Do you do to-do lists? I do. They help keep me focused and organized. And boy is it satisfying to check things off. But this time of year, I have another list, a summer What Not To-Do List for my garden. This keeps me from serious missteps which can harm plants or waste time and money.
Don’t: Plant
First on my What Not To-Do List is planting. It’s just too hot and dry for plants to establish well. Spring and fall are your best planting times. Be wise and wait. I know there are plant bargains to be had now. As a career tightwad I’m tempted, too. Don’t succumb.
Don’t: Dig or Divide
No digging and dividing either. Most plants prefer to have this done in spring or fall so they can settle in and develop robust roots before extreme weather. So step away from that shovel. If you do plant or divide plants in summer you will need to water, water and water again, a significant time drain. And still, your plants will be stressed. Very stressed.
Don’t: Prune
Third on my What Not To-Do List is pruning. Trees hate to be pruned in summer. They weep copious sap and those wounds attract the abundant insects and diseases afoot now. Summer pruning courts disaster. Instead, prune trees in the dormant season – January to mid-March – when they are less vulnerable.
“Why are the pinecones on my tree moving?” a client asks. “Because those aren’t pinecones, they’re bagworms,” I reply.
Dangling from evergreens like teardrop-shaped Christmas tree ornaments, bagworms cause many a homeowner to scratch their head in wonder. Pinecones that dance?
Bagworms dangle from a juniper branch. Credit: Erik Rebek, Bugwood
But the tell-tale thinning of trees that can follow is no laughing matter. Covered with bits of needles and leaves, the bags that give bagworms their name serve as protection for the caterpillars inside. Bagworm caterpillars are the juvenile form of a moth.
That sounds innocent enough, but like all caterpillar-like insects, they are born hungry. Walking stomachs, they prowl among your trees, munching away to cause sometimes serious defoliation. They particularly enjoy evergreens such as arborvitae, cedars, junipers, and pines. But they will also dine on maples, locusts, lindens, and other deciduous trees.
Eggs hatch out from bagworms’ bags in May. Tiny larvae spin an eighth-inch bag with bits of needles or leaves glued together with webbing. Like tiny backpackers, bagworms tote those bags around as they feed. As they grow, the bags get bigger and bigger and your tree foliage gets thinner and thinner.
I don’t know if bagworms have an adventuresome streak, but they do a bit of hang-gliding. They spin a fine web and use the wind to glide to other trees in a stunt called “ballooning.”
By August or September, the bags – and bagworms – are 1- to 2-inches long. They stop wandering and feeding and tie up to a twig using tough silky threads. In late summer, they transform into moths. But get this, ladies, only the males have wings. So the gals just hang out in their bags and wait for the boys to, um, visit. Post rendezvous, each female bagworm lays 200 to 1,000 eggs in its bag. Next spring, the eggs hatch to start the cycle over again.
Stopping that cycle is important and now is a crucial time. Mid-June to mid-July is the best time to treat trees with bagworms with a very effective organic control called Bt. A naturally occurring soil bacteria, Bt or Bacillus thuringiensis kills only small caterpillars. And guess what? Bagworms are just the right size right now. Bt doesn’t harm humans or animals and is easy to find. It’s sold in hardware stores and garden centers under names like Dipel and Thuricide. Applying Bt is a do-it-yourself job if you can reach your trees with a sprayer. If not, call in a pro.
Even easier is picking off the bags if you have only a few bagworms. Snip them off with scissors or pruners, bag and trash them. Don’t leave them on the ground where the eggs can hatch. Since there can be as many as 1,000 eggs in each bag, removal is important. Get those bags gone. And gone before the eggs hatch in May.
Tiny bagworms are hard to spot when they first appear in May on plants such as this Colorado blue spruce. Credit: Dave Lantz
Learn more about bagworms and see some great photos on the HGIC website.
You can beat bagworms and keep your trees safe. Fortunately, this is one insect for which there is an easy – and organic – fix. So get out there and bag some bagworms.
By Annette Cormany, Principal Agent Associate and Master Gardener Coordinator, Washington County, University of Maryland Extension. This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media. Read more by Annette.
This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media.
Gardening beginners and pros alike can get flummoxed by plant tag terminology. What do words such as full-sun, zone, native and determinate mean? Allow me to elucidate, um, explain. See, even I can make things complicated.
Light is oh-so-important. Matching the right plant to the right lighting is crucial. So tags tell you how much light each plant needs to not just survive, but thrive. If a tag says “full sun” that means the plant needs at least 6 hours of sun a day. If it says “full shade”, that means it wants deep shade. Part sun or part shade means it can handle a bit of both.
In trying to find the perfect lighting, remember that buildings, trees, sheds, and other structures cast shade. So what might be full sun now may be shaded later in the day. It pays to note where sun and shade fall across the days and seasons. Visit your gardens at different times to see where you have true full sun, deep shade, and those grey areas in-between.
Not all plants do well everywhere. Some prefer heat. Others prefer cold. So the USDA, the United States Department of Agriculture, came up with a map divided into numbered strips or zones, where particular plants survive an average low temperature. It’s called the hardiness map.
Here in Washington County, we are in zone 6B which means that any plant with a hardiness range that includes the number 6 should survive our winters. For example, a river birch is labeled with a tag that says “zone 4 to 9,” so it will do well here. A gardenia labeled for zones 8 to 11 will not. So you enjoy it until the weather gets cold.
Plant tags help you know which plants will survive and thrive in your gardens. Photo credit: Annette Cormany
You may see the word “native” on a plant tag. Native plants naturally occur in an area and have been here since European settlers arrived. They’ve survived hot, dry, cold, and wet years and are tough, naturally resisting drought and disease. Native plants also co-evolved with native insects and wildlife and support them with better nutrition and habitat. So if you want to help pollinators and other wildlife, native plants are a good choice.
If you’re buying tomatoes, you may have noticed the words “determinate” and “indeterminate” on the tags. These are tomato types. Determinate or bush tomatoes max out at 4 feet. They produce their fruit all at once – at a determined time – which makes them great for canning. They also need less staking.
Indeterminate or vining tomatoes keep growing all season and produce fruit over a longer time so you can enjoy them for slicing, cooking, side dishes, and more. They need to be staked.
I hope I’ve simplified some plant tag terms. No get thee to a garden center and check out some plants!
By Annette Cormany, Principal Agent Associate and Master Gardener Coordinator, Washington County, University of Maryland Extension. This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media. Read more by Annette.
This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media.
Do you remember the first time you went to a garden center? All those colors. All those plants. All those fancy tags with gobbledygook. Help! Plant terminology can vex everyone, even plant geeks. So let me give you the lowdown on some terms that flummox newbies and pros alike.
The first thing you need to know is that for plants, it’s all about sex. Their number one priority is to make more of themselves. So they are committed to growing robustly to make flowers and seeds. How they get there is different. So we use words like annual, perennial, and biennial. These often confuse folks. Which one do I want? How do they work? What’s the best deal?
It’s all about a plant’s life cycle. Annuals live for a year. Perennials live longer. And biennials take two years to complete their life cycle. Annuals are especially driven to produce seeds because they only have one year to do so. So they push out flowers like mad to make more seeds.
Tithonia – an annual flower. Photo by Marie Bikle.
Annuals’ key selling point: color throughout the growing season. That’s why they are the darlings of container gardens, a blessing for filling gaps and ideal for a sweep of long-lasting color.
Annuals are less expensive since they last only one season, dying with the first frosts. You can save seeds and replant them, but few do. Some come back from dropped seeds, but that’s rare.
The downside to annuals is the need to replant them every year. So the cost savings may not be there in the long run and you spend much more time planting.
In gardens, geraniums, begonias, pansies, marigolds, zinnias, petunias, and snapdragons are commonly treated as annuals.
Perennials are one and done, planted once and persisting for years. Most die to the ground with cold weather, but come back again from their roots, bulbs, or tubers. Most perennials bloom for about a month, but some bloom 2 or 3 times a season if deadheaded. So you don’t get the long flowering time of annuals, but they return year after year.
Perennials cost more but don’t need to be replanted. Plus, they give a different look to your garden throughout the growing season with myriad colors and forms. Perennial gardens have spring, summer, and fall wardrobes. They also are the gift that keeps giving, since you get free plants by dividing perennials every few years. This mitigates their initial higher price tags.
There are hundreds of perennials including coneflowers, lavender, coral bells, coreopsis, columbine, bee balm, phlox, asters, and goldenrod.
Biennials flower in their second season. They push out leaves the first year, then flower, make seeds and die in their second year. Hollyhock, foxglove and Sweet William are common biennials. Some biennials reliably reseed so they act like perennials with new plants coming from dropped seeds. Hollyhocks are notorious for rewarding growers year after year.
I hope I’ve simplified some plant tag terms and made it easier for you to pick what’s right for you – and your gardens – on your next visit to a garden center.
By Annette Cormany, Principal Agent Associate and Master Gardener Coordinator, Washington County, University of Maryland Extension. This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media. Read more by Annette.
This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media.
Become a Veg Head. Seriously, if you’ve always wanted to grow some of your own vegetables, now is a great time to try your first vegetable garden. Why grow your own? Taste, nutrition, availability, safety, savings and pride.
Nothing tastes like a sun-warmed tomato fresh from the garden. It hasn’t traveled miles to get to you, losing nutrition and consuming resources.
Homegrown means you’re not vexed by limited availability at stores. And you know exactly what those vegetables have been treated with – or not. You can save money, too. Yes, there are start-up costs. But you can save on secondhand tools, seeds from friends, DIY supports and more. Compare store-bought and homegrown prices and you usually come out ahead.
And then there’s pride. You will grin big time when you harvest your first handful of peas, your first whopping zucchini, your first bell pepper. It. Just. Feels. Good. And it tastes better.
As you look out your windows onto a wintery scene are you missing the colors, shapes, and forms of your summer garden?
No need. If you want to be delighted rather than depressed with your views, plan now to add some winter interest to your garden with color, texture, and form.
Let’s start with texture. Adding plants with interesting bark textures ratchets up the “wow” factor in a landscape. Personal favorites are the shaggy bark of river birch and the mosaic bark of crape myrtles. Both have striking multiple trunks and crape myrtles range from 3 to 30 feet to fit any landscape. Other trees have smooth bark, furrowed bark or bark like an elephant’s trunk. Mix it up. The excellent book, “Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs,” includes bark photos in each plant profile.
With needles short or long, spiky, clustered or drooping, evergreen trees boast appealing texture. Seeing Norway spruce’s kimono sleeves dusted with snow makes you really, really want one.
But trees aren’t the only plants that tout texture. Think shrubs, ornamental grasses, and perennials. I can’t walk by a leatherleaf viburnum without stroking its coarse, deeply veined leaves. Ditto for holly’s glossy leaves.
The seed heads of ornamental grasses and perennials also can add striking texture. The snow-capped seed heads of coneflowers and Brazilian verbena look especially fine.
Now, let’s pop some color into your winter garden. You’ll find it in the crimson branches of red twig dogwood and the berries of hawthorns, hollies, and winterberries. But red isn’t the only color you can cultivate.
Winterberry adds bright color to the winter landscape
Some junipers tinge purple in the winter or hold onto their summer blues. Tan ornamental grasses contrast well with snow and add movement when stirred by the wind.
Crabapples dangle yellow, orange, and red fruits while viburnums show off berries of red, purple, black, or blue. And most evergreens are, well, green.
Mother Nature stocks her palette with softer colors. Grey rocks sport green lichen. Wood ages from brown to grey. Use natural materials to add color and beauty to walkways, benches, fences, and accents.
Suffuse your garden with your favorite colors. In the European garden Kiftsgate, the owners carefully placed splashes of bright blue. It adorns a bench, garden gate, and more to perfect effect. So grab your paintbrush.
Now, let’s talk form. Mixing shapes creates a well-designed landscape, but those shapes are most noticeable in winter when deciduous trees have dropped their leaf dresses. What do the bare bones of your landscape tell you? Look for shapes – round, square, triangle, oval, pillar, vase, and teardrop – and add what’s missing.
If your landscape is filled with lollipops – round balls on sticks like maples – then add something layered and wider like a dogwood, triangular like a spruce, or columnar like an arborvitae. Weeping forms improve every garden.
When garden designers tell us to plan for the view, they mean the views from both the inside and outside. So look out your windows and imagine what you want to see. Then make it happen.
By Annette Cormany, Principal Agent Associate and Master Gardener Coordinator, Washington County, University of Maryland Extension. This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media. Read more by Annette.
This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media.
Save the date! On March 9, join together with fellow University of Maryland alumni, faculty and staff, students, and volunteers for an extraordinary day of giving back. Make a contribution to Home and Garden Information Center Fund for #GivingDayUMD!
The holidays are over. The temperatures have plummeted. Now is the perfect time to curl up with a mug of tea and a good gardening book.
Yes, I have go-to reference books when I have a gardening question. But I treasure a handful of gardening books for sheer reading pleasure. Yes, you will learn. But, oh the beauty of the language.
I just finished reading Diane Ackerman’s Cultivating Delight, a lyrical ode to her garden. You sit beside her in her window seat to watch birds building nests. You hear a garden center’s siren song. You can smell her roses.
She tells more, more deeply, and with intrigue. She weaves tales of intrepid plant collectors risking life and limb, Greek gods becoming flowers, the glory of a summer storm, and cricket sex.
Along the way, Ackerman quotes Kipling and Longfellow, Muir, and Blake and gives us lessons on botany, biology, ecology, history, and garden design. You’re not aware you’re being taught, only lulled with lush language.
