Month: September 2008

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How To Reduce Fall Deer Damage

                                                   Photo by Worldman

Because male deer’, the bucks, antlers reach full growth in the fall, they want to get rid of the soft velvet that protected their antlers while they were growing. Early in the fall you may see a buck rubbing his antlers on the trunk of a tree or see evidence of the rubbing. Besides rubbing off the velvet on the antlers, later in the fall the deer can be marking his territory by rubbing trunks of trees. Bucks use glands in their foreheads to make scent markers on the trunks of trees. These rubbings are called  “buck rubs.” Look for buck rubs on trees, usually one to two feet high off the ground, from September to December.

Though most trees are resilient to the buck rubs, it can be bad for the tree, especially if it is a young tree- losing bark on the tree trunk can kill a small tree. Damage that completely encircles the tree’s circumference is more deadly than damage up and down because the tree’s vascular system is just under the bark. Young trees have very thin bark that offers no protection from such damage.

You should surround the tree with a sturdy fence or barrier that can keep the male deer away from the tree trunk. A 6-foot-tall barrier of welded wire mesh, supported by 8-foot-tall rebar pounded into the ground at regular intervals around the circumference is one suggestion to keep bucks from rubbing on young trees. Another option is corrugated plastic drainpipe that has been slit along its length and placed around the trunk.  While deer repellents can help prevent deer browsing, they are not very effective in controlling buck rubs.

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Open House for Carolyn’s Shade Garden

                                         Photo by Will Stuart

This is an invitation for an open house to a beautiful shade garden owned by a woman named Carolyn.  It is this Saturday, September 27, from 10 to 2, rain or shine (checks and cash only).  Directions are below.  If you can’t come that day, please feel free to schedule an appointment during the preceding week, 9/22 to 9/26.

Carolyn has some beautiful plants available to transform your fall garden with showy flowers and ornamental leaves.  Don’t forget that fall is the best time to plant because soil temperatures are elevated into December, but new plantings don’t have to contend with hot weather.  This is the year that your fall garden will be as beautiful as your spring display!

This open house will offer blooming, specimen size:

  • Pink turtlehead/Chelone lyonii ‘Hot Lips’ (native)
  • Red and blue lobelia/Lobelia cardinalis & siphilitica (native)
  • Toad-lily/Tricyrtis ‘Sinonome’, Miyazaki’, ‘Samurai’, & ‘Taipei Silk’
  • Garden phlox/Phlox paniculata ‘Laura’, ‘Nicky’, Starfire’, ‘David’, ‘Blue Paradise’, & ‘David’s Lavender’ (native)
  • Japanese anemone/Anemone x hybrida ‘Pamina’, Honorine Joubert’, ‘Queen Charlotte’, & ‘Robustissima’
  •  White and pink hardy begonia/Begonia grandis, B. g. ‘Alba’, and B. g. ‘Heron’s Pirouette’ (selected as a superior form by Heronswood nursery in WA)
  •  Unusual ferns—Autumn fern, Tassel fern, and Japanese holly fern
  • Purple, peach, caramel, and lemon coral bells/Heuchera ‘Citronella’, ‘Crème Brulee’,  ‘Peach Melba’, & ‘Plum Pudding’ (native)
  • Foliage plants like bear’s breeches (acanthus), silver-leafed brunnera, native Jacob’s ladder ‘Stairway to Heaven’, pulmonaria ‘Bertram Anderson’ & ‘Diana Clare’, and the golden-leafed St. John’s Wort ‘Brigadoon’
  • Hellebores– large specimens of ‘Pink Lady’ and ‘Ivory Prince’
  •  Butterfly attractors—Tartarian aster ‘Jindai’, Ironweed (Vernonia, native), Hardy ageratum ‘Cory’ (native), ‘Little Lemon’ goldenrod (native), and Joe Pye Weed ‘Little Joe’ (native)
  • Chinese astilbe ‘Visions’—late-blooming, drought tolerant, and covered with buds
  • And many more!

Reusable Plant Crates, Boxes, and Pots:  If you took a plastic crate at a previous open house, don’t forget to reuse it on Saturday.  Please continue to bring cardboard boxes–we always need more.  I am happy to reuse my pots and similar sizes.  Please don’t drop off any pots that aren’t black or contained shrubs, trees, houseplants, or annuals.

Questions:  Carolyn’s catalogue is an excellent resource for information about the ornamental characteristics and cultural requirements of the plants I offer.  Carolyn often finds incorrect information on the preprinted plastic plant tags and recommend that you go to my catalogue first.  Printed copies will be available at the open house.  If your question is not covered in the catalogue, please feel free to consult one of her knowledgeable open house “volunteers” in the yellow hats.

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Callicarpa americana

                                           Photo by natureloving

TheGardenLady had never seen a bush with such magnificent fall berries until she walked around her town one fall and saw a shrub with magenta berries on it. Once seen TheGardenLady had to have this shrub; but when she first asked its name - Callycarpa Americana – it seemed difficult to remember.  And its common name with Beauty in it, was also difficult to recall because there is beauty as part of other common plant names. But once TheGardenLady learned that Callicarpa is derived from the Greek words kallos (beauty) and karpos (fruit); Linnaeus named it americana to distinguish it from the old-world species, this TheGardenLady could never forget the name.

It had to be given the name whether in Greek or in English of Beauty Berry because of the strikingly bright magenta berries that are profuse on all the branches-the berries on some shrubs are said to be pink through violet. And there are also white berried Callicarpa americana – var. lactea or other white berried callicarpas.

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Trilliums

                                                Photo by ER Post

Is there anyone who doesn’t love Trilliums?

When I planted one in my son’s garden and it bloomed the next spring, my granddaughter phoned me to ask what the fairy flower was that was blooming. A friend with a wonderful woodland garden told me that it was her love of Trilliums that started her gardening.

Towards finding out more about Trilliums, TheGardenLady recently attended a lecture given by John Gyer entitled “The Secret Life of Trilliums.” It turns out that if you want to plant Trillium seeds and get flowers from those seeds, you have to wait 8 years.  It takes 2 years just to make a first leaf.

So Mr. Gyer studied what was going on during those 8 years in the life of the plant both underground and when it sent up the stems and leaves that finally led to the plant putting forth flowers. If any gardening group would like to hear this fascinating talk, you can contact John Gyer at fernhill@voicenet.com

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American Goldfinch

                                             Photo taken by Bill Leaman

American Goldfinches, Carduelis tristis, have been sighted recently in TheGardenLady’s garden and other local gardens. The Goldfinches have been sighted on TheGardenLady’s sunflowers – those sunflowers in my garden that the squirrels, in their eagerness to eat the seeds, haven’t knocked down.

Goldfinches live much of the year in most of the country – going to warmer areas in the winter. Since they breed in late summer and fall, the males now have on their beautiful bright yellow feathers that must make them especially attractive to the female and are busily gathering seeds for their females and chicks. This late breeding may be related to the abundance of seeds in the late summer months.

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Musings on the Benefits of Gardening

                                            Photo taken by crawfor3

TheGardenLady has read numerous articles about the many health benefits from gardening.  Gardening is said to provide the regular physical exercise necessary in the prevention of heart disease, obesity, adult-onset diabetes and high blood pressure as well as the strength training important in the prevention of osteoporosis. 

Gardening doesn’t allow for boredom; there is something one can be doing all year round, in the garden or planning for the next year’s garden. It is a social activity. Gardeners enjoy each other’s company. They enjoy discussing plants and sharing garden tidbits or even visiting one another’s gardens.

Gardening and having plants reduces stress – the dreary days of winter are relieved by the plants you grow in your house while these plants give a fresher more oxygenated breathing environment. 

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