Join Black Gold at the Hills Flat Lumber‘s Vendor Day- BBQ this Saturday from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. There will be lots of vendors there along with loads of delicious BBQ! Come out and see us at Hills Flat Lumber located at 1000 South Canyon Way, Colfax, CA (530-346-8685)!

Colorful late summer drama provided by bananas, cannas and elephant ears in a private Indiana garden.

May is the perfect month to include more summer flowering bulbs into the landscape and your empty containers. Why do we wait so late to plant the bulbs, tubers, and corms of various elephant ears, all sorts of lilies, gladiolus, oxalis, dahlias, and everything else deliciously summery from bananas to cannas? It is because  in most parts of the United States (especially here in the Southeast) soil temperatures are finally warm enough for tender tropicals, indigenous to Southeast Asia, South America, Africa, Mexico, and Polynesia, to survive and thrive.

So, how do you choose which summer bulbs to plant? It depends on the style of your landscape. A cottage garden would not look the same without drifts of elegant lilies, whereas a tiki hut begs to be surrounded by enormous elephant ears. The colorful leaves and hot flowers of cannas easily crossover from traditional Victorian to modern eclectic gardens. A butterfly garden must have Liatris. And, crinum, spider lilies, four o’clocks, and tuberose belong outside any traditional Southern home.

The chartreuse leaves of Xanthosoma ‘Lime Zinger’ brighten a shady corner at Chanticleer Botanical Gardens.

Nothing adds a tropical feel to a poolside like enormous banana leaves swaying back and forth in the gentlest wind. Some bananas are better suited to being containerized, so that they can be protected in wintertime. The cold-hardiest perennial banana for Zone 5-11 landscapes is the hardy banana (Musa basjoo), and one of the most compact is Musa ‘Dwarf Cavendish.’

Plant banana rhizomes in late spring, so that they can get well-established while the soil is warm. Though the entire clump will die back in winter, it will re-emerge even larger in circumference in early May and quickly shoot upwards to top out around 8-10-feet tall. Bananas need as much sun as possible and love humidity. Though you may see a flower on your plant, you probably won’t get fruit unless you reside in the Deep South. A consolation is that you can use banana leaves to wrap and grill meat for your own backyard luau.

A dramatic summertime focal point is the tropical elephant ear. This common name has been associated with several species to include Alocasia, Colocasia, and Caladium, as well as many similarly-shaped houseplants, including the chartreuse-leafed Xanthosoma ‘Lime Zinger.’ The thick, bulbiferous stems or bulbs vary some in appearance as does the showy foliage of these plants. Generally, the leaf tips of Alocasia point upwards like they have been lifted by the wind. Those of Colocasia, also known as Taro, appear more heart-shaped, presenting a flatter face with the basal tips pointing towards the ground, with the exception of a few smaller varieties and the enormous, gravity-defying Colocasia gigantea ‘Thailand Giant’. Caladium are much smaller, with very colorful foliage in various patterns in red, white, and/or green.

Large elephant ears and cannas happily reside in water-filled pots at Longwood Gardens.

Both Alocasia and Colocasia grow best sited in part shade to full sun and planted in compost-rich, moisture-retaining soil. They also perform especially well in pots. A perfect potting medium for growing elephant ears in containers is Black Gold® Waterhold Cocoblend Potting Soil, which naturally retains water through the power of coir (coconut pith) and sphagnum peat moss. This potting soil is further enriched with beneficial earthworm castings and porous perlite and pumice for optimal growth and aeration.

A tip for success growing Caladium is to plant the bare tubers anywhere you like, from a traditional shady spot in the landscape to sunlit container, allowing them to adapt to their summer location as their leaves develop. They can tolerate being a bit drier in deep shade, but Caladium planted in full sun need constant moisture. They have to be lifted and stored in the fall, if you garden above Zones 10-11. Also, do not plant your Caladium too early in the cool spring soil, or they may rot.

Cannas must be applauded, while we are covering big-leaved plants. These bold perennials grow in blazing heat with theatrical upright leaves ranging from two to ten feet tall and ever-blooming flowers from pastel pink, white, and bright yellow, to rich apricot, hot orange, and blood-red. Again, rich soil, consistent moisture, and sunlight are preferred by Cannas, with the exception of  the white variegated-leaved ‘Stuttgart’, which grows best in part shade.

A favorite flower of summer brides, the calla lily (Zantedeschia spp.) is not a true lily but a member of the Araceae. Grow solid green-leaved callas in moist sites in the garden, in containers filled with water-retaining potting mix, or sunk directly into a water garden. Variegated-leaved varieties prefer somewhat drier locations.

Rain lilies (Zephyranthes) are late-summer delights. Native to the arid Southwest, from Texas to Colombia, these low starry flowers burst into bloom almost overnight after a good soaking rain. Rain lilies will easily colonize an area when planted in full sun and well-drained soils.

Calla lilies remain lovely for an extended period in both the garden and floral arrangements.

A similar event occurs with the red spider lily (Lycoris radiata), aka the surprise lily or more aptly named hurricane lily. A globe-shaped cluster of shiny red blooms emerges on a bare stalk after a hard rain around the first of September, which coincides with the peak of hurricane season. After flowering, its broad, deep green leaves emerge to grace your garden through the entire winter. This bulb wants well-drained soil and lots of sunlight.

Depicted in ancient art, stylized in woven tapestries, and still gracing our homes and altars, lilies (Lilium spp.) are beloved for their recognizable, open, six-petaled flowers and intensely sweet fragrance. True cultivated lilies are grouped by type, Asiatics, orientals, martagons and trumpets among others, which can be extremely confusing to distinguish. (A good reference can be found at The North American Lily Society website.) Lilies are long-lived perennials that prefer to grow in full sun to part shade, again in extremely well-drained soils with adequate moisture.

A lily planting secret that was shared with me by Becky Heath of Brent and Becky’s Bulbs, is to plant lily bulbs on their sides. Due to their open, layered bulbs (reminiscent of a blooming onion at your favorite steak house), lilies may trap water in-between their layers in the wintertime, which can cause rot. This unusual side-planting method does not harm the way lilies grow and works well in both garden beds and containers.

This article offers just a quick sampling of the many marvelous summer bulbs available. To learn more about the wide variety of summer bulbs that may be perfect for your garden, check out the Brent and Becky’s Bulbs website. Tony Avent’s Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh, North Carolina is another good source. Or just go local, and visit your favorite local garden center.

 

 

The location is awesome, too! Growing Wild is situated in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest and boasts beautiful gardens as well as lots of growing supplies and beautiful garden plants.  Check it out!

Growing Wild Garden Supply, 3260 Hwy 3, Peanut, CA   96041, 530-628-5331

growingwildgs@hotmail.com

Evergreen Farm, Feed & Garden, 1131 Main Street, Weaverville , CA, 96093, (530) 623 2884

The Plant A Row (PAR) public service program was created in 1995 through the Garden Writers Association and the GWA Foundation. The program is founded on a smart and effective model. Garden writers and communicators encourage readers/listeners/viewers to plant an extra row of produce on their vegetable gardens for donation to the hungry. The fresh surplus can be used to supplement all sorts of community organizations, such as local food banks, soup kitchens and other service providers. That is why Sun Gro and Black Gold are proud to sponsor PAR.

To learn more about PAR  visit the Plant A Row (PAR) website.

There’s nothing like a Garden Makeover to give your beds a boost! With the help of garden radio personality Mike Darcy and Black Gold® you could win a personalized garden makeover with $500.00 worth of gardening supplies from your favorite local garden centre. The winner will spend a day with Mike Darcy and Black Gold personalities developing their new garden and making the most of their prize winnings.

To enter, sign up on the Black Gold website. One drawing will be held and one winner selected. Participants are eligible to sign up between March 1st and May 20, 2013. There is a limit of one (1) entry per person for this contest. The randomly chosen prize winner will be selected and announced after the entry deadline.

Learn more about this Garden Makeover promotion by listening in to the In the Garden with Mike Darcy™ talk radio show airing on 101 KXL Portland every Saturday morning from 9 to 12 AM on  or by vising the Sun Gro Horticulture website.

Click here to enter!

There’s nothing like a Garden Makeover to give your beds a boost! With the help of the Garden Time™! TV, with William McClenathan and Judy Alleruzzo, and Black Gold® you could win a personalized garden makeover with $500.00 worth of gardening supplies from your favorite local garden centre. The Grand Prize Winner will spend a day with Garden Time™ and Black Gold personalities developing their new garden and making the most of their prize winnings.

To enter, sign up on the Black Gold website. Two drawings will be held; the first on May 20, 2013 and the second on September 23, 2013. Participants are eligible to sign up between March 1, 2013 and September 23, 2013. There is a limit of one (1) entry per person for this contest. The two randomly chosen winners will be selected on the drawing dates and announced after each entry deadline.

Learn more about this Garden Makeover promotion by watching Garden Time every Saturday morning on select Oregon TV stations (KOIN-6 Portland, KWVT-17 Salem, and KEVU-23 Eugene) or by visiting the Garden Time and Sun Gro Horticulture websites. And if you missed a Garden Time show, watch streaming video of any past episode!

*Contestants must live within one hour’s drive of downtown Portland, OR.

Click here to enter!

There’s nothing like a Garden Makeover to give your beds a boost! With the help of the Paul Parent Garden Club^™ talk radio show, Black Gold^® and Fafard^®, you could win a personalized garden makeover with $500.00 worth of gardening supplies from your favorite local garden centre. The Winner will spend a day with Paul Parent and Black Gold/Fafard personalities developing their new garden and making the most of their prize winnings.

To enter, sign up on either the Black Gold or Fafard websites. Two drawings will be held; the first on May 20, 2013 and the second on September 23, 2013. Participants are eligible to sign up between March 1, 2013 and September 23, 2013. There is a limit of one (1) entry per person for this contest. The two randomly chosen winners will be selected on the drawing dates and announced after each entry deadline.

Learn more about this Garden Makeover promotion by listening in to the Paul Parent Garden Club™ talk radio show airing every Sunday morning from 6 to 10 AM, or visiting the Paul Parent Garden Club and Sun Gro Horticulture websites.  Find a list of stations that carry the Paul Parent Radio Club Show or listen via podcast.

Contest is open to residents of the following states: CT, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI or VT

Click here to enter!

Fresh huitlacoche on display at summer market. These ears sell 50 times more than standard ears.

In polite company it’s called the Mexican truffle, but in the American corn belt it’s nothing but common smut (Ustilago maydis). In fact, the USDA has been trying to eradicate it for a century. If you have ever seen a smut infested ear of corn, you’d know why this bizarre sooty looking fungus freaks people out. No doubt backyard gardeners in the Midwest will see it often this flood year because the fungus thrives in warm, wet weather.

But in other cultures the fungus is cherished like a select and delicious mushroom truffle. First appreciated by the Aztecs, the Mexican truffle was incorporated into many of their ancient dishes and named huitlacoche (wee-tlah-KOH-cheh). The translation from the Nahuatl language is “crow excrement”, which describes  its unsavory appearance. Despite odd looks,  this flavorful food is still a big part of Mexican cuisine today. It’s integrated into tamales and soups, or fresh puffed up kernels, called “galls”, are boiled for ten minutes then sautéed until crispy in butter. Cans of the fungus are commonly sold in indigenous marketplaces. Fresh ears can be found in summertime and are easily preserved by freezing.

An infested ear just beginning to produce smutty kernals.

The traditional time to harvest Mexican truffles is when the infected kernels are puffy and white in their early state. At this time they are like mushrooms before their gills open. Some say they should be as soft as a freshly ripened pear. At peak the flavor is described as sweet corn and smoke. Waiting too long results in a truly smutty flavor because the kernal insides turn from delicious white flesh to masses of black spores. When sporulating kernels split open the spores are released traveling on the wind to nearby corn plants or soil. In the soil they can remain viable for up to three years.

In the wet central highlands of Mexico and Guatemala, small farmers search their crops during the rainy season for signs of the developing fungus. Infected ears are relished in home cooking and add to the sparse early season diet. Early collection of infected ears probably protects later crops from smut infestations as well. It’s profitable too. Farmers sell excess ears at fifty times what a standard ear of corn costs. In the markets of Mexico City over 100 tons of Mexican truffle are sold each season.

Interest in pre-Hispanic ingredients has risen among those in the organic gourmet world. One famous dinner held in 1989 by the James Beard Foundation featured huitlacoche in many dishes in an effort to bring this new-yet-old food to light. As a result, the USDA began allowing select farms to intentionally infect corn with the fungus. The irony here is that scientists at the USDA working to eradicate smut discovered new, effective ways to infect corn with the fungus in order to test various cures.

In America, those most interested in huitlacoche cultivation are mushroom farmers who best understand the life cycle of fungi. But this is a unique form that only reproduces on corn ears, so it really falls into the purview of market gardeners.  The Aztecs simply scraped the plants on the ground or with dried fungus to infect the kernels. Home gardeners could do the same if they were able to access dry infected ears. Kernel galls appear 10 to 14 days after point of infection.

Uninfected flour corn ears air drying.

Despite the fact that it’s a delicacy in Mexico, this edible fungus has a hard time catching on in the U.S. and Europe. Perhaps it’s the black juice exuded as they are cooked, or maybe it’s just the idea of eating diseased corn that’s a turn off. Either way, those willing to try it should go fresh. The consensus is that the imported canned Mexican truffles are not nearly as good.

And it may not be difficult to find fresh ears in some parts of the country. For Midwestern gardeners in frequent flood zones, there is little doubt that what sweet corn is not destroyed by flooding will invite the sooty face of smut. Gardeners can always give their corn plants a fighting chance by planting them high in raised beds with well-drained soil amended with Black Gold Soil Conditioner, but under warm, moist conditions little can help against fungal disease. So why not welcome Mexican truffles as a new culinary adventure? Explore recipes on the Internet for preparation of the fungus in traditional Mexican dishes. Heirloom corn is even more prone to infection, for gardeners that are game.

In these years of climatic upheaval and instability, it’s always a comfort to discover interesting and nutritious new food in the wake of disaster. And for home gardeners with the spirit of adventure, corn-turned-mushroom will bring a strange but savory taste to late summer fare.

For the past 27 years New Englanders have tuned in to Paul Parent’s syndicated garden radio broadcast every Sunday for expert garden advice.  Paul’s relaxed and personable style, helpful gardening tips and engaging guests have made The Paul Parent Garden Club™ talk radio show a radio favorite boasting over one-half million loyal listeners and growing.

Learn more at www.paulparent.com/ or listen via podcast @ http://bit.ly/WhYN69!

Rhododendron ‘Sir Charles Lemon’ is a striking spring beauty with trusses of white flowers decorated with dark anthers.

Here in the Pacific Northwest our spring season has been phenomenal.  Of course we have had rainy cool spring days, but we have also had unbelievably warm and sunny days occurring over several weekends in March.  Garden centers reported record sales during these times, and one salesperson told me it was like a sunny weekend in May because they were operating at capacity!  That is certainly good news after last year’s spring when it seemed to rain every day.

April is a very special month for gardeners as we watch the miracle of nature’s emerging buds with flowers and foliage.  The perennials have appeared after their winter dormant period, and it is a joy to see them popping up through the soil. I am making a concerted effort this year to be better about taking garden pictures when plants are at peak.  Too often have I been guilty of letting the flowers fade and missing a photo opportunity.  Whenever I give talks to garden clubs, one of the common questions asked is, “What is blooming or looking good in your garden now?”  With a garden talk scheduled on April 15, I wanted address this question by sharing some of my favorite colorful spring garden plants, so I thought I’d share them with Black Gold readers, too. All of the photographs shown were taken during the week of April 8^th.

The contorted branches of ‘Black Dragon’ filbert offer brazen burgundy leaves up until midsummer.

The twisted branches of red-leaf contorted filbert (Corylus avellana ‘Red Dragon’) look good even without leaves, but with new red leaves emerging they put on quite a show.  I have this plant in a large container, so it has room to spread and is an attention getter year-round.  ‘Red Dragon’ is extremely easy to grow and requires little care once established.  It will grow in full sun or partial shade, though the red leaves turn darker in full sun. The early season leaves keep their red color until late July, and contrast wonderfully with a background of green foliage, but then slowly turn dark green.  With my ‘Red Dragon’ being a permanent container plant, I wanted to be certain I chose the best soil mix and fertilizer, so at the time of planting I used Black Gold All Purpose Potting Soil and added OMRI Listed Black Gold All Purpose Fertilizer, which is approved for organic gardening and releases nutrients over an extended period of time.

When flowers appear on deciduous tree branches that are still barren of leaves, they provide quite a show.  Many of the deciduous magnolias bloom in this manner, but Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’ is one of the most spectacular.  This is my third year to have this tree, and this year is the first time it has multiple flowers.  Each tulip shaped flower has among the deepest burgundy coloring that I have seen in a Magnolia.  It is very easy to grow with and requires little care once established.  It is a medium size tree, perhaps reaching 20 feet.

The deepest burgundy color of Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’ flowers is striking.

Most gardens in the Pacific NW have at least one Rhododendron.  Their splash of spring color is hard to dislike.  Generally they are easy-care plants that enjoy mulch around their roots.  I yearly add Black Gold Soil Conditioner around the base of my rhododendrons as it tends to hold moisture and keep roots cool.  Recently I have tried to select rhododendrons that provide some interest year round, even when they are not blooming.  One of my favorites is Rhododendron ‘Sir Charles Lemon’ which is worth growing for the foliage alone. The leaves have glossy dark green tops and beautiful rusty indumentum (fine coating of hairs that gives a soft velvet-like feel to the touch) on the undersides.  Currently my plant is in full bloom bearing white flowers with contrasting dark anthers.

An outstanding native to Southwest Oregon and Northern California is Trillium kurabayashii or giant purple wakerobin. It has adapted very well to my garden. The substantial clump shown started as three small plants about seven years.  Each year it gets bigger with the mottled leaves and complimentary the dark purple flowers that make

The western native Trillium kurabayashii or giant purple wakerobin makes a bold statement in the spring shade garden.

this a garden show stopper.  My plants are shaded by a tree, and the soil is mulched yearly with Black Gold Soil Conditioner.  This Trillium is a hard plant to find, but well worth the search.  Once established, it can be left alone for many years.

This is just a small sample of beautiful, more unique plants blooming in my early spring garden.  I tried to pick colorful favorites that would be less familiar to readers, in the hopes they will search out and plant something new and exciting.

Enjoy the spring season!

Held yearly on the last weekend of April, The Oregon Ag Fest is a much anticipated event with lots of fun filled things to do for everyone! Nearly 18,000 attend the two day event, so get there early. There will be loads to do for the kids, including pony rides, planting tables and potato digging. And keep your eyes out for Black Gold. (You may even get to make a Black Gold dirt baby!) To learn more go to the Oregon Ag Fest website.

Times: Sat., 8:30 am – 5 pm, Sun., 10 am – 5 pm

Location: The Oregon State Fairgrounds, Salem, OR

Tickets: $9.00

Children 12 and under are FREE, Parking is FREE

A bumblebee pollinates the edible flowers of borage.

Well-placed culinary blooms are surprisingly delicious and bring unique and elegant beauty to the table. Many edible flowers are common garden plants, which provides even more encouragement for everyday gardeners to take advantage of petaled delights. They are not just for chefs and connoisseurs.

Edible blooms can be broken down into two categories: herbal flowers and edible garden flowers. Herbal flowers are those of garden herbs, and most garden herbs have edible flowers—though you always want to double check before chowing down on any bloom. Some garden ornamentals also have edible flowers, but there are only a handful of these that are safe and tasty. Two easy-to-reference table guides of common herb and garden floral edibles are provided below.

There are a few caveats to eating edible flowers. First, never eat flowers from a florist as these have often been sprayed with chemicals. In turn, never spray your flowers in the garden if you intend to eat them. Even pesticides and herbicides approved for organic gardening are a no no.  Flowers are too delicate to wash, so if you intend to consume them, let nature tend to them.

For the cultivation of all the herbs and flowers highlighted in the tables, provide full sun, average moisture and a quality potting medium with good drainage. Black Gold® All Purpose Potting Soil with Controlled Release Fertilizeror Black Gold® Natural & Organic Potting Mix are great for potted herbs and will yield happy plants every time. Flowering plants also bloom most beautifully with the addition of a granular fertilizer formulated to encourage flowering, like Black Gold Rose & Flower.

Pretty chive flowers add a sweet onion flavor to fresh cucumber salad.

A favorite springtime edible flower recipe is chive flower cucumber salad. It is very easy to make and will compliment lots of early season meal plans. To make the salad, just thinly slice 2 cucumbers (peel them if they are thick-skinned), then make a dressing that combines 2  tablespoons white wine vinegar, 1  teaspoon sugar, 1/3 cup heavy cream, 1 shallot finely minced,  1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill and salt and pepper to taste. Mix the dressing and cucumbers then toss with 2 to 3 chive flowers that have been trimmed and gently broken apart. The chive flowers lend a delicate onion flavor to the salad that makes it extra delicious!

 

Popular Edible Herb Flowers

Herb	Look & Flavor
Basil  (Ocimum spp.)	If your basil plants flower in summer, eat the zesty purplish or white basil blooms and green buds. They taste lovely on salads and veggies.
Borage (Borago officinalis)	Pure violet blue and flavored like cucumber, these early summer flowers look and taste lovely on any fresh savory dish.
Chives (Allium schoenoprasum)	Beautiful tufts of mauve blooms with pure chive flavor bedeck these plants in spring. Break them apart and use in place of chives.
Cilantro (Coriandrum sativum)	Umbels of lacy white flowers are the precursor to coriander seeds. Use the fresh tasting spring or fall blooms in place of fresh cilantro.
Dill (Anethum graveolens)	Yellow or chartreuse green dill flowers appear in spring or fall and taste as dilly as the leaves but add good looks to dishes.
Lavender (Lavandula spp.)	Lavender is a common culinary herb in the South of France. The flavorful summer flowers add charm and flavor to grilled lamb or herbed goat cheese spread.
Mints (Mentha spp.)	All mints have wonderfully minty summer flowers that may be white or purplish. Add them to any dish calling for fresh mint, from tabouli to desserts.
Oregano (Origanum officinalis)	The purple or white summer flowers of oregano lend potent oregano flavor to savory dishes.
Thyme (Thymus spp.)	The early summer flowers of thyme may be pink, white or purple and taste delicately of thyme. Sprinkle them on spring cream soups or salads.
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)	Blooming intermittently in fall, winter or spring, rosemary flowers are white or purplish and pair well with grilled meats and savory salads.

 

Popular Edible Garden Flowers

Pot Marigold (Calendula officinalis)	These cheerful cool weather annuals have flowers in warm colors. Their petals have a spicy flavor and lend interest to salads.
Daylily (Hemerocallis spp.)	Daylily buds and petals taste almost like lettuce. The summer blooming plants have colorful flowers in almost every shade but true blue.
Marigold (Tagetes spp.)	True marigold flowers have a sharp, somewhat citrusy flavor that lend good flavor to heirloom tomato salads.
Monarda (Monarda spp.)	The zesty, somewhat minty flavor of summer blooming Monarda flowers can be used to decorate salads or desserts.
Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus)	Summer blooming nasturtiums have flowers that are peppery tasting, like watercress. They are beautiful and add appeal to fresh savory dishes.
Pansy (Viola hybrids)	Violas are cool season flowers with a mild, sweet flavor and bright color. They can be candied and used to decorate desserts.
Rose (Rosa spp.)	Rose petals can be used alone in fresh confections or used to make rose water. Be sure to only use garden flowers that have not been sprayed or treated in any way. Candied rose petals taste lovely with almond desserts.
Violet (Viola spp.)	Spring blooming wild violets have a stronger sweet violet flavor than hybrid pansies, but they can be used in the same way.

Come see Black Gold at the Northcoast Horticulture Supply Vendor Dayz happening at NHS stores in Arcata, Fortuna, Eureka and Mckinleyville, California! We will be at the Fortuna location on Tuesday the 16th, the Eureka location on Wednesday the 17th and the McKinleyville location on Thursday the 18th. There will be lots of vendors, free BBQ, and almost everything will be 20% off. To learn more visit NHS Hydroponics.

Baskets and Agave on display at the 2012 Clackmas County Master Gardeners Spring Fair

Join Black Gold at the 29th Annual Clackamas County Master Gardeners Spring Fair held Saturday May 4th (9 am to 5 pm) and Sunday, May 5th (9 am to 4 pm) at the Clackamas County Event Center, 694 NE 4th Canby, Oregon 97013.

Black Gold will be at the event’s Potting Station providing free potting soil. There will be hundreds of amazing plants and pots for purchase. Once you have chosen your favorites, bring your selections to the potting station and  pot them up with Black Gold potting mix for free! It’s also a great time to talk plants and planting arrangements with fellow like-minded gardeners. There’s no easier way to create your seasonal planting masterpieces for deck or patio.

First off, these western species are ephemeral annuals, meaning they live for just one season then go to seed before summer. Most of them need the full extent of our brief winter rains to get a head start on completing their life cycle prior to the long drought to come. Therefore they should be sown by Christmas to receive the rain that is essential for early spring bloom. Yet all too often they are sown during the planting frenzy of spring, which is far too late in much of the West. This leaves too short a season for them to become established and finish their life cycle.

This ground was tilled in the late fall and sown with nothing but California poppies, which had plenty of time to mature into large plants able to bare lots of spring flowers.

Arid wildflowers flourish in the most unlikely places, along the edge of roads, perched on rocky cliffs and cascading down sloping hillsides. In all these locations fertility is scant, drainage very rapid and soils sometimes very shallow. These site preferences illustrate why sowing western wildflowers in fertile gardens can be an iffy proposition. If you manage a good show in year one, they will not naturalize unless conditions are perfect. In prepared gardens, soils are simply too rich, and there’s too much competition from other plants.

Some gardeners sowed wildflowers over fall planted bulbs and iris to fill vast areas of well-drained sandy soil in this historic Sacramento graveyard.

For best results, consider these seven simple tips to help you avoid some of the most common mistakes:

1. Use new seed from local sources. (Wildflower seed can lose its viability quickly, so use seed packed for the current year.)
2. Sow by Christmas; distributing seed early will give it the benefit of a very long wet season for growth. In many areas annual rain falls from December to May, so all their life cycle is geared specifically for this season.
3. Apply the right amount of seed. Each seed mix will have it’s own designated application rate. A general rule of thumb is ¼ pound of wildflower seed will cover 500 to 1000 square feet. Make sure you get enough seed to produce the density of color you want.
4. Scar the soil. Annual wildflowers love disturbed ground, so make sure yours is freshly tilled or hand worked with an iron rake prior to sowing. Seed gathers in these furrows. (The first spring after World War I ended, the battlefields of France bloomed solid red with corn poppies that thrived in soils churned up by trench warfare.)
5. Cover seeds very lightly. Some wildflowers need light to germinate and remain dormant without it. Providing too much cover can spoil your efforts. Instead, sow the seed, then scatter Black Gold Garden Compost in a thin layer over the top. It too will migrate into the furrows to keep seed lightly moist.
6. Weed to prevent competition. Spring weeds can devastate your wildflowers. As they begin to develop, pick out the grasses so they don’t compete for the same soil moisture as the wildflower seedlings.
7. Provide water during dry periods. If rains are poor, use a sprinkler to create rain-like irrigation every couple of weeks during the winter and early spring.
   

   Blue carpets of annual lupine love the gravelly ground and seeping moisture along the edges of roads.

Annual wildflowers for arid lands are great problem solvers for barren soil around newly built homes or where rocky ground makes it hard for more traditional plants to grow. They make a fine cover crop for seasonal bulbs, and they can help with erosion control when blended with native grass seed mixes and applied to disturbed slopes. Though they color a short season in spring, there is nothing more fantastic than a large swath of golden California poppies and Texas bluebonnet lupine studded with a dozen other beautiful wild species. But remember to plant when and where Mother Nature intended to meet that narrow window of opportunity defined by our challenging arid climate.

The 23rd annual Fred Meyer Fuchsia Day will be held at Fred Meyer and Smith’s stores throughout Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Be there for great deals on plants, garden accessories and, of course, Black Gold products.

Visit the Fred Meyer website for more information.

Black Gold will be at the 11th Annual GardenPalooza held on April 6th, 2013 from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM at Fir Point Farms in Aurora, Oregon. Along with Black Gold there will be loads of other vendors as well as good food and friends, so it promises to be a grand day of garden fun. For more information, check out the GardenPalooza website or contact gardenpalooza@comcast.net.

Saturday, March 23rd, 2013
10:00am- 2:00pm

Emigh Ace Hardware
3555 El Camino Ave
Sacramento, CA 95821
(916) 486-9500
map

March 30th, 2013
Call for Hours
Bayside Garden Garden Supply
4061 N Hwy 101
Eureka, CA 95503
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Honestly, the only edible sweet potatoes I have planted have been in our window box – partly as a science experiment for my children, and to a certain extent for my own amusement. The rusty-orange tapered tubers were impaled midway round with three wooden toothpicks. This arrangement was perfect for suspending the sweet potatoes so that they were only partially submerged in a glass of water. In a short time, tiny roots would begin emerging underwater, followed later by curvaceous stems sprouting from the top and sides above the toothpicks. Within a month, these soggy-bottomed sweet potatoes would rival any Pothos, but we usually composted them when they began climbing the curtains.

Sweet potatoes could be a colorfully nutritious addition to any meal.
Photo courtesy of The North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission

So, to learn how to plant edible sweet potatoes in my home garden, I went to the experts at The North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission, www.ncsweetpotatoes.com (which is also the perfect site for a complete list of this culinary treasure’s nutritional benefits and a bevy of mouth-watering recipes).

The NCSPC suggests that to fully understand sweet potato culture, it helps to first learn what a sweet ‘tater is, and is not.

Ipomoea batatas is a tropical plant indigenous to Polynesia as well as Central and South America, so it needs about 150 frost-free days to develop, then a couple more weeks of exposure to temperatures above 85 degrees Fahrenheit paired with high humidity to cure (we will get to that process later). This is exactly why they grow so well in the South.

The sweet tapered tuber we so enjoy baked, fried, grated, and mashed comes in various shades of orange, white, and purple. And, even though it is related to poisonous Morning Glories, the young shoots and leaves of sweet potatoes are edible.

It is not a Yam. Though sweet potatoes are often traditionally labeled “yams”, a true yam is a white-fleshed and fibrous tuber from Africa. Check the next can of yams you see in your grocery store for the words “Sweet Potatoes” on the ingredients list.

The familial relationship between sweet potatoes and morning glories is evident in their trumpet flower, leaf shape, and vining habit. Photo courtesy of The North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission

Let’s get growing!

The North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission’s step-by-step guide for home gardeners, “Sweet Potatoes 101”, explained that the beginning of the grow-your-own process is exactly what I had already been doing in my window box!

I could have simply harvested those sprouts with leaves by cutting or twisting them off the tuberous root when the shoots were only about 8-10 inches long, then planted them directly into my garden.

The directions state that transplanted sweet potato sprouts need “well-drained, sandy, loamy soil”, but I have red clay. So, it would be to my advantage to either plant the shoots into large black plastic pots filled with Black Gold Natural and Organic Potting Soil Plus Fertilizer, or directly in the garden in rows amended with Black Gold Soil Conditioner after the last chance of frost. The organic fertilizer amendments already present in the Black Gold potting medium and soil conditioner would certainly help feed developing underground tuberous roots.

“Plant sprouts 9 to 10 inches apart in the center of the ridge row and at a depth of 3 inches with at least 2 plant nodes underground and 2 or more leaves above ground,” continues the NCSP’s recommendations. Then, “Water well immediately after transplanting.” Since they are hardier than many vegetables, only regular watering, and simple weed and pest maintenance is required.

Then comes the reward. “Sweet potato roots are harvested 90-120 days after transplanting or immediately after a frost has blackened the tops of the plants,” advises the NCSPC.

“With gloves and a shovel, carefully remove sweet potatoes from the soil. Handle them carefully as their skin is thin and will bruise easily. Do not leave the sweet potatoes exposed to direct sunlight for more than 30 minutes or they will sunscald and be more susceptible to rotting during storage.”

Now, to make it even sweeter…

One Saturday morning while shopping at our local farmer’s market, I overheard a young lady peddling her sweet potatoes to a potential customer. She was singing the praises of her crop, adding that her sweet potatoes had been properly cured. Her alarmed customer asked anxiously, “Cured of what?”

“Curing” is an old farming term for the final step in processing. A sweet potato’s skin heals through curing while its natural starches convert to sugars, greatly improving its final taste. Even George Washington cured his sweet potatoes.

The North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission instructs that after harvesting, “Away from direct sunlight, spread the sweet potatoes out to dry for several hours. Once dry, put them in a newspaper-lined box and leave them in a dry, ventilated area for 2 weeks.”

“Once cured, store in a cool, dry place until ready to cook. Sweet potatoes can be stored for up to 10 months with little reduction in quality.”

My children are now grown and have moved away, but the window box will soon host a variety of edible sweet potatoes poised in glasses of water. And, if I grow a successful crop in my garden this summer, I will proudly serve my own homemade and homegrown sweet potato casserole when the kids come to visit at Thanksgiving.

Bare Garage Roof – Photo by Rich Baer

I was in awe as I walked around this garden and viewed the huge variety of plants as well as the sheer number of pots. It was the most intensive container garden I had ever seen and I found myself looking under foliage just to be sure everything was actually in a pot. However, I would then come back to the reality that I was on the roof of a garage!

While this is not a garden for everyone, seeing what this gardener did made me realize the versatility of container gardening and the ingenuity of gardeners. Here was a case where the gardener was living in an urban area and space was very limited. Rather than leave it bare, he made a decision to create a beautiful summer garden with flowers and foliage.

Container Garden with Pots Not Visible – Photo by Rich Baer

Bamboo & Japanese Forest Grass
Photo by Rich Baer

With a garden having so many pots, and with some sections of the garage roof top in almost full sun all day, the right potting soil would be essential. And for me, it would need to be something that had good water-holding capabilities such as Black Gold Waterhold Cocoblend Potting Soil which is OMRI Listed. The coconut fibers (coir) in this product provide excellent water retaining capabilities and the addition of earthworm castings and pumice, make it ideal to use straight from the bag. I believe this product would be especially useful for small pots that have a tendency to dry out quickly.

While I have many potted plants in containers in my own garden, I do not even come close to the number of pots of this garage roof top garden. I have gradually upgraded the size of many of my containers as I find it easier to manage water and sun/shade issues with larger pots. My personal preference is Black Gold Natural & Organic Potting Soil which is also OMRI Listed. Pots do not always have to be grouped and sometimes they can be ‘stand alone’ pieces in the garden. A good example is the large blue pot with the bamboo and Japanese Forest Grass that we have along our driveway. We have three of these and the shiny blue of the pot is a sharp contrast to the yellow/green of the Japanese Forest Grass. This particular area is fairly shady and the large pots tend to not dry out quickly.

I enjoy trying new plants and it is especially fun to get a plant that few people are aware of. Once such plant in my garden is Pseudopanax ferox (I do not know a common name) which was given to me by a friend. I think it is a rather uninteresting plant with narrow stiff bronze foliage, but it does attract attention. Last spring I attended a lecture by noted horticulturist Dan Hinkley and much to my surprise he showed a photograph of this plant and told a story about it. It seems this New Zealand native dates back to prehistoric times and was a favorite food of an ostrich-like bird called the Moa. It is believed that this plant evolved to shoot out of distance of the tallest of these species before changing into a more edible leaf. Hence the growth on my plant will (I hope) change when the plant reaches a certain height. I do not know if this story is completely true, but it is a fun story to tell.

Pseudopanax – Photo by Rich Baer

Another idea and a benefit of container gardening is that it gives the gardener the ability to move pots and plants around with the seasons. I have a Pinus contorta ‘Chief Joseph’ which has a unique ability for the needles to turn golden yellow in the winter and back to green in the summer. The yellow winter color of the needles is outstanding and so I have my plant in a nursery pot which I then placed in a colorful terra cotta pot which is visible looking out a large window onto our deck. I put potting soil around the nursery pot so it is not visible. Then when the pine begins to turn green, I simply lift the nursery pot out and replace it with something that will bloom all summer. Then in the fall, I put the ‘Chief Joseph’ pine back in the pot to enjoy the winter color.

Container gardening offers so many options; I encourage gardeners to take advantage of the sheer variety. The essential ingredients are to select one you personally like and make certain it has adequate drainage.

Enjoy the spring!

Island With Pots – Photo by Rich Baer

Gator Fountain: A whimsically designed fountain drips with long strands of Senecio rowleyanus, known as string-of-pearls to simulate water.

The best kind of design for this transformation are the tiered Spanish-style fountains. These feature basins that can be turned into planters by simply adding potting soil. But with such shallow root zone, the basin may not prove able to support all plants, just those with smallish root systems. The palette for these projects is often succulent plants and their close kin which require limited water and soil depth. But if your fountain is deep enough, turn it into a cascading tower of annual color.

Key to success is removing all the drain plugs so the basins no longer hold water. This becomes your drain hole for each planter. Use a masonry bit and an electric drill to create more holes if necessary at the lowest point of the basin. Cut a square of window screen to lay over the drain holes so they don’t clog up with potting soil.

Next fill the basins with Black Gold Cactus Mix, formulated for rapid drainage and good aeration that make it downright hard to over-water. Be sure to set the soil level a few inches below the basin edge so you can flood it with water without immediately overflowing.

Now the fun begins. Since each tier will be smaller than the one beneath it, consider arranging your plants so that the cute little rosettes of echeverias are higher up at eye level. At the bottom use spreading plants that can be used to cover up unsightly chips, cracks or foundational problems.

Succulent Fountain: with deep tiers, this lovely fountain became an explosion of cascading, blooming succulents.

In between, let your imagination run wild. Strive to use contrast, which makes each plant stand out equally. Use a variety of forms and colors against one another to enhance the visual interest.

The crowing glory of these planters is the dangling plants that cascade off the edges of each basin just as water once did. Try donkey tail or the delicate string of pearls to get this look which ties the entire composition together. Miniature ivies are a more versatile alternative for the very same effect.

This first year, while you’re waiting for younger plants to mature, stuff the nooks and crannies with interesting finds. Tidy little violas, tufts of living moss and plants with colored leaves give your fountain great looks from day one. As temperatures heat up you can replace them with more succulents, exotics or anything else that grows well in that exposure. In the fall, these can all be dug out and put into pots to overwinter indoors so you can enjoy them until it’s time to go out again in the spring.

Fountains are a beautiful thing, but sometimes their care is just too much for our lifestyle. Do not despair, for these concrete creations double a perfect cascading vertical gardening statement. It’s easy to do in just one weekend with lots of fun plants and Black Gold potting soils.

Cactus Fountain: In the desert, more cacti are included in this densely packed planting.

This week’s topics include:

• Black Gold and Fafard now all available from Sun Gro Horticulture
• Seed Starting with Black Gold Seedling Mix and/or Fafard Seed Starter or Organic Seed Starter
• Preparing your spring garden

Click here for a list of stations that carry the Paul Parent Radio Club Show and times.

Visit Paul Parent’s Website

Paul’s network has expanded to cover all of New England, New York City and a few points beyond.

For those not in the broadcast area, podcasts of The Paul Parent Gardening Club are now available as well!

This one-of-a-kind event is Hampton Roads’ Premier lifestyle show!

Black Gold was in Hampton, Virginia the first weekend in March 2013 for the 19th annual McDonald Garden Center Outdoor Show. The Outdoor Show is one of our favorite annual events, and it’s not just us who are big fans of this event. The Outdoor Show attracted more than 10,000 attendees interested in gardening, home decorating, home improvement, travel and entertaining; and all full of spring fever!

Admission was free. Thanks for celebrating spring and the very best in home & gardening with us!

March 1-3, 2013
Call for Hours
McDonald Garden Center
1139 West Pembroke Avenue
Hampton, VA 23661
757-722-7463
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March 2nd, 2013
Call for Hours
Advanced Soil and Garden Supply
350 Oro Dam Blvd. East
Oroville, California 95965
(530) 533-ASGS (2747)
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The Paul Parent Garden Club

Sunday Mornings 6am – 10am (EST) | Podcasts

Find a list of stations that carry the Paul Parent Radio Club Show and times.

“Paul Parent has been on the radio providing gardening advice to listeners in New England for the last 27 years.

Paul’s expert gardening advice is now heard on stations all over the country with one-half million loyal listeners. For a radio station in your area that broadcasts The Paul Parent Garden Club™ radio show click Listen.

Tune into The Paul Parent Garden Club™ talk radio show and find out what you have been missing.”

In the Garden with Mike Darcy

Saturday Mornings 9am – 12pm (PST) on KXL 101 Portland, OR | Podcasts

“Mike Darcy is well known in the Portland gardening community and it all started 30 years ago when he began his garden show on KXL. Mike has done garden television programs for OPB, KPTV, and KATU and did garden segments on Good Day Oregon when it first premiered. He writes a column for Digger, trade magazine for Oregon Association of Nurseries, and has been a speaker at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show in Seattle and the Yard, Garden & Patio Show in Portland. He and his wife Linda, frequently open their garden to various garden groups and other non-profit organizations.”

Source: KXL.com

GardenTime.tv

“Garden Time is the number one garden TV show in the Pacific Northwest. This half hour show is seen for 39 weeks each year. It features how-to stories and the newest in garden tools and plants.”

Source: GardenTime.TV

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April 11th, 2013
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Brazelberries™ Raspberry Shortcake In Square Terra Cotta Pot – Photo Courtesy of Fall Creek Farm & Nursery

Who does not love picking a fresh raspberry in the summer and eating it directly from the plant? It is difficult to duplicate that flavor from a store bought berry. Raspberries are one of my favorite berries and unfortunately in our garden we do not have the space or the sunny location that the plants traditionally require.

The good news for home gardeners is that a new series of berries has been developed targeted specifically for those with small space gardens or a deck or patio where containers can be used. This new container gardening-friendly series called BrazelBerries™ will be available in garden centers this spring season. The inaugural plant is a thornless dwarf raspberry called Raspberry Shortcake™. It is great for container gardening and requires no staking and has sturdy upright canes. An added bonus is that it has no thorns and produces raspberries in mid-summer.

Two other introductions in this series are compact blueberry plants, which would also be ideal for container gardening. Peach Sorbet™ has beautiful spring color in the new growth that ranges from pink to orange. In a mild winter, it will keep the leaves when the foliage turns purple, thus providing color the year round. The second blueberry introduction is called Jelly Bean™ and is very dwarf, only reaching 1-2 ft in height. Both of these blueberries have the typical colorful blueberry new growth and flowers in spring. Even though these two blueberry plants are small in their growth habit, the fruit size is what we think of as normal blueberry.

BrazelBerries™ Jelly Bean Blueberry Plant – Photo Courtesy of Fall Creek Farm & Nursery

For those gardeners wanting container plants that not only look good but can also supply edible berries, these are three ideal plants. I am personally a big fan of container gardening and have many containers throughout my garden. However, except for my variegated Meyer Lemon, I do not have any plants in containers that produce anything edible. That will change this year with the addition of BrazelBerries™ in some of my containers.

For Raspberry Shortcake™, I would suggest a large container whereas the Peach Sorbet™ and Jelly Bean™ blueberries could be in a smaller size. However, I have found it is best to have a larger size container than might actually be needed for the plant as plants in small containers tend to dry out quicker in the summer and a larger size will help alleviate this. Fill the pot with Black Gold Natural & Organic Potting Soil as it supplies not only earthworm castings but also perlite and pumice for aeration and good drainage, which these berries need. Into this potting soil, mix in Black Gold All Purpose Fertilizer since this has both quick- and slow-release nutrients. Your containers should be placed in a sunny location. Together with this combination of potting soil and fertilizer, your plants should thrive.

Indigo Rose Tomato Plant – Photo By Rich Baer

This is also the time of year to be thinking of buying tomato seeds and making preparations for starting them indoors. A location near a sunny window is ideal and having a heat mat is also a benefit. Tomatoes are easy to start from seed and should be kept indoors until all danger of frost is over. The Oregon State University introduction Indigo Rose was disappointing to some because of the late maturing fruits but for an ornamental plant in a container, it puts on quite a show in clusters of purple fruit. A healthful bonus is the high amount of anthocyanin occurring in the purple pigment.

It can be a rewarding project to start your own tomatoes from seed and it is quite easy. Begin with good quality seeds and sow in a tray of Black Gold Seedling Mix. This seedling mix has been formulated with a wetting agent to help with water penetration and the fine texture encourages high germination. Keep the mix moist until seeds germinate and when seedlings reach several inches in height, transplant to a small pot, 4-inch size is ideal, and use Black Gold Natural & Organic Potting Soil. This is 100% organic and OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) listed.

I like to ask listeners to my radio program which tomato performed the best for them and the winner this past year was from the former country of Czechoslovakia. The tomato is called Stupice. It is a cold-tolerant tomato and is ideal for our unpredictable spring weather here in the Pacific Northwest as well. It is good for both eating fresh as well as in salads. Harry Olson, a Salem, Oregon tomato grower, told me it was his first tomato to ripen in the spring then it continued producing fruit all summer and was the last tomato he picked in the fall.

Spring is coming, let’s get ready!

Container Gardening Stupice Tomato – Photo By Rich Baer

This is the origin of our easiest and most magnificent perennials. Among them are purple coneflower, black-eyed Susan, blazing star and Joe Pye weed. All of these evolved to live in concert with our native bunch grasses to create prairies that range from very dry (mesic) in the south and the verdant tallgrass prairie in the north. There is no better model for switching out your lawn to a beautiful, natural prairie garden that lures wildlife and provides vital backyard habitat.

The problem is that turf grass lawns are a heavy feeding monoculture that depends on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer to maintain its beauty. Strip away this turf and what’s left beneath is ground worn out by chemical fertilizers much like the cotton fields of the South that were so lean newly freed African Americans could barely eek out a living. These worn out soils starve the microbes to death due to lack of organic matter. That’s why it’s so important to beef up that former turf grass ground to make it more fertile and supportive of a natural prairie garden.

Whether you’re planning a prairie, food garden or a new landscape, that soil must be very well amended if it is to grow a variety of plants again. You’ll want to provide amendments that do three things: boost nitrogen, introduce new microbes and provide plentiful organic matter to feed the microbes.

Because turf grass acts as a barrier, this heavily compacted ground has not experienced new organic matter for many years. Your first step is to turn every inch or rototill to aerate the ground. Then add Black Gold Soil Conditioner and Black Gold Garden Compost Blend which are rich in humus. Be generous with these rich materials and work them in as deeply and thoroughly as you can. Remember, this is food to grow your microbe populations.

To compensate for nutrient deficiencies, particularly nitrogen, use potent organic fertilizers. To really boost the nitrogen levels in year one, use fast acting Black Gold Alfalfa Meal. Then add Black Gold All Purpose Fertilizer for your phosphorus and potassium levels. Finally, distribute Black Gold Earthworm Castings Blend for its heavy load of microbes ready to feed on all that new organic matter.

The sooner you apply this prescription the better your new, natural prairie garden will perform. With each month that passes it will grow progressively more fertile. You can plant the beautiful perennials and grasses right into the newly amended soil, or start a new food garden right in your own ground.

This preliminary soil work is vital for anything you plan to grow in lieu of lawn. Such a formula turns secondary earth into first class agricultural soil much like that ground that grew the first incredible bumper crops of corn and wheat. So whether you wish to look out on a flowering prairie or a garden filled with organically grown vegetables, all that’s required is to rehabilitate the soil and Mother Nature does the rest.

Southeast Asian Eggplants, such as ‘Ping-Tung Long’, are wonderfully heat-resistant!

Even among warm-season vegetables, some are more resilient to harsh, hot growing conditions than others. For example, not all tomatoes and peppers continue producing fruit once temperatures exceed 95° Fahrenheit, while others seem made for hot days and nights. Likewise, some bean and squash species are better adapted to heat than others. Over the years, researchers and trial gardeners across the country have tested many vegetables for heat tolerance with some varieties showing exceptional resilience. Then there are those popular southerly vegetables that everyone knows make good on the heat. Here are some “hot”, reliable favorites to consider adding to your midsummer garden this season.

Yard-long Beans are prolific and produce beautifully when it’s hot and humid.

The unique red leaf vegetable amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor) is like most amaranths, tough and resistant to both high heat and moderate drought. Its tender green leaves have reddish purple inner markings and a flavor comparable to spinach. Young leaves can be eaten fresh in salads or sautéed like spinach or Swiss chard. This is a must-have green for the sustainable vegetable garden.

Beans are favorite summer vegetables, but the vigorous, vining asparagus or yard-long bean (Vigna unguiculata ssp. sesquipedalis) grows particularly well when daytime and nighttime temperatures are high. Asian in origin, it is widely cultivated in both temperate and tropical Asia. Its tender pods grow to great lengths of 16 inches or more, and vines begin to produce very quickly in warm weather—usually only two months after planting. When picked young and tender, the beans are wonderfully crisp and flavorful, and well-harvested vines produce longer than average pole beans, even in scorching hot, humid weather. The purple-podded form is particularly high-performing, tasty and loaded with nutrients.

Similarly, the sweet, non-bitter, Southeast Asian eggplants are some of the most delicious and best adapted to high heat. Two of the finest varieties for flavor and performance are the tender, long-fruited ‘Thai Long Green’ (8-10” long green fruits) and Taiwanese ‘Ping-Tung Long’ (12-16″ long purplish-red fruits). Both are mild, thin skinned and produce reliably in sweltering weather.

The AAS award-winning peppers ‘Orange Blaze’ (left) and ‘Holy Moly’ (right) seem made for hot summers. Photos courtesy of All-American Selections.

Peppers, sweet and hot, are always good for a very warm warm-season garden. Hot peppers are especially reliable in the heat; three highly recommended varieties include the super spicy classic jalapeno ‘Tula’, wonderfully flavorful pasilla-type pepper ‘Holy Molé’ (2007 AAS Winner), and classic spicy sweet red bell pepper ‘Mexibell’ (1988 AAS Winner). Of the sweet bell peppers nothing beats the tough, disease-resistant ‘Orange Blaze’ ( 2011 AAS Winner) and its crisp, bright orange peppers.

The prolific okra ‘Annie Oakley’ is one of many great okras that thrive when it’s hot.

Okra (Ablemoschus esculentus) is the poster child for deep southern cooking and hot, humid summer weather. When choosing an okra variety, it pays to choose a spineless variety with pods that remain tender. Two winning cultivars are the very tall (5 to 8’), high-producing ‘Emerald’ and the compact, high-performing ‘Annie Oakley’, which bears loads of tender green pods.

Sweet potatoes are another southern favorite that won’t flag when the temperatures rise. Space-saving bushy (rather than vining) varieties tend to be most desirable for home gardeners and of these, ‘Carolina Bunch’ and ‘Vardaman’ are two of the best. The disease resistant ‘Carolina Bunch’ is highly productive, offering loads of pale-orange-fleshed tuberous roots, or “potatoes.” The equally productive ‘Vardaman’ has deepest orange sweet potatoes with award-winning flavor. If planted along berms amended with Black Gold® Garden Compost, both varieties will bear loads of roots, even in the worst summer heat.

When it comes to tomatoes, a few perform exceptionally when summer days exceed 95 degrees Fahrenheit and nights remain warm, while most simply stop growing until scorching days subside. A great classic red slicer for heat is ‘Heat Wave II’, which bears meaty, flavorful, medium-sized tomatoes, even in 100 degree Fahrenheit heat. And luckily, the finest tasting cherry tomato, ‘Sungold’, just happens to be a top performer in hot weather. Its bright orange, super sweet, highly flavorful fruits resist cracking and are produced in profusion. The 2013 AAS award-winning cherry tomato ‘Jasper’ has also been shown to perform well under stressful summer weather conditions.

The deliciously sweet cherry tomatoes “Jasper” (left, Photo courtesy of All-American Selections) and ‘Sungold’ (right) will forge on through the heat.

Summer isn’t summer without summer squash and the best-of-the-best for taste and heat tolerance, high yields and good flavor is Zucchetta Rampicante Tromboncino (Cucurbita moschata ‘Tromba d’Albenga’). The vines are large and rambling, but they produce delicious, long, curved summer squashes all summer — through hot and cool weather — up until frost. Towards the end of the season, let a few hang on the vines until their skin hardens. These can be saved and eaten as winter squash.

This S-shaped Zucchetta ‘Tromba d’Albenga’ was picked last July when the weather was at its worst.

For best plant health and yields be sure to feed all your vegetables with Black Gold Tomato & Vegetable Fertilizer early in the season. Amendments such as Garden Compost Blend and Earthworm Castings Blend will also ensure your plants thrive by maintaining proper soil moisture and aeration. Doing this will encourage vigorous root growth. Double–digging is another great way to optimize healthy, deep root growth, which enables plants to better withstand moderate drought and high heat.

Get this summer’s crop started off right with a well-prepared garden by planting tougher, heat-tolerant summer vegetables and this year’s yield is sure to beat the heat.

But, why would Mother Nature spend so much effort creating intense fragrance for mid-winter flowers?

Cameo: An old-fashioned flowering quince definitely brightens up the garden.

It is because honeybees require warm air temperatures in order to be coaxed out of their wintertime sluggishness, and hive numbers are low during chilly months, so the competition is fierce among winter flowering plants to attract these few brave little winged souls.

Therefore, frost-coated shrubs use the most potent enticements available – eye-catching flower color and intense fragrance. As fragrance is the only lure that easily rides air currents around the garden, the more powerful a plant’s perfume, the better its chance of pollination.

Here is a selection of some of my favorite winter flowering shrubs beginning with the evergreens, followed by the deciduous, in order to help you find something fragrant to enjoy in your own garden this winter, or next.

Your nose, and the bees, will thank you.

EVERGREENS

Osmanthus

The orange flowered Tea Olive, Osmanthus fragrans aurantiacus, is a great choice for a fragrant evergreen specimen.

If left unpruned, Osmanthus fragrans with its tiny white flowers, and O. fragrans aurantiacus with similar light orange blooms, can become small trees throughout Zone 7.

Mahonia

Mahonias are highly effective at luring pollinators with both screaming color and intense fragrance.

Sarcococca

Sarcococca confusa is a tough evergreen for dry shade that displays both berry and bloom in winter.

Daphne

Daphne are elegantly perfumed shrubs for the shade garden in the Southeast.

DECIDIOUS

Edgeworthia

Edgeworthia is a conversation piece in any winter landscape.

Flowering Quince

Quince: Old-fashioned flowering quince definitely brightens up the garden.

Winter Flowering Jasmine

Winter Jasmine is often mistaken for Forsythia, but blooms much earlier.

Viburnum

To be one of the earliest Virburnums to flower, V. x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ is also extremely sweet.

Viburnum range from evergreen to deciduous, short to tall, and some of this large group of shrubs bloom in the dead of winter. Viburnum tinus is a rounded, medium-sized evergreen seen with abundant buds breaking into slightly fragrant flower from January to February, but for intense fragrance look for the upright deciduous Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ with its sweet-smelling pink flowers.

Chimonanthus

The Wintersweet is a must for a fragrant winter garden.

Hamamelis

The gold of Witch Hazel blooms pop against a blue winter sky.

Corylopsis

Winter-hazels are often under-appreciated until they flower.

Lonicera

A great pass-along-plant, the Winter Honeysuckle shrub smells just like the vine, but flowers in mid-winter.

If you’d like to learn more about fragrant winter flowering shrubs, find a copy of The Winter Garden, Planning and Planting for the Southeast by Peter Loewer and Dr. Larry Mellichamp, originally published in 1997 by Stackpole Books, and still in print.

But back to reality; this is January, winter is still here and since we do not have much color outdoors, it is nice to see something blooming in the house. Have you given any thought to growing orchids indoors for winter color in your home? We see blooming orchids at many grocery stores and they are often purchased for their flowers, which last for weeks, and then unfortunately the plant is discarded. Often orchids are overlooked as a permanent house plant, perhaps because of an undeserving reputation of being ‘fussy’ or hard to grow and that is not the case. Orchids do have some unique growing requirements, but certainly nothing that is difficult to learn.

Probably the most unique aspect of growing orchids indoors is that they grow best in an orchid bark rather than a traditional potting soil. Lucky for us Black Gold has the products needed to grow orchids in a home setting. Orchids need extremely fast drainage and often the plants are grown in an actual bark type medium. Black Gold has two types of orchid bark; Black Gold Orchid Bark Small, Black Gold Orchid Bark Medium plus a combination product called Black Gold Orchid Mix. The unique orchid mix is a blended combination of small bark, Canadian Sphagnum peat moss and perlite and/or pumice. There is a small amount of lime added and so this product is ready to use.

Many orchid growers like to use just bark as a potting medium and others like to use bark and blend it themselves with pumice or perlite and sometimes even adding small amounts of charcoal.  Black Gold Charcoal is excellent for helping with aeration and charcoal has the ability to help remove excess moisture.

Black Gold Orchid Bark Small is used for orchids such as paphilopediums and cymbidiums which tend to have thinner roots that need more water retention. Compare this to Black Gold Orchid Bark Medium which is for types like Odontoglossum and other medium rooted varieties. A note here about orchid roots and that is many orchid plants have a tendency to send out roots above the soil or bark level in the pot and these roots will grow and often extend out over the side of the pot. These roots should NOT be cut off as they are helpful to the overall vigor of the plant.

Lisa Long of St. Helens, Oregon is an Oregon State University Master Gardener and has been growing orchids indoors and out for nearly 20 years. She grows orchids on her windowsill in trays of pebbles. A small amount of water is in each tray with the level of it being just below the bottom of the orchid pot. The water will supply much need humidity in a dry indoor environment. The windowsill offers the light conditions they need; bright light but indirect sunlight in the summer. Also, try to keep the plants away from an area with drafts whether it is a door, window or heating vent.

Lisa waters her plants weekly and uses a weak strength of a water soluble plant food. She suggests new orchid growers join a local orchid society if there is one in your area. You can learn many tips from those that have been growing orchids. Learn what species you have and follow a water and fertilization schedule depending on the particular requirements that species has.  Overwatering is the most common cause of orchid death. Lisa also reports that orchids, as well as many other house plants, will benefit from a weekly dusting. Lightly wipe the leaves with a damp paper towel. She also recommends re-potting them about once every year and add fresh bark or whatever potting medium you are using. When you re-pot one, select a pot that is just the next size larger.

With the vast number of varieties available, it is possible to have orchids in bloom at any month of the year. Do not be discouraged if the plant you bought from a local store does not repeat bloom for a year, or even two. This is not unusual and as long as the plant is healthy, it is just getting settled into its’ new environment.

So the next time you buy a blooming orchid, do not consider it a dispensable, one-time blooming plant to discard when the flower is gone. Instead, treat it with some tender care and you could have a plant that will continue to grow, thrive and bloom for many years.

Photos courtesy of Rich Baer and Lisa Long

April 13th, 2013
Call for Hours
Green Fire Hydrogarden
3230 Auburn Blvd.
Sacramento CA 95821
(916) 485-8023
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Visit the Fred Meyer website for location information.

April 13th, 2013
Call for Hours
Redway Feed Garden & Pet Supply
290 Briceland Rd
Redway, CA 95560
(707) 923-2765
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April 20th, 2013
Call for Hours
Oroville Organic Gardens
5250 Olive Highway
Oroville, CA 95966
(530) 589-9950
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Come out and join Black Gold and all your fellow gardeners, growers and green-thumbed enthusiasts alike on Saturday, April 20th, 2013 for the Sparetime Supply Customer Appreciation Day in Willits, California.

April 20th, 2013
Call for Hours
Sparetime Supply
208 E. San Francisco Ave.
Willits, CA 95490
(707) 459-6791
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Artichoke Flowers: These mature flowers of artichoke plants show the vivid purple fibers that add color in the late season.

Out west where perennials often suffer in a dry climate, the artichoke, which originates in the arid Mediterranean, has naturalized. In California it has escaped to become invasive along the coast. This plant is far more adaptable than you think, and gardeners cultivate them in almost every state. Those living in USDA Zone 8 or higher consider them fully perennial. Where slightly colder in Zone 7, the roots may survive winter underground if well protected by mulching. In all other zones they should be planted from dormant roots dug the previous fall or newly purchased at the garden center. You’ll find them in organically grown Bonnie Plants displays and in most vegetable seed and plant catalogs.

Artichokes return from the roots every year and may be divided into new plants after a few seasons. They bloom in the summer, and it is these immature flower buds that are harvested to sell in markets. If left on the plant to mature the bud opens up to a huge purple tuft of fibers that are stunning to look at. This makes them a star in beds and borders of Mediterranean style architecture and vintage bungalows, as well as the food garden. Each summer the original roots will grow larger and may in time be divided into many new plants.

Artichoke Foliage: Do not underestimate the beauty of artichoke leaves with their silvery coloring and deeply lobed shapes.

Artichokes make outstanding container grown plants because the silvery leaves are so exotic looking and the flower buds, if not harvested, open into an incredibly large thistle-like flower. Grow in rustic terra cotta pots or tall Asian urns for a truly unique composition.

The plants prefer well drained sandy loam and thus do very well with Black Gold All Purpose Potting Soil. In drier regions consider Waterhold Coco Blend Potting Soil to help retain moisture without compromising drainage. Growing in pots allows you to bring the container into warmer conditions for the winter months after the growing season ends.

When growing artichokes in ground, take care to fortify the soil of each planting hole. These plants can be heavy feeders in the first year or two, so be generous with Black Gold Garden Compost or Black Gold Soil Conditioner when preparing the soil deeply. In later years apply Black Gold All Purpose Fertilizer to established plants in spring to boost nutrient levels essential to production of large tasty buds in summer.

A happy artichoke plant can mature at four feet wide, so be aware of the spatial demands before you plant them. Then find a sun drenched location, particularly on gently sloping ground to ensure the drainage is perfect. After you’ve eaten the early crop, this food plant goes into ornamental mode. Leave the later buds on the plants to open fully into large purple tufts for late summer color and a second harvest of dried seed heads for arrangements in the fall. Indeed, the artichoke is both food and flower, coming back again each year in a celebration of its most welcome duality.

Artichoke Beds: The large leafy plants of perennial artichokes make a fine ornamental with a bonus of edible flower buds.

April 27th, 2013
Call for Hours
Green Fire Hydrogarden
2725A Hwy 32 West
Chico CA 95973
(530) 895-8301
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UPDATE! The date of this event has been changed to Sunday, April 28th, 2013.

Join Black Gold on Sunday, April 28th, 2013 for the Weathertop Nursery Customer Appreciation Day in Laytonville, California. Always a great time!

Sunday, April 28th, 2013
Call for Hours
Weathertop Nursery
44901 Harmon Dr
Laytonville, CA 95454
(707) 984-6385
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We are big fans of the huge, annual Dazey Days event at Dazey’s Supply in Redway, CA. There are over 70 vendors who participate. Local musical artists and great food. Great times to be had by all! Come out and see what all the commotion is about! Hope to see you all there on Saturday, May 4th, 2013!

We’d like to send a big Thank You to Dazey’s Supply for being #1 for Sunshine Advanced Mix #4 and Black Gold Natural & Organic!

See photos from Dazey Days 2012 below and a video from 2011′s event…

Saturday, May 4th, Call for Hours
Dazey’s Supply
3082 Redwood Drive
Redway, CA
(707) 923-3002
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April 11th, 2013
10am – 3pm
Hills Flat Do-It-Best
380 Railroad Ave
Grass Valley, CA 95945
(530) 273-6171
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May 11th, 2013
Call for Hours
Bare Roots Hydroponics and Organic Supply
1615 E. Cypress Ave
Redding, CA 96002
(530) 244-2215
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Growing Strong on the East Coast – Maximum Yield’s ‘Grow Like a Pro’ Indoor Gardening Expo Tour returns to the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, Michigan: June 1-2, 2013!

The Max Yield Great Lakes Indoor Gardening Expo is an epic event; jam-packed with innovative products, and growers from around the world! Novi, Michigan: June 1-2, 2013

Stop by the Black Gold display at booth 501! Hundreds of other exhibitors from around the globe will be exhibiting alongside us! This is always one amazing event that you don’t want to miss! Hope to see you all there this year!

This two-day event begins Saturday, June 1, 2013. Attendees and exhibitors will have plenty of time to interact, network and do business. On Sunday, June 2, the expo will be open to the general public from noon to 5 p.m. giving exhibitors the opportunity to educate and show firsthand the benefits of their products to enthusiastic gardeners.

Find Max Yield Great Lakes Expo details and registration info here >>

Maximum Yield and the Industry’s Best Gather in San Francisco for the 10th Annual Indoor Gardening Expo

Watch the video above from last year’s Max Yield Indoor Gardening Expo to get a glimpse at all the innovative products and fun!

Max Yield San Francisco 2013 is an epic, West Coast growing event! This year the event will be held once again at the beautiful San Francisco Concourse. This is a fantastic venue that provides tons of space and a great atmosphere for learning about innovative, new indoor gardening products and techniques.

Black Gold will be there again at Booths 417 – 419, along with hundreds of other exhibitors from around the globe! This is always one epic and amazing event!

So, if you are going to San Francisco, we hope to grow some flowers with you there…at the Black Gold booth.

Get all the Max Yield San Francisco details and registration info here >>

I have a friend who is very involved in the American Conifer Society and he is forever encouraging me to add more conifers to my garden. He makes a valid statement when he says that they give some winter interest when many other plants have either lost their leaves or been cut back to the ground.

Two small type of conifers that are worth searching for are Abies koreana ‘Horstmann’s Silberlocke’ (Variegated Korean Fir) and Abies pinsapo ‘Aurea’ (Golden Spanish Fir). The ‘Horstmann’s Silberlocke’ just grows about 6-12 inches a year. The feature that makes this such an interesting plant is that the needles slightly curl around the stem and reveal the silver-white undersides. This is an ideal plant for a container and is especially nice in the winter to have by an entryway to a house to enjoy the silver color. Add a red bow and you have a holiday container. The Golden Spanish Fir, is as the name implies, a golden color which stands out against the older blue needles. It is also slow growing and can easily be kept in a container.

Of course there are other evergreen plants in the garden that should not be overlooked. Many of the bamboos can give wonderful foliage and color throughout the year. We have a beautiful planting of Phyllostachys aureosulcata ‘Spectabilis’ (Crook Stem Bamboo) in our garden that is a much asked about plant when we have visitors. The stems tend to develop kinks as they grow and this makes for a very interesting pattern. We have taken the lower leaves off of our planting to showcase this ‘kinking’ and also to highlight the green stripes on the yellow culms. This is a running type and it is advisable to use a bamboo barrier to prevent it from spreading or to plant it in a large container.

Not all bamboo is tall and a good example of a low growing type is Sasa veitchii. This bamboo may reach 3-5 feet in height but can be kept as a compact ground cover by trimming it to near ground level each spring. It does best in some shade and might be an ideal plant for a slope or area where some erosion control is needed. One of the unique aspects of this bamboo is that in the fall as the nights get cooler, the leaves wither at the margins and turn into what looks like bright white variegation. Then in the spring, the leaves turn green. It is considered winter hardy to 0⁰ F.

Another group of plants that are evergreen is the genus Osmanthus. Many times people mistake these for holly as some of them do have a holly-like leaf. However, what Osmanthus can provide that holly does not is flowers with a fragrance. The Lan Su Chinese Garden (formerly Portland Classical Chinese Garden) in Portland, Oregon has a large specimen of Osmanthus heterophyllus which blooms in winter with creamy white flowers and a strong fragrance that sometimes permeates outside the walls of this garden to passersby walking along the street. Another good garden plant is Osmanthus fragrans (Sweet Olive) which is an evergreen shrub, also with very fragrant flowers that appear in spring and early summer.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, many gardeners also grow citrus as container plants. While not winter hardy, if you have a greenhouse or sunny room with plenty of light, they should overwinter and be ready to set outside in the spring. The Meyer Lemon tends to be one of the hardier ones and most garden centers will stock plants in the late spring and summer. In my garden I have a variegated leaf form of Meyer Lemon in a container that not only has variegated color in the foliage but on the fruit as well. It tends to bloom throughout the summer with extremely fragrant flowers.

We may be in the middle of winter, but our garden can still supply us with much color, primarily from foliage, twigs, bark or berries. Try some new plants in your garden and as my conifer friend tells me “mix it up”.

As we approach the end of 2012, I would like to extend a very happy 2013 to all. Let’s make it a happy and productive garden year.

December 8th, 2012
10am to 6pm
Discount Hydro
4745 Hiers Ave
Riverside, CA 92505
(877) 476-9487
map

Black Gold, a Sun Gro Horticulture product-line, built its reputation on trusted all-organic potting soils, fertilizers and soil amendments. “We are dedicated to creating products that help our customers easily grow organic food in every American backyard,” says Blair Busenbark, National Marketing Manager at Sun Gro Horticulture. “The problem is that non-profit organizations also need quality soil products for their organic food gardening programs, so we decided to help them out.”

As Black Gold transitions to new packaging and finalizes its line for the 2013 gardening season, some products must be phased out. Rather than selling to a discounter, Busenbark opted to participate in a some green philanthropy by donating these valuable organic soil building materials to non-profit organizations that promote sustainable gardening.

• Several truckloads of Black Gold products have gone to the Wasatch Community Gardens, which supplies eleven different community gardens in the Salt Lake City area.
• Almost a truckload was delivered to the Sacramento City Unified School District, to help save gardening programs in the midst of a statewide budget crisis. “Because of the recent budget crisis here in California, our district is feeling the pinch more than ever. We cannot emphasize how critical this donation is for our schools.” –Barry Evpak, Facilities Director, SCUSD

• Multiple pallets of potting soil went to the Sacramento Food Bank for their demonstration garden and to help those in their classes get off to an organic start.
• Over a half truckload of organic fertilizer has shipped to the Marion-Polk Food Share of Salem, Oregon which facilitates the distribution of fresh produce to the needy by developing community food gardens and urban farms. “Fertilizer is a huge need in our network of 45+ community gardens, and your product will be extremely beneficial in helping supply healthy food to our community.” –Ingrid Evjen-Elias, Garden Resource Coordinator
• Filled all 24 garden boxes built by the Rotary Club with potting soil at Margaret McDowell Manor, an independent living complex for low income seniors to grow food and flowers in Portland, OR.
• Supplied potting soil and organic fertilizers to Future Farmers of America in Oregon to support their efforts to expand their knowledge in horticulture.

Many of these carefully blended fertilizers and other Black Gold products are OMRI listed, a third party certification that ensures they are indeed all organic. Such independently verified organic soil amendments are top of the line for food gardeners, but rarely seen in the budget minded gardening endeavors of non-profits. Not only will such fertile donations ensure an improved yield, they assist in the ongoing effort to build soil microbes and keep their numbers high in these boxes, containers, plots and fields. The value of quality organic soil building products cannot be overstated, and such donations are sure to increase yields of healthy food in the 2013 gardening season to come.

Black Gold Supports Green Philanthropy From the Ground Up – Raised Beds at the Margaret McDowell Manor.

Spirals are truly unique in the world of topiary because they don’t resemble the Asian bonsai styles or those poodled into balls. They’re tall and narrow, fitting nicely into corners and small spaces. Spirals are distinctly European in character and therefore they are an easy fit for virtually any traditional home style.

After the holidays, move your potted spiral topiaries into the garden where they receive plenty of light on all sides to maintain their symmetry.

When the holidays roll around, spirals are the queens of decor because their corkscrew shape lends itself to strand twinkle lights. This shape also provides flattish spots where you can attach fruit or ornaments that completely transform them. When you have a pair, decorating yields even more glitz, and for a holiday party few other plants create such instant upgrade.

This year may be the perfect time to invest in a spiral at your house in lieu of the traditional holiday cut tree. This is a great investment that can be moved outdoors as a winter focal point after the new year if the climate is warm enough. There is nothing more lovely than topiary under snow.

Choose a spiral clipped from junipers since these are very drought and disease resistant, adapting to nearly all climate zones. These are sold in five gallon pots, or consider much larger pricier specimens that make great Christmas trees.

To create a pair to use outdoors, find large durable decorative containers that suit your home style. The interior and mouth of the pot must be large enough to hold the root ball with plenty of room to spare on top and sides. When the spiral sits in the pot with plenty of edge (freeboard) left at the top, you can fill it to the brim with water and move on, saving a great deal of watering time. In between tuck moss into the space to make it appear full.

Behind this huge single spiral is a field of Monrovia evergreens waiting to be clipped into spirals.

Since spirals are long-lived, woody trees, make sure you use Black Gold All Purpose Potting Soil with controlled release fertilizer (CRF). This slow release nutrition helps get your spirals off to a vigorous start. With topiaries, the strength and color of growth is essential because you must clip more often for a dense, and precise form.

Water generously after planting to coax roots out of the old pot shape into this new, organic soil. There is no better way to obtain rich, luxurious green color in your spirals.

These are sun loving plants, so life underneath the porch is ok in the dead of winter, but it won’t suit them in the growing season. The side that doesn’t receive enough light won’t grow, it may even shed foliage or turn yellowish over time. This is a disaster with topiaries like this which must remain perfectly symmetrical to maintain their beautiful form. Relocating with the seasons is easy if you have a dolly or set the pots on casters.

Whether you buy one, a pair or a whole row of them, spiral topiaries are the most versatile of all evergreens. They can transform a space overnight with their pronounced graphic forms. They’re as suited to Mediterranean architecture as they are American colonial, and even find a home in Spartan modern landscapes too. Just remember they aren’t furniture, but real live living plants, so make sure you give them quality soil and plenty of water. Then get yourself a sharp pair of clippers to enjoy the age old tradition of shaping evergreens all year around.

Double spirals are rare but obtainable from any garden center that carries Monrovia plants.

There’s a reason why seed-starting is popular. Gardeners can grow cooler plants, for less than the cost of purchasing from most garden centers.

Seedling woes and mishaps are many. Truth-be-told, the average seed grower tends to grow leggy, pale green, weak plantlets rather than stout, multi-stemmed, medium green ones. The causes are basic: poor light causes legginess and pale color and inadequate nutrition, poor soil and/or improper watering can all cause poor growth and weakness. This matters because weak seedlings have a higher mortality rate and are slower to establish, while robust seedlings look better, fill out faster, and yield more flowers and fruits sooner.

Good growing light is most essential because too little causes etiolation (long, spindly, pale growth) and too much causes foliar burn. Gardeners lacking a sunny conservatory or greenhouse should choose the next best thing, a light table. And for high-grade seedlings refrain from window-growing; even south-facing-window-light is rarely uniform or strong enough for robust growth. A growing table fitted with broad spectrum shop lights will do a much better job. Here are four growing table “dos” to abide by:

1. Do choose the right location and table. A warm, sunny room is ideal. Prefabricated grow tables (sold by many seed vendors) are handy but expensive. Standard 4-level utility shelves (sold at home improvement centers) fitted with shop lights are just as effective and much cheaper.

2. Do choose the right fixture and bulbs. Standard 48-inch shop lights can accommodate two flats of seedlings, and high-Intensity fluorescent bulbs have the broadest spectrum for good growth. (Avoid metal-halide high-intensity discharge (HID) bulbs, which are expensive, hot, and unnecessary.)

For best growth place seedlings 2 to 3 inches from high-Intensity fluorescent bulbs.

3. Do place your seeds and seedlings the right distance from the light. Pots and seedlings should be kept 2-to-3-inches from fluorescent bulbs and fixtures hung from chains for easy height adjustment.

Exposure to dappled sunlight can help seedlings adjust to natural sunlight more quickly.

4. Do slowly acclimate sun-loving seedlings to natural light before outdoor planting. Sunlight is stronger than artificial light and can burn tender seedlings. Over seven to ten days, slowly move seedlings from indirect outdoor light to full exposure—increasing exposure by two hours every two days.

Containers and growing medium are the next essentials. Standard six-cell, six-pack growing flats with non-draining trays are perfect for most seedlings, and Black Gold Seedling Mix, with its blend of high-grade Canadian Sphagnum peat moss and perlite, is recommended. Our seedling mix is also easily wetted and uniformly fine for light seed coverage. Light coverage is essential because most seeds naturally germinate on or close to the soil’s surface, so when planting seeds stick to the mantra “lighter coverage for lighter seeds and greater coverage for greater seeds.” Dust-like seeds can simply be sprinkled on the top of the medium, and large seeds rarely need to be planted deeper than ¼ of an inch—despite what some seed-starting guides advise. Seeds can also be lightly covered with Black Gold Washed Sand or fine Vermiculite instead of mix. Coverage with both is shown to reduce instances of “damping off” (seedling fungal disease); planting in fresh, unused mix also reduces damping off.

Small seeds are best surface-sown for successful germination.

Temperature needs vary from seed to seed and plant to plant; some like it cool and others like it warm, but most thrive at room temperature (68 degrees Fahrenheit). Warm-season plants, like tomatoes, peppers and zinnias, germinate and grow faster with warmer temperatures; a seedling heat mat will hasten germination and growth for these and other summer growers. A flat-sized heat mat costs around $25.00 and will last for years.

Good watering technique will make or break growing success. The key is remembering that overwatering is worse than underwatering . Too much water encourages fungal disease and root and stem rot, and invites pests like fungus gnats, whose larvae feed on seedlings, and shore flies, whose excrement damages seedlings. Once these problems are established, they are hard to get rid of.

Left: A plastic bottle with holes punched in the top makes a perfect seed waterer! Right: Be sure to allow only one seedling per planting cell for best success.

To avoid overwatering seeds and seedlings: (1) water gently and (2) water until mix is moist but not wet. These steps are most important before and right after seeds germinate because seeds and seedlings use less water and are easily drowned. A plastic water bottle with five holes poked into top makes a great gentle seed and seedling waterer (see photo). Bottom watering with a self-watering capillary mat is also recommended. Just be sure that no standing water remains at the tray base at any time.

Properly grown seedlings should have healthy roots to the bottom of the pot.

Once plants develop multiple leaves, more water can be applied. The amount ultimately depends on how quickly plants are growing and using water. It’s wise to check fast-growing seedlings twice daily to assess their water needs. If you think you may be watering too much, err on the side of less water. Slight wilting is better than rot and ruin.

Nutrition is not a factor until plants develop their “true leaves” (sometimes called the second set of leaves). In fact, fertilizer can actually inhibit seed germination and burn new seedlings, which is why good seed-starting mixes are always fertilizer free. Once seedlings have reached two inches or so, a feather-light sprinkle of Black Gold Starter & Transplant Fertilizer will keep them pot-healthy until planting day.

When the threat of frost has passed, incrementally introduce your flats of plantlets to the great outdoors. Incremental exposure allows tender plants to healthfully acclimate to the high light, wind and temperature changes of the garden. Start by placing them in a protected location with diffuse light and slowly move them into a more open spot with higher light. After seven to ten days your plants should be garden-ready, and if you follow this guide they should look like those grown by the pros!

Happy seedlings have good colors and are not leggy.

Homegrown plantlets, like these fennel, should only be planted in the garden after they have hardened off.

These newly planted homegrown cabbage seedlings are healthy and robust!

Those new to indoor seed growing should start with annuals such zinnias, cosmos, basil and gloriosa daisies.

However, we all know the mild weather is not going to last forever, and so now is a good time to discuss tips for winterizing plants. Soon we will be having regular frosts and temperatures below freezing and the tropical plants will be no more and the semi-tropical plants will need to have been put to bed for the winter. The Hardy Banana (Musa basjoo) is a very vigorous grower and even with the top growth dying to the ground in the winter; it can still reach 12-15 feet in height by the end of the summer. However, getting it to bloom can be quite a challenge.

This past summer I have been to several gardens to see Musa basjoo in bloom. The flower is large and quite unusual with a brown color and then behind the flower, small bananas will appear. Musa basjoo is native to a group of islands off the coast of Japan and it is referred to there as a fiber banana. This means that even if we had weather warm enough for the bananas to mature, it would not be considered an edible banana.

To increase the chance of plants having flowers, it is probably necessary to wrap the stems to protect them from the cold. I actually did this on three of my thickest stemmed plants and the wrap kept the stems from freezing. In the spring, the banana will then begin sending out new leaves at the tip of the stem. On the three stems I selected, I cut off the tops at about the six-foot level. I used bubble wrap and tied it around the stems and then wrapped burlap over the bubble wrap to protect the stems from being burned by the sun. Burlap also makes the wrap esthetically pleasing to look at.

In the spring, I removed the wrapping and the bananas started sending out leaves at the six foot level and the plants grew much taller than if the stems had died to the ground. Even though the roots are considered hardy, I like to give them the added protection of a thick layer of Black Gold Soil Conditioner and on top of that I make several layers of the banana leaves I have removed. The leaves give some additional protection from the cold and also serve the purpose of preventing the soil conditioner from blowing away. The photo of the bananas is from my garden and this is all just the growth through mid-August.

The overwintering of the Musa basjoo may seem rather extreme and if you do not care if you have flowers, cut the stems to the ground after a hard freeze, add a layer of Black Gold Soil Conditioner and layer the leaves you have cut off and your plant should survive just fine.

Gunnera is a spectacular plant that also likes some winter protection. Since it likes lots of moisture, add Black Gold Just Coir and mix with existing soil when planting. Coir is actually coconut pith and is a natural and renewable product with superb water retention qualities. The crown of Gunnera can be tender to cold temperatures and I cut off the huge leaves and place them over the crown for winter protection.

Another plant we can easily grow here but is not common in gardens is the Hardy Hibiscus. I think the word ‘hibiscus’ makes people think it is the tropical plant from Southern California and Hawaii, but it is very different except for the flower. The Hardy Hibiscus flower has the typical hibiscus flower shape and in some cases is even larger. Many times I have seen the Hardy Hibiscus with flowers the size of dinner plates and they come in a variety of colors. The Hardy Hibiscus will die to the ground but reappear in the spring with new stems. I like to add a layer of Black Gold Soil Conditioner similar to what I do with the Hardy Banana. Hardy Hibiscus is a great plant for a full sun location and it tends to bloom late in the summer, usually not until August.

We should never forget the wonderful winter color some plants can provide with just the bark or stems. Acer griseum (Paperbark Maple) is a great example. This tree looks nice at any time of year but once the leaves drop, the trunk and stems are exposed and it is easy to understand how it got the common name of Paperbark Maple. A bonus in addition to the bark is that the foliage turns red in the fall. I have seen Acer griseum used as a tree for street plantings and it looks nice all year and is very easy to care for.

There are probably many other gardeners that have some tender plants in pots that they like to overwinter. I have more than I should! I have had good success with a tender Podocarpus and several citrus trees in pots just by putting them on a cart with wheels and bring them into the garage on nights when temperatures are expected to go below freezing. Then during the day, once temperatures have gotten above freezing, I wheel them out into the sunlight.

Just because we do not live in a tropical climate, with some extra effort we can push the zone!

This year’s Independent Garden Center Show at Navy Pier in the great city of Chicago was as huge, as impressive and as beautiful as we’ve come to expect. The 2012 IGC show is the world’s largest educational resource for independent garden centers. In the video above, P. Allen Smith takes you on a brief tour of just some of what made IGC 2012 so amazing. Vendors from all parts of the United States and from around the world were on hand, including Black Gold!

My unheated greenhouse is a wonder of form, color and texture all winter long with nothing but succulents.

The fun of succulents is that they’re so forgiving due to small root zones and very little moisture requirements during the winter. Lining a cute collection up on a windowsill becomes a microcosm of the larger garden during these short, dark days. They are a perfect fit for renters and apartment dwellers who are challenged when it comes to where and how to grow things. Where lanky geraniums once lined these shelves and sills, today it is succulents, the hottest plants of all for indoor design.

Succulent plants remain alive all winter so long as they aren’t exposed to frost. They are small and tidy, making a perfect choice for home, kitchen or office. Key is creating beautiful living sculptures by pairing each succulent with just the right pot. Get this right and the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

Strange and unusual containers are hot. Weird irregular pottery is on fire. Other folks are drilling drain holes in vintage pottery for Mid-century or retro design. Still more are using salvaged industrial items to make a home for succulents.

To get creative with your winter succulents, always begin with the right potting soil blended for these drainage sensitive plants. Black Gold Cactus Mix is fertile yet porous, with generous amounts of sharp sand and perlite to ensure water flows straight through.

The star cactus, Astrophytum makes the ideal plant for this rigid, space age pot.

Virtually any container will hold a succulent so long as it meets just a few requirements. In general, pots should be wider than they are tall. Deeper pots tend to hold moisture at the bottom below most succulent roots, and there rot can set in. Look for red clay flower pots in shorter “pan” versions, made expressly for these kinds of plants.

Secondly, the pot must be well drained, which relates to the size and number of drain holes. As a fledgling ceramic artist, I create my own stoneware pots. Some feature a single very large hole, just like the design of Japanese bonsai pots. Others have three to five smaller holes to expand the area of drainage overall.

It’s traditional to lay a pot shard over the drain hole of a pot to keep soil from eroding out with each watering. But I’ve found that roots tend to gather around the edges of the shard filling the gaps to inhibit drainage. With my large hole pots, I prefer a square of old window screen, cut it to size and laid over the larger hole before adding soil.
If you’re drilling a container to provide drain holes, multiple smaller holes will allow better drainage than one big one. This provides even drainage over the entire bottom of the pot, not just the one location of the hole. If you are drilling fragile pots that won’t tolerate multiple holes without damage, strive for one very large hole.

The irregular nodules on this red pot demonstrate how forms can tie into the curious stems of the carrion flower.

In winter these plants respond to limited winter daylight with very slow growth. Moisture needs are minimal. Many cactus are wholly dormant. That’s why winter is when I kill more plants than any other. Moisture won’t evaporate as quickly, so if in doubt about watering, I wait a week, then reevaluate.

Easy to grow indoor succulent gardens are a refreshing alternative to care-intensive houseplants. They offer gorgeous forms with a powerful geometry that becomes the centerpiece of any composition. Best of all, they don’t lose their leaves or beauty while dormant, so their sculptural forms will sit proudly in dim winter light. They’ll carry your decorating through the holidays, into January and with luck, all the way to summer.

Viburnums are trees or shrubs, evergreen or deciduous, that may be diminutive, three-foot globes or grow 60 feet tall. Their leaf texture varies from smoothly shiny to velvety, and, their leaf edges may be serrated, dentate, lobed, or not! Viburnum flowers are either round or flattish, and range in color from white to pink. The blossoms are either deliciously fragrant, have absolutely no scent, or can be downright offensive. Just forget trying to determine what viburnum you are admiring by its fruit color alone, since berries range from yellow to orange, red to black, and blue to purple.

Though the fruit is called a “drupe”, it doesn’t droop at all. These red V. opulus berries really shine in the landscape.

According to the great Georgia plantsman, Dr. Michael Dirr, their characteristics are simply too varied to make a definitive identification without a very good reference guide. In his 2007 guidebook, Viburnums, Flowering Shrubs for Every Season, by Timber Press, Dirr admits that even taxonomists can’t agree how many species presently exist in the genus Viburnum with the true number probably falling somewhere between 160 to 250.

The Koreanspice bush, V. carlesii, provides a perfect example of a viburnum’s opposite leave arrangement.

Besides their exquisite beauty, the main reason why we embrace viburnums in our home landscapes is their extreme hardiness. Many varieties can be very drought tolerant (once established) as some of our best Southeastern native viburnum hail from dry woodlands. A few, such as our native Arrowwood, will also tolerate wet feet. Most will grow well in full sun to part shade, can take a variety of soil types, and still thrive.

In the absence of good soil, you could amend the planting hole fill dirt with Black Gold Natural & Organic Soil Builder for improved drainage that will still provide enough moisture retention essential for a newly transplanted viburnum. Otherwise, mulch the base of your new addition with Black Gold’s Garden Compost Blend in order to help hold moisture, keep developing roots cool in summer and warmer in winter, and to suppress weeds.

Viburnums have also been evaluated for their resistance to deer grazing. The toughest survivors of deer predation are our native Arrowwood (V. dentatum); Blackhaw (V. prunifolium); Smooth witherod (V. nudum), which is sometimes erroneously called “possum haw”; and, the Maple-leaf arrowwood (V. acerfolium).

The large, pure white, balloon-like blooms of a V. macrocephalum appear first in early spring, and reappear in late summer.

In my home landscape, I have found several species of viburnum grow well under the canopy of a large Black Walnut tree, where it is very dry. Here I have planted Koreanspice bush (V. carlesii) and Cranberry viburnum (V. opulus), and they both perform beautifully.

Viburnum carlesii is one of our most popular, old-fashioned, pass-along southern shrubs. Grown for its intensely sweet springtime fragrance, the late March to early April flowers of Koreanspice begin pale pink, turning white with age, grow 2-3 inches across, and are rounded. This 8-10 foot tall shrub has dull green leaves that turn reddish in the fall, and red to black fruits.

The Cranberry viburnum is named for its brilliant cherry-red fruit clusters that begin coloring in late summer. Its famous leaf fall color is much more dramatic in cooler regions where leaves turn gold, red, and burgundy. A very good cultivar is V. opulus ‘Compactum’, which should top out at just 5-6 feet.

For sheer drama nothing compares to the Chinese Snowball (V. macrocephalum). This multi-trunked small tree can reach 12-feet or more in height and grow just as wide. Sometimes semi-evergreen in mild winters, this very dark-leafed viburnum is beloved for its 6-8 inch, rounded, springtime flowers that begin pale chartreuse and age to purest white. They are so beautiful that we can forgive it for not bearing any scent. A significant bonus is that it also flowers again from late summer into fall. Since the Chinese Snowball’s hydrangea-like flowers are sterile, there is no fruit, therefore no unwanted seedlings.

One ‘Dawn’ Bodnant viburnum should perfume an entire yard.

Your winter landscape could be delightful including a Bodnant viburnum in it. Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ has bright pink, strongly perfumed flowers in late February to early March in my Wake Forest, North Carolina, Zone 7-8 garden. The small, rounded, sweetly fragrant flowers are borne on bare branches on a rather rangy shrub, but ‘Dawn’ blends nicely into the mixed border the rest of the year.

Garden centers offer V. tinus ‘Spring Bouquet’ in autumn, which is the right time to plant them. During the late fall months ‘Spring Bouquet’ forms tight rose-colored clusters of buds that will start popping open during the first months of the new year. These viburnum flowers are only slightly fragrant, but they will cover the small shrub. This evergreen viburnum will need part shade in summer, winter protection from sun, plus they benefit from being shielded from desiccating winds.

Paired lacey flowers dance down the branches of Doublefile viburnums.

Since they bloom in early April, Doublefile viburnums, V. plicatum f. tomentosum, are great substitutes for ailing native dogwoods. Named for its flowering habit of doily-flat flowers positioned side-by-side along the top of long horizontal branches, this is a stunning small tree. These viburnum are deciduous in winter, have dark green foliage in summer, and bright red berries in late fall. A cultivar named ‘Summer Snowflake’ will bloom well in early spring, then sporadically repeat off-and-on throughout the summer.

Chindo viburnum is another popular viburnum that isn’t grown for its flowers at all. Promoted by the late Dr. J C Raulston of North Carolina State University, V. awabuki ‘Chindo’, is a loosely pyramidal-shaped, shiny-leafed, evergreen shrub that can reach 15-20 feet. It grows in sun or shade and is shaped reminiscent of a large-leafed holly, so it makes an ideal screening plant. One warning is that a Chindo viburnum won’t like winter temperatures that drop below zero; so, if it does get that cold you may have to trim your plant back severely in springtime to encourage new growth to flush.

There is probably a perfect viburnum for just about any location in your landscape, so how do you go about narrowing your selections? Ask your garden center professional for their recommendations, check with your local Cooperative Extension Service, and find a copy of Dirr’s Viburnums book.

Photos by Pam Beck

The ‘Chindo’ viburnum is an outstanding evergreen screening shrub.

Black Gold’s always helpful, always creative Donna Wright appears on Garden Time TV and demonstrates how to make Black Gold bulb containers.

Black Gold’s always helpful, always creative Donna Wright appears on Garden Time TV and demonstrates how to make a pumpkin planter.

We have many native plants to choose from and some are better adapted to home gardens than others. When considering native plants for a home garden, take a look at the environment in which the plant is naturally growing. Is it in sun or shade? Is it growing on a hillside? Is it growing on a forest floor? Is it in clay or sandy soil? Might it be invasive in a home garden? These are just a few of the many things to consider. Keep in mind that just because a plant is native, that does not mean it will be suitable for your garden.    

By just taking three western states; Washington, Oregon and California, I have selected several native plants that I have either grown or seen growing in home gardens. All of the following should be available at local garden centers. 

A native of Southern California, Romneya coulteri (Matilija Poppy) has spectacular white flowers, often 8-9 inches across, with crape paper-like petals and a center full of yellow stamens. Flowers usually begin in May and will continue often through June. While I have heard that it can be invasive in some California garden situations, I have it growing in my garden and find it is very easy to manage. While it does spread by rhizomes, I have had no problem keeping them under control. A little extra effort is certainly worth it when the plant flowers. The plants in my garden will reach about 7 feet in height and have gray-green leaves which are quite attractive. 

The Matilija Poppy needs good drainage and adding Black Gold Pumice at the time of planting is an excellent supplement to help aeration. It is best planted in full sun with little or no summer watering required. The plants are generally winter-hardy in western Oregon and Washington.

For a native plant that has something for all seasons, it is hard to top Arctostaphylos (Mansazanita). There are a multitude of varieties to choose from. Some are plants that will grow like small trees, others are shrubs ranging from 3 feet in height to 7-8 feet, and some are ground covers that form a dense mat and hug the ground. 

Manzanita will provide a gardener with an evergreen plant, clusters of spring flowers in white, cream, or light pink (the clusters look similar to blueberry flowers) and are followed by red or brown berries that appeal to birds. If this is not enough, one of the major appeals of Manzanita is the stems, branches and/or trunk which are red or shiny brown. They can make an excellent winter interest plant and some of the shrub types are especially striking with a spot light shining up from below on a winter night.

Manzanita plants require excellent drainage and can actually tolerate rather poor soil such as on a slope or a site with rocky soil. Just as with Matilija Poppies, Manzanita plants will benefit with the addition of Black Gold Pumice at time of planting. Manzanita is best planted in full sun and in most areas of western Oregon and Washington, new plants will need some supplemental water the first year but usually from then on they need little or no additional water. A particular popular shrub type that should be readily available from garden centers is ‘Howard McMinn’, which will reach about 8 feet in height and as wide. The flowers are white and quite prolific.       

As noted, the two plants mentioned above are best planted in a full sun location, require good drainage and need little supplemental water. For those gardeners with more of a woodland setting, Ribes sanguineum (Red Flowering Currant) might be a good choice. Native to the Coast Ranges in California, Oregon and Washington, this is a deciduous spring-blooming plant with long clusters of pink to red flowers.

NOTE: Flower colors may vary and it is a good idea to buy a plant in bloom if you are particular about the shade of the flower.

Ribes generally like a rich soil with lots of compost and or other organic matter. Prior to planting, work Black Gold Soil Conditioner into the existing soil or dig a hole and fill with Black Gold Natural & Organic Potting Soil. Ribes sanguineum can reach 10 feet in height and has dark green maple-like leaves. It flowers in the early spring and will often attract much attention. Ribes is also an early favorite of honey bees and hummingbirds.

A category often overlooked includes many of the native ornamental grasses. This category has a very wide range of heights and colors as well as soil conditions from some requiring a wet and boggy area to others that require dry. Now is an excellent time of year to view native grasses at your local garden center as this will give you a first-hand glimpse at how they look at the end of the growing season.

During the past several years, I have seen more native plants being used in gardens, sometimes in a garden with solely natives but more often a garden where native plants are mixed with non-native plants. Visit some local public gardens and you will get a better idea of how particular plants perform in your local area.

Sequoia Sempervirens: In the Mendocino redwood country, second growth suckers rise up around ancient stumps from 19th century logging. Note the red tone of the soil where the duff layer is re-building after the homeowner raked away the original layer to encourage grasses. It would have been a far better choice to retain a ring of duff around each group to ensure they receive plenty of nutrition.

Redwood, also known as is Sequoia sempervirens, is a species that proves to be one of the most well adapted natives to container culture. This means it does well at the nursery in pots far better than many other root-finicky native trees. The reason is that this redwood lacks a taproot and produces moderately-sized roots to just ten feet deep. Their strength is in a network of fibrous surface feeder roots that are such active travelers, I have seen them invade mulch piles and work their way up into raised beds located close to a trunk. They feed off the decaying layer of fallen leaves that accumulate many inches deep within a grove. This fine line between the soil and the duff is where the bulk of its nutrition lies.

This demonstrates for us how growing a coast redwood can be done successfully in your own garden, particularly when it’s still very young. The duff layer, the equivalent of about six inches of mulch, is how these surface feeders remain cool and moist through long periods of drought. It explains why they do better in groups of three or more, closely spaced, than they do as an individual. The canopies shade each other’s roots and provide greater accumulations of litter that is so important to root health and protection.

To grow a single redwood tree, it’s important to recreate this exact scenario if it is to mature quickly and remain healthy in all seasons. Add Black Gold Soil Conditioner to the backfill because it contains aged forest products that are similar in PH to the forest floor. Once the tree is planted and grade is set around its base, mulch with a thick layer of Soil Conditioner to simulate a duff layer. There organic nutrients will sit right on top of the soil where feeder roots can reach them. Spread it all the way to the outer tips of the branches, a point known as the drip line because this is the area in which the tree will eventually produce its most active rooting. Provide enough to create a layer about six inches deep because this is the typical depth of the duff layer in the redwood forest.

Don’t pack down the mulch. If you walk off trail into redwood forests, the natural duff is springy and porous due to the stiffness of the redwood leaves and twigs. This ensures that all rain that falls moves through quickly to the soil where feeder roots lie waiting. Pack your mulch too tightly and it may indeed repel water applied, forcing it to run off beyond the drip line. Let the surface mulch be your guide to where to irrigate the young tree over the first few years to create the wide, but shallow root system of this species.

When your redwood grows older and begins to shade a much larger area, switch to wood chips as a more extensive ground covering surface material. Mix in more Black Gold Soil Conditioner annually. This provides the nutrition the trees need to reach their towering heights and retain their beautiful evergreen foliage throughout years of rainfall and drought.

Redwoods: These nursery grown redwood trees are thriving in a backyard where the ground beneath is filled with azaleas and other forest floor acid loving plants, but as the trees mature there will be too much shade to grow much except ferns.

Late-season figs may hang onto the stem after the leaves have fallen.

Growing as small trees or large shrubs reaching an average of 20 feet, figs are deep-rooted, though relatively tender, and require protection in their northernmost cultivation zones. Their fleshy, sweet, teardrop-shaped fruits are called syconia (singular syconium) and are only pollinated by tiny, specialized fig wasps. Cultivated figs have four standard fruiting types: Common, Smyrna, San Pedro and Caprifigs. Each type has its own flowering and fruiting characteristics, but Common figs are the most popular for North American cultivation because they don’t require cross-pollination, some have seedless fruits and many cultivars are hardy.

Contained figs often maintain a smaller stature.

Common figs set fruit parthenocarpically, which means “without a pollinator”, so a single plant will set fruit. The fruits vary widely in size, color, sweetness and flavor – some are eaten fresh while others taste best dried. In mild climates, plants may appear to produce fruits continuously through the growing season, but more commonly they produce crops in two flushes—once in spring and again in fall. The first spring crop is called the “breba crop” and produces fruit on last season’s growth; the fall crop is called the “main crop” and produces fruit on the current season’s new growth. Fruit quality and shrub hardiness vary widely among Common figs. For this reason, they are further subdivided into several cultivar types, the commonest being Brown Turkey and Mission types.

Delectably sweet ‘Bordeaux’ figs have strawberry-colored inner flesh.

Brown Turkey-type figs are by far the hardiest but are not noted for being the most flavorful. Their brown to green fruits are earthy and less sweet, but a few cultivars are remarkably tasty. The small-fruited, Southern fig ‘Malta’ (aka. ‘Celeste’, USDA Zone 7-10) is deliciously sweet and produces loads of squat, purplish-brown fruits on second-year wood. And the French ‘Blanche’ fig (aka. ‘Marseilles’, USDA Zone 8-10) is an old, green-fruited variety brought to the Americas by Thomas Jefferson and grown at his Virginia estate, Monticello (though there are other accounts of earlier import). Jefferson described the sweet fruits as, “unquestionably superior to any fig I have ever seen.” They are also excellent for drying.

Mission-type figs are dark-skinned with rosy pink flesh, and are by far the most popular figs for eating, fresh or dried. Many cultivars are cold-tender, but a few will handle cold winters. The relatively compact and hardy ‘Black Jack’ (USDA Zone 7-10) produces many sweet deep purplish black fruits and reaches an average of 12 feet but can be pruned to a productive height of 6 feet. For many growers, the equally compact and hardy ‘Bordeaux’ (aka. ‘Violette de Bordeaux’, USDA Zone 7-10) has the best tasting fruit of all. The super sweet purplish black fruits have strawberry-colored inner flesh. Both ‘Bordeaux’ and ‘Black Jack’ grow well in large containers, if regularly pruned and maintained.

Figs tend to sucker from the base. Remove suckers if you want plants to maintain a single stem.

Figs are best grown in full to partial sun and average, slightly alkaline soil with good drainage. Avoid high nitrogen fertilizers which encourage leafy growth and reduce fruit production. Surprisingly Black Gold Tomato & Vegetable is perfect for figs and should be administered once a year in late winter or spring. Mulch well to protect the roots from cold snaps, especially for specimens planted in colder zones, and amend soil with Black Gold Garden Compost, as needed. Container grown specimens grow beautifully in Black Gold Natural and Organic Potting Soil and can be overwintered in a conservatory, garage or basement, if provided cool temperatures and very little water while dormant or semi-dormant.

Though relatively self-sustaining once established, figs will become unproductive if left unpruned for too long. Removal of the oldest, largest stems in spring keeps shrubs more compact, manageable and fruitful. Dead wood can also become a problem. Specimens planted in the coldest zones often die to the ground, with new branches arising from the living roots in the spring; all dead wood should be pruned back before new shoots emerge.

So, plant a fig for food and fun. With so many delicious and surprisingly hardy selections, they are truly fruits for every gardener.

The small, green ‘Blanche’ figs are very sweet and productive.

Hardware Association honors compelling packaging that sells.

Las Vegas, NV: The race for retail sales can often seem like a marathon of Olympic proportions. Having a gold medalist on your team can make all the difference at the finish line. The National Retail Hardware Association (NRHA) has helped retailers find those exceptional performers by recognizing the industry’s finest packaging. This year, the Black Gold® brand by Sun Gro received a coveted gold medal from the Association. Black Gold® was recognized for its strong brand design, bold shelf impact and clear differentiation of product types.

NRHA recognizes the industry’s finest product packaging and merchandising. “We thought it was vitally important for the industry’s association of independent retailers to be able to provide the industry’s manufacturers with feedback about the types of packaging and merchandising retailers need to help sell products and inform consumers about a product’s features and benefits,” says Scott Wright, NRHA’s vice president of member services. “What better place to bring these two channel partners together than the National Hardware Show.”

“We strived to create a strong block and brand presence in stores through crisp, iconic labeling,” says Laura Munro, Chief Marketing Officer for Sun Gro Horticulture. “Our graphics are now more intuitive, with bold lettering and illustrations that help customers reach for exactly what they need.”

The Black Gold line of natural and organic soils, amendments and fertilizers is available to independent garden centers nationally from Sun Gro Horticulture. Most of these are OMRI listed, proving by third party review that the ingredients are acceptable for organic gardening. The OMRI logo on Black Gold products makes it easy for IGCs to promote organic gardening through high quality, verifiable products.

Company Profile

Sun Gro was founded in 1929 in Vancouver, BC and has grown to become North America’s largest producer of sphagnum peat, and the largest distributor of peat moss and peat and bark-based growing media to professional plant growers in the US and Canada. Sold through IGC and Hardware stores, Black Gold is Sun Gro’s primary consumer product line. The line includes potting soils, garden amendments and natural & organic fertilizers. Many of the Black Gold products are OMRI Listed. For more information on Black Gold products visit our Products Page, or for more information on Sun Gro Horticulture’s entire product offering go to www.sungro.com.

And when it comes to Black Gold fertilizers and amendments, our fine print is a whole education on the best way to achieve optimal results in your garden. Optimum is the balance between using enough to obtain all the benefits you can, but not so much that it costs you more than it should. Turn any package around and you’ll discover the fine print that’s key to a fantastic garden.

Back Label: Turn to the back of the package for detailed guidelines on how to use every Black Gold soil amendment.

AMENDMENTS
These are larger bagged products that bring fertile organic matter to ordinary garden soil. They include Black Gold Garden Compost Blend, Natural & Organic Soil Builder, Earthworm Castings Blend and Soil Conditioner. At the top is a rundown on all the ways you might use this product in your garden. For example, Garden Compost is recommended to top dress a lawn, enrich flower beds and to even use it as a light weight seed cover. It also tells you this is a good form of organic matter to break up heavy soils and add water holding capacity to sandy soils.

Under the Ingredients Section you learn exactly what’s in the amendment, so you can be sure everything it contains is organic and all natural. For our OMRI listed Garden Compost and Earthworm Casting Blend, the back panel includes a detailed explanation of what this means and why it’s so important to have third party verification that a product is all organic.

Application Chart: This chart helps you determine how many bags of amendment are required for the size of your garden.

The How To Use section that’s unique to every product. It tells you how much you’ll need to cover a specified area properly. For example, many stipulate a 2″ to 4″ deep layer, which is spread uniformly over the area so every square inch receives the same amount. Only after the area is covered should you work it in with a tiller or spading fork.

There’s a handy chart that shows you how many bags you’ll need to get the proper depth of coverage overall. It takes you step by step through the process of determining how many square feet of garden space you have, then tells you how many cubic feet of product you’ll need to get the job done. Do your math in advance or bring your calculator to the garden center and refer to details on the package to make sure you buy enough for the coverage depth you want.

FERTILIZER
The back panels of all our Black Gold Natural and Organic Fertilizers begin by sharing general fertilization tips and ways to safely incorporate it into the planting hole of herbaceous plants, trees and shrubs. You’ll notice an important rule of thumb: “Avoid over feeding your plants, a little extra might not be a good thing.”

Fertilizer: The back of Black Gold fertilizer packages provide instructions on how to properly use this product for different kinds of garden plants.

The Directions for Use Chart helps you adjust fertilization according to the kinds of plants you grow. This chart details Application Rate, which is how many cups of fertilizer are recommended for 50 square feet of vegetables, flowers or perennials, which are all herbaceous plants. Next are the woody plants including roses, shrubs and trees. Here it’s divided into new and established plantings both in ground and in pot applications. The last box details ways to apply organic fertilizer to your container gardens. All plant types have a Frequency Box that tells you how often to apply it.

Buy and apply our Black Gold Amendments and Fertilizers because they’re the best value for creating and maintaining a prolific organic garden. We hope you like our beautiful labels, but remember to turn it around because there you’ll find the instructions for maximizing your benefits printed clearly on the back.

Check back often to see the latest and greatest gardening tips from our helpful experts that will get your garden in gear!

Return to the Follow Our Experts Page

Black Gold’s own Donna Wright was there GardenPalooza all day, building Dirt Babies with Black Gold Natural & Organic Potting Soil and handing them out – always a lot of fun for the kids. The event was held at Fir Point Farms in Aurora, Oregon. Thanks for attending and having a blast with us!

FREE ADMISSION & FREE PARKING

Find out more at the official Fall GardenPalooza website.

This event takes at
Fir Point Farms
located 20 miles South of Portland
at 14601 Arndt Road in Aurora, OR 97002

Watch Donna Wright demonstrate on GardenTime.tv how to make Dirt Babies.

Blair and Paul are a wealth of information on gardening, soils and organic fertilizers. Thank you for tuning in! We hope that you learned more about how best make use of Black Gold organic soils and fertilizers in your garden!

Click here for a list of stations that carry the Paul Parent Radio Club Show and times.

Visit Paul Parent’s Website

For those not in the broadcast area, podcasts of The Paul Parent Gardening Club are now available as well!

Hydrangea ‘Pistachio’

But first, here are some suggestions and comments. We had a late wet and cool spring. This resulted in many gardeners getting a late start. Then when summer arrived, it generally provided ideal conditions for most of the plants we grow here. Now that we are into autumn, the weather is still quite hot and the winds very drying. There are so many plants that I want to extend the season with because we could easily have six more weeks of nice weather. In my own garden, it is difficult to keep everything watered and I am thankful that I used a generous amount of Black Gold Soil Conditioner at time of planting. This is an organic blend of bark, compost, Canadian sphagnum peat moss, compost and forest humus, earthworm castings, and Mycorhizzae. In some areas of my garden where it is particularly sunny and dry, I mixed in Black Gold Just Coir as an organic soil amendment to increase the water holding capacity of the soil.

In the many pots on my deck and patio, my choice was primarily Black Gold Natural & Organic Potting Soil and this has been a huge asset in helping my pots not to dry out. When I compare my pots with some neighbors that did not use this potting soil, the difference is striking with mine having a big advantage. Most of my potted plants are still lush looking and thriving.

Canna ‘Pretoria’

It seems as though it has been a banner year for Hydrangeas. I find that they generally do best with protection from the hot afternoon sun. They thrive in areas of morning sun or dappled shade such as from a tree. They also need a good supply of moisture and Black Gold Just Coir has proven to be a perfect amendment in my garden. This product, as the name implies, is actually coconut coir pith and has tremendous water holding capacities. It is a natural and organic soil amendment. While I have many hydrangeas in my garden, a new one this year is called ‘Pistachio’. With flowers that vary in color from the time they open until they fade, this has been a real conversation piece. It is relatively new on the market but should be readily available at most garden centers. I have also seen Hydrangea ‘Pistachio’ planted in a container and it is spectacular.

For a sunny location, try cannas. These big and bold foliage plants seem to thrive in a full sun location. There are many different leaf colors and patterns to choose from and the photo here is just one example of what an outstanding container plant Cannas can make. This is Canna ‘Pretoria’ with gorgeous, large, variegated leaves with orange flowers towering above. The base is planted with begonias which will bloom all summer. In our climate, they will usually survive a winter if they have good drainage and a heavy layer of mulch over the top. However, I have a favorite one that I want to be certain that it survives and I always lift and store the rhizomes after the first frost. 

Echinacea Flame Thrower

In a hot and very sunny location and for a plant that thrives in these conditions, consider the North American native Echinacea. You might be familiar with this under that name Purple Cone Flower as this has been a staple plant in many established gardens. Recently there have been many new introductions with a wide range of color. The picture here is Echinacea ‘Flame Thrower’ and judging from the flower; I believe you can see how it got the name. Echinacea flowers are excellent for cutting and in the fall, if they are left on the plant to produce seed, you will discover that they are favored by finches. Echinacea plants need good drainage during the winter in order to survive. The addition of Black Gold Pumice to the soil will help provide this and sometimes even making a small mound of a mixture of pumice and soil around the base of the plant will help keep standing water away from the crown.

Rosie Sweet Potato and Coleus

For a difficult slope or bank, here is a photo of an excellent example of a mass planting of sweet potato vines in both chartreuse and almost black foliage. Sweet potato vines generally do not even begin growing until warm weather arrives, but then watch out! They can grow extremely fast and can quickly fill in a vacant space in the garden. Note the sun coleus at the top of the slope, once again a plant that is a good example of one that can provide amazing color in the foliage throughout the summer season.

I would be remiss without mentioned Hardy Fuchsias. These wonderful hummingbird magnets are becoming increasingly popular and the range of flower color and growth habits of the plants is astounding. A particular favorite of mine is ‘Tom Thumb’. This is a compact grower and you can tell by the picture, the plants can be covered with small flowers. Hardy Fuchsias bloom from about June until we get a frost. They may die back to the ground, but in western Oregon and Washington, they are almost always root-hardy and will return in the spring.

Except for the Hydrangea, the above mentioned plants will continue to produce flowers and provide wonderful foliage as long as the weather stays warm. These are plants to remember to buy in the spring to extend the flowering season in your garden and all are easy to grow. Your fall garden can indeed be quite colorful.

Fuschia, Tom Thumb

Stop. Go back and take a long look at the luxuriant Acer palmatum. Misunderstood, and much maligned, Japanese maples for southeastern gardens prove themselves to be hardier in the southern Atlantic states than you may suspect. A perfect small specimen tree for the cooler end of Zone 8 and colder, Japanese maples will offer interest in the landscape throughout the entire year.

Maple Leaf Varieties – Japanese Maples

In spring, the brilliant color of uncurling foliage coupled with dainty twin-seedpods dangling underneath yields to the fullness of their summertime canopy dancing in the rising heat. Then, as autumn days cool, the leaves once again take on new hues of gold or crimson, burning like fire against a crisp blue fall sky. When the trembling leaves finally turn loose and float down to dot the ground in winter, your attention is subsequently drawn to the arching of elegant branches, with their own sculptural quality not fully admired until laid bare.

There are three major Japanese maple leaf types to remember: palmate, dissectum, and linearilobum. Some sources list sub-groups of variegated, dwarf, or unusual types; but, you can find the name of most cultivars armed with an understanding of the three major leaf types.

Bloodgood Red – Japanese Maple

Palmate leaves are simple, 2-5” in width and length, shaped like an open human hand, from which they get their scientific name. Slightly confusing is the fact that each leaf can have between 5-9 lobes, and some trees have leaves with various numbers of lobes residing side-by-side. Palmate foliage comes in various shades of green, red, and even variegated with pink and cream, like ‘Butterfly’. Most popular among this group of Japanese maples are ‘Bloodgood’, ‘Osakazuki’, and ‘Moonfire’. A unique cultivar to seek if you like unusual shapes is the rough curly-leafed ‘Shishigashira’, or “Lion’s mane’ Japanese maple.

Dissectum types have lacy, deeply cut, and divided leaves that can host up to 11 lobes. This group includes familiar varieties such as ‘Crimson Queen’, ‘Red Filigree Lace’, ‘Viridis’, and Acer palmatum var. atropurpureum dissectum (called APAD for short). Many gardeners wrongly associate the entire group of Japanese maples with these small dissected-leafed trees that are elegantly broader in width than height.

Linearilobum leaves are extremely narrow and pointed, appearing stretched out. Because of their elongated nature, they often droop, and this factor gives their trees a more rounded form. Sometimes called the “bamboo” maple, this group includes the elegant ‘Red Pygmy’ and ‘Shime no uchi’.

An interesting trait of linearilobum trees is that sometimes their immature leaves may appear palmate. Gardeners often mistake these misshapen leaves for sports and accidentally prune them off.

The ideal planting area for a Japanese maple would be in well-drained soil, high in organic matter. A difficult spot to find in many Southeastern gardens. In sandy soil, plant your maple root ball level with the surrounding topography; however, in clay-based soils plant ‘em high. Taper the fill dirt around the root ball and create a shallow saucer of soil to retain water, then mulch with 2-3 inches of good organic mulch.

The ideal pH for a Japanese maple would be closer to neutral, but they will tolerate acidic conditions, if you add lime the first few years to get your maple established, then allow the natural acidity level to drop back down.

You must water your newly planted Japanese maple through the entire first year. Allow the tree to dry slightly between watering, however, in the absence of rain, give the tree at least 1 inch of water per week. Once your tree is well-established, you may never have to worry about watering, unless you are in an area experiencing drought.

An important reminder is that Japanese maples cannot tolerate wet feet. Do not allow your plant to sit in a wet hole, or it will slowly die. So, never site your maple in a swale or boggy location.

Eastern exposure where the tree will receive morning sun or filtered light is ideal. If you have had success with azaleas, this is the perfect spot to grow Japanese maples. Try to protect your maple from late afternoon sun, as this is the highest heat and light stress time of day. In summer, too much sunlight can severely damage the bark of a Japanese maple and desiccate its leaves.

When you catch Japanese maple fever, like I have, the perfect guidebook for your new passion is the updated version of JAPANESE MAPLES, by J.D. Vertrees, copyright Timber Press, 1978.

Here is a short list of popular and extremely hardy Japanese Maples

Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’ – This very tall deep purple-red tree is the most popular of the dark palmatum-leafed Japanese maples for good reasons. It is extremely cold hardy, resists turning bronze when planted in full sun, can reach 33’ in height, and has stunning crimson fall color (see image above).

‘Butterfly’ – A favorite variegated-leafed specimen, this tree’s palmate leaves begin green with pink margins in the spring, change to grey-blue-green with creamy variegation in summer, then morph to rosy magenta in autumn. No two leaves will be alike on this slow-growing upright 15’h x 8’w treasure. Provide it with dappled to full afternoon shade.

‘Crimson Queen’ – This popular weeping, deep-red dissected-leaf maple is a garden standard. In the hottest regions of the Southeast, its summer color can be affected by extreme heat and sun, but you will forgive the slight bronzing when you see its brilliant scarlet show in the fall. Reserve plenty of room as it can mature into a 10-feet tall by 13-feet wide mound.

‘Sango Kaku’ – The coral bark Japanese maple is just as remarkable in wintertime as the rest of the year. Also sold as ‘Senkaki’, its name means “coral tower”. This is a green-leafed palmatum that starts spring slightly reddish, and then the foliage turns from mid-green in summer to yellow-gold in fall. Remember that the bark color is most prominent on young growth, so if the tree reaches its 26-foot potential height, the color will eventually be up in its wide spreading branches. ‘Sango Kaku’ performs best in cooler regions above Zone 8.

‘Seiryu’ – Is a green laceleaf that defies all the rules. It is an upright, vase-shaped tree that grows 16-23-feet high and can spread 10-13 feet wide. The springtime canopy is apple green with reddish tips, summertime transforms it to light green, and then the astonishing fall color is golden with touches of crimson. Its name means “blue-green dragon”.

‘Shishigashira’ – Also called the “Lion’s mane” maple, is a very desirable collector’s plant. The palmate green leaves twist, curl, and crinkle into masses that remind you of the head of a mythic lion from traditional Japanese theater, especially when the leaves turn golden in fall. This slow-growing tree can reach 20-feet in height, but even when it is small it is exceptional.

Tamuke Yama – Japanese maple

‘Tamuke yama’ – A purple-red dissected-leafed cascading tree with the potential of reaching 13-feet in height that has been popular since the early 1700s. Its bright crimson spring color changes to purple-red in summer and then to glowing scarlet in the fall. Considered the best red cutleaf for full sun locations in the Southeast, this maple is named for Mount Tamuke.

‘Waterfall’ – An especially hardy bright-green Japanese maple with large dissected leaves spanning from 3-5 inches across. It tolerates heat well, turns golden red in fall, and will reach 10-feet tall by 14-feet wide. Overlapping leaves give it the natural cascading shape that inspired its name. This small tree is worth seeking.

‘Viridis’ – A mounding green dissectum that is easily confused with other similar weeping cultivars. This one is vigorous, can take a lot of heat and sun, will reach 13 feet in both directions, and turns honey golden in the fall. Not surprisingly, the cultivar name simply means “green”.

‘Aconitifolium’ – My final selection isn’t another Acer palmatum. This is a Fern-leaf maple, a real Acer japonicum. With large, deeply cut and lobed leaves that resemble Monkshood, its namesake Aconitum, this rounded 16-foot tall tree is stunning. The summer foliage is deep green, but in the fall the leaves become shades of reds that range from chili pepper to royal purple, inspiring its Japanese name, ‘Maiku jaku’ which means “dancing Peacock”.

Photos by Pam Beck

Cobaea scandens, or Cup and Saucer Vine, is also called ‘Cathedral Bells’ and when I see one in a garden, as I did recently, I wonder why we don’t see it growing here more often. The common name comes from the shape of the flower, which is unusual in that when it opens it is a light green color and in a few days turns to purple. This is a very vigorous and fast growing summer vine and would be an ideal choice to quickly cover a fence or trellis. It is easy to grow from seed and should be started indoors in the spring and then set outside when the weather warms. It is technically a perennial but should be treated as an annual here in the Pacific Northwest. The one drawback that I can think of is that it does not bloom until later in the summer, the last part of August/first part of September. However, I think the flower is so striking that it is worth the wait.

We often think of Hibiscus as tropical plants from Hawaii and other warm weather states. While this Hibiscus can be grown there, it will not survive our winters and gardeners often plant this and treat it as an annual plant. What many gardeners do not know is that there is a winter-hardy Hibiscus. Often referred to simply as Hardy Hibiscus, these shrubs will die to the ground in the winter but reappear in the late spring. I have several in my garden and they are now coming into flower. It is nice to have a shrub blooming at this time of year as not many are. The flowers are large and there is a range of colors, white, pink, red and combinations of all of these colors. Plants reach about 4-feet tall and this is an excellent time to visit garden centers to select the color you want. These winter-hardy Hibiscus are best planted in full sun.

This year’s Independent Garden Center Show at Navy Pier in the great city of Chicago was as huge, as impressive and as beautiful as we’ve come to expect. The IGC show is the world’s largest educational resource for garden centers and this year there was be a new roster of speakers, new tracks and new sessions at IGC University. Vendors from all parts of the United States and from around the world were on hand, including Black Gold!

We enjoyed strolling the 210,000 square feet of vendor exhibits stretching far out toward the stunning blue waters of Lake Michigan at Navy Pier, where more than 1,000 exhibitors met face-to-face with thousands of IGC buyers – just like you – from all over the country.

If you at IGC 2012, leave a comment below and tell us about your experience. What did you learn? What did you see that was new and exciting, or just plain fun?

Independent Garden Center Show 2012
Date: August 21-23, 2012
Location: Navy Pier, Chicago (600 East Grand Avenue Chicago, IL 60611)
Black Gold Booth #: 1129

July 28th and July 29th
9am to 4pm
Harmony Farm Supply
3244 Gravenstein Hwy N
Sebastopol Ca 95472
(707) 823-9125
Show Map

If you have rose bushes, between now and mid-September, it is a good time to give them a final application of fertilizer for the year. I particularly like to use an organic fertilizer as generally the release of nutrients is slow and with the warm soil, the fertilizer will slowly become something useful for the plant. Black Gold Rose & Flower Fertilizer is ideal and applying now will encourage flowering throughout the fall season. I like to cultivate the fertilizer lightly into the soil and then give the plants a thorough watering.

As I visit other gardens this season, I see more and more vegetable gardens being planted. Home vegetable gardens are cropping up in landscapes with limited space and not necessarily in what we think of as a traditional vegetable garden. Just within my immediate neighborhood there are two rather unique vegetable gardens. One is in the space that was previously a lawn and another is in a space that is directly along the road. We would probably not have seen either of these locations used for vegetables a few years ago.  

LEFT: A raised bed created at a local garden center. RIGHT: An example of vegetable garden along a roadside.

Another example of a unique vegetable is one that appeared recently at a local garden center. A raised bed vegetable garden was created in a space that had formerly been part of the garden center walkway. It was made by using pavers for the sides and then filled with top soil and then amended with organic soil conditioner and organic fertilizers. This proved to be an ideal demonstration garden to show home gardeners how easy it is to make a raised bed and that one can be built over almost any type of surface, even a driveway. 

‘Joe’ harvesting cucumbers in his community garden.

For those with limited space, or perhaps limited sunlight, consider a community garden. I am amazed at the prolific community vegetable gardens that are scattered throughout the city. These community gardens have become so popular in Portland that there is almost always a waiting list for those wanting their own plot. I have a friend, ‘Joe’, that was able to get two plots at his local community garden and he has diverse plantings and reaps a prolific harvest. The other huge benefit of a community garden is that it becomes an opportunity to meet other gardeners from your neighborhood and helps as a community building tool. Most gardeners love sharing ideas and it is hard to think of anything better than growing vegetables side by side with someone of like interests. Not only can you share the harvest, but sharing ideas on what you grow and how can be a great way to pick up new ideas for your own plot and to meet a new gardener.

For vegetables that continue to produce into the fall, consider giving them a final application of an organic fertilizer. Black Gold Tomato & Vegetable Fertilizer can be applied now and as I mentioned with applying rose fertilizer, I always like to lightly work the soil, apply the fertilizer and then water.    

Janet’s vegetable garden is example of vegetable garden cut into lawn area.

Late summer can be a stressful time for many container plants and hanging baskets. With the container being a limiting factor with regard to a plants source for fertilizer plus the constant watering required, nutrients in a container garden can easily be depleted. This is a good time to add some organic fertilizer like Black Gold All Purpose fertilizer as this can give plants a much needed boost.

While this is just August, it is time to be thinking about a fall vegetable garden. As summer crops fade, consider the space as potential for an entirely new crop to grow and harvest in the fall and winter. If the soil has been used for a summer vegetable garden, it would be wise to amend it by adding organic matter with a product such as Black Gold Soil Conditioner. This same time would also be an ideal opportunity to add Black Gold All Purpose Fertilizer and work this into the soil along with the soil conditioner. Then as you remove your summer vegetable plants, and the soil is prepped, you are ready to plant. As a general rule, it is best not to plant the same crop in the same location year after year. Mix things up and perhaps, where you had tomatoes, plant peas.

Always remember that gardens are meant to be enjoyed. In my own garden, while there are always many tasks that need to be done, I do like to take some time, especially in the morning, and casually walk through it. What a delight it is to see plants in the coolness of the morning, hear the birds chirping and letting my mind relax.

Overview of plot at a community garden.

The foliage of this squash plant shows varying degrees of chlorosis compared to a few normal, all green leaves. Note the green veins within the yellow leaves that distinguishes nutrient deficiency from pests and diseases.

Plants need two types of nutrients to grow. First are the macro-nutrients we all know from fertilizer packages, which are nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. These also include to a lesser extent, calcium, magnesium and sulfur. The list of micro-nutrients is much longer, but these are all needed too, often in small quantities and sometimes just a trace. Among the most vital are boron, iron, manganese, zinc, copper, molybdenum and chlorine. The absence of any of these can cause chlorosis.

The actual nutrient deficiency I’m experiencing may be impossible to nail down exactly, and that’s not really necessary to solve the problem. Often folks assume it’s a nitrogen deficiency, but in my case all the other plants around that squash are nice and green, so that isn’t it. Plus, adding nitrogen rich fertilizer to green-up certain summer vegetables is not the best idea. Those that produce their crop via flowers and fruit such as cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers, may stop flowering, which means no more fruit. Sure they’ll grow big and leafy as a result, but that will interfere with future yield.

The best way to rescue a chlorotic fruiting vegetable plant is to provide a multi-vitamin approach that brings a wide range of macro and micro nutrients into the root zone at the same time. However, for rapid uptake, it must be in a form that’s immediately available to the plant.

Black Gold Earthworm Castings are an all organic fertilizer-like material that is renowned for containing a wide range of macro- and micro-nutrients. That’s why it’s present in many other Black Gold products too. What makes earthworm castings so great is that these nutrients are held in a water soluble form. When applied in a water solution, they enter the root zone and are taken in by that hungry squash immediately.

Chlorosis in your leafy vegetables such as lettuce or cabbage is treated slightly differently. With these, lots of leafy growth is desirable since this is the part you eat. For these, work in Black Gold Tomato and Vegetable Fertilizer, then water it in with earthworm castings tea to make sure you’ve covered all he bases. Since all these are OMRI listed, you can confidently apply your nitrogen to leaf crops at any time during the summer or fall season.

Gardening is about recognizing the silent language of plants and interpreting what it means. When leaves turn yellow, be sure to note whether the veins remain green to determine if it’s chlorosis or something else. Then consider if it’s a crop that depends on flowers, or one that’s foliage-based. That tells you exactly how to treat them with confidence using Black Gold all organic fertilizers and potting soils.

Sun Gro Horticulture’s District Manager of Southeastern Retail Products Scott Pace and Black Gold Community Expert Garden Writer Pam Beck were featured speakers for at the 2012 Summer Green Road Show in Hickory, North Carolina at the Hickory Metro Convention Center.

On Wednesday, August 8th, Scott moderated a panel discussion about growing operations in garden centers, then Pam presented two retail track lectures titled “Combining Perennials” and “Best Garden Plants for North Carolina” the morning of Thursday, August 9th.

The Summer Green Road Show is an education and trade show for the Green Industry sponsored by the North Carolina Nursery & Landscape Association. NCNLA is predicted record attendance since this year’s event was also held in conjunction with the North Carolina Urban Forestry Conference. Thanks to all who were able to attend this year!

If you were there leave a comment below and let us know what you thought of this year’s Summer Green Road Show.

Back on Sunday, August 5th, Black Gold had the opportunity to participate in the always unique, always fun Super RAD PDX Craft Show, which took place at Portland Nursery’s Division street location. Amidst all the fun, summer- and garden-related crafts was our very our Black Gold booth offering adults and youngsters alike the chance to make their very own Dirt Baby out of some of the best soil on earth – Black Gold Natural & Organic Potting Soil.

We had a great time as you can see from the photos. There was even a silent auction benefitting Harper’s Playground. Hope to see you all again next year for some more fun!

If you were there, leave a comment below and let us know what your favorite part of the day was.

Call for times & details: (707) 839-1587

What is an OMRI Certification? This explanation is courtesy of their website, “Founded in 1997, the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) provides organic certifiers, growers, manufacturers, and suppliers an independent review of products intended for use in certified organic production, handling, and processing.”

“OMRI® Listed products undergo a rigorous review to ensure that they comply with USDA organic standards,” and furthermore, “OMRI was founded by organic certifiers and continues to serve certifiers and their clients with crucial information to ensure organic integrity.” ~ www.omri.org

Black Gold Natural & Organic Potting Soil is proud to carry the OMRI seal on every bag so that you can trust your edibles grown in our truly organic potting soils. A product you won’t have to handle with kid gloves.

If you dream of the Dutch fields full of perfect tulips but find your fall-planted bulbs disappointing come spring, then maybe your bulbs are just hungry. While bulbs are rather self-contained little packages, the one thing they can use during the long winter is phosphorus, and lots of it. This macro-nutrient drives root growth which helps your bulbs become better established come bloom time. The age old organic way to get it is with Black Gold Bone Meal. Dig your hole, then loosen soil at the bottom, add one tablespoon of bone meal and mix well. Then set your big, juicy tulip bulb onto this soft enriched earth and cover it up. For smaller bulbs use a half tablespoon. Remember, this nutrient doesn’t move much so if you don’t put it down there, roots won’t find it.

When I visit other gardens I am often intrigued by things I see other gardeners do. Janet Livesay, in Lake Oswego, Oregon, had a planter that fit over the railing of her deck. She used Black Gold Natural & Organic Potting Soil and planted lettuce from seed. Since the deck is by a door to her kitchen, she could easily cut the lettuce whenever she was making a salad. She was innovative with wanting to harvest lettuce over a long period and so she also planted seeds in small nursery pots at various intervals throughout the summer. When the lettuce in the planter was past its prime, she simply replaced it with new plants. And with the planter being off the ground, she did not have to worry about slugs eating the lettuce.

Canna ‘Phasion’ (Tropicanna) – Jessie Keith

The show stopping beauty of cannas is best enjoyed this time of year when many other ornamentals are flagging. Their bold, tropical foliage lights up the garden even when not in flower and showy blooms are icing on the cake. Keeping these heat-lovers happy is easy. The key is ensuring their roots are moist to wet, they have enough light and they are well-fertilized; Black Gold Rose and Flower Fertilizer is ideal for keeping plants healthy and flowers dancing through to fall. Some canna favorites with bold leaves and flowers include the multi-colored ‘Phasion’ (Tropicanna™), and the compact ‘Striped Beauty’ with its striped foliage and bold flowers that are red in bud and open to brilliant lemon yellow. When it comes to showy flowers, nothing beats the perfect salmon pink blooms of Canna ‘Mrs P.S. Dupont’. Ooh la la!

Gardener’s Note: Several viral diseases have plagued cannas in recent years. If your well cared for cannas have yellow streaked, mottled or browning leaves or leaf veins, they are likely infected and should be dug up and disposed of away from the garden.

Canna 'Mrs P.S. Dupont' Detail

Canna ‘Mrs P.S. Dupont’

Okra in Oregon – Photo by Susanne Pope

Is anybody else out there having success growing a plant that wouldn’t normally be thought to thrive here in Oregon, or wherever you are? Leave a comment below and tell us about it.

Teamwork at the Summer Green Road Show provided by: (left to right) Wayne Bagwell, Sun Gro Professional Products Rep. for North Carolina; Pam Beck, Black Gold Community Expert Garden Writer; Scott Pace, Sun Gro Horticulture’s District Manager of Southeastern Retail Products; and, Lee Urwick, Buffalo Horticultural Sales representing Fafard products in N.C.

August was the perfect time to visit the Metro Convention Center in Hickory, North Carolina, an internationally famous furniture convention site nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. On this trip, however, the emphasis was on living plants, garden tools, and potting medium at the 2012 Summer Green Road Show.

The Summer Green Road Show is an annual education and trade show for the Green Industry sponsored by the North Carolina Nursery & Landscape Association. NCNLA predicted record attendance since this year’s event was also held in conjunction with the North Carolina Urban Forestry Conference.

Between working in the Black Gold booth and the educational sessions, Scott Pace, Sun Gro Horticulture’s District Manager of Southeastern Retail Products, moderated a panel discussion about growing operations in garden centers.

Scott shared his overall impression, “What I took away from this year’s show is that there seems to be more positive energy in the industry right now going into Fall. The retail side is looking ahead to a good Spring.”

There was an excellent reception on the trade show floor to the partnering of the Black Gold line of organic potting soils with a familiar Southeastern retail potting medium name, Fafard.

Black Gold was well-represented at the Summer Green Road Show as Community Expert Garden Writer Pam Beck also presented two retail track lectures. Her audience included nursery growers, retail sales personnel, landscape designers and architects, university staff, and cooperative extension agents.

“A strong camaraderie exists among the Green Industry in the Southeast.” Pam added, “These folks know each other on a first-name basis. They share information, and care deeply about success within the entire industry. So, I was thrilled with the renewed enthusiasm I heard from the attendees.”

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the Sun Gro booth and attended one of the educational sessions

Spring 2012: The garden in February 2012 – just prior to final fertilizer application with protective bird netting and straw bale barriers against voracious rabbits.

Last year my desert dry wash was nothing but porous sand and decomposed granite. They said I’d never grow organic food there. I had one year to build this ground spring planting season. Here’s how I solved the problems and grew this fabulous 10′ by 20′ organic vegetable garden using Black Gold products…

Increased water holding by tilling in organic matter from Black Gold Soil Conditioner, Just Coir and Garden Compost.

Added mycorrhizae with Black Gold Starter and Transplant Fertilizer.

Introduced a wide range of nutrients with Earthworm Castings Blend.

Boosted nitrogen with Black Gold Alfalfa Meal Fertilizer and All Purpose Fertilizer.

Lined each planting hole with Waterhold Cocoblend Potting Soil to help the root zone remain moist enough for seedlings to get a good start.

A picture is worth a thousand words. I can’t keep up with all the food so it’s shared with friends and neighbors. Thank you, Black Gold for turning my desert into an abundant organic garden.

July Garden: By July the tomatoes had grown as tall as I am and the peppers are just beginning to ripen along with lemon cucumbers, eggplant and squash.

Sometimes a plant that we think of as growing to 15 feet in height or more, can actually be kept quite small by severe pruning. I have a Cotinus coggygria ‘Golden Spirit’ (Smoke Tree) growing in a pot on our deck and it has been in the same pot for 6-7 years. In the winter, I prune the branches back to 12-18 inches, lift the plant out of the pot and add fresh Black Gold All Purpose Potting Soil as the plant goes back into the pot. ‘Golden Spirit’ smoke trees have leaves that are lime green in early spring and turn to chartreuse in the summer. They make excellent container plants, especially when there are plants with dark green foliage surrounding them. This Cotinus makes a great summer foliage plant and while it will not bloom because of the severe pruning, the leaves more than make up for the absence of flowers.

LEFT: ‘Striped Roman’ tomato with tomato late blight on fruit and foliage. RIGHT: Tomato late blight lesion on ‘Striped Roman’ tomato. Photos by Jessie Keith

Tomatoes with oily patches and plants with stem lesions and browning leaves – it’s not what a tomato grower wants to see because these are the telltale signs and symptoms of late blight (Phytophthora infestans). Most commonly known for causing the Irish Potato Famine, late blight is spread by a fungus-like pathogen that survives and overwinters on infected plant material. Though it kills tomatoes more slowly than potatoes, it is equally lethal and destroys tomato fruits.

Tomato late blight is a disease that needs a live host plant from year to year, so several methods can be used to avoid it and control its spread if discovered. The first step is to plant healthy plants from reliable growers or seed suppliers. (Nothing is worse than being sold diseased plants!) In the garden, avoid moist soil by planting tomatoes in well-drained, aerated, raised beds and keep plants healthy and vigorous by feeding them Black Gold® Tomato & Vegetable Fertilizer. It also helps to encourage air-flow by spacing plants well and keeping them pruned. Rotating crops on a three year cycle will also help keep soil disease-free. Finally, scout for infected plants and immediately remove any infected plant material far away from the garden and compost bin. Be diligent and you can beat late blight.

Thank you for joining Black Gold and K103 at this fun event for the entire family in beautiful Camas, Washington. The festivities took place Sunday, September 9th, 2012. Black Gold’s very own Donna Wright was there showing kids and adults alike how to make Dirt Babies out of some of the best soil on earth – Black Gold Natural and Organic Potting Soil. It was a lot of fun!

For more details, or to purchase a ticket visit the Clark County Parade of Homes website.

View Shuttle Parking Map >>

The Black Gold Dirt Babies were a huge hit at Portland Nursery earlier this month, and we’re happy to bring them to Parade of Homes!

Congratulations to Marlene Mccleery of Grayland, Washington!

Marlene submitted a photo of her container garden to the Black Gold Facebook Page and was selected as the winner of our Container Garden Photo Contest. She will receive a $100 gift card to a local Black Gold retailer near her.

Get your garden ready with Black Gold and be on the lookout for more chances to make your garden a winner!

Happy Planting!

My plants of choice for the past few summers, and I always have at least one pot with this combination, is Begonia ‘Bonfire’ and white bacopa (Sutera cordata). I place the begonia plants in the center of the pot and the bacopa around the rim. The begonias tend to grow upward and then flop while the bacopa trails over the sides and by mid July has covered the outside of the pot with a mass of white flowers. The begonias have been in bloom since the time they were planted and are hummingbird magnets.

Black Gold Waterhold Cocoblend Potting Soil is ideal to use in pots like these that are exposed to the elements, as the coconut fibers have great water holding capabilities and this makes the pots less likely to dry out on a hot day. It also reduces the amount of water needed in each pot and I have found that what once was a daily water requirement, I can often go two or three days between watering.

In earlier articles, I have mentioned the importance of a garden mulch and that I used Black Gold Soil Conditioner when planting new plants. The positive effect of using this product earlier in the season is paying benefits now. As summer has arrived and we are having warmer weather and few rainy days, the soil is beginning to become dry and many plants need supplemental water. The use of Black Gold Soil Conditioner has helped retain moisture in the soil and less water is required than if it had not been used.

Even though it is July, it is not too late to apply Black Gold Soil Conditioner to the soil around established plants. I like to mix it in with the existing soil and I will gently cultivate it into the first 2-3 inches of soil and then water. Some plants tend to need more water than others and here is where Black Gold Just Coir can be used. This product is actually coconut coir pith and its’ water holding capacities are amazing. Working Black Gold Just Coir into the top few inches around plants that like some extra moisture can be a huge benefit. 

Three plants I have found that will greatly benefit from the use of Black Gold Just Coir mulch are Gunnera, Hosta, and Hydrangea. My experience has been that all three of these plants tend to like a moist soil environment. Gardeners grow hosta primarily for their foliage and having sun burned crisp foliage tends to ruin the appearance of the plant. While there are some hostas that will tolerate more sun than others, I have found that regardless of their exposure, they tend to benefit from a moist, well drained soil.

Gunnera, some garden centers will label this as “Dinosaur Food” since it is a plant left over from pre-historic times, can be a wonderful focal feature in a garden. Gunnera is known for its huge leaves that often measure over three feet across appearing on long stalks that can be eight feet in height and with features like this it is definitely a conversation plant. Gunnera likes moisture and fertilizer and plants are often seen growing near ponds and on banks of streams. The plants do not like to be in standing water but like their roots to be moist. Using Black Gold Just Coir can help to hold moisture and Black Gold All Purpose is a good natural fertilizer which I apply three times a year on my Gunnera.

Hydrangeas are such magnificent summer blooming shrubs that I cannot imagine my garden without some.  One of my favorites is “Limelight” and now in mid-July my plants are just coming into flower. While I have seen Hydrangeas planted in full sun, I have found they do much better with some protection from the hot afternoon sun. They also like moisture around the base and Black Gold Just Coir is ideal.

Summer is here and we should enjoy it and our garden and the less maintenance we have, the better.  Watering plants on hot days can be time consuming and with the addition of some soil mulch amendments around plants, we can spend less time in maintaining and more time enjoying.

Injury: When branches tear, bark is lost to expose interior wood and cambium to pests and diseases.

Torn away branches. When branches are lost to wind, they are often ripped from the trunk taking considerable bark with them. This results in large areas of exposed cambium and other tissues that invite pests and disease to enter the internal structures. To protect your tree provide a Band-Aid by sealing the wound with a coat of watered down interior latex paint. Tip: Mix it to match your bark color to camouflage that ugly injury.

Cracked intersections. Sometimes the winds can damage the joint where a branch forks out from the trunk. This crack can cut off moisture and nutrition carrying tissues in the cambium layer just under the bark. A crack can limit as much as 50% of the moisture supply to the branch it serves. As a result, the severed parts dry out and weaken, then are easily torn away in the next wind storm. Either prune away the branch below the crack, or relieve the pressure by pruning to reduce its overall weight.

Broken Tree: When trees lose a large branch, plants formerly in the shade may be crushed or suddenly exposed to full sun.

Raised roots. When the wind pushes a tree or shrub too hard, it’s roots can be ripped right out of wet rain-saturated soil. If roots remain exposed to air, they’ll dry out and the root hairs die. For a smaller tree, first straighten the trunk up and then press the soil and roots back in place with your boot. Water well to collapse any air pockets that remain hidden underground.

Defoliation. For sensitive shrubs that have been defoliated by wind, provide them with extra nutrition to encourage leaves to regrow. This is a big job that requires a good dose of nitrogen. To provide fast acting organic nitrogen that is gentle on these injured plants, cultivate Black Gold Alfalfa Meal Fertilizer into the soil to stimulate cell division in stems and leaves. Water well and reapply every month or so for the rest of the season.

Exposure changes. Where trees have been pruned or removed due to storm damage, the landscape beneath them will be badly damaged. Use Earthworm Castings Blend to introduce a wide range of nutrients to the soil around these plants to help them recover. Where these plants are now exposed to sun due to tree canopy reduction overhead, be sure to water more generously. Retain this moisture with a generous layer of Black Gold Garden Compost Blend to help the roots remain cool and moist through this hot season.

Become your own physician this summer by taking good care of the trees and shrubs that survived. Storms are always with us, so if you prune, feed and water correctly, the next time around your efforts will pay off with a stronger more resilient landscape.