Sanhedrin Nursery – Garden Blog

• Pepper plants should be fertilized when the first blossoms open.

• Shear hedges now to promote lush, dense growth.

• Feed camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons with an acid plant food now. Remove dead flowers and mulch to keep the soil cool.

• Plant fresh herbs from young plants. Basil, rosemary, thymes, mints and sages are just a few ideas.

• Check roses for black spots on the leaves and treat immediately with Neem oil to prevent defoliation.

Create a Shady Oasis

There are many beautiful shrubs, perennials and ferns which you can use to create a shady oasis.

First it’s important to determine how much sun or shade you have. Areas that receive three or four hours of morning sun in the summer and shade the rest of the day will be able to support more flowering plants than fully shaded areas.

Areas that receive morning sun are perfect for rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias. They will thrive there and put on a beautiful display of flowers each spring. Japanese maples will also do well and they will add some height and grace to the landscape.

There are many perennials which will bloom beautifully here and come back year after year. Columbines, with their delicate and graceful flowers, are familiar harbingers of spring. Astilbes are truly splendid shade plants with showy, graceful flower plumes and fern-like foliage. Foxgloves are tall, colorful plants for the semi-shady garden.

For deep shade we turn to leaves for most of the color. The Gold-dust plant, Aucuba, is a fine shrub for full shade areas. It fills out to be a round, 5-foot tall shrub and its yellow-spotted leaves will lighten up a dark corner.

The beautiful leaves of hostas, which come in silvery-blue, yellow-green, and all manner of variegation, are treasures of the shade garden. Their colorful leaves are attractive all summer and later in the season they send up spikes of lily-like flowers in white or lavender, which can be quite showy. Some are even fragrant. In general, the blue-leafed hostas require full shade, while the gold, yellow, and white-leafed hostas like morning sun.

Bleeding hearts have a charming beauty with their arching stems of delicate, heart-shaped flowers in spring. They grow best in partial to full shade in moist, well-drained soil. Fringed Bleeding Heart, Dicentra eximia, has deeply cut, grey green, fern-like foliage and dainty, light pink, heart-shaped flowers. Its foliage stays green through the summer and the flowers bloom over a long season. A third variety, Western Bleeding Heart, Dicentra formosa, is native to the redwood region. It is very similar to Dicentra eximia, and is surprisingly drought tolerant during the summer months. Use it in woodland gardens.

The large, Jacob’s ladder is an attractive upright plant with small, nodding lavender-blue flowers atop tall stems. A variegated variety, ‘Touch of Class,’ has bright green leaves that are richly edged with cream. It bears lavender-blue blossoms in spring, and grows 18 inches tall.

Pulmonaria, or Lungwort, is a low-growing perennial with attractive spotted leaves and bell-shaped flowers that turn from pink to blue. They grow best in partial to full shade in moist, well-drained soil.

Ferns are the mainstays of the total shade garden. There are many hardy ferns which are long-lived in our area. Their leaves add texture and variety to the area. Look for sword ferns, giant chain ferns, five-finger ferns, Autumn ferns and Japanese painted ferns.

Look upon a shade area as a chance to create a lush, restful oasis where life can slow down a little while you escape from the heat.

• Fertilize container plants every 10 to 14 days with a liquid fertilizer. Pinch off faded blossoms and they will keep blooming all summer for you.

• There’s still time to plant summer vegetables: tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers and corn will bear for you if you plant them now.

• It’s time to set out Brussels sprouts for fall harvest.

• Attract birds to your garden with a concrete bird bath. They come in many attractive styles and make good gifts.

• Earwigs are out and about and hungry. Control them with the new “Sluggo Plus”, which has the natural, bacteria-based spinosad added to the original iron phosphate formula.

Gold in the Garden

To brighten up your flower beds and containers this summer, look to Marigolds, Coreopsis, yarrow and Gazanias to add some splashes of gold to your garden.

Coreopsis are a favorite flower with many gardeners because of their bright, sunny colors and long blooming season. Their drifts of daisy-like flowers light up the garden with bright splashes of gold, rust and soft yellow.

Most coreopsis are perennials with long blooming seasons. Their golden yellow daisy flowers rise on strong stems above their rich green foliage. The variety ‘Early Sunrise’ has double, 2-inch flowers on 2-foot tall plants. They bloom the first year from early summer to fall, attracting butterflies and birds to your garden. Bright and cheery, they make great cut flowers.

Threadleaf, coreopsis ‘Moonbeam’ has dainty, finely-cut foliage and a spreading habit. It is a strong perennial, living for many years with minimal care. It’s pale yellow flowers combine nicely with blue and purple flowers, like Echinacea or Campanula, in the garden or with warm colors. It can also be used along garden walls where it will tumble over the edge. It is the most drought tolerant of the family.

Coreopsis ‘Baby Sun’ is excellent in the flower border, making a thick covering about 16 inches high. The fringed yellow flowers have a striking red eye, and they bloom over a long season, living for many years with little care.

The dwarf coreopsis, ‘Nana’, makes a nice, long-blooming ground cover. It has single, golden yellow flowers and forms a carpet of brilliant yellow from spring through summer. It prefers morning sun and makes an excellent addition to the rock garden.

Marigolds are sunny annuals with yellow, orange or red flowers. There four types of marigolds: French marigolds, triploids hybrids, and single-flowered types with dainty flowers, and African marigolds with large, fluffy flowers. No annual is more cheerful or easier to grow than marigolds. You can use marigolds as border or edging accents or grow entire beds of them. Marigolds also make good potted plants and cut flowers. Plant them in full sun or partial shade.

There are many different types of yarrow, but two are outstanding for their big, yellow flowers. ‘Coronation Gold’ is a hardy perennial that sends up flower stalks to 4 feet tall with golden yellow flower heads. ‘Moonshine’ is a smaller variety, growing to 2 feet tall with buttery yellow flowers. All kinds attract butterflies and insect pollinators.

Gazanias are bright daisy flowers that bloom all summer. They grow as ground covers and flowers come in many colors, but yellows and oranges are predominant. Use them for a bright spot of color or as a ground covering, though they seldom live through the winter in our climate.

Plant some gold in your garden to brighten summer days.

• Set out zinnias, cosmos, impatiens and begonias for lots of colorful flowers all summer long.

• Star jasmine is an evergreen vine that prefers some shade. The fragrant blossoms fill the June air with their sweet scent.

• Finish planting the summer vegetable garden. Seeds of early corn, and beans can go directly in the soil and plants of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, melons, squash, cucumbers and basil can be set out.

• Spray roses every two weeks with Neem oil to keep leaves free of black spot and mildew.

• Water lawns deeply, preferably in the early morning hours. Set mower blade to the highest position to reduce moisture loss during the summer.

Cucumber Beetles

Late spring marks the arrival in our area of the Spotted Cucumber Beetle. This little green beetle looks a bit like a green ladybug, but it is not one of the “good guys.” They can do a lot of damage to your vegetable garden in a short time.

Cucumber beetles are a major pest of cucumbers, squash, melons, watermelons and gourds. They particularly like the tender parts of plants, like the flowers, which they may destroy with their feeding. They also feed on stems of young plants, chew holes in leaves and can damage young fruits. They will also attack flowers in the garden like roses, dahlias and zinnias, making unsightly holes in the petals.

Cucumber beetles overwinter in the adult stage in nearby weedy areas, and become active at about the time that the earliest cucurbits are transplanted or seeded, when temperatures reach 55 to 65 degrees. They may feed on alternate host plants until cucurbit plants appear. The adults lay eggs at the base of plants, and as soon as they hatch, the larvae begin feeding on plant roots. The larvae are sometimes called rootworms.

In addition to these visible signs, cucumber beetles can spread plant diseases, such as bacterial wilt, squash mosaic virus, and others.

Although cucumber beetles are common every year, their damage tends to be severe only some years. Heavy populations feed mostly on flowers of squash, melons and cucumbers.

A variety of methods can be used to keep the beetles under control. Floating row covers, made of polyester fabric, can prevent adult beetles from landing on plants in the spring. These thin blankets of woven polyester allow water and light to pass through but keep insects out.  Cover the plants loosely with the fabric and seal all the edges with soil. Remove the covers when plants start to bloom to allow the flowers to get pollinated.

Straw mulch discourages egg laying, for the one or two more generations that can occur through the summer, and attracts predatory spiders and ground beetles. But mulch should be avoided if you also have squash bugs, which it will attract.

You can also set out yellow sticky traps, which will attract and capture the beetles. Check the traps to make sure that they are not catching beneficial insects as well. If they are, it’s best to remove them.

Some flowers, such as yellow and orange zinnias, make fine cucumber beetle traps. They will congregate on the flowers, then when the temperatures are cool, you can vacuum the beetles up when they are moving slowly.

The cool of the morning or evening is also the best time for hand-picking. Carry a pot filled with a soapy water, jiggle of the plants, and the beetles will drop off the plants into the water and drown.

Neem oil has been shown to act as a repellent for cucumber beetles. The foul odor seems to keep them from feeding on the plant leaves. Spraying once or twice a week will stop the beetles from further invasion.

Take action now to keep cucumber beetles from becoming a real problem in your garden.