Author:Annette – Page 7 – Maryland Grows

Christmas cacti make lovely gifts and décor

November 26, 2021November 9, 2021Maryland Grows4 Comments

Christmas cactus are popping up everywhere. They’re lovely living gifts that enliven holiday décor and add beauty year-round. If you like floral irony, this is your plant. Even though they are fleshy succulents, they originated not in arid regions but in the rainforests of Brazil where they drape themselves over tree branches as epiphytes.

Arching stems on cactus — Arching stems give Christmas cactus – and this Thanksgiving cactus – handsome structure when not in bloom. Photo credit: Washington County Master Gardener Lauri Ricker

As with many tropical plants, Christmas cactus delivers a double dose of drama. The first is the strong architectural form of arching stems made up of a series of scalloped pads. But it’s their cascading flowers in pink, salmon, red, or white that are the real showstoppers. Stacked layers of swept-back petals with prominent stamens, they are very oh-la-la. They also have a long bloom time, flowering from two weeks to two months.

Heavy blooms are a hallmark of Christmas cactus and its cousin, this Thanksgiving cactus.
Photo credit: Washington County Master Gardener Wilma Holdway.

Also long is their lifespan. They can live for decades, often becoming family heirlooms. I once received cuttings from a plant started by a – ahem – mature friends’ grandfather. This caused a commotion at airport security. What IS that thing on the x-ray? And yes, the kindly man let me keep my cuttings once I showed them to him and shared their story.

Christmas cactus has beautiful cascading blooms. Photo credit: Washington County Master Gardener Leora Smith

Care is fairly basic. They like bright indirect light, not full sun. Keep the soil slightly moist. Mist regularly or put the pot on a dish of moist gravel to boost humidity.

Christmas cacti need cooler temps and less water to nudge them to bloom again. They need a chill to give you a thrill.

Master Gardener friends report that the natural drop in temperature and day length in fall is enough to encourage buds indoors. Others let their cactus summer outside in light shade, keeping them out until fall temperatures drop to 50 to 55 degrees. Regardless of how you stimulate flowering, resume regular care when buds form. After your cactus finishes blooming, give it a cooler rest period and less water for two months.

And yes, Christmas cactus has many cousins including Thanksgiving cactus and Easter cactus, all named for the times they bloom. Mine never consulted calendars and bloomed as they liked.

How can you tell which cactus you have? Easter and Thanksgiving cactus have pointed edges on their leaves while Christmas cactus leaves have more rounded scalloped edges.

Thankfully, Christmas cacti are a snap to propagate, so they are easy to share. Just break off a stem at a joint, slip into well-drained soil and keep the soil moist. It will root in a few weeks.

I love a good story, and these plants have several. My favorite is a Brazilian legend that tells of a poor boy in the jungle who prays repeatedly for a sign of Christmas. One day he awakes surrounded by colorful flowers on the tips of cactus. And so the cactus became a symbol of answered prayers.

So Christmas cacti are a symbol of hope. With their long lives, colorful blooms, ease of care, and sharing, they make wonderful gifts for friends, family, and your very own green thumb.

Annette Cormany, horticulture educator, University of Maryland Extension – Washington County

Frightfully fun jack-o’-lantern lore

October 22, 2021October 22, 2021Maryland GrowsLeave a comment

Spooky or silly? How do you carve your jack-o’-lantern?

Whether you go for fun or fright, jack-o’-lantern carving is a family-friendly way to mark the season. Have you ever wondered how the tradition got started?

As with much folklore, it started with the Celts. Northern Europeans carved frightening faces into beets, potatoes and turnips to fend off restless evil souls. To illuminate them, they placed a burning ember or candle inside. A glowing cast of an early carved turnip lantern greets visitors to the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life with blazing eyes and a crooked grin.

A more macabre theory is that Jack-o’-lanterns allude to pagan customs of severed heads as war trophies. That certainly puts the sin in sinister.

The link between jack-o’-lanterns and Halloween started with – you guessed it – another Celtic tradition. The Celts believed the worlds of the living and dead blurred on October 31, the night before their new year began and the start of a long, hard cold winter. So they lit bonfires and wore costumes to ward off ghosts. Through the years, secular and sacred traditions overlapped and All Hallows Eve became Halloween with its scary connotations including our buddy, Jack.

But who put the Jack in jack-o’-lantern? In 17^th century Britain, it was commonplace to call any man you didn’t know “Jack.” A night watchman became “Jack of the lantern.”

The Stingy Jack 18^th century Irish folktale also colors the tradition. Stingy Jack tricked the devil and was fated to spend eternity traveling between heaven and hell with only an ember of coal in a turnip lantern to light his way.

Irish immigrants brought their traditions to America in the 19^th and 20^th centuries and discovered that our native pumpkins were much easier to carve than the turnips or taters from the Old Country.

Ever try to carve a turnip?

Local pumpkin patches and garden centers are loaded with jack-o’-lantern potential.

Thrill-seeking youngsters soon realized that the glowing faces of carved pumpkins had serious scare potential and used them to frighten passerby. Boys will be boys.

Literary references morphed from benign to sinister. In his “Twice Told Tales,” Nathaniel Hawthorne offered up the first known literary reference to jack-o’-lanterns.

Discussing where to hide a bright gem, his character says, “Hide it under thy cloak, say’st thou? Why, it would gleam through the holes and make thee look like a jack-o’-lantern.”

Washington Irving’s 1820 “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” dialed up the fear factor when his headless horseman tossed a glowing jack-o’-lantern at Ichabod Crane who disappeared forever.

Cue the spooky scream.

While jack-o’-lanterns are part of the scene that is Halloween, their meaning has mellowed. Many consider them a symbol of community, a big orange welcome mat for trick-or-treaters.

Last year, I followed the laughter down my street to find a neighbor and her kids gleefully gutting three huge pumpkins for carving. Tossing a gooey handful of seeds, she grinned and said, “It just isn’t Halloween without jack-o’-lanterns!”

Whether you find jack-o’-lanterns fun or frightful, I suggest you grab a plump pumpkin by its stem and have your way with it to honor the long-standing tradition.

Annette Cormany, horticulture educator, University of Maryland Extension – Washington County

Create a pollinator-friendly garden

September 24, 2021September 3, 2021Maryland GrowsLeave a comment

What did you have for breakfast?

If your plate included toast with jam, fresh berries, granola with nuts, coffee and juice, you had a nice balanced breakfast, right? Take away everything that needs a pollinator and your left with only dry toast and plain granola. That’s how dull and diminished our diets would be without pollinators.

Bees, butterflies and other pollinators are responsible for one in three bites we eat. They are crucial to not only our food supply, but to our ecosystems. Pollinators build healthy habitat. They keep plant communities vigorous and able to reproduce naturally, supporting biodiversity and providing food, cover and nesting sites for wildlife.

Unfortunately many pollinators are threatened by habitat loss, pesticide use, disease and changes in the way we manage the land. They need our help. While bees and butterflies are our pollinator poster children, we should also thank wasps, flies, moths, beetles, hummingbirds and bats for their services.

How does pollination work? Buzzing, flying, crawling and humming along, pollinators get dusted with pollen as they sip nectar and gather pollen from a flower.

Bee on bee balm — A bee searches for nectar and pollen in the tubular flowers of hyssop. Photo credit: Washington County Master Gardener Barb Hendershot

When they visit another flower – bam! – pollen gets transferred which triggers the formation of seeds and fruit. That is how plants grow our food.

Without pollinators, there would be no strawberries, juicy peaches, crunchy nuts or corn on the cob. I’m not willing to give that up. Are you?

I didn’t think so. So join me in helping pollinators by creating a pollinator-friendly garden.

Start with diversity. Plant many different flowering plants that bloom from spring to frost so pollinators have a constant source of pollen and nectar. Mass plants to give them a better chance of being noticed by pollinators. Plant three coneflowers, not just one, to put out the welcome mat.

Include native plants. Since native plants co-evolved with native insects – including Maryland’s 400 species of native bees – they naturally support them best with better nutrition.

A silver spotted skipper butterfly explores a zinnia. Photo credit: Washington County Master Gardener Barb Hendershot

Think big. Include not only annuals and perennials, but trees, shrubs and vines. Each plant type provides habitat for different pollinators’ needs from food and shelter to places to raise young.

What are some favorite plants for pollinators? The list is long but includes columbine, phlox, purple coneflower, bee balm, butterfly weed, goldenrod and asters, redbud, ninebark, oak and birch. Here are some good resources for pollinator plants from the Xerces Society and Pollinator Partnership: and this guide on pollinator.org.

Provide habitat for nesting and egg-laying by pollinators by adding shrubs, grasses, a brush pile and orchard mason bee house. Add water with a birdbath with a few rocks for pint-sized pollinator access.

To really boost your yard’s pollinator appeal, limit or eliminate pesticides. Bees, in particular, are very sensitive to chemicals. Opt for kinder, gentler organic controls like insecticidal soap and hand-picking.

Learn more about creating a pollinator garden at our University of Maryland fact sheet. You’ll find resources for native and pollinator plants as well as tips for garden design and maintenance.

I hope you will make your garden a pollinator hot spot, the place to be. Or is that bee?

Annette Cormany, horticulture educator, University of Maryland Extension – Washington County

This article was previously published by Herald-Mail Media.

Invite butterflies to your garden

August 28, 2021August 17, 2021Maryland Grows1 Comment

Raise your hand if you love butterflies. Wow, that’s a lot of hands.

It’s hard to resist the fluttering appeal of butterflies with their delicate wings, zig-zag flight and graceful presence in our gardens. So, why resist? Revel in butterflies’ visits and do more to attract them to your gardens.

This means having flowers blooming from spring to frost. Different butterflies emerge at different times and need fuel to fly.

Lilies and other flowers welcome butterflies such as this great spangled fritillary. Photo credit: Barb Hendershot, Washington County Master Gardener

Flat-topped plants with single flowers provide good landing pads for butterflies. Think zinnias and yarrow or other plants butterflies can easily grasp. Choose native plants such as purple coneflowers, asters and goldenrods that have evolved with native butterflies to provide maximum nutrition.

Butterflies undergo what’s called complete metamorphosis. That means that they are an insect that goes through four distinct life stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Host plants provide both a place for adult butterflies to lay their eggs and food for the caterpillars that emerge. So adding host plants helps not one but two butterfly life stages.

Different butterflies need different host plants. For example, dill and parsley are host plants for black swallowtail butterflies while milkweeds host monarch butterflies.

A black swallowtail butterfly feeds on parsley, one of its host plants. Photo credit: Martha MacNeil, Washington County Master Gardener

Monarch caterpillar on milkweed — Master Gardener Martha McNeil discovers a monarch caterpillar feeding on common milkweed. Photo credit: Mo Theriault, Washington County Master Gardener

To learn about your favorite butterflies’ host plants, view this chart from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Know that when you plant host plants, they will get munched by hungry butterfly caterpillars. That’s what they’re for! So plant extra in different parts of your garden if you also want harvests for your family.

Butterflies get thirsty, but they have difficulty drinking from deep birdbaths. So add a few rocks to your bird-feeder to make sipping easier.

Like beach-side sunbathers, butterflies bask. They sun themselves to warm their wings to make them flight ready. Set up a suitable sunning area by adding a few flat rocks to your garden.

Ever heard of puddling? That’s what butterflies do when they sip water and nutrients from damp mud or sand. I spied a dozen swallowtails doing this along a nearby creek recently. Magical. Create a puddling area in your garden by keeping a small area of soil damp or by putting damp sand or soil in a shallow bowl.

Protect butterflies by avoiding chemical insecticides in your garden. These chemicals most often can’t distinguish between insect pests and beneficial insects such as butterflies.

Welcome butterflies and other pollinators. Your garden and our community will be richer for it.

Annette Cormany, horticulture educator, University of Maryland Extension – Washington County

How plants cope with soaring temperatures

July 23, 2021December 17, 2021Maryland GrowsLeave a comment

Hot enough for ya? It’s only July, but we’ve had more than our share of relentless heat.

Have you ever wondered how plants cope with heat? It’s not as if they can turn on their air conditioners or pour themselves a cold one. In fact, plants have myriad adaptations that help them survive high temperatures. Some involve managing heat while others focus on conserving water.

Many coping mechanisms are structural. Plants such as sedum have waxy leaves to conserve water. Fuzzy lamb’s ear has reflective leaf hairs.
Ornamental grasses’ rolled leaves give them an advantage as does threadleaf coreopsis’ smaller, finer leaves. Less surface area means leaves lose less water.
Lavender, Russian sage and other plants with bluish leaves are summer survivors, too.
Plants with thick roots such as iris, peonies and daylilies store water better. And native plants’ deeper roots find water more easily.

Orange butteryfly weed flower with butterfly — Drought-resistant native plants like this butterfly weed (Aesclepias tuberosa) also attract pollinators such as this zebra swallowtail. Photo credit – Joan Willoughby

Purple bee balm flower — Drought-resistant native plants like this butterfly weed (Aesclepias tuberosa) also attract pollinators such as this zebra swallowtail. Photo credit – Joan Willoughby

All of these evolutionary adaptations help plants tolerate hot, dry conditions. We know that summer’s heat comes every year and that global warming is bringing more temperature extremes. So it makes sense to help our gardens adapt by incorporating plants with these characteristics.

Okay, science geeks. Here’s one for you. Did you know that some plants can make special “heat-shock proteins” to help them recover from heat stress? When you cook an egg, you are unfolding proteins. When you melt butter, you are disrupting cell membranes. These same disruptions can happen when plants get too hot. Cell membranes can literally melt, leaking plant’s vital fluids. Heat-shock proteins act like “molecular chaperones,” preventing these bad things from happening at a cellular level. They beef up membranes and collapsing proteins. Plants survive.

Purple iris flower — Iris’ fleshy rhizomes help it hold water and thrive in high temperatures. Photo credit – Marie Bikle, Washington County Master Gardener

But don’t make plants go it alone, relying only on their adaptations. Help them when it’s hot by watering them more often and deeply. Newer plantings of trees and shrubs need slow, deep soaks once a week. Use a hose on a trickle, a soaker hose, drip irrigation or a 5-gallon bucket with nail holes in the base.

Container plants heat up and dry out faster, so check and water them once or twice a day. Soak them until water runs out the drainage holes.

Keep plants mulched to conserve moisture. Consider shade covers on vegetable crops. And be vigilant, watching your plants for signs of heat stress such as wilting.

Water moves constantly from the soil to roots, stems and leaves. There it escapes through leaf pores. When the rate of water lost is greater than the water absorbed, plants wilt and need water.

Trees often jettison some leaves to conserve water when it’s hot. Fewer leaves need less water. Unless leaf loss is dramatic, there is no cause for concern.

Vegetable plants slow production in high heat. Blossoms drop when temps top 80 degrees. Without blossoms, plants can’t make fruit.

Tomatoes, squash, peppers, melons, cucumbers and beans are likely to drop blossoms. It’s a passing phase. Plants will make flowers and fruit again when temperatures cool.

Green peppers — Summer’s high temperatures cause blossoms on some vegetables such as these peppers to drop, temporarily slowing production. Photo credit – Home & Garden Information Center

Plants have developed miraculous adaptations to high temperatures, but sometimes need our help. So watch, water and marvel at the many ways nature finds ways to beat the heat.

Annette Cormany, horticulture educator, University of Maryland Extension – Washington County

In praise of good bugs. Good bugs are a gardener’s best friend.

June 25, 2021June 11, 2021Maryland Grows1 Comment

Boonsboro, MD –

Ladybugs.
Lacewings.
Ground beetles.
Wasps.

What do all these insects have in common? They are the good guys, the beneficial insects that help keep bad bugs at bay in our gardens.

Nine out of 10 insects are beneficial. Yes, most of those flying, crawling, buzzing and burrowing bugs out there are actually helping you battle the few nasty bugs that harm plants.

How? Some are predators that eat bad bugs. Others are parasites that lay eggs on bad bugs so their babies get fed.

So instead of reaching for that spray bottle when you see a bug ambling across your petunias, pause. Is it harming the plant? Or is a good guy just moseying by?

Think before you squish or spray. When you take out good bugs, you’re taking out your allies.

Instead, send me a photo or bring me a sample so I can identify the insect and suggest controls if needed. Let’s work together to keep – and build – your army of helpful insects.

To know beneficial insects is to love them. So let’s meet a few.

Spiky ladybug larva — Alligator-like ladybug larvae eat thousands of aphids and other bad bugs. Photo credit: Whitney Cranshaw, Bugwood

The ladybug is the good bug poster child. It happily dines on thousands of aphids in its lifetime as well as scale, spider mites, whiteflies and more.

Lacewing larva — The larvae of delicate adult lacewings eat aphids, lace bugs, caterpillars, beetle larvae, mites and more. Photo credit: Whitney Cranshaw, Bugwood

Lacewings are beautiful lacy-winged (hence the name) insects. They may look delicate, but are voracious hunters that eat many different dastardly bugs.

Some wasps are parasitic, laying their eggs on harmful insects. There is even one called the scoliid wasp that lays its eggs on Japanese beetle grubs in the soil.

Other generalist predators like praying mantids and assassin bugs stalk and eat a wide variety of insects – good and bad – to keep their populations balanced.

I’m betting that now that you’ve met a few beneficial insects, you’d like to know how to attract more to your yard. Here are a few tips.

First, give them the basics: food, water and shelter.

Many insects need pollen and nectar. So make sure something is blooming from spring through frost to provide both food and shelter. Native plants support native insects best.

Many beneficial insects are small, risking life and limb to sip water from a traditional birdbath. So put water in shallow containers. A pot saucer will do.

Some plants are better at attracting beneficial insects than others. Herbs with their tiny flowers are sized just right for pint-sized beneficials.

Daisy-shaped flowers such as coneflowers and zinnias are magnets for good bugs as are plants with umbrella-shaped flower clusters such as yarrow and dill.

One of the best things you can do for beneficial insects is to stop or limit your use of chemical insecticides. Chemicals don’t discriminate, killing both good and bad bugs.

This doesn’t mean you can’t control garden pests. I’m just suggesting a kinder gentler approach.

Insecticidal soap, horticultural oil and Bt – the holy trinity of organic controls – manage most bad bugs. Add cultural practices such as handpicking, row covers and crop rotation and you have an arsenal of crackerjack controls.

Don’t let bugs bug you. Most are friends. Embrace them. Encourage them. And deal swiftly with the few bad bugs with organic controls. They work.

_{Annette Cormany, horticulture educator, University of Maryland Extension – Washington County}

A gardener laments lessons hard won

May 21, 2021May 18, 2021Maryland Grows2 Comments

If only I’d known. How many times have we slapped our forehead at our gardening follies and mumbled that under our breath. So today, I am paying homage to the lessons my garden has taught me.

Soil is god.

Healthy soil grows healthy plants. So pay attention to your dirt, um, soil. Feed it lots of organic matter: compost, chipped leaves, grass clippings. And be gentle with it. Tilling destroys soil structure and harms the soil critters that make soil healthy.

Most bugs are good.

Only one in ten insects is harmful. The rest are good guys that help control bad bugs. And another thing. The uglier the bug, the more beneficial it is. Look up assassin bugs or cicada killer wasps. Yikes.

Chemicals kill bugs good and bad.

Most grab-and-go chemicals kill indiscriminately. Do you really want to take out your allies? I think not. Choose less toxic organic products and do things like hand-picking and crop rotation to keep the bad boys at bay.

Right plant, right place.

Placing plants where they can not only survive but thrive is smart. Put a water-loving plant in hot, dry clay and it will die. Guar-an-teed. Find out what a plant needs and give it just that for great results. Don’t tempt fate.

Plant tags lie.

Many plant tags have good information, but it goes only so far. So, do a bit of research online or in a good gardening book to confirm what a plant needs as far as light, moisture, soil and space.
My beautyberry is 4 feet wider and taller than its tag indicated.

Respect frost dates.

Yes, I know. You want the first tomatoes on the block. But if you plant them early and they get zapped, you have no tomatoes. So wait to plant tender seedlings. Mid-May is good. Later is better if your area stays cooler longer.

Always lay garden rakes and pitchforks with the tines away and down.

Enough said.

Landscaping fabric is evil.

Advertised as a weed block, this black devil mesh does nothing but give weeds something to sink their roots into. Weeds grow both up and down through it. You will spend half your life wrestling it out of your beds.

Adopting sickly plants is a bad idea.

There is a reason they look unwell. Whether they have been watered too much or too little, baked or chilled, had too much or too little light, or beset by bugs or disease, avoid them. Smart money is on the healthy plants.

What we do in our garden matters.

From choosing organic bug controls to making compost, picking drought-tolerant plants to planting flowers for pollinators, every action we take has consequences. Making earth-friendly choices makes our gardens and communities healthier.

I hope the lessons my garden has taught me help you to avoid some pitfalls. In gardening there are oh-so-many ways to get it right. And wrong. The fun is in the trying.

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.