One of the first signs of spring is the bloom of the redbud trees. The Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) is native to much of the eastern United States and Canada. It hides inconspicuously in the edges of wooded areas, along roadsides or backyards, for much of the year and then gives a spectacular show of color in March when temperatures first start to warm after a long winter. The floral buds are a reddish purple, but open to lighter shades of pink. Floral color lasts for a few weeks. The Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) in summer form and in spring bloom
occasionally do some light feeding. The leaves are very thin, so when planted in too much sun, they are susceptible to browning around the edges.
in breeding and introducing new cultivars of redbuds and boasts an impressive collection of those releases. These include cultivars such as ‘Flame Thrower’, ‘Ruby Falls’, ‘Merlot’, and ‘Hearts of Gold’.
Matthew Stevens is the County Extension Director and Horticulture Agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have questions about this article or gardening in general, please contact the Pitt County Extension Master Gardener Infoline at 252-902-1705.
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Flowers in the landscape are usually a welcome sight, particularly at the beginning of spring. However, when those flowers pop up in unusual places, it can become cause for concern or confusion. After all, the definition of a weed is simply a plant growing out of place. With that in mind, I wanted to talk today about a common winter weed that is just starting to bloom.
seeds are often carried by water, it is common to see patches of henbit in low areas in the lawn, or near ditches.
If you’re the type that is not willing to tolerate weeds in the lawn regardless of circumstance, then herbicides are an option, although now is not the ideal time to treat henbit with herbicides. Winter annual weeds such as henbit are best controlled by using a pre-emergence herbicide in the fall, similar to the way we treat for crabgrass in the spring. This is actually the best defense against these types of weeds, since it is much harder to kill them by the time they are flowering. Unfortunately, many people don’t think about the weed until it starts to flower, and by then pre-emergence herbicides will do no good. Make a note on your calendar in September to apply a pre-emergence herbicide for henbit and other winter annual weeds.
Chickweed, stellaria media The best defense against these weeds returning to your lawn each year is to grow a healthy stand of grass. While that sounds simple enough, growing healthy grass involves a number of different management practices, including proper watering, mowing, fertilization, and early detection and control of insect, disease, and weed problems. A healthy lawn will out-compete the majority of weed species.
Matthew Stevens is the County Extension Director and Horticulture Agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have questions about this article or gardening in general, please contact the Pitt County Extension Master Gardener Infoline at 252-902-1705. Photos: https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu I am a big proponent of plants that have interest in more than one season. By that, I mean they look good beyond just the period of their bloom. A plant that has nice flowers in the spring, colorful foliage or berries during fall, and an attractive shape year-round often brings more value to a landscape than a plant that blooms for two weeks or so and then disappears. Despite this, there are some plants that make such an impact when they bloom that they will always have a fit in landscapes, whether they bring anything else to the table or not. One shrub that fits this description is forsythia.
other deciduous trees and shrubs in the fall. They are somewhat gangly, their leaves are bland, they don’t have colorful berries, and their bark is unimpressive, so forsythia’s ornamental value is for all intents and purposes limited to about two weeks of the year. However, it makes a substantial impact during that time, particularly because it does so when little else is providing landscape color. Plants like forsythia that have such a short window of ornamental value can be tough to incorporate in the landscape. Forsythias seem to fit best in mixed borders – areas where they are in close proximity to other plants. In those situations, forsythia can shine when it’s in bloom, but remain somewhat hidden by other shrubs during the remainder of the year. It also does well en masse, when several forsythias are grown together, or on slopes or banks where its arching shape works well with the contour of the land. It is not generally appropriate for use in foundation plantings, however. Because of its loose nature, it will either look messy in foundations if unpruned or its bloom will be negatively impacted if pruned enough to be kept inbounds. Forsythias can grow to 8-10 feet high and wide and needs to be given that much space to grow.
be scorched or discolored during the heat of summer or during dry periods, but the leaves of this variety do increase the usual period of interest significantly. Because of their early bloom, forsythias are an indicator of the coming spring, and all that comes with it. Gardeners who battle with crabgrass in their yard often use the bloom of forsythia as a reminder to apply preemergent herbicide to prevent crabgrass, as germination of crabgrass seeds typically starts shortly after forsythias bloom. Matthew Stevens is the County Extension Director and horticulture agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have any questions about this article or other aspects of your home gardening, please contact the Pitt County Master Gardener Infoline at 252-902-1705.
Photos and information found at NC Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/forsythia-x-intermedia/common-name/border-forsythia/ Last week I wrote about Edgeworthia, a shrub with fragrant blooms in the winter. Although winter-blooming plants are rare, Edgeworthia is far from the only one. In fact, this week we’ll look at Daphne odora, commonly known as Fragrant or Winter daphne, another shrub that blooms in the winter and packs a powerful and pleasant fragrance, as its common names suggest. While daphne is one of my favorite plants, I should start by saying it can be a difficult plant to grow. If you’re new to gardening, daphne might not be the plant for you. If you’re a gardening expert it is probably a plant you’ve already killed once or twice before either finally getting it right or giving up. It is temperamental and perhaps a good way to test the level of your gardening skill, but also well worth the effort.
spread, though it is rare to see one that large. Most I’ve encountered have been in the range of 2-3 feet high and wide, or smaller. The foliage is glossy and lustrous green on most plants.
There are several cultivars occasionally found in nurseries that have characteristics slightly different from the species. These include ‘Aureomarginata’, ‘Maejima’, and ‘Shinano Nishiki,’ each of which offers variegated foliage and slightly different shades of pink blooms. ‘Carol Mackie’ is a popular cultivar of a different species of daphne that is no less difficult to grow, yet similarly beautiful. It has white leaf variegation and pale pink flowers that have the expected fragrance. Matthew Stevens is the County Extension Director and horticulture agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have any questions about this article or other aspects of your home gardening, please contact the Pitt County Master Gardener Infoline at 252-902-1705.
Photos and information found at NC Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/daphne-odora/ As a plant geek, I love finding plants that fit into certain obscure categories and incorporating them in my landscape. Plants that bloom in winter, for instance, or plants with flowers that you can smell before you can see, or plants that have a unique backstory are just a few classifications that come to mind. At least one plant fits into all three of those categories - Edgeworthia chrysantha.
won’t have to lean in close to notice. The scent is very pleasant and similar to that of gardenia. Flowers last quite a while, perhaps into early April, depending on the weather.
Ever wonder how plants are named? In the case of Edgeworthia, it was named by an Irish botanist, Michael Edgeworth, and his half-sister, Maria. The species chrysantha refers to the golden yellow flowers typically associated with the plant. As with many plants, there are also multiple common names floating around, including paperbush, paper plant, rice paper plant, and oriental paper bush. Many of the common names are derived from the fact that some Asian cultures peel Edgeworthia’s bark to use as paper. There aren’t many cultivars on the market, though ‘Snow Cream’ is reported to have larger flowers and leaves than the species, and ‘Red Dragon’ has orange-red blooms that unfortunately are not fragrant. Photos and information found at NC extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/edgeworthia-chrysantha/ Matthew Stevens is the County Extension Director and horticulture agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have any questions about this article or other aspects of your home gardening, please contact the Pitt County Master Gardener Infoline at 252-902-1705.
Most successful amateur and professional landscapers strive to create landscapes that are interesting and attractive year-round. It may not seem quite as easy to find plants to include in your landscape that are interesting during the winter months, but there are many plants which bloom during the colder months and bring much needed color to our largely dormant landscapes. One of my favorite winter-blooming plants is the hellebore, or Lenten rose.
Bloom color ranges from white to pink to purple to red, with nearly every shade in between represented. The individual blooms are cup shaped and arise from the tip of each stem. Blooms are incredibly long-lasting and while the color may fade from the start of bloom to the finish, that dynamic color change is itself interesting to watch. The glossy green foliage complements the flowers well, and because the flowers are borne at the tips, the dense foliage does not typically obscure them. Often times the cup shaped flowers will point downward, in which case I suppose they more accurately resemble a bell than a cup, but they are still quite easy to find when in full bloom.
Helleborus foetidus is a fabulous landscaping plant. There are two many cultivars and varieties of Lenten rose to name, but the Ice N’ Roses and Frostkiss series are particularly popular. I enjoy the Frostkiss series for the prominence of the veins on each leaf, which gives the plants an almost variegated appearance. Lenten roses are generally pest-free and quite hardy, though you may need to clean up old foliage from time to time to keep the plants looking their best. They will occasionally get crown rot in wet soils, or leaf spot if too much moisture accumulates on their leaves, so erring on the dry side is usually best. On January 27, the Pitt County Extension Master Gardener volunteers will be hosting their annual speaker’s event, featuring retired Virginia Zoo Landscape Coordinator Marie Mims Butler. This yearly event is always a popular gathering for gardening enthusiasts! Tickets are now on sale at the Pitt County Cooperative Extension office and at Wild Birds Unlimited in Greenville. Matthew Stevens is the County Extension Director and horticulture agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have any questions about this article or other aspects of your home gardening, please contact the Pitt County Master Gardener Infoline at 252-902-1705.
Photos and information found at NC extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/helleborus-orientalis/ By Matt Stevens, Pitt County Extension Director & Horticulture Agent One of my favorite parts about winter landscapes is that when all the leaves have fallen, certain other plant characteristics become much more noticeable. Many plants, it turns out, have interesting bark, colorful stems, or even unique architectural arrangements of branches that tend to be obscured the rest of the year by the leaves. If you are a plant nerd like me, you always have an eye out for plants that have these interesting attributes that shine in winter. One particularly interesting plant that stands out in winter months is Corylus avellana, ‘Contorta’, commonly known as Harry Lauder’s walking stick.
Walking stick is a grafted plant, and gardeners who grow this plant must pay attention to the suckers that emerge from below the graft union. These suckers will not have the contorted characteristic; rather, they will grow straight and quite tall if not removed. The suckers also tend to have large wide leaves that will obscure the intricacies of the twisted bark above. Other than this suckering and some occasional feeding from pests like Japanese beetles and tent caterpillars, walking stick is a relatively easy plant to grow with few problems. Avoid planting it in excessively wet areas, and plant in full sun to partial shade.
Photos from and further information at: https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/corylus-avellana-contorta/ Rare are the plants in our landscape that bloom in fall and winter, and perhaps that’s why camellias are such a treasured plant in the south. They really have no rival when it comes to the floral display that they put on during the coldest part of the year.
Camellias are susceptible to a few pest problems. The most frequent of these is camellia tea scale- small, powdery white insects that congregate on the underside of leaves and cause yellow spotting on the top of the leaf. This tends to be a greater problem for japonicas and can be controlled with spring applications of horticultural oil and by being careful not to over fertilize plants. Another common problem is the fungus exobasidium, which causes new leaves in the spring to become thick, rubbery, and discolored in a whitish or pinkish hue. This problem is typically worse on sasanquas and requires removal of infected leaves by pruning. Finally, because camellias like acidic soil but are frequently planted near home foundations, where soil tends to be more alkaline, general poor growth and discoloration can often result. To combat this problem, make sure not to use any lime near camellia plants, and have your soil tested to make sure it is in the proper pH range. If the pH is too high, using fertilizers that contain sulfur will bring the pH down to an acceptable level.
On January 27, the Pitt County Extension Master Gardener volunteers will be hosting their annual speaker’s event, featuring retired Virginia Zoo Landscape Coordinator Marie Mims Butler. The speaker’s event is always a popular event for gardening enthusiasts and tickets are now on sale at the Cooperative Extension office and at Wild Birds Unlimited in Greenville. Tickets make great stocking stuffers for your favorite gardener! Photos from NC Extension Gardner Plant Toolbox Matthew Stevens is the horticulture extension agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have any questions about this article or other aspects of your home gardening, please contact the Pitt County Master Gardener Infoline at 252-902-1705. Holidays in general and Christmas in particular are times when we celebrate traditions. Christmas has many traditions that are tied directly or indirectly to plants. We put up a tree in our house to decorate and put presents under it. We hang a wreath made of greenery from trees and bushes on our doors and windows, and we put plants such as poinsettias inside the house. Another interesting tradition is hanging mistletoe in the house, in the hopes that someone standing underneath will be blessed with a kiss. American mistletoe (Phoradendron leucarpum) As a horticulturist, this particular tradition is funny to me, as there is nothing inherently romantic about the mistletoe plant. It’s not particularly attractive and it is one that typically survives as a parasite of another plant. It is technically a partial parasite, meaning it can grow on its own and produce its own food via photosynthesis, but is more often found growing on other plants and depleting their resources. Many origin stories describe mistletoe as being a historic symbol of fertility and as such, some cultures would hang it in their homes as a sort of good luck charm. Other cultures thought mistletoe had the ability to ward off evil spirits and hung it for those reasons. The tradition of kissing under the mistletoe seems to derive from the Greek festival of Saturnalia, and later became incorporated into Christmas customs. American mistletoe, Phoradendron leucarpum, is an evergreen plant with small white flowers and berries. It is most commonly found growing on trees such as maple, oak, walnut, and poplar in our area. The roots of the mistletoe penetrate the bark of the host tree through pores or wounds, and steal water and nutrients from the host. Mistletoe will only rarely kill a tree, but can potentially weaken it, leaving it susceptible to other problems. Because mistletoe is a parasite and essentially shares a vascular system with its host plant, there is no chemical that you can use to kill it that won’t also hurt the host. Instead you must prune out the mistletoe. If it is growing on a small branch, prune off that branch at least one foot below where the mistletoe is attached. If it’s a larger branch that you can’t remove, prune back the mistletoe as close to the branch as possible, and then wrap that area with a dark fabric to prevent the mistletoe from resprouting. You may have to prune again several times before you’ve completely removed the mistletoe. Mistletoe grows in trees and can be high up in the branches where is it difficult to control. These controls might be realistic for smaller trees, but practically speaking it will be difficult to control larger trees that have been infected with mistletoe. Since it is rare for a mistletoe infestation to be severe enough to kill a tree, you may just have to tolerate seeing the mistletoe for the few months a year the tree is without its leaves, and then let the leaves hide the mistletoe for the rest of the year.
Matt Stevens is the County Extension Director and horticulture agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have any questions about this article or gardening in general, please contact the Master Gardener Infoline at 252-902-1705. Photos from iStock Few plants are as associated with the Christmas season as the poinsettia, the colorful plant we see adorning the insides of homes and offices all throughout the month of December. It may seem a curious thing that this beautiful plant becomes so prominent during the coldest time of our year, given that it is a tropical plant extremely sensitive to cold temperatures, but not all Christmas traditions originate where snow falls. In Mexico, poinsettias grow to be larges shrubs and they naturally bloom during the month of December.Because it naturally flowered at this time, Franciscan priests began using Poinsettias in the Fiesta of Santa Pesebre nativity procession, and the pointsettia eventually became linked to the Christmas holiday. The poinsettia was introduced to the United States in 1825 by US Ambassador to Mexico Joel Poinsett, from whom its common name is derived, and it soon became part of our Christmas tradition as well.
People often ask if poinsettias are poisonous. While it’s true that they often appear on lists of poisonous plants, they are not poisonous in the sense that if you eat them you will become gravely ill or die. If you, or your child, or your pet for some reason decides to eat a bunch of poinsettia leaves or stems, you’ll probably find yourself with a bit of a tummy ache, and perhaps even vomit, but that will likely be the end of it. It’s worth noting that the same thing will likely happen if you, your child, or your pet decides to eat almost any other plant you’d find inside your home. What makes poinsettia a little different than those other plants is the milky sap inside the stems, which is actually latex. Some people have latex allergies, so exposure to the sap may cause itching or other reactions, but for those without latex sensitivity, it is completely benign. As mentioned earlier, the sap was once used as medicine, and as with many compounds, the difference between cure and toxin depends largely on the dosage and the individual’s particular response.
They are not cold hardy, so they will need to be overwintered indoors before being planted outdoors in the spring. Matthew Stevens is the County Extension Director and Horticulture Agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have any questions about this article or other aspects of your home gardening, please contact the Pitt County Master Gardener Infoline at 252-902-1705. Photos from iStock
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Matt Stevens
Pitt County Extension Director & Horticulture Agent Archives
May 2024
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