Bulbs species that grow well in the Deep South (Part 1)

It is encouraging to see that professional gardeners, people who landscape commercial buildings, have been using more agapanthus in our area.  This is called the "blue lily of the Nile", and has both white-and purple- flowered forms in addition to blue.  These are robust plants, producing flowers in summer on three-foot stems.  There are some dwarf forms available for other landscape uses or for containers.  These plants do better in partial shade than under our intense sunlight.  After about five years (in a good location) the plants will become overcrowded; divide them and share with your neighbors.  Agapanthus is a hardy plant that is seldom frozen in the Deep South.

Amaryllis ( or Hippeastrum) differs from tulips and other periodic bulbs in that it has no built-in life span, but is theoretically immortal.  These bulbs are composed of fleshy bases of large, strap-shaped leaves and a conical basal plate, sometimes with dried, but functional roots.  Left to its own devices the amaryllis is evergreen.  In the growth cycle of the bulb, there are four-leaf increments produced, with the bases of three leaves completely surrounding the basal plate and short stem.  The base of the fourth leaf in each growth unit only partially surrounds these parts.  The flower bud begins in the axil of this fourth leaf.  This develops within the bulb and emerges later in response to some unknown stimuli.  A large amaryllis (around 3 or 4 inches in diameter) may have several of these potential flowers, ready to emerge when things are right.  
 Amaryllis that you see at the garden center are usually hybrids that originated in England many years ago from several South American species, sent there by plant explorers back in the heyday of that activity.  Dutch bulb growers, having long experience with tulips, bought the hybrids from the English firms and began exporting what is called the Dutch amaryllis.  Dutch growers began large-scale production of amaryllis bulbs in South Africa.  You can find these South African bulbs for sale in the fall, ready to bloom at Christmas time in our area.  This is because they were grown in the southern hemisphere, where Christmas is in the spring.  After the first year the bulbs will reset their internal clock and begin blooming during our spring rather than in the South African Spring.  Dutch amaryllis hybrids produce massive scapes (flowering stems of bulbs), usually with four flowers.  

Until now, we have been talking about the Dutch hybrids.  The amaryllis species offers a range of flower forms, colors and sizes.  The first known amaryllis hybrid (Amaryllis x Johnsonii) used to be common in the humid South and was known as St. Joseph's lily, probably because it usually bloomed in mid-March outdoors, near St. Joseph's feast day.  Several untimely hard freezes over the past twenty years have made it a a rare plant here in the South.

Most amaryllis bulbs will survive cold snaps if they are well mulched.  In colder areas, they should be taken up in the late fall and stored cool and dry until the danger of temperatures below about 25 F is over.....(to be continued)

Insect and Disease: Elm trees (Ulmus spp)

Elms are alternate-leaved, deciduous trees valued for their ornamental use as specimen or street trees.  There was a time when virtually every town and city in the northeaster United States was dominated by the majestic, vase-shaped American Elm (ulmus american); unfortunately, with the appearance and spread of Dutch elm disease (DED), many of them have died.

Because most elms are susceptible to so many insects and diseases, you might want to avoid using them in the landscape, but they are perfectly suitable for beautiful bonsai (specially the Zelkova species).  If you do decide to grow elms, consider planting lacebark elm (U. parvifolia), which is more resistant to DED and elm leaf beetles. 

Plant elms in spring or fall as bare-root or balled-and-burlapped trees.  Full sun and well-drained soils are best.

Problems:

Leaves with rectangular holes or skeletonized: Cause: Elm leaf beetles.  this is a 1/4inch yellow-green beetle with a dark line on the outer edge of each wing cover.  It lays its eggs in spring on the undersides of leaves; these eggs hatch in June.  One to several generations may occur each year.

Both adults and the 1/2inch black-spotted, yellow larvae feed on the leaves, eating everything but the veins.  Trees are often defoliated and so weakened that they are susceptible to other insect and disease problems.  Control beetles by spraying leaves with BTSD, particularly in June.

Leaves wilted and yellow or brown, drop early, branches show symptoms one at a time: Cause: Dutch elm disease (DED).  

Caused by a fungus, DED is spread by the feeding of elm barck beetles, and by natural root grafts between trees growing in the same area.  Keep trees healthy with proper pruning, mulching, and watering (during drought).  Quickly repair all wounds to help prevent insect attacks and subsequent infection.  Once the disease is established, there is no effective remedy.  Remove and immediately destroy all diseased or dying elms.  Remove the stump if possible or peel the barck off to below the soil line to deter elm bark beetles from feeding there.

Bark tunneled:  Cause: Elm bark beetles.  
These 1/10inch dark reddish brown beetles attack weakened elm trees and serve as vectors of DED.  The adult beetles bore small holes through the bark and lay eggs in the wood beneath.  The eggs hatch into 1/4inch curved, white grubs that continue to mine underneath the bark, creating winding tunnels, known as galleries.  See the opposite page for an illustration of their damage.  The grubs transform into adult beetles, which emerge through small holes in the bark.  If the tree they emerge from was infected with DED, the beetles will carry the disease spores as they fly away to feed on other elm trees.

Make trees less attractive to beetles by promoting vigorous, healthy growth with proper pruning, mulching, and watering (during drought).  Eliminate breeding areas by removing and destroying weak and dying trees.

Leaves skeletonized:  Cause:  Canker-worms.  Both spring and fall cankerworms are 1/2-1inch yellow or greenish caterpillars that feed on the foliage of birches, often defoliating the tree.  

Japanese beetles.  This 1/2inch long pest has a metallic blue-green body and bronze wing covers.  Hand pick in early morning if there are only a few.  Apply milky disease spores to your lawn for long-term control.

Leaves wilted and yellow or brown, drop early, entire crown of tree affected:  Cause:  Phloem necrosis.  In later stages, the inner bark (phloem) is discolored and smells faintly of wintergreen.  This disease, also known as elm yellows, kills plants quickly, often in single growing season.  It is spread from tree to tree by leafhoppers.

Controlling leafhoppers by spraying infested plants with insecticidal soap or pyrethrin may reduce the spread of phloem necrosis.  If trees are close together, however, the disease can also spread underground by means of natural root grafts.  Once plants are infected, there is no control: remove and destroy the infected trees. 

Another examples of pests affecting the Ulmus spp.:

• Leaves wrinkled and discolored:  Cause:  Aphids
• Leaves tunneled:  Cause: Leafminers
• Leaves yellow; stems and leaves covered with small bumps: Cause: Scales  
• Trunk or branches with small holes; limbs die or break off:  Cause: Borers
• Trunk or branches with oozing lesions; branch tips die back: Cause: Canker
• Leaves with spots:  Cause: Leaf spots
• Leaves with powdery white coating:  Cause Powdery mildew

The History of Herbs (Medicinal Remedies)

Since earl times plants have provided the medicinal remedies of the human race. The whole structure of modern pharmacopeia is based on man's historical knowledge of flowers, herbs, plants and trees.  Nature has provided a complete storehouse of herbal remedies to cure all ills of mankind, and today's medicines are only the chemical-pharmaceutical translations of the healing properties of herbs.  Looking back through history, we find there is not a single plant that has not been used at one time or another by men as a foodstuff, a healing, life giving medicine, or a deadly poison.  Since the dawn of civilization man has fed on berries, fruits, grasses, herbs, leaves and roots.  His selection of vegetable food in these prehistoric times was entirely by trial and error.  He continued to eat the plants that agreed with him while remaining away from those that made him ill.  After man mastered the use of fire, the roasted flesh of animals came into the foreground of the human diet and he began the domestication of animals for his daily needs.  

The shepherds of the tribal community flocks, remaining close to nature and having plenty of time during their lonely tasks, observed the behavior of various plants and the effects on their animal charges.  In this way they became the sages and medicine men of their tribes.  These herb-wise shepherds and medicine men of  prehistoric times developed into the herbalists of ancient Persia and the philosophers of antiquity.  In addition to their necessary food-plants, all the old agricultural nations cultivated herbs for their medicinal needs.  In the early days of the Christian Church, the cultivation of herbs was forbidden.  Knowledge of herbs was considered pagan because of the many mystic and magical rites connected with their use.  In the Dark Ages many of the herbal manuscripts of early days were destroyed by the martial rulers and their mercenaries who were devoid of any interest in science and culture.  The knowledge of herbs and their properties was kept alive only by the monks in the seclusion and comparative security of their monasteries.  They studied, translated and copied painstakingly by hand again and again, the few remaining herbals for posterity.  In the later Middle Ages the cultivation of herbs was again taken up by monks and nuns, who were not only healers of the soul, but also physicians and nurses to their flocks.  

The herb garden, called Physick Garden , became part and parcel of every cloister and monastery and, later on, of every castle, court, hospital and medical college.  Alembic laboratories, or distilling plants, the nuclei of our modern pharmaceutical industry, were set up in monasteries and hospitals to convert the herb crop into medical potions and liquors.  The rise of the chemical-pharmaceutical industry made the bulk of these herbal concoctions obsolete, but we still use many as spices and condiments for our food, in medicinal teas and infusions, and monastery herb liquors such as Benedictine, Peres Chartreuse, Trappistine and others continue to serve as stomachic tonics.  Throughout human history, flowers, plants, trees and herbs became so interwoven with man's daily life that they developed into symbols for his expressions and sentiments, passions and affections, fears and superstitions.  In ancient mythology, folklore and legend, the fertile mind assigned to plants their medicinal and nutritive properties.  The religious, legendary and symbolic meaning attached to plants has been handed down to us through the ages and today we still use many special plants in accordance with their age-old symbolism, as at Easter, Christmas, St. Patrick's and numerous other holidays and special occasions.  

Thanks Ernst Lehner.

The History of Agriculture

Untold millenia ago the cave man consumed as vegetable food the leaves, stalks, roots, fruits, nuts and seed gathered by the women and children of his tribe in the jungles and forests surrounding his habitat. He was forced to drift north and south with the seasons in pursuit of his food.  One day he discovered that the seed dropped by accident near his cave grew into new seed-producing plants.  It gave him the idea of planting seeds purposely near his dwelling place and, finally of clearing a patch of ground, preparing it by loosening the sod with a crooked stick.  (the first hoe), and seeding it.  Thus man changed from a nomadic poacher roaming for food to a settled farmer, waiting for his next harvest.  With the growth of the tribe, more and more cleared acreage became necessary to meet the rising demand for food, and more manpower was needed to prepare and till the fields.  Ultimately, man decided that the established law of the jungle, to kill all this enemies (the members of other tribes) immediately after they were taken prisoner on his hunting forays, was wasteful.  He brought them home and put them to work on his fields, the first forced-labor slaves in human history.  They call for still more intensive food production for the rising population of these settlements led to the idea of harnessing domesticated animals to the hoe.  Thus the plow became the new tool of agriculture.  

Agriculture is the scientific term for the art of cultivation the soil.

The word is derived from the Latin Ager (field) and cultura (tilling).

The practice of agriculture was the necessary antecedent to a higher form of cultural development, and wherever great states and empires were founded, cereals were grown as staple food.

The cultures of antiquity were all built around the agricultural centers of gran-growing peoples:  The Chinese, Indians, Koreans and Japanese in Asia; the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites, Phoenicians, Israelites and Syrians in the Near East; the Egyptians, Lydians, Nubians and Carthaginians in Africa; the Cretans, Greeks, Etruscans and Romans in Europe; the Incas, Mayas and Aztecs in South and Central America.  When we look at the farming methods and implements in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, we marvel at the thought that for nearly 7000 years of agricultural development the methods and tools of the toilers in the fields did not change very much.  In our century of industrialization we saw the rise of the mechanical behemoths of modern farming machinery, the reaper and the cotton gin, which not only boomed the agrarian economy of western nations but enhanced the process of industrialization and became a leading factor in the eventual establishment of the western nations as great world markets.  Newer developments in the field of chemistry led to still further uses for the products of agriculture.  Thus today we find need for plants and herbs not only as sources of food, clothing and medicine, but for such hundreds of newly developed industrial needs as tagger the imagination.  However, we have to realize that to this very day in large parts of South America, Africa and the Far East the agricultural methods and  the farming tools are still nearly the same as in Biblical times.

Thanks Johanna Lehner

How to feed your bonsai (Part 2)

Fertilizing:

Most plants in most soils will grow better if additional nutrients are provided b fertilizing.  A soil test will give a complete and accurate measure of the nutrients in the soil.  A general recommendation is that all soils need more nitrogen.  Shallow-rooted plants, such as grass and flowers, need more phosphorus and potassium.  Acid-loving plants, such as rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, junipers and pin oaks, often need more iron.  Sometimes sandy soils need micronutrients, but rarely clay soils.  Certain micronutrients may be deficient in certain parts of the country.  Boron is sometimes deficient in America's Pacific Northwest (as I was told by a friend).

Many fertilizers are available to supply additional nutrients.  Some fertilizers only supply one nutrient. Many supply N, P and K ONLY!!!. A few fertilizers include all the macronutrients and micronutrients (to review the list of macro and micro nutrients check Part 1 of this series Here!!!) 

The label on the package will indicate which nutrients are included, as well as the sources of the nutrients.  The nutrients are identical, whether they come from organic or synthetic source, but the source will affect how quickly the nutrients are available to the plants.  Ammonia sulfate and water soluble fertilizers release most of their nitrogen in a few days, and may burn plants if too much is applied.  Blood meal releases its nitrogen over a period of months.  Organic fertilizers and specially treated synthetic fertilizers release their nutrients slowly, so they last longer and will not burn.  Deeper-rooted trees and shrubs can be fertilized once a year, but shallow-rooted plants, such as grass and flowers, will need regular fertilizing throughout the growing season.

Water can move nitrogen several centimeters in the soil.  Nitrogen applied in the fall may be carried too deep into the soil by winter rains.  February and March is the best time to feed trees and shrubs.  Phosphorus and potassium hardly move in the soil.  To get them down to tree roots, punch a hole in the soil with a bar, or use a root-feeder and inject them 12 inches (30cm) deep every 24 inches (60cm) in rings from the trunk to twice the length of the branches.  The feeder roots are found throughout the area under and around a tree, not just at the drip line.

Thanks Rod Smith.

Products that contain micronutrients.

Micronutrients are supplied in special micronutrients packages (such as MicroMax, STEM, Apex micronutrient package and others) which bind readily to organic matter if used in conjunction with soilless mixes.

The micronutrient mix is sprinkled on the surface of dry soil and then watered in.  It will increase the acidity of the soil temporarily and is best applied when repotting, or once a year in spring, at bud break.

Back to Basics:

Bonsai will need feeding if you use the single-soil approach as they cannot live on water alone.  Feeding is easy, and here is a breakdown of feeds and the basic regime.

• A high Nitrogen feed makes the leaves grow.
• A low Nitrogen feed makes the branches, roots and cambium (under bark) grow.
• I recommend the low nitrogen feed for maples trees in the early flush of growth as it helps the leaves to become stronger.  Use it in the later part of the year, just prior to Fall or in the winter season in colder climates. Then at the very start of the growing season to encourage the development of branches and roots.
• 0.10.10 or similar is a Zero Nitrogen feed. This is used with most conifers at the beginning of the season and through the early stages of bud or candle development.
• Acid loving plants: Use Miracid or similar (Azaleas, satsukis, ericas and stewartia)

For young trees:

In SPRING use at half-strength when the buds are open 0-10-10. Then builds to full strength in late spring and use High Nitrogen after the first flush of growth.  Feed half-strength through most of the growing season in hotter areas.

In SUMMER if in a hot area, do not fertilize.  If in a cool area, stop in midsummer.  The trees cannot absorb fertilizer at this time: they go to into Semi-dormancy because of the heat and stop growing. (I have learned that after having bad experiences, after leaving 4 years in Miami, FL)

In FALL reduce to half-strength and only use a Low-Nitrogen fertilizer.  This helps the bonsai into the main dormant season in cooler climes.

Brand names varies from country to country or even from city to city or by Nurseries but in general it is fine to use popular houseplant food, but not lawn or grass food because it is far too high in nitrogen and can easily damage the roots.

For Mature trees:

I suggest that surface pellet feeds, such as Rapeseed Cake or Bio Gold are the best option. The direct feeding of liquid fertilizers through the soil should be no more than between two and four times a year when a bonsai is mature.  Too much feeding will generate lush growth.  Adding trace elements is, however, important. In all cases, when dealing with older trees, less is more.

Please, leave your comment, and advise for the next posts. We really appreciate your feedback.