Time For Another Ramble

It seems like one minute we were clearing snow and the next we’re on the precipice of summer.

I think I’m done with my annual additions of perennials to my garden (he said for the third week in a row) and now, having caught my breath, it’s time to ramble again.

If you’re an observant gardener, you’ve noticed more than a few dead shrubs, evergreens with “die back” and roses that just didn’t make it through the winter very well. There’s a lot of speculation in the academic community as to whether the damage we’re seeing is the delayed effects of last summer’s heat and drought or the past winter’s cold and snow. While it’s not all cut and dried, some things are easy to figure out.

Snow Effects

Case in point: I recently passed a property where there’s a row of nondescript rhododendrons lined along the edge of the grounds; there must have been about 20 of them about 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide. I remember them blooming every spring for the past several years but as the winter snow melted I noticed that each and every plant appeared to be dead from

halfway up to the tops. While there’s plenty of rhody damage around and some is clearly from last summer, this was obviously from the winter.

As the snows fell, the bottom of these plants were insulated from the severe cold and wind. But the ground was frozen solid. The upper parts of the plants were probably burned by the dry, cold wind since the ground was frozen and no moisture could be transported up to the foliage. Essentially the tops of the plants burned and desiccated.

The shrubs won’t die though. And if the homeowner is resourceful, some remedial pruning may result in a row of saved rhodies.

Are Those Real Or Fake?

About 10 days before Mother’s Day I walked into a garden center (not in this area) that has a retail greenhouse. My eye was immediately drawn to the orchid section, where I spied an incredible blue-flowered orchid that was unmistakably a phalaenopsis. Problem is I wasn’t aware of any blue orchids, let alone a phal.

I looked for a tag but found only one among the 25 or so plants. That got me even more curious. The flower color was simply outrageous and somewhat fake looking but the plant was not only potted but very much alive.

Against my better judgment, I forked over 45 bucks but I knew I was being ripped off. The web site I found based on the name has full instructions on how to get the orchid to rebloom and about the “patented process” used to create the color. But the site is also pretty clear that new stems and flowers will be (wait for it) white. I just wonder why there was no tag on the plant saying this when I bought it?

Sure enough I found the website for the Blue Mystique Orchid and it is indeed a cross between real and fake. It’s a white phalaenopsis that has been infused with a blue coloring agent that results in the striking colors in the flowers.

Neither real nor Memorex.

Trying New Things

In mid-May I lost my trusty Felco #8 pruner. I found it a week later buried deep in compost in my dump cart.

With no hand-pruner and six dwarf shrub altheas,

Althea rosea

, to shape and prune deadwood out of, it was an opportunity to try out a new pruner. Enter the Radius Garden RF-A R-Force, or cross-cut pruner, that I had been sent over the winter.

Radius, whose motto is “Garden more. Hurt less,” has gotten some good press for its ergonomic tool line.

Both the Felco and the Radius are about the same size, though the Radius handle is a bit chunkier. The Felco feels more natural in my hand and the Radius, surprisingly, is not quite as ergonomic and fitting.

The Radius did the job most of the time but on several occasions twigs slipped between the blade and the rigid cutting edge. This happened again on a number of branches that were pencil-thick but still slightly green, allowing the pruner to mangle the cut. All I could think of was using this pruner on a rose bush and the damage it could do to the vulnerable canes, where mangled cuts can be a serious issue.

There is also a great deal of resistance in the cutting action. Some resistance is necessary to return the pruner to its ready, or open, position. But the effort needed to make the cut was excessive. In comparison, the motion and return on the Felco is as smooth as silk and nearly effortless for a comparative cut.

My overall impression of the Radius pruner was not great. It did not feel comfortable or natural in my hand and the numerous times when the twigs and branches were mangled by the cutting mechanism did not give me any confidence that this pruner would be one I’d want to keep in my garden shed. The excessive resistance needed to make a cut would seem to be tiring for extended work.

I returned to the unburied Felco, which was damp and slightly rusted. A bit of WD-40 on the blade then a quick cleanup and my favorite pruner was comfortably and smoothly doing its work.

My take on the Felco: Expensive, yes. Lasts forever, yes. Easy to fix and replace blade and spring, yes. A great Father’s Day present, yes.

Benefits Of Natural Products

With more than 120 apple trees in the orchard, we spend a lot of time pulling weeds from the mulch rings. This isn’t a commercial orchard—it’s someone’s estate—so the orchard has to look somewhat manicured and taken care of. This always meant lots of hand pulling of weeds in the mulch rings that are about 10 feet in diameter.

My crew likes to hit the weeds with Round-Up but last summer we used corn gluten in a section of about 20 trees. The gluten was added before the mulch was put down and we were very pleased with the weed-free results. This year we did every tree with the corn gluten. I have high hopes and don’t miss the Round-Up.

To treat all 120 trees, it cost about $130. The Roundup would have run about $10. But it’s all about priorities.

The corn gluten also adds nitrogen, which has to be taken into account, but here’s another dirty little secret. In the past 10 years, we haven’t fertilized a single one of the trees. But that’s another story for another time.

One thing to remember: just because it’s corn gluten doesn’t mean it’s organic. While you can buy organic gluten, that really gets expensive and it’s a bit over the hill for me. I’m happy just to use something natural as opposed to chemical.

You can use corn gluten for weed control in your flower beds, vegetable garden and orchard. Be inventive when buying it to save money. There’s more than one way to package and sell this great stuff.

Keep growing.