Sanhedrin Nursery – Garden Blog

• Potatoes like to grow in the cool weather of spring. Plant them as soon as possible.

• Tomatoes can be set out with protection. “Season Starter” will protect them down to 20°F and will give them a warm environment during the day.

• Lettuce, cabbages, broccoli, onions and other cool-season vegetables can be set out with no frost protection. They will give you a delicious early harvest.

• Gladiolus bulbs come in every color of the rainbow. Plant them this month for beautiful flowers this summer.

• Lily-of -the-valley is a sweet, shade-loving perennial that can be planted now from “pips” available at the nursery.

Enjoy Radiant Sunflowers this Summer

Sunflowers, with their warm yellows and spicy reds, add a touch of sunshine to any flower bed. With a variety of sunflowers in your garden, you can enjoy their colorful blooms from mid-summer until frost.

The common sunflower is native to North America and grows 6 to 8 feet tall. But there are many varieties that have been developed from it ranging in height from 18-inch-tall dwarfs to 5-foot-tall multi-flowered varieties to the 12-foot giants.

Of the giant sunflowers, ‘Mammoth’ is the best known. It is a giant heirloom sunflower with enormous flowers. The large yellow flowers bloom atop 9-12 ft. tall stalks and yield heavy loads of edible seeds. Fast and easy to grow, ‘Mammoth’ sunflowers are great for creating a sunflower forest for kids or a tall annual hedge or screen. Each plant produces one flower 12 to 20 inches across that hangs its heads with the weight of its seeds.

The bountiful crop of edible seeds, high in healthy fats, protein, fiber, minerals, and vitamins, are loved by people, birds and animals. You can begin to harvest sunflower seeds as soon as the center flowers turn brown or the backs of the heads turn yellow.

You can start sunflowers indoors right now, and plant them out when danger of frost has passed. Or they can be seeded directly in the ground and protected from late frosts. They are simple to grow in ordinary garden soil. They grow quickly and are fun for children to watch.

Sunflowers love the sun. The faces of the flowers follow the sun, from east to west, each day. So plant them where you can enjoy their colorful flower heads. Remember that they will grow very tall, so don’t put them where they will shade other sun loving plants. Be prepared to stake them if necessary.

‘Sunspot’ is a dwarf sunflower with a large, 10-inch, nodding heads of seeds on bushes only 2 feet tall. Bright, golden yellow petals surround brown centers which are filled with tasty seeds.

‘Teddy Bear’ makes big, rounded, fluffy, golden yellow sunflowers, 5 inches across, on sturdy 3-foot stems.

Another group of sunflowers make 5- to 6-foot-tall, branching plants that make great cut flowers. ‘Autumn Beauty’ has 5- to 8-inch flowers in deep yellow, gold, brick-red, burgundy and bicolored flowers. It has multiple flowering branches that bloom over a long period.

‘Orange Mahogany’ is a striking bicolor with large single flowers that are dark mahogany at the center.

‘Lemon Leopold’ is a lush plant producing a good sized flower with lemon petals and dark centers.

Mexican sunflower, Tithonia, makes a big bush 5-6 feet tall and 3-4 feet wide. Bright orange-red flowers are about 3 inches across are loved by butterflies, especially Monarchs. The variety ‘Goldfinger’ grows to only 3 feet tall.

Besides a bounty of blooms, the ripening heads of sunflowers draw lively goldfinches, colorful towhees and friendly blue jays as long as the stalks stand. So light up your summer beds with colorful sunflowers.

• Mouth-watering strawberries should be planted now for delicious berries this summer. Plant them in a sunny, well-drained bed.

• For blue hydrangeas, apply 1 tablespoon aluminum sulfate mixed in 1 gallon of water around mature plants this month.

• Spring vegetables love cool, moist weather and don’t mind a little frost. Set out lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, spinach and Swiss chard starts now.

• Rhubarb, the “pie plant”, can be planted now for mouth-watering pies for many years to come.

Sprightly Lily-of-the-Valley

The lily-of-the-valley, Convallaria majalis, graces the shade garden with her delicate, nodding, white, bell-shaped flowers each spring. A small, woodland perennial, it reappears each year around the time of spring festivals and Easter.

This herbaceous perennial plant is native throughout the cool temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. It forms extensive colonies, spreading by underground roots called rhizomes, which send up numerous stems each spring. Growth buds along the rhizomes are called “pips”. The flowering stems grow 6 to 12 inches tall, rising from two light green leaves, and each hold 5 to 15 dainty flowers.

The attractive leaves emerge in spring and are quickly followed by pretty white bells that make a lovely cut flower. The fragrance is heavy and sweet. This is one of the most beautifully scented flowers in the garden, and has been used in perfumes for decades. Lily-of-the-valley also has a long history of medicinal uses, and is poisonous if eaten.

Several legends are associated with lily-of-the-valley. According to one legend, the tears Mary shed at the cross fell to the ground and turned to lilies-of-the-valley so the flower is also known as Our Lady’s tears. Other names include May lily, May bells, lily constancy, and ladder-to-heaven.

Lily-of-the-valley likes moist but well-drained soil with added compost or leaf mold. They love a yearly application of leaf mold, peat moss, compost or manure each fall. They can grow in conditions ranging from filtered shade to deep shade such as the north side of a building. They need some winter cold to thrive.

Plant pips 1½ inches below the soil surface and 4 to 6 inches apart. They will need water during the growing season, and should be baited for snails and slugs.

Lily-of-the-valley can be planted amongst grape hyacinths, Muscari, bleeding hearts, forget-me-nots and hostas. The pips are attractive when massed in garden beds or scattered in drifts along a garden walk. As a carpet planting between camellias and rhododendrons, Lily-of-the-valley is ideal since it requires the same garden conditions.

The sweet fragrance and dainty white flowers make lily-of-the-valley very popular as wedding flowers. They can also be brought indoors in a pot where they will bloom in just 3 to 4 weeks so you can enjoy their sweet perfume.

Lily-of-the-valley requires very little care, and you will be rewarded with sweet-smelling bell-shaped flowers every spring.

• Pansies and violas will fill your spring flower beds with their bright faces in many shades of blue, yellow, red, pink and purple.

• Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce and other cool season crops should be planted this month for delicious spring harvests.

• Plant potatoes! St. Patrick’s Day is a traditional day to plant potatoes, so the season is upon us now.

• Prune Hydrangeas now by removing old flower heads down to the first new leaves. Don’t prune stems which have no old flowers, and they will bloom first this summer.

• Apple trees are still available as bare-root trees, but only for a short while longer. Start your orchard now!

Colorful Beets, from Top to Bottom

Beets are among the most healthful vegetables you can grow; both the roots and the greens are good sources of vitamins. Beets come in a bright array of colors, from garnet red to red-and-white striped to deep gold to creamy white. But the real hidden treasure is that the entire beet, from its robust and flavorful root to its buttery green top, is sweet and delicious.

You can choose from a variety of root flavors, colors, and shapes. If flavor were judged solely on sweetness, the hands-down winner would be the all-white ‘Albina Vereduna’. This close relative of the sugar beet contains 11 percent sugar, about twice that of red beets.

But some sweet, flavorful red varieties also stand out. ‘Detroit Dark Red’ is an old variety with rich, dark-red, 3-inch roots. ‘Bull’s Blood’ is very sweet and delicious and has deep reddish-purple leaves that are colorful in salads. The beets are tasty and have pretty pink rings inside. ‘Shiraz Tall Top’ has smooth, uniform red roots with strong, green, fast-growing tops.

For a color variation, try ‘Golden’, with bright yellow flesh and a sweet potato-like flavor, or the heirloom ‘Chioggia’, featuring red-and-white-striped flesh with a rosy pink skin and sweet flavor.

Not all beet roots are large and round. ‘Cylindra’ has cylindrical, purple-red roots. Tender and sweet, it produces lots of uniform slices. Large, oblong, golden-yellow ‘Mangel’ beets are sweet and tasty if picked small, or let them mature for high-quality stock feed. They can grow to 10-20 pounds by fall.

If beet greens are your true passion, plant ‘Tall Top Early Wonder’, with maroon-tinged leaves and purplish red, round roots. Greens can be eaten like spinach or Swiss chard. They can be tossed in salads or used in quick stir fries.

To grow sweet, tender beets plant them in cool, moist weather in the fall or early spring. Work aged manure or compost into the top 8 inches of the soil. Sow seeds 1/2 inch deep and 1 inch apart. Thin seedlings to stand 1½ to 2 inches apart 10 to 14 days after emergence. A month later thin plants to about 4 inches apart. For beet greens only, sow seeds 1/2 inch apart in all directions. No thinning is necessary.

Beet roots are ready to harvest in 40 to 55 days, when they are the size of golf balls. Greens can be harvested as soon as they are large enough to eat, when the leaves are 4 to 6 inches long. To harvest, pull-up the entire plant.

For best quality beets, keep the soil moist at all times. Mulch the plants if the weather is hot or dry. If you have trouble with flea beetles, cover your plants with floating row cover (Remay).

Young roots taste great lightly steamed, shredded and sautéed in butter, or pickled. Baking is ideal for any larger roots you missed, and beets small and large can be roasted to bring out their delicate, yet earthy flavor. Enjoy these delicious, nutritious vegetables fresh from your own garden this season.