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

These are pretty amazing times for Oklahoma City. The MAPS Projects have all been a great success and set a tone of action and progress for our friendly community. The ballparks, library, canal, museums, Bricktown and the river are transforming our community and have led to many additional private projects and investments. The Oklahoma river is in the earliest stages of development and over time may have the biggest impact of all these projects. Our city is progressing on the MAPS for Kids to build new school campuses and to remodel most of the other school campuses and are even landscaping some of these school buildings so they don’t look like prisons. After OKC’S  amazing response in hosting the homeless New Orleans Hornets, we have now landed our own NBA Basketball Team and the momentum keeps building. We were excited that Sandridge Energy acquired the vacant Kerr McGee building and will develop it as their new home and take over care of the lovely Kerr Park in downtown Oklahoma City, a rare example of good landscaping in our downtown area.

This last week Devon Energy announced plans to build the first skyscraper in Oklahoma City in decades. This project will be almost twice as tall as the tallest building in Oklahoma City but will be softened with a beautiful landscaped atrium and over 2 acres of outside park with gardens that will be open to the public and we hope will be done to a scale and quality to set an example for our city. We have a lot of room for improvement in urban landscaping and beautification when compared to peer cities like Columbus, Ohio and Chicago since we have limited trees, few flowerbeds, large street container gardens or hanging gardens to add excitement, color and air cleaning charm to our downtown concrete jungle. The amazing Devon project is estimated to cost 750 million dollars by the time it opens in 2012. That compares to the 350 million invested with the penny sales tax in the MAPS Projects for the Ballpark, Arena, Bricktown Canal and Library. We now are investing 512 million in the MAPS for Kids penny sales tax to rebuild all of the city schools. The new privately funded Devon Tower will cost almost as much as all those MAPS and MAPS for kids projects put together. The parking garage across from the street north from the Myriad Gardens will be transformed into the new Devon Tower. The Devon Tower will be built in a Tax Increment Financing District where the extra property taxes from the development for 17 years will be diverted to further infrastructure improvements within the boundaries of the new TIF district.

Larry & Polly Nichols and the good folks at Devon could use this economic development tool to make further capital improvements on the Devon property but because of their love for Oklahoma City and the desire to be good neighbors they want to see most of it used to transform the Myriad Gardens, Centennial Park and other public spaces in their new downtown neighborhood. They have hired two sets of nationally known landscape architects to help with developing master plans, to tour other urban parks and gardens and to help host a community input seminar this last week to discuss ideas and determine the best ways to use these funds to take our already gorgeous 17 acre downtown Myriad Gardens and transform it to become an even more active and integral part of our community’s activities. There was a strong concensus among those at the input meeting to retain the Botanical Garden focus but there was an agreement that the outdoor gardens could benefit from lowering the soil berms in areas to open up the gardens and the conservatory for more street level views, by adding one or two restaurants, more event plazas and spaces, food kiosks for events and lots more seating areas. There was interest in game tables for checkers and chess, wifi access throughout the park, possibly adding an outdoor ice skating rink, an area for movies in the park, more fountains and water features.

There was a lot of debate about what features should be in a remodeled Myriad Gardens and what should be in the giant “Central Park” type area proposed to be built with MAPS III that would be 3 blocks wide and stretch from just south of the Myriad Gardens for a full mile south to the Oklahoma River to transform the big new city area that will evolve when the new I-40 opens in 2012 as it moves south near the river. Most of the group thought big space projects like basketball, soccer, skateboards and bandshells belong in the future park and the Myriad Gardens should be the star attraction south of Devon Tower and at the north end of the planned Core to Shore Park. These are exciting times that will shape our city for the next century and beyond.  Send me your ideas and I will forward them on to those working on the master plan for the new and even better Myriad Gardens.

The Olympics are always a very special experience and it is a lot of fun to watch all the great competitions, many in “minor” or specialty sports that never get attention except during this world wide athletic festival that plays out every 4 years. It is natural and exciting to cheer for our USA Team members in all these competitions and is particularly satisfying to cheer for our Oklahoma neighbors competing for the United States in gymnastics, wrestling, baseball, weight lifting and other sports during these 16 days of athletic events. Its not just Oklahoma athletes starring on the world stage as China hosts these Olympic games. Two significant Oklahoma plants were also selected to perform on this world stage. Dr Carl Whitcomb of Lacebark Research in Stillwater is famous for his Crapemyrtle breeding and the Chinese were impressed with many of his varieties and back in 2002 acquired thousands of unrooted cuttings of his breakthrough cherry red variety “Red Rocket” to root and grow out to plant around Beijing at Olympic festival sites. It is very difficult to ship plant material around the world both because of freight and handling issues and because each country has its own phytosanitary rules to protect against introduction of new pests, diseases and invasive plants. We don’t allow, with very few exceptions, plants into our country with soil on the roots so we usually move plants around the world as seeds or rooted or unrooted cuttings. Most other countries have similar rules. In this case the Chinese acquired thousands of unrooted cuttings, air freighted them to China where they were rooted and grown into large mature plants. Each year they took additional cuttings and grew more Red Rocket Crapemyrtle until they built up a large supply to make an Olympic impression on Beijing as they host the world. The irony is that the Crapemyrtle is native to China and comes from the southern and eastern foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. They have been grown in China for thousands of years, were introduced to Europe by Dutch and English traders in the 1700’s. They did not perform as well in Europe’s cool mild summers as they love the heat. In the mid 1700’s Crapemyrtles were introduced to Charleston, South Carolina where they flourished in colors of medium to light pink, tones of lavender and white. Dr. Donald Egolf at the National Arboreterum in Washington, D.C.  bred Crapemyrtles for years and the holy grail was a true red flower. Dr. Carl Whitcomb of Stillwater collected seed from one eye catching plant in 1985 and those 5000 seedlings led to the breakthrough and patented Red Rocket variety after six generations and over 100,000 seedlings. Red Rocket is a vigorous upright plant that can grow into a large shrub or short tree of 15 to 20 feet tall. The flowers are bright cherry red and very showy in cone shaped clusters up to 24” tall. In Oklahoma they often bloom from early July into October. Crapemyrtles do best in full sun and bloom on new wood so the more they grow the more they flower.

All over Oklahoma right now you can enjoy the best of our summer flowering shrubs including Althea (Rose of Sharon), large flowered hardy hibiscus and many colors and varieties of gorgeous Crapemyrtle including the many varieties bred right here in Oklahoma by Dr. Carl Whitcomb. Crapemyrtles are definitely a gold medal winner for producing spectacular color and excitement in the Oklahoma landscape. Many of the newer varieties are more tolerant of hard winter freezes and as a result are less likely to freeze back to the ground. Many newer varieties are also more resistant to powdery mildew and less likely to need a fungicide spray.

Riviera Bermuda grass, bred at Oklahoma State University and produced by Johnston Seed and Grain Company of Enid, Oklahoma is becoming well known for use on athletic fields around the world. Since its commercial introduction in 2004 it has been used by NFL Teams like the Washington Redskins, on many famous golf courses including Gary Player Courses in South Africa, on horse racing tracks in Asia and even on the OU Sooner football practice field. But now its most famous installation is at the Beijing Olympics Wukesong Sports Center which will host the Olympic baseball competition giving Stillwater native, Brett Anderson, a special kind of homefield pitching advantage on the very tough Riviera Bermuda developed by OSU turf specialists in the OSU horticulture department. Johnston Seed grew and then shipped the Oklahoma grass seed to China where it is planted to produce the thick, tough athletic field which will host baseball players from around the world. The Oklahoma bred Riviera Bermuda is much tougher as it is bred to tolerate both our extreme heat and cold in Oklahoma where Arizona and California Bermuda are not nearly as cold tolerant when bred and raised in the desert. The early reports on the grass field are good and it appears it will be another gold medal winner for Oklahoma plants at the Beijing Olympics.

China is a huge country with many climate zones but much of China is very similar to Oklahoma and so it affords the opportunity for some of our plants to adapt there and many of China’s plants to adapt here. The plants collected by the last US government plant exploration research teams in the late 40’s and early 50’s before the communists took over China and shut the trade doors ended up at the USDA Southern Plains Research Station in Woodward, Oklahoma and many of the surviving plants are now mature specimens. Oklahoma Nurseryman, Steve Bieberich, of Clinton has participated in recent plant expeditions to China now that the walls of trade are open once more. Enjoy the Olympics and watch for our Oklahoma plants as well as the Oklahoma athletes to shine on the world stage.

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.