This Week in the Gardens

I have been away on business for a few days. I always feel like Rip Van Winkle when I get back, because everything has grown so much I barely recognize it!

I have four (David Austin) English Roses variety “The Herbalist” and they are in full bloom~

English Rose (David Austin) Tess of the D'Urbervilles has returned with vibrant scarlet blossoms~

And, English Rose (David Austin) James Galway is preparing  to apply for its own ZIP CODE-it's huge! ~

While Floribunda variety Rainbow Sorbet is putting on a flashy show of its own~

I hope it's been (and will be) a good week for your garden! ~JB was here.

What I Planted: White Oak Seedlings

Yesterday, just before the big rain, I transplanted a few of the little White Oak Seedlings mentioned in this post.

Photo #1 shows the acorn and root detail, #2 shows them sitting in some of the material they sprouted in (horse stable bedding). This medium made it really easy to use the bare root method to transplant them and made it possible to get the whole root system including the tap (very important). Photo #3 shows the root system in a little more detail, and #4 shows one after it was transplanted. I planted four in the yard. I think they are beautiful.

What I Planted: Fragrant Plum Rose (Grandiflora)

I haven't had any luck with lavender/purple roses in the past. They seem quite frail. Today I was inspired to give it another try at the Mountain Grove Ace Hardware, where they have a sensational looking shipment of Weeks Roses. This is the description of the Weeks Rose that I bought:

Fragrant Plum

2004 Intro

(cv. Aroplumi)

Grandiflora - Lavender blushing purple

Imagine the rose "Paradise" with more blue, mysterious smoking and marvelous fragrance. Then dream on about a vigorous tall plant that produces armloads of very long elegant buds atop premium-length cutting stems. Now picture this plum pretty plum-colored Grandiflora with lush deep green foliage at home in your garden.

• Height / Habit: Tall, upright
• Bloom / Size: Medium-large, double
• Petal count: 20 to 25
• Parentage: Shocking Blue x [Blue Nile x (Ivory Tower x Angel Face)]
• Fragrance: Strong fruity
• Hybridizer: Christensen – 1990
• Comments: Color brightens with some heat. Spring and fall produce the best form.

I really had my heart set on the new variety "Koko Loko" but they didn't have it today, and I have to plant when I can here where I live, with what's available. So, I was happy to still find a purple, and it sounds like a good choice for cut flowers. Color me happy! :)

Anyone up for White Oak Seedlings? :)

It would appear that I've inadvertently started my own tree nursery. While plenty of walnuts have sprouted, it's the white oaks that have caught our attention, especially since a lot of our oak trees are very old and starting to show their age, let's just say. I did a quick photograph session of the ones by our pond last weekend. We want to transplant some of them. We'll see if that gets done. Mother nature is a resilient girl, this kind of thing proves. The little baby oaks are sooooo cute. And it's so hard to believe they'll ever get big, but we know they will.

They were especially vibrant and highly concentrated where we had spread some horse stable bedding. I was just fascinated. The acorns would just kind of split open almost like an egg, the remains were right there with most of them, and the root would head straight down, while the leaves went straight up. How do they know, anyway?

Have a great weekend. ~JB was here.

Battling the Tent Caterpillar

These tent caterpillars drive me crazy. I have had them in my ornamental flowering crab, and last year, they nearly ruined it. It was loaded again this time. Now I'll admit that over my lifetime, my first tendency when approaching a pest is to think,”What can I put on that to kill it?”  Meaning, basically, which chemical. I fired first,  and I did not ask too many questions.

Don't get me wrong. I still believe in the accurate and judicious use of pesticides. But my above remarks really highlight why their use can become problematic, and they should not be applied in haste, but thoughtfully,  as a last resort when no other choice is available. Not just because you want to take care of the problem and more or less, get it over with.

So I've been suffering with these things. There really isn't a good solution anyway, chemically, that I have found, once they hatch and form those tents. They were up high in this tree. I manually took down the ones I could reach. That's nasty and disgusting, by the way. Plastic gloves, armour, whatever you can find, would be good to put on first.  Last year we resorted to cutting the limbs off where they were. Not really a good option either.

Well. I was reading  University of Missouri-Extension Newsletter yesterday and had a HUGE aha! moment. You can remove them without chemicals!  A strong stream of water melts those tents and sends the worms plunging to the ground-although sometimes they hit the limb below and you have to, uh, spray them again with high pressure….and the little frontier person in me felt a rather strange satisfaction in seeing these vile little invaders go DOWN.

After about thirty minutes and becoming soaked (totally worth it) I have not one of those unsightly encampments left in that flowering crab, which happens to sit in front of my door. It was just such a “duh”!  I couldn't figure out how to reach them, and this was embarrassingly simple! 

They are not supposed to be able to make it back to the tree…….I'm a Missouri Show-Me lady, so the jury's still out on that one, but we'll see. At least I feel better.  ~JB was here.

Update: 2013!  My tree made it, not sure what those little indentations were, but it's fine. The tent caterpillars barely got a start this year before "water woman" was on the go again. My tree has beautiful foliage now and I can report that the "water works method" really works well!