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| Helping to Make Your Garden Divine in 2009 |
Jan\Feb 2009 |
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Meet Debbie
Debbie Boyer, aka "the Rose Lady" started at Garland Nursery in 1994. After a brief sabbatical in the Corvallis Parks Department she returned and has been here every since. Debbie orders the rose plants for Garland Nursery. Also, she orders the fresh green wreaths at Christmas and coordinates our wreath and holly gift pack shipping. The rest of the time she's our plant reciever, making sure that the descriptions on all tags are accurate, our inventory counts in correct, and every plant has a tag. She is also a wealth of knowledge. Debbie is a true Renaissance woman. |
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 Plant Bare Root Now for Bountiful Harvest By Karen Hopson
A new year, time for a fresh start. In uncertain times we could all benefit from getting back to basics. Reconnecting with the rhythms of nature through gardening can sooth our minds and stretch our bodies as well as providing a supply of tasty, nutritious, freshly harvested fruits and vegetables.
In the Willamette Valley January and February are the months to plant bare root fruit trees and berries. Not only do you benefit from lower prices buying bare root, but the plants do best getting roots established by planting this early. If you have no place ready to plant them, you can pot them up now (or have us pot them for you) to plant out later when it's dry enough to work your soil.
Traditional fruit trees that can be planted now include apples, cherries, peaches, nectarines, pears, Asian pears, persimmons, plums and prunes. If space is limited there are dwarfing rootstocks to keep trees smaller, espaliered trees, columnar apples and combination trees available to fit more fruits in small yards. Well trained fruit trees can make beautiful additions to your landscape.
Many berry plants take little space yet bear bountiful harvests of delectable fruits. Grapes, blackberries, hops and kiwi can be grown on fences, arbors or trellises. Blueberries, honeyberries, currants and gooseberries can be tucked into the ornamental landscape. Strawberries can be grown in pots, a bed of their own or as groundcover. Raised beds are easy to make and provide the perfect conditions for raspberries or asparagus to bear bountiful crops for years to come.
There is no doubt that a diet with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables is healthiest, providing fiber, essential nutrients and other factors like antioxidants that keep us healthy. What better way is there to show your children the delight of eating fresh fruits and vegetables than to involve them in the process of growing and harvesting your own.
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 Bonsai Answers By Dr. C.J. "Bud" Weiser
The Questions:
It snowed yesterday morning and my bonsai were covered with snow, so I put all of them into our gazebo which is enclosed, but not heated or insulated. It is supposed to be very cold for the next week. Should I water the plants that are all in the gazebo? They are basically frozen so how will the water get thru them? I did drape small Christmas lights over the top of them to give them a little heat.
The Answer:
Your plants should be fine in your gazebo unless it gets below 20 degrees F for several days. Snow and frozen soil does not hurt them.
What does hurt bonsai are prolonged low temperatures that cause the tender roots to freeze to temperatures well below 32 degrees F. The tops of the plants are much hardier than the roots.
When water freezes it releases heat (80 calories per gram). This heat release during freezing helps warm and maintain soil and root temperatures at 32 degrees F even when air temperatures are much lower. The soil and root temperatures drop below 32 degrees F. only after all of the water in the pot has frozen. For this reason it is good to keep bonsai plants well watered during winter to increase the protective effects of freezing water.
Another good way to protect tender roots is to place bonsai pots directly on the ground and to mulch the pots with leaves or any other insulating material. By doing this the soil and roots in the pot stay at the same temperatures (about 32 degrees F) as the large soil mass that they sit upon. There is an amazing amount of heat release from moist freezing soil. In midwinter in MN soil temperatures rarely fall below 31 degrees F in midwinter even after weeks of minus 20 degrees F. air temperatures-especially when there is snow to insulate the soil surface.
Hope this helps. Your plant roots might stay warmer sitting on soil then they will in your gazebo?? Your lights would warm the soil best if they were in contact with the pots.
This answer is from Bud Weiser, one of our Professional Bonsai Artists at our retail store located within Garland Nursery.
Dr. C.J. "Bud" Weiser is a bonsai enthusiast and a retired professor of horticulture. His research and teaching specialties at the U of MN and OSU were plant propagation and winter hardiness. His bonsai and stone sculpting hobbies evolved into a new mini-career after he retired from OSU a dozen years ago as dean of the College of Agriculture.
Bud especially enjoys designing and training bonsai, collecting trees that have been shaped by severe climatic conditions and in experimenting with a wide range of plant materials. He normally has about 500 to 600 trees of more than 30 different plant genera in various stages of development. His bonsai training methods and styling are often non-traditional. GarlandNursery, Wee Tree Farm and five other Oregon nurseries sell his consigned trees, and four art galleries offer his stone sculptures and limited edition bronzes.
Notice to beginners, every Saturday and Sunday we will have two free demonstrations for bonsai beginners. One from 11 to 12 and the other from 2 to 3. Pick up a schedule at Garland or go on line at weetree.com |
 Winter Damage to Plants
By Karen Hopson
Mother Nature threw some extreme winter weather our way this year and some of our landscape plants look rather sad. Walk around your yard to see if any plants show obvious damage. Broken limbs from heavy snow loads can be pruned back to a bud facing the direction you'd like new growth to go. Many plants got leveled or bent by snow and wind. If you can prop up, stake and tie to support these plants to a pleasing form, now is the time to do so. If the plant can not be staked up to a pleasing shape it may be necessary to prune it back enough to lighten the weight of outer branches so the plant can stand again. I had a gigantic Phormium (New Zealand Flax) that was decimated by the snow but I cut it back by about 2/3 with angled cuts at the tips and it looks much better. It will get new leaves in spring that will hide many of the cut tips. Many shrubs with upright branching like arborvitae can be kept from snow damage by spiraling clear fishing line around them. Be sure to not tie anything around the trunk so the plant doesn't get gurdled.
Some marginally hardy plants died, like Cordylines and Geraniums (Pelargonium). Some evergreen shrubs have lost some leaves and look poorly like Escallonia and Hebes. For damaged shrubs you can prune off any broken branches but wait to see where buds emerge in spring before doing major pruning and shaping.
Some plants, especially those in pots above ground, may look fine now but, if their roots froze solidly, they may die as soon as the weather gets warm in spring. Roots of plants are less hardy than the top of plants so it's best to move potted plants into a greenhouse, garage or against the foundation of your house with insulating materials like mulch or blankets around the exposed portions of pots.
Sometimes when we get our coldest weather skies are clear and the sun can warm up the bark of trees during the day. When the sun goes down the temperature in the bark plummets quickly, causing the bark to split. You can prevent this by painting the trunks of young, thin-barked trees with white latex paint up to the lowest branches. The white reflects the sunlight off the trunk, keeping it cooler so it doesn't go through such wide temperature swings, and therefore the bark won't split. As the tree grows older the bark thickens and the paint disappears over time.
When a plant is lost or damaged beyond repair, consider the situation as a chance to make a fresh start. We can help you choose the perfect replacement to thrive for many years to come..
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New Roses 2009 By Debbie Boyer
Ahhh...spring is in the air. Well, maybe not quite yet, but it is bare-root rose season and that always brings a glimmer of hope. This year, as in other years we are featuring several new varieties of roses. The Jackson and Perkins Rose of the Year and the AARS winners are always some of the most interesting new roses.
For those of you new to roses or not familiar with all the terminology, AARS stands for All America Rose Selection. Each year seedlings are evaluated in a nation wide trial for a 2 year period. Official All America Rose Selections test gardens are located throughout the U.S., each with its own judge. A winning rose must have beautiful blooms and show superior garden performance.
This years winners are Pink Promise, a blush pink, long stemmed Hybrid Tea rose. This rose was also chosen to represent the National Breast Cancer Foundation with a portion of each plant sold going to the Foundation's goal to find a cure. Cinco de Mayo is the Floribunda that was chosen by the judges. Who would have guessed that with parents like Topsy Turvy and Julia Child you would come up with a rusty red-orange and smoky-lavender floribunda. Non stop ruffled flowers bloom in cluster atop clean glossy green foliage. Last but not least in the AARS line up this year is Carefree Spirit. It blooms large clusters of deep cherry-red flowers with the most disease resistant foliage of any of the carefree roses yet. Petal count is 5 with a cheerful yellow center outlined with white. Plant any of these roses among your perennials and shrubs, or as a border or hedge for plenty of summer color.
The Jackson Perkins Rose of the Year, is a stunning lavender Grandiflora called Sweetness. The name of course comes from the strong fruity citrus fragrance of these long stemmed beauties. With large clusters, just a couple of stems will fill a vase.
We have close to 250 varieties of roses that we are offering this year. There will be 20 varieties that we will hold as bare root plants through the month of February. The rest will be potted to get them off to a great start for spring planting. Come early for the best selection and browse amongst the roses.
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 Grow something Fine in 2009
By Brenda Powell
Some of my earliest gardening memories involve the vegetable garden. We always had a big one growing up. I'd help plant seed, weed, water and finally harvest. We had a wide variety of fresh vegetables growing up. My mom is a great cook. There were very few vegetables I didn't like. Mom did a lot of preserving in those days, too. It's no surprise with that background that as an adult I enjoy gardening, cooking and preserving. When my husband and I landscaped our new home in 2001, we incorporated berries, herbs and two small raised beds into our small yard. It wasn't enough space to raise all of my favorite greens and veggies. I found myself shopping the farmer's market and local grocery stores that featured local produce. The fresher the better! That and the book The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan got me going on the trend of local, organic and heirloom produce. Of course, as many vegetables as we eat going that route can get expensive. Plus I missed gardening on a large scale and as I stated earlier, the fresher the better. That led to a family community garden at the nursery. We made a lot of mistakes but it was a great experience. And we got to share a lot of produce, too. I'm so excited for the garden this year that I'm ready to have a family dinner to plan it all out. The new seeds have started arriving at the nursery and I'm getting antsy. We're bringing back in New Dimension Seeds ( www.newdimensionseed.com). This company located in Scappoose Oregon features Asian vegetables seeds and recipes to help you enjoy the harvest. I'm looking forward to trying Greenway Asparagus Beans and Candle Stick Gai Lan. On the Renee's Garden seed rack ( www.reneesgarden.com) is a wonderful heirloom pole bean named 'Spanish Musica' that I grew and enjoyed last year. There are several heirloom lettuce blends, too that I'm dying to try. Dad grew a wonderful heirloom tomato blend called Rainbow's End that we'll have to repeat. He started them in the greenhouse ahead of planting time. You can do that in your home. Also, Renee's Garden has a great selection of Sweet Peas. The packaging on the Botanical Interest ( www.botanicalinterests.com) rack is great. It's easy to locate the heirloom varieties. There is a good selection of organically grown varieties, too. They have Alfalfa and Mungbean sprout seeds. Their large packs are a good deal for multiple plantings of basil, sunflower and beans. New this year in the jumbo pack is a Fairy Meadow mix. Probably the two best known seed companies from our area our Territorial and Ed Hume. Ed Hume ( www.edhumeseeds.com) has good quality seed at reasonable prices in the basic varieties. Territorial Seed Company ( www.territorialseed.com) has a lot of unique varieties, particularly suited for our area. They sell so many different varieties, I'm not able to stock them all on our rack and there are many varieties available mail order only. I do all the seed ordering, so if you don't find a variety on the rack, ask me and I'll see if I can order it in for you. From Territorial I'm most excited about Cascadia Peas, a snap pea variety bred by Dr. Jim Baggett at OSU. Here in Corvallis, we're able to plant peas in February, which is just around the corner. Let the digging begin | |
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Upcoming Events
Spring Open House & Educational Evening April 18th and 19th
* New Plant Introductions
* Keynote Speaker
Mother's Day Event May 9th
* C 3 Planters to Create
* Herbal Tea Planter, CD for Planter, Edible Planter
* Soils, Pots, Coop
Herb & Vegie Event Festival May 16th & 17th
* Tomato Veg. Steve Goto
* Herb Speaker
* Tasting
* Kellogg Coop
Blueberry Festival July 25th & 26th
* Bluebarry tasting plus Blueberries available
* Gardner & Bloome Acid Planting
* Dr. Earth Organic Fruit Fertilizer
* Gift items
Art & Wine in the Garden TBA
5470 NE Highway 20
Corvallis, Oregon 97330 |
Garland Nursery Come for an hour stay for the day.
Thank you for your business. We hope to see you this Spring.
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Owners
Brenda, Lee and Erica
541-753-6601 |
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20%
Off |
Garden Path Appreciation Coupon - January
Any gourmet food item from our gift store. Offer valid January 2009. One coupon per person. Excludes sale items and not valid with any other offers. Limited to stock on hand. No special orders. http://www.garlandnursery.com |
| Offer Expires: January 31, 2009 | | |
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10%
Off |
Garden Path Appreciation Coupon - February
Dr. Earth Rose Fertilizer and Gardener & Bloome Rose Planting Mix. Offer valid February 2009. One coupon per person. Excludes sale items and not valid with any other offers. Limited to stock on hand. No special orders. http://www.garlandnursery.com |
| Offer Expires: February 28, 2009 | |
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