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

Water is literally the lifeblood of all plant material and this is the season of the year when we can more easily appreciate just how important water is to the growth and development of our plants. Most of our trees and shrubs can tolerate the heat and many species will actually grow and flourish in the heat as long as they have adequate water. There are some plants that wither in the heat no matter how much water is available like pansies in the full sun or the fuchsia and tuberous begonia baskets that look so good in the cooler spring weather.

Most doctors and nutritionists say we humans should drink at least 8 full glasses of water per day. That is particularly important in the summer months when we dehydrate so much easier. Our plants need water regularly and it is even more important in the drying heat of our Oklahoma summers. Many plants will give us clear visual signs if they are getting too dry and under too much stress. Our large trees or shrubs may start dropping green leaves or may have an unusual number of leaves turn yellow or brown and drop in an effort to reduce the canopy or the amount of foliage on top of plant that the roots can support with limited moisture. Many annuals, perennials and color plants will often drop foliage as well when stressed but they usually wilt or appear to go limp as the first cry for water. If you see your coleus, geraniums, impatiens or other plants wilting that usually means you are not doing your job of providing water to the root zone. Many plants also go from a bright green foliage to a dull green or even grayish look when they are dry and calling for water. Remember that by the time the plant is wilting, turning a dullish green or dropping leaves it has already come under stress enough to effect the top of plant foliage growth, flowering and possible even to cause loss of root action which is the damage which will be longest lasting. A plant under water stress is also more vulnerable to insect and disease damage.

Your soil type and health is a huge factor in amount and regularity of water your plants will require. Sandy soil accepts water easily but it drains through it and doesn’t hang around in the root zone unless we improve the soil over time with sphagnum peat moss or other natural compost and organic matter to increase its water holding capacity. Clay soils will hang onto water longer but are often harder to wet and sometimes the water will just run off the surface until we improve those soils with sphagnum peat or other composts and organic matter to open up the soil to more easily accept water and some air movement. Those that are blessed with good rich loam soils are not under as much pressure to add organic matter but it can still be helpful over time.

Think about the root zone of your plants and that helps explain your watering needs. Mature trees will have the deepest root systems with root zones often a mirror image of their top canopy. With roots many feet into the earth they can capture deeper moisture and will not come under as extreme stress unless we have a real drought like those in the Panhandle are dealing with. Shrubs and lawns will have shallower root systems and come under stress next. Our color plants and newly planted trees and shrubs will have the shallowest root zones and this top soil will dry out most easily as the water in the soil is used by the plants and evaporates into the dry air with high temperatures and dry blowing winds.

It is always best to water enough to soak your soil types down 4” to 8” deep instead of just squirting the foliage and top of the soil. One or two good soakings a week depending on your plants, amount of direct sun they receive and soil type is far superior to squirting the same plants every day. You can often cut your watering in half by mulching the top of the soil with a 2” to 3” layer of some type of natural hulls or bark fiber or bark chips. I know you get tired of my promoting mulching but it is an Oklahoma gardener’s best friend as it reduces water use and the time spent watering, cools the ground surface, reduces soil surface water evaporation and dramatically reduces weed pressure in your garden. Container gardens and hanging baskets will require more regular watering as they are above ground and don’t have the insulation of the earth to help slow drying. The smaller the container the more often it will need water. A large urn will not require extra water like a smaller hanging basket on the front porch which can be the most needy for extra water. There are polymer crystal you can add to hanging baskets and container gardens to help hold water and reduce watering in these container gardens.

Water is a truly precious resource and we all need to be good stewards of this lifeblood liquid so critical to we humans, our plants and all living things. As we all try to live a sustainable lifestyle lets work to properly prepare our soils with organic matter, to select good plant materials for each location, to water thoroughly when we do water, and to mulch to save our water. The plants we raise produce the oxygen we need, clean our air and actually modify our harsh temperatures while producing food and creating beauty. Your plants can do marvelous things with just a little attention and some timely water soakings.

In the middle of July every year I trek to Columbus, Ohio with 10,000 other greenhouse growers from around the United States and quite a few foreign countries to analyze the past growing season, to look to the year ahead and talk about the big issues facing the greenhouse and garden center industry.

Since I come to Columbus, Ohio every year it is interesting to watch its growth and development compared to our beloved Oklahoma City as there are many similarities between these 2 capital cities. A few years ago it came down to Oklahoma City and Columbus for an expansion NHL team and Columbus prevailed to become a big league city first and I often heard about that when visiting Columbus. Life often works out for the best as we likely would not have had the chance to host the NBA Hornets or now to land the new Oklahoma City NBA team if we had landed the NHL team. Many of these folks in Columbus would gladly trade their NHL team for our NBA team. Thanks to Oklahoma City voters and significant investment of Clay Bennett, Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward we Okies have currently leap frogged the Columbus, Ohio crowd on the major league front.  

As a community they do a much better job of using color annuals, use far more perennials in their landscapes and are active mulchers to help manage moisture, weeds and temperature.  They also do a wonderful job of planting and caring for impressive large container gardens, also street light hanging baskets throughout their downtown and special neighborhoods like Short North, the Brewery District and the German Village and in many of their public parks. That carries over to more landscaping, color plants and container gardens at most homes and businesses throughout their community. This is an area where Oklahoma City and most communities in Oklahoma can really show improvement. Gardening in Oklahoma is a little more challenging and takes a little more effort since we get less natural rainfall, lots of drying winds and really hot summer weather. But with a little effort and some water we can easily succeed at making our downtown areas, parks, businesses, homes and neighborhoods more beautiful.

Our city leaders need to set a good example by improving our relatively poor efforts in our public parks, around our convention center arena, throughout downtown, Bricktown and in neighborhood centers. The greenhouse and garden center industries are in deep debate about how badly the slowdown in home building will affect future plant consumption. This is offset by the additional use of trees, shrubs and flowers at existing houses as more people stay at home instead of traveling. Many experts call this trend “staycations” where people stay at home and remodel their homes, add outdoor living areas, new flowerbeds, porches and patios. Growers are also faced with extreme inflation in many of their basic expenses with fertilizer up 70 to 300% in just one year, plastics for pots, flats and roof covers up around 40% since last season, fuel costs to heat and cool the plants and to deliver the plants up around 50% in the last year. These critical operating expense increases will force growers to increase their plant selling prices if they want to survive, This creates anxiety about how that will effect plant use and consumption.            

United States yard, lawn, plant and flower consumption is still less than 2/3 European per capita investment even with our dramatically bigger houses and yards so there should still be a fair amount of room to grow our plant use and consumption.     

Most everyone agrees with the goal of living a more sustainable lifestyle and most see the greenhouse and nursery industry with their oxygen producing plant crops as the original sustainable or green industry.  We are all discussing which practices we can improve to do an even better job of greening the environment without green washing or over promising as we see from so many products with every item trying to emphasize their green, sustainable or organic features.

After many years of declining vegetable sales there was a big increase in sales of vegetable plants and seeds this spring as more people got involved in planting vegetables to produce some of their own fresh food. This trend is likely to continue with higher food prices and the increasing interest in locally grown food. Some folks actually planted a vegetable garden, while others mixed a few vegetables in their flowerbed or grew a few vegetables in large containers. Container gardening of all types continues to grow and is an easy way to add color and excitement to your yard and home. Containers are easy to plant and add to your landscape during any season of the year with a little attention to selecting the right plants for the season and the location.

Shop some of the summer sales for special pricing on plants you have always wanted to try, mulch your flowerbeds and stay on top of your watering as we battle summer weather and enjoy some special relaxing and refreshing time in your yard.

Here we are at the halfway point of 2008, a good time for a little reflection and looking ahead as we pause from our normal daily activities to celebrate the birth of our great country tomorrow. In Oklahoma we usually end up with a 6 ½ or 7 month growing season depending on when we get our last killing freeze in late March or April and our first killing freeze at the end of October or in November so that means we are about 3/7 or a little less than halfway through our growing season. You can still plant annuals and container gardens to get 4 months of enjoyment this year. You can still plant perennials, trees and shrubs to enjoy for a lifetime.

We have been blessed with relatively moderate weather this season and nice, fairly well spaced rainfall except for our friends in the Panhandle and far Northwest Oklahoma who are struggling with very dry, almost dust bowl, conditions. We are entering the couple of months that are usually our hottest and driest of the year when your flowers, trees, shrubs, vegetables and lawn depend on you for some extra water to avoid stress and leaf drop. Celebrate when we are fortunate enough to get natural rainfall. Nothing matches the cleansing renewal powers of rain but when your plants get dry on these long hot summer days be prepared to water them either by hand with a waterhose, with hose fed sprinklers, an automatic sprinkler system or best of all with a slow, deep penetrating drip watering system. Water is most effective when applied as a soaking rain, watering more deeply to pull the roots deeper in the soil rather than sprayed or squirted everyday where the water stays near the surface and tends to cause shallower root systems making your plants more vulnerable to heat and cold damage. You will treat your plants better if you soak them once a week or as needed depending on heat stress, type of soil, type of plant and container size rather than a quick spray down every night. Applying a good top cover mulch of some type of bark fiber or chips or natural hulls will keep the soil cooler, reduce weed problems and most importantly stretch our valuable water resources by reducing surface evaporation. Mulching often cuts watering needs in half.

Besides watering one of the other challenges of Oklahoma gardening in the summertime is battling worms, spidermites, bagworms, scale and other bugs. Most of these types of pests are temperature responsive and they produce many more eggs per batch and much more often in hot weather and that is why they seem to explode in population as we get hot. We can go from very low bug pressure where we don’t mind sharing a little bounty with the rest of nature to such severe pressure it really effects the health of our plants in very short order.  I have been getting many calls about different worms on vegetables and lots of e-mails about bagworms that have just had a population explosion and are threatening many of our junipers and even some trees. It is always a good idea to take a sample of the problem to the garden center for diagnosis and prescription. Many of these worm problems can be controlled by picking them off but make sure to put them in a bag and throw them in the trash or they will often just climb back on the plant. For more severe problems spray with carbaryl (often sold as Sevin or Eight) or you can use BT (bacillus thuringiensis) an organic microbial spray that is very effective on all types of worms, particularly when small. Spinosad, another biological control that was discovered as a byproduct of rum distilling is also very effective on worms including bagworms.

Scale continue to assault some of our shrubs, particularly some types of euonymus which are too accommodating as hosts. Scale are best controlled with an a ultrafine or superfine, highly processed oil spray that smothers the scale or you could use Malathion.

Spider mites are really exploding in population with the warmer weather and we have a limited number of consumer options since so many retail chemicals have been pulled from the market especially for edible vegetables and fruits. On edible or ornamental crops you can use a biological spray containing Spinosad or natural oils like extract of neem seed or a product like Mite-X with a combination of   cottonseed oil, clove oil and garlic extract to suffocate the mites. You can use Malathion, permethrin or deltamethrin on ornamentals like marigolds. Always read and follow the label directions and it is usually best to spray early in the morning or late in the day when the temperature is a little cooler.

Enjoy some family time this weekend as we celebrate the birth of our country, the wisdom and courage of our forefathers as they founded our country and lets all recommit to do our part to maintain our freedoms for our children and our neighbors. Remember a little time in the garden is relaxing, good exercise and helps put everything in perspective.

Container gardening is not new as the practice has been around for centuries and was widely used in the Roman Empire, at the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon and is evidenced even in  Mayan ruins. The Roman urn planters are still popular to mark front entrances, by pools and on patios but today we have dramatically expanded our choices in containers and plant material for these container gardens. For many years we mainly planted urns, hanging baskets or planter boxes but today we can use on almost endless array of container choices to make design or fashion statements, to accent or add contrast and excitement to our homes, businesses and property. Retail sales of prepared container gardens rose 8% from 2004 to 2005 to exceed 1.3 billion dollars. That is the most recent year for which data is available but I can assure you the trend is growing each year and this does not include all the plants folks buy to plant in new containers or to replant existing containers and pots. Many folks replant their existing planter boxes, containers and hanging baskets each year and add one or more new containers to their collection. Everyone can participate in container gardening whether you live in an apartment or have a large estate. Select containers with drain holes, add your own drain holes or on really large containers you can add a significant layer of gravel, broken pots or other open drainage in the bottom of the container. Then fill the container with a good quality, well drained soil mix. You can either use a prepared soilless mix or mix your own soil with about 1/3 loamy soil, 1/3 sphagnum peat or composted pine bark and 1/3 of a combination of vermiculite, perlite or calcined clay. You may want to add some polymer crystals to the media to help hold water and reduce your watering by about half. Select the plants you want based on the exposure to sun, shade and wind. Container gardens are usually most interesting when you combine some taller upright plants with cascading plants. They are easy to care for as long as you water them regularly. Remember that the smaller containers and hanging containers will dry out more often while larger containers will hold more water and go longer between watering. Just as your regular flowerbeds will benefit from a 1 ½” to 3” thick layer of top mulch of natural bark or hulls so will your container gardens. Mulching reduces weed problems, reduces watering and keeps the soil temperature more consistent to keep your plants healthy and happy in our hot summer weather. Mulching is one of our very best sustainable gardening practices in Oklahoma.

Container gardening allows you to move your plants to areas where you are entertaining or want to make a special show. They allow you to create special focal points, to change your design more often than permanent plantings and to add excitement to your landscape. Some folks refer to container gardens as a plant “hole” lifted up out of the ground to make a statement and are easier to access to plant and care for.

I was just at a big greenhouse conference in Arizona and everyone was talking about the new trend in “Staycations” where folks are staying at home instead of taking long or distant vacations because of concerns about fuel prices and the economy. Many folks are spending more time in their own yards to grow their own vegetables, berries, pretty flower beds and container gardens or to develop an outdoor kitchen or living area. This is a great opportunity to discover the joy of gardening or to expand your gardening efforts.

Whether you are a trend setter taking a staycation or just want to enjoy and commune with nature, spend a little extra time in your yard and plant the trees and container gardens you enjoy to create own special garden environment.

Hopefully you had a great Memorial Day weekend and got to spend a little time working in your garden between the family activities and the visits to pay your respects at the cemetery. We owe so much to those who have preceded us and  served this grand country in our military as they worked to establish and protect our liberties, sometimes sacrificing their life and limb for our benefit. We also owe a great debt of gratitude to our family members, friends and fellow citizens that have preceded us and worked tirelessly to figure out new ways to work with nature, to harness energy, to create new products and services to enrich our lives. Each generation has worked hard to improve the life of the next generation and to give us a chance to live an easier, fuller and more satisfying life. That effort even applies to the yard and garden where there has been a continuous effort to discover new plants, breed new varieties, learn the best production techniques and to share that information to produce food, energy, shelter and beauty for others.

These days management gurus call it continuous improvement but that is what healthy civilizations or countries do naturally. There is a general commitment to explore, learn, do better and work for a better life for those that come after us. Thank goodness for our ancestors and their commitment to learn, share, plant trees and prepare for the future. Hopefully future generations will look back on our time and see that we contributed to this ongoing gift of learning and improving.

The weather has been fairly kind to us this spring and we have been enjoying beautiful flower displays from most all of our plants and most crops are growing very well. This is still a great time to plant most all kinds of container grown trees, shrubs and flowers. As we deal with hotter temperatures you will need to water a little deeper and more often after you plant to help the plants get well established than was required with earlier spring plantings. You can still be very successful and get lots of food, pleasure and beauty by planting now.          

This is a good time to feed your lawn and flowers before entering the heat of summer. It is a great time to mulch your flowerbeds with natural bark, hulls or compost materials to reduce watering, keep the soil temperature cooler and reduce weed problems. You can really add pizzazz to your porch, patio or add design flair to flowerbeds by potting up large pots, urns or your own unique containers with those special plants or combinations of plants you choose to make a design statement at your home. Container gardening really allows you to design and decorate with plants.

One of the highlights on the garden calendar each year is the annual Oklahoma Horticulture Society Garden Tour for Connoisseurs that will be held this coming Saturday and is your chance to visit seven very special Oklahoma City private gardens. Every year the Horticulture Society selects a different neighborhood and provides a chance to see some very special gardens. This year the gardens are all within a couple of miles of Northwest 50^th and North May Avenue. Tickets are $12.00 in advance at local garden centers or $15.00 on the day of the tour purchased at any of the individual gardens. This is the main fundraiser for the Oklahoma Horticulture Society and is used to support horticulture scholarships for 4-H and FFA Members and for horticulture students at OSU Stillwater, OSU Oklahoma City and Tulsa Community College. The tour sites will be open from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM and are a wonderful opportunity to see common and unusual plants in real Oklahoma Gardens and to get lots of design ideas from real Oklahoma gardeners while supporting a good cause.

As a member of the Horticulture Society board I guarantee you will enjoy the tour and we will deeply appreciate your support and the chance to encourage more young people to explore horticulture. Come out and enjoy the Garden Tour this weekend and then go buy some of the new plants you enjoy on the tour to add to your yard or container gardens.