Articles

Have you noticed how beautiful the dogwoods are this year? Have you looked at them closely?

It is my observation, while driving past, that there are varying levels of dead twigs and branches in at least half the trees I see. Older trees generally show more problems than the younger ones.

The culprit is anthracnose with a liberal dose of mildew thrown in. This disease combination, especially the anthracnose, has literally destroyed the native population of dogwoods across the states south of us.

Perhaps our colder winters will halt the march of the problem north, but while we cheered last winter the dogwoods looked on in dismay. Dogwoods are generally under story trees, meaning that they grow naturally in the shade of other trees.

This cooler, damper location adds to the problem, although I am seeing problems in the middle of sunny yards.

If you see dead branches in your dogwood, remove them immediately. The general rule of thumb for removal of diseased branches is to cut a foot behind the infected area. Also, sterilize your cutting tools frequently to prevent spread of the disease as you work. Dipping them in a mixture of bleach and water is adequate.

A number of years ago the landscape industry began planting Kousa dogwoods as one answer to the problem. Unfortunately, this introduction from Asia has an entirely different growth habit and flowering time.

Research at the University of Tennessee has focused on finding individual trees that showed resistance and building a breeding program around them. This has resulted in a number of named cultivars that show significantly better resistance than our native population.

Another program at Rutgers University has, over the last 20 or 25 years, concentrated on cross breeding to introduce just enough of the Kousa dogwood into the native varieties to achieve the desired resistance.

The Tennessee program offers a full range of colors but less resistance than the New Jersey program. If you want the pinks and the reds, select a named cultivar of Cornus florida. You might spot a Cherokee series in the marketplace. There are others.

The Stellar series is the name given to the Rutgers introductions. You may find names like Constellation, Celestial, Venus or even Stellar Pink. The latter is a trifle misleading. It has a hint of pink but is rather white.

These new hybrids are free of the disease problems. Thus, you can expect a larger, faster growing tree with larger flowers.

After a working lifetime of research, the Stellar series is about to become available. I suspect additional releases will be made over the next few years.

If you are planting a dogwood, I would think seriously before planting the straight native species, Cornus florida. Look for a cultivar with some resistance or consider the new hybrids.

A few minutes with a garden catalog quickly tells one that new is the word that drives the industry. The plant breeders, as usual, have been active churning out new plants this year.

Much of the activity is minor tweaks or improvements in existing favorites. It may be a new color, a smaller or larger plant, more flowers, larger flowers, longer lasting flowers or some new resistance to a disease or pest.

With common plants like petunias, geraniums or marigolds one almost needs a scorecard to tally all the claims and names of the new additions.

In the vegetable garden the effort is to add disease resistance, improve appearance or increase shelf life. One result of these pushes has been a revival of many of the heirloom vegetable varieties. One can generally sum up the heirlooms with the statement, "they sure are ugly but they taste good."

The heirlooms work with good sanitation, careful crop rotations and a bit of cooperation from the weather.

As you select your spring annuals, you will discover that at least 80 per cent of the plants you select were not available five years ago. You can get the same plants, but new and different cultivars.

There are several notable new additions recently. My favorite new annual is an euphorbia called Diamond Frost. It is aptly named because it blooms so profusely that it almost appears to be covered by frost.

A few plants were in the marketplace last year but general, widespread distribution is occurring this year. It gets about a foot tall and about as wide. The light green leaves are narrow. It works in the landscape or in a container. This is a winner.

An old favorite that is the focus of intense work is the zinnia. Several years ago they introduced the mounding, low growing Profusion series. It immediately won the All American Selection award. Today there are four or six colors available.

New this year in the zinnia world is the swizzle series. This series offers very large bicolor flowers on a foot tall plant. Colors the first year are cherry + ivory and scarlet + yellow.

I suspect that the new zinnias also feature additional resistance to mildew, which has been the scourge of this plant for many years,

Tuberous begonias have always had a beautiful flower, but often the plants were floppy. This problem seems to have been eliminated with the introduction of the Solenia series. They are very upright and flower more heavily. The flowers are good sized but are a bit smaller than those of the traditional tuberous begonias. Colors include pinks, yellows and reds.

One tip for anyone who is trying to grow begonias. It is very easy to over water them. They also should be watered early in the day, as water hitting a hot begonia leaf will soon destroy its appearance.

Just like last year and every year, 2006 offers new ways to make your annual garden sparkle.

Let me tell you about a parade without demanding that you participate. Each spring there is a parade of new plants for the garden. Many fit the modest or moderate budget but some are quite pricy for the first year or two after introduction.

Today I will identify and provide a brief description of some of the new perennials that seem to be in most garden magazines or that I am familiar with.

I'll start with the latest addition to a group of old stand-by perennials that have been in the garden since I was a kid. I am referring to gaillardias, or blanket flowers. In general they are vigorous, not very demanding on the water hose with a long blooming period. It's even longer if you deadhead.

Last year brought us one called Fanfare. It is midsized for gaillardias with a dark flared tubular bloom tipped in gold. This year "Oranges and Lemons" was added. As a plant it is a bit taller with very large peachy orange flowers tipped in yellow.

The two new ones are exceptional additions to a group of plants that have always shined as easy, low maintenance, long blooming perennials

As a kid I was a big fan of the annual bachelor button that seemed to appear in grain fields and could occasionally be coaxed into colonizing in the garden. Much later I discovered the perennial versions with larger flowers and better staying power.

Finally, this year there is a perennial form in a color I liked as a child. It is called "Amethyst in Snow". The flower, of course, has narrow snow-white petals with a deep purple center. This plant group is also not demanding in the garden.

There is also a lot of action with sedums in general and especially the tall, fall blooming ones. There are many new varieties, but the name "Jaws" has got my attention. It's the name. It is one of several new tall ones with jagged foliage. Any sedum is a great addition to the low maintenance garden.

Last year the magazines claimed a plethora of new coneflowers. As is too often the case, new plant introductions are reported to the writers and the publicity is there long before the plants are available. They are becoming much more available this season.

There must be at least twenty varieties of this old stand-by in the marketplace today. You now have a greatly expanded range of colors, plant size and petal shape and arrangement.

As always, there are numerous daylily, heucheras (coral bells) and hosta introductions. Sometimes these are pricy for the first several years and become more affordable as they become more available and the interest shifts to the latest new one.

I stayed on pretty safe ground with this list because I am haunted by the highly touted coreopsis called "Limerock Ruby" from several years ago. It was/is a great plant but you must move to North Carolina to enjoy it as a perennial.

I hope each of you found a few seconds to enjoy some garden beauty in the freak snow squalls last week. Mine came at a large north facing shrub border with blooming forsythias and magnolias, some conifers and red and yellow twigged dogwoods.

The snow covered the mulch throughout the bed while the greening grass surrounding it was melted bare. It was beautiful for a few fleeting minutes. Fortunately, I found myself there at the right moment.

Speaking of mulch, I am still depending on last year's cover. I eventually will get there, but I doubt that my plants will mind.

Mulch cools the soil and holds moisture. Those benefits are wonderful in the late spring and summer but are often a liability in the early spring. Often our early plantings struggle with cool soil temperatures and early mulching just exaggerates the situation.

I am also watching the few fruit trees in my garden. My guess is that they will bloom on the early side this year. I've seen earlier successful blooms, but generally bloom occurs about a week later.

If you are attempting to grow fruit in the mid-Atlantic area you will need to spray. Our summer humidity, frequent spring rains and a plethora of insects will destroy most, if not all, attempts without a little chemical intervention.

One of the best times to disrupt the insect and disease cycle is now. Spraying fruit trees before bloom is about half the battle for successful production. Consult a knowledgeable spray seller or talk to the Master Gardeners Hotline run by the Penn State Agricultural Extension service at 394-6851 for current information and recommendations.

I also continue to putter about my yard every chance I get. Three or four years ago I planted three hellebores almost under the shade of some azaleas near the front door on the east side of my house. They are often called Lenten Roses because of their bloom time.

The first year I was very impressed with the profusion of blooms on the two larger plants. The last several years they seemed to under-perform. When they were disappointing several weeks ago I whacked them to the ground removing all old leaves.

Within days a miracle occurred. They became a mass of new leaves and blooms. It may be a coincidence, but I doubt it. I think I learned something.

Most of my ornamental grasses are waiting to be cut back. It's time to hunt the chainsaw and get rid of the tops. Quite honestly, they were rather attractive until confronted with the winds of the last several weeks.

If you are thinking of planting ornamental grasses, wait until at least early May. The most ornamental ones need warm soil temperatures to grow, so wait till that happens.

In the vegetable garden the peas are in. I passed on the potatoes when I was told the smallest bag would plant a 50-foot row. By the time you read this the onions, spinach, lettuce and the first cabbage will be planted. I also found a small bundle of strawberry plants that I added to the far corner.

It is about time to dig holes and fill them with plants. I love having an excuse for dirty sandpaper hands.

Uh-oh, here we go again.

At a recent gardening program, I heard a landscape architect state that his most frequent request was for a natural garden. Using native plants makes sense.

Native plants should be accustomed to our weather and soil conditions. They should have learned to cope with our insect and disease pests. They should like it here but not so much that they become invasive.

They should also provide food and cover for our native animal species.

For a definition of native plants, one often hears about those located about fifty miles north or south and maybe 200 miles east or west. Any plants to be considered native also must have been here when the first colonists arrived.

Daylilies came with the colonists. Despite the fact that they flourish wild in meadows and on road banks they aren't native, even though they have had free range for many generations.

A few minutes earlier on the same program, a well-respected native plant advocate had offered a lengthy list of good native plants for the garden. To my surprise, most of her list can easily be found in a well-stocked nursery or garden center.

Even more surprising was that there was hardly a species plant on the list. She listed cultivars and selections of natives.

To clarify, a species plant would be one that you could find in the woods, wild meadow or other undisturbed area. Until recently, native plants just happened rather than being planted by man.

Selections of natives can occur when someone spots a superior plant in the wild and then propagates from it vegetatively (cuttings). Cultivars result from our efforts to improve a plant in some fashion.

Thus, one can almost always generalize that cultivars and selections will have superior landscape qualities when compared to straight species. Cultivars and selections would share the same favorable characteristics as the species.

As one who always wrestles with the native plant definition, I was quick to challenge her inclusion of cultivars and selections on her list of natives.

She then opened my eyes with perhaps the most important point I have heard about native plants to date. "If you are doing a restoration, use the species. If you are landscaping, take advantage of the improvements that cultivars and selections offer."

As you think about your plantings, decide what is appropriate for you. My guess, and I did not think too long or count, is that probably over half the perennials, shrubs and trees you find offered for sale are derived from natives and will satisfy the environmental goals of the native plant movement.

Native cultivars and selections join non-native selections at most greenhouses and garden centers. If you wish the native species, you most likely will need to visit a nursery that specializes in natives.