Caring for your Poinsettias

                                      by Helen Gordon, Kitchener Master Gardener

The Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) is a shrub in the Euphorbia family native to Mexico and Central America. So we know that it wants a warm home. In fact it grows best at temperatures of 20C daytime and 16-17C nighttime.  Exposure to cold, even for a brief period, causes it to droop and lose its leaves. So choose and transport your Christmas plant keeping  it cosy.

          The brightly coloured parts of the poinsettia are not the plant’s flower. They are actually modified leaves (bracts).  The flowers are the yellow-green knobs at their centre.

          Poinsettias exhibit photoperiodism flowering in  response to day length. To begin flowering they need 12 to 14 hours of uninterrupted darkness for 7 to 10 weeks. They bloom when nights are long and days are short.  The true flowers fade quickly but the coloured bracts last for four months. This makes them ideal for indoor colour in winter.

- Place your plant where it will get as much indirect sunlight as possible. Choose a place without drafts, hot or cold.

- Water it sparingly allowing the soil surface to dry out slightly between watering.

- There is no need to add fertilizer until April when 20-20-20 will help new growth along.

           It is fun to try to keep your plant from year to year. I had one re-bloom for five years until it got nipped by a late Spring frost in the garden. The secret is to prune it and repot it in late April. Cut it back by a third and mist it well. (The cuttings can be rooted as well.) Fertilize it once new growth appears. Set it out in semi-shade when all risk of frost is past and the temperatures in the 20C to 24C range.

          Water it as needed to prevent the plant wilting. Add a soluble fertilizer (20-20-20) every two weeks. Shape it with a second gentle pruning in July or early August. Never prune after September 1^st.  Bring the pot indoors in early September.

          From mid-September to mid-November allow it bright light for ten hours followed by 14 hours of total darkness daily  for eight to ten weeks. This can be done by covering the plant with a black garbage bag each night and removing it each day. Or you can place the plant under a box or in a cupboard at night and put it under a light each morning. Remember that even the light from a streetlight can ruin the dark cycle.

 

          Fertilize it with 15-15-30 bi-weekly from early November to foster bloom formation. Then enjoy your Christmas blossoms.     

                       

POINSETTIAS: THE CHRISTMAS FLOWER

                                                           by Helen Gordon , Kitchener Master Gardener

           Of all the potted plants sold at Christmastime the most popular is the poinsettia. More than 65 million are sold every year in the United States alone.  But do you know their origin? Poinsettias (euphorbia pulcherrima) are native to Mexico and Central America where they grow wild as a bush up to 3 metres high.  The Aztecs knew these plants as cuetlaxochi and considered them a symbol of purity. They used the milky sap to treat fever and the red bracts for dye.

                                  

In the 17^th century Franciscan monks chose them for their Nativity procession because their bright colour in the winter months. A legend sprang up: a young girl, Pepita, was walking to mass on Christmas Eve unable to afford a gift for the Christ Child. Her cousin, Pedro, comforted her saying that any gift given in love would be acceptable in His eyes. She gathered some leaves from a straggly bush and humbly set them down. At that moment the leaves turned brilliant red and from that time on poinsettias have had red bracts. The flower became known as “Flor de Nochebuena”, or “Flower of the Holy Night”.

    

The bushes caught the eye of Joel R. Poinsettia, the first American ambassador to Mexico , 1825 to 1829.  Poinsettia, a scientist and botanist, sent some plants home to South Carolina, thus introducing them into the States and giving them their name. He propagated them for his personal collection and started giving them to friends and to botanical gardens. Soon, the cut flowers appeared for Christmas sale in Philadelphia and New York. 

                 

            The modern era of poinsettia culture began in 1923 when the “Oak Leaf” cultivar was introduced. This was the first cultivar to retain leaves on the flower stem. Wild plants bloom on leggy naked stems. In 1930 pink, white and variegated cultivars appeared as well as double varieties.

Until 1950 the flowers were sold as cut flowers or grown as shrubs. Since 1960 the many new cultivars have adapted the plant to growth in pots indoors. To-day their bright bracts say Christmas and light up the dark December days.

Christmas Wreath

Colour Paradise has sponsored a Christmas Wreath auction for a number of years in support of the House of Friendship and groups in the region are invited to create and donate a wreath to the auction. This year the Kitchener Horticultural Society decided to submit a wreath and Al Shivas designed and created the wreath you see above. Most of the items that you see in his creation were collected from around the gardens while others were found nearby.


The petals on the daisies are pumpkin seeds that were spray painted and attached to Teasel and a nut was glued to the center. Al admits that the Dahlia was a purchase from Michaels but he says that the most difficult part of building this wreath was catching and wrestling those little BlueBirds to the ground.

We joined three other Horticultural Societies and many local groups in the Auction. This photo was taken at Colour Paradise. Looks pretty good doesn't it. Looks even better on the wall in our living room. Had to bid more than we've paid for a wreath before but it is well worth it. We are looking forward to participating again next year and to supporting the House of Friendship

Fall Colours continued

While our annual and perennial flowers provide us with a cornucopia of colour throughout the Spring and Summer, it is the leaves and foliage that provides the colour in the Fall. In our pond, we have some miniature cattails that turn a gorgeous bronze colour (at least I think it is bronze).

Then there are many grasses that add to the Fall colourscape. There are the Fountain grasses that we all purchase for our containers in Spring and early Fall but one that I particularly like is the Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster'. I really like its compact upright habit. But there are many others to choose from. One that I can no longer remember the name of in our garden turns reddish in the Fall and has attractive seed heads.

But don't take my word for it, check out your neighbours gardens and see what works for them.

Colours in Fall

No doubt someone has shared a beautiful Fall photo with you or several of them at some point. The reds and yellows are particularly attractive and we often think about the Sugar Maples in our landscape. But what about your own garden? There are a number of trees and shrubs in our garden that provide some gorgeous colours. There is a Clethra alnifolia (Summersweet) that is in a container that is hauled in and out of the garage at critical times of the year and a Cornus sinensis (Chinese Dogwood) both of which have interesting Fall colours. The one I wanted to mention in this post though is the Acer tataricum ssp. ginnala (Amur Maple). We have one that has been in a container for over 10 years. I purchased it in my Bonsai phase and wanted to keep it long enough to create a miniature. Well I've had it long enough but the phase has phased and the poor shrub is still in a container waiting me out. The Amur is a small shrub and year after year it rewards us with the same attractive orangish yellow leaf colours. There are other varieties now that promise even more vibrant colours such as Flame.

It is a good shrub to consider for our smaller suburban gardens. Check it out.

Ponds

A few years back, we lost almost every fish we had in our pond. Whether it was a muskrat or a Heron, we're not sure. We did a lot of research to find some way to protect our fish and it wasn't until we made a visit to a local nursery that we were presented with a very simple solution. A few pieces of plastic weeping tile down at the bottom of the pond provides your fish with a place to hide when danger lurks.

Haven't lost any fish since or at least we haven't lost any in the numbers that we did at the time.

That leads to thoughts of over-wintering your fish outdoors. Here in the Kitchener area, if you plan to over-winter fish outdoors, your pond should be 3 feet deep. Early in our pond experience, in October or November, we would catch all of our fish and bring them into the house where we kept them in several large tanks. Then we would remove most of the water, clean the pond and then refill it. So much work!!!!

Now, I'm thankful that we had the smarts to dig the pond deep enough to keep the fish through the winter without having to bring them indoors. The only other thing you have to do to protect the fish through the winter is to ensure that there is an opening in the ice which allows the methane to escape. We use an agricultural heater that is used by farmers to keep water troughs open for their livestock.

Pruning clematis

So much for New Year's resolutions ...

The other day, I was cleaning up the garden and the day's project was to prune several Clematis. If you have some of your own, you know that there are three Groups (A - those flowering in early Spring on the previous season's growth, B - those flowering on previous season's growth and then again later in the season on current year's growth, and C - those that produce flowers on current year's growth each year). Some authors even refer to a fourth Group. In any case, each Group is supposed to be pruned differently.

I have found though that if you forget what Group your Clematis belongs to, the plant itself will show you where to prune. I have a C. terniflora that in mid-May begins to produce leaves as high as 6 feet above ground level. That's where I prune. Two others, C. texensis 'Dutchess of Albany' and C. x durandii, usually are leafing out at between 2 and 3 feet above ground level. That's where I prune.

Yes I know, all three Clematis belong to Group C and 30 inches is about where they should be pruned but I prune the terniflora much higher. If you are not sure whether you have a Group B or C Clematis, you will be OK if you prune 30 inches or higher.

Group A can be problematic though as it should be pruned after flowering in the Spring but no later than July as you want it to have enough new growth before Winter to flower again in the Spring. That may be where I went wrong with my C. macropetala and why I no longer have it.

Winter Projects

I’m often asked what I do in the Winter now that the ground is frozen and can’t get digging in the soil. While there is lots of thinking, planning and reading going on, there is much, much, more.

In addition to the administrative activities of the Horticultural Society and the Master Gardeners, we are in the midst of planning our Seedy Saturday and a Design Seminar and all that goes with these events. The Horticultural Society is planning to host the Ontario Horticultural Association District 19’s Annual General Meeting in Kitchener for April.

On a personal note, I am involved with the Kitchener Horticultural Association and the Kitchener Master Gardeners. At a minimum, there is one meeting a week for each group. For the Horticultural Society I prepare the bi-monthly Newsletter “Growing Thoughts” that takes a minimum of two days every other month. In total, I give each organisation about 250 volunteer hours a year. Included in these totals is about 4.5 hours weekly of Horticultural Therapy programs at Freeport Hospital and Winston Park Nursing and Retirement Home in Kitchener. While I count only 4.5 hours for each of these activities, they take up a half day of my time for each location.

In addition, I have the equivalent of 24 trays of plants under lights in my basement either for the 3 Horticultural Therapy programs or for my summer containers. There are more plants being overwintered in the garage that need watering from time to time and bulbs, tubers and corms in the cold cellar that need checking. Enough already you say, not quite I say. There are still our house plants about 12 orchids (5 varieties) and a number of other houseplants that include 2 thirty five year old Jade plants.

So that’s how I practise my hobby in the winter time.

New Year's resolution

Have you made any? I wasn’t going to but then again, one of the things I have been beating myself up about is the blog. The writing has been sporadic yet I know that there are some of you that have been following the blog. So here goes. I am going to write a minimum of once a week for the rest of the year. You’ll notice I didn’t say try. My wife says that the word ‘try’ is a cop out. You are either going to do it or not – ‘try’ is the cop out.
The next entry will be the one for the first week of the year. If there is a second this week, consider it a bonus.

What's in Bloom?

At this time of the year, we are frequently asked "what's in bloom". I think the question really means "What makes your garden interesting at this time of year?"

While there are still some flowers in bloom, they may not be their most attractive at this time. I still have asters, Japanese anemones, bugbane and sedum in flower and if you look closely you can see Johnny-jump-ups sticking their heads up. Behind a pine, there are even some phlox in bloom. Oddly enough, a summer clematis that I had cut back because I thought it had died has now produced some blooms. The obedient plants have the occasional bloom as does the rose mallow and the lamium but most other perennials have stopped blooming.

However, if you've done things well, there are many other plants that have attractive features that provide interest at this time of year. Many of the containers still have annuals with blooms and interesting foliage. One container has a dahlia in full bloom with a purple flowering plectranthus (why the common name is Swedish Ivy I'll never understand) and the light green sweet potato vine. Other containers have some gorgeous foliage annual geraniums that are still in bloom. The leaves of the Summersweet (clethra) are a pretty yellow colour and those of the white edged euonymus are always attractive.

Seed heads on the Clematis texensis are always interesting as are the various evergreens shrubs that have been placed around the yard. This is the time of year when you really appreciate having taken some time to plan the garden for more than just the summer.

Cichorium intybus (Chicory)

The wild Cichory has many names according to Publication 505 Ontario's Weeds published by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. It has been called Blue daisy, Blue sailors, Coffee-weed, Common chicory, Italian dandelion, Magdeburg, Radichetta, Wild succory and Witloof among others. While I have always liked the flower, I haven't added it to the garden because of the weedy plant that supports it. A colleague suggested though that since there aren't any blue Lilies that we are aware of, I might try cross pollinating a white Lilly with the pollen from the Chicory. Haven't tried it yet.

When the flower started to bloom this summer I was again captivated by the pretty blue colour of the flower. So I decided to look it up.

Did you know that there are varieties of the plant that are widely cultivated in Continental Europe. While used in great part as a coffee substitute or additive and in naturopathic medicinal preparations, the leaves of some varieties are used as greens for salads. The leaves have to be blanched first under inverted flower pots or boxes as is done with endive. Blanching removes the bitterness.

For coffee substitutes or additives, the roots of many are dug up, washed, ground or chopped up, spread on cookie sheets and roasted in a warm oven until coffee brown and we are told that wild Chicory can be processed in the same way. From descriptions of the brew that I have read about in war year publications, I'm not sure that I want to give the brew a shot, but the greens sound interesting. Blanching the leaves though is key.

Oenothera berlandieri 'Siskiyou' - mistake

I became interested in the yellow Evening Primrose (Oenothera missouriensis), the large yellow one that is often used in rock gardens or at the front of borders. And anyone that knows me knows that when a plant catches my fancy, I look at others in the same family that might look nice in the garden too. Sure enough, there was another that looked interesting - the Mexican Evening Primose (O berlandieri 'Siskiyou').

The description said a whole bunch of things that sounded quite promising - "extremely floriferous - beautiful light rose shade - good potential as a landscaping plant with a long season of bloom - Plants form a low mat". Sound interesting? I thought so. The description said a few other things that I sort of glossed over. There was the adjective "vigorous" and "because of its wandering habit, this should probably be restrained or edged regularly." I can handle that, I said,so I purchased 3 plants and planted them in full sun. In the first year, they filled in the area that I wanted them to fill in. The next year, they continued to expand and I tried to haul them in. It was a lot of work but the effort was worth it. But they continued to expand exponentially. No matter how hard I tried, they just took off.

So I decided to dig them out. It took 5 years before I managed to get the last of the roots out. Since then, I pay much more attention to words like "vigorous" and "wandering habit".

Garden maintenance

As I work in the garden at this time of year, I'm reminded of all of the things that I need to do in the near future and all of the things that I should have done.

The "need to do" include such things as collecting seeds for Seedy Saturday or to ensure that I don't have to remove a million seedlings in the Spring that I don't really need. It also includes cleaning up around the Irises and making sure that only healthy rhizomes remain. And there are many other "need to do's" that we will talk about in future postings.

The "should have done's" include paying much more attention to descriptions of plants prior to acquiring and planting them. This category could also have been called the "mistakes". A fellow Master Gardener has produced an entire PowerPoint presentation around this category. I'll mention some of the mistakes that I have made over the years and what I have done to either manage the problem or to clean up the garden. "Should have done's" include the care that should have been given to the placement of some plants such as those that are subject to mildew or other controllable infections.

Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia)

My source tells me that this shrub is "native to the eastern seabord" and its "natural habitat is moist woods". We've had the Clethra in a container for at least the last 6 or 7 years and it does very well. I dutifully drag the container after a frost into the garage for the winter where I water it lightly about once a month. I say drag because that is literally what I do. I slide it onto an old plastic toboggan that we have and drag it into the garage. The container is far too heavy to do anything else with it.

The Summersweet is in bloom as I write this and when we go out first thing in the morning, the fragrance fills the air. Some people find the fragrance a little overpowering but not I. I've found it easy to care for. It gets full sun from about noon till sundown and has been in the same container since we purchased it. It is about 5 feet high now with a spread of about 4 feet. The source suggests that it can be subject to mites especially in dry soils but we have yet to experience it.

There are several different varieties of Clethra to consider and from our experience it is well worth it.

Whistling Gardens Ltd

Every Summer, the Kitchener Master Gardeners go on a 'bus' trip. I say 'bus' trip because the last few years we have been car-pooling. This year we went to the Paris area and one of the places that we stopped at was Whistling Gardens. What an incredible experience. If you haven't been there yet, it is well worth the visit.

Located near Wilsonville, ON the Gardens are open in the Summer, Thursday through Sunday, 9:00 to 5:00, and Wednesdays for tours and construction only. The brochure that I have recommends that you call ahead. They have a website at whistlinggardens.ca and an email contact at info@whistlinggardens.ca. Various parts of the property are under construction at the moment as the proprietor is building an amphitheater, a large gazebo a wedding area and a number of gardens.

We toured a tree garden where they have many rare and unusual trees. They specialise in conifers and feature quite a variety of dwarf trees. The brochure indicates that they have over 1000 varieties of conifers and claim to have the widest selection in Canada and a full line of deciduous trees including several hard to find Carolinean species. They have a Butternut tree in the collection and are sending seeds(I think he said) to the University of Guelph for propagation.

We were very impressed with Whistling Gardens and the knowledge of the proprietor and most of us left with at least one purchase. They sell to John's Nursery locally as well as to many other nurseries.

Spring planting

At the end of April, I'm usually much further ahead with the plants that I have started in-house but not this year. Just the same, we have geraniums (many varieties) started from cuttings, Plectranthus or Swedish Ivy, again from cuttings and some Echeveria from plugs. And then there are flats of Jade plants and African Violets that we started in our Horticultural Therapy program at a local Retirement Home.

We started some tomato plants several weeks ago but we keep the temperature in our basement fairly cool and so the plants are taking their sweet time to germinate. I've been thinking about starting another flat of tomatoes and putting it on top of the refrigerator to speed up the propagation.

Typically for our Therapy program, we start tomatoes that the residents may not have seen or tasted before. We've started Black Krim, Cherokee Purple and Yellow Tear Drop varieties in the past. One of the black varieties that we tried in the past was declared by a former farmer to have been the best he had ever tasted. We've also grown purple potatoes and I've offered to make purple mashed potatoes but have had no takers.

Back to plants started in house, I have some Dahlias and Cannas started late but they are beginning to show growth and should be ready to bring out around the May long weekend when all fear of frost is past.

I did overwinter some Agapanthus in containers in the garage and these have been outside on the deck for a few weeks and they are coming along very nicely. They provided a spectacular show last year and I am quite looking forward to them again this year.

If you would like to start plants indoors it is quite easy to do and in future posts I will provide some suggestions as to how to proceed.

Stinging Nettle

A number of years ago, the City decided to naturalize an area behind our house and ever since we have been introduced to weeds (flowers in the wrong space) that we had previously not seen.

I normally work in the garden without gloves and as I was pulling some weeds recently, I pulled a young piece of stinging nettle. I've done this on one occasion previously but it didn't hurt as bad, but this time it was 'Oh Boy' (or some variation of this). I thought if I washed my hands that it would do the trick - no sirree. It still hurt something fierce. So I tried some Tea Tree Oil salve that we have and within a few minutes the stinging started to dissipate. Within a half hour the stinging was gone altogether.



If it had been later in the year, I would have used Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) as the naturalized area has several stands of it but it is too early for me to be able to locate it. Jewelweed can also be used as a treatment for poison ivy and Mother Nature has done us a favour by having Jewelweed naturalize close to stands of Poison Ivy.

I suppose the moral of the story though is that there are times when you should wear gloves while working in the garden.

Learning about horticulture

It was about 40 years ago that I began my foray into gardening. We planted two trees, an arctic willow hedge and we started some geranium cuttings that were quite successful. I read a lot, took some courses, subscribed to several horticulture magazines but it wasn't until I began rubbing shoulders with members of a horticultural Society and a group of Master Gardeners that I feel that I really began to learn.

But it wasn't just a matter of learning from experts, I learned from seniors in retirement homes and hospitals. A farmer at Freeport Hospital taught me about composting when he told me how he converted a really poor soil into a farm that was very viable. Mentally challenged adults taught me about their love for gardening. Gardeners on our garden tours talked about their experiences. I learned so much.

As I thought about this today, I began to think that our Horticultural Societies provide the perfect learning environment with a mixture of young and old together. The older members have a ton of experience that they are more than willing to share. The young are sponges, eager to learn.

It made me realise that we need to maintain this mix. We need to interest the young into joining our societies and we need to provide programs that will keep the older members of the Society active. We can do this through Youth Groups but even more, we need to garden with our children and grandchildren. Our daughter and her children have caught the bug and our grandchildren volunteer with me in horticultural activities - therapy programs, youth groups and horticultural society events.

Avocado Tree

Have you ever tried to grow your own avocado tree?

There is an excellent description of how to do it at http://www.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/seed/2002114535011263.html

My wife decided to try growing one a month or so ago and today we have 6 leaves on our 'Tree' and it seems to be growing well but it is still in water. Today we will be transplanting it in soil hoping all the while that it will take well to the new conditions.

The whole thing reminds me of orange and lemon trees that we grew when our children were small. When the flowers would open, the kids would rush to get the cotton swabs so that they could make like bees and pollinate the flowers to make oranges and limes. It was always a surprise that we didn't get loranges or orimes as they seldom took care not to cross pollinate the plants. They would usually do both plants at the same time with little regard to changing qtips - but then again I guess that's what bees do with little consequence.

Anyway, try the experiment with your kids. It is always an interesting thing to do to get them interested in gardening and horticulture.

Orchids

Last March and then again in a recent issue of our Newsletter "Growing Thoughts", I wrote about our fascination and experience with the Phalaenopsis orchid. Well the fascination has grown. I did some research to determine what other orchids we might try and we decided to next try a Cymbidium and possibly a Cattleya.

A friend offered a Cattleya and we picked up a Cymbidium at a local Nursery. I then asked the friend what resources (books) she uses as references for her orchids and she gave me a folder containing all sorts of material on these wonderful plants. And then to Chapters to see what they had and I purchased a book on the topic.

Yesterday, Sheridan Nursery had a seminar on orchids which we attended to broaden our Knowledge and of course there was a variety that we hadn't yet acquired - a Spathoglottis.

Are you getting the picture yet? We seem to have gone a little overboard on the topic but it really is great fun!

Three of our orchids are currently in bloom and at least three others have spikes with buds and are about to bloom. The Phalaenopsis has been relatively easy to get to rebloom but I understand that the others will take some patience but we are anxious to try. The Cymbidium is currently in bloom and it really is lovely. We purchased it with a spike and buds on it. It took a while for the buds to open and I understand that the flowers could last for as long as 10 weeks. I've attached a photo to this posting. One book describes the Cymbidium as a beginner orchid and another says that one of the reasons for it's popularity is that it is difficult to kill - just the orchid for us.