Plants: April 2014

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Chemicals--to Ease,Help,Aide when needed to meet tribulations ion your garden path (what's in the bag) (Notes)

Fertilizer (Notes)

Plants-types,fertilizing,culture,problems,and successes Notes)

Native azaleas: list- 11 Azaleas

1.) (R) Azalea aemulans
2.) (R) Azalea bakeri
3.) (R.) Azalea alabameuse (Alabama Azalea)--moist soil
4.) (R) Azalea arborescens (Sweet Azalea)
5.) (R) Azalea atlanticum (Coast Azalea)
6.) (R) Azalea austrinum (Florida Azalea)
7.) (R) Azalea calendulaceum
8.) (R) Azalea canadense (Rhodora Azalea)--northern
9 .) (R) Azalea canescens
10.) (R) Azalea nudiflora
11.) (R) Azalea occidentale (Western Azalea)
12.) (R) Azalea prinophylla
13.) (R) Azalea prunifolium (Plumleaf Azalea)--southern low lander
14.) (R) Azalea roseum (Roseshell Azalea)
15.) (R) Azalea serrulatum (Hammocksweet Azalea)--southern low lander
16.) (R) Azalea speciosa (Oconee Azalea)
17.) (R) Azalea vaseyi (Pinkshell Azalea)
18.) (R) Azalea viscosum (Swamp Azalea)--moist soil

(R) Azalea mucronulatum (Korean Rhododendron)

My experience--Exbury hybrid Azaleas--giant flowers but brown blotched and mildewed foliage most of season

Comments--
Azalea canescens: early near white to medium pink or deep pink with darker pink tube. Heavy bloomer w/large clusters of flowers two or more buds opening at the end of the stems w/long curved extended stamens making a very attractive bouquet--thrifty medium to tall growth habit

Azalea austrina--Growth habits same or similar as A. canescens only blooming a little later. Colors ranging from cream yellow, through golden yellow to shades of orange w/deeper orange tubes.--the only native yellow species that is fragrant..

Azalea nudiflora: Upright growing shrub to about 10 feet. Flowers are light pink to a deeper violet red. Sweet scent

Azalea prinophylla--Pointed petals usually overlap but are sometimes separated with starry effect; clear pink to violet red. Upright medium height; pronounced clove scent..

Azalea alabamense--blooms two weeks after A. canescens Comparatively scare plant;first of the white to bloom.The showiest and most beautiful of all whites, usually with a yellow blotch on one petal. Upright medium height; both flower and foliage have distinctive jasmine or lemon blossom scent...

Azalea speciosa (Oconee Azalea) the earliest flowering of the reds. This is a beautiful group with flowers ranging from a striking pink, salmon, orange to some excellent reds. medium growth habit

Azalea aemulans: a low growing, heavy blooming late white of the viscosa group.

azalea bakeri: (Cumberland Azalea) an excellent low growing group usually two to four feet. Colors yellowish orange, orange to reddish orange, orange red to red.

Azalea viscosa (Swamp Azalea) upright and tall; slender tube white to cream--white blossom with a strong spicy scent

azalea prunifolia;(Plumleaf Azalea)--tall growing very late, July and august, usually reddish orange to orange red to red but also varies to orange and yellow. Beautiful

Soil acidity--100 pounds of ground limestone per 1000 square feet for each desired unit increase in ph--
heavy soils need more
agricultural (Hydrated lime) 3/4 as much
burnt lime 1/2 as much
Wood ashes 1 1/2 as much (as ground limestone)

another--50 pounds of sulfur or 100 pounds of aluminum sulfate or mixture 25 pounds of sulfur and 50 pounds of the aluminum sulfate per 1000 square feet--more for heavy soils and less for light sandy soils

Acid fertilizer: Cottonseed meal 10 pounds, Superphosphate 4 pounds, sulphate of potash 2 pounds
(1 pound to 50 square feet)

I have just used cottonseed meal at 30 pounds to 1000 square feet

Azaleas: of the obtusum subseries grow and flower well under screen, lath, or natural shade..

Indica Azalea (indicum) large mass of flowers in full sun.

indica alba (mucronatum) blooms less as shade increases--Partial, or even rather dense, high woods shade

Deciduous Azaleas--do best when they receive close to full sun for a portion of the day. Do poor in dense or low shade..

Deciduous Azalea (Roseshell Azalea) roseum grows best in an open situation

Coast Azalea (atlanticum) do best in light filtered shade

the things you see on this site --some hand written--some out of books of old--I have over 2500 old and new garden books--I have been working with plants in oneway or another for over 40 years so the bull have been left at the gate--and everything lee has come from exploring the plant world and it's trails and tribulations ---there are some goodies but it's like everything else in life--it can't be handed to you on a silver platter you'll have to find the treasures along this path with your mental labor -I hope some may help to keep your interest up

Manure Experience--(Cow,Horse Poultry) pew (notes)

Manure (nutrients in solution are available to plants immediately)--Manure tea--fill a bucket or plastic container with water Make a bag out of course material about one pound of manure to a gallon of water--place the bag in water and push it around--to mix in the manure with the water and also to make the mixture stronger--bottle this solution and mix it with water--when needed mix with water to make a solution that is about the color of medium strength tea…moisten soil around plants and pour on the manure solution---

Also to liquify dry fertilizer--to 1 gallon of water add two to four teaspoons of the plant food and if straight nitrogen is needed may use sulfate of ammonia 1 teaspoon per gallon of water...

Friday, April 4, 2014

Plant Information gathered from Experience--(odds and ends) by a Horticultural Nut Case (notes)

One of the few fragrant tulips, Prince of Austria, of orange scarlet shades--if you can find it

The bulbs of spanish Irises should be lifted every two years, in August, dried, sorted into sizes, and replanted in October…

In your next order of daffodils get some from the Trumpet Daffodil--choose some of the Bicolor Group

Gladioli may be increased by taking care of the small corms, storing them in a paper bag for there winter and planting in boxes of soil in spring…

Campanula carpatica--this showy blue flowered plant blooms from early July for many weeks if faded flowers are cut off...

A pinch of mustard, half a teaspoonful to a quart of water in watering house plants will destroy insects of many kinds and will not harm even the most tender of plants…

Prune all roses bushes as soon as they stop blooming ..Not to prune the bushes will result in many shoots and very poor flowers… It is only on the young laterals that the best roses appear...

Remember that wood ashes are excellent for the rose bushes…A hole should be dug her the roots of the rose and the ashes buried within…Putting it on as will do no good at all... a top dressing

Sheep Manure is a Splendid fertilizer for roses..It may be mixed with hardwood ashes, which are also beneficial, and both applied at the same time...

**Scarlet sage is one of the most satisfactory of autumn flowers…I t makes a good plant for window boxes, for pots, and for cutting in decorating.As a hedge or border plant it cannot be surpassed--unusual

Silene --The seed should be sown in August in the cold frame and the young plants transplanted to the garden when frost is out of the ground…The plants should be set four or five inches apart, or they may be planted for mass effect or in rows…They require light, well-drained soil--acid side.In cold climates they should be covered with a thin layer of leaves like they normally receive in their natural location on banks on the side of roads--Silene mixed with german iris makes an attractive combination..If plants are kept moist, they will continue blossoming until late in the season…They do not like a situation in strong sunlight...

It is important that the soil be moist when applying plant food in solution...

Annuals and Perennials that bloom in April:

Alyssum

Antirrhinum (Snapdragon)

Calendula

Centaurea cyanus (Cornflower)

Dicentra (Bleedingheart)

Eschscholtzia (Cal. poppy)

Hemerocalis flava

Iberis (Candytuft)

Iris (Bearded and Bulbous)

Larkspur