June is the time for most daylily blooms

Perhaps one of the easiest, most reliable, and trouble-free perennials for a sunny spot here in the South is the daylily or Hemerocallis. This Latin epithet means ‘beauty for a day’ and in fact, each flower opens and closes within the span of 24 hours.

If you have not tried growing daylilies, I suggest you get busy right away. They will grow most anywhere, but they do best in full sun with rich, well-drained soil, and ample moisture.  They also do quite well in a pot or planter.

If you have been growing daylilies, I want to encourage you to get some different varieties to try. You see, the plant breeders have discovered that daylilies are as easy to manipulate as they are to grow, so we have a huge selection of colors, sizes, and bloom times from which to choose.

After bloom, the bloom stalk (or more properly: scape) can be removed with pruners or scissors while it remains green.  After it turns brown in the late summer or fall it can usually be removed without a cutting tool.  If you allow it to  a produce seed pod, it will direct more energy toward seed production and less to the mass of the plant. The foliage looks pleasant and ‘grassy’ for the remainder of the season. In the winter the foliage turns brown and withers. Some varieties are semi-evergreen and don’t go completely dormant, but some of this depends on where you are. The warmer the winter, the more green foliage you will have….probably. One more note about the foliage: If you have a long hot summer that beats down the foliage of your plants, it’s OK to cut the whole clump down to 2 or 3 inches and allow it to grow new leaves.

To find new daylilies, cruise around the garden centers near your home. You could also  do a Google search for daylilies and will undoubtedly find several mail order nurseries to peruse.  Don’t be afraid to order bare root plants, even during the summer months.  Daylilies are tough and will be just fine. This is a good way to stretch your dollars, too. Bare root plants are cheaper to ship so you can buy some really cool new hybrids or just buy more of a particular color.  Just remember to unpack them as soon as they arrive and put them in a pot of fresh potting soil, then keep them watered. Better yet, have the bed ready and plant them straight away in their new home. If the foliage looks a little shaggy, trim it with scissors and let it start fresh. Because they are usually so prolific, daylilies have  become a great ‘pass along’ plant that is great to share with family or friends.

Walk into your favorite garden center, or the garden department of a big box home center to buy fertilizer for your grass, and you may be overwhelmed by the choices offered.

There are fertilizers for different types of grass, and combination products for every situation imaginable. There is Weed and Feed, Seed and Sod, Gloom and Doom, and Fur and Feather fertilizers.  And I think I saw one that was strictly for applying on Wednesdays.

To avoid all of this confusion, you need two key pieces of information:

1. The type of grass you possess, and

2.The number of square feet in your lawn.

If you don’t know, or aren’t sure what type of grass you have, dig up a little clump from an inconspicuous place and take it somewhere for identification. An independent Garden Center would be my first choice. The local County Extension Agent would be the next best bet. You could also send a picture of it to me and I could try to identify it for you, but the photo needs to be crystal clear.  If your turf is less than 50% of any desirable grass, it is time to start over, but that’s a blog post for a different day.

Once you know what type of grass you have, you need to know how much of it you have. Using a measuring wheel or long tape measure, take measurements of your turf grass areas. Do not ‘step it off’. Not only does everyone have a different length gait, but no one can consistently walk the same all of the time. (I’ve tried this when I forgot to bring my measuring wheel.  It was a disaster.)  Knowing your turf area in square feet is basic information necessary in figuring how much fertilizer, lime, and weed control products you need to buy and apply. The beautiful part of this is once you determine the square footage of your turf area; you don’t need to do it again, unless you make major changes to your landscape.

To get started, get a note pad, pen, measuring device, and a calculator. A measuring wheel is my favorite measuring device because it’s fast and I’m able to use it without a helper. The Big Box stores sell wheels for around $65-$70, but you can rent one from most rental stores for a mere pittance.   If you use a tape, get at least a 50’ and get a helper to hold the ‘Alabama’ end. (Sorry, it’s a surveyor joke.) Make the helper feel important by getting them to write down the measurements as you call them out.

This process uses some very basic 5^th grade geometry. Remember that area is determined by measuring the length and the width, then multiplying them together. Simple, right? Visualize your lawn area as a collection of geometric shapes, usually rectangles and squares. For each ‘shape’ measure the length and width, then write it down to look like a math problem.  When you are finished you should have a column of math problems that look like this (for example):

24 X 18

56 X 32

16 X 19

12 X 5

…and so on until you have measured your entire lawn area.

Sit down with your calculator and do the math for each problem, then add together the totals to arrive at the square footage of your turf area.

Please note that it is not necessary to get EXACT measurements of every last blade of grass.  You can be ‘out’ by 10% and still be fine with applying fertilizer or other lawn care products.  Also, because few lawns are laid out in perfect geometric shapes, you’ll have to measure odd-shaped areas as if they were squares or rectangles. Oh, and sometimes it’s necessary to measure an area as a triangle.  The area of a triangle is determined by multiplying half the base length times the height.  For more detailed information, I suggest you Google this concept. It isn’t that difficult, just tedious to explain, and I’m about to put myself to sleep.

Let’s see, now:

Turfgrass identified? Check!

Lawn area measured and calculated? Check!

The worst mistake you can make is to guess at the above two tidbits of information while you are standing next to a stack of fertilizer at the store.  And now that you have the two most critical bits of information, you have the information you need to make intelligent purchase of lawn care fertilizer and chemicals.

At any rate, Indian Hawthorn came roaring back to popularity after that very hard winter.  People were replacing dead Indian Hawthorn with more Indian Hawthorn.  I remember thinking, “How stupid. The replacement plants will just freeze again the next time we have a hard winter.”  That was perhaps 1985 and they have yet to have a large scale die off like they did in 1983. Was I mistaken?

A couple of things happened in the years since.  First, we had several years of mild or ‘normal’ winters. Second, the plant breeders got busy, and perhaps learned a lesson from that cold winter, and began to breed plants that were a little more cold hardy that the early cultivars.  That was 25 years ago and it’s been ’steady as she goes’.  Or has it?

While there hasn’t been a really bad winter to cause a large scale die off there is another nemesis lurking in the landscape.  Entomosporium leaf spot (Leaf Spot, in English) is causing moderate losses in Indian Hawthorn plantings in the metro Atlanta area. I have observed plantings in Lilburn and Locust Grove just this week that showed heavy infestations of the disease.

Before we discuss the treatment, a little background info: Indian hawthorn is in the Rose Family (Rosaceae, in Latin). Kin not only to roses, but apple trees, and Red Tip Photinias. Remember Red Tips? I remember selling them by the hundreds on any Saturday in the spring when I managed a Pike Nursery in the 80’s. They sold in one gallon pots for $1.88 and my little store would sell 500 to 1,000 a week. Red Tips were great until we had a couple of wet winters and they contracted a case of….you guessed it! Entomosporium Leaf Spot! Red Tips all across the land were dropping leaves like flies and there was little that could be done for them.  It was a good example of what happens when we plant too much of one thing. Today you see Red Tips only rarely. Typically, they are in old hedge rows that have been abandoned, growing to 15′ or so when they aren’t sheared constantly. It’s ironic to me that the best treatment for the disease included leaving them alone.

While Indian hawthorn aren’t doomed to a similar fate as Red Tips, I think we will see some noticeable losses as we exit this rainy winter . Treatment includes pruning, sanitation,  and spraying. Pruning , or shearing, is helpful to generate fresh growth where the plant has been defoliated . Sanitation means cleaning up the dead leaves that have fallen under the plant. This is more easily said than done because of the dense branch structure of the plant. Dig out what you can with your hands, then try using a blower to blast more out.  A light layer of fresh, not re-used, pine straw will help reduce re-infecting the plant. And finally, spraying the plants with a fungicide called Mancozeb will keep the Leaf Spot at bay. As always, read and follow label directions when using any pesticide.

First, remove the spark plug wire for safety. It’s really awkward to have a mower spontaneously crank while you have your hands under there.  If you don’t believe me, just ask my friend Stumpy what happened to him. (…but that’s a post for another day.)

Remove the blade.  If you haven’t done this lately (or ever) you may be surprised at the beat-up condition of the blade.  Most blades are good for a season, not much more. Since blades aren’t that expensive, plan on replacing them every Spring. If you mow in sandy conditions or dusty conditions you may have to replace the blade more often because the ’sail’ will wear away.  The sail is the edge opposite the cutting edge that is turned up like a spoiler on a sports car.  A ‘high-lift’ or mulching blade will have a more pronounced sail than a standard lift blade, and dusty conditions will eat away at the sail until it is just a sliver, or perhaps even totally gone. You want the sail there because that aids in the mulching of grass blades, as well as helping you move mowed leaves where you want them. If you decide you can put a fresh edge on your old blade, proceed cautiously.  The blade must be sharpened to factory specs, and it must be balanced or it will cause premature failure of the spindle.  Wear safety glasses while using you grinder. Those that are careless with these precautions should ask my buddy Patch why it’s important.

Change the fuel.  If you left gasoline in the tank all winter it has probably become stale. That is, it has lost most of its volatility and will not burn properly in the motor. Drain it and dispose of it properly (whatever that means.)

Remove the spark plug. Spark plugs are a lot more durable that you think. If it looks like the business end is black and chalky it needs to be cleaned. I use WD-40 and a rag, sometimes accompanied by a little bitty screwdriver to scrape and dig inside the groove if necessary. Always make sure you remove all the loose stuff that could potentially get in the motor if you aren’t careful.  Then replace the spark plug, and make sure you thread it in the cylinder carefully.  It’s common to cross-thread a spark plug and ruin an otherwise good mower. Tighten it back firmly, but not excessively. I’ve broken a couple off and it’s no fun to dig the remains out.  If you decide you will replace the spark plug, get the part number off of the old one, or just take it with you to the mower shop to get an exact replacement. If the store doesn’t have your brand but a comparable one, match the old with the new and make sure the diameter and depth of threads are the same.

Replace the air filter.  Unless your mower has a radiator, (and yes, some of them do) you need to replace the air filter right  along with the blade every Spring.  It’s also a good idea to check this periodically during the mowing season to make sure it isn’t caked with dust or weed particles.  Mowers need to breathe, too, you know.

Change the oil.  Just like your car needs an occasional oil change, so does your mower.  Drain the old, and replace it with what your owners manual says. What? You say! No owners manual? Simply get the name of the mower, the model name or number, and a serial number from a little silver rectangle stuck to the mower somewhere, and look up the owner’s manual on the internet….after you get through reading my blog.

Check the battery, if you have one.  If the battery has gone dead over the winter, replace it with an exact replacement, or put it on a charger. Also make sure the tires are inflated to the factory spec.  Check the printing on the side of the tire, if you can read letters that small, to get the optimum ‘psi’. And make sure all tires are inflated about the same.  Uneven inflation means an uneven cut.

Clean the underside of the deck thoroughly, make sure the wheels or deck adjust to the proper height, replace the spark plug wire, and crank her up!

Why do all of this yourself? Most respectable mower shops are swamped with mower repairs by now.  If you take yours in, you may not see it again until May. Doing these simple steps yourself will allow you get out there and start mowing.

Atlanta Magazine February 2010

I was delighted to learn that I was listed in a feature article in Atlanta Magazine in their February 2010 edition.  The article is titled “67 Things Every Atlantan Must Do”.  I am number 47.  Woo hoo!

Anticipating when this will open

I bought this bulb in a kit from Home Depot for several reasons.  For one, I wanted something else to brighten the house during Christmas.  Well, I started too late for a Christmas bloom, so now I’ll settle for simply brightening the house during the winter doldrums…which is fine. The other reason I bought this is because my Grandaddy Hargett was enthralled with these plants and had perhaps several hundred blooming in his landscape in Jacksonville, Florida.  He had nearly every bloom iteration known at the time, and having just one of these is enough to remind me of his passion.

I have potted this thing and have kept it near a sunny window and kept it watered. It has done well.  This most common mistake most people make is not allowing enough light. This will cause the bloom stem to be spindly, or ‘etiolated’, to use a proper hort term. As the much-awaited blooms have developed,  I began to try to anticipate when they would open. I have included my oldest son Taylor in this speculation and it has become a friendly wager, of sorts. The winner gets nothing more than bragging rights.

Taylor is majoring in Environmental Horticulture at a nearby tech school.  As such I thought it would be a good exercise to try to anticipate when the amaryllis will open.  Why? Am I a hyper-competitive type that has to make a game out of everything? Hardly.

In the practice of landscape management, anticipating or predicting when nature will perform is an important skill to develop.  It’s really more ‘art’ than science. If I can predict when the bermudagrass will green up, or when the leaves will finally clean themselves from the trees  in the fall, I can plan my work, prioritize my purchases, and be prepared for any number of potential cultural challenges.

I’ll let you know who anticipates  the amaryllis best.

Post Script:  I claim victory!

As the massive buds began to swell, then split, and reveal their velvety petals, Taylor and I both began to fudge our prediction of when they would finally open. I must say that my estimation was a little closer, but then…it’s my blog, anyway.

I’m a little concerned about this.

Ten degrees is the upper end of the threshold where we typically find serious winter damage to trees and shrubs. There are several factors that contribute to this, including the species of the plant, it’s location, or micro climate, in the landscape, available moisture in the soil, and how well the plant is acclimated to cold weather. Rather than fret over all the details, the only practical approach is simply to wait and see what the damage may be.

Winter damage usually will not be apparent until the weather warms. Today’s forecast says we may have at least 48 more hours of temps below 32 degrees, which is extraordinarily unusual for this area. After the thaw, the injury may take 2 days or 2 weeks to become apparent. I look for brown or black limbs, especially on the north or northwest side of the plant. Look for leaves with brown or black edges, or sometimes they simply look wilted and dull green rather than a shiny green.

After I’m sure I have waited long enough for the damage to show, I cut off the dead parts. It’s important to cut off the dead parts because the ‘dead’ can spread if it’s ignored. The other issue I have to consider is the looks of the plant. If I go hacking off dead limbs I can ruin the looks of a plant. If the damage is severe enough I may have to cut off a good many healthy limbs to maintain the shape of the plant.

In addition to shrubs, young, thin-barked trees may show long splits or cracks in the lower trunk. In extreme cases frost cracks can be so extensive that it kills or stunts the growth of the tree. I have noticed this particularly with Crepemyrtles, Red Maples and young Oaks that have been planted in a landscape. I have not noticed splitting on young native trees and I don’t know why. I wonder if anyone has done a study on that?

Treatment of frost-damaged trees is a little different but no less important. As the damage becomes evident, the bark will usually shield or cover a dead area that will eventually rot out and leave the heart wood exposed. The extent of the damage can take several months to a year to show, so I have to be patient before I treat. Trees don’t heal from an injury like we do so the treatment is different. By late this summer or early fall I will inspect trees that have frost cracks from this winter. I’ll determine the extent of the wound and how much dead or loose bark is covering it. I’ll cut that bark away with a fresh blade in my box knife, exposing the entire injury area to the air. Without this, bugs, disease, and rot-inducing moisture can be harbored underneath. Cutting away the bark allows it to dry and continue the healng process. In the next year I will look for the edges of the injury to look ‘rolled’ or like it has a lip on it. This is called callus tissue and is a sign that the healing is continuing in the right direction.

Frost crack on a tree

Several things can be done to prevent or minimize frost damage to plants in the landscape, but that’s for another post.

Post Script: It’s been a full month since that Saturday morning when the thermometer dipped to 10 degrees.  I have seen some mild or limited damage to Camellia sasanqua in the form of leaf burn, but nothing significant.

Later that day (after I posted) I noticed another type of frost damage.  My irrigation well plumbing had ruptured and was gushing all over the ground.  I confess with all the rain we’ve had I had not used the well in a while and had neglected to winterize it. (DOH!) I now have a reminder in my Blackberry to drain the pipes next November.

In October of 2004 Dr. Wade, with the help of the Southeastern Palm Society, planted several species of palms that are native to locations known to have colder winter temperatures than most palms will endure. These were planted in ordinary Georgia farm soil, placed under drip irrigation, mulched with pine straw, and fertilized with plain old 16-4-8 fertilizer. He recorded low temperatures and growth rates during that time. There is a detailed chart showing all of this data that I will be glad to scan and email to whomever would like to see it. It’s only one page and may help someone decide which palm to plant in their landscape.

There was also another chart included in the handouts that listed eleven species or cultivars of palms, the low temperature at which damage occurs, and the lowest temperature from which that palm can recover. Again, I will be delighted to email this on request.

Notably, Dr. Wade commented that winter survival for palms is determined by how well established they are prior to cold weather. This makes sense to me. Any plant, not just palms, are much more hardy when they are well-established. Why then, would Dr. Wade start the research project in late October? The beginning date on his hand out is October 22, 2004 and that tells me several things: First, Dr. Wade really is confident of his ability to gets plants established prior to the onset of cold weather. Second, he had very good cultural conditions at the farm (which can easily be duplicated at home, by the way). And last, it’s OK to plant palms now.

There is one little secret ingredient that Dr. Wade used. I’m not sure how significant it is, and perhaps a little more research would be helpful to know. He used trace elements in addition to the fertilizer on the palms. I”m not clear if he used a fertilizer that included trace elements, or if he added them. I suspect the latter is true. In greenhouse crops, having those trace elements available can make or break a crop. In native soils, where many or all of those trace elements are already present, it’s tough to tell if they help.

It’s a little bit of a chore to locate trace elements if you wanted them. If I were doing this I would go to a greenhouse or grower supply house and buy a bag. Try finding it online. In fact, if it’s available online,it might be easier to find a dry or water soluble with trace elements mixed together. In either case, don’t expect to find it in small, homeowner-sized quantities. It will be in large bags meant for growers, so share it with fellow palm aficionados.

Reading between the lines in Dr. Wades research, I think it is worth emphasizing that all of his palms are being grown in the ground! Many times we want to put palms in containers to show them off in the landscape, but containerized plants of any type are much, much more prone to cold damage. Those in containers should be dragged in to the garage on the coldest nights.

The coldest night recorded in Watkinsville in the last five years was a reading of 12 degrees just 90 days after planting. No damage was noted on the handout. The project continues, stay tuned.

I can have the best, most wonderful, and coolest plants on a drawing. The client may love them and want them. In fact, often when a client is a real plant nerd they will suggest something very cool, so I will work it in the drawing. And then it happens.

The reality of supply and demand in the nursery business smacks me in the head like a handful of black, slimy leaves from a seldom-cleaned gutter: I can only get the cool stuff if they have it at the nursery.

So, I have learned not to get my hopes up. I have learned to temper my lust for coolness with what they have on hand at the supply house.

Then sometimes I get a pleasant surprise. Sometimes the nursery will have something even better than I had spec’d in the drawing. You never know.

The results of poor pruning

When crepes are pruned heavily, they respond by re-growing with a vengance.  I have witnessed Crepe Myrtles grow four to six feet in one season.  And while this is remarkable, the problem arises when the plant blooms in July.  Rampant growth produces large blooms. Large blooms catch rain water and become heavy.  Heavy blooms can’t be supported by a six-foot stem and respond by bending, or ‘weeping’ over.  ”But it doesn’t look that bad, Russ,” you may say.  True, but it could look so much better, and be easier to manage in the winter.

Crepe Myrtles have an elegance and sophistication to them that is only seen when they are managed well.  A well-managed crepe myrtle is, first and foremost, planted in a good spot. It is surrounded by mulch of some sort, and it is pruned very, very little.  In fact, the older a crepe is, the less it needs pruning.

Anyway, I will show you what a well-managed crepe looks like…when I find one.  And I will certainly be posting more about pruning when it comes time to do this in the winter.