Summer Newsletter
2004
Add some mid summer color to your garden. Here are a few suggestions: Fragrant Abelia (drought tolerant, pretty arching branches with dark shiny leaves, sweet fragrance, great cut flower). Butterfly Bush (wonderful fragrance, attractsn butterflies like crazy, continuous bloom until hard frost), St. John's Wort (pretty yellow flowers). Daylilies (all colors, lots are rebloomers). Hydrangeas (easy ones are Pee Gee and Annabelle). Blackeyed Susan, Purple and White Coneflower5, Crocosmia, Rose Knockout
BE OUR GUESTS ON SATURDAY, AUGUST 7 AT 10:00 A.M. HERE AT HUNTREE NURSERY.
We'll be giving a program on various topics. 1. Let's take the mystery out of Ornamental Grasses.
2. Plant Folklore. 3. How to press flowers and turn them into masterpieces. 4. Tour our new Children's Garden and the Landry's yard.
Aren't we frustrated by the deer? Here's a great product, DEER VIK, which protects your plants even after rains. It was developed right here in southwestern Michigan and tested for 8 years. The word is out - it works! Deer and rabbits stay away from it. You need not reapply. Give it a try. People are coming back with great success stories.
Do you have problems with suckers sprouting up from the base of your crabapples or other ornamental trees? Well, we now have SUCKER STOPPER containing NAA which will inhibit these annoying suckers.
Weeds sprouting up in between the bricks in your patio or cracks in the dirveway? Use Ortho Season-Long Grass and Weed Killer which lasts up to 4 months.
When planting, think combinations. Got a shady moist spot? Combine Ligularia 'The Rocket', Hydrangea Dooley (adding aluminum suphate when planting to get a rich blue color) and Patriot Hosta. You'll have a stunning blue, yellow, white midsummer splash.
For a sunny spot: White & Purple Coneflower, Monarda 'Petite Delight;', Veronica 'Sunny Border Blue'. Or how about Coreopsis 'Moonbeam', Annabelle Hydrangea, & Daylily 'Rocket City' (bright orange). Blue Dune Grass, Purple Coneflower, Sedum Autumn Joy. Miscanthus Cosmopolitan, Yellow Daylily, and Black Eyed Susan. Tall combo: Ravenna Grass, JoePye Weed, Butterfly Bush.
Are you having slug problems this year? Well, join the club. It was just too damp for too long this season and they're out there lurking. Have yourself some scrambled Eggs. Waste not the shells. Smash them up into little bitty pieces and cast them under the hostas or whatever else is being eaten. The slugs will crawl over them and slice their little bodies up and die. Yey! Or use the new 'SLUGGO' non toxit product that won't harm your animals.
Try Bayer Advanced Garden Tree and Shrub Insect Control to protect trees and shrubs from damaging insects such as leeafminers, Jap. Beetles and borers for 12 months. No spraying! Mix the concentrate in a gallon of water and pour slowly close to the trunk of the tree. It goes into the roots and on up into the leaves.
Also try Bayer Advanced Garden All-In-One Rose and Flower Care. It controls the same way, through the roots, for 6 weeks against INSECTS and DISEASES and also fertilizes tat the same time. Feedback has been good. People say it is working! There's a lot of powdery mildew out there this year (the white fuzzy stuff on the leaf surfaces - especially plants like lilacs, honeysuckle, roses, and monarda.) and this should help!
Do you know the difference between Poison Ivy and Virginia Creeper? They both grow in the same places. Poison Ivy has three leaves and Virginia Creeper has five. If you start itching and the bumps begin to appear, use antiperspirant right away. Apply faithfully every time it itches and your poison ivy will dry right up. Mine was gone in one week! (I had it all up and down my arms and between my fingers.)
Kill P I vines with VINEX. It comes with a brush applicator that you brush onto the vine.
Cindy wants everyone (adults as well as kids) to come and see her new creation. THE CHILDREN"S GARDEN. This is her Master Gardener Project. IT's cute as can be. Enjoy the Toch and Feel garden, the punpkin patch, the bird and butterfly garden, the rainbow garden complete with a bluebird and elves. It's located north of the yellow barn, past the hoop houses. Put your signature on the garden wall.
Daylilies have come a long way since the old 'Ditch Lily'. They have been transformed by lots of breeding. Now we can have long blooming, reblooming, short compact plants, super huge flowers, or diminuative ones, and all colors, too. What fun. The list of rebloomers is getting longer every year. Next year we will even have Rose Returns which has the same great characteristics as Stella de'Oro and Happy Returns only it's PINK! Have yhou seen the white ones, or dark purple ones? Don't forget to deadhead your reblooming daylilies so they will set new buds faster.
Do your maples have black spots that look like tar? It's Tar Spot caused by spores spread around in the wet, humid, cloudy weather we had early in the season. It's nothing to be concerned about - it's cosmetic. It won't affect the health of your tree. And there's nothing you can do about it anyway.
Don't fertilize or trim after August 1st.
A lot of people are in love with our mushroom compost. And rightly so. It can transform a dry struggling sandy garden into a lush floriferous one. In case you don't know about it, it really beefs up the soil and helps hold moisture. We have it by the yard (none in bags) and it does wonders to sandy soil. Try it. You'll love it.
Just to let you know, Jerry, the rooster, has a new home tending a flock of 20 chickens. He's very happy and doesn't want to come back home. Toby has been greeting people with barks, but it's just his way of saying hello. Lucky's leg is feeling much better this year.
If you're surfing the web go to www.extension.umn.edu/projects/yardandgarden/
You'll find all kinds of good stuff including Insect Journal, Wildlife Clinic, Disease Watch and much more.
Late this summer we'll have Lycoris, the Resurrection Lily. Blooms pink trumpets mid summer.
Suggestions from the staff:
Cindy says: Plant one of the new ELM varieties. Small leaves, doesn't get huge, disease resistant. And "They're cute!".
Carmen says: Make your tree selection carefully. Your favorite tree may not be happy in your
favorite spot.
Paul says: Plant Plumbago. Fast spreading ground cover, red leaves, intense blue flowers.