water regularly and sit back and sip your mojito (with your freshly picked mint). 

Quick recipe: Prepare a wonderfully tasty appetizer by lightly grilling sliced peppers over coals or open flame.  Then marinate them in olive oil over coals until tender.  Use a variety of peppers for a more spicy taste.

Fragrance

After enduring a long cold winter, we’ve finally had our first taste of summer.  Spring seems to have skipped us almost entirely this year.  The warm weather enticed many of us outside this past weekend and much to our surprise there is still much blooming spring to enjoy.  Masses of flowers and their wafting perfumes intoxicate the senses. 

Our Winter Daphne, which started its fragrant bloom back in late January, is still sweetening the yard with its essence somewhere between orange blossom and sweet clove.  For those desiring a fragrant gardens this plant is a must have.  I think most gardeners would place this among the most beautifully scented of all.  Though some seem to find this a difficult plant to grow its requirements are simple.  It grows well in partial shade and in our well-drained sandy soil.  Just make sure to place it near a walkway so you can be sure to enjoy its enchanting aroma.

The scent of the lilac harkens many back to childhood at Grandma’s.  A bouquet will fill any room with an old-fashioned perfume guaranteed to evoke distant memories.  Our largest lilac (a variety named Frank Klager) is a rich and deep purple reminiscent of grape juice.  Right now a good chunk of our backyard is blanketed with a robe of its royal purple flowers. 

We purchased this particular plant for one reason: though it was less than a foot tall it had a blossom on it that was almost half the size of the whole plant!  Though I think it may have skipped blooming in its second or third year it has produced significantly more flowers each subsequent year.  Like people, individual plants tend to do certain things well.  In this instance our plant has always been a great flower producer.  This is a lesson one can extrapolate to many other flowering plants.  If you want a plant that produces lots of flowers, buy one that has lots of flowers when it is young.

While we have many other fragrant plants sharing their perfumes with us, I find a pair of Rhododendrons of great interest.  These two grace one of our shadier garden spots.  The first (Rhododendron Puget Sound) is a relatively short but increasingly wide shrub while the second (Rhododendron Loderii King George) is just starting to show signs of just how big it is capable of becoming – there is a specimen at the English Garden at the Ballard Locks that is the size of a small house.  Both of these plants force a more intimate encounter to access their floral fragrance from immense trusses of pink flowers: A perfume that truly defines floral essence.     

Blueberries

Grow Your Own Berries

A couple of years ago Margaret decided that since I enjoyed blueberries so much (and that they are so good for you) we should grow them in our garden.  She brought home a couple of the traditional northern deciduous type plants along with three evergreen “Sunshine Blue” hybrids developed from southern varieties.  I have to admit to being skeptical about the whole project.  Many years ago we had attempted to grow blueberries with a huge 30-year-old plant we bought from a blueberry farm going out of business.  Among other things we learned why farmers usually replace their plants after 15 to 20 years of production!  Additionally, I didn’t believe that an evergreen hybrid like this could produce a decent crop of tasty berries and also function as a lovely ornamental plant all winter long.

For the first two seasons I mostly ignored the new berry plants since it is recommended limiting your harvests for the first one or two years.  Then early last summer Margaret told me I better check out the new berries and that I might want to take a container with me and pick some.  When I finally got around to sampling the crop, I found I needed to go get a second container to pick all the wonderfully sweet berries that were ready for harvest.

During the course of the summer I harvested at least 10 quarts of berries from those plants for wonderful pancakes, waffles and pies.  Only a handful came from the “normal” highbush plants while the shorter “Sunshine Blue” produced nearly all the crop.  Admittedly the former plants were tucked behind the latter in a shadier spot.  But the Sunshine Blue’s yield and taste quality were both great.

Growing these plants is relatively simple and only requires a few things:  a mostly sunny spot, adequate water through mid-September and an acid soil (pH 4.5 to 5.5).  Many people worry about the acidity but in Seattle our soils tend to be acidic to begin with.  Rhododendrons do best in the same pH and see how well they do here.  But if you do need to lower the pH it is easily accomplished with a good acidifying fertilizer like an Azalea Rhododendron fertilizer with ammonium sulfate.

It won’t be too long before the warmer days of summer will bring us outdoors for cookouts and patio dining.  For many of us, these meals have to include some of our own homegrown fresh produce.  What could be more local than your own backyard?