Rodd's Seeds of Wisdom Horticultural tips and tricks from Rodd Moesel

            Wow, I can’t believe it is already Christmas week and almost the end of a truly wild year filled with nonstop political and financial chaos, excitement and turbulence. The gardening activities and even the weather were about the closest things to even keel or normal in our daily lives this year.

Hopefully you have added a Christmas tree, Christmas greens, poinsettias, Christmas cactus or other pretty and symbolic plants to your home and surroundings as we all prepare for the family events, religious services and special experiences of this amazing holiday to celebrate the birth of the Christ child. If you are still hunting for gifts for the gardener in your family or a good friend who gardens consider gardening gloves, tools, special plants they have been wanting, a gift certificate from their favorite garden center or even a hobby greenhouse for someone really special.

We are very fortunate to have grown some significant national businesses based in our state. We went through some really tough times in central Oklahoma as we lost national firms like Scrivners, Fleming, Kerr McGee and others who sold out or merged and lost their home office presence in our state. We were becoming a branch office state and branch offices rarely make the investment in the state and community that you see from home office businesses. We now have a whole new crop of local home office businesses making big investments in our state and doing good things for our community. Companies like Devon, Chesapeake, Sandridge, Continental Resources and many others have joined the many local small businesses across our state to make significant investment back into their property, our state and our civic and cultural institutions. Chesapeake has helped lead the way on beatification issues with the beautiful landscaping of their corporate campus and neighborhood and support for many public beautification projects working with Oklahoma City Beautiful and the Tree Bank. Devon has also supported many beautification projects and is planning a magnificent new downtown headquarters and will use a TIF financing district just approved this last week to allocate over 7.5 million dollars a year for the next 20 plus years to support downtown streetscaping, major landscaping to Civic Center Park, the Arts Festival Plaza area and to make Myriad Gardens even more remarkable. What a nice Christmas present for our city and state.

Lets all hope the new year allows our home state companies to navigate these interesting financial times and be able to survive and grow these Oklahoma based companies that enrich all our lives and our quality of life. Have a very Merry Christmas.

Holiday shopping is in full gear, Christmas parties and church events fill our calendars as we all proceed towards Christmas Day. There are many plants and floral traditions that have became important parts of this month long holiday celebration to remember the birth of the Christ child. Over the centuries the Christmas tree, Christmas wreaths, garlands and greens have become an important part of the Christmas celebration.

In more recent years the Norfolk Island pine, Christmas cactus and the poinsettia have become key parts of our holiday experience. The poinsettia, native to Mexico, was “discovered” by our U.S. Ambassador Joel Poinsett in his travels around Mexico in 1825.  He took the first stem cuttings to send back to the United States to propagate. The poinsettia was used as a seasonal bedding plant in yards and on estates as growers learned how to grow the plant and began breeding efforts. By the early 1900’s key growers like the Ecke family began to grow them in greenhouses, learned they needed short days to bloom and bred more varieties. It is only in the last century that poinsettias have become the Christmas flower.

There are hundreds of varieties of poinsettias, most in tones of the traditional red but also now available in many shades of white, pink and marbled. The modern varieties will stay colorful for many weeks, even months, if placed in good light and watered correctly. Let the soil get lightly dry before you water and then water well. They don’t like to stand in water or to get too dry as either watering extreme can cause them to drop leaves more quickly. They will last longer if not in cold or drafty areas.

This friday is National Poinsettia Day and if you haven’t selected your poinsettia yet this is a good time to buy one or several to decorate your home or business. Care for them correctly and you may be able to keep the colorful bracts showy until March or April of next year and then you could grow them outside next spring and summer and try to force them into flower indoors next fall. They are available from little pixie style plants in 3” or 4” pots to the popular 6” and 8” pot size plants and even in giant tubs, grown as trees and in hanging baskets. Now is the time to select some poinsettias, Christmas trees and wreaths to set a happy and cheerful holiday tone in your home. I think we can all really use the happiness and good cheer this year.

It is Thanksgiving Week, when we have the chance to continue the great American tradition of reflecting on annual harvest, enjoying the fellowship of family and celebrating our many other blessings. Our pilgrim ancestors courageously came to this new land with very little as they started a new life in the America’s.  Everyone was farming and gardening literally for their survival. They were dependent on the land and the natural conditions of that season to meet their daily needs and to put away enough food and fiber to survive the long cold winter. Every person was involved in sustainable agriculture and the health of their crops and the yield at harvest could be a matter of life and death.

The pilgrims and other early settlers learned a lot from the native Indians including how to grow the crops of this new land and gradually got better at each crop. Some areas were better for corn and others were better for beans, potatoes or other crops and over time, sharing led to bartering or trading and eventually to street markets and today’s farmers markets and grocery stores. We no longer have to raise our own crops, unless we want to, and can select our own skill or trade and then barter or buy the food crops we desire. Prices can still go up when crops are reduced because of droughts, flooding, pests or other challenges but we can almost always get every crop because of production in other areas that can be transported where needed. Our farmers have grown very efficient so that each farmer can support dozens of families instead of struggling to support just their own family.

We are blessed to have the opportunity to grow the crops we choose, even pretty flowers or shade trees and are not forced to spend all our time and energy struggling to raise the grain, vegetables, fruits and animals needed to provide food and shelter for our families. Even though most of us don’t have to farm for our survival, many of us enjoy an inner peace and great satisfaction in raising our own vegetables, fruits and flowers. There is a special pleasure in getting your hands in the soil to plant seeds, bulbs or transplants and to help those small plants grow into the wondrous and beautiful plants that feed our stomachs and our souls.

Use Thanksgiving to appreciate and celebrate your bountiful harvest of the last year and count your blessings, especially the fact that your survival this winter probably does not depend totally on the bean, corn and potato harvest of this last summer and fall. Happy Thanksgiving!

The fall season is rushing by with the tree leaves transitioning from deep green fluttering food factories full of green chlorophyll to the yellow, orange and red colors of fall as the chlorophyll disappears for another season. Just as the colors change we get the gusting winds of the last week to strip many of these gorgeous leaves from their mounting docks on the tree limbs and cause them to float and fall by the millions to become the compost and humus of the future for our yards and soils. Nature is a continuous pattern of these stories of life beginning, sprouting, growing, getter older, changing colors and becoming the compost for the crops of tomorrow. We humans live that story ourselves but are afforded the opportunity to help orchestrate our interaction with some of nature’s trees, shrubs, bulbs, plants, fruits and vegetables in our own yards and communities. We can surround ourselves with the colors, scents and shapes that bring us joy and inspiration or stir memories and dreams as they feed our stomachs and souls.

We can plant now for short term excitement and immediate gratification with the tough and inspirational pansies, violas, flowering kale and cabbage that will make a show through most or all of the winter even as the rest of the plant world succumbs to the cold freezing days and nights ahead. For a little delayed gratification and a bit more willingness to think and plan ahead, now is the time to plant spring flowering bulbs like tulips, hyacinths, crocus, Dutch iris and my favorite, the daffodils to enjoy magnificent, uplifting and bright flowers early next spring as the plant world launches a new round in the annual sprout to compost cycle. For those with real hope for the future and willing to think long term there is no better gift for you to enjoy or to share with your children, grandchildren and the community than by planting trees and shrubs now. Trees can dramatically alter a yard and community by creating shade and shelter, housing birds and wildlife, creating an atmosphere and special outdoor spaces while providing cooling and enriching our world with oxygen.

No matter what is happening in your life, and it seems like everyone’s life is turbulent and emotional as we confront economic, political and election issues that seem beyond our control, now is a good time to enjoy the simple pleasures in your yard and garden. Plant some pansies, spring bulbs and trees as you act to get some control and certainty of the future and we strive to enjoy our trip through life and find our special purpose before we too become compost.

The couple of moist cool fronts that passed through the state this last week make it feel like fall has arrived. This weather brings home the reality that our first killing freeze is likely to visit us in the next couple of weeks.

You need to be thinking about what tender annuals, tropicals, hanging baskets or container gardens you want to bring inside for the winter. If you have a hobby greenhouse or a garden room with lots of windows and skylights you are blessed to have better conditions to save more of your summer garden to enjoy inside until next spring. If you are like most folks with a conventional house with limited windows you will probably be very limited in what you can bring in or save until next year. This is the time to edit your collection of garden plants before they freeze. You might have some tropical crotons, weeping figs or palms on the patio to bring in to keep by the picture windows. You may have a pet geranium plant, begonia or special variety of tropical hibiscus you want to save until next spring. You can collect cuttings off these pet plants to root in the kitchen window or other well lit spot or try to save the whole plant in a well lit room or enclosed porch. Some semi hardy plants like certain varieties of lantana and gerbera daisies will survive outside in mild winters with an extra layer of bark or hull type mulches to provide an additional blanket of insulation for the winter ahead.

Don’t forget this is a great time to plant cool season annuals like pansies, viola, flowering kale and cabbage in sunny areas for great color and excitement right through the winter and into early spring. This is also the time to plant spring flowering bulbs like tulips, hyacinths, crocus and my favorite the narcissus or daffodils. Plant them in well drained soil about twice as deep as the diameter of the bulb and they will provide a great splash of color early next spring. This is also a great time to plant container grown trees. If you lost trees or experienced significant damage to your trees in the 100 year ice storms of the last 2 years this is a great time to plant your shade trees of the future. Enjoy the pretty autumn weather and don’t forget to soak in the beautiful fall colors of our trees and landscape.