Design trends

Phenology and Climate Change

Check your lilac for mouse-ear sized leaves.

What’s that wet stuff coming from the sky? Hopefully by the time you’re reading this we will have gotten some much needed rainfall. I wanted to research the latest scientific papers on how climate change is impacting our gardens.

Plants have adapted over millennia to their growing conditions. The abrupt differences due to changing climate forces plant to migrate or go extinct. When temperatures increase plants bloom earlier creating the potential for timing mismatch between pollinators and plants.

Phenology – not to be confused with phrenology which claims that bumps on the head predict mental traits – is the study of key seasonal changes in flowering times, emergence of insects and migration of birds from year to year. When do they occur each year? Phenology is a real science that has many applications. In farming and gardening, phenology is used chiefly for planting times and pest control. Predictions for fire season are based on factors pertaining to weather as well as plant growth. Certain plants give a cue by blooming or leafing out that it’s time for certain activities such as sowing particular crops or insect emergence and pest control. Often the common denominator is the temperature.

Websites like USA National Phenology Network at http://www.usanpn.org/ offer lots of information on the subject. The US Global Change and Research Program released the first 14 indicators of climate change. Among these is the Start of Spring indicator on this website which reflects the accumulation of heat sufficient to initiate leafing and flowering in temperature sensitive plants. Your own observations via Nature’s Notebook will help contribute to this research.

How will this spring compare to normal? This site is regularly updated with data submitted by gardeners like you. Starting this year they are adding a new aspect of spring- the end of spring. They will forecast the activity of plants that bloom at the tail end of the season. This information will help us understand the length of the spring season in a particular year as well as whether a location that seas an early start to spring also see an early end.

Indicator plants are often used to look for a particular pest and manage it in its most vulnerable stages. They can also be used to time the planting of vegetables, apply fertilizer or prune. Here are some common garden plants and what they indicate:

When daffodils begin to bloom, sow peas.
When dandelions bloom, plant spinach, beets and carrots.
When lilac leaves are the size of a mouse’s ear, sow peas, lettuce and other cool-weather crops.
When lilacs are in full bloom, plant beans.
Once lilacs have faded, plants squash and cucumbers.
When apple trees shed their petals, sow corn.
When dogwoods are in full bloom, plant tomatoes, peppers and early corn.
When bearded iris are in bloom, plant peppers and eggplants.
When locust and spirea bloom, plant zinnia and marigolds.

When forsythia and crocus bloom, crabgrass is germinating. When this happens the soil temperature at a depth of 4 inches is 55 degrees. Treat with an organic pre-emergent.
When crocus bloom, prune roses and feed your lawn.
Mexican bean beetle larvae appear when foxglove flowers open.

Record your own observations. Another great site is National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service at http://attra.ncat.org. Sites like these can also help you design orchards for pollination and ripening sequence, design for bee forage plantings, design perennial flower beds and wildflower plantings as well as plantings to attract beneficial insects and enhance natural biological control. How cool is that?

Design trends

Get Excited About Bare Root Edibles

This is how your new fruit tree looks along with It’s other bare root friends.

A visit to any of our local nurseries at this time of year is like a visit to the candy store for a gardener. There are so many exciting edibles available now and this is the time to get yours. How lucky am I that I get to recommend some to new property owners looking to create an edible landscape. Here are some that caught my eye at Mountain Feed & Farm Supply in Ben Lomond.

If you have limited space there are multi-graft trees that combine compatible pear, peach, apple, plum and nectarine. There’s even a “fruit cocktail tree” that combines totally different stone fruits.
For really small spaces maybe a Garden Delight Miniature Nectarine would be perfect. This tree is a heavy producer of sweet, freestone delicious fruit that ripens in August on a tree that’s only 5-6 feet tall. The beautiful pink flowers in the spring are spectacular.

Besides classics like Elberta Peach and royal Rainier Cherry, what about planting a Candy Heart Pluerry, a cross between plum and sweet cherry? Or how about a Cot-n-Candy Aprium, an apricot-plum hybrid with incredible flavor? Or maybe a Flavor Grenade Pluot with its explosive flavor? This taste test winner produces fruit that hangs on the tree for 4-6 weeks which is a real plus. If it’s a new cherry tree you have in mind, consider Craig’s Crimson. This taste test winner produces dark red, to nearly black, medium to large size fruit with a wonderful spicy flavor. And if you get overwhelmed with everything ripening at the same time in the summer, maybe a Carnival Peach which ripens late September to early October would be a welcome treat.

And I haven’t even started on all the blueberries, grapes, goji berries, gooseberries, boysenberries, raspberries, strawberries and not to be forgotten-the delicious fruiting mulberry all available now in bare root form.

Planting a bare root tree is easy. In most soils, even sand or clay, bare root trees are best planted in your native soil. Less is more when it comes to amending your soil. You want your tree’s roots to reach far into the surrounding soil, and if you have added too much amendment, the roots will tend to grow only in the richest soil right around the tree. You can add a starter fertilizer like Dr. Earth Root Zone or E.B.Stone Sure Start with mycorrhizae organisms and micronutrients, otherwise wait to fertilize your new tree after a year.

Don’t plant in heavy saturated soil. If your soil drains poorly it’s best to place your tree at an angle in a trench and cover with soil or place it in a can. Wait to plant until the soil is crumbly and friable. Digging in waterlogged soil is one of the worst things you can do for your soil’s health. Do a drain test by filling the hole with water. If the spot you’ve chosen doesn’t drain in 3-4 hours, then plant in another spot or on a raised mound.

What fruit trees can you grow here in the mountains? Well, almost everything. Most of us get 700 hours of winter chilling or more where the temperature is below 45 degrees. Even with climate change the chill hours add up. And we can still grow fruit like a Fuji apple that doesn’t require this much chill.

What if you don’t get full sun where you’d like to grow fruit trees? Apples, pluots and plums are good choices for an area that gets at least 5 hours of sun a day during the growing season. The ideal is full sun but these trees will still set and ripen some fruit in partially shaded conditions. With peaches, nectarines or apricots it’s a different story. These fruits need hot sun to develop sweet, tasty fruit. Too little sun and they will not deliver anything close to what you have in mind.

With a little planning you can have fresh fruit 7 months of the year. By growing your own fruit you’re not at the mercy of mechanical harvesters and shipping practices. You can grow fruit and harvest it when the time is right. Homegrown fruit is a world apart from agribusiness and much less expensive than the Farmer’s Market.

Design trends

For the Love of Roses

If you want your roses to bloom like this later this spring, prune them now.

January is almost over with nary a raindrop. Our days have been lovely and many of my plants have started growing earlier than usual. Guess I can’t put off pruning my Compassion rose any longer. I see some outstanding new rose varieties available for the 2025 season. It won’t come as a surprise that they are very fragrant and have good disease resistance So while you’re out in your garden pruning your existing roses consider adding a new one or two now available Here are a few that caught my eye.

Pretty Picotee is a new hybrid tea rose with huge, bright pink petals with white edges and a citrus fragrance. It’s resistant to powdery mildew and rust which makes it rank high in our climate. In Love Again is another new variety with very high disease resistance to black spot and downy mildew in addition to rust and powder mildew. The vivid red flowers are exceptional performers with a light fragrance.

If you are looking for a smaller rose that grows to 24 inches and has both strong fragrance and disease resistance, Easy Charmer is the rose for you. With old fashioned cupped fuchsia lavender blooms this rose would look great in a container on your deck. If your garden is in partial shade but you still enjoy roses, try the new floribunda Time After Time. It has considerable disease resistance which enables it to thrive with minimal upkeep.

But what about pruning those existing roses in your garden? First of all remember that roses are super forgiving so just go for it and you can trim them up again later. Here are some tips to get started.

Most of us want our rose bushes to produce lots of roses on a compact shrub and not just a few exhibition size blooms so prune your shrubs moderately. The goal is to keep the center of the plant open for good air circulation aiming for a vase-shaped bush with an open center. Cut out canes that cross, appear weak or are diseased, spindly or dead. Healthy canes appear green or reddish while old and dying canes are brown. Cut back the remaining stems by about one third. When pruning, cut canes at a 45-degree angle just above an outward facing leaf bud or a swelling on the cane Slant the cut away from the bud to encourage growth outward. Clean pruners after every use to prevent the spread of disease and keep your pruners sharp.

Heirlooms roses such as David Austin, other old antique garden roses, and floribunda roses require less pruning because their open look is part of their charm. Keep this in mind and prune lightly. Old garden roses that bloom once in the spring should be pruned after flowering.

Same goes for climbing roses. Cut out extra stems if there are too many and also cut back long established canes to about the place where they are slightly thicker than a pencil. Then cut each side stem down to several inches. This will make the cane flower along its complete length for a beautiful spring display.

It’s best to prune your roses before they start leafing out or some of their energy will be wasted. Pull off and rake away any old leaves. They can spread fungal spores. Consider spraying dormant plants with a combination of organic horticultural oil and copper soap or lime-sulfur. If you usually only have problems with black spot you can use a mixture of 1 teaspoon baking soda with a few drops of light horticultural oil in 1 quart water and spray every 7 to s10 days during the spring.

Prune your roses throughout the growing season, too. Deadheading, or cutting off spent flowers, encourages plants to re-bloom. Mulch around your roses to conserve water and encourage soil microorganisms.

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