July (late July) Garden Talks

Hello again,

Welcome to warm and increasingly dry Skillin's Country! Summer is here folks and we are getting some heat! Try to enjoy the heat and stay well hydrated. A little sun will warm your bones and that is a good thing. (Well since I wrote those sentences we have had record breaking heat in Skillin's Country but are now heading into a much more seasonable week. Enjoy!)

Following are several late July Gardening points. This post will be added to a few times over the next few days so keep checking back!

*Paul Parent checks in with some great late July gardening tips. I highly recommend you sign up for his weekly emails at http://www.paulparent.com/. The following tips can be found in their entirety and in much more detail right HERE. From Paul (I make some comments in italics):

**"WARNING! With the heat and humidity in the days to come, PLEASE keep a close eye on your garden for a "fungus among us," called powdery mildew. This is our worst fungus during the summer months, and it will move quickly on many plants in your yard and garden. Powdery mildew will begin as a white dust like covering on the leaves of your plants, especially if you water your garden with overhead sprinklers--and especially if you do it late in the day. As powdery mildew spreads on your plant, it will block the sunlight from your foliage and the leaves will turn brown and black quickly dying. As the foliage dies, the plant is prevented from making fruit and flowers on the plant and your garden will quickly come to an end for the year. "

We have some outstanding remedies for powdery mildew. All natural Seranade, Garden Sulfur and Organocide will all treat powdery mildew. Now is the time to get after powdery mildew to get best performance and a longer life out from your flowering plants!

**Your perennials are growing like crazy right now, and if you can deadhead the faded flowers from the plant, many of your perennials will bloom again in just a few weeks. Some will continue to bloom right through the summer months if you remove the faded flowers so the plant cannot make seeds. Pick off the faded flowers from your hosta so the energy is sent to the foliage, making the plant larger and more colorful. Pick off the stems and seed pods from your daylilies so the seeds in the pods do not produce wild seeds or you will lose your hybrids with their wonderful colors and your plants will all turn orange like the wild plants.

Black Eyed Susans! Don't Be Afraid to Show this Plant You are the Boss!

If you keep cutting your daisy flowers like black-eyed Susans and coreopsis, they will become bushier; if you do not, they will reseed all over your garden and take over. You can allow the seed heads to dry up and ripen on the plant and then crush the pods to release the seeds and spread them over open fields or along the side of the road for your own wildflower garden.

**Your lawn will need one inch of water per week to keep it green during these hot days. Water first thing in the morning before it gets hot out, and water less often but apply more water when you water. This will encourage the roots to chase the water down into the soil and not encourage them to grow up to the water and dry out faster. Raise the level of the lawn mower blade to the highest spot to keep the grass tall, because tall grass does not dry up as fast as short grass in your lawn--and mow your lawn less often if it gets hot and dry to keep it green and healthy.

Many folks choose not to water their lawn and that is fine too but Paul still gives good advice here. Also I totally agree about maintaining a high lawn level and mowing the lawn less. I skipped a mowing last week because my lawn has not grown much at all in the last couple of weeks!

**"Your vegetables are beginning to ripen quickly now, so pick in the garden often and when the vegetable is young and tender. Young vegetables like peas, beans, squash, cucumbers, and lettuce will taste much sweeter and any seeds in the vegetable will be smaller, making them easier for you to digest. Remove any overgrown vegetables as soon as you see them or your plants will stop producing because they are making seeds on the plant; great for the compost pile."

**"Feed your containers and hanging baskets at least every 2 weeks, because the roots are stuck in the container and they have no way to leave the container to search for food needed to grow and stay healthy. A well-fed container at this time of the year will thrive and fill your life with wonderful color and vegetables. Also water often when the days get hot and dry because the plants are growing faster now than any other time of the year."

Our container plants are growing mightily right now and they are really pulling nutrients from the soil. Want GREAT flowers for the rest of the summer and well into the fall? Feed your containers regularly  (I feed weekly with Fish and Seaweed Food from Neptune's Harvest) and you will not be sorry!

**"Keep weeding your gardens as the weeds continue to develop, because during this time of the year, many weeds are making seeds for next year's garden. Weed a little bit now or twice as much next year, it's up to you. If weeds and watering are problems, apply bark mulch or compost on these gardens after you clean them to prevent new weed problems and help hold moisture in the ground. "

I could not agree more. I spent quite a bit of time on a broiling day weeding but I drank a lot of water, worked on my tan and had a much better looking garden afterward! I love to apply Fundy Blend bark/compost to clean beds this time of year to keep more weeds down and to provide enriching material to the soil.

(Paul Parent tips added 7/25/2011)

*Skillin's Moisture Meter:   (7/24/2011)

New outdoor plantings (of vegetables, annuals, perennials, and certainly shrubs and trees) require 1 inch of water per week optimally spread out over at least two deep waterings per week. A "deep watering" is defined as a slow soaking of your plant's roots.

(More detail about "deep waterings": A soaking rain which brings a half inch of rain or more qualifies as a deep watering. In lieu of rain a deep watering can be accomplished by letting water run slowly out of a watering can or the end of your hose into each plant's root system or by having a soaker hose at work for several hours twice a week. In "non soaker hose situations", pause on your watering if the water starts to run off; let the water soak in and then begin to water again. Repeat this process several times and move onto the next plant. For larger trees and shrubs (and if you do not have a soaker hose) merely set a hose against the tree or shrub for 1 to 2 hours and let the water almost trickle into the ground and down into the plant's root system. Again if there is runoff, pause and let the water soak in. )

This Week's Moisture Meter Readings:

Quality rain (0).

Deep waterings required by you: (2).

Okay dry conditions in Skillin's Country continue to get dryer and dryer. Folks it is severely dry out there and even established plantings are thirsting for water. New plantings as described above need good slow deep waterings. I know this is a busy time of year but do what you can! Yesterday I also gave my Endless Blue Hydrangea a good soaking. The Endless Blue has been in the ground a few years BUT it has those big floppy leaves and moppy flowers so the plant is working hard in the heat. But the main focus of my watering efforts are new plantings--annuals, vegetables, a few perennials and a couple of shrubs.

Let us know if you have any watering questions!

*Most of the time our cucumbers grow like crazy and yield very well once the plants are established and the weather is warm. But every once in a while problems develop. Here is a link by good gardener Margaret of Away to Garden that talks about a few cucumber issues that could affect any of us. (7/24/2011)

*KCB is back with a Gardening Quick Point. "When emptying all those bags of Penobscot, Quoddy or other Coast of Maine compost blends,  I fill the empty bag w/water and use that to water in....I equate this to licking the cake batter bowl. So much good stuff is left behind in that bag but almost impossible to get out. Fill w/water and use the water almost like a 'compost tea'. This way every delectable morsel of the Coast of Maine product is used. Waste not want not!" (added 7/20/2011)

*Also from KCB about deadheading roses:

Deadheading roses. This time of year I do a lot of this. Most of my roses will bloom through Thanksgiving. Beyond that I don't know because I'm not there.

Here goes:

For many years, I used to let roses do their thing. I'd let the blossoms fall to the ground in delicate folds, allow the hips to dominate the shrub and eventually become the focal point of the plant, most notably in old fashioned Rugosa roses. Most often Rose hips are attractive in their own right, the bright orange of the Rugosa, the burgundy reds of many others.

The hips are a perfect accent to the fall landscape yet most of our roses begin their blooming in June. It’s a long way from June to October and I know from experience Roses want to be a part of the rest of the summer. To be more technical: Rose bushes are fruit trees in disguise and they will attempt to "set fruit." When you remove the spent blossoms, you interrupt the fruiting cycle and stimulate the plant to fruit again, producing another bloom cycle. If you don't cut the blossoms, they become the "hip" or seed pod and the bush stops blooming.

 You want to deadhead weekly if not more often. The rule-of-thumb is to cut back the stem to just above an outward-facing bud above a five- or seven-leaflet leaf close to the end of the stem.

About Labor Day, do not cut the blossoms to allow the plant to begin to harden for winter.

The rule-of-thumb assumes the plant is healthy and strong. If not, cut back less.

If you own a type of shrub rose, like Rugosa, where hips are part of the display, just clear away the spent petals. (this gardening point added 7/20/2011)


Mike Skillin
Skillin's Greenhouses
July 20, 2011

It is a Hydrangea World!

Good gardening friend Paul Parent of the Paul Parent Garden Club sends out a great newsletter every week with pertinent gardening topics. I encourage you to go to his website to sign up for his newsletter. Paul can also be heard every Sunday morning from 6 AM to 10 AM at his website or at WBACH (104.7 FM) every Sunday morning from 6 AM to 9 AM. Paul recently sent this article out called "The Blue Hydrangea and the Pink Too " (I occasionally add a few comments in italics) and here it is:

This past weekend, I spent time on beautiful Cape Cod doing a live radio broadcast at Snow's Home and Garden in Orleans, and I was just overwhelmed with all the beautiful blue hydrangeas growing at most homes all over Cape Cod. I can remember that just over 10 years ago the blue hydrangea was the plant that everyone talked about when they came back from a Cape Cod vacation...and they just had to have one in their garden. Along the coast north to Boston they did beautifully (if the winters were not too severe) but if you lived inland and north the plant grew fine but flowers were few on the plant. The reason was that the best variety at that time, called the 'Nikko Blue' hydrangea, only made flowers on the "old wood," the branches on the plant that were made the previous summer. If the winter was severe, the plant had much die-back of the old wood, so flower production was minimal.

In the late 1990s, Bailey Nurseries in Minnesota found an unusual blue hydrangea plant and started growing it in the nursery's trial gardens. Dr. Michael Dirr from the University of Georgia was visiting the nursery and spotted this unusual plant; he took cuttings back with him for further research and testing. Thanks to Dr. Michael Dirr and Bailey's, we now have this new plant for our gardens. This new blue hydrangea is called "Endless Summer," because it was able to flower on old wood like the 'Nikko Blue' Hydrangea but, unlike the 'Nikko Blue,' it is also able to make flowers on the new growth made during the summer months. This made the plant a true perpetual-flowering hydrangea--the first of its type.

The original hydrangea, 'Nikko Blue,' flowered from late June to middle or late August. This new hybrid made new growth all summer long so it was able to flower until frost in late September, or early October in warmer climates. This gave the plant 8 to 10 weeks of additional flowering time. This new hybrid could also thrive in colder climates, zone 4 to 9, and was hardy to minus 20 to 30 degrees below zero. The 'Endless Summer' hydrangea will grow from southern New Hampshire, Vermont, and Central Maine south to Florida, with some protection in colder locations.

The first thing to remember about blue hydrangeas is to NEVER Prune them in the fall of the year. Pruning the plant in the fall when it becomes dormant will cause problems with every branch you prune, because it has an open wound that will lose moisture all winter and the branches you cut back will slowly dry up and die. In the spring you can cut them back a bit to control the height of the plant and encourage new growth to form from the root system. If you cut back the plant to the ground, you are removing all the flower buds on those branches and the plant will not flower. Remember, old wood has flower buds on it and if you remove all that old growth you are removing the potential flower buds for the coming summer. In the spring the branches look like dead sticks but they are alive; leave them alone!

The Awesome Endless Summer Blue Hydrangea!

The new 'Endless Summer' hydrangea loves to be pruned lightly in the spring to control height and spread. If you can prune faded flowers on the plant during the summer, you will encourage additional flower buds to form on the new growth made during the remaining weeks of summer. Do not be scared to cut branches filled with flowers from the plant and put them in a vase of water for your enjoyment. This selective pruning will stimulate new growth on the plant, and in just a few weeks new flowers will form on the new growth being made on the plant.

The 'Endless Summer' blue hydrangea will grow 3 to 4 feet tall and just as wide and in just 2 to 3 years, once planted in your garden. Once the plant has matured and has become well established in your garden, winter protection is less required. The flowers of this new blue hydrangea will grow 4 to 8 inches in diameter, and like all mop head type hydrangeas, 3 to 6 inches tall. Each flower is made up of fifty plus individual flowers about one inch wide; the flowers have five petals arranged in a circular form with a flat center. The flowers can be cut for your favorite vase, dried when in peak color by removing the branch from your plant, stripping off its foliage and hanging it upside down in your garage to dry for a couple of weeks. Dried cut hydrangeas will last inside your home all winter long in a vase or when used to make a wreath.

Plant the blue 'Endless Summer' hydrangea in full sun to partial shade garden for the best flower production on the plant. The plant will grow best in a sandy soil that is well drained; keep the plant out of wet areas or where water tends to collect after heavy rains. This type of garden will form ice and the plant will have a lot of winter dieback during the winter months. If your soil has a bit of clay, be sure to blend peat moss, animal manure or compost to break up the heavy soil before planting. If your soil is very sandy use the same products to help hold moisture in the soil in the root growing area, along with Soil Moist granules.

Because the plant has large leaves and uses a lot of water, it will wilt easily on hot sunny days until it is well rooted in its new home in your garden. Mulching around the plant in your planting bed 2 to 3 inches thick with bark mulch, compost, pine needles or shredded leaves will also help hold moisture in the soil and control weeds during the summer months.

This type of mop head hydrangea is the ONLY plant whose flower color can be changed by controlling the acidity of the soil it grows in. If you keep the soil with a pH of 5.5 or lower, your flowers will range from a clear blue to deep purple, depending on acidity of the soil. This can be accomplished by using aluminum sulfate fertilizer at the rate of one tablespoon per gallon of water applied to the plant every couple of weeks.

If the flower gets to be too deep of a blue color--or even purple--apply a couple of handfuls of limestone or wood ash every spring and fall. If you want to make them more pink than blue, add heavy applications of wood ash or limestone several times during the growing season to raise the soil pH to 6.0 or higher. If you use a high phosphorus fertilizer, it will block out the aluminum fertilizer in the soil from entering the plant, helping to keep the plant on the pink side also.

Fertilize spring and fall with an acid-type fertilizer such as Holly-Tone by Espoma to encourage uniform growth and flower bud production. When planting new plants in your garden be sure to water every week during the summer for the first two years as plants are slow to get established in your garden. All I want you to remember is that if you live where the winter months are cold, always select the 'Endless Summer' blue hydrangea and never the 'Nikko Blue,' if you want flowers during the summer months. The extra $5.00 will insure that you always have flowers on your plant. Enjoy!

Thanks to Paul Parent!

Mike Skillin

Skillin's Greenhouses

July 21, 2011

Daylilies (Hemerocallis) for Wonderful Summer Color

Good gardening friend Paul Parent of the Paul Parent Garden Club sends out a great newsletter every week with pertinent gardening topics. I encourage you to go to his website to sign up for his newsletter. Paul can also be heard every Sunday morning from 6 AM to 10 AM at his website or at WBACH (104.7 FM) every Sunday morning from 6 AM to 9 AM. Paul recently sent this article out called "Daylilies (Hemerocallis) for Wonderful Summer Color " (I occasionally add a few comments in italics) and here it is:

Note: Day lillies are currently ON SALE for 20% off at Skillin's locations and we have some beauties for you!!

"As the summer weather begins to warm up and the soil begins to dry out, is your perennial garden beginning to wither away and lose all of its early color? If you live in a town that always has a water ban, if your soil is on the sandy side and watering is a problem, then I have a great perennial plant for you...the daylily. Daylilies love the sun and because of thick fibrous roots that can store water for long periods, are the perfect drought resistant plant for you. Daylilies are so easy to grow that they are today one of the most popular plants to grow for summer color.

Daylilies are not true lilies and the flowering stem has no leaves. The flower stem is round, strong, smooth and tall, often raising the trumpet-like flowers well above the grass-like foliage. All the foliage is at the base of the plant and grows in the shape of a fan. This foliage is grass-like, growing 12 to 18 inches tall and less than an inch wide. It is deep green in color; the center of the leaf blade is pleated to create the perfect gutter-like system to catch and move rainfall directly to the base of the plant.

As the plant matures the fans of foliage will thicken and produce a thick clump of soft foliage that weeps over on its tip and sways back and forth with the slightest breeze. (I like this foliage canopy as well because it crowds out weeds in the perennial garden!) Each fan of foliage is capable of producing multiple stems of trumpet-shaped flowers from June to September, depending of the variety you select. Most varieties will bloom for a 4 to 6 week season, but there are new hybrids that will rebloom on and off for most of the summer. Each of these flower stems can produce 6 to 10 flower buds, with only one flower blooming at a time; as one flower fades a new bud will open, keeping the stem in bloom for many days. The flower stems develop at different times on the plant, creating an almost continuously flowering plant for many weeks. This truly amazing flower is shaped like a trumpet 3 to 6 inches in diameter.

The best growing daylilies live in a soil that is well conditioned with peat moss, animal manure, or compost before planting. This will keep the plant's roots growing evenly in a soil that is moist most of the time and allowing the plant to produce more flower buds during the summer season. I always add Soil Moist granules and use a fertilizer that contains Mycorrhizae when planting. Look for Flower Tone or Plant Tone by Espoma. When the weather gets hot and dry be sure to water once a week for a very productive plant. The plant does love the sun but if the garden can get a bit of late day or midday shade for a couple of hours, the plants will flower longer during the season.

There is one garden task that all daylilies need, and that is to remove any seed pods that develop on the end of the flower stalks. When that stem is finished flowering, please remove it to the base of the fan of foliage. The seeds that are produced in these pods will not produce seeds that are the same color flower as the plant is. Also, if you allow the seeds to mature in the pod and the pod ripens and explodes scattering the seed in your garden, the new seedlings that develop will not be the same color and they could choke out the hybrids you were growing there.

If you have the wild orange daylilies growing near your garden, the bees can carry the pollen from the wild plant onto the hybrid growing in your garden. If this happens, the wild pollen is stronger than the hybrid and orange plants will develop, quickly choking out your hybrids. Most of the daylilies will drop the faded flowers without making a seed pod, so pick off the faded flowers or let them fall from the flower stem, but be sure to remove any seed pods that do develop.

If you want new plants, divide them in the early spring or in the fall of the year when they finish flowering. To make a new plant, divide the clump of foliage into single fans of foliage; each fan will make a new plant identical to the clump it originally came from.Space fans of foliage 12 to 18 inches apart; cut back the foliage by one third from the top and plant in a conditioned soil that you will keep moist for several weeks until you can see that the plant is well established. Cover the soil with 2 to 3 inches of bark mulch or compost to keep weeds out and the coil cool and to better hold water around the roots of the plant.

I think that most of us have seen the wild-growing orange daylilies growing on the side of the road. A lot of us have seen the dwarf yellow flowering hybrid daylily called 'Stella de Oro' planted in every parking lot where a big box store is located. This year look for the new varieties of hybrid daylilies at your local garden center; they com in every color but blue and true white. You will also find some double-flowering varieties, many two-tone varieties and even some that are fragrant. If you're worried about not finding what you're looking for in color, do not get worried, as there are over 40,000 cultivars to choose from and more new plants each year.

When you look for daylilies here are the four things you will need to know:

Number one, there are three types of daylilies: the old fashioned daylilies, the hybrid daylilies called "tetraploid," with thicker, larger flowers in brighter colors that are stronger growing than the old fashioned daylilies. And the reblooming /recurrent types that bloom more than just the normal 4 to 6 weeks; they will flower all summer long.

Number two, daylilies bloom at different times of the year from June to September, so try to select early, midseason or late blooming varieties for continuous color in your garden.

Number three, always ask for plants that are hardy for your planting zone when you order on line or the internet, as some varieties are better suited for heat and some for a colder climate. Any plants sold at Skillin's should be hardy for Skillin's Country! (or at least have a good shot at survival!)

Number four, ask about the height of the plant and flowering stems. Example--dwarf plants will grow under a foot tall; low will grow 1 to 2 feet tall, medium 2 to 3 feet tall and tall over 3 feet tall.

Plant daylilies in perennial flower beds, along a walkway as a border plant, near spring-flowering bulb that will go dormant as their leaves turn brown in June, and they are wonderful when used in plantings on steep banks to replace grass that could be hard to mow. You will love daylilies because they have very few problems with insects or disease and because they grow so strong any damage on the plant is quickly replaced with new foliage in just a few weeks. Daylilies, especially the wild orange varieties, will do well when planted on the side of the road to control erosion problems and will tolerate road salt.

One last thing to know about daylilies is that they are loved by butterflies and hummingbirds, so place a hummingbird feeder in the garden and sit back to enjoy the show as these unique creatures dance in your flower garden this summer. Enjoy!"

Thanks to Paul Parent!

Mike Skillin
Skillin's Greenhouses
July 18, 2011

July (mid July) Garden Talks

Hello again,

Okay time is going fast! We are speeding toward MID July. Skillin's Country will be at mid July by the end of this week.

What a great week of weather we had last week beginning with the Fourth of July. Nice sunny skies and warm temperatures! Oh boy!

But let me tell you  it is dry out there!

*Skillin's Moisture Meter:

New outdoor plantings (of vegetables, annuals, perennials, and certainly shrubs and trees) require 1 inch of water per week optimally spread out over at least two deep waterings per week. A "deep watering" is defined as a slow soaking of your plant's roots.

(More detail about "deep waterings": A soaking rain which brings a half inch of rain or more qualifies as a deep watering. In lieu of rain a deep watering can be accomplished by letting water run slowly out of a watering can or the end of your hose into each plant's root system or by having a soaker hose at work for several hours twice a week. In "non soaker hose situations", pause on your watering if the water starts to run off; let the water soak in and then begin to water again. Repeat this process several times and move onto the next plant. For larger trees and shrubs (and if you do not have a soaker hose) merely set a hose against the tree or shrub for 1 to 2 hours and let the water almost trickle into the ground and down into the plant's root system. Again if there is runoff, pause and let the water soak in. )

This Week's Moisture Meter Readings:

Quality rain (0).

Deep waterings required by you: (2).

The rain situation has been pretty simple the last week: We really have not had any! I believe Thursday night my rain gauge did actually show about 1/2" of rain but that was from a downpour. A customer who lives about 3 miles from my rain gauge received "zilch" for rain. So I am not counting any of that. Starting this past weekend my garden hoses have been getting used quite a bit for deep waterings as I have defined above.

7/14 Update!: The above paragraph was written on Tuesday 7/12. On Wednesday 7/13 we received close to an inch of rain in some parts of Skillin's Country but much of that came down fast and furiously and there was no doubt some run off. We can grade this rain event as 1 "Deep Watering". This means another Deep Watering will be required by you over the next few days--especially with warm dry weather forecast over the weekend.

If you have met the quality watering requirement for this past week, congratulations! If not, pay careful attention this coming week and beyond and make sure that your new plants get those required quality waterings!

Let us know if you have any watering questions!

*The weather is heating up and last July we listed 10 Hot Plants for you to consider planting for COLOR, COLOR and more color! Take a look at this list--it is pretty darned good (lots of my favorites on there!). I LOVE the plants listed and even the best Skillin's customers probably don't have all these plants listed (but probably should!).

Coneflower and Bee Balm; Quite Possibly My 2 Favorites:
Same Picture, Same Post, Same Garden!
2 HOT Plants!!

*Flowers are coming and going in our perennial gardens. Time for a review of the timeless Grateful Dead(heading) as written by the legendary yet timeless KCB! This is a great post that deals with the principles of just when to prune back your perennials for more growth AND more flowers!

Margaret of Away to Garden writes well about July deadheading: " If you were squeamish about cutbacks as spring faded, you may be regretting it now, and facing floppy, exhausted plants in certain spots. Some things (like certain perennial Geraniums, for instance) do better if cut back hard. Go for it. Others need just deadheading of spent blooms. Annuals that grow leggy can often benefit from a chop job, too. Do some experiments. Sometimes a plant can’t look worse, and you probably won’t kill it. "

*My rose bushes just finished their first round of blooming. A couple of days ago I pruned off the dead or dying blossoms and the stems the blossoms were on. This pruning makes way for more stems that produce blossoms and encourages the roots to put on new growth that will mean flowers down the road. When my roses get to this point I also sprinkle some more Flower Tone by Espoma around the base of the roses. I then water the Flower Tone in with a nice slow and deep watering. Just last week I sprayed my roses with all natural Vaccinate to help ward off diseases. I must tell you the foliage on my roses looks rich and green--and the flowers were gorgeous!

 One big secret to continuing summertime blossoming for your  rose bushes is pruning to prevent the plants from setting seeds. When a blossom begins to fade, cut it off the plant. You should cut just above the first leaf that has five leafs on it. Leave about ¼” above this first leaf that you cut, this will allow for sturdier blossoms.

*It will soon be time to rejuvenate those strawberry beds. Prepare to pull out older strawberry plants that will not be productive in the future. Also if you have not done so put down some Pro Gro by North Country Organics or Garden Tone by Espoma to further improve the quality of your garden soil.

*Gardening guru KCB told me that she has found a great technique to combat tall "flopping over" Nepata or Cat Mint. She first shears the middle of the plant and thus the blue/purple color is retained by the edge stems. In about a week the middle begins to re bloom nicely and that means it is time to prune those tall edge stems. In short order your garden has a compact Cat Mint that is ready to offer color for weeks ahead! My question is would this "inside out" pruning method work well with some Coreopsis--another perennial that will  flower for a good period of time but can get floppy? Well...we are not sure BUT this method seems worth a try with coreopsis as well.

*Mike's Must Have Perennial Selection for this Week:
It is time to pick one of my ABSOLUTE favorites--the Monarda, "Bee Balm". And my personal favorite is the RED Bee Balm--right now we are featuring the Grandview Scarlet and Jacob Cline.

 Why This is a Mike's Must Have Perennial:
The Red Monarda is just a premier eye catcher. I plant it in and near a perennial bed that can easily be seen out of my back kitchen window. Let me tell  you the Red Monarda catches my eye out that window for weeks on end. And it looks great close up as well. The Red color is simply electric!

Monarda Red Bee Balm!

Bee Balm is a prime attracter of humming birds as well. They buzz around the Bee Balm all  day long. This plant is a highlight of a perennial garden for weeks. I cannot recommend it enough.

The pink varieties are pretty as well--to me not as electric but a nice, nice pink.

*Raspberry season is upon us! Check out this video from July 2010 by Tim Bate and Jumpin' Joe Kubetz where they talk about raspberries!

*I KNOW that I am writing about them every week but slugs and snails are doing lots of munching in our gardens. Got holes in your hostas? Slugs. Got some munched on marigolds? Slugs Got some shredded leaves in your lettuce? Slugs. I have all of this and more and I know what the problem is. Slugs who hide under plants by day and nibble by night. Like you I am so busy for days at a time I do not do a good job getting Slug Magic (totally safe and effective) slug bait down on the ground. But when I do it works so well!

*Garlic is getting near harvest time. Again from Margaret at Away to Garden: "Garlic may start to fade and topple by later this month or next, as harvest time nears. When several lower leaves yellow, try carefully lifting a head or two to judge readiness, before lifting all to cure during a warm, dry spell in an airy, sheltered place."

*My lawn (and yours) is not growing as fast in the heat but just a reminder: Do not bag those clippings. Keep your lawn "high" for less weed growth and more moisture retention. Let those lawn clippings lie on the lawn and then decompose into your soil. What better organic matter can there be than lawn clippings. Plus if you are feeding your lawn organically a couple of times per season then you have "live soil" in your lawn that will quickly integrate those lawn clippings into the soil.



Mike Skillin
Skillin's Greenhouses
July 14, 2011

July (early July) Garden Talks

Hello again,

We have turned the July corner. Spring is fully behind us in Skillin's Country--we find ourselves in early summer! Woo Hoo!

It has been a cool start to the summer (after a very cool Spring) but the Fourth of July time period has brought us a temperature bump. I know, I know the heat can be bothersome! But come on people--we don't get much of it in the long run. So let that sun and those warm temperatures soak into our winter hardened bones. What a warm feeling!

*Skillin's Moisture Meter:


New outdoor plantings (of vegetables, annuals, perennials, and certainly shrubs and trees) require 1 inch of water per week optimally spread out over at least two deep waterings per week. A "deep watering" is defined as a slow soaking of your plant's roots.

(More detail about "deep waterings": A soaking rain which brings a half inch of rain or more qualifies as a deep watering. In lieu of rain a deep watering can be accomplished by letting water run slowly out of a watering can or the end of your hose into each plant's root system or by having a soaker hose at work for several hours twice a week. In "non soaker hose situations", pause on your watering if the water starts to run off; let the water soak in and then begin to water again. Repeat this process several times and move onto the next plant. For larger trees and shrubs (and if you do not have a soaker hose) merely set a hose against the tree or shrub for 1 to 2 hours and let the water almost trickle into the ground and down into the plant's root system. Again if there is runoff, pause and let the water soak in. )


This Week's Moisture Meter Readings:

Quality rain (1).

Deep waterings required by you: (1).

Coming into this past weekend our soil was getting dry as any quality rains had occurred about a week ago. We did get "a good soaker" in most areas on Sunday night the 3rd and some passing thunder showers in some areas later in the day on the 4th. My rain gauge has shown over an inch of rain but much of it was fairly torrential and probably not all soaked in. Therefore I am going to give a grade of 1 Quality Rain with a Deep Watering needed by you over the next few days!

If you have met the quality watering requirement for this past week, congratulations! If not, pay careful attention this coming week and beyond and make sure that your new plants get those required quality waterings!

Let us know if you have any watering questions!



Some of the following garden tips come from Margaret Roach's outstanding A Way to Garden website. I have picked out a few tips that I feel are quite timely and freely added my own gardening takes in italics:


*"MAKE A (WEED) PASS through each garden bed each week, since weeds are not just unsightly but steal moisture, nutrients and light from desired plants. Apply mulch to all beds to help. " Great advice here. By staying on top of the weeds they can easily be cultivated out with a garden hoe or cultivator. I have tamed quite a bit of my weeds and now I am going to mulch my perennial beds with the terrific Fundy Blend by Coast of Maine (sold right here at Skillin's!). The Fundy Blend is an enriching mulch with seaweed and will provide some terrific compost matter to my soil and plants. There is also some bark in the Fundy Blend that will help this compost hold well as a mulch.

*"HOUSEPLANTS, including amaryllis, and also clivia, among many, can spend the summer outdoors, in a sheltered location with filtered bright light (not direct sun). Pinch back and repot those that need it as you transition them, and feed regularly." Even our indoor sunloving plants find summer sun too strong so shade and filtered sun are best. I agree with the steady fertilizer and for houseplant success we recommend organic Dynamite granules or Plant Tablets by Organica. Apply these fertilizers every 3 months or so for great success!

*"ANNUAL VINES getting the support they need, whether twine, wire, lattice? What about perennial ones like clematis?" As our vines are putting on tons of growth it is easy to evaluate whether their support is large enough. Now is a good time to replace any trellises or plant supports while there are inventory choices to be had.

*"BE ON THE LOOKOUT for dead, damaged, diseased wood in trees and shrubs and prune them out as discovered. Ditto with suckers and water sprouts." This is always good advice and pruning out dead growth from any plant is the #1 way to avoid disease coming to the healthy part of the plant.

Paul Parent of the Paul Parent Garden Club sends out weekly emails with some terrific gardening articles and timely tips. I highly recommend you sign up for his email list. Here are some highlights from this past week's article by Paul titled "A Few Tips to Begin a New Month":

*"If you have fruit trees, blueberries, raspberries, grapes or other fruiting plants in your gardens it is now time to reapply your fruit tree sprays, as all the recent rain has washed off the protection off the foliage and fruit. Whether you use a natural or organic spray on your plants, these products protect your plants from insects and disease problems and they must be applied every 2 weeks during the growing season or more often during periods of heavy rains. Fungus and insect problems are more active when the weather is wet, your fruit and berries are young and more vulnerable at this time of the year, so keep them protected with a good spraying now. Organocide Spray, from Organic Laboratories and Fruit Orchard spray from Bonide are natural products that will keep all your plants safe when used on a regular basis."

*Tall growing perennials like delphinium, lilies, and hollyhocks have grown taller than normal this year due to all the cloudy weather. As the flowers begin to open the plants will become top heavy and fall over, so you might want to stake some of the plants that are beginning to show signs of this. Large clump plants like daisies, tall phlox, and coneflowers will spread apart as the flowers form on the plant so be prepared to tie the clump together so they do not topple over on other plants in your garden.


*Some of your annuals, perennials, and vegetables are prone to develop a disease called powdery mildew when the weather stays wet and cloudy. Check your tall phlox, bee balm, zinnias, roses, and vine crops like cucumbers and squash for a white film developing on the foliage. At the first sign --or better still, just treat them now with Serenade organic fungicide to prevent this problem for developing this year.

*If you purchased a hanging basket this spring, it would be a good thing to fertilize it again now and regularly every 2 weeks, to keep it more productive. Clean up the plant of the dead flowers and foliage also. If you purchased a fuchsia hanging basket this spring, I want you to look for burgundy fruit that has developed where the flowers were on the plant earlier. This fruit is forming seed on the plant and when this seed is mature, your plant will stop flowering, so please remove seed as it develops to keep your plant flowering. Also, do not be scared to cut back the long branches that form on your hanging baskets, as these branches will get even longer and all the flowers will form on the tip of these branches, not on the foliage near the pot. Pinching these branches back in half will promote new growth to develop from the center of the plant, keeping it bushier, encouraging more flowers on the plant and preventing those long branches from breaking from their own weight."  A great fertilizer for your flowering hanging plants is all natural Dynamite pellets or Osmocote is good as well. These are both time released granules that only need to be applied once or twice in the season. The granules slowly break down to release fertilizer into the soil. This type of feeding is very effective AND convenient for the busy gardener!

*"If you have pine trees on your property and they are not as thick as you want them to be, now is the perfect time to encourage a thicker plant. All you have to do is cut the new growth in half, right now. The new growth looks like candles and if you cut them in half now, the plant will make more buds for next year on the new growth that remains. This is the method used to make Christmas trees thicker, because the plant makes less growth during the season but produces more buds for next year. You remove the terminal bud of the branch and that branch stops growing longer but side buds that normally stay dormant wake up and begin to grow making more side shoots for a thicker plant."


*"The first week of July is the week for you to prune back or pinch your fall-flowering mums, Montauk daisies, tall growing sedums and fall-flowering asters to control their height in your garden, increase the amount of buds on the plant and set the plants clock to flower in the fall season or they will flower in early August due to the cloudy weather this May and June. Cut plants back by 30% to 50%, depending on how tall they are in your garden, as they should be no taller than 15 to 18 inches tall right now!" Don't wait too long to do this--later in this month is too late for us in Skillin's Country for this task!

*This piece of advice was found in our last Garden Talks but it is still very appropriate. With the frequent moisture we have been having, slugs and snails are out in a vengeance. These chompers eat plants during the night while we are sleeping. But if your plants have many holes or even evidence of shredding that means slugs and/or snails are munching on your plants. Pick up some all natural Slug Magic here at Skillin's. This product is effective against slugs and snails but not toxic so it is very safe to use when you have kids and pets in the area!

*Mike's Must Have Perennial for the Week

The Clematis! Click HERE to learn more about this great plant--a Must Have for any garden!

Mike Skillin
Skillin's Greenhouses
July 5, 2011

Clematis!

Hello again,

Good gardening friend Paul Parent of the Paul Parent Garden Club sends out a great newsletter every week with pertinent gardening topics. I encourage you to go to his website to sign up for his newsletter. Paul can also be heard every Sunday morning from 6 AM to 10 AM at his website or at WBACH (104.7 FM) every Sunday morning from 6 AM to 9 AM. Paul recently sent this article out called "Clematis: The Queen of Our Flowering Vines " (I occasionally add a few comments in italics) and here it is:


"In 1968, I planted my first of many Clematis vines at a nursery in Scituate, Massachusetts, called Kennedy's Country Gardens. We received 200 two-year-old seedlings and my job that day was to pot these new plants in 2 gallon size pots. I had just finished blending rich top soil, peat moss, and cow manure together making a wonderful potting mixture for the new plants to grow in. My teacher at the nursery was a wonderful woman from England named Janet Burnett; she taught me how to plant and grow this plant. Janet told me many stories about how well this plant thrives in England and showed me many pictures of her gardens. One picture had clematis growing in the middle of a garden --what she called her clematis tree. I told her that I thought that clematis was a vine and could not believe that it grew into a tree.


What Janet had done was plant several clematis plants of different colors and flowering times at the base of an old apple tree that had died several years earlier and used the tree as a trellis for the plants to grow on. I can still see that clematis tree today in my mind, just beautiful. So if you have a small dead tree about 15 feet tall, don't cut it down--use it to grow clematis on. Janet told me that in England where she lived, the soil had layers of lime running through it and that was why her plants grew so well.

I had potted about 25 seedlings before Janet arrived to show me how to do it properly and she said to me how much lime did you put into each container you planted? I told her none but I had done an extra good job preparing the potting mixture. Janet had me dump all the plants out and start over because each pot had to have a cup of lime added to the potting soil mixture because clematis "LOVED" a sweet soil and only "LIME" made the soil sweet. After that experience, I always asked questions before starting the job! Janet was a wonderful teacher, and I will share with you what she taught me about clematis .

Clematis is the showiest perennial vine you can plant in your garden. They are among the easiest vines to grow in the garden, and their wide range of colors and flower size will please everyone. With over 1000 varieties to choose from and more new hybrids coming out each year, the clematis is quickly becoming the most popular vine for today's gardens. Clematis originated in the Orient about 500 years ago and has now spread all over the world because of hybridization to fit particular climates.

Janet showed me that the clematis plant does not produce tendrils nor do its stems twist around other plants. The leaf stalk, called the "petiole," will twist around any type of support from wire, string, wood, or vinyl lattice to even small tree branches for support. All you have to do is to provide something for the plant to grow on and it does the rest all by itself. Clematis can be trained to climb fences, archways, or trellis and can even scale the wall on the side of your house as long as you provide them with some type of support to climb on. You can also plant one on top of a retaining wall and watch it climb over it and cascade down to display its beautiful foliage and flowers or even let it run on the ground as a wonderful ground cover where you have outcroppings of ledge.

Clematis prefers to grow vertically, making this plant perfect for even the smallest flower garden or on your light pole at the end of your walk way. They do not take much room in your garden, so place a pole or trellis here and there for a bit of vertical height in your garden. Enjoy these pillars of clematis flowers poking out of your once horizontal growing garden as the clematis vine reaches for the sky. This is a great vine for a more natural looking garden; train it to grow where you want it to grow but let this plant do what it wants and don't prune it heavily. Grow the clematis vine like a rambling rose, let it surprise you with all its flowers and enjoy how unpredictably it will grow in your garden.

Plant clematis in a garden that receives at least 6 hours of direct sunshine; some varieties like clematis paniculata 'Sweet Autumn' will adapt easily to partial shade garden, so check at the nursery about special light requirements. This garden should also have good air circulation around it so the foliage can dry off quickly after long periods of rain fall. Avoid overhead watering in the evening hours to keep foliage dry and prevent disease problems. Water early in the day so the sun can dry foliage quickly and keep disease problems away. Water clematis plants regularly, especially during the summer months if the weather gets hot and dry. The roots of the clematis are strong and grow deep so be sure to water s thoroughly, especially when the plant is in bloom or the flowering period will be shorter.

Clematis vines will grow best in a rich soil that is well drained and never has standing water. Always condition the soil before planting with compost, animal manure, or peat moss. To help hold water around the roots of the plant in the summer months always add Soil Moist granules when planting. Clematis is a heavy feeder and will do much better when planted if you also add an organic fertilizer like Flower Tone by Espoma or Pro Gro by North Country Organics to encourage quick root development.

Your soil pH is very important, and one of the determining factors of a healthy plant. The sweeter the soil is, the better the plant will grow for you, so be sure to add Limestone, Magic-Cal or lots of wood ash to the soil before planting. Also yearly application of these products will keep your soil sweet if you live in areas where pines and oak trees are native. I use 2 handfuls of wood ash every spring around my plants and they just love it. Fertilize spring and fall with Flower Tone by Espoma or Pro Gro by North Country Organics to keep plant actively growing. If you don't have access to wood ash a couple of handfuls of Magi Cal by Jonathan Green is what I recommend!

Root and stem protection is also a determining factor for the clematis vine and it is very important to grow a ground cover or perennials around the plant to shade the soil to keep it cool during the summer months. Also place an evergreen plant--or stand up a brick or cobble stone on end--in front of the vine, facing south, to shade the bottom 6 to 8 inches of the vine during the winter months. This shading of the stem keeps it cool during the summer months and stabilizes freezing and thawing during the winter months. This is good advice although I get great results by mulching lightly around the base of my clematis with Fundy Blend by Coast of Maine. For the winter mulch cover I suggest a heavy cover with balsam fir boughs or Mainely Mulch straw (both available here at Skillin's!)

If you suddenly get foliage that turns brown or black on the plant, remove it quickly and the plant will form new growth from the base of the plant to replace it. Pour a bit of bleach on pruner blades before and between cuts to prevent moving disease problems from branch to branch; bleach will sterilize the pruners. When weeding or applying fertilizer to the plant, always use your hand and never use cultivating tools, as you can damage the roots of the plant. Bark mulch around the plant is encouraged at a depth of 2 inches to keep out weeds and help cool the soil.

Pruning is always a question with the clematis vine, when and how? If you see dead or damaged growth on the plant, remove it at any time you find it. As the clematis vine begins to age you will notice that fewer flowers form on the vine, usually after 4 to 5 years. The stems are getting tired, so these older stems should be cut back to within 18 inches of the ground in the early spring and before the new growth starts on the plant, during March early April. This will encourage new stems to develop from the roots of the plant in late April and these stems will flower the same year on the plant.

If your plant looks like a tangled mess of live and dead stems wrapped around your light pole or trellis, it is time for a major pruning of the plant. Try and save as much of the new and fleshy looking growth as possible but remove the older looking vines of the plant in the early spring.

If you have never grown a clematis vines before, this is the year for you to plant one in your garden. The vine has wonderful flowers that will last for many weeks, the flowers come in many colors, and the flower size varies from less than one inch in diameter to over 6 inches wide. Try one this summer, and next year, once the plant is established in your garden, you will thank me over and over again. Enjoy! "

Thanks to Paul Parent!

Mike Skillin
Skillin's Greenhouses
July 3, 2011