In the Garden with Pat Rubin

Bee garden writer Pat Rubin writes about everything that grows, from flowers and trees to vegetables and lawns. Pat volunteered for several years as a Placer County Master Gardener and has written about gardening for many national and regional publications. In addition to gardening, she spends time raising and showing miniature horses and miniature donkeys.

In the Garden will include news, events, advice and other gardening tidbits. Pat will also answer reader questions.

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« October 2007 | In the Garden front page | December 2007 »

November 29, 2007

Wild gifts

The Humane Society of the United States asks that you not forget wildlife - skunks, raccoons, possums, birds, and squirrels - this holiday season. In a press release, Laura Simon, field director for HSUS, said, “Although wild animals are able to adapt to survive cold winter temperatures and food limitations, there are small things that people can do to help them this time of year. We suggest several ‘gifts of the season’ that can give our backyard neighbors a warm boost during the holidays.”

HSUS has these tips:

Keep bird feeders full in the winter since food availability is very limited for non-migratory birds.

Fill large pinecones with peanut butter and roll them in sunflower seeds. Attach a string to the top and hang from trees for birds.

Put decorative snowflakes 4" apart on any windows where birds might hit, or have hit in the past.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 11:48 AM | Comments

November 28, 2007

What's on your produce?

The November/ December of issue of Utne Reader lists the 12 most and least pesticide contaminated produce as compiled by the not-for-profit Environmental Working Group.

The complete listing, which ranks 43 popular fruits and vegetables, is “based on the results of nearly 43,000 tests for pesticides on produce collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration between 2000 and 2005,” according to a press release.

The study isn’t perfect, says Utne Reader, because “the rankings do not account for relative toxicity, a shortcoming reported by the Nutrition Action Healthletter (July/Aug. 2007); a fruit with a small amount of a highly toxic pesticide could rank cleaner than one carrying multiple less-harmful residues.”

Utne Reader suggests buying organically grown produce whenever possible.

For a complete listing and an explanation of how the findings were derived, visit www.foodnews.org.

Most contaminated 12:
1 Peaches
2 Apples
3 Sweet bell peppers
4 Celery
5 Nectarines
6 Strawberries
7 Cherries
8 Lettuce
9 Grapes (imported)
10 Pears
11 Spinach
12 Potatoes

Least Contaminated 12:
1 Onions
2 Avocados
3 Sweet corn (frozen)
4 Pineapples
5 Mangoes
6 Sweet peas (frozen)
7 Asparagus
8 Kiwi
9 Bananas
10 Cabbage
11 Broccoli
12 Eggplant

Posted by Pat Rubin at 11:50 AM | Comments

November 26, 2007

Eclectic company

I love finding unusual or eclectic items at thrift stores or antique stores, then using them for decorating. When I ran across an article in the November 2007 Country Home magazine about that very subject, I knew I’d discovered a winner.

My favorite suggestion was to use old salt and pepper shakers for miniature vases.

I scoured my kitchen and dining room cupboards for old salt and pepper shakers, and came up with a small selection as well as a pair or cruets that I figured could also be used. I also stopped by a couple of local antique stores and thrift stores and always found a good selection of salt and pepper shakers, including a pair of cut crystal ones I have my eye on.

A quick trip to the garden gleaned a few choice flowers and foliage and within just a few minutes I had a cute, yet elegant assortment of vases for the table. Our dinner guests loved them.

Hang onto the lids, however. The article suggests using 18-gauge wire to make a circle to hold place cards. That’s a project for another day.

Photo by Florence Low, Sacramento Bee

Posted by Pat Rubin at 01:26 PM | Comments

November 21, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving

I love to have fresh flowers and greenery on the Thanksgiving table. The challenge is to only use what I can find in my garden. This year, mainly because of our mild fall weather, I had plenty of flowers, but also plenty of fall color.

The only flowers in the arrangement are roses and asters. The greenery consists of nandina, scented geranium, ivy, holly andsmoke tree, then a generous helping of nandina berries.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 10:28 AM | Comments

Pat on the radio

I'll be a guest on two garden radio programs hosted by “Farmer Fred” Hoffman on Sunday. The KFBK Garden Show (KFBK 1530) airs from 8:30 to 10 a.m., while Get Growing (KSTE 650) follows from 10 a.m. to noon.
Listeners are invited to call in with gardening questions.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 10:22 AM | Comments

November 20, 2007

What do you do with yard waste?

What do you do with the piles of leaves, stacks of trimmings and buckets of weeds you take from your garden each year? Do you turn it to compost? Do you have a chipper that can make a mountain of yard waste into a neat and tidy hill of mulch? Does your city have a recycling program and provide specially marked garbage bins for green waste?

If so, you’re part of the majority, but the remaining households who simply toss yard waste in the garbage still make up a lot of people! How many, you ask?

Approximately 18 million households treat yard waste as garbage, says a study by the Garden Writers Association Foundation. Its newly released Fall 2007 Consumer Gardening Trends, Research Survey shows most gardeners - 31% - mulch yard waste with a mower or grinder; while 21% compost it in the back yard, and 20% send it to city recycling. But 8% - or about 18 million households - send it to the landfill as garbage.

All that waste can become compost to feed next year's flowers, vegetables, trees and shrubs. And it doesn't take a lot of work. I often joke that I compost the lazy way - I have a compost area that I add to, especially at the end of the main summer vegetable season, and then I let it sit. I do nothing. That is, until spring when I need compost for the vegetable beds. Then I take my shovel, pull away any leaves, stems, etc. that haven't decomposed, push the shovel into the pile, and never fail to bring out dark, nutrient-rich compost.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 01:01 PM | Comments

November 19, 2007

Gardening advice wanted

I’m looking for advice.

Actually, I want to hear the best advice on gardening you’ve ever been given.

Two suggestions come to my mind when I think about advice, both tidbits from gardeners more famous than I’ll ever hope to be. The first is from English author Beverley Nichols. He said that you double the size of your garden by cutting it in half. Think about it. Take a large flower bed, and put a path through the middle of it. Voila! You’ve got 2 gardens.

The other best piece of advice comes, I believe, from the famous English gardener and author Vita Sackville-West. If it displeases you, take it out, she said, and plant something that does please you.

A co-worker said her best garden advice is to plant things tall enough to cover the weeds.

So be funny, be serious, be witty, be clever, be practical, but send me your best garden advice. Be sure to include your name and the city where you live.

Send advice to prubin@sacbee.com. We’ll run your comments in the Home and Garden section at New Year’s.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 02:01 PM | Comments

November 16, 2007

Forcing bulbs

Photo by Florence Low, Sacramento Bee

Visit any nursery or garden center, and you’ll find plenty of bulbs to plant now for winter and spring bloom.

But there’s a way to bring spring inside, a way to fool Mother Nature into thinking warmer weather is just around the bend. It’s called forcing bulbs. It simply means duplicating conditions that signals them to grow and bloom - inside the house.

You can have hyacinths, daffodils, narcissus, crocus, tulips, amaryllis and more blooming inside to use as holiday centerpieces or simply to enjoy.

Depending on the bulb, it can take six to 16 weeks from the time they are potted, either in soil or water, until they bloom.

Narcissus are the easiest. I select an interesting clear vase, fill it with pebbles, set the bulbs on top, and then fill it with water until it just touches the bottom of the bulb. Once the bulbs begin to root, I’m careful not to let the water touch the bottom of the bulb. I use a clear vase so I can see the roots snaking their way among the pebbles.

If you want to try forcing bulbs, remember these tips:

Choose good quality bulbs. Check for moldy or rotten spots. Don’t buy bulbs that are soft or sprouting.

Plant bulbs with the pointed end up.

Turn vases every few days to keep foliage from growing lopsided toward the light.

When planting tulips, put the flat side of the bulb facing outward, toward the side of the container. This is where the first leaf appears, and it will make a nicer looking display with the leaves leaning outward.

Be imaginative about containers. Look around at garden centers, thrift stores and garage sales. Just be sure the container fits the bulb. Choose low, wide containers for crocus, and taller ones for narcissus, for example.

Don't store ripening fruit, especially apples or pineapple, near bulbs. The ethylene gas they give off can damage the bulb's growing tip.

Paperwhite narcissus and amaryllis are foolproof and can be purchased in kits ready to start.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 10:49 AM | Comments

November 15, 2007

Booze and bulbs

Several studies the last few years have shown that adding a bit of ethanol alcohol, which is found in most hard liquors, to the water when forcing bulbs can keep the growth more compact. This is especially important for narcissus because the foliage tends to get tall and then falls over with the weight of the flowers.

I tried it last year,and have to report that it works. However, I thought the stems looked rather squat and short. Personally I'd rather use a ribbon and a judiciously placed stake to keep the foilage upright.

If you'd like to try it, here are the instructions:

Use plain water for the first 7-10 days. Once you see roots and the green shoots are 2 to 3 inches tall, replace the water with an alcohol solution. The mix is one part alcohol to seven parts water.

It makes the stems shorter and more compact, but the blooms will be just as large as normal.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 11:00 AM | Comments

November 14, 2007

Masses of acorns

It’s a mast year for acorns.

That’s what the experts call a year when acorns are beyond plentiful, when they’re everywhere, when they’re, well, ubiquitous. Check beneath almost any oak tree and you’ll see the ground littered with acorns.

2007 will be remembered as a very good year for acorns.

Actually, the wet spring of 2006 when, during the month of March, it rained 21 of 31 days, was the beginning of this year’s bumper acorn crop, says Ken Menzer, arborist for the City of Folsom.

“It’s a two year process. We need to have a really wet year, particularly a wet spring, then a dry spring.”

2007 was a much drier spring, and all of the flower catkins the trees produced because of the previous wet spring had a chance to be pollinated. “If it had rained as much as it did the year before, a lot of the pollen would have been washed off and we’d have very few acorns this year.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 10:23 AM | Comments

November 11, 2007

Best roses for the Sacramento Valley

Warning that it wasn’t at all scientific, and that it garnered only a pathetic response (seven rose aficionados), Lance Walheim (author of “Roses for Dummies”) has come up with a list of tried-and-true, never fail, guaranteed to bloom and thrive roses for the Sacramento Valley.

The roses really are tough, top performers in the Sacramento Valley heat even if thelist isn't as representative of all rose lovers and all types of roses. Unfortunately, most of the respondents tended toward modern, exhibition type roses. That said, the top vote getter is an old fashioned-type single rose.

Here's the list:

1. Rosa Sally Holmes: A hardy, tough, shrub rose with single pale creamy flowers with a hint of pink at the tips. Makes a tall, robust shrub, can be trained up a trellis or arbor.

2. Moonstone: A hybrid tea with huge delicate looking flowers flushed with rose. Long stems for cutting. It is mildly fragrant.

3. Gemini: A hybrid tea, and a favorite for exhibition. Flowers, which are produced over a long season, are cream and coral. An All American Award winner.

4. Secret: A prize winning hybrid tea with a fragrance described as a combination of fruit and spice. Pink toned flowers, shrub grows to about four feet.

5. Grand Prize: A floribunda, it won a gold medal for best of class. Makes clusters of cream and pink blushed flowers that have a slightly spicy fragrance.

6. St. Patrick: A hybrid tea with large, soft yellow colored flowers. It blooms early summer, and again late summer, early fall.

7. Daybreaker: A floribunda with striking creamy orange petals surrounded by some that are pinker in color.

8. Let Freedom Ring: A lovely red hybrid tea rose, slightly fragrant. Makes a tall, upright shrub.

9. Veteran’s Honor: A hybrid tea with huge - up to five inches - red flowers. Also known as Lady in Red, City of Newcastle and Five Roses. Grows four to five feet tall, slightly fragrant.

10. Playboy: A shrub rose with single, orange/yellow and red flowers that are slightly fragrant. Blooms all summer and into fall.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 10:21 AM | Comments

November 09, 2007

Late blooming Daphne

Mention daphne, and most gardeners think of the spring blooming, deliciously fragrant shrub that has a reputation for being finicky, hard to please, and tough all at the same time.

If daphne likes you, they say, it will live and thrive. If it doesn’t, it will die, and there’s no use planting another in the same spot since it will just turn up its pretty green leaves and die again. If you must have daphne, keep planting it until you find a spot it likes.

A trip through Capital Nursery the other day turned up another daphne----one in bloom in November, amazingly enough, with delicate clusters of creamy white, pink-flushed flowers, a powerful fragrance and leaves edged in gold.

Called Daphne Summer Ice, it really isn’t supposed to be blooming in November. But there it is. And the possibility that I could have daphne blooming late summer or into the fall is too good to pass up, so I bought one. I’m going to put it in a pot on the front deck where I can enjoy it up close and personal.

In the ground, daphne demands well-drained soil, some shade, and a bit of drying out between watering regimens, says Capital Nursery’s Seth Taylor. Summer Ice makes a mostly evergreen shrub about four feet tall and as wide. He recommends tossing bark nuggets or some other coarse material into the hole when planting daphne. “They don’t like excessive moisture or compacted soil. Dry shade suits them, or in a container where you can control the water and drainage is good.”

I’ll do all I’m supposed to do to make this daphne happy, and I’m sure it will let me know whether I’ve gotten it right.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 10:26 AM | Comments

Fruit of the rose

I’ve said it many times: Let the gardeners of summer enjoy their hybrid tea roses at the peak of
bloom. Let them enjoy June’s
flowery bounty captured oh so
briefly in a crystal bud vase.

Give me instead the roses of fall and winter when their blood red or luminous yellow hips ripen and decorate the bare stems like masses of holiday baubles. Set against fall’s gray skies, the colors seem to glow and shimmer.
There’s Rosa rugosa with its bright yellow foliage and fat, blood red hips. Rosa moyessii makes flagon shaped orange/red hips, while Rosa helenae makes lax clusters of small orange ones. The rose called Orangeade makes big two-inch hips, while Rosa pimpinellifolia makes hips that are almost black. R. The Fairy makes tiny red hips.

Rose hips are simply roses going to seed and producing fruit. Most gardeners never see hips, sometimes called heps, on their roses because they judiciously deadhead the spent flowers. Some roses - mainly the ones with masses of tightly packed petals - rarely produce hips. Generally, the roses most likely to produce hips are the ones with single or open petals that reveal the stamens in the flower’s center. Pollinating insects are rarely able to reach the center of the roses with lots of petals.

The hips, sometimes called heps, are used in medicine, in cooking and for tea. The sweet-tasting outer portion is used. The seeds and the pithy interior, which can be bitter, are discarded.

Next year, consider not cutting the spent roses. Leave a few to make hips for the fall. If nothing else, it’s a good excuse not to deadhead the roses.

Photo by Owen Brewer, Sacramento Bee

Posted by Pat Rubin at 10:11 AM | Comments

November 08, 2007

Pretty pyracantha--but mind those thorns!

I’ve always admired gardeners brave enough to plant pyracantha.

I am especially envious of gardeners who have great sweeps of pyracantha making long, plump swags of red, orange or yellow berries. It literally shouts “autumn” to me, and the clumps of berries beg to be cut and put in a fall holiday table cornucopia.

Its drawback? It isn’t called firethorn for nothing. The plant produces generous numbers of needlelike thorns. Further some people find the scent of the flowers unpleasant. I find it pungent and interesting, but not unpleasant. I have friends who swear the flowers have more stink than smell, and that the fragrance reminds them of sweaty armpits.

The Sunset Western Garden Book says pyracantha grown as shrubs and ground cover look better and produce berries more heavily when allowed to grow naturally. Conversely, they also look great trained as espaliers on a fence or trellis. They’re pretty foolproof, only succumbing to overwatering and occasionally fireblight.

Choose landscape plants carefully because, depending on the variety, pyracantha can grow from two or three feet tall to 12 or 15 feet in height. Most produce red berries, much loved by birds, although some varieties make yellow or orange berries that are very beautiful.

I have a bank along the front of the house that just might be the perfect place for some low growing pyracantha, and if I plant now, then next year I'll be admiring my own plants and I'll be clipping stems of berries for the house from my yard.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 12:44 PM | Comments

November 07, 2007

Appreciating hawthorns

Twice a year, I absolutely adore hawthorns: first when they bloom in spring and the entire tree is covered with clusters of tiny white or pink flowers; next in fall when the leaves turn to flame, and the flower clusters have turned into bright red berries that hang from the tree like neon lights. Never mind the thorns that come along with the tree, or the fact that it likes to throw up water sprouts and wild growth that must be trimmed away each spring and summer.

A member of the rose family, hawthorns tolerate a wide variety of soils as long as it is well drained. The Sunset Western Garden Book says “it’s best to grow them under somewhat austere conditions, since good soil, regular moisture, and fertilizer promote succulent new growth that is particularly susceptible to fireblight.”

Sunset says the Washington hawthorn (Crataegus phaenopyrum, pictured) is the preferred street or lawn tree and the least prone to fireblight. Most hawthorns grow 15 to 25 feet tall and as wide. The English hawthorn has long been popular, with varieties like Paul’s Scarlet (double red flowers), Crimson Cloud, Double White and Double Pink. There’s even an American native, the green hawthorn (C. viridis) that is native to the northeastern portion of the U.S. It's said to be the most trouble-free hawthorn.

Now is the time to shop for hawthorns at your local nursery. Forestfarm, a mail order firm that sells plants from around the world has an extensive list of hawthorns.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 11:12 AM | Comments

November 06, 2007

Chronicles of nandina

Nandina - you see it everywhere. But no matter how tired I get of seeing it everywhere all summer, come autumn it never fails to attract my attention.

The large, finely cut leaves turn shades of green, orange, red and yellow. The real show, though, is the berries. Grown in full sun, nandina can produce long, swags of fat red berries clustered tightly together. Held above the plant on long stems, they make great additions to a fall bouquet. In addition, the plant is so generous with stems of berries you can cut and cut and still have plenty for outside.

Also called heavenly bamboo, nandina makes a multi-stemmed, tightly packed shrub. There are low growing varieties that barely top 12 inches, while others can grow to six or more feet tall. Foliage ranges from plump to elegant to feathery. It tolerates a wide range of soil and water conditions. While it grows well in the shade, it makes berries more easily with lots of sun.

I have a row of nandina planted in a rock wall against the house, and it gets no summer water at all. I have another row planted alongside a honeysuckle arbor where it gets more shade and weekly watering. Both clumps reward me with spectacular foliage and berries. The nandina planted in the sun with no water is more reliable in terms of fall foliage color, and long clusters of tiny berries. The nandina planted in the shade keeps its leaves green year round, but makes bigger clusters of berries.

To keep the plants bushy and neat, cut away two or three old stems each year.

Otherwise, just stand back and enjoy the show.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 03:02 PM | Comments

November 05, 2007

Winter berries

November, December and January are prime months for autumn and winter berries. The show starts when the liquidambars are burning red, orange and yellow, when the persimmons and cherries turn brilliant yellow and blue asters carpet the ground. It doesn't end until after the wind and rain have stripped trees of their leaves, and the frost has blackened the remains of herbaceous perennials.

So this week I'll feature a different berry-producing plant guaranteed to turn your garden into a fall knock-out.

One of the first berries on the scene is called beautyberry (Callicarpa bodinieri var. giraldii Profusion, pictured). It makes golf-ball-size clusters of incandescent shiny purple berries that surround bare stems. Truly, Mother Nature knows how to dress up the gray days in the garden.

Beauty berry is a deciduous shrub - it loses its leaves just in time to show off those ripening berries - that grows in an open, somewhat sprawling manner. It slowly reaches 6 to 8 feet tall. Clusters of lilac-colored flowers open in spring about the same time the shrub's yellow-green toothed leaves begin to appear. For the remainder of the summer, beauty berry is simply another green shrub tucked into the border.

Its cousins are the American beauty berry, C. americana and the Japanese beauty berry, C. japonica. Horticulturist and plant hunter Dan Hinkley calls "Profusion" the best of all beauty berries.

In the garden or in a vase, the combinations of plants that complement its fall show are almost endless. Pick a branch and arrange it with sprays of autumn leaves or with the bare, red branches of red-twig dogwood. Or try beauty berry mixed with the soft gray-green of cypress or juniper.

Warren Roberts, superintendent of the Arboretum at the University of California, Davis, recommends planting beauty berry with forsythia. The berries last well into early spring, he says, and contrast sharply and stunningly with forsythia's bright yellow flowers. Take a sprig of beauty berry and try it in different places in the garden, or against different plants at the nursery.

Beauty berry is available at most local nurseries. Several species of beauty berry are available via mail order at Forestfarm Nursery in Oregon.

So go ahead - plant a beauty berry and add a touch of purple to your fall and winter landscape.

Photo by Owen Brewer, Sacramento Bee

Posted by Pat Rubin at 10:56 AM | Comments

November 02, 2007

Harvesting calla seeds

If you grow callas, you probably have fat green seedpods forming. The flowering stalks are beginning to flop over with the weight of the seeds inside.

Eventually the green covering will split open, and inside you’ll see "berries" - bright yellow to off white - arranged in rows like an ear of corn. They even look like kernels of corn. Can you plant them? The answer is yes.

Wait until the kernels are ripe and the pod splits open. The longer you leave the stem on the plant, the better. Eventually it will start to dry up, and the coating on the kernels will get soft and squishy.

There’s a seed inside each kernel. Some people pop the seeds out, but I simply plant the whole kernel. The big, old-fashioned white callas can produce up to 25 or 30 seeds per stalk. The dwarf callas produce a dozen or so.

I plant them in four-inch pots rather than directly in the ground since it’s easier for me to care for them. Poke the kernels about an inch deep and two or three inches apart. Keep the pots watered, but not soggy.

Some seeds will germinate right away while others can take several weeks. Be patient. The seedlings are tough, and require little care, but certainly can’t be ignored. Once two or three leaves have formed, pot them into a larger pot, or into the ground. Again, keep an eye on them.

They should bloom the second year. Each year the clump will get bigger, and produce more blooms. In my area callas are deer proof, and for me that makes them a very desirable plant.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 12:43 PM | Comments

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