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What do I do to prepare it for winter
GARDENING LIFE:
AUTUMN 1999
Q. Since moving into my first home I've become an avid gardener. I came across your book Pocket Gardening (my Bible) and then found your informative and well-designed magazine. I'm hooked! I loved the arisaemas story (Sonia Day, Spring 1999) but what do I do to prepare it for winter. Anita Cundaris, Montreal
A. We all love arisaemas around here and if the slugs or earwigs are a bother, try outlining the plant with finely crushed eggshells. It's not necessary to do anything special to these plants to ready them for winter. Make sure they have some mulch around but not touching the plant itself. They are tough beauties.
Q. After three years of trying, I finally beat the slugs and bugs and managed to end up with a beautiful crop of Chinese lantern this year. Can you tell me the best way to dry and preserve them? Penny Metza by e-mail
A. I can't grow Chinese lantern, Physalis alkegengi, because it takes up too much space for my small garden but I agree it looks wonderful preserved in dried arrangements. All you need to do is cut them off at the length suitable for an arrangement and hang upside down in a cool place until they dry out and then pop them into a vase.
Q. We live in Uxbridge, Ont and we've been growing blue poppies for about 4 years. They bloom in early June until August. There is a secret besides shade, cool temperatures and moist soil: pH. I grow them next to rhodos and azaleas. My question is where do we find opium poppies. Sharon Bognar.
A. Sharon has the secret indeed about growing blue poppies and she's in a great spot to find opium poppies: Mason-Hogue Nurseries and Pine Ridge Nurseries are both in her neighbourhood. Ask for Papaver somniferum. They have huge 4-inch blooms in red, white or purple; there are cultivars in pink, salmon and maroon.
Q. Could you please give me information on Mandevilla hybrid vine. It was just beautiful outside all summer and now I want to bring it indoors. It's in a large pot with a support. I love Gardening Life. Wanda Scott, Frankford, Ont.
A. This is a lovely vine. I find most people view it as an annual vines and just toss it at the end of the year. But you might try the following since it's already in a container. Cut it back to about 6 inches. Bring it into a greenhouse or some really bright spot. Don't fertilize and don't over water.
Q. I have a lovely garden except for the ever-present, always-there bellflowers. What can I DO!! I should note that I rent and I don't want to kill the Japanese maple or the neighbour's spirea. M. Kent in sunny BC
A. We had several letters about bellflowers, Campanula rapunculoides, which most of us think of as weeds. Actually they look kind of nice but they are just the most ramping plants. They spread by both seeds and rhizomes. Keep them pulled out. Don't let them go to seed. There is no magic bullet on this one. Identify the leaves and shape of the plant in autumn and then in early spring rogue them out as soon as possible. Then keep a vigilant eye on them.
AUTUMN IS A SPLENDID TIME TO PLANT AS WELL AS TO PREP AND IMPROVE SOIL FOR NEXT YEAR. WE'VE HAD SEVERAL QUERIES ON THE SUBJECT AND HERE ARE A FEW:
Q. How does one keep soil healthy when there's no room to dig? I originally dug down 18 inches and mixed peat and sand into downtown Toronto clay. Can you just put manures and leaf mulch on top?
A. I think that once you've planted you should almost never disturb the soil. Most soil, well prepared in the first place (which is what you've done), needs nothing but compost or manure and a good mulch as additives. These materials mix together or added separately, should be placed on the surface of the soil it doesn't touch stems or trunks. This is important, plants will rot out if you bang organic material up against them.
Q. Paul Marchant of Windsor wants to know how to feed the soil once it's covered with a ground cover such as Japanese spurge,
A. Scatter manure or compost or whatever you are using for fertilizer over the whole area and then water it in deeply. Somehow the soil gets the good of it.
Q. I thoroughly enjoy your magazine. Living in Winnipeg, Man., we have mainly clay soil. Can you suggest a soil mix that would combat this heavy soil and a good mixture for starting bedding plants? Karen Hayden
A. Heavy clay needs to be lightened up. Adding any kind of organic mix such as manure, ground up leaves and peat or cocofibre is going to help. I tend to spread this mix up thickly over a border and let the organic matter break down on its own. This is a slow process and worms which do the work may tend to stay in the top layer of humus. The sensible thing is to dig down a foot and work the material in and you'll know for sure that it's mixing in with the clay. Clay is filled with nutrients so you will end up with a rich environment for your plants whether they are bedding plants or not.
Q. I have just put in a bittersweet vine and it's growing just fine. I now hear that I should have a male and a female in order for it to produce berries. Barb Mailloux,
A. Oh dear, American bittersweet, Celastrus scandens, is one of those vines I feel really complicated about. I have it in my garden. They are never identified as to sex. Mine has always produced a great crop of berries which might indicate that there are others in the neighbourhood and bees pollinate the one here. Yours might not produce fruit but the idea of putting in more than one of these monsters boggles the mind. They grow at such a speedy rate and sucker all over the place. If it gets into trees or shrubs it will strangle them. Constant vigilance is required and in a few years you'll wonder why on earth you put it in. I look at mine 10 years later and wonder if I can spend yet another day whacking it back. In winter, however, it sure looks good covered with berries. To contain it somewhat, grow in poor soil and up against a very strong fence.
Q. Ian Campbell of Ottawa planted a serviceberry this year in their Ottawa garden. The bush has about 5 or 6 stalks about three feet high and is now in full leaf. In order that the bush develop in a more controlled manner, is it possible to entwine the stalks, a bit each year, until it develops a trunk-like base for about 2 or 3 feet, and after that just let it bush out?
A. Most forms of serviceberry have a multi-branched form. Amelanchier canadensis (upright multi stemmed); A. alnifolia (Multi stemmed large shrub or small tree); A. arborea or A. laevis (a few stems but more tree-like). Don't entwine the stems on any vine or shrub. This will really affect the health of the tree. Let it go and find its natural shape. It's a wonderful plant I know you will love it. Mine is supposed to be A. canadensis and it does have four stems and looks great.
Copyright Marjorie Harris, 2005
CONTACT MARJORIE HARRIS
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