Archive for September, 2010

30 Sep

Time for pansies and hardy mums

Posted by rmoesel in The Oklahoman articles.

The State Fair has just concluded, the football season is in full swing, the days are getting cooler and shorter, and all signs point to fall in the garden.  Garden centers across the state are also getting in the fall mood with displays of pumpkins, gourds, tall fescue seed for green winter lawns and big selections of fall bulbs for spring color.  The garden stars of fall are hardy mums and pansies. Although we plant pansies in the fall they really are most impressive through the winter when they will bloom and provide cheer until we get very hard freezes in the low teens. It is really fun to see a pot of pansies in bloom on the porch or patio poking through the snow. Pansies don’t get very tall, only 8” – 12” in height, but they make a great and colorful fall and winter border along the front sidewalk or in your front flowerbeds. They are a cheerful statement by the mail box or yard lamps. They will do best in fall and winter gardens planted in full or mostly sunny spots 6” to 12” apart. Add a little bone meal or slow release fertilizer to assure a great show until the heat of early next summer wipes out your pansies.

Hardy mums are the most widely known plant of fall. No plant says fall and makes the colorful impact of garden mums. They are beautiful, whether planted in mass like those you see on the Oval at OU, west of the stadium in Norman or as a single mound of flowers in a front flowerbed. There are literally hundreds of varieties of mums available in many colors and flower styles. The hardy mum varieties are perennials that will come back year after year. Show your own design style by planting a number of the same color and style or plant an interesting mix of varieties and colors for a completely different effect. Most garden mums will create a mound of colors from 12” to 24” tall depending on the variety. The many varieties will flower from now until the first hard freeze in late October or early November. Hardy mums do best in a sunny area and make a great show in large decorative containers as well as your flowerbeds. They are fairly heavy drinkers and will dry out more often than most other plants so be prepared to water thoroughly and regularly.

This is a great time of year to get back out in the garden and enjoy the plant world as it puts on a last batch of new growth and prepares for the fall color show. You can help the show by adding hardy mums, bulbs and pansies to your yard.

13 Sep

Hermine brings soaking rains in time for garden tour

Posted by rmoesel in The Oklahoman articles. Tagged: , , , .

All of the attention was on east coast hurricanes and suddenly the effects of Hurricane Hermine from the gulf was falling all around us. In Oklahoma things can change dramatically and quickly from an incredibly hot, dry and punishing July and August to pouring rain falling in early September courtesy of Hermine.

It is better to get several smaller soaking rains where the earth and our gardens can really absorb the water and get full benefit of the moisture but we were in such desperate need of moisture that we will take it any way we can get it. Let’s hope this moisture and the cooler temperatures are enough to save many of the trees, shrubs and other plants that have been under such extreme stress and dropping leaves in recent weeks.

This heat has clearly shown the risk to 2, 3 and 4 year old tree plantings that don’t get proper watering in the summer heat. Many folks do a good job of watering that first year but forget to keep supplementing the water in the summer dry season the next few years when the tree is still growing fast and still growing deeper roots.

This Saturday, September 18 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM is your chance to participate in the annual Garden Tour for Connoisseurs, year in and year out the best garden tour in Oklahoma. It is put on by the Oklahoma Horticulture Society as a fundraiser for their scholarship and speaker funds. It is a self guided tour of 7 great Oklahoma City gardens.

Visit the amazing Koi ponds, garden paths, iris and day lily gardens of Hugh and Jennifer Stout; the wildflower gardens and country hideaway of Dallas and Bob Gwin; the secluded collection of trees, spruces, atlas cedars and hostas in the multilevel landscape of Kim and Mickey Sullivan, the impressionist garden of herbs, perennials, pools, pines and magnolias of Kitty and Dick Champlin in Belle Isle. Enjoy the water features and over 40 varieties of trees and shrubs at the Cheryl McIntosh home in Cobblestone; the amazing outdoor kitchen, terraces and lush Quail Creek landscape of Susan and Ted Campbell, and finally enjoy the garden art, great container gardens and beautiful gardens of Lynn and John Robberson.

Tickets can be purchased at any of the above gardens on the day of the tour for $15.00. Full tour details and addresses are available at www.okhort.org. You can buy advanced tickets for $12.00 at Farmers Grain in Edmond, Horn Seed, Wilshire Garden Market, at both TLC and both Precure Nursery locations in Oklahoma City and The Greenhouse and K & K Nursery in Norman or at Full Circle Book Store.

I hope you can attend, as it is always a great experience with wonderful garden hosts and helpful Oklahoma Horticulture Society Volunteers at every stop. By attending you will help sponsor horticulture awards for 4-H and FFA Youth and horticulture scholarships at OSU-OKC, Tulsa Community College and OSU- Stillwater.