The burrowing vermin. I loathe them with the heat of a thousand suns. At our old residence, we had them, but they rather limited themselves to the side yard where no one gardened and no one ever went, except the dog who would participate in epic excavation efforts. We figured it kept her out of trouble and gave her some exercise.
Now, though, I’m finding what I suspect are pocket gophers burrowing everywhere. Along the front pad of our front patio one evening, I could see the ground undulating with the creature’s progress. Attempts to capture and dispatch this particular little troll were brutally rebuffed and we were left with an empty shovel and no furry sojourner.
Seriously, they’re driving me mad! While I’m not near the point of blasting craters in my yard with a shotgun (yet), I have reached the point of pondering my mental health (no comments from the peanut gallery or my family, please) as a result of my attempts to rid my yard of burrowing vermin.
I’ve been told about and tried a lot of different things. Flooding the runs with water. Perhaps I should offer soap as well, since they seem to enjoy this. Gopher bombs? Hmph. Insert your favorite 420 joke here. I think they like it. It’s probably a big ol’ gopher party down there every time I set one off. Sonic gopher spikes. Well, yesterday morning there was a gopher mound literally RIGHT NEXT TO the fancy solar spike that was brought to me with pride, since it was on sale and didn’t require batteries. RIGHT NEXT TO IT. Yaaaaah!
I even forced a friend to drive me out to Gold Hill in search of Euphorbia lathyris, commonly known as Caper Spurge or Mole Plant. Truth be told, I actually thought I was looking for Castor Bean Plant (ricinus communis), and had to drive back and forth several time before I found “a weedy looking plant that had just set seed pods”. What I found was Mole Plant, when I was looking for the large, distinct leaves of the Castor Bean. Sigh. So, I leaped out of the truck, whacked off several hands-full and stuffed them in a bucket. Thus far, my attempts to root them are not working so well, but I suspect that I will – at least – get some seeds with which I can infest my yard.
Euphorbia lathyris, commonly known as Mole Plant, is an annual with opposite, lance shaped leaves which is often grown as an ornamental plant. It’s not really “weedy” looking, as I stated above. It’s somewhat attractive and interesting looking. Caper Spurge, as it is also known (and spurge is so much more fun to say) does occasionally occur as a weed on roadsides (like the ones I was directed to – Thank YOU, Russell!) and pastures. I’m finding that this is not all that common. Toward the top of the plant the leaves change into a triangular shape and have a conspicuous white vein in the center. When you break one of these plants, a sticky, white sap comes out. The flowers are fairly inconspicuous and will occur on the upper portions of the plant, yellow in color. The seed pods are roundish and appear to be in three sections, put together. It’s those seeds that I’m really after! Supposedly, it’s the roots and the seeds that are noxious to gophers. Mole Plant doesn’t kill them – They just go away. At this point, I’d be OK with dead gophers, but disappearing gophers would be cause for celebration. Careful with this plant – it is said to be poisonous.
Unlike the Castor Bean, these plants grow about four feet tall, but take up the space of about one foot in diameter, like a tower. They self seed when the plant falls over from drying out in the fall. I’ve heard that folks have been successful growing it with soil that is hard, high clay content, with minimal watering even through hot, dry summers.
With regard to Castor Bean, which I personally am going to try in my quest to rid my yard of varmints, it is a big, attractive, fast growing plant with huge exotic looking leaves. I found seeds from my favorite online shopping source and got three different colors. I have LOTS of varmints.
Castor Bean can be sown directly outdoors or started 6 to 8 weeks before the last average frost date indoors. They can also be planted just about any other time when frost isn’t an issue. Soak your seeds for 24 hours in warm water, then plant about an inch deep. Plant them outdoors in full sun. Castor Beans like rich, well drained soil, so dig in a few spades full of compost into the soil where you’ll be planting. Keep the soil evenly moist and mulch well. As your Castor Bean blooms, you can deadhead unless you are thinking to gather beans for future planting. In that case, you’ll want to let the seed pods form and gather them up. Fertilize with a good organic fertilizer every four to six weeks. Castor Bean gets big, fast. You may need to stake your plants. They’ll need plenty of space, so keep this in mind when planting or plan on doing lots of pruning otherwise. Tear out and discard the plants when frost gets them in the fall. If you’re in one of the warmer areas, you could treat it as a perennial, cutting it back and mulching heavily for over-wintering.
Both the Mole Plant and Castor Bean are said to be poisonous. I researched this and found a wide range of opinion on toxicity. I have also found it said that poinsettia is poisonous, but have been unable to locate any reports of death to humans or animals. Best to err on the side of caution and keep small children and livestock away from your Castor Beans. Deer do not eat Castor Bean.
Getting back to the varmints…
The other methods for getting rid of moles and gophers include traps with such medieval monikers as “scissor” traps, “choker” traps and “harpoon” traps. Nice. There are also live traps, but that begs the question of what to do with the varmint once you catch it.
I’ve read of a method, with no testimony to back it up, of opening a number of varmint tunnels, pouring in a baby food jar full of gasoline into each, waiting a bit for the fumes to flood the tunnels and then lighting the tunnels. Definitely not ecologically sound and rather brings to mind crowds of adolescent boys having a lark.
Daffodils, squill, anything in the allium (onion/garlic family), Mexican marigolds and fritillaria are all said to repel varmints. My varmints actually like squill, I think. Probably with a nice vinaigrette. Your mileage may vary. And you may wind up growing ONLY those things, if you’re really infested with a subterranean invasion.
I’ve heard that gum of the Juicy Fruit variety will kill varmints. Now that we’ve spent something equaling the National deficit on gum and fumigator bombs, I think I can categorically state that somewhere there’s a gopher who could be the world bubble blowing champion if only they’d let him into the contest. As for the bombs, again, insert your favorite 420 joke here. I bought castor oil, thinking that if they didn’t like the plant, how could they like the oil? Aside from the fact that it does not come in the convenient 50 gallon drum, I suspect that the varmints are moisturizing with it.
Hair clippings from the salon? Um, don’t think so. They may have taken up weaving rugs and blanket for their dens, because it sure isn’t killing them or driving them away. Used cat litter? My dog is having a field day with that one. M-80’s? I heard my neighbor using them, but they still have moles. And craters.
Of course, with the number of Dachshunds in Rogue River, you could probably find someone who would bring the little rodent-wieners to your house to excavate the vermin, but do you really want you yard dug up like that? I don’t.
So, with great sighing, eye rolling and the wringing of hands, I’m closing this week with the request for any suggestions for gopher removal, destruction or repellant. I’d love to hear it. In the meantime, I’m waiting on my Castor Bean seeds…
20 June 2009
13 June 2009
Flower Pots, Washtubs, Wooden Boxes...Oh My!
Container gardening is a really easy way to bring some color up close and personal as well as getting some fresh produce into your diet. One of the things I love about container gardening is that anyone can do it. For seniors, it puts your garden more within reach. Pull up a chair and garden in a variety of containers from a half barrel to an old wagon to a collection of old metal pails. For kids, a larger container can produce both some lovely flowers as well as a small crop of baby carrots or Easter egg radishes.
What you can grow in a container is limited pretty much only by the size of the container and possibly by your imagination. I read about a house warming gift of a Summer Salad Container - a cherry tomato, some basil, parsley and chives, a dwarf cucumber and summer salad greens. Truth be told, by late summer, they won’t be the prettiest, but this arrangement should produce into the fall, provided you’ve planted it in a 24” to 30” container.
Your choices in containers ranges from the practical (think large, black, plastic) to the attractive (think wooden half barrels) to the whimsical (antique pails, bushel baskets, Radio Flyer wagons). No matter what kind of container you choose for veggie gardening, it will need holes in the base or bottom for drainage of excess water.
While we see lots of black plastic containers, and you probably have a few in your yard or garage, bear in mind that the darker colored containers absorb heat. There is a possibility that the root systems of plants in these types of containers could be damaged to heat. If you do opt for the dark colored pots, try painting them a lighter color or shading just the container.
The size of the container and what you plant in it is a consideration. For larger veggies, like tomatoes and eggplants, you should use a five gallon container for each plant. You can grow these plants in 2 or 3 gallon containers, but they will require considerably more attention.
You can use the soil from your garden for your containers. If you do, you should plan on amending it with compost. There are many fine mixes available that are excellent as well. Mixing one part compost to two parts planting mix will aid in fertility. Using a complete organic fertilizer and giving your plants a sip of fish emulsion mixed with water will keep your veggies fed for the whole growing season.
Containers require more frequent watering than plants in the ground. As the season progresses and your plants grow larger, their root system will expand. This will require even more water. Don’t wait until you see your plants wilting. Check your containers daily to determine is more water is needed.
When choosing what to put in your containers, be on the lookout for buzz words like bush, compact and dwarf.
Here are some varieties that you might consider for your container garden:
Tomatoes: Patio, Pixie, Saladette, Tumbling Tom and Small Fry
Leaf Lettuce: Buttercrunch, Bibb and Salad Bowl
Green Beans: Pole beans actually have a higher yield for a smaller area. Blue Lake, Kentucky Wonder and French Dwarf are excellent choices.
Peppers: Red Cherry, Jalapeno, Sweet Banana and Cubanelle
Eggplant: Bambino and Slim Jim
Looking ahead: It’s not too early to think ahead to the fall and winter vegetable garden. Planning should start now. Fall and winter gardening is an old practice that is a great solution for maintaining the fertility of your garden’s soil at peak levels. It also yields crops of delicious veggies at a fraction of the cost of the grocery store.
The climate patters of the lower elevation areas west of the Cascades, right where we are, are very suitable for fall and winter gardening. Careful mulching can ensure the usual winter frosts will not be severe enough to cause significant damage. Further extension of the growing season can be affected with cold frames and tunnels.
The main factor with winter gardening is knowing the average date of the first killing frost in our area. This is usually around the end of October. Plant your winter crops early enough to let them reach full maturity before that first killing frost. The Master Gardeners have loads of helpful information about the timing of first frosts, hardiness of various crops for our area as well as being just the coolest people you’d ever want to chat with about gardening.
Here are some suggestions, with maturity times and planting guidelines:
Beets, Brussels’ sprouts, cabbages, cauliflower, fava beans, carrots, parsnips and globe onions mature in about 90 days. Plant them by mid-July for fall harvest.
Early carrots, leeks, turnips, collards and Swiss chard mature in around 60 days and should be planted by mid-August.
Chives, green onions, radishes, broccoli, leaf lettuces and spinach mature in about 30 days and should be in the ground no later than the first week of September.
You can add ten to fifteen degrees to your fall and winter garden by planting near windbreaks and walls. Take a look at any south facing wall of your home, shed or barn and see if it is ideally situation for utilizing that free solar energy.
Make a cloche out of clear pop bottles or gallon milk jugs. Cover your smaller plants, remove the lids and you have an instant little greenhouse.
If you have the means to have raised beds, the soil in a well made and maintained raised bed can be between 8 and 12 degrees warmer than the same soil in the surrounding garden areas. Raised beds also mean less bending to work in or harvest from.
Mulching serves many purposes in the winter garden. In addition to insulating the plants with a blanket of protection over the root system, it helps deter winter growth of weeks and grasses. Mulch also aids in reducing evaporation of moisture from the soil during dry times as well as preventing erosion from heavier winter rainstorms. Two inches of mulch material is best.
Remember that, with fall and winter veggies, rotation is vital. Don’t plant the same veggie crops in the same location as the previous year or the summer season. The soil will be weakened through continual loss of the same nutrients, but the plants will also lend themselves to insect pests and disease.
If you have a portion of your garden that will be laying idle for a time, you can build up your soil by growing a cover crop. These are fast growing, green plants that can be chopped up, spaded or tilled in and will add green matter that compost into hummus. Alfalfa, various varieties of clover, vetch, oats and lupines are all common cover crops that will benefit your soil.
In closing, try successive plantings of quick growing veggies like leaf lettuce, beets, spinach and radishes. Don’t be afraid to try planting some crops later than recommended. It’s a bit risky, but the reward is definitely worth the risk. Keep a record of what you planted, when and what worked and what didn’t.
Share your successes with your friends and neighbors. And don’t forget to plant a little extra for those in our community that are struggling.
What you can grow in a container is limited pretty much only by the size of the container and possibly by your imagination. I read about a house warming gift of a Summer Salad Container - a cherry tomato, some basil, parsley and chives, a dwarf cucumber and summer salad greens. Truth be told, by late summer, they won’t be the prettiest, but this arrangement should produce into the fall, provided you’ve planted it in a 24” to 30” container.
Your choices in containers ranges from the practical (think large, black, plastic) to the attractive (think wooden half barrels) to the whimsical (antique pails, bushel baskets, Radio Flyer wagons). No matter what kind of container you choose for veggie gardening, it will need holes in the base or bottom for drainage of excess water.
While we see lots of black plastic containers, and you probably have a few in your yard or garage, bear in mind that the darker colored containers absorb heat. There is a possibility that the root systems of plants in these types of containers could be damaged to heat. If you do opt for the dark colored pots, try painting them a lighter color or shading just the container.
The size of the container and what you plant in it is a consideration. For larger veggies, like tomatoes and eggplants, you should use a five gallon container for each plant. You can grow these plants in 2 or 3 gallon containers, but they will require considerably more attention.
You can use the soil from your garden for your containers. If you do, you should plan on amending it with compost. There are many fine mixes available that are excellent as well. Mixing one part compost to two parts planting mix will aid in fertility. Using a complete organic fertilizer and giving your plants a sip of fish emulsion mixed with water will keep your veggies fed for the whole growing season.
Containers require more frequent watering than plants in the ground. As the season progresses and your plants grow larger, their root system will expand. This will require even more water. Don’t wait until you see your plants wilting. Check your containers daily to determine is more water is needed.
When choosing what to put in your containers, be on the lookout for buzz words like bush, compact and dwarf.
Here are some varieties that you might consider for your container garden:
Tomatoes: Patio, Pixie, Saladette, Tumbling Tom and Small Fry
Leaf Lettuce: Buttercrunch, Bibb and Salad Bowl
Green Beans: Pole beans actually have a higher yield for a smaller area. Blue Lake, Kentucky Wonder and French Dwarf are excellent choices.
Peppers: Red Cherry, Jalapeno, Sweet Banana and Cubanelle
Eggplant: Bambino and Slim Jim
Looking ahead: It’s not too early to think ahead to the fall and winter vegetable garden. Planning should start now. Fall and winter gardening is an old practice that is a great solution for maintaining the fertility of your garden’s soil at peak levels. It also yields crops of delicious veggies at a fraction of the cost of the grocery store.
The climate patters of the lower elevation areas west of the Cascades, right where we are, are very suitable for fall and winter gardening. Careful mulching can ensure the usual winter frosts will not be severe enough to cause significant damage. Further extension of the growing season can be affected with cold frames and tunnels.
The main factor with winter gardening is knowing the average date of the first killing frost in our area. This is usually around the end of October. Plant your winter crops early enough to let them reach full maturity before that first killing frost. The Master Gardeners have loads of helpful information about the timing of first frosts, hardiness of various crops for our area as well as being just the coolest people you’d ever want to chat with about gardening.
Here are some suggestions, with maturity times and planting guidelines:
Beets, Brussels’ sprouts, cabbages, cauliflower, fava beans, carrots, parsnips and globe onions mature in about 90 days. Plant them by mid-July for fall harvest.
Early carrots, leeks, turnips, collards and Swiss chard mature in around 60 days and should be planted by mid-August.
Chives, green onions, radishes, broccoli, leaf lettuces and spinach mature in about 30 days and should be in the ground no later than the first week of September.
You can add ten to fifteen degrees to your fall and winter garden by planting near windbreaks and walls. Take a look at any south facing wall of your home, shed or barn and see if it is ideally situation for utilizing that free solar energy.
Make a cloche out of clear pop bottles or gallon milk jugs. Cover your smaller plants, remove the lids and you have an instant little greenhouse.
If you have the means to have raised beds, the soil in a well made and maintained raised bed can be between 8 and 12 degrees warmer than the same soil in the surrounding garden areas. Raised beds also mean less bending to work in or harvest from.
Mulching serves many purposes in the winter garden. In addition to insulating the plants with a blanket of protection over the root system, it helps deter winter growth of weeks and grasses. Mulch also aids in reducing evaporation of moisture from the soil during dry times as well as preventing erosion from heavier winter rainstorms. Two inches of mulch material is best.
Remember that, with fall and winter veggies, rotation is vital. Don’t plant the same veggie crops in the same location as the previous year or the summer season. The soil will be weakened through continual loss of the same nutrients, but the plants will also lend themselves to insect pests and disease.
If you have a portion of your garden that will be laying idle for a time, you can build up your soil by growing a cover crop. These are fast growing, green plants that can be chopped up, spaded or tilled in and will add green matter that compost into hummus. Alfalfa, various varieties of clover, vetch, oats and lupines are all common cover crops that will benefit your soil.
In closing, try successive plantings of quick growing veggies like leaf lettuce, beets, spinach and radishes. Don’t be afraid to try planting some crops later than recommended. It’s a bit risky, but the reward is definitely worth the risk. Keep a record of what you planted, when and what worked and what didn’t.
Share your successes with your friends and neighbors. And don’t forget to plant a little extra for those in our community that are struggling.
07 June 2009
Flower of the Month for June: The Rose
Everywhere you look around town and driving out towards Wimer, you see roses in glorious bloom. I wonder if any of those plants got any pruning earlier this spring. There is one in particular in town that is simply gorgeous; it looks like a Hawaiian sunset. Every spring for the last three springs, I’ve watched that rose bloom, while the canes get thinner and sparser. The blooms are still fabulous, but that plant is going to need some help in the next couple of seasons before it starts to break from lack of stoutness.
If you pruned your roses earlier this year, you may have erred on the side of caution and not pruned enough. Or your roses may have had other ideas and are now working toward doing their own thing. “Their Own Thing” is not always the best thing for the bush as a whole.
Pruning is primarily an early spring activity, although a certain amount of it is frequently required during the course of the growing season. June here in the Valley often brings a flush of growth in our roses.
Now is the time to check on the pruning you did earlier this spring. You’ll want to check for die-back. Check the canes you cut earlier and see if there has been further die-back. If there is, you’ll want to top off that cane by cutting down to an outside bud or leaf growth. If you are seeing a lot of growth in the center of the bush, you’ll want to remedy that by correcting the pruning at the center. Watch for suckers, too, as they will sap the energy from the plant and its blooms.
Local rose experts advise cleaning up the bud union by trimming off the old canes and stubs. A nice, clean bud union will reward you with many more basal canes and eventually more rose bush and better blooms.
Don’t forget deadheading at this time of the year, with the flush of the season’s first blooms. You’ll want your plant to stay strong and deadheading encourages further and more blooms for the rest of the summer. If you’re growing hybrid tea roses, you’ll want to deadhead by removing the spent flower at a point on the cane where five or seven leaflets are growing. The cut should be made ¼ inch above the leaf axial of an outward growing bud and should slope downward into the center of the bush.
Floribundas and Grandifloras are deadheaded much the same way, although removing the center bloom from a Floribunda plant will produce much more uniform bloom sprays. Some experts recommend removing the spent blooms from Floribundas and Grandifloras as they complete their bloom cycle without disturbing the rest of the blooms on the spray. Once a bloom cycle is complete, these two types of roses are pruned exactly as the Hybrid Tea. Olde Roses can also profit from deadheading, because reoccurring blooms are encouraged in those types that are intermittent or repeat bloomers.
Be mindful of unproductive growth that will crowd the middle of the plant and restrict sunlight and the flow of air. Remove this growth and any blind shoots which are twiggy in appearance and do not end in a bloom bud. A good resource is the book,”Growing Good Roses” by Rayford Reddell. He recommends pruning basal breaks at a bud eye when the cane is twelve to fifteen inches tall so to encourage a sturdy branched cane that will produce more and better blooms.
For the suckers that will inevitably emerge through this season, you should dig down beneath the soil and prune that sucker off at the point where it grows.
Let’s talk about the really fun part of growing roses – cuttings. Growing new rose plants from cuttings is one of the most enjoyable facets of growing roses. Cuttings can be taken at any time, but following the first bloom of the season is the best time because of the amount of good weather remaining for the cutting to get established and gain strength.
There are many ways to prepare cuttings and once you find one that works for you, stick with it. The easiest and most convenient way, in my opinion, is cutting the fading bloom of the variety I want to grow at a point on the stem which will provide four (or more) bud eyes and placing that cutting immediately in water.
The cutting is prepared by removing the bloom and the leaves from the lower two sets of leaflets. The end of the cutting, to be placed in the growing material, is stripped on several places of bark and the stripped areas and the end are generously coated with Rootone (a rooting hormone). The prepared cutting is then placed in a pot filled with a growing medium of equal parts soil, sand and peat moss. Make a hole in the medium, place your cutting, being careful not to knock off the Rootone and tamp the medium firmly around the stem.
Record what kind of rose you’ve gotten your cutting from (if you can) and the date on the pot. Enclose your cutting in plastic that is supported by a couple of lengths of stout wire (coat hangers are great for this) bent into a U. Make sure you make a hole in the top for ventilation. The bag acts like a mini-greenhouse. Place your cuttings in a shady place and wait for them to mature. Watch for new leaves to appear, remove the plastic bag and feed with a water soluble fertilizer. Some folks like Ra-Pid-Grow. Fox Organics makes several good water solubles. Any of the Fox products, liquid kelp or fish emulsion are good choices. Don’t put your cuttings out into the full sun immediately. Do this gradually and watch it grow. Once your cutting is ready to move to the full sun, it is ready to be planted at its permanent location.
Ordinarily, June is also the month that gardeners start to wonder about how much water they should be giving their roses. If the spring has been especially dry, this will understandably generate some concern. This year, though, we seem to be having a somewhat wonky weather pattern. Roses in the height of their growth cycle are very thirsty and require about an inch of water a week. Less water stresses the plants and will result in poor growth and less bloom. Putting a rain gauge in your rose garden is a good idea since it’s pretty easy to overestimate the amount of rainfall we are actually getting.
There are two schools of thought on the method of watering. Some say that wet rose foliage is to be avoided and deliberately spraying roses is inviting disease into your rose garden. Others will say that roses enjoy and benefit from the occasional cleansing shower. After all, we don’t live in the Sahara and rains often wash our roses. A strong stream of water from a water wand is a good way to rid the roses of aphids and spider mites. It’s generally a good idea after a rain or a bath to respray for blackspot as it requires moisture to infect our plants. Use the baking soda and water formula or the fungicide of your choice.
Other Thoughts…
Remember, just because you don’t have a plot of land on which to grow fresh veggies, doesn’t mean you can’t. Many veggies lend themselves well to container gardening. Selecting a dwarf or bush variety and give you a plant well adapted to growing in a pot. Veggies that take up little space, such as carrots, radishes and lettuces work well in a lower, shallower container. Carrots come in shorter and rounder varieties these days and do nicely in the barrel sections one sees this time of the year at the garden centers. Crops that bear fruits over a longer period, such as tomatoes and peppers, are perfect for container gardens.
If you pruned your roses earlier this year, you may have erred on the side of caution and not pruned enough. Or your roses may have had other ideas and are now working toward doing their own thing. “Their Own Thing” is not always the best thing for the bush as a whole.
Pruning is primarily an early spring activity, although a certain amount of it is frequently required during the course of the growing season. June here in the Valley often brings a flush of growth in our roses.
Now is the time to check on the pruning you did earlier this spring. You’ll want to check for die-back. Check the canes you cut earlier and see if there has been further die-back. If there is, you’ll want to top off that cane by cutting down to an outside bud or leaf growth. If you are seeing a lot of growth in the center of the bush, you’ll want to remedy that by correcting the pruning at the center. Watch for suckers, too, as they will sap the energy from the plant and its blooms.
Local rose experts advise cleaning up the bud union by trimming off the old canes and stubs. A nice, clean bud union will reward you with many more basal canes and eventually more rose bush and better blooms.
Don’t forget deadheading at this time of the year, with the flush of the season’s first blooms. You’ll want your plant to stay strong and deadheading encourages further and more blooms for the rest of the summer. If you’re growing hybrid tea roses, you’ll want to deadhead by removing the spent flower at a point on the cane where five or seven leaflets are growing. The cut should be made ¼ inch above the leaf axial of an outward growing bud and should slope downward into the center of the bush.
Floribundas and Grandifloras are deadheaded much the same way, although removing the center bloom from a Floribunda plant will produce much more uniform bloom sprays. Some experts recommend removing the spent blooms from Floribundas and Grandifloras as they complete their bloom cycle without disturbing the rest of the blooms on the spray. Once a bloom cycle is complete, these two types of roses are pruned exactly as the Hybrid Tea. Olde Roses can also profit from deadheading, because reoccurring blooms are encouraged in those types that are intermittent or repeat bloomers.
Be mindful of unproductive growth that will crowd the middle of the plant and restrict sunlight and the flow of air. Remove this growth and any blind shoots which are twiggy in appearance and do not end in a bloom bud. A good resource is the book,”Growing Good Roses” by Rayford Reddell. He recommends pruning basal breaks at a bud eye when the cane is twelve to fifteen inches tall so to encourage a sturdy branched cane that will produce more and better blooms.
For the suckers that will inevitably emerge through this season, you should dig down beneath the soil and prune that sucker off at the point where it grows.
Let’s talk about the really fun part of growing roses – cuttings. Growing new rose plants from cuttings is one of the most enjoyable facets of growing roses. Cuttings can be taken at any time, but following the first bloom of the season is the best time because of the amount of good weather remaining for the cutting to get established and gain strength.
There are many ways to prepare cuttings and once you find one that works for you, stick with it. The easiest and most convenient way, in my opinion, is cutting the fading bloom of the variety I want to grow at a point on the stem which will provide four (or more) bud eyes and placing that cutting immediately in water.
The cutting is prepared by removing the bloom and the leaves from the lower two sets of leaflets. The end of the cutting, to be placed in the growing material, is stripped on several places of bark and the stripped areas and the end are generously coated with Rootone (a rooting hormone). The prepared cutting is then placed in a pot filled with a growing medium of equal parts soil, sand and peat moss. Make a hole in the medium, place your cutting, being careful not to knock off the Rootone and tamp the medium firmly around the stem.
Record what kind of rose you’ve gotten your cutting from (if you can) and the date on the pot. Enclose your cutting in plastic that is supported by a couple of lengths of stout wire (coat hangers are great for this) bent into a U. Make sure you make a hole in the top for ventilation. The bag acts like a mini-greenhouse. Place your cuttings in a shady place and wait for them to mature. Watch for new leaves to appear, remove the plastic bag and feed with a water soluble fertilizer. Some folks like Ra-Pid-Grow. Fox Organics makes several good water solubles. Any of the Fox products, liquid kelp or fish emulsion are good choices. Don’t put your cuttings out into the full sun immediately. Do this gradually and watch it grow. Once your cutting is ready to move to the full sun, it is ready to be planted at its permanent location.
Ordinarily, June is also the month that gardeners start to wonder about how much water they should be giving their roses. If the spring has been especially dry, this will understandably generate some concern. This year, though, we seem to be having a somewhat wonky weather pattern. Roses in the height of their growth cycle are very thirsty and require about an inch of water a week. Less water stresses the plants and will result in poor growth and less bloom. Putting a rain gauge in your rose garden is a good idea since it’s pretty easy to overestimate the amount of rainfall we are actually getting.
There are two schools of thought on the method of watering. Some say that wet rose foliage is to be avoided and deliberately spraying roses is inviting disease into your rose garden. Others will say that roses enjoy and benefit from the occasional cleansing shower. After all, we don’t live in the Sahara and rains often wash our roses. A strong stream of water from a water wand is a good way to rid the roses of aphids and spider mites. It’s generally a good idea after a rain or a bath to respray for blackspot as it requires moisture to infect our plants. Use the baking soda and water formula or the fungicide of your choice.
Other Thoughts…
Remember, just because you don’t have a plot of land on which to grow fresh veggies, doesn’t mean you can’t. Many veggies lend themselves well to container gardening. Selecting a dwarf or bush variety and give you a plant well adapted to growing in a pot. Veggies that take up little space, such as carrots, radishes and lettuces work well in a lower, shallower container. Carrots come in shorter and rounder varieties these days and do nicely in the barrel sections one sees this time of the year at the garden centers. Crops that bear fruits over a longer period, such as tomatoes and peppers, are perfect for container gardens.
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