Rose Care: Deadhead Repeat-bloomers Now

This has been a really good year for rose blossoms. Gardeners who have roses in their landscapes have enjoyed excellent displays that might have resulted from the combination of drought conditions followed by timely rains. Perhaps botanists and meteorologists will collaborate to track the progression of weather effects and rose blooms.

The notorious “some people” have announced that the challenges of rose cultivation exceed the value of these plants in the garden, but there are still plenty of dedicated fanciers of the rose and public rose gardens to defend the genus. The vigor of the American Rose Society demonstrates the continuing appeal of roses.

Hybrid tea roses are enduring favorites for most rose lovers, but value can come from comparing examples of different species. For example, compare rebloomers, mostly modern roses, with once-bloomers, many of which are ancient roses, e.g., Gallica, Damask, Alba, Centifolia, Moss, China, Portland, Bourbon and Hybrid Perpetual Roses.

Numerous roses bring seasonal color to my garden. Most are hybrid teas, including several David Austin roses.

Rose Graham ThomasMy favorite among these is ‘Graham Thomas’, a yellow classic climbing rose, selected by and named after the English rosarian and author of several books on roses. This vigorous repeat bloomer occupies a prominent spot next to my house.

 

 

 

 

Another favorite is ‘Dortmund’, which is a highly rated climber that produces dark, glossy foliage and clusters of single, white-eyed, red flowers, borne freely from summer to autumn. This plant grows on a gate under a very large pittosporum; the rose does well but surely would do better in full sun.

Rosa MulliganiAmong my once-bloomers is Rosa mulligani, one of the largest climbing/rambling species that was the center of Vita Sackville-West’s iconic white garden at Sissinghurst Castle, in England. This rose, growing on my backyard fence, produces a cloud of white blossoms, with branches reaching up to twenty feet to the left and to the right. Roses, like apples, produce blossoms and fruit best on horizontal branches, so this is fine placement for any climber.

It is now time to deadhead the repeat bloomers, to stimulate the development of a second flush of blooms. This should be done soon after the blossoms fade, to maximize the time for new growth and, incidentally, to deny nesting opportunities for certain insects, e.g., earwigs, sow bugs, thrips.

Rosa Graham Thomas deadheaded

Rosa Graham Thomas deadheaded

Deadheading generally is done just above the first set of five leaves. It could be done lower on the stem, to the second five-leaf set, or even to a seven-leaf set, when the plant needs shaping. After all the blooms are spent, leave the plant to develop rose hips for winter display.

Once-bloomers need not be deadheaded as soon as blooms fade because that won’t produce additional blooms. Deadheading once-bloomers in late June, however, will maximize the time the plant has to produce many new buds for the next season. If you like to see colorful rose hips in the garden, leave the once-bloomers on their own through to late winter.

 

Deadheading your roses now is a timely investment for a rewarding yield in the next season.

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IMG_0604You can see a fine collection of eighty old garden roses and shrub roses at the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival’s “Music in the Garden” fundraiser on Sunday, May 22nd. This exceptional event offers opportunities to enjoy a majestic private garden in Soquel and performances by harpist Jesse Autumn (shown) and Anak Swarasanti’s Gamelan orchestra, and to support the ongoing contributions of the Baroque Festival.

For information, visit the website of the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival.

Controlling Weeds, Enjoying Volunteers

Recent sessions of not-really-much rainfall have greened our gardens and, inevitably, inspired weeds to grow.

If you are not already familiar with the “weed bank,” you must recognize that most garden soil has a hidden store of weed seeds waiting for the right conditions to germinate. Those weeds seeds do not demand a lot, just sun and moisture.

The rains provide the moisture, but the seeds must be close to the surface to gain access to sunlight. This condition can be met easily when weeds drop their seeds, winds transport them from faraway places, or birds drop them while fertilizing the Earth.

Some weed seeds are well below the surface, having been buried by soil tilling or erosion. They can survive long periods (the longevity varies with the species) until they are unearthed one way or another.

That’s one justification for “no-till” gardening, by the way.

Evidently, my garden had a shallow weed bank, because the rains brought an abundance of vigorous weeds in every area of the landscape.

When one experiences a seasonal burst of weed growth, the appropriate response is to weed the garden promptly, before the weeds set their seeds. One characteristic of weedy plants is that they reproduce enthusiastically. An old bit of garden wisdom warns, “One year of seeding leads to seven years of weeding.”

Long-term prevention of weed problems always begins with mulch. A layer of three or four inches of organic material serves shields sunlight from promoting the growth of weed seeds.

Another approach is the use of a pre-emergent herbicide based on corn gluten, which is a pelletized byproduct of the corn milling process. As a seed first germinates, it depends on nutrients stored in the seed, but as it grows it must develop roots to draw additional nutrients from the soil. Corn gluten is a natural, non-toxic material that suppresses a plant’s root development. It is most effective at the earliest stages of plant growth and has minimal effect on established plants.

Corn gluten treats all seeds the same, so it should not be applied when planting seeds of plants that you grow purposefully.

The downsides of corn gluten are that it is only about 50% effective when applied correctly. It requires repeat application whenever weeds begin to sprout.

Another downside is that when wet it will smell pretty awful for a while. One gardener friend who used this weed preventer suspected she had a dead body somewhere in the garden.

Also, corn gluten is rather expensive, close to $2.00/pound, perhaps because of low demand.

Finally, because most corn crops use Roundup for weed management, corn gluten almost certainly contains a residue of glyphosate, the active ingredient of this chemical herbicide.

After best efforts with mulching or pre-emergent treatment, and weeds are still growing, the traditional advice has been to pull them out by the roots. That seems gratifyingly thorough, but more recent advice is to cut weeds down, leave their roots to decay in the ground, and use their tops for mulch or compost.

That approach is sound, but only if done before the weeds produce seeds. There are also some weeds. Such as dandelions, that will regenerate from their roots.

One more thought: some plants that appear unexpectedly and in unwanted places in the garden, are garden-worthy plants that could be called “volunteers” or “self-seeders” rather than “weeds.” Examples include Italian lords-and-ladies (Arum italicum), various poppies (Papaver spp.) and the California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica), our state flower.

HieraciumOne attractive, not aggressive volunteer is the Hawkweed (Hieracium sp.), which I actually bought at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. This is a dandelion lookalike, with flowers very similar to the dandelion, but with unusual spotted leaves.

 

 

 

 

For more information:

Old Farmer’s Almanac: Common Garden Weeds

Fine Gardening: Six Tips for Effective Weed Control

Eartheasy: Corn Gluten Fertilizer (commercial product)

 

Rediscovering Eco-cultural Gardening

Gardening is a very old activity. The word “garden” has its roots in an Old English term meaning “fence” or “enclosure,” and the earliest enclosed outdoor space discovered was created about 12,000 years ago.

We are still learning about gardening.

More accurately, we are rediscovering ideas that earlier gardeners understood thousands of years ago.

One of the earliest ideas, evidently, was that a fence keeps some hungry animals from the vegetables and (later) from the flowers.

The most basic principle for successful gardening is compatibility with Nature. We are advised occasionally that humans developed instinctive behaviors, e.g., Fight or Flight, at an early stage of our history, and evolved to thrive with a diet that consisted of a combination of foods that grew naturally in our local environment.

By the same token, plants and animals evolved over long periods to thrive in specific regions, together with each other. As a result of this co-evolution, we have interdependence between plants and animals that grow naturally within a specific environment. We even have interdependence between those plants and animals and certain aspects of the environment itself.

Ancient civilizations that understood these relationships intuitively gardened—and lived—in harmony with Nature. “Eco-culture” is today’s buzzword for the connection between ecological and cultural practices.

Some aspects of the environment appear not to interact with the plants and animals: the weather, elevation, and sunlight operate under their own rules, but the soil microbiota has close relationships with the flora and fauna.

Gardening is easiest and most successful when we recognize and respect these natural relationships. Good practices include gardening organically and growing plants that are native to the local environment.

The more recent history of gardening, however, has included many attempts to rewrite Nature’s rulebook. For example, as people traveled the globe, they added plants from exotic environments to their gardens and developed adaptive practices, including irrigation systems, greenhouses, and indoor gardening.

Also, as gardeners desired plants that would grow faster or larger, taste better, or look better, they developed hybridizing methods, fertilizers, and pesticides.

Such departures from Nature’s ways are often successful in achieving certain objectives, but they often have negative consequences, as well.

The clearest downside of attempts to “fool Mother Nature” is that gardening requires more time, energy and expense. If you find gardening to be burdensome, try converting to plants that are native to your environment.

When large-scale, commercial gardening (“agriculture”) adopts new technologies, the disruptions of Nature’s processes also grow larger in scale. Widespread applications of synthetic agricultural chemicals are damaging the soil biota, are poisoning the soil, killing birds, bees and butterflies, contributing to climate change and threatening our health.

Historically, ecological traumas began with the Industrial Revolution and accelerated in the 1940’s (with at the start of World War II), particularly in uses of synthetic chemicals.

Today, a growing number of non-profit organizations are sounding alarms about these practices and advocating alignment with Nature’s ways. Consumers increasingly demand organic foods, and intuitively resist genetically engineering foods. These groups and individual gardeners are rediscovering eco-cultural gardening.

Our roots are showing!

More to come: links to consumer-oriented non-profit groups related to eco-cultural gardening.

Here’s a related article (with an inappropriate title), “The dirty little secrets of a Native American garden,” from the San Francisco Examiner.

Basics of Low Maintenance

For many gardeners, as they create or recreate their gardens, their objectives include minimizing maintenance. Let’s consider the “why” and “how” of low maintenance gardening.

The motivation for minimizing maintenance requirements begins with the press—or the appeal—of other priorities, and the perspective is that gardening is drudgery that steals time from higher priority pursuits, and should be avoided whenever possible.

Some of us have unavoidable demands on our time, it’s true, but in reality, maintaining a garden does not require large chunks of one’s schedule.

In addition, gardening has unique rewards to be appreciated and even sought after: time for meditating, exercising a bit, and absorbing vitamin D, as well as communing with Nature and making an individual contribution to ecological balance.

Avoiding drudgery and securing those rewards requires both a positive attitude and a well-designed garden.

With those elements in place, gardening can be easy not burdensome, and satisfying rather than frustrating. Here are basic guidelines for creating a low-maintenance garden.

Establish Realistic Goals

The size of your garden should be manageable within your available time, physical capacity and financial resources. In this assessment, consider your gardening partner or partners, including family, friends and contractors.

Your horticultural knowledge and skill are also important, but because you can increase them, they are not limitations. If you have a large property, define an appropriate size of your garden, and leave the rest to Nature. If you have less space than you would like, develop an interest in container gardening, or community gardening.

If your gardening plan includes regular “mow, blow and go” assistance, it’s likely that you are not really gardening, and not gaining those unique rewards. Take another look at the design of your landscape, with a focus on eliminating the lawn.

Work with Nature

This core idea reaches into all aspects of gardening. Gardening and landscaping amounts to imposing on Nature, which has powers that are not be denied. For this reason, gardening should be pursued in ways that are compatible with, and supportive of, Nature. Those who challenge Nature must commit to high-maintenance gardening., but will, in the long run, lose.

Gardeners could challenge Nature in many ways, beginning with the selection of non-native plants, especially those that have evolved under significantly different environments. Choose plants that have evolved under your garden’s conditions, including climate and precipitation, elevation, soil type, wildlife habitat, etc.

Another strategy for challenging Nature is the monocrop, i.e., limiting large sections of the landscape to a single kind of plant. In residential gardens, the most familiar monocrop is the lawn. Such landscapes do occur in Nature (think of Midwestern prairies) but lawns are inhospitable to wildlife, and costly to maintain in acceptable condition. Mixed plantings work better, can be very attractive, and are easier to maintain.

A related issue is the use of synthetic chemicals in garden maintenance. This practice might seem to mimic Nature, but truly natural ways to feed the soil and the plants are based on the growth and decomposition of organic materials. The use of synthetic chemicals leads to the accumulation of inorganic salts that eventually poison the soil. Short-term impacts from chemicals may be welcome, but organic compost yields the best results in the long term. In addition, the birds and the bees will thank you.

There are more ways to achieve low maintenance gardening. These two basic guidelines are a good start.

Enjoy your garden!