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Overheard: “I need some pansies to make it look like spring around here”. Are there any other flowers, with the possible exception of daffodils, that are more a harbinger of spring?

Those upturned, painted faces hide a tough interior. When planted in the fall, pansies and violas usually bloom well past Thanksgiving and survive the winter to keep blooming in the spring. When planted in the spring, they’ll take almost frozen ground and night temperatures well below those that would make any other annual swoon.

Violas, often called Johnny jump-ups, have smaller flowers, but bloom earlier than pansies and keep on going longer into the heat of the summer. Pansies are a mixture of viola species and come in a wider variety of colors and have larger faces.

This season, I’m really excited about the Cool Wave pansies. These plants, from the breeders of the Wave petunias, boast early flowering and very vigorous spreading habits. This makes them great for hanging baskets, and they fill in flower beds quickly. Regular pansies tend to be more upright than spreading. The color range is limited to yellow and blue- but that’s enough for me.

The flowers of both pansies and violas are edible- they can be candied in sugar for cake decorating, or put in salads for some spring flair. I’ve never done this, but I don’t eat dandelions, either.

Pansies and violas do well in sun to part shade. Deadheading spent flowers and developing seed heads will keep your pansies blooming longer. When shopping for pansies look for nice compact plants with dark green leaves. If they have grown too leggy at the garden center, give them a good haircut to encourage branching.

When temps start to soar in June, and pansies are looking tired, they can be dug and relocated to a shadier location, given a good shearing, a shot of liquid fertilizer, and they will give a good show in the fall.

Even though we had snow on the second day of spring which had many shaking their fists at the groundhog, the pansies are blooming- it must be spring.

It has now been over a year that gardeners from Florida to Maine and as far west as the Chicago and St Louis have struggled with the impatiens downy mildew disease. We know it is a water mold, carried by spores on the air, and causes devastating damage to one of the most popular bedding plants in the United States.

You may have read about it in the newspaper, seen it in gardening magazines or had you own shade beds affected last summer. It is a big problem, and may be for the next several years.

There is no cure- and nothing homeowners can do to reduce their risk. Professional growers have a few chemicals to prevent the disease, but they only last for six weeks at the longest.

We attended several grower meetings over the winter where the largest topic of conversation was downy mildew. Professional opinions vary as to what to do. Some say grow and sell impatiens and warn people that they may die- they are annuals and are just going to die in the fall anyway. Some are not growing them at all figuring they don’t want the liability.

While there are few things that match impatiens in ease and color range, there are other great plants for shade.

One of my favorite new plants is the begonia ‘Whopper’ series. Offered in both green or bronze foliage, and either redor pink flowers, they were a stand out at last summer’s Penn State field trial. Large flowers, and height and spread of up to 3 feet, this is one bodacious begonia.

A lesser-known plant is torenia, or wish-bone flower. Either spreading or upright, it comes in a range of colors from white, yellow, blue, pink and dark purple. Torenia does well in shade to partial sun areas.

Luckily New Guinea impatiens are not affected by downy mildew. Most people are familiar with the vegetative New Guineas. They have large flat flowers, and reach 2-3 feet in height. The ‘Divine’ series is grown from seed, and has slightly smaller stature and flowers. Sunpatiens, a form of New Guineas that do well in sunnier areas, are also a great choice. I would not put them in deep shade, however, as they will stretch.

Foliage plants offer many colorful options. Coleus gains in popularity each year, and thrives in the same situations as impatiens. The caladium bulbs produce colorful large elephant ear-shaped leaves. They naturalize in Florida, but need to be dug up in the fall if you want to keep them year to year in Southern PA.

My advice is stay away from impatiens from a year or two and see what this disease is going to do. When life hands you downy mildew, plant begonias or torenia.

My mother has kept a journal for most of her life. This came in handy when I was a teenager and struggling with the things 15-year-old girls struggle with. She was kind enough to let me read her diaries from when she was my age. Disregarding the parts where she talked about ironing her skirts for school the next day, it was very helpful to see that 30 years previously, she had the same troubles with friends, boys and school that I had.

My grandmother also had a miniscule 5-year diary with the same date, but 5 years on each page. After she died, we found this little tome interesting. She mainly recorded the weather, what was planted and harvested and which of her 6 grandchildren she babysat that day. On the same date some years was snow, pea planting, greenhouse transplanting and usually mention of myself or one of my cousins.

Why all this talk about diaries? In our culture today where our gratification is instant, and our memories are short, keeping a garden journal can be VERY helpful. It doesn’t have to be every day, but on a weekly basis, keep track of what you have done in the garden, what’s blooming, major weather events, and any trouble with bugs or disease. You may not remember that freak frost in late May after a year or two. How long you were able to harvest the lettuce before it bolted? Were you having trouble with aphids and then an inch of rain washed your trouble away?

If you are really ambitious, take some pictures for your journal. I attended a garden lecture from a woman in her 70s that had lived in the same house for 50 years. She was an excellent gardener and a humorous speaker- but what really made her talk was the photo progression of her property. She had taken pictures from mostly the same angles of the yard before, during and after the pool, the patio, the ill-conceived raised beds, the evergreen border, the vegetable garden moving around her property to follow the sun, and pots that she had spray painted different colors to follow the trends. (Do any of you remember the aqua phase from the 70’s?) It was wonderful to see the changes.

If you are starting some new beds or even adding to existing ones, a few before and after pics will refresh your memory and add to your reward in a few years.

You may have never kept a journal before, make this be the year you start- you’ll be glad you did.

Six decades ago, as a pre-teen, my bird watching was tightly tethered to walking distance from the farm in Colerain Township just across the west branch of the Octoraro Creek from the point where East Drumore and Little Britain meet.

My first Peterson’s guide and the notebooks I filled have long gone missing, but if my memory serves me correctly, and it is usually very good with numbers, I saw over 180 species in the period from early grade school to when I discovered cars and girls.

I have always paid some attention to birds but have become a rather serious watcher in the past five years as I inch my way toward retirement. In that time, I have seen just 145 species on the farm. Throw in the Octoraro Reservoir and the Muddy Run area and that number climbs to 178. Extend the area to include all of Lancaster County and it reaches 206.What gives?

Some say there are less birds, which of course raises the question of why? Granted, the number of houses within a mile radius of the old farm has swelled from seven to 23. Several acres of woods have disappeared, but a larger amount of fields have reverted to brush and trees. The closest meadow has lost its animals and became a true floodplain.In that little corner the habitat for birds is better.

Of course that doesn’t address the habitat that the birds find in the course of their annual travels. My reading, observations and travel encourage me to think that progress on this front is also being made nationally and internationally.My suspicion is that with me and many of us there are other things at play. Way back I do not remember being very aware of bird songs. It was by sight. Today my hearing is diminished enough that many bird songs will be missed. Score that one neutral. Why didn’t they talk about ear protection 50 years ago?

Near the end of my youthful efforts, my brother brought home an inexpensive pair of binoculars he bought while in the navy. He returned to duty and they became my companion. After resuming a serious interest, we invested in good binoculars and a spotting scope with twice the value of our then eight-year-old Ford. That’s a big advantage for the present.

The third comparison is watching style. Back then, I needed them close so I often selected a spot and sat and waited, with good results. One of my favorite birds back then was an Eastern Towhee, a red, black and white ground-scratching member of the sparrow family. That one has been a challenge lately. A week or so ago I read that this is one of our most timid birds.

This author claims that if we sit still after we have chased all the birds’ away chickadees and titmice will be the first to become visible within 10 or 20 minutes. My favorite, the towhee, would take twice that long to reappear. I verified that from a bench in Muddy Run Park in early January.Those with good hearing have an advantage over those of us that must rely mainly on sight. My guess is that we may think we can sneak up on birds but the birds see something big and dangerous crashing through their neighborhood. They see us long before we see them.

Our challenge is to make them comfortable with us if we want good looks.

    In the northwest corner of Colerain Township, along Wesley Road, Lancaster County maintains a small county park named after a world class ornithologist born and reared in Lancaster. Ted Parker died in a plane crash in tropical South America while pursuing his study of tropical birds. To this day, his knowledge of tropical South American birds remains unchallenged.

His approach was to take two or three steps; stop, look and listen. Try that if you can.  Ted Parker Park is only an average place to bird. You will find the usual woods birds and get some additional good looks during migration. The problem is that the whole park consists of near mature deciduous trees. The stream helps, but essentially you are looking at a single habitat which attracts only certain birds.  

If you are looking for a variety of birds, you need to visit a wide range of habitats. Even that seems somewhat inadequate from time to time.  Eventually, you discover that different birds hang out at different places.  Consider waterfowl for a minute. Four places close by are the Octoraro reservoir, Muddy Run Lake, Middle Creek Wildlife Management area and the dam at Conowingo. To my surprise, a visit to each site would often yield a very different list.

For large numbers of migrating swans and snow geese, go to Middle Creek.  Large numbers of migrating Common Mergansers congregate at the Octoraro Reservoir. Below the Conowingo Dam is the only place of the four I have found Common goldeneye, and then only in the dead of winter.  Last week a group of us had a run in with some Wilson’s snipe, a wetland loving species. That’s common snipe for you oldsters.  I struggled, three years ago, to see three in Florida. When the Octoraro Lake was low due to dam repairs I found two on the exposed mud there. I ‘m sure I had seen a couple of others, but last week from the roadside overlooking a swampy meadow near Leola, we counted at least 30 on the ground and in the air.  

Re-growth of brush and young trees is a favored habitat of many birds. In the farm meadow that was turned into a wetland some ten years ago I am already seeing a change in resident birds. Power line cuts are always a favorite of birdwatchers because they get cut regularly.Two hard -to -find warblers are a sure bet at the Lancaster Conservancy property along Rock Springs Road on the Maryland/Pennsylvania border off route 222. However, many of us fear that that will soon be history because the brush and young trees are getting too large.

Birds often feed and travel in mixed groups. Each has its own diet and feeding habits, so there is little competition and it provides more eyes to watch for predators. Every time I see a chickadee or a titmouse I pause, and usually find some interesting companions.  Many birders start by watching a feeder. If you move past that, you soon realize how little you know about ,and the challenges of, your relaxing, outdoor hobby.