Sanhedrin Nursery – Garden Blog

• Lilacs and wisteria have beautiful spring flowers. They come in a variety of colors and can be planted now from bare-root plants.

• Blueberries are a delicious fruit that can be planted now from bare-root plants. Give them a rich, acid bed prepared with lots of peat moss.

• Many fine varieties of flowering dogwoods, tulip magnolias, Japanese maples and other specimen plants are now available at nurseries for winter planting.

• Strawberries can be planted any time now. Get them in early, and you’ll be picking strawberries this summer.

Marvelous Mulberry Trees

What a surprise it is to first discover a blackberry growing on a tree! Mulberries, these are, and what an interesting family.

The White Mulberry, (Morus alba), is native to China where the ancient silk culture developed using their leaves are the primary food source for silkworm larvae. It was transported to Turkey and then to Europe where it became naturalized centuries ago. It was introduced into America for silkworm culture in early colonial times. First sold to farmers, it has spread unchecked throughout much of the country. It’s fruit varies from white to pink and is sweet but mild-flavored.

In California, a fruitless cultivar is widely grown as an ornamental tree. The familiar “Fruitless Mulberry” is a male hybrid that makes catkins but no fruit.

Teas Weeping Fruiting Mulberry (Morus alba ‘Pendula’) is a beautiful weeping tree. It mounds up slowly to 10’ – 12’, and produces large quantities of juicy fruit. Its slender, weeping branches cascade down to the ground, making the red fruit easy to pick and a favorite with children.

The red or American mulberry is native to eastern United States, from New England to the Gulf coast. Although native, it is a threatened species because it hybridizes readily with the invasive White Mulberry. It has dark purple fruit with very sweet flavor.

A century ago, every farmer in the U.S had mulberry trees planted at his farm garden. They grew rapidly and made excellent shade and, planted near the hog lot or over the chicken coop, they were an excellent food staple for the farm animals.

Persian Black Mulberry (Morus nigra) is native to southwestern Asia and has been grown in Europe since before Roman times for its flavorful, purplish-black fruit. The tree grows 20-30 feet tall and spreads about 20 feet wide. It is very long lived, and develops gnarled, picturesque branches with age.

Black mulberries are also available in bush form. This plant is popular in England where the nursery song originated: “Here we go ‘round the mulberry bush…”

Mulberries are greatly loved by birds. Plant one to feed the birds, and or to attract birds away from other fruit trees. The fruit can stain patio areas and decks, so it should be planted away from outdoor living areas.

A good place for a Mulberry tree is in a lawn. This makes harvesting easy: just spread a sheet below the tree, shake the branches gently and the fruits drops onto the sheet for easy gathering. The fruits can be eaten fresh or used for making jam, jellies, pies, tarts, syrups or cordials. Dried fruits are used for snacks and in puddings, cookies, muffins and confections.

Mulberry trees have very attractive, dark green leaves. Although somewhat drought-resistant, they need to be watered in dry seasons, or the fruit is likely to drop before it has fully ripened. They are easy to grow and fun to eat.

• Bare root season is here. Choose and plant your favorite fruit trees and roses now.

• Fruit trees can be pruned this month. If you’re not sure how, take advantage of one of the fine classes being offered this month.

• Spring flowers and vegetables can be started now from seed on your window sill. Try pansies and snapdragons, broccoli, cabbage and lettuces.

• Check the watering of outdoor container plants especially if they’re located under the eaves or porch where rain can’t reach them.

Planning the Backyard Orchard

Whether you have 20 acres or 1/4 of an acre, you can have fruit-bearing trees on your property that will give you mouthwatering, tree-ripened fruit as well as a sense of pride and accomplishment.

        In choosing the location for fruit trees, a place with as much summer sun as possible is best.  With a short season to ripen fruits here, we need as much sunlight as possible.  Fruit trees should not be planted in the vegetable garden.  Worse than root competition, the shade created by the trees diminishes the productivity of the garden.

        There is some advantage to planting early blooming fruit trees, like apricots, plums and peaches, on a north slope or the north side of a building.  The winter shade will delay the blooming of these trees and increase your chances of having a good harvest. 

Fruit trees should always have good drainage.  This is especially true for stone fruits (cherries, peaches, plums, apricots and nectarines), which will not tolerate standing water around their trunks.

        The question of whether to plant standard trees or dwarf trees is mostly determined by how large your orchard is.   Standard apple and pear trees should be set 20 feet apart and semi-dwarf trees can be spaced 12 to 15 feet apart.   In an area 100 feet by 100 feet you could plant 25 standard trees or 50 to 65 semi-dwarf trees at that spacing.

        Dwarf trees can also be planted in hedgerows 4 feet apart where space is at a premium.  They take a lot of care when planted so close together but will give you a bountiful harvest. Even standard sized trees can be kept much smaller with pruning. This requires summer pruning as well as winter “dormant” pruning, but it can be done where space is at a premium.

        You will also want to consider which varieties to plant for a long harvesting season.  Cherries are the first to ripen, around the first of June, followed by apricots, plums, peaches and pluots which ripen at different times through the summer depending on variety.   The first apples and pears ripen in late August and other varieties ripen through the fall months.  Persimmons ripen around Thanksgiving.  With careful planning you can have fresh fruit over a six month period.

        Not all fruit trees will bear every year.  Spring weather conditions frequently damage the crops of apricots, peaches and plums and even apples and pears have good and bad years.  Plant enough trees so that you will have more food than you need in the good years, and in the bad years you will still get enough.

• Roses are the longest blooming shrub in this climate. Fill your garden with their colors and fragrances by planting bare-root rose bushes now.

• Spray fruit trees with a dormant oil spray. Spray from the bottom up, including the undersides of limbs and the ground around the tree, to prevent early spring insect infestations.

• Primroses will give you the most color during this cold weather. Choose some pretty ones now for your boxes and beds.

• Start seeds of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and other cool season crops indoors for planting outside in March.

• Roses should be pruned in February near the end of the dormant season. You can clean them up now, however, by removing all the old leaves on and around the plants.

Bright Colors for the New Year

Two new roses took the coveted “AARS Winner” title for 2008. After two years of testing, ‘Dream Come True’™ and ‘Mardi Gras’ were chosen as the best new roses by the All-America Rose Selections committee.

Both of these new roses ring in the New Year with their golden highlights. ‘Dream Come True’ is a lovely combination of vibrant colors. This rose produces perfectly formed yellow blossoms, blushed with ruby-red at the tips, all set amongst abundant matte green foliage. The big, bushy vigorous plant is a Grandiflora rose. It yields long-stemmed, long-lived blooms with mild tea fragrance, making it beautiful in the landscape and a great choice for bouquets.

With flamboyant blooms in a novel blend of pink, orange, and yellow, and a delightful peppery scent, ‘Mardi Gras’ creates a festive atmosphere in any setting. Each high-centered hybrid tea style bloom begins as an apricot-orange bud that slowly spirals open to reveal a 4-inch bright pink and orange bloom with a yellow base. This festive Floribunda has proven to perform exceptionally well across the country with little-to-no care. The colorful blooms are perfectly framed with dark green, semi-glossy foliage, and its upright columnar habit makes ‘Mardi Gras’ an ideal rose to use as a hedge or in a border with mixed perennials.

New from Weeks Roses this year is the lovely ‘Falling in Love’™ with its big classically-formed fragrant flowers of warm pink & porcelain white. Each long-lived lovely blossom is carried on top of sturdy stems, excellent for cut flowers. The 6″ blooms have classic, Hybrid Tea rose form on attractive, bushy plants.

A fine new introduction to the Polyantha class is ‘Wing-Ding’™. Polyanthas are small plants that cover themselves with trusses of tiny, delightful blossoms. The blooms of ‘Wing-Ding’ are scarlet red carried in large, pyramid-shaped clusters that repeat bloom late into the season. It will add lots of bright color to the flower bed.

An exciting new Climber is named ‘Night Owl’™ for its dark wine-purple blooms that blink with bright yellow stamens. The showy clusters of semi-double blooms have a sweet, spicy fragrance. They repeat bloom readily on vigorous, long canes and hold their dramatic claret color to the end.

‘Brilliant Pink Iceberg’ is a color sport of the beloved ‘Iceberg’ rose. The plant is exactly like its parent, ‘Iceberg’, except the color has been kicked up a notch to a bright cerise pink painted onto cream. With showy clusters and a free-flowering habit, it makes an excellent tree rose.

Bring in the New Year by adding some bright new colors to your garden palette.