April 2010 Newsletter volume one, issue one In This Issue Glorious Containers Bursts of Color in the Garden Now Organic and Sustainable Options Brown Boxwood? Could Be Leafminer Glorious Containers Grow Native!, Fine Gardening magazine, Horticulture magazine, and others offer annual garden container contests. We are entering them all just because we have so much fun doing containers and love the glorious results! If we can plant one of your containers and submit it, guess what? We will plant that container for you free next year!  Quick Links...   Our Website Services More About Us Contact Us Greetings!     Happy Spring and welcome to our first "newsletter" email.   We plan to give you news you can use every month because we want 1) you to enjoy your gardens and outdoor spaces and 2) to help them thrive. And of course, we are here to help with whatever tasks you don't have time for or would rather not do!   We envision this as a quick little publication that adds to your life. So please send me any and all comments in order to keep it that way. Enjoy! Bursts of Color in the Garden Now Top, Spicebush; bottom, White Forsythia. A recent visit to some of your properties and our beloved Missouri Botanical Garden revealed a bounty of blooms. Some are old favorites, like daffodils and forsythia, while others are not as well known, like the White Forsythia, aka Abeliophyllum distichum, and Spicebush, the Missouri native, botanically known as Lindera benzoin.    White Forsythia grows easily in medium soils, full sun to part shade and has jasmine-like fragrant blooms now into April. Spicebush's blooms, also blooming now into April, are more subtle but attract birds and butterflies and its blooms and leaves have a spicy fragrance. It grows easily too in medium soil in full sun to part shade.   For more information on these or other spring beauties, go to www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder.   Organic and Sustainable Options, from Yours Truly Did you know we use an entire range of organic fertilizers and pesticides to keep your gardens as natural as they are meant to be?    We are also interested in sustainable living and will install rain barrels, rain gardens, xeric (drought-tolerant) gardens, native gardens, wildlife-friendly landscapes, and more.   Let us know if we can bring more green to your garden this season! Brown Boxwood? Could Be Leafminer  Top: Eric Day, VPI, Bugwood.org; Bottom: Clemson U/USDA, Bugwood.org Do your boxwood have some bumpy, splotchy brown leaves? Split open a leaf and you'll see busy little yellow worms inside eating the green chlorophyll out of the leaves. If too many of them take over your shrub, they will kill it. Spraying organic neem oil to coat all sides of all leaves on each affected shrub will kill the larval worms. Spraying again in the fall will prevent another infestation this winter.   If you haven't signed up for pest and disease control as needed as part of your maintenance plan, please consider it. Or go to an independent garden center, ask for neem oil, and read the label directions before applying it yourself.  We want everyone's landscapes to be healthy and bountiful so we'll continue to address the issues that nature throws our way each month.   Thank your for reading this. If you liked it, please forward it to a friend. If you didn't, please let us know!   In this, our tenth year, we want to continue to be your trusted source for garden aesthetics and advice. We value your trust and will continue to do the very best for you.   Sincerely, Rhonda Schaper Glorious Gardens, Inc.