A "Plastic" Plant With Real History

Although we love forsythia, the shrub with the colorful yellow flowers which fade into seasonal green leaves, many gardeners don’t consider it a very interesting plant.  However, even forsythia’s history contains many interesting quirks and curiosities. 

First, there are actually several species of forsythia.  Many plants are hybrids, technically called Forsythia x intermedia, but there is also weeping forsythia (Forsythia suspensa) and greenstem forsythia (Forsythia viridissima), to name just two.  With hundreds of named varieties that look similar, and with much confusion as to what is what in the nursery trade, many folks just give up and call it all forsythia.  That’s ok, except when it comes to hardiness.  Some gardeners lament that cold winter temperatures often kill the flower buds of forsythia, leaving only a few straggling blooms below the former snowline, and they therefore give up on the plant.  Not so fast!  There are many new types with better cold hardiness, including ‘Happy Centennial,’ ‘Meadowlark’ and ‘Northern Gold.’  A particularly hardy type is ‘New Hampshire Gold,’ which plantsman Michael Dirr claims “flowered to the tops of the stems” after a winter with -33F temperatures.  So don’t just buy any old forsythia; from your nursery request a named, flower bud hardy type.

Although not glamorous after flowering, forsythia has several good characteristics:  it is drought tolerant, pest free, and grows in many soil types.  And grow it does, with most types forming large mounds.  It will spread and also root where the branches touch the ground, making it useful for banks, windbreaks and privacy fences.  Pruning must be done annually if it is to be kept in check, but hacking in late summer will remove the wood which produces the flowers.  Hence, prune just after blooming or early enough so that some new shoots will appear before season’s end.  Many folks shape it into green hockey pucks (disk-shaped), nosecones (pyramids), or meatballs (globes), but I prefer a more natural look.  I’ve even seen topiary, or miniature tree-shaped forsythias, which are quite unique.  When a plant is this adaptable to pruning, we call it “plastic” – able to be shaped into any form, and live to tell about it.

 

Why do we call this plant forsythia?  It is named for an eighteenth-century British horticulturist, William Forsyth.  He specialized in growing forest and fruit trees, and was interested in studying their diseases.  William is famous for creating a “plaster” to apply to tree trunks as a curative, the formula of which he initially guarded until he received a government grant.  When divulged, the secret ingredients included cow dung, urine, wood ash, sand and powdered lime.  One wonders as to the effectiveness of this home remedy, but perhaps he was onto something.  In William’s honor, a horticulturist-friend of mine argues that we should not cry out “For-SITH-ee-ah” when we spot the shrub, but “For-SYTHE-ee-ah.”  The biggest tragedy is that William never saw his namesake:  he died in 1804, and the plant didn’t reach England until the 1840’s.

Gone Daffy O'er The Queen

The few recent days of sunshine and warmth have come as a welcome shock to the body and soul.  While our travels are restricted, we’re still allowed to emerge outdoors into our personal safe zones, shrugging off winter’s long-johns, Snuggies and gloom.  And what better to greet us than the daffodil?  William Cullen Bryant said it best in four simple lines:  “Though many a flower in the wood is waking, the daffodil is our doorside queen; she pushes upward the sword already, to spot with sunshine the early green.”

Just picturing a daffodil makes me happier.  And that such a delightful plant is so easily grown is another gift from the gardening gods.  Daffodils thrive in any at-least average, decently drained soil, in full sun or partial shade.  In fall, plant them at a depth two times the bulb’s height and they will easily outlive you.  Deer and voles leave them alone since they contain needle-like crystals of calcium oxalate – why can’t more plants contain such pest insurance?  All daffodils ask is that you leave their foliage to wither naturally after the flowers fade, which can be maddening for neatnik gardeners.  The trick is to plant them amongst emerging daylilies or other perennials which can mask the dieback, or in a patch of lawn which can be left unmown.  If that is impossible, give them at least six weeks post-bloom before wielding the shears in their direction.

A bold yellow daffodil with a big trumpet is a stereotypical springtime image, and if that was the only kind of Narcissus, it would be enough.  But wait, there’s more!  The American Daffodil Society (ADS) recognizes thirteen divisions, including the most commonly planted, the trumpets, and the large-cupped and small-cupped daffodils.  Less popular are the doubles (unfortunately reminiscent of those “flowers” kids make out of Kleenex in art class), and the triandrus, which have two or more hanging blooms per stem. Cyclamineus daffodils have petals swept back as if windblown, tazetta daffodils are highly fragrant with more than three small blooms per stem, and the poeticus group features very white petals with a green-centered cup flattened into a red and yellow disk.  Colors in all types can vary from pure white through all shades of yellow and gold and into red and orange.  With up to 200 species and varieties and 25,000 hybrids, there are plenty of choices for years of collecting by an obsessive gardener (who, me?)

If pondering 25,000 hybrids makes you more daffy than cruising the wealth of the toothpaste aisle, let’s backtrack and clarify the terms narcissus, daffodil and jonquil.  First, the easy part – all are, botanically speaking, in the genus Narcissus, just as all rhododendrons and azaleas are in the genus Rhododendron.  Next, “daffodil” is the common name for all Narcissus.  Lastly, jonquil species and hybrids are usually (but not always) characterized by several yellow flowers per stem, strong scent, and rounded foliage, and only plants in ADS division seven (the jonquils) or some in division 13 (certain miscellaneous species) should be called as such.

Long live the doorside queen!

Minding Our Mother

Reduce, re-use, recycle.  Earth Day turns 50 this year, and some of us of a similar age can’t imagine life without the “Give a hoot, don’t pollute” song lodged in our brains.  Idling in gas lines with our parents and watching the tearful TV Native American paddle his canoe through foul waters made an impact.  I’ll never forget my toddler sister screaming “pollution!” from her car seat as we cruised past the oil refineries lining the New Jersey Turnpike.

We’ve come a long way, baby, but we can do more.  Here are some thoughts, none of them new or novel, on how gardeners can act locally while thinking globally.

Start a compost pile.  Instead of transporting your garden and kitchen waste elsewhere, make “black gold” in your backyard.  Your soil will thank you.

Buy locally-made compost, which solves a waste problem, instead of peat moss, which travels from far away.  Rensselaer County dairy manure compost so enriched our flower garden’s soil that we didn’t need to add fertilizer for two years to have cosmos reaching to the heavens.

Instead of jetting off to Europe when we are able to travel again, visit local gardens.  Naumkeag, Innisfree and Wethersfield are every bit as beautiful and just a stone’s throw away, plus your dollars stay in our economy.

Consider overseeding your lawn this fall instead of using pre-emergent herbicide to manage crabgrass and other annual weeds.  Check out our “Repetitive Overseeding” video on YouTube or our fact sheet at ccerensselaer.org

Make your lawnmower 30% more efficient by sharpening the blade and cleaning the air filter.  Set the deck 3 inches high and mow only when the lawn reaches 4 inches.  No recreational mowing!

Better yet, if your lawn is small enough, check out the new reel-mowers.  Although they don’t have engines, they are lighter and easier to push than ever, and can be set higher than older models.

If your lawn is huge, can you let some of it go back to nature?  Reducing the mown area not only saves time and fuel, it will encourage wildlife and prove an interesting study in the reclamation power of nature.  Mowing a border path around the circumference and through the middle can keep it accessible and somewhat neat.  Putting up a sign stating “Nature Preserve” turns a weed patch into an act of conservation.   

Ask your garden center if they accept used plastic pots for recycling.  I know of only one local wholesaler who does this, but if enough gardeners inquire, others may look into offering the service.

While we’re at it, let’s use less plastic in the garden, too.  Make your own mulch from shredded leaves rather than buying it in plastic bags.  Grow seedlings in paper pots or soil blocks.  Choose tools made of metal or wood.    

Instead of planting exotic invasives like winged euonymus (Euonymus alatus) and Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii) which take over the woods, choose natives like witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana).

Above all, Love Your Mother (Earth).

Tough Times, Tender Vegetables

When times get tough, people grow vegetables.  The Victory Gardens of both world wars proved this years ago, and the huge spike in vegetable love during the 2008 economic downturn seems like just yesterday.  While its great news that more folks will be getting their hands dirty, I’m concerned with the success of these novice gardeners, given the perils of horticulture.  So here are some tips from someone whose thumbs have been both green and brown.

Let them have light!  Veggies need sun, at least six hours a day.  Leafy greens tolerate the least light, and flowering plants such as squash and tomatoes need the most. 

Dirt matters.  Vegetables like a good quality loam, neither too sandy nor clayey.  Make every effort to add at least two or three inches of compost before planting anything.  Leaf or manure-based composts are both good, are abundant locally, and are more of a renewable resource than peat moss (ask anyone who owns a horse).  The money spent and the shoveling required will pay you back in spades.

Vegetables like nutrients.  If you expect your produce to be high in lycopene, flavinoids, anti-oxidants and those other mysterious compounds TV tells us are beneficial, you’ve got to give the plants the goods to grow.  Add 2 lbs. of standard 5-10-5 or organic 5-3-4 per 100 square feet and turn it into the soil before planting.  Alternatively, you can give each young tomato, pepper, or zucchini transplant a handful once you install them, and put a thin band along seeded row crops such as beans, lettuce and carrots. 

The stakes should be high when growing tomatoes.  Almost nothing is worse than huge tomato plants sprawling on the grown, dropping fruits, which then rot and get eaten by varmints.  It literally stinks!  I like tomato cages re-enforced with a large metal post, but wooden stakes and soft green twine, or almost any support system, can work.  Stake before the plants get too wild to confine.

Worse than flopping tomatoes are wild weeds.  Unless you slice, grub, smother, or yank them out, they’ll pull out their six-shooters and take over.  As a youngster my father gave me weed duty – August torture when the garden resembled southeastern Asia’s jungle.  Too late I learned that mulch applied early – newspapers, dead leaves, black plastic, even old rugs – can be your best friend.

 

Less is more.  It’s heartbreaking to pull out and discard tiny carrot and radish seedlings, but if you’ve got eighty-five per inch of row, no good will follow.  Thin carrots to be 1 to 2 inches apart, lettuce to 4 inches for leaf types, 12 for heads.  Don’t feel guilty about the plant carnage.

More is better.  Plant extra zucchini so that when the squash bug strikes, you’ll still get yours.  Ditto tomatoes, which are devastated by fungal pathogens.  Share extra bounty with your neighbors (at a distance, of course). 

Contact Extension at (518) 272-4210 or dhc3@cornell.edu when disaster strikes.

Relish the successes, don’t fret the failures.  Find peace through vegetable gardening.