Hello My Dear Gardening Friends,

What beautiful weather we are enjoying – cold but oh so bright, if you look at the trees there is a “haze” over them as the buds are starting to swell.

My little paper clip on the computer keeps “knocking” to get my attention. I can’t believe I actually speak to it!! See gardeners are mad. After all it will soon be the “Ides of March”.

How about a little work for this month??

• Bring in a few branches of lilac and try to force them into bloom. I have never had any luck with flowers but always get lots of leaves. At this time of year – leaves are more than welcome.
• This is a good month to air-layer indoor trees that are too tall - especially dracaenas, all figs, dieffenbachia, and schefflera.
• Hanging planters will be surging into new growth as sunshine increases. Houseclean the planters now and check for any repotting or replacing that may be needed.
• Check for mealy bugs on coleus, piggyback plant, crotons, hoyas and gardenias. Treatment will have to be repeated every 10 days to destroy any new hatching broods.
• Start tubers of caladiums in a rich peaty mixture. Keep moist until new growth tips are well started (mine are still growing from last year, they never did down).
• Plant seeds of any new geraniums and take cuttings from the old ones, especially the scented geraniums.
• Repot any camellia you may have again if the blooms have faded.

This is a good time to get outside and start pruning, ornamental shrubs will really benefit if they get a good “haircut”. Pruning is regulated by the flowering habits of the plant itself. For example the plants that bloom in the spring or early summer usually bear their flowers on last year’s wood and should not be pruned until immediately after they have blossomed. There are a number of shrubs that should be dealt with now. Examples would include: barberry, (Berberis spp.), butterfly bush (Buddleia Davidi), rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus), privet (my fathercut our hedge every week – couldn’t stand to see the ‘bits” sticking up), privet (Ligustrum spp.), honey suckle (Lonicvera spp) roses, and the late flowering spirea, (Spirea Bumalda, S.B, Anthony Waterer and S.B Froebeli). There are of course many more – for more info, check in your gardening books if you are not sure which is which. Alternately, you can email me your questions.

Pruning is carried out to remove dead or diseased twigs, to train or shape, to increase the size and duration of bloom by concentrating the full strength of the plant in essential branches, and to reduce transpiring surfaces to compensate for the loss of roots on transplanted specimens.

For most shrubbery, a good pair of secateurs and a pair of lopping shears are all the mechanical equipment needed. For larger pruning, such as trees and heavier work – I suggest that you leave that to the experts. It is amazing how many people think that by loping off the top of a shrub, they can restore the plant’s appearance and health. This not only perpetuates the source of infection in the diseased twigs, but it has the similar effect as disbudding The removal of terminal buds stimulates the development of the lower lateral buds on the stem, so that the plant becomes chocked, the dense crowded growth that makes it both unattractive and inefficient.

The correct way to prune a shrub is to retain the strong healthy branches that will give the plant its required form, and at the same time thin out the undesirable material by clipping it as close to the crown as possible. All lateral branches should be trimmed individually. Branches should be clipped a quarter of an inch above a node – a place where a bud is produced – at an angle of approximately 45o, with the point of the stub in the direction you want the branch to grow. Straight cuts or too long subs can cause decay.

One further thing – do not prune too severely, just make this a regular part of your garden practice each year. After all it is a good excuse to get outside, although it is cold – the sun is warm and we all need to be outside as much as possible!

It will soon be Saint Patrick’s Day. Legends tell us that St. Patrick in trying to show the Trinity to his parishioners, plucked a three parted shamrock and used it to illustrate his point. However, one year during the Boer War, Queen Victoria sent a sprig of shamrock to each Irishman serving with the armed forces in South Africa. The Wood Sorrel leaves are the source of the druggists “salts of lemon” that are used to remove stains from cloth.

You will find ‘shamrock’ for sale in the supermarkets, and florists, but this is not shamrock rather it is Bowie oxalis (Oxalis Bowie) - an introduction originally from South Africa. This oxalis is a bulb-producing species with large open blooms and foliage. During the day the open blossoms turn with the light and the leaves spread wide; at night the flowers close and the leaflets droop to form little “tents”.

You may decide to throw the plants into the compost pile once the flowers have faded. After the flowering is finished, keep watering it for a few weeks. When the plant will start to die down, gradually reduce the watering until the soil has become dry. The pot is ready to be stored in a cool place for the summer. Next September lift the bulbs and repot three to six of them in a one inch deep 5 inch pot. A soil mixture of six parts loam, two parts leaf mold and one part sifted cow manure (from Loblaws of course) makes an excellent growing medium. Keep the pot in a cool place and water sparingly until the first growth appears, move the pot to a cool, sunny window where the plant can be given normal house plant care. “In spite of the enigma of the shamrock’s identity, the various species that travel under this alias bring a touch of green to our homes when the winter has been too long with us”.

For all those lucky people who will attend the Peterborough “For the Love of Gardening”: Gary Westlake, Peterborough Master Gardener has put up a web page for you with all the information about the show (www.fortheloveofgardening.ca). This is indeed one of the bargains of the year – do come and enjoy smelling the flowers, as you can see, we have a lot of new and different vendors this year.

Peterborough Horticultural Society lost a great many of their library books in the “flood” of last year, they are replacing them as fast as possible. I borrowed a copy of one that has been added to their collection, called 100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names - it is quite delightful I am trying to find a copy to add to my collection. If you should have any gardening books that you wish to dispose of – do not forget your horticultural societies, they are always pleased to add to their libraries.

I am going to attach another e-mail that I received about using mulch from the United States; seemingly all the trees that came down due to the storms etc. are being ground up and sold for mulch. The article suggests that the mulch is full of bad things, so do check on the bags as to where the source of mulch comes from.

I went to Canada Blooms this week with Lakefield Hort. I left the house in freezing rain, as we neared Toronto the snow had vanished and it was raining. This did not dampen our spirits. One of the nicest aspects of the show is connecting with old friends – to my surprise there was a friend from Ottawa and another from Thunder Bay – lots of the Toronto crowd. It is indeed true that Horticultural people are a “family”. It was a lovely show, with flowers everywhere! Today March 11th it is warm (40oF) and sunny – the “mud” season is upon us – and it is oh so very welcome.

Last night I had a phone call from my friend Brian in Australia. He has been very sick - after an operation on a badly torn shoulder and another problem for which he has been taking antibiotics since before Christmas, the worst thing has been the number of operations he has suffered to remove cancer spots from his face, and the plastic surgery to try and improve things. Remember to PLEASE wear your hats and sunscreen, the sun is getting hotter as the ozone layer is depleting.

Well my dears I have promised Gary that I will write an article for him for tomorrow for the paper in Peterborough so I am going to say goodbye here.

One small thing before I do leave you. I will tell you how the Hyacinth got its name…

Hyacinth was a beautiful boy whom the God Apollo loved. One day whilst they were playing the ancient game of quoits together, Hyacinth ran forward to catch the discus; it struck him on the head and killed him. A chilling elaboration of this story tells that Zephyr, the wind, was jealous of the friendship and blew the quoits against a rock to rebound and kill the boy. As Hyacinth died, a flower sprang from his bleeding head, which hung over the shoulder of Apollo, who was desperately cradling him in his arms and begging him to live. Wild hyacinths always bend toward the ground, and the letter-like markings on their petals were supposed to read Al. Al in Greek is the sound of a mournful wail. Wild gladioli and some wild orchids in Greece have the same symbol, and they were all used in wreaths for the dead. According to John Parkinson, hyacinths “hinder young persons from growing ripe too soon” which would be useful to those who love unchanging youth.

Apollo’s ardor was also responsible for Daphne turning into a laurel bush and Cyparissus changing into a cypress tree. So Apollo left a tree, bush and flower – almost a complete garden of metamorphosed passion. With a tub or two of impatiens, it would be enough for a townhouse garden – or indeed any garden if one considers the implications!!!!!

The hyacinth was actually brought from Turkey and was grown in Europe’s first botanical garden in Padua. It was perhaps collected by the German physician Leonhardt Rauwolf when he went to Turkey in 1725. He was the first Westerner to describe coffee, which he noted, made him feel “curiously animated”. Star Buck should be very grateful to him!!!

Hats, gloves, sunscreen, soon insect repellent, and do get outside and enjoy these beautiful days – myself I spent in bed yesterday – I have a dreadful cold, this too will pass.

Lovingly, Beryl