What's Up summary of this week's news
Janet Macunovich and Steven Nikkila help you grow
Issue #184, July 1, 2012
Here are your links to What's Up this
week.
Much of this week's effort involved cutting: Prune a lilac,
deadhead and cut back annual- and perennial flowers, step by step
to prune a climbing rose. When we finished clipping, we dove into
pest-beating advice for the organic vegetable gardener and tips for
the water carrier.
What we had the most fun chronicling: Fresh design ideas,
gorgeous trees and how to pack lots of color into a garden. To do
that, we went clear out to the Big Apple, explored Chinese design
tradition, dipped 'way back to our little kid days and made other
fun detours.
Here it is, all together for you: Summaries of and links to 19
articles and 142 images
Our top story this week:
A Lilac's Annual Cut
This week is probably your last chance this summer
to cut a lilac without losing any of next year's bloom. How to
reduce a lilac in size but also how to simply maintain one as is,
for this year and forever. Lots of detailed photos.
What's going on in Janet & Steven's
gardens:
Steven prunes falsecypresses
Thinking of yanking a too-big evergreen and starting over? Wait
! It's quite the eye opener to see how much you can
prune to reduce an evergreen and still have a gorgeous
plant.
Green thumbs up and down
This week we give our nod and "No!" to two pairs of
situations:
Thumbs up to those who help us
when we seek special plants. Take a moment to realize ow
special it is to have garden centers in our midst where we can get
personal help and have plants ordered just for us!
Thumbs down to ironic timing
when special plants suddenly appear. Grrrr, you'll recognize
this frustrating happenstance!
Thumbs up and a
how-to for pinching back annuals in container gardens. It's not
just flower plucking but serious stem snipping that keeps
containers and hanging baskets looking wonderful. Come take a look;
bring your scissors.
Thumbs down to letting
the drought season blues get to you. Perhaps you didn't know
there's an up side to drought?
Tip cuttings of special interest
Two topics that are not only in our News but active on our
Forum
Drought Makes Water Priorities Clear
What to
water and how to apply it most wisely when every drop counts
and every plant is crying for it. With some special attention to
leaky jugs and upended bottles that can water while we're away.
Includes an eye opener for those of you with always-wilt
hydrangeas...
Are Our Cucumbers Cursed? Can this Plot Succeed?
Squash bugs
and two kinds of cucumber beetles, too?! When only organic
methods can be applied?! Argh! But we're up for the challenge, or
more precisely, we're down to it.
Our Mentors say...
"Cut Flowers to Get More Flowers"
We are never alone in the garden. We're in the company of
gardening know-how passed along to us, such as this demonstration
of cutting
perennials back hard after bloom. From a neighbor who was a
master of stretching out bloom and packing a lot of flower into a
small space.
The 45 mph garden
All about two items catching driver's eyes and raising questions
this week.
Windshield Full of Royal Purple Magnificence
Can anything be more beautiful than a big purple
leaf beech, visible for miles?! We also include a line-up of Peachy
Purple Beeches, our favorite varieties from small, and weeping,
to gigantic.
Mighty Showy Rose!
What a
show the roadside roses have made this summer. Admiring them
leads to the question: Who takes care of all those massed planting
roses?!
This led us to put together Chopping for
Roses: Your primer for summer
pruning of climbing roses and shrub roses. Because a great rose
show requires great pruning. Pity the poor gardener who faces
pruning dozens or hundreds of shrub roses and climbers! Be glad you
have just one or two... but admit that even they can get the better
of you and be more wild than wonderful. Here are detailed photos
and drawings of real-life rose cuts.
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Aiming for answers: Hit or Miss
"What happened next" from previous articles. Celebrating the
hits, updating the misses.
Small Bed, Big Color
Digging in for maximum color in minimal space:
You can have color for 8 months of the year even in a tiny bed.
Here are four tricks and step by step photos of how to and how it
looks.
New Life from Dead Heads
The nitty gritty for cutting to the heart of the matter as you
groom your plants. Great deadheading now creates
color that looks fresh right into fall.
Stumper
Laughing together to salve problems that have no solution.
Carrot for a Queen
Queen Anne's lace = carrot so of course it deserves a taste.
Come on, you've thought about tasting truly wild foods, too....
right?
Scrabbling in the garden
Nifty and useful horticultural terms
Espalier and Epicormic join our lexicon
Learn how to grow flat and know emerald ash borer!
Expert afield
All eyes see differently. Here's a place where we learn through
others' lenses.
A walk under the spectacular trees of
Fordham
University campus with a look at how they're maintained; a
pretty peek at New York Botanical Garden, that
green gem in the ultimate big city; photos and thoughts from NYBG's tribute
to Monet's Gardens at Giverny; and an inspirational walk
through history and new ways to look at your own garden, in our
write up on the Chinese Scholar Garden at Snug
Harbor Botanical Garden, Staten Island. Plus, intriguing notes on
World
Weather.