When a rose has a split personality

Recently our local newspaper ran a picture and a story about a couple in another town that had a "rare" rose. The couple reported that they had this rose that always came up red until one winter that was particularly harsh killed the rose to the ground and the next spring the rose had red roses and pink roses on the same plant. They called the pink branch a sport and said it was rare. This led me to write this article because I think there must be a lot of people out there who don't understand how plants, especially roses are propagated.
Let me first explain that these folks do not have a rare plant. What they have is a rose that has a stem sprouting from the roots. Roses are not grown on their own root stocks. In order for roses to be mass produced they have to be grafted on to a root stock that is tougher and hardier and easier to grow than the desired rose. The root stocks are usually a wild rose that roots easier and grows faster than the scion (which is the desirable rose on top)
If the roots of the rose send up a shoot, it is a faster growing, hardier wild rose that will take over the desirable rose scion. What happened to this couple, is that when the rough winter hit and killed back the scion, the rootstock sent up a bud and so did the scion. Because the root stock is faster growing it got bigger faster than the scion stem. These people have two roses growing from the same rose. If they look at the leaves they will see they are different too. If they don't trim back the root stock branches it will eventually take over the scion and they will no longer have their desirable rose.
This same situation happens in other plants as well. Crab apples are a good example. If you plant a crab apple that has pink blossoms and all of a sudden you also have white blossoms, that means the root stock is sprouting and will take over the desirable pink blossoms in short order if you don't get rid of them.
The definition of a sport, is a branch or stem off of the top of the plant that is different than the rest of the top of the plant. This will happen especially in perennials and if it does and its a cool looking stem, it may be worth propagating. Whether you will be able to make any money off of it remains to be seen but at the very least you can grow it in your garden and have something unique.
Happy Gardening.

Pests Pests Pests

Hello again gardeners! Let's talk about pests. Most pests are not serious enough to worry about but there are a couple that we should address. The first is Emerald Ash Borer. Emerald Ash Borer was imported to the United States from China. Most borers only attack trees that are stressed. A good example of this is bronze birch borer. This pest will kill a white birch but if the birch is kept healthy the borer will not attack it. Also there are drenches and injections now that can kill the borer and save the tree or prevent the borer from doing damage. The problem with emerald ash borer, is that they will attack any ash tree. Young, old, big, small, it doesn't matter. There are injections available now to reverse the damage or prevent any damage, but I would not recommend it for any ash that is not a specimen tree. The treatments are expensive and have to be done every 3 years. There are a lot of Ash trees that grow in fields and ditches and aren't worth saving. But if you have say an Autumn Applause Ash in your front yard, you are going to want to have it injected. Pest number two that I want to talk about is Japanese Beetle.Japanese Beetle was also imported to the United States but this time from Japan. The reason it is such a problem for us is that we have no natural enemies to help control them. The Japanese Beetle spends its young life as a grub in the soil. While in the soil, it chews on the roots of our turf. This pest was not a problem in Japan until recently. They started to become a problem when the Japanese decided to have more golf courses. The beetle found a great source of food under those golf courses and now their natural enemies can not keep up with them. They are a huge problem for us because not only do the larvae chew on the roots of the grass but the adults eat and eat and eat the flowers and foliage of many of our ornamental plants. I have a friend that says, " all they do is screw and chew." What can we do about them? Well one thing you can do is pick them off with your hands and dump them in a kill jar. Picking them off can be a lot of fun and it is also satisfying. Maybe you can pay your kids a nickel a beetle and have them do it. A kill jar is a jar filled with ammonia or vinegar that kills the little buggers. Another solution is to spray them with an insecticide. Unfortunately the insecticides used to kill them are registered chemicals better left to the trained expert to apply.

Cool Nurseries I have known

Last weekend I was invited to go to Traverse City Michigan with my Sister and Brother-in-law.  They were heading up to an iris farm and asked me if I wanted to come along.  I am not a huge iris fan, but they plant them in their garden because they have a lot of deer and it is one of the few plants the deer won't eat.  I had no other plans for the weekend and my family had deserted me, so I went.  The iris farm was impressive.  It had about 5 acres of every imaginable iris color you would ever see in one place.  We walked all the isles and looked at the colors and read the names while my sister in law wrote down the ones she liked and my brother in law took pictures.  They picked out about 5 they liked, paid for them and told me they would be shipped to them in the fall.  They were high quality, nicely priced beautiful iris.  I did not buy any because my garden is too shady and I already have all the iris I want.  When we were done there I suggested that we stop at Crystal Gardens in Franfort Michigan.  I had never been there but like any horticulturist worth their salt I had to see what it was all about.  I had seen signs for the place on the way to the iris farm.   My sister in law said she had seen signs too and thought it was a good idea to stop.  So on the way home, we stopped there.  I am so glad we did.  What a nice nursery.  One of the nicest I have been to.  They had a very nice quantity of high quality plants.  The prices were a bit high but the selection was wonderful.  They had many varieties of hosta some I had never seen, they had a large area for native plants, and they had a lot of unique items.  I was able to buy 2 plants to give to my husband for father's day.  The first was a Hakonachloa macra I had never seen before called Beni Kazi.  The second was a Michigan native callled Blue Cohosh Caulophyllum thalictroides.  My husband has created a native plant wildflower area in a portion of our garden, so I am always looking for plants for him to plant there.  A bonus was that in the pot with the blue cohosh there was a Jack in the pulpit.  I really enjoyed my time at Crystal gardens.  I was also able to pick up a new pump for our waterfall.  They have an area of sale items and I was able to get a 169.00 dollar pump for 42.00 dollars.  It is working beautifully.  If you are ever in the Frankfort area be sure to stop in and see what they have. 
Another nursery that I love is a place in Stoughton Wisconsin called the Flower Factory.  My sister has been there often and I have some friends that frequent this nursery whenever they are in Stoughton, and they love it too.  Again it is a place that has a large amount of unique plant material.  The prices at this nursery are more reasonable.  Check it out if you are in Stoughton.
If you don't have a cool nursery in your town but you have a Lowe's or a Meijer's near you stop and check out their stock.  They get their plants from the same nurseries that other places do and they often have great sales.  Sometimes you can pick up perennials for a couple bucks.  Happy Gardening.

Weed Control

The definition of a weed is, a plant out of place.  With that definition in mind we can see that any plant has the potential to be a weed.  In fact a lot of the plants in our garden started their lives as weeds and were transplanted to their current locations.  Right now we have a pagoda dogwood, Cornus alternifolia, in our front yard that is about 3 feet tall.  It is a "weed".  It sprouted by seed that was carried by an animal to the front yard and we have not pulled it out.  Soon I will transplant it to a new location and it will no longer be a weed. 
What about the weeds that are not desirable plants?  How do we handle them?  That is what this article is going to cover.  There are many methods to get rid of weeds in the garden.  They can be pulled by hand, cultivated out with a hand cultivator or a rototiller, killed with an herbicide like round up or smothered with newspapers and mulch.  Another method of weed control is to apply a pre-emergent herbicide like Preen which contains treflan to stop the seeds from germinating. 
We will explore these methods in greater detail.  Pulling weeds can at times be relaxing.  To sit down on the ground especially in the shade and pull weeds and feel their roots pulling free from the soil can have a calming effect on the soul especially if you are a gardener.  The problem with pulling is that you may not get the roots in which case they are just going to spring up again in a few days.  The best time to pull weeds is after a rain shower or after you have watered.  The ground is soft and pliable which makes the weeds easier to get out with the roots intact. Cultivating, whether you do it with a hand cultivator or if its a larger area use a rototiller,  is an effective way to get rid of weeds.  Another advantage to it is that it helps to aerate the soil.  Be careful not to over till soil and break down the soil structure.  If your soil is wet it is not a good time to cultivate. Spraying with an herbicide like round up can be a real time saver.  The disadvantage is accidentally spraying plants that you don't want to kill.  Round up will kill anything green so be sure to use it on a very calm day so that there is little to no drift that will kill surrounding plants that you want to keep.  Another thing to remember when using a systemic herbicide, is that it will take some time to kill the plant especially if the plant is not actively growing at the time of application.  You will also want to wait 2 weeks before planting anything new in that location.  The last option I have noted is the use of newspapers and mulch.  I have known several people who have used this method with good results.  If you have an area of your garden where you have lots of weeds and you want to eventually have mulch there, you can apply a heavy layer of newspapers 5-6 sheets thick and then a layer of mulch 3 inches thick.  The newspapers will smother the weeds and then decompose.  The paper and the mulch will also cut out any light that will germinate future seeds.  Disadvantage? Maybe collecting enough newspapers. 
My final word on weed control is this.  Once an area is cleaned out and you are done disturbing the soil, apply a layer of pre-emergent weed control like Preen or Magic Gardener and then 3" of mulch.  The pre-emergent will kill any germinating seeds and the mulch will help maintain soil moisture and reduce the amount of light that will get to the soil and germinate seeds.  The 2 in combination will reduce your future weeding by at least 75-80%.  If you re-apply the preen every spring and fall over the top of the mulch, you will have very little weeding to do.  Happy Gardening.

June Bugs galore

This is the season of June bugs.  I have seen so many June bugs this year.  Live ones, dead ones, big ones little ones.  What gives you ask? Well like most beetles and grubs June bugs cycle.  Some years they come in droves and some years they don't.  What does this tell us about the season? Not much really.  Do we have to worry about the damage they will do? Not really.  The adults will do some chewing on leaves but not to the detriment of our plants.  The grubs will chew on some roots, but not like the other grubs we have learned to hate, like chafer beetles or japanese beetles.  June bugs are a bit of a pest because they are attracted to light and can drive us nuts by flying too close for comfort but that's about it.  So relax, don't worry about the June bugs doing any damage to our plants.  Get out and enjoy your garden.