Austin Gardener Page1. Published monthly by The Garden Club of Austin DON FREEMAN PRESENTS: EVERYTHING S COMING UP ROSES IN CENTRAL TEXAS.

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1 Austin Gardener Page1 February 2013 Published monthly by The Garden Club of Austin Volume 50 Issue 2 DON FREEMAN PRESENTS: EVERYTHING S COMING UP ROSES IN CENTRAL TEXAS Our rose expert for the February meeting will be Don Freeman, president of the Austin Rose Society. Don graduated from Colorado State University in 1953 with a degree in agriculture. After twenty years in the Air Force, he retired from Bergstrom AFB in Another twenty years with the Texas Department of Safety led to retirement again in He has been growing roses since 1955 in Colorado Springs and Denver, Colorado, Rapid City, South Dakota, and Nashville, Tennessee. He began growing roses in Austin in Don has been a member of the Austin Rose Society since Additionally, he and his wife, Patricia, are both ARS Rose Judges and Consulting Rosarians. They have garnered many garden show awards for their roses, as well as their other plants. He is also an active member of the Travis County Master Gardeners, The Garden Club of Austin, The Iris Society of Austin, and The Fern and Cycad Society. Don is presently the Vice President of Horticulture for the Austin Area Garden Council, as well as the Chairman of their Horticulture Committee. We will learn what roses are best suited for our central Texas climate and how to get them through our increasingly hot summers. Don will share his methods of pruning roses, which need to be done this month! He will also cover fertilizing, watering, and overall maintenance and care of roses throughout the year. Join us to hear this informative and timely presentation. There will be some roses offered for door prizes, as well as delicious treats to enjoy during our Meet and Greet at 7:00 PM. Our meeting will start promptly at 7:30 PM. Sandi 2013 Dues Club dues for 2013 should be paid by the February monthly meeting. Individual- $25. Additional members at the same address are $15 each. This includes national as well as local membership. Make check payable to The Garden Club of Austin and bring it to the February meeting or mail it to : Annie Hackebeil 652 S Monroe Street LaGrange, TX Please indicate any changes in address, telephone numbers, etc. Also, if you have an address, or have updated your address, she would like to have that. If you have any questions, please give Annie a call at (if no one is home, leave a message and your call will be returned) or her at <awhackebeil@aol.com>.

2 Austin Gardener Page2 JANUARY CLIMATE FOR AUSTIN The average daily maximum temperature varies from 61 at the beginning of the month to 67 at the end. The minimum varies from 41 at the beginning to 45 at the end of the month. Extremes are 99 observed in 1996 and 7 in l951. We average about 4 days with a minimum of 32 or below. Precipitation averages 2.17 inches but has ranged from a wet 6.56 in 1992 to a dry 0.28 in A maximum 24-hour amount of 3.73 occurred in Snow is rare, however 6 inches fell in a 24-hour period in 1966 and we had about an inch on Valentine s Day in On average, precipitation is observed on 8 days during the month. We usually receive about 51% of the possible sunshine, and between sunrise and sunset have 8 clear days, 6 partly cloudy days and 14 days with overcast conditions. The time between sunrise and sunset increases from about 10 hours 45 minutes at the beginning of the month to 11 hours 32 minutes at the end of the month. President The Garden Club of Austin Laura Joseph 1 st Vice Presidents Joyce Fox, Sandi Schmidt, Marjorie Trachtenberg 2 nd Vice Presidents John Fox 3 rd Vice president Elizabeth Wong Secretary Molly Clark Treasurer Annie Hackebeil Historian Carol Kay Johnson Newsletter Editor Sandi Schmidt AAGC Representative Wilburn Hackebeil Directors: Term extending through 2013 Christie Rodgers Joe Defoe Term extending through 2014 Wilburn Hackebeil Marilyn Metcalf Term extending through 2015 Laura Holland Joe Yura The Garden Club of Austin, Inc. was established in 1953 and is currently affiliated with The Gardeners of America/Men s Garden Clubs of America (TGOA/MGCA), the Southwest Region of MGCA and the Austin Area Garden Council. Meetings are open to the public and held in the Austin Area Garden Center on the fourth Thursday of the month except for November (the third Thursday) and December (an awards banquet ). Membership inquiries should be directed to our treasurer, Annie Hackebeil, at Questions or comments concerning the newsletter should be sent to the editor, Sandi Schmidt, at brsch07@gmail.com Gardening Checklist for February - March It s time to start getting serious about your spring garden! You ve probably tilled or spaded your garden by now. If not, it s time to do it. Add organic matter if you have it. Those leaves you raked up and saved last fall would be great. For those of you that neglected to sharpen and oil your gardening tools at the end of the fall season, now is the time, before spring gardening gets under way. An hour or two doing this chore will be time well spent. It s amazing how great some of these tools work when they are properly cared for. The middle of February is usually the time to prune roses in Austin. It is also the time when potatoes should be planted in your vegetable garden. Other crops that can be planted now include garden peas, lettuce, Swiss chard, beets, spinach, collards, kale and mustard greens. It is almost too late to set out onions, but if you really want some you might give it a try anyway. Why don t you plan to grow at least one new vegetable that you have never grown before? It may turn out to be one of your favorites. Some of the new dwarf varieties can be grown quite nicely in pots if space is a problem. If you just can t wait to plant some caladiums then go ahead and do it, but it is far too early to plant them directly into the ground. Chances are they would rot, or at least not grow well. Instead, plant them in pots and keep the pots in a warm location (about 70 degrees or more). Then you can replant them (or simply bury the entire pot) in the soil when the soil is warm enough (usually about the middle of April). Fertilize and prune fruit and nut trees by late February. Other tree and shrub pruning can continue in February too, as needed. Have a reason to prune; don t just whack away. If you are pruning oak trees, use a tree wound dressing/sealer to reduce the possible spread of oak wilt fungus. Inspect your lawnmower and be sure it is in good working order. A good sharpening job now might last the entire season. Replace the spark plug and clean the air filter as needed. When your lawn needs mowing, lower the blade a notch or two, and then gradually raise it during the next two or three months so it is in its highest position by June. Wait to fertilize your lawn until after you have mowed it a couple times (usually mid-march to early April). Fertilizing before then encourages weed growth rather than lawn growth. Get some hanging baskets started. Suitable hanging basket plants include petunias, portulaca, ivy, geraniums, airplane (spider) plants, bougainvillea, impatiens, begonias, ferns, and a host of others. Plan to enter them in our show in June, donate them for our plant sale in conjunction with the show, or bring them to our April meeting plant auction.

3 Austin Gardener Page3 Saving and sharing seeds If you're like me, you collect and save seeds. I have little plastic sleeves and paper packets, also empty prescription bottles filled with all kinds and sizes of seeds. With such good intentions of planting them at some point, I still store most. Worse yet, I toss many of them because I'm not sure if they're still viable. After seeing how organized Robert Day's seeds were at our Members' Demo meeting last year, I started making some little seed packets that I can give to my neighbors and fellow gardeners with simple instructions as to how and when to plant them. I've also mailed quite a few this year. Linda Wall's tomato seed packets, that she shared with us last month, got me to thinking. Everyone liked getting free seeds! It seems like a good idea to share our seeds with guests at our meetings. We could also use them as door prizes occasionally. If you have extra seeds you could share, they would surely be appreciated by someone. We could also trade packets at one of our meetings. Below is an example. At the back of our newsletter is a printable page of two packets to cut, fold and glue. You can save and reprint the page as many times as you like. I hope you'll want to share some of your seeds with the club, but the pattern is yours to use as you wish. Sandi Schmidt Complements of the Garden Club of Austin austin.org Front Caesalpinia pulcherrima Soak seeds overnight in warm water. Pot up in seed starting mix or potting soil. Keep in a warm spot until they sprout. Pride of Barbados Back QR codes put lots of information at your finger tips Ever gone to one of the big box nurseries and tried to find a a clerk to get any growing information? This might save you some time. Have you noticed that quite a few of the plant tags have a black and white mosiac square located on the tag like this one from Home Depot? This is a quick response code, or QR code. When scanned with a smart phone, it will take you to a web site that provides detailed information about the plant on the plant tag. To scan this QR code, you will have to download an APP for your phone. Just search for QR code in your APP store. Lowes has a similar code on its plant tags. It is a small multicolored square filled with triangles called a TAG barcode. It works the same as the QR code. When scanned with your smart phone, it will take you to a web site that provides a lot of information about the plant. However, you will have to download a different APP to scan it. Just search for gettag mobi in your APP store and download the Microsoft Tag. We did find that the gettag mobi APP from Microsoft reads both the QR code, as well as the TAG code. Don t have a smart phone? You can get the same information from your computer by going to the following web sites: thehomedepot.jhc.com or plantguide.lowes.com. Enter the plant code from the plant tag, or just put in the plant s common name. Sandi Schmidt Aboard the space shuttle Discovery, on October 29, 1998, was a miniature rose called Overnight Scentsation, specifically chosen for its strong perfume the first ever flowering plant taken into space. Scientists wanted to evaluate the effects of prolonged micro-gravity on fragrance If you have the QR Code or TAG APP installed, solve the mystery and discover where this symbol takes you!

4 Austin Gardener Page4 DEER IN THE GARDEN The bell we hoped would scare them, scatter them into flight, instead entranced them. Already ambling slowly away they stopped to listen, small delicate ears quivering as a new and beautifully resonant tone came into their lives. Our garden is now a salad bar with music! Beverly Bardsley Cookie Alert So many members asked Joyce Fox for her cookie recipe, she is sharing it here. NEIMAN MARCUS COOKIES 1-cup butter 1-cup brown sugar 1- cup white sugar 2 eggs 1-teaspoon vanilla 2 1/2-cups oatmeal 2 -cups flour 1-teaspoon baking soda 1/2-teaspoon salt 1-teaspoon baking powder 12 ounces chocolate chips 1 4ounce Hershey bar, grated (I used dark chocolate) 1 1/2- cups chopped nuts (optional) Measure oatmeal and blend in a food processor to a fine powder. Cream the butter & both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix together the flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder & baking soda & add to butter mixture. Fold in choc. chips, grated chocolate and nuts. Roll into balls and place 2 apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes between four & five dozen cookies. The following events are of direct interest to the membership of The Garden Club of Austin. All events are at the Austin Area Garden Center in Zilker Botanical Garden at 2220 Barton Springs Road unless otherwise noted. Additional gardening calendar information may be found every Saturday in the Life and Arts Section of the Austin American Statesman. Feb 19 - Tue Feb 25 - Mon Feb 28 - Thur Feb 23 - Sat Mar 19 - Tue Mar 23 - Mon Mar 25 - Mon Mar 28 - Thur Mark Your Calendar Third Tuesday Lunch Bunch. About 11:15 AM at Luby s Cafeteria located at the southwest corner of Mopac and Steck Avenue TGCOA Board of Directors meeting 7:00 PM Monthly Meeting of TGCOA. All About Roses with Don Freeman. Social starts at 7PM, meeting at 7:30 PM. Fern Team work day for Woodland Fern Bed. 9:30-11 AM, Zilker. Third Tuesday Lunch Bunch. About 11:15 AM at Luby s Cafeteria located at the southwest corner of Mopac and Steck Avenue Fern Team work day for Woodland Fern Bed. 9:30-11 AM, Zilker. TGCOA Board of Directors meeting 7:00 PM Monthly Meeting of TGCOA. Photographing Flowers with Bruce Leander. Social starts at 7PM, meeting at 7:30 PM. Welcome to Our New Members Lois Koho, Austin Marie Defoe, Austin

5 Austin Gardener Page5 January Meeting Linda Wall spoke to a packed audience at our January meeting. We were all there to learn how to successfully grow tomatoes. Not only did she have handouts, she brought each of us a packet of her own heirloom seeds. Her presentation was informative as well as entertaining. If you missed it, you can go to Linda's Blog: Redneck Hippie for her tried and true method for planting and growing tomatoes.

6 Austin Gardener Page6 Flap D Fold flap A under then fold flap B under. Fold flap C under and glue or tape edges. Flap A Flap C Flap B