eranium Bench REGAL PELARGONIUMS & PLANT IDENTIFICATION PRESIDENT S MESSAGE June 2011

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1 Next Meeting: Saturday, June 11, 2011, 10:00am to Noon Anaheim United Methodist Church 1000 S. State College Blvd., Anaheim, CA The eranium Bench OFFICERS: President: Claire Lunt V.P.: Larry Fogliasso Secretary: Diane Hermann Treasurer: Candy Nakanishi COMMITTEES: Hospitality: Shirley Saturensky Opportunity: Blanche Mendoza Library: Larry Fogliasso Mo.Mtg.Plant Sales: Gloria Keene Plant Sales: Susan Hankey & Claire Lunt Nominating: Blanche Mendoza & Susan Hankey Newsletter: Claire Lunt Get a Free Yellow Raffle Ticket for a chance at the Opportunity Table. Just bring: 1 Refreshment item or 1-5 Plants or 1-10 Cuttings You may earn more than 1 Yellow Ticket. HOSPITALITY PROVIDED THIS MONTH BY: Paula Ames Gloria Keene Jill O Neill Mike needs a ride to our meeting from Laguna Hills, REGAL PELARGONIUMS & PLANT IDENTIFICATION Cynthia Pardoe will be dazzling us with her update on the Regal Preservation Project. She will share with us the exciting s she has been getting from all over the world since the website went online and some new projects in the works. Also, there will be a slideshow, plant sale, and silent auction with a special plant from her collection. This month we are asking everyone to bring in their plants that do not have names and we will try to identify them for you. We will need to see the whole pot or a stem with leaves and a flower. If it is not in bloom, a dried bloom or a picture can help the experts. There is much controversy about why is this necessary to have the names of the plants at our meetings and my answer is we need to have cultivar names in order to keep the educational requirement for our non-profit status. PRESIDENT S MESSAGE We are having such a long cool and sunny Spring that all my geraniums, pelargoniums and species are in bloom at the same time and putting on a lovely show! I don t know which is my favorite anymore. I have been spending the last 3 days in my garden installing a new product: drip irrigation soaker hoses. It will hopefully save me money on my water bill and get the water to the roots where it is needed. All this entails weeding and planting all the new plants I bought at all the plant sales and adding mulch and a bark cover to keep weeds away. My husband is busy digging-out bearded iris and so I will bring those to the meeting for the Free table. The Free table is a table that will have any items not related to geraniums or pelargoniums, and any geraniums or pelargoniums that don t have names. We are a botanical plant society and we all like to have plants with the botanical or hybrid name on them. If we don t keep our plants labeled, then we have trouble sharing them with other preservationists or breeders. We have many books in our library that can be used to help identify your plants, and Spring is the best time to identify them because they are blooming. Bring a stem with leaves and a bloom, or the whole pot, and we will try to help you identify your plants. Our plant sales have been very successful this year for us and we have made over $1,000 profit. Thank you to everyone who helped sell plants at our sales. It is your sparkling personality that made people happy to buy our plants. And a big thanks to Susan Hankey and Donna Pagana for growing so many plants this year for our sales. Your efforts and donations are commendable! Ruffled Pink Ling Ling, Regal

2 The Geranium Bench Page 2 Congratulations to our Scholarship Winners from Fullerton College. Both of the recipients work in the horticulture nursery propagating and tending to the plants for the Spring Plant Sale. We will present them with $100 each at our meeting. Veronica Diaz Perla Hernandez COMMON PELARGONIUM PESTS and WHAT TO DO TO GET RID OF THEM Aphids are small, soft-bodied, slow-moving insects that suck fluids from plants. They come in many colors, ranging from green to brown to black, and they may have wings. They attack a wide range of plant species causing stunting, deformed leaves and buds. They can transmit harmful plant viruses with their piercing/sucking mouthparts. Aphids, generally, are merely a nuisance, since it takes many of them to cause serious plant damage. However aphids do produce a sweet substance called honeydew (coveted by ants) which can lead to an unattractive black surface growth called sooty mold. Aphids can increase quickly in numbers and each female can produce up to 250 live nymphs in the course of a month without mating. Aphids often appear when the weather changes - spring & fall. They're often massed at the tips of branches feeding on succulent tissue. Prevention and Control: Lady bugs and lacewings will feed on aphids in the garden. Insecticidal soaps work best when you directly spray the pest. Mealybugs are small, wingless, dull-white, soft-bodied insects that produce a waxy powdery covering. They have piercing/sucking mouth parts that suck the sap out of plant tissue. Mealybugs often look like small pieces of cotton and they tend to congregate where leaves and stems branch. They attack a wide range of plants. The young tend to move around until they find a suitable feeding spot, then they hang out in colonies and feed. Mealybugs can weaken a plant leading to yellow foliage and leaf drop. They also produce a sweet substance called honeydew (coveted by ants) which can lead to an unattractive black surface fungal growth called sooty mold. Prevention and Control: Isolate infested plants from those that are not. Encourage natural enemies such as lady beetles in the garden to help reduce population levels of mealybugs. Spray with insecticidal soap. Whiteflies are small, winged insects that look like tiny moths, which attack many types of plants but you mainly see them on regals. The flying adult stage prefers the underside of leaves to feed and breed. Whiteflies can multiply quickly as a female can lay up to 500 eggs in a life span of 2 months. If a plant is infested with whiteflies, you will see a cloud of fleeing insects when the plant is disturbed. Whiteflies can weaken a plant, eventually leading to plant death if they are not checked. They can transmit many harmful plant viruses. They also produce a sweet substance called honeydew (coveted by ants) which can lead to an unattractive black surface fungal growth called sooty mold. Possible controls: Immediately, remove infested plants away from non-infested plants; trap with yellow sticky cards, apply a systemic rose food or a heavy ring of worm castings (Worm Gold) around the base of the plant; encourage natural enemies such as parasitic wasps in the garden; and sometimes a good steady shower of water will wash them off the plant.

3 The Geranium Bench Page 3 Pictures From Our May Meeting Diane & Wayne Handlos Soccoro Lapp Gardener s Market Plant Sale Photos: Ann Detsch Photos courtesy of Susan Hankey

4 Claire Lunt, Editor Parkview Terrace Yorba Linda, CA Phone: (714) Go GREEN and see these picture in color.send me your address. Meetings: 2nd Saturday of the Month January to October, 10:00 AM Anaheim United Methodist Church 1000 S. State College Blvd., Anaheim Sunday, June 19th Heard by the Garden Gate... Did you remember to feed your plants today? It s a good time to be sure to feed your plants with a balanced fertilizer like Gro-Power s If you have a lot of pots like me, just sprinkle a teaspoon in every pot the day before you water. The fertilizer will last thru the summer and into fall when the plants go dormant. Also, remember to foliar feed your plants with Miracle Grow at least once a month. Using a spray bottle that attaches to your hose is an easier way to fertilize and you can do it quickly. Be sure to do this the day after you water your plants and water in the evening so the sun won t burn the leaves. Important Items to Bring to the Meeting Plants and Cuttings for the Raffle Water Bottles to transport your cuttings Return Library Books Something to Share so we can all learn

5 San Diego Geranium Society Show, May 22, 2011 Cynthia Pardoe s seedlings on moss train South Bay Geranium Society Show, May 14, 2011 Regals: Senor, and Golf Ball Joe Flores with P. Cotyledonis Wedding Royale Fringed Aztec, Regal P. triste Lollipop Zonal