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grEen News
from Smithfield Gardens
July 2010
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Dear Friends,
July is a special month here in Tidewater. Not only do we celebrate the birth of our nation, but around here we celebrate the glorious blooms on the Crape Myrtles. Their pink, white, purple and red blooms dress up nearly every corner of the region. If you would like to add one of these gems to your own yard, it can be done in July, as long as you keep the tree well watered. To give you a little incentive, all of our plants (including the Crape Myrtles) are on sale for at least 30% off. In addition to that our pottery and patio furniture is 35% off, statuary is 40% off, and our silks, summer bulbs and annuals are 50% off.
For those of you looking for something fresh, we want to remind you that Danny and Romayne Byrum from Batten Bay Farms will be selling their all natural, locally grown produce right by our front door on Saturdays between 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. If you happen to be one of those grow-your-own types you are likely up to your eyeballs in tomatoes, cucumbers and squash by this point. Either way, you can come hear Romayne Byrum teach you the best methods for perserving summer's bounty to enjoy later. She will be teaching classes on the topic here at Smithfield Gardens on Saturday the 10th and the 24th at 10:00 a.m. Please check our class schedule below for details. These classes should be popular, so please call to reserve your spot.
Whether you come take advantage of our big summer clearance sale, stop by to pick up something good to eat or just need a little gardening advice, we hope to see you soon!
Happy Gardening! Your Friends at Smithfield Gardens
(By the way, we would like to thank retiring York Co. Extension Agent, Jim Orband, for his years of service to the gardening public of southeastern Virginia. His work boots will be hard to fill.)
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Upcoming Events and Classes
at Smithfield Gardens
Preserving Summer's Bounty - Part I
July 10th (Sat.) 10:00 a.m.
This class will be an introduction to perserving, canning and pickling produce from the garden and will concentrate mainly on cucumbers and relishes. This will be taught by Romayne Byrum of Batten Bay Farms.
Preserving Summer's Bounty - Part II
July 24th (Sat.) 10:00 a.m.
This session will concentrate on all the wonderful things you can do with tomatoes and again will be taught by Romayne Byrum.
Would you like to save 10% on your purchases at Smithfield Gardens? Monday is Military Discount Day and active duty military, Coast Guard, police, fire and rescue all are entitled to a discount. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are Senior Days. Also, anyone who attends one of our free classes is entitled to a discount on the day of the class. All of our discounts apply to any item not already on sale and can not be used towards landscaping services or bulk materials.
Other Events:
Blackberry Tour
July 3rd (Sat.) 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Enjoy blackberries and homemade ice cream with naturalist Vickie Shufer at the Hoffler Creek Wildlife Preserve in Portsmouth. Please call 686-8684 for more information and to register.
American Hemerocallis Display Garden
July 1st-5th, 9th, 10th, 16th and 17th
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
If you would like to see one of the best collections of daylilies in the mid-Atlantic area, then you should visit Sterrett Gardens on the Eastern Shore. For more information go to www.sterrettgardens.com.
Feng Shui Walking Tour of Ghent
July 13th (Tue.) 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
July 22nd (Thu.) 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Feng Shui Practitioner and Consultant, Bonnie Primm, will be giving a 1 to 2 mile walking tour (wear your walking shoes), from the Heutte Center in Norfolk. The layout, shapes, elements, color and design of homes, gardens, paths, fences and gates will be looked at for their ability to provide a sense of harmony and balance. For more information please visit here.
Planting Wild - Healthier Plants, Critters, and People
July 15th (Thu.) 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Lance Gardener will discuss the benefits of planting natives, not only for critters, but for families too! Plus, learn how to deter voles and other unwanted pests! This free event is sponsored by the John Clayton Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society and will be held at the York Co. Public Library. For information please visit here.
Sanctuary Nature Walks
July 17th (Sat.) 9:00 a.m. Weyanoke Bird and Wildlife Sanctuary at 1501 Armistead Bridge Rd. in Norkfolk's West Ghent neighborhood. Call 625-1907 for more information.
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From This
Ditch Lily |
...to These!
Dark Music |
Peppermint Twist |
Green Inferno |
Hold Your Horses |
Living Legend |
What Fun |
"Valdosta Again in 2010" was the slogan for the National Daylily Convention that I attended in Valdosta, Georgia at the end of May. The pictures accompanying this article are ones I took in the tour gardens and at daylily hybridizers that we visited en route. Now don't grab your car keys because we do not carry any of these beauties! They are included simply as a sampling of the work that's been done through the years to transform the common orange "ditch lily" into purples, doubles, spider forms, near whites, pinched petals, and eyed and ruffled (very ruffled = chicken fat) garden confections. Many more eye-catching characteristics are out there now, too.
Seedling Bed | The entire hybridizing process is mysterious to many gardeners, even those who have been bitten by the daylily bug. Many hybridizers on the east coast are located in the south because the amount of time needed to see flowers from the time you plant the seeds is shortened by a year or so. I have included a picture of the seedling bed at the Joiner gardens we visited, where thousands of plants are crammed together in a relatively small area. Hybridizers will sometimes look at the seedlings with garden visitors and get a feel for which colors and flower forms they are drawn to. The daylily pictured with the orange tagging tape is a seedling that had been selected for
Tagged Seedling | further evaluation. Years ago I learned that the percentage of seedlings tagged like this in a bed of say twenty thousand seedlings, could be as low as twenty five or thirty. The remainder of the plants are composted or plowed under at the end of the season, and the field is replanted with an entirely new group of seedlings. Daylily gardeners are usually horrified by this ruthless process (because the condemned daylilies would look perfectly lovely in any garden setting) but the hybridizers are looking for that special plant that screams "Look at me!"--- and their growing space is limited, too.
Daylily hybridizers make their crosses very early in the morning, hopefully before the bees get out to do their stuff. Many hybridizers know ahead of time exactly which plants they will use, while I've heard others say they just wander through their daylilies and pick pretty ones to cross that morning. Some will even freeze the pollen from a selected cultivar that is an early season bloomer to dab it on a later- blooming daylily that they are using as the pod parent. If they're lucky they'll get a seedling that is an early bloomer that also has the distinctive color or form of the later- blooming pod parent. Many hybridizers attempt to keep detailed records of their crosses, and will often list the parents when they register a new daylily a few years down the road. Daylilies can be registered without knowing the parents, however other daylily hybridizers often like to know the genetics of the parent daylilies when they purchase new introductions.
I highly recommend going to the American Hemerocallis Society website for more daylily pictures, plus information about growing daylilies and upcoming regional events. I am a member of the Tidewater Daylily Society, the local daylily group with members from North Carolina and Greater Hampton Roads cities (www.tidewaterdaylilysociety.com). Peak bloom time in our area is from June to mid July so there's still plenty of time to get out and see flowers firsthand. Don't forget your camera and a notebook!
Ann Weber |
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Blue Trees, Vestal Virgins and Bad Relations
 As nursery manager here, I am always asked for tree recommendations. With many homeowners having smaller yards these days, they are not always looking for a large shade tree. When I make suggestions for smaller, more ornamental trees, I usually begin with any of the numerous early spring blooming trees. Unfortunately these trees bloom fairly quickly and with so much else showy in the spring garden, their fleeting beauty is often missed. People looking for summer blooming trees usually only think of one thing around here, the Crape Myrtle. Although this is one of my favorite trees and is certainly common here, some gardeners are looking for something different. It is usually at this point that I recommend the Vitex, also known as Chaste Tree.
 The Vitex (Vitex agnus-castus) has a lot to offer. First of all there is the color - a lovely cool, lavender blue. I do not know of any other tree with that color that will grow in this climate. The blue color makes a nice contrast to all the pinks, reds and whites from the Crape Myrtles blooming in the area. The 8-12" long flower panicles usually begin to appear in late June and persist for nearly a month. They resemble the blooms of the Butterfly Bush with which it is often confused. They have a moderately spicy fragrance and are extremely attractive to butterflies and bees. Once Vitex has finished blooming, you can deadhead the plant, and it will bloom again in October (fine while the trees are small, more problematic when they get large). Vitex grows to about 15-20' tall and wide and is most often a multi-stemmed tree. If the smaller, lower branches are removed and kept that way, the graceful character of the trunk and attractive bark are revealed. If the lower branches are allowed to remain, the plant resembles more of a large shrub. Vitex prefers full sun, but will also tolerate light shade, and is extremely tolerant of heat and drought. It will survive in just about any soil type but soggy, poorly drained ones.  Vitex is native to southwestern Europe and western Asia where it has had a long and storied use. Its common name of Chaste Tree comes from the belief that it helped keep vestal virgins and later medieval monks celibate. Even today it is still considered a symbol of chastity as novitiates walk a Vitex strewn path as they enter religious orders in Italy. Although the plant's usefulness at keeping people pure is dubious, it has proven effective at helping ease menstrual pain, alleviating the symptoms of menopause and promoting lactation in new mothers. I can't speak to these benefits of Vitex, but I certainly feel better when I look at the beautiful blue blooms.
Finally, some of you may have recently heard that local municipalities are considering banning Vitex for sale. This is true, but the Vitex they want to ban is Vitex rotundifolia or Beach Vitex. This species is horribly invasive, particularly in sensitive sand dune areas where it thrives, choking out just about all native plants that would normally grow there. So if you ever see this "black and blue" sheep of the Vitex family, offered for sale at other garden centers, walk on by. Les Parks |
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Success with Summer Annuals in Tidewater
 Every year I look forward to planning which annuals I will use in my beds. I like to make sure the color choices will be eye-catching and that the plants also hold up well during the long hot days of our Virginia summers. I learned early on that proper soil preparation made the biggest difference in the success I had with my annual displays. The average soil is often quite heavy, consisting predominately of clay; although you will find sandy soils in Tidewater as well. In either case these soils can be improved with the addition of compost, aged manure, and a product known as Permatil.
When it comes to compost, I am not speaking of topsoil. Although topsoil can be added to poor quality soils as an amendment, it lacks the larger decomposing particles which compost has to help aerate compacted clay soils. Compost also  helps with sandy soils since it adds structure, which helps hold moisture and nutrients around the root zones of plants. Aged manure or composted manure helps in the same way, but is derived from an animal source where organic compost is primarily derived from plant sources. In either case the addition of a compost material is very beneficial to successful planting. Permatil, which I mentioned previously, is a wonderful product that is a clay buster helping to alleviate poorly drained soil. This product is a man-made porous rock which is a permanent addition to the planting bed. As an added benefit, it also can be used as a deterrent against those pesky moles and voles which dislike Permatils' rough jagged edges. Amending the soil will help greatly in the success of an annual planting, but there are other keys to success such as fertilization.
 Fertilizing is necessary to be successful with annuals since they are often heavy feeders requiring more nutrients than a woody tree or shrub. I like to think of annuals as the powerhouses of color in the landscape, and all that blooming takes a lot of energy. When it comes to choosing a fertilizer, it is better to play it safe with an organic, non-burning formula such as Flower-tone. It is easy and quick to apply and does not burn tender leaves and stems as some fertilizers can. Also, supplementing with a fast acting, water soluble fertilizer such as Miracle-Gro (or any bloom boosting formulation) can make a quick improvement in vigor and flower output. It must be done at least twice a month to see continued results, however Flower-tone lasts at least a month.
 Finally, I must mention deadheading, which is the term applied to the removal of the spent blossoms. Annuals such as Geraniums, Marigolds, Zinnias, Celosias, Petunias and others all benefit from deadheading. Removing the old flowers not only improves the plant's appearance, but these spent flowers are often on their way to seed production using up energy sources that would otherwise be available for more flower production.
I hope these suggestions will be of use to the successful addition of a colorful annual display in your own garden. If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me.
Jeff Williamson
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