Digging in Dodge. Plant Sale Special Edition. Annual Plant Sale May 20 th. Think Spring Gardening and Donating! April 2017 Issue 49 Special Edition

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1 April 2017 Issue 49 Special Edition Dodge County Master Gardener Association Digging in Dodge Plant Sale Special Edition Inside this issue: Geraniums 2 Heuchera Purple Palace 3 Night Blooming Cereus 4 Reblooming White Iris 5 Grapes for Wisconsin 6 Annual Plant Sale May 20 th We re excited to be moving to the Youth Building at the Dodge County Fairgrounds for our annual plant sale where we ll have more room and more plants! The sale runs from 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m., is open to the public with free admission and parking. A wide range of plants including succulents, native plants, perennials, house plants, ornamental grasses, some heirloom vegetables and other edibles will be for sale. We ll also have our rain barrels available at an incredible value of $50 each. Checks & cash only please. Master Gardener Volunteers will be available to answer any gardening questions and help with your plant selections. All proceeds from our plant sales benefit the ongoing educational mission of the Dodge County Master Gardener Association and our community. Come out and meet fellow gardening enthusiasts! For more information Contact: Kimberly Fay kimj.fay@gmail.com If you or someone you know has a yard full of plants that need to be divided, we can help! The Dodge County Master Gardener Association is looking for healthy plants to sell at our annual fundraiser. Contact us before April 30th and we'll schedule a team of Master Gardener Volunteers to assist you in digging and dividing your plants to be donated. We bring the pots, soils and knowledge needed to get it done right. Contact: Think Spring Gardening and Donating! Bill Carley at custom.bill@att.net (920) Kim Fay at kimj.fay@gmail.com (608)

2 P a ge 2 D igging in Dodge I s su e 49 As members of the Plant Sale Committee, we re excited to be planning the annual fundraiser. We ve thought about one of our favorite or most unusual plants that we plan to donate to the sale and wrote articles on those plants. We hope that you find them useful! Geraniums As a child growing up we always planted geraniums for color in our flowerbeds. I continue the family tradition. I like to plant in clay pots of various sizes so I can move the pots around the yard for color when other annuals or perennials loose their flowers. I have also found placing directly into flowerbeds works good helping with moisture control when being gone on vacation. In the Fall I bring the pots in before the first frost and enjoy their last blooms all winter. This year I made cuttings from my geraniums and hope to share at the plant sale. There are four basic kinds of geraniums. The Common Garden Geranium or Zonal Geranium is sold as a bedding plant. Some have fancy leaves with single or double flower clusters of red, pink, salmon or white. Florists sell the Martha Washington Geranium for a potted in-door plant. It is less heat tolerant than other geraniums. You can also find the Ivy-Leaved Geranium. It can be used in hanging baskets with flower ivy cascading three or more feet. The scented Mosquito Geranium was created with a citronella fragrance. Geraniums can be planted after all danger of frost is past and soils are warm in spring. If in a peat pot be sure to remove sides so none extends above the soil causing moisture loss to roots. Plant in soil at the same level they were growing in their pots. ~Lynn Stanton Common Name: Garden Geranium- zonal or bedding Scientific Name: Pelargonium x hortorum Sun: Full sun, 6 to 8 hours of moderate light Water: As often as needed to prevent wilting Soil: Well-drained Zone: 10-11, used as annual Height: 1 2ft. Spread: 1 2ft. Bloom Time: May to September Tolerates: Rabbit, Drought Heuchera Palace Purple One of my favorite plants that I will happily donate to the plant sale is Coral Bells, Palace Purple. It s a hardy perennial that is quite versatile in the landscape. With its low, mounding habit, green-purple, maple or ivylike foliage, Heuchera is perfect for mixed borders, rock gardens, containers & walkways. It adds color all season long and has interesting pinkish white, bell-shaped flowers on thin stems in mid summer. It s a good companion to Hosta and contrasts nicely in the garden. There are many colors and varieties of Heuchera such as Lime Marmalade, Fire Alarm, Black Taffeta, and Buttered Rum to choose from. My tips for success are to read the care tags carefully before purchasing other Heuchera, some will tolerate more sunlight than others. Most prefer part shade but some will take full sun in the morning. Foliage should not be trimmed back in the fall, but cleaned up in the spring by removing any dried or tired-looking leaves. In our zone 5, a winter mulch applied after the ground freezes will help prevent root heaving. Clumps are shallow-rooted and will develop woody bases rather quickly. Divide clumps in spring every 3-4 years. ~Kim Fay Common Name: Coral Bells Scientific Name: Heuchera, micrantha var. diversifolia Family: Saxifragaceae Sun: Full sun to part shade Water: Medium Soil: Organically, humus rich, medium moisture, well-drained soils Zone: 4 to 9 Height: inches Spread: inches Bloom Time: June to July Bloom Description: Blush pink-white Foliage: green -purple Tolerates: Rabbit, Deer

3 P a ge 3 D igging in Dodge I s su e 49 Night Blooming Cereus Epiphyllum oxypetalum Reblooming White Iris Iris germanica Immortality If patience is a virtue and you have it, this plant will test you. I inherited a huge pot of the cactus from my sister who no longer sees its charm! Courtesy of the University of Arkansas Extension office, Dr. Gerald Klingaman provided more technical information. Epiphyllum oxypetalum, also called Dutchman s Pipe cactus because of its curved tube, is perhaps the most commonly seen of the night blooming cereus cacti because it blooms better in smaller pots and makes a somewhat more attractive houseplant when not in bloom. It is a true epiphyte that can be found in the forest canopy from southern Mexico through Central America to Brazil. The cultivated form is apparently a hybrid, something that has been going on in Europe since the late 1700s when the plants were first introduced there. At its base, the plant has round, spineless stems that flatten out to round-lobed, spineless branches. The blossoms are produced from the notches along the flat, spatula-like portion of the stem. This plant is slow growing with fragrant, creamy-white flowers measuring up to 6 inches across. The Cereus may not produce flowers for three to five years after propagation and blooms for only one night in mid to late summer but is well worth the wait. Night Blooming Cereus is similar to the orchid in that it likes to be stressed, rootbound and in a well drained medium. As I give this plant the special care it needs, I look forward to the flowers as a reward for my patience. ~Thuy Tong Common Name: Night Blooming Cereus or Dutchman s Pipe Cactus Family: Cactaceae Sun: Full sun to part-shade Water: Low Soil: Well-drained sandy soil Zone: Height: Up to 12 Bloom Time: Mid to late summer The Reblooming White Iris will bloom in the spring at the same time as other irises do. They have bloomed in the spring in my Beaver Dam gardens as early as May 18 th and as late as June 2 nd. Spring blooms have lasted 7 to 14 days. The reblooming is not as prolific as the first but there is something special about having white iris blooming anytime from late August thru the end of October. Plant rhizomes 1 inch deep or less, some of mine are visible on the soil surface. Give them 6 hours of sun. Fertilize early spring when they emerge, again after first bloom. Use a fertilizer. Remove the stems of first blooms as close to ground as possible and water every 2 weeks. If the Garden Gods are with you the reblooming will happen as mentioned above. In the fall cut back and remove all foliage. Clean beds will help deter the dreaded Iris Borer. The Iris need to be divided every 3-5 years and should be planted away from other iris due to the amount of water they require. The Reblooming Iris Society has a very informative web site, which you could visit to learn more. ~Bill Carley Common Name: Tall Bearded Iris Family: Iradaceae Sun: Full sun Water: Frequent Soil: Well-drained Zone: 3-9 Height: Spread: 18 Bloom Time: Late spring & again in early to mid fall Flower: Fragrant Tolerates: Deer Photo by Bill Carley

4 P a ge 4 D igging in Dodge I s su e 49 Grapes For Wisconsin As a proponent of edible landscaping, grapes are one of my favorite plants. While typically grown on a wire trellis they can also be trained along a decorative fence or up a wall to shield it from the sun. Grown over an arbor or pergola they create a shady retreat in the garden. Grapes are hardy perennials. Aggressive growers they will require annual pruning to maintain fruit quality and contain them to their available space. Flowers are wind pollinated and fruit ripens Mid-August to Late September. Grapes are black, blue, red, yellow or white. Fruit fresh from the vine eaten out of hand is a real treat. Grapes can be processed into juice, jelly, raisins or fruit leathers. Due to overly optimistic nurseries there are many cultivars sold in Wisconsin that are marginal at best or incompatible with our growing season. The wine grapes of the species Vitis vinifera, native to Europe and the Middle East along with Vitis rotundifolia (muscadines) native to the Southeastern US and Central America are among those that rarely survive here. The ones that do well here are all from the species Vitis lambrusca which is native to the Eastern Great Lakes and Atlantic Seaboard from Virginia north or hybrids of lambrusca and either vinifera or other minor species. The most famous of these is Concord, however Concord requires a 155 to 160 day growing season to ripen properly. That gives growers in our area a truly ripe crop in about one of four years. We are hoping to have cuttings of several cultivars from local vineyards available at this year s sale. ~John Schellinger Common Name: Grape Scientific Name: Vitis lambrusca Sun: Full Sun Water: Drought tolerant when established. Soil: Prefers sand, tolerates any well-drained soil. Zone: 4-9, varies by cultivar Spacing: 10 to 12 feet in rows 6 to 10 feet apart. Rain Barrels available at plant sale. $50.00 Master Gardener Websites Master Gardener askamastergardener@att.net Photo by John Schellinger

5 P a ge 5 D igging in Dodge I s su e 49 Free Admission & Parking For more information contact: Kim Fay kimj.fay@gmail.com

6 Board of Directors Loretta Ortiz-Ribbing Crops and Soils Agent UW-Extension Office Diane Hemling President Lynn Stanton Vice President Jan Krause Secretary Joan Loomis Treasurer Gae Bergmann Local Record Keeper Al Krause Local Representative to the WIMGA Dodge County Master Gardener Association UW-Extension, Administration Building 127 E. Oak Street, Juneau, WI Phone: (920)