New Online Tool Will Help MO Prioritize Plant Management

This is bush honeysuckle in winter, one of Missouri’s top 10 invasives. It kills everything that grows under it. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

New Online Tool Will Help Missouri Prioritize Plant Management

Jefferson City, MO (February 8, 2019)—Yesterday, at the Missouri Natural Resources Conference in Osage Beach, MO, Dr. Quinn Long, a member of the Missouri Invasive Plant Task Force (MoIP), presented a statewide comprehensive invasive plant assessment during the workshop organized by MoIP, Invasive Species Collaboration: Informing the Masses, Building the Armies, Stemming the Flow, and Turning the Tide. 

"One of the biggest threats to Missouri's—and the nation's—native plants and animals, and to many facets of our economy, are invasive plants," said Carol Davit, MoIP Chair and Executive Director of the Missouri Prairie Foundation. "Invasive plants and animals—including that small percentage of non-native plants that, intentionally or accidentally, have been introduced here and have spread rapidly—are second only to outright habitat destruction in the loss of native biodiversity, can have negative impacts on our cattle, timber, and outdoor recreation industries, cause headaches for private landowners, and nationally, cost billions of dollars in control efforts annually." 

Dr. Quinn Long, botanist, Director of Shaw Nature Reserve, and MoIP member, worked since 2015 to lead the MoIP working group that assembled and analyzed invasive plant data for the assessment.

“This assessment—complete with maps for each of the 142 species assessed—will provide a valuable tool for landowners, land managers, and natural resource planners to focus their efforts on invasive plant management,” said Long.

The assessment maps depict abundance, impact, and rate of spread of these plants in the state. 

MoIP is a dedicated group of representatives from land-holding agencies and natural resource management professionals from across the state.

"We are pleased to present this important new tool, which is critical to assertive, prioritized invasive plant management efforts. Many individuals have worked very hard to make this assessment possible, including more than 25 reviewers; Phillip Hanberry, contractor with the Missouri Department of Conservation who generated the assessment maps; and Tina Casagrand, MoIP contractor who loaded and linked all maps to the MoIP website, where they are available for all to consult and use."

MoIP is housed and administered by Grow Native!, a native plant education and marketing program of the Missouri Prairie Foundation. The purpose of MoIP—working as a united, supportive front—is to review, discuss, and recommend actions related to managing known and potential non-­native invasive plant species that pose threats in Missouri and elsewhere in the lower Midwest.

For more information about MoIP, definitions of invasive plants, and many other resources, visit www.moinvasives.org.

So take the pledge and don’t plant, even better yet, remove the following:

These are Missouri’s top ten invasive plants that need to be removed. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I have been waging war against bush honeysuckle on my one acre hillside garden for years. Most of it has been removed; now I periodically check to make sure the plants on my neighbor’s property is now encroaching again.

Charlotte

February Gardening Chores

February is a good month to find seeds you want to plant later this year. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

February Gardening Chores

We’re in the throes of another cold spell, wind chill below zero and everything around me frozen solid. Our big box stores, however, are offering onion sets, asparagus starts and Iho Peonies so spring is just around the corner.

I live in USDA Hardiness Zone 5b-6A so I tend to plant for plants that are hardier to the colder range. The following are my February gardening chores:

• Pressure is on so if you haven’t made a dent in your reading pile, get a start, spring is only two months away. With our rapidly changing and more erratic climate patterns, the forecast is for an earlier spring. So also says the groundhog.

•  If you haven’t ordered your favorite gardening catalogs, get them ordered. Look for catalogs with detailed plant descriptions and good photographs so you can use them for reference.  Missouri Wildflowers Catalog has lovely pictures, even old catalogs are still good references. www.mowildflowers.net. For heirloom seeds, try Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds at www.rareseeds.com, both are Missouri nurseries.

• Now for a great Native Plant Guide, you can download the Prairie Moon Catalog online. This guide out of Winona, Minnesota offers North American Native seeds and plants along with a guide on how to get wildflower seeds to grow, how to plant bare root plants, seed combinations and a plant/insect interaction guide so you know what plants attract what pollinators. https://www.prairiemoon.com/catalog-request.html

• Review last year’s garden diary entries. If you’ve missed a few entries, add them now. Underline items you wanted to get done this year. I make a list, then decide which projects I want to tackle. I also carry over the ones I didn’t get to last year, or drop them off the master list. This is a good time to dream.

• Focus on adding native plants. Once established, they will be low care and tend to require less water than other plants and they will feed the native pollinators. They are connected.

• Read. Whether it’s Missouri Gardener Magazine, which provides good local gardening information and gardening books, catch up on what you couldn’t get to last year. I keep a pile of gardening books from our local library’s semi-annual book sale just for snowy, cold winter days.

• On warm days, remember to water mums planted this past year. New mums need a gallon a month to keep their roots moist their first year. Once established, mums will become perennials and deter bugs from around where they are planted.

• Remove any broken limbs in pathways to keep walkways clear and safe.

• Pile mulch and leaves on garden beds if they’ve been blown off by winter winds.

• Check inside plants for any hitchhiking bugs and remove. Make sure they are getting their sunlight needs met. If not, move them. Water with diluted fertilizer. Prune as necessary.

• Drop your garden pruners and other garden tools off to get sharpened, this is a slow time of year and this will give you a head start on the season.

• When feeding birds, add a little sand in the bird feeder mix. Birds need sand to help them digest seeds. Also ensure they have an available water source. Feed suet on cold days.

• If you have fish in an outside pond, make sure it has a hole in the ice so fish will get oxygen.

Charlotte

Pick the Right Pot

A typical bulb garden in a tapered pot. Is that the right pot to choose?

Pick the Right Pot

Bulb gardens are popular as gifts mid-winter. For years I have made bulb gardens from fall sale bulbs and tucked them into the back of my refrigerator 10-12 weeks for the bulbs to get the chiling they need before they start to grow.

Depending on when I made them, I start pulling them out mid-winter. Just as another winter storm is in the forecast, the green tips of little bulbs promise spring is not too far away.

Buds are starting to pop up in this homemade bulb garden. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

When planning to plant anything, and here I am using the bulb gardens as an example, the size of the pot is important. You want at least 2 inches of new soil around the roots so the roots can take up nutrients and feed the plants. Especially when planting tulips, you also need a longer pot so the tulip greenery doesn’t fall over.

t’s easy to pack too many bulbs into the wrong-sized pot, which I did with one of the bulb gardens this year. See the white roots peeking out of the bottom?

Too many bulbs, not enough room in the pot. Time to move! (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I could tell from seeing those roots I was rusty in making my bulb gardens but luckily it was relatively simple to fix.

I selected another, larger pot I could use to transplant the original bulb garden. To make sure the bulbs were not impacted, I cut the original plastic pot off the roots after ensuring the bulb garden would nicely fit in the larger pot.

The bulb garden is moving to a bigger pot so roots have room. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The same concept applies for whatever you want to plant this next growing season. Often when we buy plants in pots they’re jammed full of plants that can’t survive in such cramped quarters because there is not enough nutrients available through the soil.

If you want to buy a hanging plant full of flowers, check to see how many plants are in the pot and make sure there are at least two of each. Then buy a second empty pot with soil and make yourself a second hanging pot, giving your plants more room to grow.

It may take a little time for the plant roots to establish themselves in the second pot but you will have longer-lasting plants and more blooms if their roots have enough nutrients.

And yes, you can fertilize but that’s only going to last so long. Artificial fertilizers forces the plant to grow too fast. As soon as any hot weather impacts the little soil already in the pots, the plants will die for lack of both water and food.

And what about the pot for the bulb garden at the top of this story?

It’s pretty and appropriate for the bulbs in the pot, crocus surrounding the outside and tete-a-tete daffodils in the middle. The daffodil roots will grow longer so they need more soil under them. The crocus are shallow so don’t need as much soil.

If I had my druthers, though, I would give all those bulbs more root space so they can stay healthy during their growth and I can pop them outside in my garden for repeated growth later.

Charlotte

Hardy Monkey Grass

These three plants survived the polar vortex and are now in a pot in my kitchen. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Hardy Monkey Grass

I have a new contender for hardiest as well as most useful border garden plant, liriope muscari, also known as monkey grass.

Over the years, I have used this flowering perennial to line garden paths. Not only does it easily adjust to most soil conditions but it blooms August-September when little else in the garden is blooming. The light lavender flowers remind me of tiny grape hyacinth flowers, which explains the “muscari” in the plant name.

I found this latest bunch of monkey grass abandoned by the side of a road close to where I live. I recognized the tufts of thin leaves on top of the root clumps and happily brought them home to line my new garden paths.

A few weeks later, I started to find little plant groups pulled out of the ground and sitting in my paths. After a closer look, I found most of the plants trimmed to the ground by, I suspect, my resident deer. The ones pulled straight out of the ground had not established their roots yet so they could not fight off the hungry marauding visitors.

When the record-breaking cold polar vortex with snow hit mid-Missouri, it crossed my mind I should go out and check for any errant monkey grass pulled out of the garden. I waited until temperatures were in the 30s before making the rounds and found 3 groups of plants sitting in paths, their roots frozen but still pliable.

Frozen roots are thawing out and hopefully will recover. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Once inside, I gently poured room temperature water on the roots and placed them in a pot to thaw out.

According to the Missouri Botanical Garden, monkey grass is easily grown in average, medium moisture, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade. Tolerates a wide range of light conditions and soils. Will grow in close to full shade, but will produce more elongated foliage and spread more slowly. Also has good tolerance for heat, humidity and drought.

As you can see from the plants I brought inside, the leaves hold their color for a good part of fall and winter, finally dying back until new growth appears in spring. Some people cut it down. I have my own mowing team that trims the foliage back to root level so I don’t do much with the plants over winter.

Liriope muscari is also commonly called lilyturf or blue lily turf. It is a tufted, tuberous-rooted, grass-like perennial which typically grows 12-18" tall and features clumps of strap-like, arching, glossy, dark green leaves (to 1" wide). Clumps slowly expand by short stolons, but do not spread very fast. Lavender flowers give way to blackish berries which often persist into winter.
The genus name honors a Greek woodland nymph, Liriope, the mother of Narcissus.
Other common names are border grass and monkey grass.

Here is one of my garden paths bordered with monkey grass. The plants soften the paths and provide a nice green line during most of the growing season. When it blooms early fall, it also provides a source of pollen for my bees.

Monkey grass lines many of my garden paths. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

As far as the three plants I brought inside, they get planted into a pot tomorrow to winter over in my living room until I can safely move them back outside.

As you plan your garden for later this year, add this plant to your list of border plants. They will be a nice addition to your garden and not require a lot of work, unless you find them out of the soil frozen mid-winter. Considering their history, I think pulling them through the rest of winter is the least I can do!

Charlotte

Choosing Amaryllis Bulbs

Apple Blossom Amaryllis in bloom last year in one of my bay windows. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Choosing Amaryllis Bulbs

Summer in the Midwest can be a lovely riot of color. By mid-winter, however, I miss the Missouri wildflowers and perennials that usually keep me company on my hillside. To brighten up my winter and for my early January birthday, I splurged on three Apple Blossom Amaryllis bulbs to add to my already existing collection. Yes, I have picked up a few of these fun bulbs in the past, most certainly to celebrate other birthdays.

The Amaryllis bulbs where on deep discount after the holidays, which is a great time to buy them. As I was picking my Amaryllis bulbs, a lady stopped by and asked for help picking one out as a gift for a friend.

Usually by this time of year Amaryllis bulbs have bloomed in their box or not quite started. Those that bloomed were exposed to some moisture, which triggered the blooming. They will need to be potted, allowed to grow leaves and then encouraged to rest a couple of months before they bloom again.

If you want an Amaryllis bulb that is going to bloom now, chase the buds. You want a bulb that has a thick flower bud popping out of the tip of the bud. Here they are as the bulb is growing:

This year’s crop of Apple Blossom Amaryllis bulbs starting to grow. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Look closer at the bottom of the photo where growth is coming out of the Amaryllis bulb. In front, the little growth on the right are leaves. The next photo shows the difference between leaves growing and the Amaryllis bud flower starting:

See the thick tip coming out of the back flower bulb? That’s a flower in the making. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

This is how you usually see Amaryllis bulbs right out of the package. If you don’t see any Amaryllis flower buds or leaves, pick the largest Amaryllis bulb you can get. The larger the Amaryllis bulb, the more energy is stored and the higher the chance that the Amaryllis bulb will produce a flower.

This is how an amaryllis bulb usually comes out of a box. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Here is another Apple Blossom Amaryllis bulb in bloom with the start of another flower stalk coming out of the bulb. This Amaryllis bulb was already trying to bloom when I bought it on sale.

Another view of the kind of flower bud you want to see on an Amaryllis bulb. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggis)

The Amaryllis flower bud quickly makes its way on top of a green stalk, growing to almost 2 feet before it blooms.

I usually have to stake mine along the way to prevent the weight of the flowers from knocking the plant over.

This Amaryllis bud has now grown about 2 feet and is getting ready to bloom. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Amaryllis bulbs are native to South America. They can spend summer outside to build up energy in their buds before being moved inside for midwest winters.

One of the delightful surprises is to find Amaryllis bulbs blooming mid-winter. I don’t always see the buds as they are growing but it’s impossible to miss the lovely flowers!

Charlotte

Defining Garden Paths

The garden path from my front door covered in ice. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Defining Garden Paths

Winter seems to be a quiet time for gardeners but there are several things one can do. One of the more challenging things to design in a garden is a network of paths. If you’re working with a brand new piece of property with nothing growing, that’s one thing. However, most of us have at least a house and some form of growth be it trees or shrubs, or both. If you have any kind of incline like I do, it’s almost impossible to keep the paths once you build them so adding structural support is a must.

You can buy software programs where you can plug in your land dimensions and even photos. Those programs, however, don’t easily adjust for garden terrain.

One easy way to determine where you should put your paths is an ice storm. Freezing rain, sleet and ice will settle on the ground and help define the low spots. It’s how I have developed and confirmed my garden path network.

The flat garden areas are easy, such as around the front of my house (photo above) and small pond.

This icy path is by a small goldfish pond. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

As I move to the hillside, the ice helps to show me the garden path network and how accurately I developed them earlier in the season.

This corner is on the south side of my property leading to my southern bee garden. Some of these paths have been around for a couple of decades. The path on the left was build new last year.

The icy paths towards the southern apiary, or bee garden. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The oldest garden path is in a center island as one enters my property. It’s off center compared to the rest of the garden paths but it was the easiest place to build one at the time.

Every year I consider whether I want to move the path and so far, have left it.

One of the older garden paths, this one in a center island. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The northern apiary has a better developed network of paths. Most of these paths were built this past season and with one exception where I need a small tweak, this side of the garden is now easy to access with flat garden paths.

After lining the path with downed trees, I add cardboard then mulch until the path is level. Or as level as I can get it.

Icy paths around the northern apiary. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Don’t tackle the ice to get photos but if you can take some safely it’s a good time to document your garden path system before snow covers it all up.

Icy paths get a layer of snow. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

When we’re close to the ground it’s hard to guestimate where a new path should go. The ice and these photos will give me a blueprint for next year.

Now to start dreaming about what I am going to plant!

Charlotte

Cedar Rose Trellis

Two rose trellises now mark the entrance to one of my garden paths. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Cedar Limb Rose Trellis

It’s true, I’m a bit picky about my gardening trellises. I want them to be interesting but not so interesting to take away from the flowers growing over them. I also prefer something less than hard edged industrial, which tends to be the main options.

This year, I am trying something new - repurposing native Missouri cedar branches into fruit fences, flower bed arbors and now rose trellises.

I was inspired by having this black metal rose trellis on one side of a garden path. To balance out the area, I needed another trellis on the left side.

This is a metal rose trellis that inspired the cedar limb one. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

A cut down ash tree stump inspired me to encircle it with cedar tree limbs tied at the top about the same height as the metal rose trellis.

At first I thought I would finish the trellis by getting a metal fence post for the top but leftover cedar pieces cut smaller give me the same pyramidal top.

The cedar limb rose trellis with a top cap out of cedar. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Remember this structure will be entwined in rose vines next spring so very little of it will be visible once the vines start growing.

I thought I was on the right path when I had to move the existing rose vines out of the way to install the cedar limb trellis. Once growth starts, the vines should get the support they need and nicely cover the cedar limbs.

Cedar limbs are not only native but they are long-lasting and I can easily add more if I need them.

I still have some cedar limbs left so next I am making a larger arbor to cover the bench in my berry patch. That one is going to have to wait until after the snow storm passes and melts.

Rose trellises now covered in a January 2019 snow. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Looking at the cedar rose trellis in the snow beside the metal one, I think this will work quite nicely, don’t you?

Charlotte

Salvaged Begonias

This is my one begonia, more like an Angel Wing Begonia tree, now in bloom. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Salvaged Begonias

It may come as a surprise to those who know me that even though I spend my winters in a house full of plants I only had one begonia going into winter this past year.

It’s an Angel Wing begonia that is now branching out and almost as tall as my living room ceiling. It was a gift from a gardening friend a good 20 years ago or more, a tiny speckled-leaf plant that I often forgot to water because of where I placed it, in a corner where I had to crawl over a chair.

As it grew, it increasingly got my attention, especially when it flowered mid-winter. Who can resist a plant that offers beauty in the middle of a stark Missouri winter landscape?

My Angel Wing Begonia, now almost as tall as my ceiling, Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I need to re-pot it this spring and do some trimming. I will wait until then so the cuttings will more easily root.

Begonias are native South American plants and so easy to grow its easy to overlook them. The Angel Wing begonia has taught me that the amount of flowering and leaf color depends on not only how well it is watered but the amount of light it gets. Pretty basic growing requirements for most plants, even indoor ones. Now that the plant is closer to a sunny window, I am getting more frequent flowering, which reminds me to water it.

The leaves themselves are interesting. If you find a variety of begonia plants this spring, take a loot at their leaf shapes and colors, they’re almost as interesting as the flowers.

This how to tell what kind of begonia it is, this is an Angel Wing Begonia leaf, red on the bottom. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Which brings me to the second begonias I now have living with me. These are their leaves. Look familiar?

This is the leaf from the salvaged begonias. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Frankly I didn’t know what they were when I found them discarded. There were no leaves on the stems. The stems themselves looked bedraggled after spending a few nights outside in below freezing temperatures. By all accounts, these plants should not be living.

I wrapped the roots in repurposed bird seed bags and brought them home to sit in my den for a couple of days to warm up. The challenge I had was that I really didn’t have room for more plants inside but I was curious about what these were.

Once potted with new soil, trimmed and watered and tucked into a southern-facing window, the salvaged begonias have started to bloom.

Three pots of salvaged begonias growing nicely in a south window. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Usually I see begonias in the spring that are either red or white flowers so this was a delightful surprise. The corral color contrasts nicely against the dark green leaves and the plants now seem none the worse for being tossed.

I haven’t introduced the salvaged begonias to the Angel Wing begonias on the other side of the room yet but I think their flower colors are complimentary, both in that peachy corral range.

Don’t you love the corral color of these begonia flowers? (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

And yes, I have a new appreciation for begonias. Even though I will still delight in having yellow roses like this vintage rose quilt brightening up my winters, begonias will have a special spot in my fall planning this year.

These bedraggled plants should not have recovered. Their resiliency and beauty have now moved them up on my list of favorite winter plants!

Charlotte

Cedar Branch Fruit Fences

This wild black raspberry knew what to do with the cedar branch fruit fence. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Cedar Branch Fruit Fences

I was getting excited about a winter snow storm forecast when I remembered one of my garden projects was only half done: my cedar branch fruit fences. The problem was that the cut down cedar branches were now piled in front of my garage door, keeping a couple of visiting rabbits warm and my car from getting safely stored away before the storm moved in.

Luckily this was not a difficult project to finish so I bundled up, plugged in my nail gun compressor and got started making the actual fences for some of my raspberry and blackberry patches.

Cedar tree branches ready to become garden fencing. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

If you do a search for these berry fences, you will find some very serious-looking set ups with wire and industrial end supports.

My idea is more user friendly. I want to be able to walk through my garden paths and easily pick the berries off the nearby vines. I also didn’t want them to look like prison walls like some do so I chose to make smaller fruit fences out of cedar branches. Cedar is long-lasting, the newly-cut branches are easy to shape and with a little creativity, I can make fencing that will also be attractive to both fruiting vines and garden visitors.

Knowing that raspberry vines like to move, my first cedar branch fence was for a newly-established raspberry area so I can try to corral the raspberries. I know, a lost cause but it at least marks where they are and guides me away from the thorns. The plants can spread towards the back and any that make it into the patch can be easily moved.

One of the strips of finished cedar branch fending for raspberries. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The fence lengths, about 5-foot long each, also have cedar branches that form arches so the fruit vines can easily wrap around the bending cedar branches.

The bottom, more straight rungs will also contain vines and still make them easily accessible. I’m thinking for me but I’m sure the deer and birds will more easily find them, too.

Fencing arch will help keep vines off the ground. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Once these branches start to grow, I can then trim the plants at the bottom of the cedar branch fence without getting entangled in the thorns. Well, at least that’s the theory.

Raspberry vines now weave around the cedar branch fence arches. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Another fruit fence was made for a thornless blackberry growing beneath one of my hives. Last year, the plant seemed to be trying to grow into the hive so I am hoping the cedar branch fruit fence can keep the vine better behaved and still give my bees access to the nearby nectar and pollen.

Another cedar branch fence for a blackberry patch between hives. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

There are a number of pre-made fencing available on the market but they all look way too industrial for my garden. They also assume one is installing them on a flat surface, not a limestone hillside where to get any depth one would need to dynamite.

These cedar branch fruit fences will fade as the growing vines cover them and I can use cut down cedar trees from my garden to make them. That’s a win-win in my garden book and now I can get my car into my garage.

Ok, snow, bring it on!

Charlotte

January Gardening Chores

Winter is a good time to find gardening items on sale. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

January Gardening Chores

January is the one month when a gardener can sit back and do some of the most important work: planning. Our rapidly-changing climate is challenging the traditional gardening chores so this year I will be including more recommendations on how to prepare for our changing growing conditions in USDA Hardiness Zone 6A, formerly USDA Hardiness Zone 5B.

According to US Department of Agriculture, the Hardiness Zones are based on the average annual minimum winter temperature divided into 10-degree F zones, which give a range of temperatures for a certain plant or tree. The hardiness zones for the Midwest fluctuate more than other zones but average Zones 4,5 and 6.

 The zones for Missouri can be found here: https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/

1.         Review your garden diary from last year. Underline items you want to get done this year. I also carry over the ones I didn’t get to last year, or drop them off the master list. This is a good time to dream.

2.         Identify what plants you want to add this year and note what soil and sun requirements they will need. Focus on adding native plants. Once established, native plants will be low care and excel in local soil and weather conditions.

3.         Plan on expanding flowerbeds to start removing grass from your property. Expanding flowerbeds will give you areas to plant vegetables as well as flowers and provide more food for pollinators. One way to start expanding flowerbeds is to place cardboard along the existing flowerbed edge and then move the flower bed border early spring. Mulch on the cardboard will keep the garden looking nice and help restore healthy soil conditions.

 4.        Order catalogs you have used in the past and share catalogs you don’t need or use. One of my favorites is the Missouri Wildflowers Nursery Native Plants catalog, it has lovely pictures with a quick guide on what growing conditions native plants require and they offer great plant starts. www.mowildflowers.net

5.         Order locally-adapted seed catalogs. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds is a favorite seed catalog from Mansfield, Missouri. www.rareseeds.com.

Remember to keep newly-planted mums watered through their first winter. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

6.         Read. Whether it’s Missouri Gardener Magazine, which provides good local gardening information and new gardening books, catch up on what you couldn’t get to last year.

7.         Remove any broken limbs in pathways to keep walkways clear and safe.

8.         Don’t walk on frozen lawns.

9.         On warm days, pile mulch and leaves on garden beds if they’ve been blown off by winter winds.

10.       Check inside plants for any hitchhiking bugs and remove. Make sure they are getting their sunlight needs met. If not, move them. Water with diluted fertilizer. Prune as necessary.

11.       Drop your garden pruners and other garden tools off to get sharpened.

12.  Start scouting where you can install rain barrels and totes to collect rain water off your gutter system.

13. Push heaved plants gently back into soil. Make sure to add mulch around these plants.

14. Water newly-planted chrysanthemums so they can get their roots established.

Charlotte

Water New Mum Plants

These yellow mums will need to be watered through winter. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Water New Mum Plants

I know, it sounds odd to be saying to go out in the Missouri winter cold to water a plant but if you want newly-planted mums to survive, their roots need moisture until they can get established.

Mums have for years been a traditional fall plant to add to a garden for color. Unfortunately planting them that late does not give the plant roots enough time to establish themselves before cold weather arrives. Established roots can go dormant and reappear the following year, which is what happens once mum roots are established.

To pull mums through their first winter, plan on making sure their roots stay hydrated through the cold season, which means watering them a couple of times a month. If you get rain or snow that soon melts, nature is watering them for you.

Here are a couple of examples. This first mum is how most mums look about this time of year: Dry, brown and dead:

This yellow mum was planted this fall and looks dead. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

If this mum has been kept hydrated since I planted it, it should have some new growth peeking up through the dead branches. Leave dead branches on the plant, they provide young plant starts protection from the elements.

Looking through the dead branches to soil level, especially towards the center of the plant, you will see plant starts.

Bottom of the mum shows new plants starting to grow. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Another fall-planted mum plant has even less dead material over where the new shoots are growing:

Another mum plant that appears to be dead. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Can you see the new growth underneath? I have been watering these mums every week or so since the mums were planted last fall.

New growth is already appearing underneath the dead cover. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Once the mums start growing in spring, I will cut away the dead cover and gently break up sol around the base with my claw gardening gloves so they can more easily grow.

It’s amazing how these little starts will quickly grow into spring plants given half the chance. Once they make it through this winter, these mums will return on their own for several years without having to be watered through winter.

Charlotte

Reuse Cut Down Trees

Reuse Cut Down Trees

I don’t mind leaving dead trees in my wildlife garden for woodpeckers and other creatures but when the trees might fall into my house I have to give that a second thought. Fall of 2018, when 5 more ash trees were identified as having emerald ash borer larvae in their bark, I decided not to wait the 3-4 years before the trees were dead and had them professionally cut down.

Dennis King of King Out On a Limb Tree Trimming Service cutting down one of my five dying ash trees. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Usually tree trimmers will haul off the trees but I kept them on site to reuse. The cut trunks are now being used as retaining walls to terrace my new hillside garden beds. The cut down trees help to hold leaves, mulch and soil from getting washed down hill.

Cut down ash trees now form new hillside terracing. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The tree stumps themselves were not cut to the ground, they were specifically left so that I can use them later. I asked that they leave the tree trunks so that I can then cut them lower as necessary.

The recently-cut down ash trees are in the back. The one with the birdhouse had to be cut down several years ago and is now a birdhouse base.

This church birdhouse sits on top of a cut down ash tree trunk stub. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The smaller ash tree limbs are now refreshing wildlife refuge piles I have along my property line and the nearby woods. As a certified wildlife garden, providing safety through cover is important to some wildlife species especially in winter.

Smaller ash tree branches refresh a wildlife pile. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The emerald ash borer-damaged trees were marked in summer with pink plastic so that I knew what trees needed to be removed. Actually it was more for the tree service although they didn’t have any trouble locating the trees on their first visit. Woodpeckers had removed pieces of tree bark as they went after the emerald ash borer larvae under the tree bark.

Pink plastic marked the ash trees to be cut down. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Although most people will wait until spring and summer to get them cut, I did it late fall on a warm day since the tree cutting company was available. Usually tree-trimmers are very busy during spring and summer and may need several weeks and months advance notice.

Here’s another tree stump from a few years ago that now serves as a stand.

This metal bee sculpture now sits on top of a cut down ash tree. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Although I was not happy to lose the ash trees, I was glad to recycle them on my hillside garden instead of having them hauled off to the recycling center, where I go to pick up my mulch. This way the trees continue to retain water to help keep flower bed soil moist as well!

Charlotte

Burgundy Hellebores

These burgundy hybrid hellebores popped up and started blooming almost overnight.

Burgundy Hellebores

How appropriate to be featuring this lovely perennial on this last day of winter. Burgundy hybrid hellebores, also referred to as Lenten roses because they tend to bloom around Lent, are one of the last winter-blooming flowers. These literally just popped up in my garden this past week.

The actual flower is inside the burgundy-colored sepals surrounding the center.

The flowers of hybrid hellebores are actually the long, slender yellow filament-looking segments inside the burgundy-colored sepals. As the sepals mature, they loose some of their color but not their shape. This year I am going to try to save the sepals at the end of the season and see if I can dry them for my wreaths.

The one challenge in enjoying these lovely plants is that the flowers on the plants actually droop. To be able to see, and photograph, the flowers, I have to lean over and try to catch the flowers from a less than comfortable angle.

This is how the hybrid hellebores appear in the flower bed, with the sepals hanging down.

Even without being able to see the droopy flowers I can spot the plant in the flower bed when it is in bloom. Sometimes it's the only green showing up in the whole area!

Sometimes its easy to overlook hybrid hellebores in a garden bed.

Farewell winter, it was a long, snowy one!

Charlotte

Yellow Lenten Roses

Isn't this stunning? If it just wasn't so hard to take a picture of it!

Yellow Hellebores or Lenten Roses

They're finally blooming, my little collection of hybrid hellebores purchased at the end of spring the last few years. Some were without tags but I recognized the plant by their large, speckled leaves.

I found some hellebores last week at our local garden center for $20 and was in a bit of shock, forgetting for a moment that I picked up mine on sale. The garden center manager reminded me they have always been on the pricier side and come in a wide range of colors and shapes.

Hybrid hellebores get their common name from the rose-like flowers that appear in early spring around the Christian Lent observance. The "Lenten Rose" blooms are similar to poinsettias in that the colored sepals protect the true flowers inside. The wonderful advantage of adding these perennials to any garden is that the "blooms" last for several months and the foliage stays green for most of the year.

My hybrid hellebores are in partial shade in rich, moist and well-drained soil. The biggest challenge enjoying the flowers is trying to see, and photograph, the downward-facing blooms so I have them planting along the gentle curve of my hillside. It does make it a little easier for photography but I can't say it helps very much in terms of seeing the flowers, I still have to get down to eye level without exposing myself to my neighbors.

I add mulch every year to their flower beds and noticed that their crowns are now buried. I may have to lift them later, or move the mulch out from around them so the crown is back to soil level.

In year's past, these have started to bloom late January to February, this is the latest that they have started. I tried out my thread snips to cut back the old greenery during a warm January day when I was looking for some sign of life. I will be adding compost to this area this year to make sure the plants have enough nourishment while they are blooming.

Here are my yellow hybrid hellebores all blooming in a bunch on my hillside.

If you have a chance to pick up any hellebores on sale, jump on the chance. Regardless of the variety and color they may be, hellebores are a wonderful addition to a late winter, early spring garden.

Charlotte

Winter-Flowering Peach Hibiscus

Double peach hibiscus blooming mid winter in my bay window.

Winter-Flowering Peach Hibiscus

If there is one plant that brightens up a cold, snowy winter day, it's a blooming tropical hibiscus. I have several tropical hibiscus plants wintering over inside my house, and I love to be greeted by the bright flowers especially on a drizzly winter day.

This one is a double peach hibiscus, rescued from a sale pile at a local garden center a couple of years ago. 

Frankly I didn't know what color the flowers were. The plant was healthy enough so I took a chance and brought it home to join my other tropical hibiscus or should that be hibiscii.

This blooming cycle included a second nearby bloom as well.

The trick to wintering tropical hibiscus plants is to give them as much direct sun as possible.

I also check the soil daily to make sure the plant pot doesn't dry out.

Tropical hibiscus winter over inside well as long as they get sunlight.

Combined with the other neighboring plants, the blooming peach tropical hibiscus does bring a lovely color to that corner of my room!

Charlotte

Miriam Tomato Fruit

My inside tomato plant is not only growing fruit but the fruit is ripening enough to pick.

Miriam the mysterious tomato plant has two ripe cherry-size tomatoes ready to pick.

Miriam Tomato Fruit

Miriam my tomato plant continues to grow, spending this Missouri winter in one of my sunny bay windows with Hazel the miniature rose I picked up on sale right after Christmas getting ready to bloom.

I have been wintering over one tomato plant for years, a wonderful way to have fresh tomatoes without having to resort to buying tasteless ones or having to invest in huge greenhouses, hoop houses or other large gardening contraptions that quickly get abandoned because they can't be maintained.

This was a mysterious tomato start from a friend's garden I found growing outside last fall in one of my flower beds. I usually plan to have a tomato plant to bring in for winter but I was running behind last year until I saw a little 3-inch seedling among hyssop starts. So far I have determined this is a cherry tomato plant of some sort, and that I guessed well on what growing conditions it needed so far. I've had to stake the plant twice so far and by the looks of it, may have to stake it yet again, the plant is now a good 4-feet tall.

Three days ago, I added some worm castings to the tomato plant soil to enrich the soil and add nitrogen. Tomato plants are heavy feeders meaning they can quickly deplete the soil of nutrients. With a plant growing in a small container, that is especially true so it's important to keep the soil enriched with compost and other natural amendments. 

Why did I add the worm castings? The tomato plant leaves were starting to look a little more  yellow green for my taste so I didn't think it would hurt to give the soil a little healthy boost.

Besides making sure the plant is watered every day , there has been little additional care required. Well, except for now, I need to pick those two lovely cherry red tomatoes and give them a taste.

Here's a closer look of the two ripe cherry-size tomatoes that have ripened in my window.

They didn't even make it to the kitchen, ate them right there in the window.

What do you think, winter grown tomatoes don't have any taste?

Wrong, they were absolutely delicious, warm right off the vine and perfectly ripe. Can't wait for the next ones!

Charlotte

February Gardening Chores

February is a good time to check your seed stash for viable seeds you can still use this year.

February Gardening Chores

Pressure is on so if you haven’t made a dent in your reading pile, get a start, spring is only two months away. Most of mid-Missouri is in USDA Hardiness Zone 5b which, with climate changing, means spring will start earlier than in the past and along with fall, last longer.

1.         If you haven’t ordered your favorite gardening catalogs, get them ordered. Look for catalogs with detailed plant descriptions and good photographs so you can use them for reference.  Missouri Wildflowers Catalog has lovely pictures, even old catalogs are still good references. www.mowildflowers.net. For heirloom seeds, try Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds at www.rareseeds.com, both are Missouri nurseries.

2.         Now for a great Native Plant Guide, you can download the Prairie Moon Catalog online. This guide out of Winona, Minnesota offers North American Native seeds and plants along with a guide on how to get wildflower seeds to grow, how to plant bare root plants, seed combinations and a plant/insect interaction guide so you know what plants attract what pollinators.

3.         Review last year’s garden diary entries. If you’ve missed a few entries, add them now. Underline items you wanted to get done this year. I make a list, then decide which projects I want to tackle. I also carry over the ones I didn’t get to last year, or drop them off the master list. This is a good time to dream.

4.         Focus on adding native plants. Once established, they will be low care and tend to require less water than other plants and they will feed the native pollinators. They are connected.

5.         Read. Whether it’s Missouri Gardener Magazine, which provides good local gardening information and gardening books, catch up on what you couldn’t get to last year. I keep a pile of gardening books from our local library’s semi-annual book sale just for snowy, cold winter days.

Prairie Moon Nursery's Native Plant Guide has a nice how to for planting wildflowers.

6.         On warm days, remember to water mums planted this past year. New mums need a gallon a month to keep their roots moist their first year. Once established, mums will become perennials and deter bugs from around where they are planted.

7.         Remove any broken limbs in pathways to keep walkways clear and safe.

8.         Pile mulch and leaves on garden beds if they’ve been blown off by winter winds.

9.         Check inside plants for any hitchhiking bugs and remove. Make sure they are getting their sunlight needs met. If not, move them. Water with diluted fertilizer. Prune as necessary.

10.       Drop your garden pruners and other garden tools off to get sharpened, this is a slow time of year and this will give you a head start on the season.

11.       When feeding birds, add a little sand in the birdfeeder mix. Birds need sand to help them digest seeds. Also ensure they have an available water source. Feed suet on cold days.

12.       If you have fish in an outside pond, make sure it has a hole in the ice so fish will get oxygen.

What else would you add to this list?

Charlotte

Miriam Tomato Plant Update

This is Miriam, the mysterious tomato plant when I started to feature her in my gardening column.

Miriam Tomato Plant Update

Let's see, it's been three months since Miriam the tomato seedling was potted and brought inside. I call her the mystery tomato because I don't know what kind of tomato she is, and her original owner Tom can't remember, either. Now you know and we will all be surprised once the tomatoes ripen.

Most people have told me they assume they can't grow tomatoes inside in a pot, tomatoes can only grow on a farm. Or outside in a garden plot.

Contrary to popular belief, tomatoes can be grown in a pot indoors. And yes, Miriam has baby tomatoes and appears to be growing even more. Since I mentioned growing, Miriam is also now almost 3-feet tall so I had to stake her with longer rods to keep her stems from falling over.

Miriam Tomato spends her winter days keeping Razel Rose company in one of my bay windows.

When I first spotted fruit, there were three. Now there are more than five, in part due to my hand pollinating the delicate yellow flowers with a Q-tip.

Miriam Tomato has officially set fruit and should be having ripened tomatoes in a few weeks.

Outside in a garden, tomato plants would be pollinated by bees moving pollen from one flower to the next. Since I don't have bees inside over winter, Miriam needed a little help to set fruit.

As long as we have sun every once in awhile this winter, the fruit will turn color. If not, I can either pick them and use them green, or place them inside a brown paper bag and add an apple to accelerate the ripening process.

Miriam Tomato also has new flowers branching off the stems, more tomatoes in the works!

Assuming nothing untoward happens to Miriam, such as a cat knocking her over, she will go outside after the danger of the last frost of the season, around May. I may re-pot her then into a larger pot with compost to keep her happy but so far, she seems to be doing quite well.

Have you tried to grow a tomato inside over winter?

Charlotte

Miniature Rose Plant Update

This is Hazel, my miniature peach rose right after I brought her home, the last rose at the store.

Miniature Rose Plant Update

Right after Christmas, I picked up this peach-colored miniature rose for $2.49 at a local grocery store floral section. It was the last one remaining from a group of miniature roses that had included red and white "peppermint" ones; solid red ones, a few white ones and a couple of the peach-colored ones.

Miniature roses like this are actually tiny repeat-blooming shrub roses, hardier than hybrid tea roses and the easiest roses for me to grow. I have a number of them scattered throughout my USDA Hardiness zone 5b one-acre hillside garden planted among other perennials. Last year, I also started a miniature rose border with several different-colored tiny shrubs. Purchased on sale, of course, part of the fun is the plant treasure hunting!

When I saw this lone plant on sale, I couldn't pass it up. We were heading into record cold weather and having something in bloom, even something tiny, cheers me up any time of the year but in winter. Well, it's a must. You should see my living and dining room, it's a veritable jungle.

Even though I have heard some people say they can't grow miniature roses inside over winter, I have had very good luck pulling miniature roses through the cold months. The trick is to give the plant cut up banana peels and crushed egg shells in the bottom of the new, larger pot in new potting soil, and to not overwater.

So here's Hazel about a month after I brought her home. I finally cut off the peach rose bud before I took this picture so she can focus her energy in growing new leaves.

This is Hazel about a month later, sprouting new growth next to her friend, Miriam, a tomato plant.

I check her every morning for bugs, just in case something has found her tender leaves to munch on. Although I try to not have plant bugs - the white mealy bugs are the worst, second only to scale - I keep a close eye to jump on anything that may be getting a start.

If she were growing outside, I would add onion sets around her to keep bugs away and add a basil or two for good measure. Inside my house, she's going to have to depend on my good eyesight and soapy water if she gets unwanted visitors.

Charlotte

Harriet's Orchid

This orchid from Burma is from my master gardener friend Harriet Bain, love the delicate flower!

Harriet's Orchid

In the middle of life's challenges, fresh flowers have always boosted my spirits. When those flowers are still on the plant, even better!

Last fall, a master gardener friend offered some of her orchids for sale as a fundraiser for our local chapter. Sight unseen, I put in my bid. Harriet is a wonderful gardener and if she had orchids, I knew it would be fun to have a start.

We waited until the last possible day for the hand-off, the day before our first winter storm was moving in. Besides two Australian orchids in large pots, she handed me one orchid in a small 4-inch clay pot. It's a dendrobium, she said, from Burma, her home country.

Once home, I tucked the orchids in my basement away from direct light. They were in the same southwest window as other re-blooming orchids so I left them there as I tried to identify if Burma had a signature orchid. When I looked up the orchids from Burma, I was delighted with the variety and possibilities, there really is something amazing about flowers that feel like a soft plastic but look so delicate.

No point in trying to guess what kind of flowers would be blooming so I settled for being pleasantly surprised. No, I wasn't going to ask Harriet, that would spoil the surprise!

Orchid Flowers from Burma

As I was watering my orchids this morning, Harriet's orchid caught my attention. Actually a flower had appeared, and then I saw a second bud. Dendrobium nobile Is "one of the most beautiful epiphyte or lithophytes dendrobium species found from the Chinese Himalayas, Assam, eastern Himalayas, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam that is found in tropical evergreen forest and primary mountain forest at an elevations of 200 to 2000 meters," according to Bhaskar Bora. Bora notes in his biography that he is an Indian businessman who likes to collect orchids as a hobby. 

I do as well. I have a little collection of phalaenopsis or moth orchids I have adopted over the years. One of the easiest orchids to grow, moth orchids are also a popular gift flower. I buy them after they have finished blooming and give them some "tender loving care" until they're ready to bloom again. It can take almost a year to get them blooming again so it is a labor of love. There is a wonderful feeling of accomplishment when I see the new growth and know I helped coax it into flowering again.

I was so excited about seeing Harriet's orchid bloom, I bought it a little special container to set it in and moved it to my den coffee table so I could enjoy it when I was sitting nearby.

Harriet's Orchid has two flowers, one in bloom and one in bud. I celebrated by buying a container.

Tip for Growing Orchids

Clay pots are fine. Actually clay pots are preferred for orchids because they wick away extra moisture that can easily rot roots. When we grew up in Brazil, I remember cattleya orchids that covered our backyard trees. My father watered them with a hose to get them hydrated but not too wet. The water easily fell off the large orchids clinging to tree bark.

Taking those memories, and experience, as a clue, I carefully checked the orchid roots every week and made sure I wasn't over-watering. When temperatures hit record lows a few weeks back, I moved the orchids up to my dining room. That was helpful when I lost heat for a couple of days, not sure they would have survived sitting on cold basement concrete.

Most orchids like indirect light, much as African violets and Chocolate Soldiers do. Besides periodically checking for bugs, that's all that you need to do with orchids. I do add a pinch of fertilizer to rain water once a month, and keep them away from heat and drafts. Short of that, there is little more than one needs to do.

Considering what we had just been through without heat, and it still flowered, I decided to get the orchid a decorative container. This little metal florist vase caught my eye for a simple whimsical reason, it has feet. 

Love the feet on this recycled container from a local thrift shop for $2 for Harriet's Orchid.

I picked the previously-owned container for $2 at our local thrift shop called The Community Partnership Resale Shop. The sale of donated items funds a non-profit that helps families with special need children so I shop there first when I'm looking for unusual pieces. My rule is I have to take a box to donate before I can bring a new box home but I waived that rule for this special occasion.

It didn't take me long to find this flower container, it was sitting on a corner of the store shelves as if it was waiting for me. I think Harriet would approve, don't you?

Charlotte