Happy New Year to Everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season with your family and friends.
Thoughts turn to spring and planting as the seed catalogs begin flooding the mailboxes. Climate change continues to confuse not only us, but our plants as well. Trees still have leaves on their branches; snow covers leaves that never were raked in the fall because they didn’t land on the ground until mid-December. I expect to see bulbs peeping up soon if the warm spell continues. This month’s meeting will be a business meeting. Please remember to bring your baskets for the luncheon. Dues are also due at this meeting, $20 individual and $25 per family. We are in need of both a newsletter editor and a speaker chairperson. Both Ruth’s have resigned their posts after a job well done. Please consider volunteering for either post.
See you next Tuesday,
Carol Tvelia
President
Patchogue Garden Club
Mark the Date
Tuesday, January 22, 2008, 7 PM, regular meeting at Swan Lake Civic club house. Please bring your Chinese Auction baskets and other contributions to this meeting. You may also drop them at Georgia Dulmovits’ house, 168 E. Lakewood, Patchogue. Reservations will also be taken; bring check or cash.
Thursday, March 13, 10:30 am, annual “Think Spring” speaker, luncheon and raffle. Mediterranean Manor, tickets $32.00 For more information, call Georgia Dulmovits (289-0867) or Arlene Lamberti (289-3667).
Plant of the Month: Comely Cool CamelliasSixty years ago the US National Arboretum received a cultivar of Camelliaoleifera, cultivated in China for nearly 5,000 years, which proved hardy toZone 5. Though saddled with the distinctly unattractive moniker of ‘PlainJane’, it is thanks to her that we now have camellia hybrids that bloom ingardens as far north as Toronto.
Among the hardiest are ‘Polar Ice’, Snow Flurry’, and a series that has‘Winter’s’ in the cultivar name. Sources include Camellia Forest Nursery inChapel Hill NC (http://www.camforest.com/), Fairweather Gardens inGreenwich NJ (http://www.fairweathergardens.com/), and Greer Gardens inEugene OR (http://www.greergardens.com/).
Tough enough to thrive in the mid-Atlantic region as far north as U.S.D.A.Zone 6b, these lovely evergreen shrubs produce showy flowers of pink orwhite over a period of 4 to 6 weeks in late autumn. What’s more, petals areshed individually when bloom is completed, eliminating the tiresome task ofdead-heading for the gardener.
Camellias want humusy, acid soil that is continuously moist; protection frommidday summer sun; and shelter from winter sun and wind. In the north,spring is the best time to plant. Avoid high nitrogen fertilizer. Blooming in falland winter, they are as versatile as roses, being of use in the mixed border,for hedges, groundcovers, as well as espaliers and standards.
At present, breeders are working to coax more hybrids with scented flowers(e.g., C. ‘Scented Snow’) and more hues in the orange-peach-apricot rangefrom two recent introductions from China. Not everything from China is bad!
"Camellias fall whole from branches. Even upon the soil, their beauty isentrancing. They are like the love affairs of court women."-Lady Murasaki Shikibu, paraphrased from the “Tale of Genji”
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"January is the quietest month in the garden. ... But just because it looks quiet doesn't mean that nothing is happening. The soil, open to the sky, absorbs thepure rainfall while microorganisms convert tilled-under fodder into usablenutrients for the next crop of plants. The feasting earthworms tunnel along,aerating the soil and preparing it to welcome the seeds and bare roots to come."
- Rosalie Muller Wright, Editor of Sunset Magazine, January, 1999
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Serious Dirt from Richard Waldman
Andrew Jackson Downing, Landscape Designer & Architect, 1815-1852
When you think of influential designers that have changed the course of landscape design through the years, quite often European names head the list. But in the 1840's, Andrew Jackson Downing (born in Newburgh, New York) wrote on landscape gardening and architecture for numerous popular newspapers, magazines, and best selling books. As the editor of The Horticulturist magazine, he helped to change the public’s taste in landscape gardening and its place in society. He was the first to call for the creation of what became Central Park in New York City along with the creation of state agricultural schools throughout the U.S. When he traveled through Europe in 1850 he met with Calvert Vaux of England who relocated to America and became a business partner with Downing. Some of their designs were for the grounds at the White House and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. A.J. Downing died in a fire aboard the steamer Henry Clay. In 1858 Calvert Vaux, along with the well-known Frederick Law Olmstead, was selected in the design competition for Central Park, where many ideas on the design of the park originated from writing of A.J. Downing. For more on A.J. Downing, see http://www.newburghrevealed.org/photojournalajdowning.htm
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Book Review: “Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World”
The world’s most humble fruit has caused inordinate damage to nature andman, and Popular Science journalist Dan Koeppel embarks on an intelligent,sifting through the havoc. The seedless, sexless banana evolved from a wildinedible fruit first cultivated in Southeast Asia and was probably the apple thatgot Adam and Eve in trouble. From there the fruit traveled to Africa and acrossthe Pacific, arriving on U.S. shores, probably with the Europeans in the 15thcentury. The history of the banana turned sinister as American businessmencaught on to the marketability of this popular, highly perishable fruit then grownin Jamaica. Thanks to the building of the railroad through Costa Rica by the turnof the century, the United Fruit Company, Mamita Yunai, flourished in CentralAmerica, its tentacles extending into all facets of government and industry,toppling banana republics, and igniting labor wars. Meanwhile, the ‘Gros Michel’variety was annihilated by a fungus called Panama disease, Black Sigatoka(causes significant reductions in leaf area, yield losses of 50% or more, andpremature ripening, a serious defect in exported fruit), which today threatens thefavored Cavendish as Koeppel sounds the alarm, shuttling to geneticsengineeringlabs from Honduras to Belgium. His sage, informative study posesthe question fairly whether it is time for consumers to reverse a century of strifeand exploitation epitomized by the purchase of one banana. Available fromSuffolk Co. ILL. Official Web site and blog at http://www.bananabook.org/.“Compelling”, “fascinating”, “disturbing”—Boston Globe
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Timely Tips
We had a few warm days recently, and some bulbs got the foolish idea thatspring was near—not a good idea since more icy weather is sure to come. Add alittle compost and a thick layer of mulch to protect the tender new growth. This is an excellent use for the branches of your discarded Christmas tree.
In the event of snow, be sure to shake or brush off the white stuff from thebranches of your evergreens and shrubs. The light fluffy snow poses no real threat,but if it should become wet and frozen, the weight dramatically increases. Branchesare more brittle when the plants are dormant; the weight of the snow may snapthem.
Dormant spraying of fruit trees, Cotoneaster, Dogwoods, etc. should be done thismonth.
It’s a good time to prune deciduous trees and shrubs, but be careful not to ruinyour spring-flowering ones. Wait until they’ve flowered to prune them.
