Washington Gardener Magazine October 2021

OCTOBER 2021 VOL. 16 NO. 8

WWW.WASHINGTONGARDENER.COM

WASHINGTON

gardener

the magazine for gardening enthusiasts in the Mid-Atlantic region

All About Growing Glory-of-the-Snow

Fall Garden Tips ‘Holy Smoke’!

A New Big Bluestem Hardy Begonia Plant Profile How to Keep Your Pumpkin From Rotting Too Early Meet Debby Ward, Garden Coach and Teacher DC-MD-VA Gardening Events Calendar

Urban Tree Summit Lessons

Goth Garden s Dark and Brooding Landscapes

Visit the New White Gardens Park in Falls Church, VA Great Gardening Books Reviewed

Summer Creek Horticultural Soil Mixes HiDra2-Seed Starter MultiMix2–Raised Bed Mix Organic - Local – Sustainable – Pro Grade Most sustainable horticultural mixes available.

Available at Mom’s, Direct & select ACE Hardware www.summercreekfarm.com - Thurmont, Maryland

o oo o oo

RESOURCESsourc

Need a Garden Club Speaker?

Washington Gardener Magazine’s staff and writers are available to speak to groups and garden clubs in the DC region and ONLINE! Call 240.603.1461 or email KathyJentz@gmail.com for available dates, rates, and topics.

Green Spring Gardens

www.greenspring.org

A “must visit” for everyone in the metropolitan Washington, DC, area. It’s a year-round goldmine of information and inspiration for the home gardener. It’s an outdoor classroom for children and their families to learn about plants and wildlife. It’s also a museum, a national historic site that offers glimpses into a long, rich history with colonial origins.

Located at 4603 Green Spring Rd., Alexandria, VA. Information: 703-642-5173.

RARE AND EXCEPTIONAL PLANTS FOR THE DISCRIMINATING GARDENER AND COLLECTOR Barry Glick Sunshine Farm and Gardens 696 Glicks Road Renick, WV 24966, USA Email: barry@sunfarm.com

www.sunfarm.com

����������������� ������������������ ��������������������� ��������������

�����������

������������������������������������� ��������������������� ������������������������ ��������������������������

Izel Plants

Online Marketplace for Native Plants

Ask Maryland’s Garden Experts extension.umd.edu/hgic

We offer cost effective options to cover a lot of ground, including containerized plants and retail-elusive plugs. Easily find the species that are best suited to your specific needs, from popular ones to those that are rare and hard to find.

$10 OFF your next order use code: WG191 at checkout.

Your Ad Here

Contact kathyjentz@gmail.com or call 301.588.6894 for ad rates. The ad deadline is the 10th of each month. Please submit your ad directly to: KathyJentz@gmail.com.

2

WASHINGTON GARDENER

OCTOBER 2021

expires 4/15/19

izelplants.com

INSIDEcontents

FEATURES and COLUMNS

10

Glory-of-the-Snow should be planted 3 inches (8 cm) apart so they will spread to form a blanketlike ground covering in spring. Glory-of-the-Snow (Chionodoxa forbesii) ´Pink Giant´ photo courtesy of iBulb.

o

Got a Garden Question?

Got a gardening question you need answered?

Send your questions to KathyJentz@gmail.com and use the subject line “Q&A.” Then look for your answered questions in upcoming issues.

15 Love-Lies-Bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus) is an annual plant with a dramatic name and growth habit. The blood-red tassels hang in long, drooping panicles.

This trait makes it a perfectly creepy, yet beautiful, goth garden plant.

BOOKreviews 18-21 Digging and Delighted, Garden Allies, Winterland, Gardening

By Month, Hi Cacti, Watercolor Botanical Garden COVERstory 15-17 Goth Gardening DAYtrip 6-7 White Gardens Park HORThappenings 12 Georgetown Glow Walking Tour, FONA Bulb Sale, Green Spring Fall Garden Festival LOCALnews 14 Urban Tree Summit NEIGHBORnetwork 8-9 Debby Ward, Prior Unity Garden NEWPLANTspotlight 11 Big Bluestem ‘Holy Smoke’ PLANTprofile 22 Hardy Begonia TIPStricks 10 Glory-of-the-Snow Bulbs, Protect Pumpkins from Rotting Early

DEPARTMENTS

ADVERTISINGindex BLOGlinks EDITORletter GARDENcontest GARDENDCpodcasts LOCALevents MONTHLYtasklist NEXTissue READERreactions RESOURCESsources

23 11 4 5 9 13 11 3 5 2

ON THE COVER

6

Landscape designer Larry Weaner leads a walking tour of the newly installed White Gardens Meadow in Falls Church, VA. Weaner shared details about the meadow project and his creative process.

Ornamental Pepper ‘Black Pearl’ has black leaves and fruit.

In our November issue: Christmas Ferns Growing Mushrooms and much more . . .

Be sure you are subscribed!

Click on the “subscribe” link at washingtongardener.com OCTOBER 2021

WASHINGTON GARDENER

3

Credits

EDITORletter

Kathy Jentz Editor/Publisher Washington Gardener 826 Philadelphia Ave. Silver Spring, MD 20910 Phone: 301-588-6894 kathyjentz@gmail.com www.washingtongardener.com Ruth E. Thaler-Carter Proofreader Charlotte Benedetto Charlotte Crook Melena DiNenna Melinda Thompson Interns Subscription: $20.00

Back to the Movies

Pre-pandemic, I would go to the movie theater once a week or more, so not going to see a film on the big screen for more than 18 months was bizarre. Sure, I could watch films on my television or computer screens, but it is just not the same (and the popcorn is not half as good!). I made up for it the last two weeks, though, and saw both “Dune” and “The Last Duel.” I was lucky enough to win screening passes to them. That means you watch the movie a few days before its theatrical release for free. Sometimes you fill out a survey, but most times not.

What does this have to do with gardening? Well, both films offered surprising plant lessons that might have snuck by the audience, but stuck with me. First, in “Dune,” there is a set of Date Palms on the desert planet that is hand-watered by a dedicated servant. These plants would not last a day without their caregiver and consume a precious amount of fluids. However, they are considered sacred, so removing them is not an option.

In “The Last Duel,” which takes place in medieval France, the lady moves to a new castle and pines for her father’s garden, which had fruit trees and lavender.

Her new lord promises her that he’ll plant all of those plants for her there. We get a glimpse of that promise fulfilled at the end of the movie.

In both films, the humans are leading harsh, often cruel, lives, but there is never a question that the extra effort to grow these plants is worthwhile and important, not just for nourishment, but for their beauty and symbolic meanings.

Happy gardening,

Kathy Jentz, Editor/Publisher, Washington Gardener, KathyJentz@gmail.com 4

WASHINGTON GARDENER

OCTOBER 2021

• Washington Gardener Blog: www.washingtongardener.blogspot.com • Washington Gardener Archives: http://issuu.com/washingtongardener • Washington Gardener Discussion Group: https://groups.google.com/g/ washingtongardener/ • Washington Gardener Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/WDCGardener • Washington Gardener Instagram: www.instagram.com/wdcgardener • Washington Gardener Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ WashingtonGardenerMagazine/ • Washington Gardener YouTube: www.youtube.com/ washingtongardenermagazine • Washington Gardener Store: www.amazon.com/shop/wdcgardener • Washington Gardener Podcast: https://anchor.fm/gardendc/ • Washington Gardener is a womanowned business. We are proud to be members of: · GardenComm (GWA: The Association for Garden Communicators) · Green America Business Network · National Garden Bureau · One Montgomery Green Volume 16, Number 8 ISSN 1555-8959 © 2021 Washington Gardener All rights reserved. Published monthly.

No material may be reproduced without prior written permission. This magazine is purchased by the buyer with the understanding that the information presented is from various sources from which there can be no warranty or responsibility by the publisher as to legality, completeness, or technical accuracy.

All uncredited photos in this issue are © Kathy Jentz.

READERcontt

Reader Contest

For our October 2021 Washington Gardener Reader Contest, we are giving away the Woodland Journal from Princeton Architectural Press (prize value: $19).

Whether you’re in the forest or just dreaming of woodland wonderlands, immerse yourself in the little miracles of nature with the Woodland Journal.

Charming original watercolor illustrations of mushrooms and wildflowers, frogs and ferns, and butterflies and rabbits fill the pages of this lined journal.

The foil-stamped cloth cover complements the whimsical endpapers, and a ribbon marker keeps your place. The Woodland Journal is a sanctuary for writers, poets, and journal keepers who wish to enter the magical forest world to escape the everyday in their own imaginations.

To enter to win the Woodland Journal, send an email by 5:00pm on October 31 to WashingtonGardenerMagazine@gmail.com with “ Woodland Journal” in the subject line and in the body of the email. Tell us what your favorite article was in this issue and why. Please also include your full name and mailing address. Winners will be announced and notified on November 1. o

Your Ad Here

Are you trying to reach thousands of gardeners in the greater DC region/MidAtlantic area? Washington Gardener Magazine goes out in the middle of every month. Contact KathyJentz@gmail.com or call 301.588.6894 for ad rates (starting from $200). The ad deadline is the 5th of each month. Please submit your ad directly to: KathyJentz@gmail.com.

Plant a Row for the Hungry (PAR) is an easy program to participate in and really does not take any extra resources than what you may have in your garden. In normal times, about 35 million people wonder where their next meal will come from.

Most of these are children. That’s where PAR steps in.

PAR is such a simple program: It urges gardeners to Plant A Row (or a container) dedicated to feeding the hungry, and then take the harvest to someplace or someone that needs it. Once you have donated, send an email to KathyJentz@gmail.com with the total (in pounds and ounces) of what you gave.

That is all there is to it. Easy. Effective. Adaptable and Helpful.

READERreactions

Thoughts on Past Issues My favorite article in the February 2021 issue of Washington Gardener Magazine is “Alice Tangerini, Botanical Illustrator.” Without botanical (and all scientific) illustrators to document via art the many parts of organisms, most of the biology would be lost to the naked eye.

Plus, these illustrations assist botanists with plant identification. Botanical illustration archives are just as important as the herbarium specimens. And I really liked that the article added some snippets about Alice as a DC native and gardener. ~ Rose Gulledge, Crofton, MD I thought that my favorite article in the January 2021 issue of Washington Gardener Magazine would be the one about Broad Beech Ferns by Barry Glick, because I love and collect ferns and was not familiar with the Broad Beech kind. However, it turned out that my favorite article was about Vanessa Pierre. I was so inspired by her enthusiasm for her garden. ~ Barbara Waite-Jaques, Silver Spring, MD My favorite article in the July 2020 ssue of Washington Gardener Magazine is your editorial, Kathy. “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” As a gardener, you write about the disastrous effects of monoculture communities. These monocultures, whether in our gardens or in society, are vulnerable to decline and decay.

Yet, we gardeners know that growing plant varieties keeps our soil fertile, our plants healthier. Yes, these plant communities require work to maintain space for each variety to grow and maintain itself to succeed. Some require additional support (I’m watering vulnerable plants daily in this heat), pruning the overgrowth, adding compost as needed. That means paying attention to all of the garden, noticing who needs “additional resources” and who is okay, doing well.

I am delighted with your comments.

They make sense and apply to all of our society. I appreciate the reflection that went into this essay.

Thus, it is my favorite in that edition. ~ Annie Shaw, Greenbelt, MD o OCTOBER 2021

WASHINGTON GARDENER

5

DAYtrip

John C. and Margaret K. White Gardens Horticultural Park

By Charlotte Benedetto The John C. and Margaret K. White Gardens Horticultural Park is a new and remarkable public park in the heart of suburban Fairfax County, VA, and is an unmissable stop for any native plant fanatic or meadow enthusiast.

A genuinely absorbing woodland and meadow native planting site, the White Gardens sits at 3301 Hawthorne Lane in Falls Church, VA, and has the potential to become a truly great native plant garden. The White Gardens Park has a certain feature of terrain and a particular vision that provides a sense that it is not only a facility with so much happening already, but so much to potentially offer. Under the direction of site manager Judy Zatsick, I would not be surprised to see it become a significant and important native plant gardening center in the DC area similar to the Mt. Cuba Center in Hockessin, DE. On terrain already gifted with a versatile acid soil, the White Gardens Park is a former private residence that has been converted into a public park. Sitting snugly at the end of a cul-de-sac in a quiet family neighborhood, its aspect 6

WASHINGTON GARDENER

OCTOBER 2021

is one of quiet mystery and a unique personality. But this is not a remote homestead or a rural site—the neighbors are never more than a stone’s throw away, whether they are humans or deer.

The park’s paths have a complex soil narrative, with shifting components, moisture levels, and elevations; there is so much potential here to install different kinds of native species, and to interact with the site’s ever-changing and ever-unfolding narratives of sun and moisture levels. Despite the vagaries of pokeweed, wild lettuce, and porcelainberry, this garden (and its inner meadow) is a prime site for the development and study of the native plants of Northern Virginia. Changes in elevation and sun exposure tease and ribbon throughout the White Gardens, potentially offering something for just about every kind of native plant in one site.

The supreme feature is the meadow: its grassy-sweetness everywhere, and its clouds of seed releasing in billows when the wind blows like confetti. Eversquabbling jays, clouds of mayflies like

tumbling glitter—the meadow pulses out a sensual appeal, pulling and drawing visitors hither and thither, drawing the eye to each surface, species, and texture change. It’s easy to become lost in the White Gardens’ many transitions and colors. It is not, however, easy to become physically lost in this tidy and compact suburban park. A chorus of children and leaf blowers often drone along with the crickets and songbirds.

Curvaceous with hills, microclimates, and unfolding slopes and flat areas, a small hardwood stand, or miniature upland graces a sort of paddock or open yard near the White Gardens residence. An understated vintage brick cottage—the former White residence— radiates the unique local glamour of mature buildings in this area, somehow having avoided the destruction of the developer’s wrecking ball.

The Whites lived in this brick cottage at the top of a curved and sloping crunchy-gravel driveway; small shrubs and a gentle shadow of rhododendron jungles behind the house form an attractive, wet-looking green mass.

DAYtrip

A gentle rise forms a vista onto and through the huge planted meadow itself, its moist borders and mowed bottom area bordering woodland, thickets, and suburban scrub at the bottom of the slope, and slaty, rocky, humid woodland and grassy-sweet, fast-draining hillsides. These garden rooms run the gamut, with all the local microclimates packed in together.

The White Gardens Park has a surprisingly lively personality that pulls you in—a sort of conversation through many changes in terrain, elevation, vegetation, and view. The meadow itself is compelling and impressionistic, with cloudlike masses of form and color.

Reminiscent of a moor or a heath, the meadow contains a crowd of native plants.

Grassy odors, suburban breezes, butterflies, and songbirds entertained a recent group as landscape designer and native meadow expert Larry Weaner advanced us through the White Gardens meadow one species at a time.

Each plant has a nuanced and organized role in this cast of characters.

Some might say Weaner (pictured at right) is sort of the “Elvis” of native meadow design, thanks to being the author of 2016’s trailblazing work, Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes

Can Be a Source of Environmental Change. The meadow at the White Gardens is a Weaner-directed production, with both seeded plants and seedling plugs installed by volunteers starting around 2015.

“When you show up in a place like this that was covered almost 100% with porcelainberry, and the second most-numerous plant was mugwort, you know these plants are going to be up against some rough-andtumble players,” said Weaner.

The White Gardens meadow plants are a living blueprint for how to out-compete the porcelainberry and English ivy choking most DC-area backyards.

“Obviously, we need to go in and as best we can, get rid of that stuff before we start.

We’re not just going to seed into a sea of porcelainberry and expect success to happen.”

An understanding of the different competition levels of native plants is the arcane knowledge essential here.

“Number one, we need to pick a high level of competitive species, because we expect a high level of weed pressure, and number two, those species that we do select have to be on an equal competitive footing,” Weaner explained, “I’m going to use a lot of very competitive species, and I’m not going to bother with less-competitive ones, because even if I keep the weeds out, the more-competitive things I planted will weed out the less-competitive things.”

Planning a native garden like the White Gardens meadow is technical, but also a “little dance,” as Weaner put it. Volunteers at the White Gardens get experience in observing this ballet between the desirable high-diversity/low-competition plantings and the lowdiversity/high-competition

plants needed to acculturate the site.

As a designer, “you’re putting things together on an equal competitive level, and what level you’ve selected is in part based in part in how much weed pressure you expect to see,” Weaner said. “The worst is over,” and the maintenance is significantly lower than the initial installations. As for the seeds we saw floating all over the meadow from wild lettuce? “The best strategy to control that is do nothing.”

There is a vision and hope for the future in the White Gardens.

John C. and Margaret K. White Gardens is at 3301 Hawthorne Lane, Falls Church, VA. Parking is limited. To volunteer, contact Fairfax County Parks at www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/residentcurator-program/white-gardens.

Note that the Fairfax County Park Authority is accepting applications (through November 10, 2021) for curatorship of the historic White Gardens.

The curator will guide its development from a private residence and garden to a public garden. o Charlotte Benedetto is a writer, artist, and gardener living in Great Falls, VA. She is enrolled in the Northern Virginia Community College horticulture program and is an intern this fall with Washington Gardener.

OCTOBER 2021

WASHINGTON GARDENER

7

NEIGHBORnwork every single tiny, green, cherry tomato in my hand.

It was a teaching moment. She was so great. She just explained the difference. She thanked me; she said, “This is the difference between how peas grow and how the tomatoes grow.” And as I started to cry a little bit, she said, “This is a great opportunity! Let’s find a recipe for baby green tomatoes, and we’ll make it for dinner.” That, in a way, was the inspiration for me to help inspire other people. You’ll see that gardening is a journey, no matter if we make silly mistakes when we’re five or six years old.

Debby Ward

Garden Coach and Teacher

By Charlotte Crook

Debby Ward, the founder of Prior Unity Garden, is a native of Northern Virginia.

She was a gardener from a young age, even crawling around in her parents’ garden growing up. She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a bachelor’s in fine arts. She now runs Prior Unity Garden to encourage people to eat healthier, get outside, and pass gardening knowledge down to the next generation. Ward works to educate people about gardening, focusing on the knowledge gained through experiences. She teaches virtual classes and does speaking engagements. Through her, Prior Unity Garden offers one-onone coaching for general information and training for specific issues. Ward also manages a learning and display garden in Vienna, Virginia.

What started your interest in teaching about gardening?

When I was a little girl and my mom 8

WASHINGTON GARDENER

OCTOBER 2021

was not working, every day she would take a nap for an hour, and I knew it was “Mom time,” time to leave Mom alone. You can have the whole rest of the time, but that was her hour, so I would be very respectful and very quiet. One day, I went out, and I thought, “What can I do to help?”

Because that was my goal always: How can I help my mom?

I saw this whole row of peas, and I thought, “That’s what I can do. I’ll pick all the peas for dinner. And that way, when she gets up, I can say, ‘Hey, I picked all the peas in the garden!’”

When she wakes up, I go in, happy little girl, I hold out my two little hands with all the little peas in it and then I say, “Mommy!” She’s told every friend she’s ever known the story: “My little daughter would say, ‘Look, Mommy, I picked the peas!’” And as she looks down into her daughter’s hands, me, and she saw

Tell us about what Prior Unity Garden is and its mission.

I’ll start off with how Prior Unity Garden started, and that is, I read a book called Prior Unity by a teacher named World-Friend Adi Da. I found this to be one of the most—if not the most—inspiring books I have ever read. The concept of prior unity is that we all think about unity and things together, and we’re all one, but it really comes down to truth.

It’s prior to everything we see, it’s prior to you and me, it’s prior to everything.

That’s reality. That’s true.

It’s that connection that’s always been here before anything else. That was my “ah-ha!” moment, with some level of understanding of how that also might come from gardens. It’s not individual plants. It’s not individual bugs or how we’re doing our soil. Yes, that’s important, but it’s really this prior unity that’s the state of ecstasy. If we’re coming from that place, then everything else falls in place.

When I was starting this business back in 2009, it just sort of came.

I’m an organic gardener and looking at doing something a little different from what other people back then were doing. People thought I was nuts.

Nobody was doing organic gardening.

It really was a journey in not only helping people garden, but helping people look at the world differently, and look at their relationships differently, even though I focus on gardening.

In what ways have you seen Prior Unity Garden affect people?

The first person who popped into my mind was a young woman named Rina,

NEIGHBORnwork and she had a young daughter who’s not quite as young anymore, but she really wanted her daughter to understand where food comes from and to get hooked on organic, tasty food like I did. She didn’t know anything about gardening. She’d never done it before.

She had some relatives who maybe had a farm once. So, I worked with her.

We did coaching. We did training, and over time, it got to the point where her daughter, when it was lunchtime, would go into the garden and say, “Come on, Mommy, it’s time for lunch,” and sit in the middle of the garden and just eat lunch. She picked out what her favorites were. This girl was four years old at the time.

Seeing the young families like that—it’s one way that I’ve seen a lot of impact. I know loads of people who have started a garden and been unsuccessful and were about to give up, and then they work with me and we walk through it. Now they’ve got vibrant gardens.

Then I think of another woman who grew up in Brazil, in the city, and had no clue where food came from. She moved to DC, and she was ecstatic to understand where food came from and to learn how to grow it for herself, to the point where she created a gardening group in her little townhouse complex in DC and changed the bylaws to put a community garden in her townhouse complex.

What advice do you have for beginner gardeners or somebody who’s just starting out, especially in our area?

The first is to decide what your goals are. What’s the point of you getting into this and doing it? Is it that you want to grow food, is it that you want to go flowers, is it that you just want some decompressed time away from your kids or your grandmother or your job or whatever? So really looking at “What’s the point?” “What is it that you hope to gain?”

The second thing is, and this is super-important: to assess your time.

Because I’ve seen way too many instances where people want to put in a garden and they get really gung ho about it. They go out and they put in this big, huge bed and spend all this money, and then they don’t know what

they’re doing. They grow some plants and things fail. They get discouraged, and they’ve wasted loads of time and money. Whereas, if we’d had the conversation, I could have determined that what they really want is a few tomatoes for the kitchen. Then, I could have set them up with a few containers, and they probably would have been supersuccessful and then maybe moved on to the next thing. Assessing what you want to do and how much time you have to do it, so you can match up the garden that you start with the time that you’ve got is super, super important.

The next most important thing about starting your garden is your soil. People need to have healthy, living soil. And I mean living soil: chemical-free, vibrant, crazy-healthy, living soil. If you can have healthy, living soil, it’s going to grow the plants for you, so it’s really learning how to build soil organically and not using chemicals or tilling, and different ways to make sure that soil is supervibrant. Those are the sorts of the beginning points that I would say for someone just getting going.

Is there anything else you would like readers to know about what you do at Prior Unity Garden?

Well, I want to offer everyone an opportunity. I offer a 30-minute Organic Gardening Discovery Call that’s totally free. The idea is for us to just chat informally and help someone discover the next step to their gardening success, so I offer that completely free.

During that call, it may be that some of the things I do that I’ve mentioned earlier are a good fit. I just want to let all of the readers know that I offer that to discover the next steps to your gardening success!

Ward can be contacted through debby@priorunitygarden.com. o Charlotte Crook is a senior journalism major minoring in history at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD. She is an intern this fall with Washington Gardener and is passionate about raising house plants (to varying degrees of success).

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Urban Garden: 101 Ways to Grow Food and Beauty in the City Coming Soon!

By Kathy Jentz and Teresa Speight Published by Cool Springs Press/Quarto Homes Pre-order it today at: https://amzn.to/3yiLPKU

GardenDC Podcast

The GardenDC podcast is all about gardening in the greater Washington, DC, and Mid-Atlantic area. The program is hosted by Kathy Jentz, editor of Washington Gardener Magazine, and features guest experts in local and national horticulture. The latest episodes include interviews with experts on boxwood, bay-wise landscapes, and viburnum.

You can listen online at https:// washingtongardener.blogspot.com/ or on Spotify, Apple, etc. o OCTOBER 2021

WASHINGTON GARDENER

9

TIPStricks

Before you head out to the patch to pick your perfect pumpkin, Virginia Cooperative Extension horticulture expert Ashley Edwards says it’s important to wait until pumpkins are fully mature before harvesting and to carve them as close to Halloween as you can to avoid early rotting.

Edwards offers the following tips: • Prevent rotting by waiting until maturity to harvest; avoid freezing temperatures.

• Mature pumpkins have hard, shiny shells that can’t be easily punctured by a fingernail.

• Cure your pumpkin (allow skin to harden) by allowing it to remain in the garden during dry, sunny weather; ideally, 80–85 degrees F, for about 7–14 days.

• Before carving, store pumpkins in well-ventilated areas to extend their lifespan before they rot, preferably protected from rain.

Pumpkins will retain good quality for approximately two to three months if stored at the appropriate relative humidity (50–70 percent) and temperature (50–55°F).

Once your pumpkin is carved, Edwards says you can use petroleum jelly on the inside and outside of the pumpkin to keep it hydrated. “Try using battery-operated lights instead of real candles to prevent wilting, and you can also spray the outside of the pumpkin with clear acrylic spray to help keep pests and bacteria away.”

To dispose of your pumpkin, Edwards says to add it to the compost pile as a good use of the leftover organic matter for future gardening.

For additional tips about how to keep a homegrown pumpkin diseasefree and healthy, visit the Disease Management Tool in the Home Grounds and Animals Pest Management Guide from Virginia Cooperative Extension at https://ext.vt.edu. o

10

WASHINGTON GARDENER

OCTOBER 2021

Chionodoxa luciliae photo courtesy of iBulb.

Protect Pumpkins from Rotting Before Halloween

Plant a Colorful Blanket with Glory-of-the-Snow Compared with tulips and daffodils, Glory-of-the-Snow (Chionodoxa sp.) is a relatively unknown bulbous plant. As the saying goes: unknown, unloved; so it’s time to put this small but powerful flower in the spotlight.

Glory-of-the-Snow grows in the wild in the Turkish mountains, where the colorful flowers form beautiful blankets in the snow. The botanical name Chionodoxa refers to this as well: The Greek word “chiōn” means snow, and “doxa” (δόξα) means fame or glory. This bulbous plant deserves a place in the spotlight because it is a strong and rewarding bloomer.

Glory-of-the-Snow will start to bloom from February onward, regardless of freezing temperatures or snow. Its growth and flowering power is unstoppable, despite the cold. The small flowers consist of six petals, which are fused together. The color is usually blue, but sometimes also pink or white. They appear in great numbers, forming colorful carpets in the garden.

Glory-of-the-Snow will naturalize; how convenient is that? This does not happen via the bulbs, but through the seeds of the dead flowers. The seeds have an elaiosome attached to them (an appendage to the seed). Ants love these appendages and will take them to the place where they eat the sweet treat. The seed itself is bitter, so they leave it. New Glory-of-the-Snow will sprout from this seed the following year.

The blue color of Glory-of-the-Snow contrasts well with yellow and white daffodils and small, early-flowering red tulips. White and pink Glory-of-the-Snow goes well with yellow daffodils and lapwing flowers (Fritillaria sp.). A spot next to deciduous plants or shrubs is perfect. It can also be planted in the lawn, just like crocuses and snowdrops.

Good to know about Glory-of-the-Snow: • If you want to have a colored blanket in your garden, apply the power of quantity.

Plant at least 50 bulbs for each square yard/meter.

• Glory-of-the-Snow will grow almost anywhere and does not ask for much: good drainage, an open position in the sun or partial shade, and a little frost.

• The bulbs need the cold of winter to be able to grow, but they are strong enough to withstand a dry spring and a hot summer with no trouble at all.

• Glory-of-the-Snow can withstand salty winds and therefore also thrives in a coastal location.

• Many flowers often close up when there is no sunlight, but the star-shaped flowers of Glory-of-the-Snow stay open, even in the absence of sunlight.

More information about flower bulbs is available at www.flowerbulbs.com. o

GARDENnews

Quick Links to Recent Washington Gardener Blog Posts • Working for Peanuts • White Wood Aster Profile • Carrots and Cover Crops See more Washington Gardener blog posts at: WashingtonGardener.blogspot.com o

October–November Garden To-Do List

New Plant Spotlight

Andropogon gerardii ‘Holy Smoke’ PPAF New for 2021 is a vegetative cultivar of Big Bluestem. This native ornamental grass was selected for its silvered grey foliage with purple and red highlights almost all season. In August, with cool nights, the whole plant deepens with tips and nodes turning red and purple foliage. As September progresses, the plant has multiple tones in foliage color.

The upright clumping plant grows to 7 feet tall and prefer a well-drained soil in full sun. Their hardiness is Zones 3–9.

This grass is best planted in groupings. It has very erect flower stems, is deer-resistant, and is low maintenance.

It can be used for erosion control and is tolerant of drought and air pollution.

You can learn more at http://www. intrinsicperennialgardens.com/. o

‘Holy Smoke’ photos courtesy of Emerald Coast Growers.

• Cover pond with netting to keep out fallen leaves and debris.

• Harvest sweet potatoes.

• Plant garlic.

• Force the buds on Christmas Cactus by placing in a cool (55–60 degree) room for 13 hours of darkness.

• Apply deer-deterrent spray.

• Prevent the spread of disease by cleaning up all infected plants and disposing of them in your trash—not your compost pile.

• Plant cover crops in your vegetable gardens and annual beds (i.e., rye, clover, hairy vetch, winter peas).

• Set up a cold frame, then plant lettuces, radishes, and carrots from seed.

• If you have a water garden, clean out the annual plants and compost them.

Cut back the hardy plants and group them into the deepest pond section.

• Leave seedheads on Black-eyed Susans, Echinacea, Goldenrod, Sunflowers, and Thistles for the birds to enjoy over the winter.

• Check for bagworms; pick off, bag, and dispose of them.

• Dig up and store potatoes in a cool, dark spot.

• Continue to divide and transplant perennials.

• Rake leaves and gather in compost piles.

• Pick pumpkins at a local pick-your-own farm or visit a local farmer’s market.

• Cut garden herbs and hang to dry in a cool, dry place indoors.

• Start feeding birds to get them in the habit for the winter.

• Attend a local garden club meeting.

• Mulch strawberry beds for winter.

• Turn your compost pile weekly and don’t let it dry out. Work compost into your planting beds.

• Plant evergreens for winter interest.

• Weed.

• Plant spring-flowering bulbs.

• Sow wildflower seeds, such as California Poppies, for next spring.

• Collect dried flowers and grasses for an indoor vase.

• Clean, sharpen, and store your garden tools.

• Lightly fertilize indoor plants.

• Pot up Paper Whites and Amaryllis for holiday blooming.

• Check that all vines are securely tied against winter’s cold winds.

• Collect plant seeds for next year’s planting and for trading.

• Pull out spent summer annuals.

• Plant hardy mums and fall season annuals.

• Water evergreens and new plantings to keep them hydrated this winter.

• Fertilize your lawn and re-seed if needed.

• Dig up bulbs from your Gladioli, cut off foliage, dry for a week, and then store for the winter.

• Transplant trees and shrubs.

• Gather seeds and label them carefully. Store in a dry location.

• Keep an eye out for the first frost date and insulate plants as needed. In Zone 6, it is expected for September 30–October 30; in Zone 7, it is predicted for October 15–November 15. o OCTOBER 2021

WASHINGTON GARDENER

11

HORThaenings

By Melinda Thompson

Green Spring Garden’s 2021 Fall Garden Day As far as the eye could see, there were both plants and customers lined up for Green Spring’s 2021 Fall Garden Day event on Saturday, September 25. Booths featured had a variety of houseplants, perennials, trees, and succulents.

The crowds continue to stream in as the day went on—so busy that cars were lined up on the side of the road.

Along with the plant vendors, there was a bake sale, silent auction, book sale, and plant-related activities for children to have as much fun as the parents.

Carol Edwards, a volunteer at the Four Seasons Garden Club booth and a regular attendee of the event, said, “The Green Spring Fall Garden Day gave my spirits a wonderful lift. The weather was perfect for buying interesting plants to add to my garden, supporting garden clubs and industry vendors, and watching families enjoy the natural world.”

Even the Gourmet Food Truck was swamped. They were so busy that they had to close early after running out of food.

There wasn’t a period of time during the day where talking and laughter wasn’t heard throughout the crowd.

Overall, the event was a rousing success. o

Georgetown Glow Pop–Up Walking Tour The Glow Pop-Up Walking Tour, hosted by the Association of Landscape Designers, showed the glowing lights and interesting outdoor locations of the four art installations featured in the Georgetown Glow Lighting Exhibition in Washington, DC. This was a spur-of-themoment event on Friday, September 24.

The free event included various art pieces, including display using bungee cords and metal framework titled “Canopies,” designed by Hiroshi Jacobs.

Tony Weaver, one of the organizers of the event and a lighting designer for Olson Weaver LLC, Lighting Design & Installation, said about organizing the tour, “We wanted to open it up to a larger group of people and just all meet 12

WASHINGTON GARDENER

OCTOBER 2021

The Georgetown Glow installation “for the alley”

by Emily Fusnner of Arlington, VA, consisted of transparent-colored acrylic panels with laser-cut words suspended, canopy-style, across the top of the alley to form a site-specific poem.

up, and we had a pretty good turnout.

We had fun just enjoying each other’s company and looking at the art installations.” o

FONA Bulb Sale

Friends of the National Arboretum (FONA) hosted a fall bulb sale on Saturday, October 2, at the U.S. National Arboretum’s New York Avenue entrance.

The selection included a variety of tulips, hyacinths, irises, and more for local gardeners to splurge on.

Ann McGarvey, who does marketing for FONA, said that they ordered 16,000 bulbs for this event.

“We usually have the spring Garden Fair sale,” she said, “but we wanted to have an offering in the fall this year for all those who want to get a head start on spring gardening.”

Volunteers were available around the event to help customers with every gardening need.

Virginia Kromm, a volunteer and a FONA board member, said, “What is great about this sale is that there are

so many expert volunteers that helped me figure out what’s right for my garden. As someone who’s relatively new to gardening, I find that it is such a great service that FONA is doing for the community to help people understand how to make their gardens beautiful all year round.”

This event was good for more than just early garden prep. It was a great place to grab presents!

“I am trying to gather bulbs for myself, my daughter, and a friend of mine,” customer and plant lover Nicola Haim said.

“It’s their 10-year wedding anniversary and I’m trying to find something special for her.”

On October 9, FONA held a Buy-OneGet-One Bulb Sale outside the Arbor House to sell the remaining bulbs. o Melinda Thompson is a senior journalism major with a vocal performance minor and a concentration in women’s studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD. She is an intern this fall with Washington Gardener.

TOP AREA GARDENING EVENTS Classes, Events, and Plant Shows/Sales •Friday, October 29, 11am–11:30am Composting: Leave the Leaves and Other Beneficial Practices Fall is the perfect time to use good composting and mulching practices for your trees and plant beds, and to start a compost system to create black gold for your spring garden. Instead of raking leaves to the curb, allow fallen leaves to feed your trees, enrich the soil, and provide overwinter protection for roots and habitat for insects. Extension Master Gardener Nina DeRosa discusses where to compost, what to compost and what not to compost, and how to manage your compost system.

Held online via Zoom. Register for free at: https://mgnv.org/events/.

• Thursday, November 4, 6:30–8pm Getting Your Garden Ready for Winter Beginner and intermediate gardeners are often overwhelmed by the long spring to-do list of garden tasks. Learn from Kathy Jentz, editor/publisher, Washington Gardener Magazine, what chores are essential and which you can safely skip as you prepare your garden for winter while making a big difference in the success of next year’s garden.

Discover cost-saving tips and tricks, and how to “batten down the hatches” in case we have a bad winter. Hosted

by Brookside Gardens. Held online.

Fee: $12. Register at https://apm. activecommunities.com/montgomerycounty/Activity_Search/getting-your-garden-ready-for-winter/122666.

• Friday, November 5, 7–8:30pm Caring for Seasonal Plants & Holiday Gifts Have you ever given or gotten a beautiful blooming Poinsettia or Amaryllis and then slowly watched it decline? What a New Year’s bummer! Kathy Jentz, editor/publisher, Washington Gardener Magazine, knows how you feel. This talk will teach you how to care for classic seasonal plants like Poinsettias and Christmas Cactus. We’ll also talk about green holiday gift ideas for the gardeners in your life (or yourself). You can watch this class live on Facebook or through Zoom. Register for free

at https://homesteadgardens.com/ upcoming-event/caring-for-seasonalplants-holiday-gifts/.

• Saturday, November 13, 11:30am Unearthing The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic The Secret Garden has inspired generations of readers to cultivate their own bit of earth, including author Marta McDowell. She still thrills as she recalls reading about Mary Lennox turning the key in the door to the locked garden for the first time. Join McDowell for this book talk that explores Burnett’s life, work, and passion for flowers and gardening. Register for free at https:// www.usbg.gov/programs.

of western Maryland has more extreme winter protection requirements than possibly any other location in the American Rose Society’s Colonial District.

However, the winter protection strategy that’s best for you will depend on the USDA Hardiness Zone and weather conditions specific to your location. In this presentation, Shipley will discuss winterization tactics ranging from little or no protection to extreme protection, depending on your local conditions.

Shipley will also discuss how pruning and fertilization affect winter protection.

Register for free at https://www.potomacrose.org/event-4532736.

Looking Ahead

• Thursday, November 18, 6:30–8pm Fall Garden Book Club Meeting We will discuss The Revolutionary Genius of Plants by Stefano Mancuso. You can order it new or used at https://amzn.to/2WdiGDn. We will also choose our 2022 garden book club selections at this meeting, so bring your ideas and suggestions. To see a list of all the garden books we have previously discussed in this group, see the list at pinterest.com/wdcgardener/ garden-books/. The book club meetings are free and open to all. Register for the Zoom link at https://us02web. zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUtdOqqDgrH9aMKM-GCrsnpbYt1diG3CCz.

•December 8-10 9th “Turning a New Leaf” Conference The Chesapeake Conservation Landscaping Council’s information-packed program includes talks from a diverse array of talented and knowledgeable speakers. This year’s conference will comprise two virtual, online sessions on Days 1 & 2, followed by three optional regional field days—one each in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia—on Day 3. The 2021 themes focus on normalizing sustainable practice and working collaboratively to ensure diversity, equity and justice in the field of conservation landscaping. Register at https:// www.chesapeakelandscape.org/.

• Friday, November 19, 1:30–2:30pm Garden Talk: Cacti and Succulents Do you want to branch out and try something different? Extension Master Gardeners will show you the wonderful world of cacti and succulents, which draw the eye with their wide range of color, texture, and form. Not only are they beautiful, but they are also easy to grow. $12 per person. Register online at www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/parktakes or call Green Spring Gardens at 703642-5173. Code AE5.L2TT.

•January 29 Washington Gardener Seed Exchange at Brookside Gardens

• Sunday, November 21, 2–4pm Preparing Your Roses for Winter & ASK Ray! with ARS Master Rosarian Ray Shipley Join The Potomac Rose Society to learn how to protect your roses from winter damage. Due to geography, Ray Shipley’s rose garden in the mountains

How to Submit Events

•February 5 Washington Gardener Seed Exchange at Green Spring Gardens

Event Listing Updates See updated event listings on the Washington Gardener discussion list.

Join by emailing WashingtonGardenersubscribe@googlegroups.com.

To submit an event for this listing, email washingtongardenermagazine@gmail. com with “Event” in the subject line.

Our next deadline is November 5 for the November 2021 issue, for events taking place after November 15. o OCTOBER 2021

WASHINGTON GARDENER

13

LOCALnews

Urban Tree Summit 2021

By Charlotte Benedetto More and more, people want their cities green! Urban parks and shade trees are powerful quality-of-life criteria.

Urban green spaces are integral for cities to develop the resilience to survive complex socio-political challenges and adapt to climate reality.

In bringing together voices in urban tree management, urban ecology, and urban arboriculture, the recent Urban Tree Summit of 2021 was green, inspiring, and informational. Seminars, field sessions, and online events orchestrated by Montgomery Parks and Casey Trees of Washington, DC, came together in well-planned educational series.

The Summit’s curriculum framework is relevant for urban homeowners, designers, planners, and all horticulturists as they cope with, and attempt to mitigate, ecological and climate anxiety.

Focused on installation and maintenance of trees in the urban landscape, all too often installed in mere apertures in the concrete, and often subject to high environmental stress, the Urban Tree Summit reviewed the micro and macro effects and benefits of urban forests on the surrounding environment.

Fungi, often overlooked but utterly indispensable organisms in the urban forest, were the subject of a seminar by Kevin Smith, supervisory plant pathologist with the U.S. Forest Service.

The standards for tree pits and bioretention plantings were extensively covered during boots-on-the-ground Field Sessions. Vincent Verweij, arborist 14

WASHINGTON GARDENER

OCTOBER 2021

and urban forestry manager with the Arlington Department of Parks and Recreation, led a brisk, informational hike and assessment in the urban hills near Hillside Park.

A live sawmill demonstration for city managers looking to maximize their urban timber and reduce waste was one aromatic highlight, with the details handled by Partick Harwood, urban forester with Montgomery Parks, and Shaun Preston, recycling coordinator from Camp Small in Baltimore. Wood chipping and recycling is an invaluable way to sequester carbon and improve urban soils.

The highly technical aspects of managing of urban trees involve both hard science and hard technique. The summit covered discussions of urban forest diversity, as well as the latest findings in ecological research, via Zoom meetings with experts such as biology researcher Carly Ziter from Concordia University, Montreal. One Field Session integrated a pop-up arboretum in Langdon Park, with Dr. Earl Eutseler, a forester with DC’s DDOT Urban Forestry Division, covering the science of plant-identification and urban tree assessments.

Hard-to-find information about green roofs and tree pits was covered in the Rosslyn Field Session with Vincent Verweij, local arborist and urban forestry manager. Even the role of fungi in urban and community greenspaces was included in this wide-ranging ecological forum.

Tree pits, the soil-filled apertures in concrete sidewalk areas, are often the only trees urbanites have access to. Fortunately, the art and science of these urban tree settings have come a long way since the days of sloping, always-cracked sidewalks and ancient, hammered-in iron banding. Tree pits now incorporate underground soil chambers to allow roots to spread under the sidewalk—sparing infrastructure and reducing economic and maintenance pressure. Pits must meet rigorous community standards and biologically appropriate soil volumes, “Our current standards are at least four feet wide and about 600–1200 cubic feet depending on the species and the availability of size,” said Verweij, who led the Field Session on Tree Pits and Green Roofs.

The bio-retention pits often installed in urban situations are a fashionable example of integrating a desire for aesthetic, green spaces with the economic and logistical challenges of climate change. Managing stormwater runoff in a highly developed urban milieu is a compelling priority, but do bio-retention plantings really work?

The technology is still evolving. Bioretention and urban canopy trees may ultimately be a somewhat-mediocre marriage: “Engineers are not used to something that improves over time, like a tree. And they don’t build for it,” said Verweij. Bio-retention plantings are highly regulated, “It might be a perfectly healthy tree, but if the bio-rentention tree pit fails, they would be required to replace that...you’re removing a healthy tree? That’s doing just fine? Because of this regulatory requirement? I’m not looking forward to that conversation.”

A rewarding and in-depth exploration of the connections between human beings to the urban tree and its benefits, the Urban Tree Summit but viewed with respect to the criteria required in the current policy-driven reality. Any horticulturist committed to a green future would do well to attend in 2022. o Charlotte Benedetto is a writer, artist, and gardener living in Great Falls, VA. She is enrolled in the Northern Virginia Community College horticulture program and is an intern this fall with Washington Gardener.

COVERstory

Goth Gardening Creating a Dark

and Brooding Landscape

By Melena DiNenna As Halloween approaches, don’t feel restricted to plastic gravestones and fake cobwebs to put your garden in the holiday spirit. There are many other ways to spook it up with naturally scary plants and other garden features.

Whether you want to grow plants with black flowers or foliage, gather naturally creepy decorations, or even attract some frightening creatures and insects, it’s time to embrace the spooky season.

To jump-start the spine-chilling thrills, the Washington Gardener spoke to fellow gardening experts Emily Suzanne Zobel, Mikaela Boley, and Rachel J. Rhodes on GardenDC’s 77th podcast episode about all things “Goth Gardening.” The trio, who host a podcast for the University of Maryland Extension called Garden Thyme, use their horticultural expertise and own experiences in their gardens to discuss how nature alone can help you decorate for the Halloween season.

Pretty Poisonous Plants Poisonous plants make a great addition to a spooky garden. One poison-

ous plant to consider is the boneset plant, which is a “large, herbaceous, clump-forming perennial shrub with small, white flowers,” said Rhodes. It appears in the late summer and fall and grow best in “average to medium wet soil” with consistent water, she said, and can grow in either full sun or partial shade. Historically, boneset was regarded as a medicinal herb for the flu, colds, fevers, and even broken bones—however, the plant is actually toxic and bitter, so it’s no longer used for those reasons.

Another poisonous plant is the spotted water hemlock, which is “one of the most violently toxic plants in North America,” said Boley. It has the same dainty, white flowers as Queen Anne’s Lace and other members of the carrot family—so they sometimes are confused for each other, but Water Hemlock (Cicuta maculata) has leaves “with veins that fork at their tips, with one branch ending at the tip of the leaflet and the other in the v-shaped sinus between adjacent leaflet lobes,” according to the U.S. Forest Service.

Other poisonous, but pretty, garden plants include Monkshood, Foxglove, and Castor Bean Plant.

Fabulous Fungi

Another spooky addition to the garden are fungi, whose funky shapes and eyecatching appearance can add a unique look to your garden. Fungi might present a challenge to grow in your garden because they all need different environments to grow in, said Zobel, but you may be able to go out hiking in the woods to find them.

Deadly Angels are pretty mushrooms, said Zobel, whose all-white color could create a nice contrast to the dark colors in your goth garden. Deadly Angels are also very toxic, however, so similarly to poisonous plants, make sure never to eat them and to wear gloves when handling them.

Dead Man’s Fingers are another fungi you could attempt to use. They are initially white, but as they age, turn grey with dark tips and have a “crinkled texture” that makes them look like fingers, said Zobel. They often grow on dead, decaying, or stressed trees, and OCTOBER 2021

WASHINGTON GARDENER

15

COVERstory have the same shape. They are limegreen with a bumpy texture, making them look like green brains.

Native grasses can make great decorations for a goth garden as well, said Boley. The bushy Bluestem is a native grass that “looks like a Dr. Seuss character” and makes a funky addition to your garden.

Another goth-themed grass is the Japanese Blood Grass. As is evident from the name, the top of this grass becomes a dark-red color, almost giving the appearance of being burnt.

You can also collect ornamental grasses or any tall plant—such as spent Milkweed or Cardoon—and bundle it together using twine for a decoration.

Plants in Dark Hues they resemble a zombie’s hand reaching out from the ground.

Other fabulous fungi you might cultivate include the Stinkhorn (phallus) mushroom and Tree Ear fungus, both of which look like body parts.

Sharp and Spiky

Spikes are an obvious gothic feature for any garden. The Devil’s Walking Stick (Aralia spinosa) is a “funky-looking” native plant, said Boley, that would be a cool addition to a garden because it’s a woody plant that looks like a walking stick with spikes coming out of it. It looks very “intimidating,” she said, but “beneficial” as a food source for birds because of its berries.

Another spiky addition to your garden could be the Locust tree, which has branches covered in long thorns. Black Locust tree wood even has bioluminescent properties, said Boley.

Other sharp and spiky plants to add to your goth garden include the native Hardy Orange (Poncirus trifoliata) or Firethorns (Pyracantha sp.).

Pumpkins and Gourds

The most common way to decorate for Halloween is with gourds and pumpkins, but feel free to think beyond the typical smooth-surfaced, bright-orange pumpkin. In fact, these squashes are often considered “promiscuous,” said Boley, since they cross-pollinate often, resulting in a “wide range of cultivars 16

WASHINGTON GARDENER

OCTOBER 2021

and varieties” to choose from.

Some pumpkins grow with warts on them, such as ‘Knucklehead’ and ‘Grizzly Bear’. Many people steer away from warty pumpkins, said Zobel, because some plant diseases can cause that wartiness. However, if you find a warty pumpkin at your local farmers market or grocery store, it should be safe to take home and make a great addition to a goth garden.

Other pumpkins sold commercially include the ‘Cinderella’ pumpkins, which have a flattened shape and change from yellow to bright-red and orange. White pumpkins are another great choice to add color contrast to your dark goth garden, Zobel said. A black Japanese ‘Kabocha’ pumpkin is another option because although they don’t get big, these pumpkins are matte black—as the name suggests.

Naturally Creepy Decor

If you’re looking for a creepy decoration to put in your home, seek no farther than snapdragon seed pods—they look just like miniature human skulls (yes, really)! You can collect a handful of these seed pods, put them in a clear bowl, and set them out for guests to view with awe.

Another plant to collect and put in a decorative bowl is an Osage orange.

Despite the name, these are not oranges and are not edible—although they

Plants with black or very dark foliage are dramatic and a great element to add to a goth garden.

The jumbo ‘Diamond Head’ Colocasia is the perfect background plant for your goth garden, said Rhodes, because of its striking, glossy black leaves and significant height. This plant typically becomes several feet tall in a single season, so it will stand out from your garden’s other features. This plant is not cold-tolerant, Rhodes said, so you’ll need to dig it out before the winter. You can then pot it and make it a houseplant.

Similar-looking are the black Alocasias, which can get just as big, but whose leaves point upward, rather than droop down. The ‘Black Prince’ Coleus plant gets very dark in color and looks great combined with red- and white-flowering plants.

The Love Lies Bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus) is another great goth plant, not only because of its dramatic name but also because of its appearance.

The plant’s main features are its long, dangling tassels of deep-red flowers.

Another flower that’s sometimes a similar deep-red color is Celosia.

Especially great for Halloween are Cockscomb Celosias, which bloom into a shape and texture that resembles a brain.

Another great plant to choose because of its deep color is the ‘Winecraft Black’ Smokebush, a shrub that can get to be several feet tall. Its leaves are a dark-red/purple hue. If you

COVERstory

want to get closer to black, though, you might want to try Black Mondo Grass.

This grass-like plant sprouts leaves that resemble blades of grass, with a nearblack color. This plant both darkens your goth garden and helps the other plants’ colors to stand out.

Any type of weeping plant will add drama to your garden—no matter the color. One option is the Japanese Weeping Maple Tree, which displays a deep wine-red color.

Many flowers are being bred to be deep red and almost black colors, from the ‘Queen of Night’ Tulip to the ‘Anvil of Darkness’ Iris.

Dahlias are a great option because they are late-season bloomers, Boley suggested. They come in a wide variety of colors. Rhodes recommends the ‘Thomas Edison’ Dahlia, which is a deep-purple color and dinner-plate sized. It’s color, said Zobel, even makes it the perfect goth wedding flower.

If you’re trying to make a goth garden, you wouldn’t typically consider florist Chrysanthemums the best fit.

However, they are easy to dye. You can use floral spray or dip them in dye to make dark-colored mums. You can also use dye on many other plants, such as dried Astilbe or Allium flowers, to create the color scheme you want.

If you’re considering edibles, you could choose eggplant, whose rich, dark-purple hue is a great addition to a goth color scheme.

Fearsome Critters

As the weather cools down, you may see more tiny visitors lurking around

your garden seeking warmth or food, such as spiders, snakes, and moths.

Fret not—these guys are great additions to your goth garden not only because they’re great for the ecosystem, but also because they can help spook up your garden even more.

One kind of spider active right now is the orb-weaver, which comes out in the late summer and early fall. “If you look around your garden, it wouldn’t be surprising to see one hard at work on a beautiful, spiral webs,” said Zobel, an entomologist. They’re also distinct due to their large, round bodies. You might even catch a spiny orb-weaver spider, which is hard to miss with its brightred, black, and white body with spikes, resembling a character like Bowser from Super Mario, said Boley.

Another visitor you might see as the warm weather transitions to cold is the wolf spider, which are sometimes called “accidental intruders.” They are trying to seek shelter. Their large bodies and long legs covered in fur can be frightening to some, but Rhodes said there is “no reason to panic and harm it—simply scoop it into a jar and carry it outside.”

Alongside the orb and wolf spiders, you might see the black widow, whose venomous bite makes it a commonly feared spider. In fact, this is the only native Maryland spider that’s venomous, said Boley. However, they don’t often make their way indoors, she said, but rather lurk in dark, dry places like lawn benches and porches. If a black widow is in your garden, you might see a haphazardly made, three-dimensional web. Even though these spiders might be frightening to some, they actually take care of your garden by eating insect pests. You can take precautions by wearing gloves when working in your garden and be on the lookout for these spiders.

Similar to spiders, some snakes also try to find shelter as the weather cools down in the fall. Zobel said snakes are a “great animal to have in your garden because they control pest species, such as rodents.” In general, they are a “sign of a good, healthy ecosystem,” she said. Boley said that people tend to be scared of snakes, but that they’re “not trying to harm you, but rather look-

ing for a place to hunker down.” If you find a black rat snake in your house, just use a broom to scoot it outside.

Moths are a great feature to have in a goth garden because of the variety of colors they come in—from the pale-tan American Dagger to the limegreen Luna moth. During the fall, many people are trying to dispose of fallen leaves, said Boley, but if you want to attract moths, leave the leaves where they are. If you prefer leaves not to be scattered around your garden, you can rake them up into a pile to the side.

Moths use leaves as a habitat, said Boley.

Another way to goth-up your garden is by whom you attract to it. Flies often symbolize death and decay because they’re attracted to certain odors. If you’d like to attract flies to your garden, look no further than the Voodoo Lily or the Devil’s Tongue (Amorphophallus), often dark red-purple flowers that emit a strong smell of rotting meat to the surrounding area. If you can tolerate it, this is certainly a plant that takes the cake for being on theme.

There are a myriad ways to get yourself and your garden into the Halloween spirit. These are just some ideas to get you going. Whether you want to completely transform your garden or just try a new plant or two, the spooky possibilities are endless. o Melena DiNenna is a journalism student at the University of Maryland, College Park, with minors in Spanish and sustainability studies. She is from Salisbury, MD, and is interning this fall with Washington Gardener.

OCTOBER 2021

WASHINGTON GARDENER

17

BOOKreviews

Digging and Delighted: Live Your Best Gardening Life Authors: Carol J. Michel Publisher: Gardenangelist Books List Price: $14.99 Order Link: https://amzn.to/2Zha1S1 Reviewer: Charlotte Crook Carol J. Michel’s book of essays, Digging and Delighted is an easy, yet engaging read, with a conversational blend of warm humor and encouragement for gardeners of all skill levels.

The reader immediately gets a sense of who the author is. Michel wants you to think of her as “your eccentric gardening aunt,” who will guide you to becoming a great gardener. In reading her latest book of humor essays, the comparison holds true.

Digging and Delighted, released in August 2021, is a shame-free, lighthearted book of advice that will get you through a hard day in the garden—or just give you a laugh.

Michel provides every gardener, regardless of their level of experience and resources, with advice to reach their fullest potential. This book will help you, as Michel puts it, “Live your best gardening life!”

Although Michel is from Indiana, her book is purposefully adaptable to all gardeners. She encourages her audience to find local resources, experiment, and start from a place that feels suited to their comfort level. She 18

WASHINGTON GARDENER

OCTOBER 2021

emphasizes building a community out of gardening and how much fun it can be to be a part of, while sprinkling in humor and anecdotes that light up the pages.

Michel makes it a point that her book is meant to be a take-it-anywhere type of read. Essays you can read a few pages of, set down, and then come back to later. If that’s not your style, the essays are still cohesive and make sense in one read-through.

This book is helpful and informational but not overly scientific. It is digestible, easy to understand in a way that is always engaging. Chapter 6, for instance, outlines different types of plants (annuals, perennials, etc.), but would not be confusing for a casual reader or a novice gardener.

You feel as if you are chatting with an old friend. You may even laugh out loud, more than once. Especially relatable is Chapter 8’s rant about yellow daylilies.

Michel is nonjudgmental in her essays. Her anecdotes are unafraid to go into mistakes she’s made as an experienced gardener; for instance, forgetting to check her garden for a few days, only to find that her ripe pawpaw fruit had been eaten.

Stories and details like this make the reader comfortable in their abilities. It stresses that this is a book that anyone can read and anyone can learn something from.

Digging and Delighted is best summarized by a quote from the book’s last essay: “There is no perfect weather, soil, location, plants, or gardener.

Garden anyway.” o Charlotte Crook is a senior journalism major minoring in history at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD. She is an intern this fall with Washington Gardener and is passionate about raising house plants (to varying degrees of success).

Garden Allies: The Insects, Birds, & Other Animals That Keep Your Garden Beautiful and Thriving Author: Frederique Lavoipierre Publisher: Timber Press List Price: $24.95 Order Link: https://amzn.to/3AY5kcH Reviewer: Stacey Evers In Garden Allies, Frederique

Lavoipierre adds her voice to the crescendoing chorus calling for holistic approaches to gardening that work with nature instead of against it. What makes this book different, though, is its singular focus on the living organisms that can help you—if you’ll let them—and the superb organization of the content.

Insects dominate Garden Allies’ pages, but Lavoipierre is thorough in her coverage of who’s working with you in the garden. Her attention moves from the ground up, starting with underground organisms and closing with birds and bats. In addition to bees, butterflies, beetles, and bugs, she devotes sections to spiders, centipedes, galls, and even pathogens.

The chapters, arranged by biological categories, are further subdivided to focus on specific species. For instance, “The Garden Commons” includes separate pieces on cicadas, damsel and dragonflies, crickets and grasshoppers, praying mantises, lacewings, and ants.

For each type of ally, Lavoipierre covers identifying features, habits, habitat needs, cultural context, and tips on how to attract them.

The term for what Lavoipierre is promoting is “biological control,” or allowing natural predators, parasites, and herbivores to manage the pests in your garden. Even so, she doesn’t completely rule out pesticides—sometimes they’re needed, she says, such as for massive infestations on your high-value plants. But even then, she favors taking action first with a powerful spray from the garden hose before reaching for a bottle of chemicals.

BOOKreviews Garden insects and their relationships with each other and with the landscape have entranced Lavoipierre since she was a little girl. As an adult, she studied horticulture and biology, founded the Sustainable Landscape Professional Certification Program at Sonoma State University in California, and wrote a series of “Garden Allies” articles for a decade for Pacific Horticulture Magazine. She serves on the American Public Gardens Association’s editorial advisory group.

You can read Garden Allies in any order, picking a species that interests you. The individual essays are easy and enjoyable to read, and the author packs a lot of information into a few pages. You can also use this book purely as a reference guide, since Lavoipierre has included a supremely useful 12-page index and several pages of additional resources.

But I recommend starting with the opening chapters and then the epilogue, “Gardening Matters,” so you can understand Lavoipierre’s deeper and more meaningful message about sustainable landscaping.

“As our population grows, and concerns about pollinators and environmental health grow, strictly ornamental gardens kept pest-free with chemicals are increasingly out of favor and indeed out of step with the times,” she writes.

By practicing biological control instead, gardeners can not just regulate the population of pest insects, but also have a substantial impact on their local ecosystem. o Stacey Evers is a garden educator and the director of Grow a Row FC, a Northern Virginia community initiative supporting gardeners who grow food for donation.

Winterland: Create a Beautiful Garden for Every Season Author: Cathy Rees Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press List Price: $30.00 Order Link: https://amzn.to/3jlJwBH Reviewer: Jim Dronenburg This book starts off in the introduction describing itself as a design book. You can take “every season” with a bit of explanation. The author lives in Maine, where, in her own words, the winters are “seven months long”. And there is

snow. Therefore, she says, plant things that are good in the spring, summer or fall, but which also have winter interest.

Granted, we in the DC area don’t have a seven-month winter; some of our best flowers actually bloom all the way through the time that Maine is in the deep freeze. But that said, our winters are long enough that “plant things for winter interest as well as summer duty” makes abundant sense.

Design book, remember? The book’s areas are Design, Contrast, Embellish (lighting, ornament, structures, stone), Care, and Share (bringing outdoors in, getting out in winter, gardening for the birds, and creating habitat).

The book’s suggestions will work for small places as well as large, the more so because our more-typical-DC-smallspaces have to do all-year duty. A lot of the book deals with what we would call “the bones” here—those things that appear or come to the fore when the leaves have fallen. Even hardscape is viewed differently when it is part of a winter composition.

Viewing—ah, the pictures! The photos are by Lisa Looke, and document everything from large areas to tiny spaces.

They all are beautiful, wonderful, and entirely illustrative of the points being made. This book has lots of text and illustrations, but your reviewer could recommend it for the photos alone.

Some of the pictures show far more snow than this region usually gets, but the principles remain the same: form, texture, color, for both our regions.

There is one haunting picture on page

155, with the snow half melted and a group of three spring magnolias pruned into a single dome of canopy up at the top, against an evergreen background.

Anyone with more than a patio could do this.

The text is admirably organized and plain-speaking, and the points Rees makes are easy to follow, and seem reasonably uncomplicated to put into practice. She doesn’t say “plant this specific plant” or “isn’t this a lovely picture,” which comes as a relief. But some of the photo captions, while trying to make a design point, also show uses for specific plants or groups of plants, which have already solved two problems for your reviewer.

In short, if you have any garden at all, you will want to get this book. And if you have a view of a neighbor’s garden, you need to give them this book. (After you read it first). o Jim Dronenburg is a retired accountant and now gardens full-time in Knoxville, MD.

Watercolor Botanical Garden: A Modern Approach to Painting Bold Flowers, Plants, and Cacti Author: Rachel Eskandari Publisher: Rocky Nook List Price: $24.95 Order Link: https://amzn.to/3vuWaTW Reviewer: Melena DiNenna Watercolor Botanical Garden by Rachel Eskandari provides a step-bystep process for planning, stocking up on supplies, practicing, and getting to work on your watercolor creations. With her guidance, you can find your niche, learn about beautiful plants, and surprise yourself with what you’re capable of. The book is best for those who learn well from reading and looking at pictures—if you’re someone who needs to watch a video or take a class to follow along, you might find it a little more difficult to rely solely on the book for your painting.

Eskandari’s book is a walkthrough of a variety of plant paintings that helps you get started and keep going.

She teaches readers what supplies are best for watercolor painting, what techniques they should practice, and how to recreate some of nature’s most beautiful and interesting flowers and cacti on paper.

OCTOBER 2021

WASHINGTON GARDENER

19

BOOKreviews books, it’s likely you’ll be able to find Watercolor Botanical Garden helpful for your artistic journey. o Melena DiNenna is a journalism student at the University of Maryland, College Park, with minors in Spanish and sustainability studies. She is from Salisbury, MD, and is interning this fall with Washington Gardener.

If you’re not sure what paints, brushes, paper, and other materials to buy, Eskandari gives the names and brands of the products she uses in the paintings featured in the book. However, she also says that readers can use whatever they’re comfortable with. Splurging is not necessary, especially for beginners.

After covering materials, Eskandari helps you improve your technique. She discusses things like how to hold a paint brush, paint-to-water ratio, and using white space to create definition.

After covering techniques, she walks you through the step-by-step process of painting 26 different flowers and cacti, ranging from the “dainty” wax flower to the “spindly” San Pedro cactus. She also includes pictures to show what each step of the process should look like. And throughout many of the paintings, she breaks up the process with helpful exercises—such as “petal practice”—to hone the techniques to create each plant’s unique shape, color, and dimension.

Eskandari includes her own story about how painting has always been a part of her life. She tells readers that it’s okay—and actually “beautiful”—to be different and to embrace your own artistic side rather than copy someone else’s. She encourages readers not to feel confined to reproducing her art, but rather to mix it up and make it your own.

Whether you’re a novice or a professional painter or somewhere in between who likes step-by-step guide 20

WASHINGTON GARDENER

OCTOBER 2021

Hi Cacti: Growing Houseplants & Happiness Author: Sabina Palermo Publisher: Leaping Hare Press List Price: $16.99 Order Link: https://amzn.to/3nsfZHM Reviewer: Melinda Thompson If you’re a gardener who wants to learn how to combine caring for houseplants, self-care, and mental health, then Hi Cacti: Growing Houseplants & Happiness by Sabina Palermo is the book for you.

There are five chapters in this book: care instructions, plant hacks, creative projects, ways to cook houseplants, and plant design.

This book is a comprehensive guide that provides the necessary light, air type, and amount of watering the houseplants need. It’s organized by the amount of the plant’s light: low, medium, and sun-loving. This guide is great for beginning gardeners to learn the basics.

Next to each guide, there’s a blurb about what you can learn from this plant to help your mental health and to ground yourself. This way of learning through your plants can be a new process for all levels of experience.

When talking about the heart-leaf philodendron, Palermo talked about the protective sheath to protect the baby leaves. The self-care advice to the reader says, “This little mindful act is also a relaxing moment in which to engage with nature and give yourself a boost.”

The plant hacks include both tips for caring for the plants and tips for caring for the self. Palermo includes a guided Note: These book reviews include links to Amazon.com for ordering them.

Washington Gardener Magazine may receive a few cents from each order placed after you click on these links.

root to rise meditation by Lol Swift where you follow your gaze across the plant, and use the philosophy of plants reaching from the ground and to the earth to guide your meditation.

Plant care hacks include how to prevent overwatering, caring for plants with pests and disease, types of houseplants that you could grow together with these plants, and plant propagation techniques.

Along with how to care for the plants, there is a chapter about crafts and activities that use plants. This is almost a recipe-like guide about plant design elements. It includes homemade plant feed, make-your-own moss poles, a macrame plant hanger, and more.

It details everything you would need for the project, the method of how to put it together, and ways that you can connect with nature while making these projects.

The next chapter gives recipes for foods and drinks you can make with your houseplants. Some of the highlights include cactus tacos and a variety of botanical drinks. Just like the crafts, this section describes the necessary plants and tools, and then a list of the methods for the projects.

The last chapter lists fun options of how to design plants in your house. It gives creative ideas about pots, like canning your cacti in tin cans—after adding draining holes, of course, and shelves with an array of plants and other knick-knacks alongside them.

For you crystal-lovers, there’s a list of

BOOKreviews crystals that are beneficial to the plant and to you.

Sabina Palermo ends the book with a great mantra: “Nature reminds us to stand tall and to nurture ourselves and each other—not just to survive but to thrive.” o Melinda Thompson is a senior journalism major at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD, with a vocal performance minor and a concentration in women’s studies.

She is an intern this fall with Washington Gardener.

Gardening by Month: A Monthly Guide to Planning the Northeastern & MidAtlantic Garden Author: Lee Miller Publisher: landscapedesignbylee.com List Price: $29.96 Order Link: landscapedesignbylee.com Reviewer: Charlotte Benedetto Laced with heady and seductive photography, practical expert Lee Miller’s Gardening By Month crafts your framework for four-season splendor in the Mid-Atlantic garden.

The first thing deer-weary local area gardeners will love about Gardening

By Month is that the author did not, as nearly all plant guides do, list plants like heuchera, astilbe, and prickly pear as “deer-resistant.” I knew immediately Miller is a writer with genuine Mid-Atlantic garden dirt under the nails.

Miller selected species based on real-life experiences, not landscaper preferences, fluffy internet articles, or university lists. To my delight, Miller only designates plants as deer-resistant if they show rigor and beauty in a truly high-deer-pressure milieu. If you select any entry in Gardening By Month, it is plain that Miller has intimate and primary knowledge of the best practices and species for the Mid-Atlantic garden.

This is a family album of herbaceous winners organized by season. Each plant is featured at its greatest beauty and each profile tells us everything we need to know about an available, versatile, absolutely growable species specifically selected for the Mid-Atlantic.

Readers will never find themselves mystified or bewildered by the choice of variety or species—each one is a perfect fit. These are the notes of a veteran of many garden tours, not those of a nurs-

ery grower, botanical collector, or online theoretician. But these varieties are not tired old work-horses, either. Miller has knowledge of not only rigorous species, but plants in popular colors, shapes, and sizes.

Pearls of wisdom are seeded into every entry. The book is bursting with facts about animals, co-planting, maintenance, and installation. Not one to rely on tired, oft-repeated lore, nor to spurn invasives, Miller presents a garden that is practical and personable, and full of accessible beauty. These are plants a DC-area gardener can definitely grow; cultivars and varieties you can actually find. This is not, like so many volumes, a glittery list of impossible-togrow, out-of-zone exotics that leaves you wondering where you’d even buy such a plant, much less grow it.

Miller’s petite volume is an easy-tonavigate guide organized around the months in a traditional format that allows for casual dreaming and photo flipping, as well as more-advanced planning along the calendar. I love the highcontrast, handy pictograms that accompany each entry—carefully designed, clever logos that provide an instant read on which entries are pollinator plants and bird-friendly species.

If you’re like me, your garden dreams run year-round. It’s so easy to be distracted by the glories and difficulties of a current season. The calendaric chapters in Gardening By Month unfold in a natural fashion, and flipping into the future was a great way to remind me that despite autumn’s current splendor—the “bones of the garden,” as Miller calls them—will be laid bare in a scant few weeks. This chronological organization lets each species be featured at its showiest, most enchanting state, creating an excellent planning and inspirational guide.

Accompanied by fantastic, copious, and generous full-color photographs (on every page!), this book creates an engaging, personable conversation with the reader. We find ourselves scooting forward and backward in time as planning takes over. Any Mid-Atlantic gardener would be captivated and find useful information in this glossy, perfectly formed little volume. Concise, but substantial, Gardening By Month is

full of useful facts from a master of the domesticated wild. It is both practical in text and gem-like in presentation, and I think it has a place on the shelf of any local gardener. o Charlotte Benedetto is a writer, artist, and gardener living in Great Falls, VA. She is enrolled in the Northern Virginia Community College horticulture program and is an intern this fall with Washington Gardener.

Love Reading?

These books were reviewed by volunteer members of the Washington Gardener Reader Panel. To join the Washington Gardener Volunteer Reader Panel, send an email with your name and address to: KathyJentz@gmail. com. We look forward to having you be a vital part of our local publication and its gardening mission. o

Your Ad Here

Contact kathyjentz@gmail.com or call 301.588.6894 for ad rates.

The ad deadline is the 10th of each month. Please submit your ad directly to: KathyJentz@gmail.com.

OCTOBER 2021

WASHINGTON GARDENER

21

PLANTprofile

Hardy Begonia

By Kathy Jentz

Hardy Begonia (Begonia grandis) is a long-blooming garden perennial that is hardy to USDA Zones 6 to 9. They bloom from mid-summer through early fall with delicate pink or white dangling flowers. You can deadhead the blooms to encourage continuous flowering.

The foliage is also attractive, with large, heart-shaped leaves that are a lovely red on their underside. If you can place the plants in an elevated spot, the sun reflecting through the veined leaves is quite attractive.

They thrive in part sun to full shade with rich, moist (but well-draining) soil. The plant is of Asian origin and is a good addition to any woodland garden.

Hardy Begonia grows to between 1 to 2 feet high. It performs well underneath shrubs and trees.

It will spread to form a small colony if allowed to self-sow. However, if you mulch or clean up around it in the fall, that will prevent it from reproducing.

Hardy Begonia dies back in winter and reemerges in spring from an underground tuber. You can spread a bit of compost on the soil surface in early spring when the plants are still dormant to give them some extra nutrition; they need little care otherwise. o Kathy Jentz is the editor and founder of Washington Gardener.

22

WASHINGTON GARDENER

OCTOBER 2021

ADVERTISINGindex

Your Ad Here

BACK ISSUE SALE!

YOU CAN REQUEST A SINGLE COPY OF PRINT BACK ISSUES FOR $6 EACH OR ANY 6 BACK ISSUES FOR $24, OR ALL 40+ PRINT BACK ISSUES FOR JUST $100. PRICE INCLUDES POSTAGE AND HANDLING. PLEASE SPECIFY THE ISSUE DATE(S). ORDER MUST BE PREPAID BY CHECK OR MONEY ORDER. SEND ORDERS TO:

Are you trying to reach thousands of gardeners in the greater DC region/MidAtlantic area? Washington Gardener Magazine goes out in the middle of every month. Contact kathyjentz@gmail.com or call 301.588.6894 for ad rates (starting from $200).

The ad deadline is the 5th of each month. Please submit your ad directly to: kathyjentz@gmail.com.

WASHINGTON GARDENER, 826 PHILADELPHIA AVE., SILVER SPRING, MD 20910

MARCH/APRIL 2005 • Landscape DIY vs. Pro • Prevent Gardener’s Back • Ladew Topiary Gardens • Cherry Trees

MAY/JUNE 2007 • Roses: Easy Care Tips • Native Roses & Heirloom Roses • Edible Flowers • How to Plant a Bare-root Rose

MAY/JUNE 2005 • Stunning Plant Combinations • Turning Clay into Rich Soil • Wild Garlic • Strawberries

JULY/AUGUST 2007 • Groundcovers: Alternatives to Turfgrass • How to Pinch, Prune, & Dead-head • William Paca House & Gardens • Hardy Geraniums

JULY/AUGUST 2005 • Water Gardens • Poison Ivy • Disguising a Sloping Yard • Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2007 • Succulents: Hardy to our Region • Drought-Tolerant Natives • Southern Vegetables • Seed Saving Savvy Tips

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2005 • Container Gardens • Clematis Vines • Sponge Gardening/Rain Gardens • 5 Insect Enemies of Gardeners

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2007 • Gardening with Children • Indoor Bulb-Forcing Basics • National Museum of the American Indian • Versatile Viburnums

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 • Backyard Bird Habitats • Hellebores • Building a Coldframe • Bulb Planting Basics

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 • Dealing with Deer • Our Favorite Garden Tools • Delightful Daffodils

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2006 • Garden Decor Principles • Primroses • Tasty Heirloom Veggies • U.S. Botanic Garden MARCH/APRIL 2006 • Top 10 Small Trees and Large Shrubs • Azaleas • Figs, Berries, & Persimmons • Basic Pruning Principles MAY/JUNE 2006 • Using Native Plants in Your Landscape • Crabgrass • Peppers • Secret Sources for Free Plants JULY/AUGUST 2006 • Hydrangeas • Theme Gardens • Agave • Find Garden Space by Growing Up SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 • Shade Gardening • Hosta Care Guide • Fig-growing Tips and Recipes NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006 • Horticultural Careers • Juniper Care Guide • Winter Squash Growing Tips and Recipes • Layer/Lasagna Gardening

SUMMER 2009 • Grow Grapes in the Mid-Atlantic • Passionflowers • Mulching Basics • Growing Hops

MARCH/APRIL 2008 • Patio, Balcony, Rooftop Container Gardens • Our Favorite Garden Tools • Coral Bells (Heuchera)

T!

U MAY/JUNE 2008 DO SOL • Growing Great Tomatoes UT! O • Glamorous Gladiolus LD ! SO • Seed-Starting OUT Basics D L •SFlavorful Fruiting Natives O

JULY/AUGUST 2008 • Landscaping with Ornamental Grasses • Edible Grasses to Graze On • Slug and Snail Control • Sage Advice: Sun-Loving Salvias SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008 • Autumn Edibles — What to Plant Now • Beguiling Barrenworts (Epimediums) • Best Time to Plant Spring-blooming Bulbs • 14 Dry Shade Plants Too Good to Overlook NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008 • Outdoor Lighting Essentials • How to Prune Fruiting Trees, Shrubs, Vines • 5 Top Tips for Overwintering Tender Bulbs • Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2009 • Compost Happens: Nature’s Free Fertilizer • Managing Stormwater with a Rain Garden • Visiting Virginia’s State Arboretum • Grow Winter Hazel for Winter Color

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2007 • Indoor Gardening • Daphne Care Guide • Asparagus Growing Tips and Recipes • Houseplant Propagation

MARCH/APRIL 2009 !

OUT Tips D • 40+ Free and Low-cost Local Garden SOL !

T • Spring Edibles Planting Guide OU LDfor a Fresh Start • Testing YourSO Soil ! Selection and Care UTTree • Redbud O LD Viewing Spots for Virginia Bluebells • SOBest

MARCH/APRIL 2007 • Stormwater Management • Dogwood Selection & Care Guide • Early Spring Vegetable Growing Tips • Franciscan Monastery Bulb Gardens

MAY/JUNE 2009 • Top Easy Summer Annuals for DC Heat • Salad Table Project • Grow and Enjoy Eggplant • How to Chuck a Woodchuck

FALL 2009 • Apples • How to Save Tomato Seeds • Persimmons WINTER 2009 • Battling Garden Thugs • How to Start Seeds Indoors • Red Twig Dogwoods • Unusual Edibles to Grow in Our Region SPRING 2010 • Community Gardens • Building a Raised Bed • Dwarf Iris • Broccoli SUMMER 2010 • Fragrance Gardens • Watering Without Waste • Lavender • Potatoes FALL 2010 • Vines and Climbers • Battling Stink Bugs • Russian Sage • Garlic WINTER 2010 • Paths and Walkways • Edgeworthia • Kohlrabi SPRING 2011 • Cutting-Edge Gardens • Final Frost Dates and When to Plant • Bleeding Hearts • Onions SUMMER 2011 • Ornamental Edibles • Urban Foraging • Amsonia/Arkansas Blue Star • Growing Corn in the Mid-Atlantic FALL 2011 • Herb Gardens • Toad Lilies • Sweet Potatoes • Cool Weather Cover Crops WINTER 2011/EARLY SPRING 2012 • Green Roofs and Walls • Heaths and Heathers • Radishes SPRING 2012 • Pollinator Gardens • Brunnera: Perennial of the Year • Growing Yacon SUMMER 2012 • Tropical Gardens • Captivating Canna • Icebox Watermelons SPRING 2013 • Great Garden Soil • All About Asters • Squash Vine Borer SUMMER/FALL 2013 • Miniature/Faerie Gardens • Beguiling Abelias • Growing Great Carrots WINTER/EARLY SPRING 2014 • Ferns for the Mid-Atlantic • Chanticleer Gardens • Beet Growing Basics

Got a Garden Question?

Got a gardening question you need answered? Send your questions to KathyJentz@gmail. com and use the subject line “Q&A.” Please also include your first name, last initial, and what city and state you are writing from.

Then look for your answered questions in upcoming issues.

Advertising Index A big THANK YOU to all of our Washington Gardener advertisers. Please tell them you saw their ad in Washington Gardener!

Audubon Naturalist Society GardenDC Podcast Green Spring Gardens IzelPlants.com Jentz Prints MD HGIC MG Handbook Plant-a-Row GWA Summer Creek Farm Sunshine Farm & Gardens The Urban Garden Book Washington Gardener Back Issues Washington Gardener Speakers White’s Nursery

2 9 2 2 24 2 5 2 2 9 23 2 2

To advertise with us, please contact KathyJentz@gmail.com or call 301.588.6894 today.

Next deadline: November 5

OCTOBER 2021

WASHINGTON GARDENER

23

Jentz Prints

Antique Botanical Prints for the decorator, collector, connoisseur, and art lover.

Jentz Prints can be purchased on most Saturdays at the Eastern Market.

Antique prints are affordable — most in the $10-$30 range — and they are the perfect gift idea for that plant lover in your life. And don’t forget to buy a few for yourself!

For more information, to make a private appointment, or to get a detailed show schedule, please contact Jentz Prints by email at UllrichJ@aol.com. You can also find Jentz Prints on eBay.com under the seller ID: printyman.

24

WASHINGTON GARDENER

OCTOBER 2021