GGG Granvil le Gardeners Gazette

Promoting Education and Recreation through Gardening Activities

Oxford, North Carolina January 2016, Volume V, No. 1

Trout lily Pink ladyslipper Windflower (Erythronium americanum) (Cypripedium acaule) (Anemonella thalictroides)

EARLY SPRING WILDFLOWERS IN GRANVILLE COUNTY By Stefan Bloodworth from the Blomquist Garden, Sarah P. Duke Gardens

About the Program

Have you taken a walk in the woods in February? If not, you will be surprised at the native wildflowers that may be in bloom, depending on the weather. These earliest bloomers are the spring ephemerals – some bloom, set seed, and disappear until next spring, and others’ leaves continue to grow larger after the flower disappears (twin leaf, bloodroot). April and May bring wildflowers with different habits – including woodies such as azaleas and mountain laurel. Stefan’s talk will focus on native spring wildflowers, their natural history, relationships with native wildlife, and conservation concerns.

About the Speaker Stefan was born and raised in Durham, NC and has lived and studied in a couple of exotic locations. He lived in Tanzania and Equador where he studied tropical ecology and the effects of deforestation on plant and animal diversity. Stefan has been a landscape designer specializing in the use of native plants since 1995. In 2002 he was hired as the Curator of the Blomquist Garden of Southeastern Native Plants at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. He leads a popular walk, “Walk on the Wild Side,” through the Blomquist Garden on the first Thursday of every month, and the next one is January 7 (fee required). He has written and lectured extensively over the last thirteen years on a variety of subjects associated with the appreciation and conservation of native plants and their habitats. Stefan has continued to operate his business while working full-time at Duke.

President’s Notes Welcome to 2016 with the Granville Gardeners. As your president I am looking forward to working with all the members of the Granville Gardeners Club. I have said that it is a daunting challenge for me and I know you will all help in making it a great year. Our Annual Herb Plant Sale is coming up very quickly around the first week in April. Last year’s sale was a great success and took the place of the Fall Plant Sale. The sale will require lots of members pitching in and helping with a committee chairperson and committee members for planning (there are extensive notes taken from last year’s sale). All members will need to help with the pre-sale of the herbs. We will need members to help the day before and the day of sale by being a picker for the pre-sale plants, setting up the herbs for walk in sales, be a cashier, manning the table for new members and good old clean-up. So you see we have a job for everyone to make this sale successful. We have a quilt, home-made by Judy Mc Hugh, this would be a great item for a raffle during the Oxford Birthday Celebration. Let’s be thinking about this. Just like those re-blooming Iris we bought at the November meeting, we need to face this year prepared to do our part for the Granville Gardeners Club. Kay Nutt

Pollinator Garden Update After trying from September to December to get John Bryan of Bryan’s Soil and Stone to deliver on his offer of 10 cubic yards of our choice of the company’s three kinds of soil amendments for the PG, Bev Allen decided planting time would run out before John would answer her calls. She made arrangements with Dale Jones, the person in charge of the leaf dump in Oxford, to deliver 6 or 7 loads of approximately 3 cubic yards each of leaves that were almost to the compost stage to the PG site. On Thursday, December 10 Bev, Peter, Ed, Ben, and Sandra met to spread the mountain of mulch after first laying double thickness newspaper from end rolls donated by the Oxford Ledger. They were able to cover ~2/3 of the site before they ran out of time and energy. Although an appeal for help for the next day went out, only Ed, Laura, and Bev showed up but again could not finish. On Tuesday the 15th Bev and Marty put surveyor flags labeled with the names of the shrubs and perennials where they were to be planted, and on Wednesday the 16th Ed, Lynda, Peter, Kay and Jim, Laura, Marty, and Lena came to help. Marty and Bev arrived at 8 a.m. to continue placing perennials flags while Ed used his Mantis tiller on the hard soil next to the sidewalk and Kay, Jim, and others finished covering the site with mulch to a depth of about 9”. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew began planting the service berry tree and the shrubs, and when Ed, Kay, Jim, and Bev had finished what they had started, they began planting as well while Marty wrote ID labels before joining in planting. There were some plants left at one p.m., and it was decided they would be planted on the next work day. Bev was still trying to find many of the perennials, and on Thursday the 17th she and Tom went to Big Bloomers in Sanford where she got the rest. Bev sent a request for workers for the following Monday, December 21, and only Kay and Jim, Marty, and Bev arrived to plant over 90 plants. The job was finally finished, and then the rains came. It probably will be about 3 years before the garden is filled out, but if everything marked by flags and stakes comes up and blooms this year, there will be food and nectar for the pollinators. To paraphrase the “If you build it” line: “If you plant it, they will come.” By Marty Finkel

Kay Nutt Lena and Marty Ed

By Lena Spangler

Q & A

Q: I’ve heard that this winter is going to be colder and wetter than winters have been in the past few years. Is there any way to find out if this is so? A: Charlotte Glenn, Chatham Co. Horticulture Agent, sent an email last month with very interesting information on weather trends and where to keep updated. She wrote that the NC Climate Office at NCSU has a Climate Blog, http://climate.ncsu.edu/climateblog that is free and reports recent weather events and emerging trends. In fact, their recent series of blog posts suggests that the coming winter might be snowier than normal, especially as we head into January. Here is the Climate Office’s outlook for the winter, summarized in their Nov. 23 posting:

Even though meteorological winter begins December 1st, don't expect an immediate shift to a wintry pattern then. We expect near- to above-normal temperatures this December with few to no wintry events, thanks in part to a strong polar vortex and more northerly storm track for most of the month.

Several indicators suggest that January will see a transition to a colder and more wintry pattern. As the atmospheric impacts of El Niño and Siberian snow accumulations kick in, polar conditions should become more favorable to supplying cold air across the Southeast US.

We anticipate the favorable wintry regime will continue into February, with ongoing potential for cold air to interact with moisture-laden coastal storms.

As the current El Niño event weakens heading into March, the active storm track and cold air availability is also expected to wane, likely signaling an end to wintry potential. This could happen as early as mid-to-late February or possibly early March.”

Source: http://climate.ncsu.edu/climateblog?id=166&h=424f345b

By Marty Finkel

GARDEN GLOSSARY: Grafting Grafting is a fascinating subject and was suggested for this month’s glossary by Ed Neal. Most know what grafting is, but here’s the definition: Grafting is a horticultural technique used to join parts from two or more plants so that they appear to grow as a single plant. Why graft: • Saves time – growing from seed usually takes much longer to produce a mature plant than grafting

does • True-to-type results – in the case of fruit trees, most do not come true from seed. Seeds from hybrid plants do not come true • Healthier plants – many vegetable (and other) plants are healthier and produce better when grafted

onto rootstock specially developed for resistance to a whole range of problems, i.e. disease and tolerance of difficult growing conditions

• Ease of propagation – some plants are notoriously hard to root from cuttings but easy to graft. • Aesthetics – grafting can produce plants with desirable traits such as flower color, shape and/or size of

the plant, etc. Dwarfing is one example, with Mugo pine as only one of thousands of trees available on dwarfing rootstock. Upright standard rose forms are achieved by grafting shrub roses onto upright tree stocks. Tree peonies and weeping miniature cherry trees are made by grafting bush-type scions onto upright standard stocks, and it goes on and on.

What types of plants can be grafted: Almost any plant from fruit trees, vegetables, ornamental trees and shrubs to herbaceous plants (including succulents) provided the scion is compatible with the rootstock. What are scions and rootstocks: Scion: In the case of woody plants, it is a piece of detached twig or shoot usually having 2 or 3 buds In the case of herbaceous plants, it is a detached piece of stem having some leaves Rootstock (also stock or understock): the part of the graft that produces the root system of the grafted plant. What does scion and rootstock compatibility mean? A definition from Cornell University is that there must be a sufficiently close genetic relationship between stock and scion for a successful graft union to form. Example: apple scions can’t be grafted onto pear rootstock or scions of orange trees onto maple rootstock, but Jonathan apple stock grafted onto an apple rootstock with the characteristic of slowing growth will produce a dwarf Jonathan apple tree. How is grafting done? There are hundreds of examples on the Internet as well as books showing step-by-step illustrations of different types of grafts. You can practice a simple graft technique (splice) at home using a houseplant. Flame sterilize the knife, match the diameter of the scion and the rootstock, cut their stems at a 45 degree angle, and fit them together. Use masking tape to hold them together until they grow as one.

Desert rose, a succulent Mugo pine Grafted tomato plants Desert Rose (Adenium obesum) from seed is a crapshoot. The results are often inferior, so grafts are made from known varieties with better and known qualities such as blooming time, quantity, shape, pattern and color of the blooms. You can produce a desert rose with several colors of flowers by grafting scions of plants having those colors onto a single rootstock having multiple stems. By Marty Finkel

This image is from a sixteenth century woodcut showing cleft grafting on fruit trees. It was found in the best medieval treatise on fruit growing: De Omnibus agriculturae partibus, by Petrus Crescentius.

To-Do List • Seed catalogs started coming last month and are still arriving, so make your choices and order

this month. For less than the price of one transplant or one 4-cell pack of vegetables or flowers, you can have from 10 to 500 plants if you plant all the seeds in a package. The most fun, though, is that you get to choose from so many varieties that aren’t on the market, and you get to watch them grow.

• Sow seeds of broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage inside or in a cold frame. Inside, when seedlings appear, put their containers about 2 inches under fluorescent lights. Grow lights are not necessary unless plants are flowering. Strong light & cool temperature result in compact, sturdy seedlings.

• If you didn’t have a soil test done in the fall, there is still time; boxes are available from the Extension office, and instructions are printed on the boxes.

• Fertilize pansies with an organic slow release fertilizer. Re-apply every 6 weeks. • Dig and divide liriope and mondo late this month and early Feb. Cut back lirope before new growth

emerges using a lawn mower or string trimmer. • Spray for overwintering aphid, scale, and mite eggs, nymphs, and adults using dormant oil according

to directions. Spray only when the temperature is 40 degrees or warmer for at least 24 hours. • Remove and destroy bagworm pouches on junipers and other needle-leaved plants. • Check houseplants for insects. Any eggs that were on them when they were moved indoors may have

hatched. • Walk around with a notepad and note what needs to be done: overgrown azaleas, ligustrum, eleagnus,

other shrubs that need pruning and thinning (or removed), walkways that need attention, new paths to make, removing over-populated plants (hellebores, daylilies, iris, lily of the valley, others), etc. You won’t remember if you don’t write it down.

• Give serious thought to making raised beds for vegetable growing – check the December issue of the Gazette for tips and a good web site for how to construct them.

• On the warmer, sunny Jan. days, visit other gardens to see how the bare “bones” of the garden create winter interest. A few suggestions are: the J C Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh, Duke gardens, Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden in Kernersville, Daniel Stowe in Belmont (near Charlotte), Juniper Level Botanic Gardens on the winter open garden dates of Plant Delights Nursery in Feb. and March

(located south of Raleigh). Many nurseries in the area have excellent display gardens as well. By Marty Finkel

Did You Know? Did you know that collards may be replacing kale as the new superfood? In the winter 2015-16 issue of “N.C. Field and Family,” the news magazine for N.C. Farm Bureau members, Jessica Mozo reports that the April 2015 Food Network’s food blog “Healthy Eats” named collards as the new kale. Vivian Howard, our famous Kinston chef and restaurateur, devoted an entire episode of her PBS show, “A Chef’s Life” to collards. At her restaurant, The Chef & the Farmer, flash-fried collards are one of the top sellers. Kale chips – how quickly we forget! Howard goes on to say that collards are probably the most versatile of the familiar greens, i.e. spinach, turnips, kale, Swiss chard, and that chefs in other regions are thinking more about using collards as the greens of choice. She reports that in North Carolina, ethnic restaurants are using collars in place of other greens native to their country. How about collard leaf dolmades, speaking of versatility? Instead of the traditional rice and lamb filling wrapped in grape leaves, around the holidays Howard stuffs them with sausage, pecans, and cranberries and serves them with sweet potato yogurt. She says it’s because the leaves are so sturdy – sturdy enough to use instead of tortillas to make burritos! Louis Nixon of Pigs Plus Farms in Edenton grows and cooks all the collards marketed through his family’s business, Nixon Family Restaurant. They are seasoned with sugar, salt and smoked pork jowl, packaged in 5-pound buckets, frozen, and sold to restaurants, food distributors and grocery stores. He started the business around 2007 and cooked 10,000 pounds the first year. The second year the amount he cooked and sold doubled, and by 2014 the orders totaled 50,000 pounds. For old-fashioned comfort food, Nixon gives this simple recipe: remove the mid-rib, chop the leaves and simmer them until tender with a ham hock, some diced onions, salt, sugar, and sometimes vinegar. Collards are not only delicious, but are a “nutritional powerhouse packed with vitamin C, fiber, and nutrients.” There is even a collard sandwich. It was created by members of the Lumbee Tribe of N.C., a group that has lived in Robeson County for centuries. In a sidebar to the article, it states that “It’s a legendary food sold by vendors at the Robeson County Fair every October alongside the funnel cakes and cotton candy.” This regional favorite has received “quite a bit of publicity in recent years from influential chefs and media.” John David Blackmon, 84, a farmer in Lumberton who grows about 3,000 collard plants every fall, says this is how to make it: “You fry two slices of thin cornbread and put some cooked collards in between along with three slices of fatback meat. … They’re good with biscuits and molasses, too.”

By Marty Finkel

Plant of the Month

More than 3,000 named kinds of camellias exist, in a remarkable range of colors, forms, and sizes – and they are not browsed by deer. Spring or fall planting is fine for most areas. Spring is better in the Upper South, where the root system needs time to get established before onset of cold weather. Mulch thoroughly to keep roots cool and the soil moist. Regular watering is critical during the first year. Water thoroughly to moisten the entire root ball; then let the top of the root ball go slightly dry before the next watering. In general, camellias grow and bloom better in partial shade, with shelter from hot afternoon sun. This is especially true for young plants, which thrive under the shade of tall trees or when grown on the north side of a house. As they grow larger and their thick canopy of leaves shades and cools their roots, they gradually will accept more sun. Shade provided in winter reduces cold damage in the Upper South. Feed with an acid-forming azalea or camellia fertilizer in spring, after the flowers have dropped; fertilize again in the midsummer if growth seems sluggish or foliage looks sparse and begins to lose its deep green color.

Also in Bloom This Month Note that bloom times vary, depending on climatic and meteorological conditions, and many plants bloom several months in a row (and sometimes rebloom). Japanese fatsia Ozark witchhazel Flowering quince Rigid spurge Chinese tea-olive Mexican butterfly-bush Winter flowering iris

Winter honeysuckle Mahonia Viburnum Autumn-flowering crocus Fragrant wintersweet Chinese fringeflower Helleborus bocconei

Photos of Some of the Plants in Bloom This Month

Ozark witchhazel Prague viburnum

Winter flowering iris (Iris unguicularis) Mahonia (hybrid ‘Cantab’)

Winter honeysuckle Chinese fringe-flower

By Ed Neal