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Green Thumb Prints Newsletter of the Hancock County

Master Gardener Volunteers Gardening is our Passion . . . Education is our Purpose

Dates to Remember!

Monday, February 3: Selecting seeds and plants from catalogs, presentation by Bill Lanning, Findlay-Hancock Co. Library, 6:30. Thursday, February 13: Brown Bag presentation, honeybees & their benefits by Dwight Wilson, Extension Office, 6:00. Thursday, February 13: MGV Monthly Meeting, Extension Office, 7:00. Friday, February 14: Happy Valentine’s Day! Monday, February 17: Presidents’ Day Wednesday, February 19: WFIN Phone Club, Barb Phillips & volunteer needed, 9:00—10:00. Saturday, February 22: Washington’s Birthday

UPCOMING EVENTS March 1-2: Leisure Living Show, Ft. Findlay Mall, info will be provided at monthly meeting. Saturday, March 15: Art of Gardening, See page 11-12. Saturdays, March 1 & 8: Annual Saturday Gardening Series, See page 8.

WHAT’S INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Antifreeze spray

Caring for Christmas Cactus

Floral Fireworks by Robert Campbell

Plants that do math

Once Upon a Lawn

Coordinator’s Corner By Bill Jones

What a winter we have been having! This is the first winter in recent memory where we have actually had Zone 5 temperatures (below minus 10). Many of our recent winters have not had temperatures below zero (zone 7). It will be interesting to observe the effect of this cold on the insect population this spring and summer. I expect that the bagworm population will be significantly reduced as a result. We all mourn the loss of Jeannette Miller. We will miss her zest for life and her willingness to help in so many areas of our Master Gardener program. Our practice is to add a book to our MGV library in memory of each departed active MGV. We have purchased a reference book on ornamental grasses in Jeannette’s memory since this was one of her main gardening interests. Each person at the February meeting will be able to sign this book in her memory. Our Brown Bag training will be held one hour before our next regular meeting on February 13. Please plan to come at 6:00 PM to the OSUE meeting room to hear Dwight Wilson talk to us about honeybees and their sweet benefit to all gardeners. One of the first phenological signs of spring is smelling the first skunk of the season. This normally

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January/February 2014

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION

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PHONE CLUB VOLUNTEERS Anyone interested in doing the phone club should

contact Barb Phillips as soon as possible. VOLUNTEER NEEDED FOR FEBRUARY.

This begins February 19 WFIN Radio Station

from 9:00—10:00 AM. PLEASE VOLUNTEER!

occurs in mid-February. Another sign is the blooming of the vernal witchhazel. May these signs help each of us to see the light at the end of winter’s cold tunnel. We have been made aware of several educational opportunities in February and March. I hope that many of you will take advantage of these. Remember, we need to obtain 10 hours of advanced education this year to remain active. Also, remember that we will provide up to $50.00 in educational cost reimbursement to each MGV. Bill Lanning will be speaking at the Findlay-Hancock County Library at 6:30 PM on February 3rd

about selecting seeds and plants through the many available seed catalogs. The Leisure Living Show will be held at the Findlay Village Mall on March 1 and 2 and we have a booth at that show. We will be developing a schedule for volunteers and you can sign up at the February meeting. Marilynn Beltz will be helping to organize this event so please share your ideas with her. There is still time to finish planning this year’s gardens and to get all of those seeds and plants ordered. I am looking forward to seeing each of you at the February meeting and sharing the new ideas you have for this gardening season. Keep warm.

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2014 Refreshment Sign Up List February 13: Cheryl Miller Larry Schock Pam McCloud March 13: Lyn Maa Sharon Hammer Baker Pat Flinn April 10: Banquet May 8 Plant Exchange: Bill Jones Marilynn Beltz June 12: Ruth Furiate Linda Laux Volunteer needed July 10: Picnic August 14: Carol Brumbaugh Ann Woolum Volunteer needed September 11: Barbara Phillips Lauri Inkrott Volunteer needed October 9: Barb Sherman Marty Davis Volunteer needed November 13: Volunteer needed Volunteer needed Volunteer needed December 4: Christmas Potluck

Thanks to all those who volunteer!

HOMEWORK!!

Before the February monthly meeting, please review and commit to upholding the guidelines of

our Standards of Behavior and the Pest Management Information Policy statements that

we signed when we first became MGVs. The link below will lead you to these documents.

http://hancock.osu.edu/topics/master-gardener-volunteer-program/test-1

Coordinator’s Report—Continued

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Good Read: Once Upon a Lawn: The History of Grass by G. Cox

Below is an interesting article from Dave’s Garden (http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/4581/).

Grass was not always tasked with being an aesthetically pleasing feature of cultivated gardens, it was (and is) a wild plant with hundreds of species and equally as many uses. Grass has always been a grazing material for wild animals and it is still produced specifically for that reason; additionally it provides food for humans and domesticated animals because of its grains, like wheat, rice and barley. So how did lawns come about? The Middle Ages: During the Middle Ages grassed enclosures were used as pasture for livestock like sheep and rabbits, they also became increasingly popular with the aristocracy as a means of decoration for noblemen's estates. The word ‘lawn' is believed to have been derived from in ‘laune' which first appeared in 1540 and is thought to have come from a Celtic word meaning ‘enclosure'. The Tudor and Elizabethan Ages: Lawns and gardens became walkways and social spaces in the Tudor age and consequently, gardening became a popular leisurely and artistic pursuit throughout the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages. By the end of the period the lawn was a status symbol for the upper classes as it denoted they didn't need to work their land, merely enjoy it. The 18th Century: William Kent and Capability Brown became key figures in landscape gardening, transforming grand romantic estates into green expanses where delicate lawns bled into meadows and grassy parks; the lawn had been made into a decorative feature by the French royal landscape architect, Andre Le Notre who designed the gardens at Versailles and incorporated the ‘tapis vert' or ‘green carpet'. The Regency and Victorian Ages: The lawn and garden continued to feature as part of ‘home life' across the classes, though more so for the Upper Middle strata. When Edwin Beard Budding invented the first lawnmower (1830) it was not perfect and mostly unfit for its purpose (to neaten the lawn with a close cut). However, the idea was there and has since been improved on fervently. With ease of maintenance, the lawn became popular among the Middle Classes. The 20th Century: With an entire industry centred on gardening and lawn maintenance, the lawn became accessible to the masses as a mark of suburban bliss. They hosted garden parties, barbecues and amateur gardeners began to appear. A garden became a standard fixture for homes and mowing the lawn became a natural weekend pursuit, with neighbourly competitions arising for the neatest, greenest and most attractive lawns. The 21st Century: A new millennium brought the age of the artificial lawn. It all started with the artificial sports surfaces

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Once upon a time, on a lawn far away, the gardens of the future began to come into existence. Over time the lawn grew in significance, its uses ranging far and wide, until one day there came a new dawn for the humble lawn – the age of artificial grass.

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Maybe plants are better at math than humans! (Information garnered from an article, “The Garden’s Midnight Snack,” by Jeff Cox, in the January-February issue of Horticulture, pages 18-19.) So you think that only humans can do arithmetic? The plant world begs to differ with you, at least according to the John Innes Centre, an independent center for plant and microbial science research in Norwich, England. Plants meter out the starch they store during the daylight hours, and use at night to grow, so that it runs out precisely at dawn. “In other words,” sums up Jeff Cox, “they divide the amount of starch by the amount of time until dawn.” According to scientists at the John Innes Center, “The calculations are precise, so that plants prevent starvation during the night but also make the most efficient use of their food. If the starch is used too fast, plants will starve and stop growing during the night. If the store is used too slowly, some of it will be wasted.” Cox says the scientists hypothesize that “the size of the starch store is encoded in a molecule S, while “time until dawn is encoded in a molecule call T. To get the rate of assumption, the plant divides S by T.” According to Allison Smith, a member of the study team at John Innes Center, the exact “how” of the division remains a mystery. “The S and T molecules will be in the chloroplast, where the starch accumulates. The circadian clock that sets T operates in the nucleus of the same cells. We don’t know how messages from the clock get into the chloroplast to set the level of T … We know the time factor is a function of the circadian clock, but we don’t know how the starch content is measured.” Even more amazing is the ability of plants to reset the circadian clock. Smith says it “is reset each dawn and always has a period of 24 hours (like our own body clocks). This means that when it gets dark, the plant can estimate the remaining period of time until dawn, regardless of the timing of dusk.” The clock can even adjust to “unexpected changes in the time of dusk. For example, if we put a plant in the dark after eight hours of light when it has always grown with 12 hours of light, it immediately adjusts the rate of starch degradation to a lower level so that the starch runs out precisely at dawn, even though the night is now 16 hours long, not 12 hours as in all its previous life.”

(Thanks to Bob Campbell for submitting this info.)

installed at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. The fake grass phenomenon erupted when artificial grass was fitted at the Astrodome because it demonstrated how well synthetic grass lawns dealt with wear-and-tear, not to mention the low maintenance design and versatile use. Now, artificial grass installers are being called to replace high-maintenance, high-turnover lawns with artificial alternatives at homes, schools, businesses and other traditionally green locations. The smell of freshly cut grass, the green expanses outside our windows and the way grass feels when you're strolling barefoot in it; all these things mean grass and lawns have a special place in our hearts. The history of lawns is an interesting and relatively brief one but with the dawn of the artificial age, the lawn's journey may only just be beginning...

Once Upon a Lawn—Continued

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Antifreeze Spray for Plants Bill Jones found the following article on the website, mygardenguide.com. This is something you might find interesting and may want to try in the future. For additional products and information, go to : Anti-Freeze for your plants

“Botanists Develop 'Antifreeze' Spray for Plants” “While this isn’t “breaking news” in the sense that it is this week’s news, I did come across this article (excerpts below) recently and felt it would be of interest to Daily Dirt readers. "At minus 6.6 (20.12 degrees Fahrenheit) or minus 6.3 centigrade (20.66 degrees Fahrenheit), plant tissues freeze solid, and we have to deal with that solidity, that freezing," said David Francko, Ph.D., a botanist at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Dr. Francko developed a solution that works like antifreeze for plants. It lowers the plants' freezing temperatures and enhances the plants' natural mechanisms to resist freeze damage. "The ability to reduce the freezing point of water that's inside the tissues of that plant and also, once that water freezes, to allow that plant to survive freezing temperatures [helps]," Dr. Francko said. "It can be frozen solid and still be viable." The spray, called Freeze-Pruf, reduces the freezing point of water inside the tissues of the plant by combining five ingredients into a liquid spray to protect against cold damage in plants. The ingredients have a synergistic effect that exceeds the sum of what they would do individually. The ingredients include an antifreeze-like substance that is present in animals, another that helps to lower the freezing point of plant cells by dehydrating them, one that strengthens cell walls, another that helps the solution penetrate leaves, and one to resist washing away by rain and snow. The protection lasts about 4-6 weeks, and the best times to use it are the late fall and early spring. According to Dr. Francko, it’s the equivalent of moving 200 miles further south, which in temperature degrees is about three to 10 degrees warmer.”

Written by: Heleigh Bostwick 12/11/13

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“Schlumbergera x buckleyi doesn't sound like such a pretty plant, but Christmas cactus and their relatives, the Thanksgiving cactus (S. truncata) and Easter cactus (Hatiora gaetneri), are among the most beautiful of holiday plants. Hailing from the mountainous jungles of Brazil, they aren't true cacti like the ones you see in Western movies, but epiphytes enjoying the high life among the tree branches. Providing the plants with conditions that mimics their natural environment helps them survive and thrive in your home. Light Christmas cactus prefer bright, diffused light. East or west-facing windowsills are best. Too much sunlight burns the leaves, and most southern exposures provide too much light for their taste. Christmas cactus produce flower buds when the cycles of light and darkness tip into the winter cycle, with 12 or more hours of darkness signaling the plants that it is time to produce buds. Most Christmas cactus flower during the holidays have been tricked into setting buds by the clever use of artificial lights and timers. After the first year, they are more likely to bloom closer to Thanksgiving unless you can mimic their natural cycle of dark and light more closely than nature provides in the northern hemisphere. Soil If you need to repot your Christmas cactus, you can use either a sterile potting soil mix or a mix for succulent houseplants purchased from your local garden center. Christmas cactus need rich, well-drained soil, so be sure that the container chosen for your plant has drainage holes punched through the bottom of the pot. Some experts recommend adding leaf mold or compost to the container, but garden compost carries unwanted pests along with desired nutrients. Commercial fertilizers may be helpful in replicating the nutrient-rich soils Christmas cactus thrive on in the wild. Moisture Watering is tricky with Christmas cactus. While they

are drought-tolerant, they do not like their soil to get completely bone-dry like true desert cacti. Water Christmas cactus throughout the year when the soil is dry to the touch. To help your Christmas cactus set bud for the holidays, make sure to water more frequently during the summer months, but cut back on the watering in October. Withholding water during October helps trigger the plant's flowering mechanism, and it is more likely to produce abundant flowers for the holidays. Fertilizer The best time to fertilize Christmas cactus is in the spring. When you see new growth appearing at the end of the stems, it's time to fertilize your Christmas cactus. Use a liquid houseplant fertilizer of 10-10-10 according to the package directions. Fertilize Christmas cactus for only a few weeks during the spring. Encouraging Your Christmas Cacti to Flower One of the challenges many Christmas cactus aficionados face is getting their plants to bloom again in subsequent years. Most of the plants you see flowering during the holiday season at your local garden center were grown under artificial lights and perfect conditions in a professional grower's greenhouse. To coax plants to set buds, growers manipulate light, temperature and moisture levels to fool the plants into thinking it's spring. You can accomplish the same thing at home by making some simple changes to your plant's environment a few

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Caring for Christmas Cactus

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weeks before the holidays. First, if you bring your plants outside during the summer months, make sure to bring them indoors by mid September. Place them in bright, indirect light. Temperature fluctuations also signal to your plant that it's time to produce flowers. Keep daytime temperatures in the upper 60s to mid 70s, and nighttime temperatures in the low 60s to mid 50s. Many people simply leave their plants next to an open window during the autumn months to give Christmas cactus the proper temperatures. Keep your Christmas cactus evenly watered throughout the fall, never letting it get too dry. Once it sets buds, be sure to keep the soil evenly moist; big changes in soil moisture can cause the plant to drop its buds before they open. Some people trick their Christmas cactus into setting bud by keeping the plant in total darkness for a week or two until it sets bud. You can do this by placing the plant in a closet or basement. If you'd like to try this technique, time it for the last week of September through the first week or two of October for best results. Once the plant develops buds, move it back into a well-lit room and care for it as you normally would. Problems with Christmas Cactus Christmas cactus are surprisingly hardy. They suffer from a handful of problems, however. Bud Drop: If your Christmas cactus drops its

buds before they open, there are several possible causes. If your plant is too close to a heating vent, hot drafts can cause bud drop. So can cold drafts if the plant is near an open window or subjected to drafts from doors opening and closing throughout the day. Other possible causes are lack of potash in the soil and uneven moisture. Use a weak liquid houseplant solution to help your plant obtain the proper nutrients, and watch your watering schedule, especially in the weeks leading up to the time your plant sets buds.

(Continued from page 6) Insects: Two insects that can sometimes plague Christmas cactus are mealybugs and scale. Hand-pick mealybugs off the plant or use an alcohol pad to swab them with rubbing alcohol to kill them. Insecticidal soaps treat both scale and mealybug.

Over-watering: By far the more common problem is over-watering Christmas cactus. The stems tend to shrivel if the plant is watered too much, which leads people to mistakenly think the plant is thirsty. This perpetuates the cycle of over-watering until the plant virtually drowns. Too much water also encourages mealybugs to proliferate, which helps weaken the plant further. To prevent over-watering, use the finger test to determine when plants need water. Simply stick your finger into the soil to the first joint; if the soil is dry, the plant s needs water.

With a little TLC, your Christmas cactus can not only survive the holidays but thrive for generations to come. By providing Christmas cactus with conditions that mimic what they experience in the wild, you can help your cactus survive and thrive, now and after the holidays.” Read more: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/4622/#ixzz2pdUM1csc or http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/4622/#ixzz2pdUC4xuI Article by: Jeanne Grubert December 13, 2013 Www.davegarden.com

Caring for Christmas Cactus—Continued

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Annual Saturday Gardening Series on March 1 and 8

Join us for this year’s Saturday Gardening Series and start your Spring!

Featured will be exciting speakers, visual presentations, demonstrations, raffles and door prizes. New this year: buy both Saturday series for $60 or a one day ticket for $37.50.

A continental breakfast and box lunch will be provided. Both sessions will be held at Messiah Lutheran Church, 4700 South Main Street, Akron,

OH 44319 from 8:30 am to 2:30 pm.

To register: registrar.mgsc.events@gmail.com Deadline for Registration: February 21. No Refunds after February 21.

Featured speakers include:

March 1

Jim Chatfield, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist OSU Extension Dept. of Horticulture and Crop Science Department of Plant Pathology – “People will Find a Way to Garden.”

Judi Strauss, Gardener, Author, and Educator – “Herb Gardening.”

Lee Paulson, Master Gardener Volunteer – “Vegetable Gardening Made Easy.”

Tom Dayton, President of Dayton Nurseries in Norton – “Conifers.”

March 8

Danae Wolfe, Extension Educator, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Summit County, Western Reserve EERA – “A Closer Look: Garden & Insect Photography.”

Bill Hendricks, President of Klyn Nursery – “Cacti & Succulents in the Garden.”

Christine Harris, Master Gardener Volunteer – “Container Vegetable Gardening

Stanley Stine, City of Twinsburg Naturalist – “Bugs, Weeds and Children in Your Garden.”

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Floral Fireworks: Alliuum schubertii by Bob Campbell

Before the first seed catalogue ever arrived, I had planted my first new flower for 2014. In the fall of 2012, Ann Brickner brought a cut flower to a meeting of our Men’s and Women’s Garden Club of Findlay. The flower was Allium schubertii, or Schubert’s Allium. In The Perennial Plant Peddler’s website, Ann describes this plant as “Rare,” and as a “very sturdy variety /of Allium. The “spidery flower reaches up to 15” diameter. It is, she says, “Spectacular!” Spectalular well describes the cut flower Ann brought to the club. I thought that somewhere in my research of Schubert’s Allium, it was identified as named after the German composer, Franz Schubert. When I went back to my notes, I couldn’t find a source for that identification. If it wasn’t named after the composer, it should have been! Listening to the Unfinished Symphony, I feel like I'm floating gently down a river in a canoe and beholding a deer grazing at the river's edge. Then all of a sudden I'm in raging waters, caught up in currents beyond my control. At points, the music seems to explode. Its effect on my ears is like the Allium schubertii’s on my eyes: I hear and see fireworks exploding! Each bloom rises up at the end of a stem, which then arches back down, evoking a sense of bursting then coming back down to earth. I am not alone in being reminded of the Fourth of July. Sherry Fuller, a horticulturalist who specializes in rare and unusual bulbs, agrees: “Alliums, called flowering onions, top my list of fantastical bulbs. My favorite is Schubert’s Allium with tiny purple flowers on the tip of long delicate stems shooting out from a central point like a volleyball-sized floral fireworks.” Bluestone likewise notes a bursting effect: “Seeing is believing on this late spring flowering Allium.” Schubertii has huge reddish purple, spider-like bursts of flowers. One of the most intriguing selections for the garden.” After seeing Schubert’s Allium, I put it on my list of plants I would like to grow some day for the first time. Then the thought kind of fell into a back room of my memory. Until this summer. Then I saw it again, on our

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Photo by Ann Brickner, The Perennial Plant Peddler, used by permission

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The Master Gardener Green Thumb Print is a publication of the Hancock County Extension Office, 7868 Hancock County Road 140, Findlay, OH, 45840, 419-422-3851. The Master Gardener Volunteer Coordinator is Bill Jones. Ohio State University Extension embraces human diversity and is committed to ensuring that all research and related educational programs are available to clientele on a nondiscriminatory basis without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, or veteran status. This statement is in accordance with United States Civil Rights Laws and the USDA. Keith L. Smith, Ph.D., Associate Vice President for Agricultural Administration and Director, Ohio State University Extension TDD No. 800-589-8292 (Ohio only) or 614-292-1868

club’s tour, in Randy Greeno’s garden. The flowers were no longer living by this time, but the three plants were still giving form and structure in a part of Randy’s front yard. The blooms, now dead and dry, were still giving something of an explosive fireworks effect. The flowers were spent … but the plant was still spectacular! So far this fall, I bought three bulbs and planted them at the front of my front-of-the house border. Some facts you need to know if you want to grow this plant: Allium schubertii is one of many varieties of ornamental onions. Bought as bulbs or sometimes in plantable pots, it grows in the garden to 18” tall, and needs to be spaced 6

-8” apart. The blooms come in mid to late spring, and range from reddish/purple to pale pink. It prefers full sun, and

normal to acidic well-drained soil. Schubert’s Allium needs to be planted 4” deep. Most nurseries list it as hardy to Zone 5. Dave’s Garden’s

website puts it as hardy to Zone 3a. In addition to providing floral fireworks, Schubert’s Allium has these fringe benefits: it is good for cut

flowers, is rabbit and deer resistant, attracts butterflies, and tolerates a hot dry site. The flowers are good for drying and preserving, and provide winter interest.

Information sources for this article: - Sherry Fuller, horticulturalist, “Now's the time to try planting unusual spring flowering bulbs” http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20130928/LIFESTYLE/309280003/, Sep. 27, 2013 - Bluestone Nursery, http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/BALSC.html?utm_source=Froogle&utm_medium=cse&utm_campaign=Feed&gclid=COjmv4KbsLoCFek7MgodqB4ApQ - PlantFiles: Ornamental Onion, Tumbleweed Onion, Schubert Onion; Allium schubertii, http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/55560/ Bulb and Plant Resources for Schubert’s Allium: - Bluestone Nursery, http://www.bluestoneperennials.com - Breck's Nurseries, www.brecks.com Information source and Bulb and Plant Resource for Schubert’s Allium: The Perennial Plant Peddler, 8755 Township Road 251, Findlay; PPlantPeddler@Yahoo.com; (Orders must be placed in advance for October delivery; call Ann at 419-387-7230)

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Floral Fireworks: Alliuum schubertii

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The Allen County Master Gardeners present The 15th Annual

“Art of Gardening” Seminar

Saturday, March 15, 2014 8:00 a.m.—3:30 p.m.

Ohio State University, Lima Campus — Life Sciences Building

4240 Campus Drive, Lima, Ohio

$45.00 Includes Continental Breakfast, Snacks, Lunch and Handouts

Program Schedule:

8:00 - 8:45 a.m. Registration and Refreshments 8:45 - 9:00 Welcome 9:00 - 10:15 Edible Spots and Pots with author Stacey Hirvela 10:15—10:30 Break 10:30—11:15 New Garden Art from Found Objects Linda Wuethrich and Susan Helterbran, North Central Ohio Solid Waste District 11:15 - 12:00 Seeds: WinterSown with Ann Brickner, Owner, Perennial Plant Peddler 12:00—12:45 Lunch 12:45—2:00 Elegant Shrubs with Stacey Hirvela, Spring Meadow Nursery 2:00—2:15 Break 2:15—3:30 All the Dirt on Great Soil, Tim Malinich, Extension Educator, Agriculture and Natural

Resources, Erie County, Erie Basin EERA

MG CEU Credits 6 hours

Register Early!!! Seating is Limited! We Sell Out Every Year!

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