A Purple Delight

Do you have a wisteria? If not, you should really try to find a place in your landscape for one. I have three in my yard, and I just discovered today that their bloom buds are swelling to fingertip size and are so numerous, I wonder if the plant can hold them all up. Barring another hard freeze, they are going to be quite showy in a week or two. And the aroma of all those blooms is so sweet, it is almost overpowering if you get too close.

Dont' think you have to let a wisteria vine all over the place. They are much more attractive when kept trimmed into a tree form. To do this, you will need to keep the plant staked for several years or until it forms a strong enough trunk to support a tree top. You will need to prune all of the sprouts off the trunk of the tree leaving only a bushy tree top. Every time it grows a runner in the tree top, cut it back leaving only 18 to 24 inches. You will have to cut these runners every two to three weeks during the growing season depending on how much rain there is. Don't be afraid to trim as much as you want off the tree top to get the shape you want. Believe me, it will grow back. Of course, the profuse spring blooms are produced on the old growth, so leave enough in late summer and fall to give you a nice show of flowers in the spring.

When shopping for a wisteria, always buy one that has blooms on it. That way you won't be left with a large plant in 3 or 4 years that has never bloomed. I have been there and done that, and it is very disappointing. Often, a non-blooming wisteria is the result of plants that were grown from seeds rather than propagated from cuttings. If you want a good blooming wisteria plant, it should be a cutting from a good blooming plant.

Once established, the wisteria require very little care. Keeping it trimmed into shape is the main chore. It needs no fertlizer and only a standard amount of water. Just plant it, stake it, and be ready with the trimmers and the camera. Ken Luper

February Cold Spell

Just as my gardens were beginning to show signs of spring, old man winter had to rear his ugly head again with three days of temperatures below freezing. I decided to do an inspection to see what damage I could find.

The forsythia which was already full of bright yellow blooms was now black in appearance, but it seems to always be in a hurry to bloom and ofter gets nipped by the really cold snaps. The saucer magnolias, which sported more flower buds this year than ever before, now have numerous black buds that had progressed to far to withstand the 10 degrees temperature. Maybe some of the small flower buds will be undamaged and will bloom later. I certainly hope so because it is one of my favorite spring flowering trees. The red maple trees which had already sprouted those attractive early red blooms were likewise black and dreary looking.

Pansies and daffodils which were covered with snow and sleet seem to have survived the 10 degrees temperature quite well. The blossoms on the pansies were somewhat damaged, but in a few days they will put on new ones. The daffodil buds were still young enough that I believe they will yet produce their showy trumpets. The crocus are already blooming again so the cold temperatures appear to have had no effect on them.

Overall, I am surprised that there was'nt more damage from the cold spell, but I had watered everything well and the snow and sleet provided some insulation. Let's hope that we have seen the last of those 10 degree temperature. Ken Luper

Surprise in the Kitchen

Another mouth to feed in the Kitchen

by Schroeder

Just returned from my early morning walk in the garden, flowers blooming, perennials breaking ground, peach blossoms falling, birds singing, and there is a frog in my kitchen. There he stood, eye to eye with my trusting hound. But that lasted only a second. Soon there was a big chaos amid by morning paper and diet coke. The Scottie try to surround the tiny frog creature, wondering what frog would taste like for breakfast. The frog had other ideas! The scottie was quick but the frog could move too. But the pot with the lid scooped up the green amphibian before any blood hit the floor.

Ahh, the hand and pot is faster than nature's creatures. Prey and predator must try another time for their competition. The frog is outside and the dog is still hunting for that pot with the delicious live food. He was a cute little frog, but where did he come from? Every spring it happens, you would think I would get use to it. All the creatures that hibernate over winter in my big plant pots wake up when the weather gets warm. I get quite a few snails, and usually one frog every other spring.

I like the frogs (tree frogs) but the snails meet the heel of my shoes. Yuck!

What's new?

This morning I had a little surprise waiting for me in the garden. As usual I was taking my early garden tour when I happen upon a new arrival. At first I couldn't see it because it was hiding underneath the hosta shoots. But there it was all purple and shining in the morning light. My new plant was only two inches high, but it's unusual leaf shape was a dead give away. It was the first born of my Japanese Maple (Bloodgood) and kind of a shy little fellow.

I have never seen a Japanese Maple seedling before, so I don't know anything about it's genetic package. Do they reproduce Japanese maples by cloning? Or do the producers use the old methods of planting seeds? I guess what I'm asking will the little maple grow to look like its mother or some variation of an ancestor. It doesn't really matter, I've got the time to watch him develop into anything it wants to be. But I do feel some kind of pride, like I should pass out cigars or something.

compost for Mother's day

Have you ever noticed how hard work in the garden makes you feel better? Or I’m not talking the aches and common pains that go with getting your joints and muscles working again after a long winter’s nap. I’m talking about the mental well being of making weeds into a beautiful garden. Every winter the weeds invade my meadow garden and literally take over. So every spring I have to conquer what was once mine again.

But after five trips to Norman’s compost factory, I think the garden is starting to look like its mine again. This is the real subject of my blog entry today. The compost factory has become my first defense and my best friend. The only problem is that they don’t release compost every day. The next release day is May 7th. That is a Saturday just before Mother’s day. I couldn’t think of a better Mother’s day present for me than a big truckload of compost. Better yet, a truckload of compost unloaded on my blank canvas of a beginning garden. So mark your calendars and think of your mother this May, compost is a gardener’s best friend.

peony trees

Peony trees, good or bad

By Schroeder

It’s strange how things work out! Yesterday I was out counting the number of buds on my Peony tree and my sister went shopping and brought her a red peony tree. Now I have had mine for many years and quite frankly it hasn’t done much. Yes, I have kept it alive but blooming has been dismal to say the least. I only had five buds this year. Not much of a harvest for all the care I nurture that plant with. I was so upset, that I went inside and wrote an article on my failure with Peony trees for the “Blooming News”.

Now my sister had asked about my success with the peony tree and I told her not to mess with them. Again my logic if they were so prolific wouldn’t you see more of them in Oklahoma landscapes like you do their relatives the herbaceous peonies. I have my great grandmother’s white peonies budding in my front flowerbeds. These plants last for ages and bloom their hearts out. I have them right by my front entry so I can smell them as I enter and leave. Their flowers grow huge and the smell must be from heaven.

But the point is “Why doesn’t my sister ever listen to my advice?” I work very diligently in being educated with most plant families, take great pride in knowing what plants do well and which won’t. I must consider the source, when was the last time she ever listen to me. Relatives never listen to good advice. So I will just keep my eye on sister’s peony tree, the telescope is out.

crinums are ready

Quietly they sit, year after year blooming their heads off in the warm summer days. The common names are angel lily, apostle lily, candystick lily, confederate lily and the common milk and wine lily. My best friend, Martha, always called them the 12 apostles lily. People know them by many names but in the South they are heirloom plants. I know a place in Midwest City where a clump sits by a horse corral. There must have been a home there once but now there is just rubble. The crinums have been ignored, trampled and mowed for years, but they still have the potential to bloom those large clusters of fragrant flowers. Crinums can thrive under the worse conditions and neglect, and they still survive.

This evening one of my Master Gardener students and I went on an adventure of capturing the crinum. This isn’t an easy task! Crinum bulbs work their way deep into the soil and grow huge bulbs that are crowed together into a tight knot. We dug around the huge group, digging deeper and deeper into the garden soil. My sister wanted her crinums separated; she thought they were too crowed. Steve Bender and Felder Rushing’s book the “Passalong Plants” states that crinums resent disturbance and may not bloom several years after being divided. They seen to bloom best when ignored and allowed to become crowded. After about one hour of digging, pulling, heaving, and bending shovel handles we finally had that crinum bunch surrounded and out of the ground.

It took another hour to get each bulb separated from the major mass of roots. We harvested about two bushels of crinum bulbs. It reminded me of paleontology, you carefully bush the particles of dirt off and gently one by one separated each bulb. You couldn’t keep all the roots; they were one big horrendous mass going in every direction. Robert, my sister and I took two big bulbs for our new crinum batch and I plan to plant the rest in garden pots for the Mater Garden Plant Sale. My sister asks what I was going to charge for each bulb. If you count the amount of sweat, work and hours of just dissecting the bulbs, the price would be stiff.