SHOW ARCHIVE

Episode 359 • June 6, 2015

VIDEO ARCHIVE

June is here and so is the summer heat. It seems like a broken record since that’s all I seem to be talking about these last few weeks, but this weekend marks the first time we are supposed to get into the 90’s. This weekend should be a good first indication of how your plants will handle the summer weather. We have had a few days of rain so the ground should be good and wet, but if you notice a plant having problems on late Sunday or Monday, then it could be signs of future problems. Also the wet days followed by heat is a good reminder that mosquito season is here. Be sure that there is no standing water around your garden for them to breed and use mosquito dunks to get rid of the larvae.

Also, we will be leading a bus tour around the Willamette Valley on the 17th of July. Check out the Garden Time tour link. On that same site you will find more information about our tour of Ireland in the spring of 2016. We hope you can join us on one of these great trips!

This week we featured...

Bountiful Topiary

Bountiful Topiary

Garden designers tell people that they should add structure to their garden. Sculptures and other tall features can add a new level to your garden. But how would you like to add a ‘living’ structure to your garden? We found a local grower who is one of the leaders in growing topiaries. Todd from Bountiful Farms told us that they grow hundreds of different types and styles of topiary. Topiary is the practice of training or cutting living plant material to form different shapes. Those shapes can be geometrical, animal or any other type of structure that you can think of. A lot of gardens will start with original plants and then shape them as they grow. Bountiful Farms actually takes established plants in pots and then creates frames around them. The frame could be anything, a fish, a bird, a dolphin or even a geometric shape like a ball or cone. Each plant and shape is chosen based on the plant and how it fits into the frame. Each piece is custom made! We even found one that looks like our logo/mascot ‘Mortimer’. If you would like to see some of these cool ‘living sculptures’, you can contact them for a location near you. A couple local businesses that carry these are Margie’s Farm and Garden (for small pieces) and Bauman’s Farm and Garden (for larger pieces).

Keeping Cut Flowers Fresh

Keeping Cut Flowers Fresh

The spring time is a great time for bringing fresh flowers into your home. We have a few tips for helping those flowers last longer. First, cut your flowers first thing in the morning. Hot and cold do make a difference with your flowers. The cooler weather will give them a head start on lasting longer. Also, look for blooms that are just getting started on their bloom cycle. An older bloom that has been open for a couple of days won’t last long inside. When you take the flowers inside keep them out of direct sunlight and away from heat. When cutting your blooms use a sharp pruner or scissors. We have a special needle nose pruner from Dramm. This will let us get into tight spots and they cut cleanly. Cut your bloom at a 45 degree angle. This will give the stem a larger surface area to take on water in the vase. Remove all the foliage that will be submerged in the vase. This foliage will rot and ruin the water. If you have a flower preservative, use it. You can buy some at your local florist shop. If you don’t have preservative then try to replace the water and recut the stems every couple of days. Try not to use fruit and flowers together in the same arrangement. Fruit gives off ethylene gas while ripening and it will speed up the decay of your bloom as well. Finally, don’t just think about the flowers in your garden display. Cut foliage plants as well, like hosta and peony leaves, to add contrast to your display! Remember that your flowers can not only help your outdoors look great, they can also help your indoors look great too!

Lantern Planter

Lantern Planter

We had a picture sent to us recently from our friend, Donna Wright, from Black Gold. Donna found something on-line about making a lantern planter. This is similar to something that we did with her on stacking planters, so we told her we had to do this one as well! We started with 2 pots. One was pretty large (about a 2 gallon size) and a small one (about a quart size). First we filled the large pot with Black Gold All Purpose garden soil. The All Purpose product has a 6 month slow release fertilizer and the Resilience silicon product in it. In the center we placed the smaller pot. Then we planted around the smaller pot with plants that will trail over the edge. In the center pot we placed a tall pillar candle and we were done. Now we can place this in our garden during the evenings and have a wonderful outdoor accent!

Manzanita Trials

Manzanita Trials

OSU is one of the leading research centers in the US for plants and agriculture. One area where they really shine is in plant trials. When new or existing plants come to market the OSU crew is known for putting these plants through their paces. One of the researchers who does a lot of these trials is Neil Bell. Neil is the Extension Agent overseeing the Master Gardener program for Marion and Polk counties and he runs quite a few trials too. The plant trials that he is working on now are for manzanitas. The trials are taking place at the OSU North Willamette Research and Extension Center near Aurora. Neil planted 75 different cultivars and selections starting in September of 2011. Currently there are about 65 of the varieties left. He is not watering, weeding, spraying or fertilizing them, so these plants really have to face the elements. The goal is always to see which plants are best adapted to our climate and conditions. We looked at a couple of the varieties that he has in the field. The first one was a cool cultivar called Arctostaphylos silvicola 'Ghostly'. This one had some great foliage that looked silvery with soft fuzzy foliage. It looked like it was happy in our climate. The next one wasn’t so good for our area. Arctostaphylos 'Lester Rowntree' is supposed to have blue/green foliage but it didn’t make it through the cold spell we had in 2013. So it is off our list of ones to try in the garden. The third, Arctostaphylos glandulosa, with the common name Eastwood's manzanita, was a more compact manzanita. This one looked like a slow growing shrub with soft green leaves. The final one was a ground cover variety that everyone seems to be familiar with called Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, also known as Kinnikinnick. This is a familiar groundcover that a lot of people use in our area. It is great at weed suppression and it’s great lush green color looks great year round. Neil doesn’t just throw these all away when he is done. He invites garden centers and growers out to look at the plants and take cuttings so they can grow them out and sell them at the garden centers. Be watching for the best varieties to appear at your local garden center in the years to come, and when you buy one, think about OSU and the research that went into your plants.

Tried and True Perennials

Tried and True Perennials

A perennial is a plant that will return year after year in your garden. These plants are favorites for most gardeners because they are easy to care for, you plant once and then forget about them. To learn about some ‘tried and true’ perennials that will work in our area we stopped by Farmington Gardens (503-649-4568) and talked to MJ. MJ brought out 2 carts filled with plants but this was just a small selection of what you can find at your local garden center. You can expect these selections to do well in your garden, but remember the perennial rule, sleep, creep and leap. The first year you put them in your garden they will stay about the same size, they ‘sleep’. The following year they are getting used to their new home and they grow a little, they ‘creep’. The third year they really like where they are and they grow quite a bit, they ‘leap’. Remember that when you are spacing your plants that first year.

Here are some of the selections that MJ found for us. She started with shade perennials. She had a hosta, which loves shade but can also take a little bit of sun too. Ferns were also on the cart and they can come in many sizes and textures. Heucheras are also great foliage plants with lots of different colored leaves. They will also give you a little color with small flower spikes that pop up in the summer. MJ had also included a fuchsia on the cart. A lot of people are familiar with the fuchsia that you will find in your hanging baskets. These are not hardy, but the one she had was! The hardy fuchsia can go right in the ground and can bring you those fuchsia blooms for many years to come. The next plant on the shade cart was a couple of astilbes. These plant are known for their incredible flower spikes which comes in whites, pinks and reds. The foliage is also great with red stems and cut-edged leaves. The final plant we looked at was a grass. This one was a golden grass that can really brighten up those dark spots in the garden.

We then moved to the ‘sun’ cart. The first plant we saw there was a lavender. These have great foliage, but the bunch of fragrant bloom stalks are what really stand out. Plus you can do so many crafts with them too! Yarrow is a great plant for butterflies in the garden. Their blooms stand out and because they face upward they create little landing pads for the butterflies to land on. Mallow is also a magnet in the garden, not just for butterflies but also for beneficial bees and other insects. It also has beautiful flower spikes which get really tall in the garden! We then saw some irises. These are a great plant in the late spring and MJ had pulled one that was her favorite because of the incredible variegated foliage, so even when the flowers were gone you still have color in the garden. We also saw some asters on the cart. These daisy-like flowers can bring a meadow look to your garden and will keep blooming for a long time if you keep them watered. A small perennial plant in the summer garden is the dianthus, or carnation. This one will also give you lots of blooms during the season and will stay more compact in your beds or borders. One plant that blooms later in the summer is the rudbeckia or Black Eyed Susan. Big yellow flowers with a dark center that look like daisies on steroids are your reward for planting this one in your garden. Another tall plant for your garden is the delphinium. Tall flower stalks are really statuesque in the summer garden. The final plant on the summer cart was the ‘Black and Blue’ salvia. Salvias are the ticket to attracting hummingbirds to your garden. They have lots of flowers that the hummingbirds love!

Even though there were 2 carts full of plants, and a great backdrop of hydrangeas and maples which also work well in the perennial garden, this was just a start to great perennial color. Stop by and check out the selection at Farmington Gardens or at your local independent garden center.

Pear in a Bottle

Pear in a Bottle

Recently we noticed a bottle of brandy that had a whole pear in it. This fascinated us. This isn’t easy. How do they get a whole pear inside a bottle! You just don’t build a pear like you would a ship! This requires some planning! To learn how it is done we contacted Clear Creek Distillery (503-248-9470) in Portland. They are the ones responsible for this feat of engineering. We met with Rachel Inman in a Hood River orchard to see how they do it. Rachel met us with a bottle and some twine. She told us how they pick certain pears on the tree while they were still small to place them in the bottles. These pears are judged to be the ones that will survive until the end of the season and ripen, not easy since all pear trees will have ‘June drop’ where the tree self-prunes to get rid of unviable fruit. Once she peeled away the smaller fruit and picked her ‘king’ fruit she placed the bottle upside down over the fruit. This allows the fruit to grow inside the bottle and avoids rain and irrigation water from entering the bottle. The morning condensation is not a problem either. It burns off with the morning sun. The only problem is sunburn! Once the sun gets high in the sky the bottom of the bottle can act as a magnifying glass to burn the fruit. Rachel then has to cut little bags and cover the bottom of the bottles to prevent the fruit from getting cooked. Once the fruit is ripe they simply give the bottle a tug and a twist and the fruit comes off and remains whole in the bottle. Then they take it to the distillery and clean the fruit with small brushes and fill the bottles with wonderful Oregon Pear brandy! If you would like to have a sample of this tasty distilled beverage you can stop by the Clear Creek Distillery in Portland during tasting hours. Simply check out their website for times!

Tip of the Week – June Drop

June Drop

If you are new to growing fruit you may have noticed that your fruit trees are dropping a bunch of small fruit right now. This is called ‘June Drop’ and it is normal. At this time of year the immature fruit on the trees is dropped by the plant to make room for the fully pollinated fruit. It is the plant concentrating the energy into viable fruit. You may also notice a drop later in the season as the plant once again drops fruit to make more room before the harvest. In fact, if the plant doesn’t do it, you may want to thin out the fruit later in the season. Keep your fruit clusters to 2 or less. This will give you bigger, healthier fruit.

Calisaya Liqueur

Calisaya Liqueur

A couple of weeks ago we stopped by Elixir, a local distiller who makes a wonderful liqueur from iris corms. While we were visiting we found out that they also make another liqueur from the bark of trees! These are not ordinary trees, the tree is the cinchona calisaya tree This bark was found by a Jesuit priest, from talking to the local tribes, to help with fever caused by malaria, in fact it is called the ‘fever tree’ in some books. Once this was discovered it was brought back to Europe and was used medicinally. Since it didn’t taste so great it was infused in different fluids and alcohols and mixed with different drinks. That was the start of this flavorful liqueur. Andrea Loreto is the local artist who blends this into his signature Calisaya liqueur. He found the start to his recipe when looking through old books and then took 3 years to perfect his own version. His recipe now includes citrus extracts and other spices that are combined with fresh water from the Mackenzie river in Eugene, organic syrups and alcohol. It is very tasty by itself or combined with other ingredients in cocktails! If you get a chance, you should give it a try. It is a modern twist on an old recipe and, who knows, it might cure your malaria (if you ever get it).
 

 
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