Washington Gardener Magazine June 2016

JUNE 2016 VOL. 11 NO. 4

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the magazine for gardening enthusiasts in the Mid-Atlantic region

How to Grow Okra Your Monthly Garden Tasks To-do List Schwartz Peony Gardens at Seneca Creek State Park Gain More “Legroom” in the Garden Local Gardening Events Calendar Learn all About the Lily Leaf Beetle

At Home with the Clintons

Future Plans for the Smithsonian Gardens New Photo Feature: Local Pets in Gardens

Herbaceous Peonies: You Can Grow That!

GoGardeners Garden Coaching

Elise Stigliano Garden Coach elise@gogardeners.com • 301-518-8333

www.gogardeners.com

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Washington Gardener Magazine’s staff and writers are available to speak to groups and garden clubs in the greater DC region.

Call 301.588.6894 or email wgardenermag@aol.com for available dates, rates, and topics.

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

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WASHINGTON GARDENER

A “must visit” for everyone in the metropolitan Washington, DC, area. It’s a year-round gold mine 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.

JUNE 2016

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Are you trying to reach thousands of gardeners in the greater DC region/Mid-Atlantic area? Washington Gardener Magazine goes out on the 15th of every month. Contact wgardenermag@aol.com or call 301.588-6894 for ad rates (starting from $200).

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

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INSIDEcontents

FEATURES and COLUMNS

Cheval Force Opp’s corgi, Marzipan, compares her pink tongue to the pink flowers at the Schwartz Peony Gardens at Seneca Creek State Park in Gaithersburg, MD.

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o Louise Clarke reviews the Gardener’s Hollow Leg and says she finds it useful for green roof gardening and pruning on a ladder.

It is also useful for fruit harvesting. Some fruit growers have bought two bags—one to put their “perfects” in and the other for the “blemished seconds.” That eliminates the step of sorting fruit when they get off the ladder.

o Clintonia borealis is a plant from the Liliaceae family. It was once classified within the genus Convallaria.

Photo source: United State Forest Service.

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BOOKreviews 18 Maryland Parks and Gardens DAYtrip 19-21 Schwartz Peony Gardens at Seneca Creek State Park EDIBLEharvest 6-7 Okra GOINGnative 17 Clintonia INSECTindex 16 Lily Leaf Beetles NEWPLANTspotlight 11 Xanthos Cosmos PETgardens 15 Three Cats in Local Gardens PLANTprofile 14 Herbaceous Peonies PRODUCTreview 8 Gardener’s Hollow Leg TIPStricks 10 Bird’s at Feeders Get Sick More Often, Virginia’s Big Trees, New Smithsonian Pollinator Garden

DEPARTMENTS

ADVERTISINGindex 24 BLOGlinks 11 EDITORletter 4 GARDENcontest 5 LOCALevents 12–13 MONTHLYtasklist 11 NEXTissue 3 RESOURCESreactions 22 RESOURCESsources 2

ON THE COVER

An ant climbs on a ‘Festiva Maxima’ blossom at Schwartz Peony Gardens, Seneca Creek State Park, Gaithersburg, MD.

In our July 2016 issue:

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Visiting DC’s Public Gardens via Public Transit

Growing Nicotiana and much more...

If your business would like to reach area gardeners, be sure to contact us

by July 10 so you can be part of the next issue of our growing publication.

Be sure you are subscribed!

Click on the “subscribe” link at http://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/

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GUESTeditorial

Beloved Smithsonian Gardens: Here to Stay

Dear Washington Gardener Readers,

As the director of Smithsonian Gardens, I write in response to the Guest Editorial

by Sylvia Cabus on the redesign of the Enid A. Haupt Garden in the April 2016 issue of Washington Gardener. I want to assure readers that the Haupt Garden is here to stay, though there undoubtedly will be changes made to it in the future.

Since it was dedicated on May 22, 1987, the Enid A. Haupt Garden has evolved continuously. Numerous alterations made during its relatively young history include replacing gravel walkways with brick paving, improved water features, the removal and addition of trees, temporary art installations, turf areas superseded by plant beds, and diverse parterre designs. In each case, changes were made to improve the Smithsonian visitors’ experience.

Because the Enid A. Haupt Garden was built over an underground museum complex (the “Quadrangle”), the Smithsonian has known from the beginning that the Garden’s future would be punctuated with periods of disruption to repair and eventually replace the Quadrangle’s roof. We also have known that the historic Castle building would have to undergo major renovations. Smithsonian Gardens is accustomed to disruptions caused by construction as they are a constant factor in our operations. As optimists, we see each of these projects as an opportunity to continue to enhance the many gardens at the Smithsonian. At the end of the day, we stay focused and committed to maintaining the spaces as beautiful gardens and, whenever possible, expanding garden opportunities throughout the Smithsonian campus.

The Smithsonian is now in the early phases of developing a master plan to enhance visitors’ experience on the south side of the National Mall. The plan, which is currently under review by the National Capital Planning Commission and in an extended public comment period, anticipates expanding the gardens by relocating driveways for delivery trucks and eliminating the parking lot on the east side of the Arts and Industries Building, which would enlarge the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden.

Some illustrations accompanying the draft master plan suggest a very different design from the Enid A. Haupt Garden’s current configuration and have understandably raised concerns that its unique qualities may be lost. However, the Garden’s final design is not part of the master plan currently under consideration.

The illustrations conceptualize just one of many alternatives that may be considered in the future. The ultimate design will not be developed until renovation of the Quadrangle begins in the next five to 10 years. The landscape design process will include meaningful opportunities for public input.

Smithsonian Gardens is committed to providing a beautiful garden that will advance the characteristics that have made the current configuration of the Haupt Garden so special: private, contemplative spaces; horticulturally rich specimen plantings; and beautiful vistas that respect the Garden’s historic location.

I encourage you to review and comment on the South Mall Campus Master Plan found at www.southmallcampus.si.edu. Comments may be sent to commentsoncampusplan@si.edu.

In closing, it has been wonderful to hear how beloved the Smithsonian gardens are, especially the Enid A. Haupt Garden! Smithsonian Gardens staff members work hard to make these spaces pleasing, educational, and horticulturally special and we don’t often hear how we’re doing. Based on recent public feedback, we’re hitting the mark!

Sincerely, Barbara W. Faust, Director, Smithsonian Gardens 4

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Credits Kathy Jentz Editor/Publisher & Advertising Sales Washington Gardener 826 Philadelphia Ave. Silver Spring, MD 20910 Phone: 301-588-6894 wgardenermag@aol.com www.washingtongardener.com Call today to place your ad with us!

Ruth E. Thaler-Carter Proofreader Jacqueline Hyman John Powers Interns Cover price: $4.99 Back issues: $6.00 Subscription: $20.00 Address corrections should be sent to the address above.

• Washington Gardener Blog: www.washingtongardener.blogspot.com • Washington Gardener Archives: http://issuu.com/washingtongardener • Washington Gardener Discussion Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ WashingtonGardener/ • Washington Gardener Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/WDCGardener • Washington Gardener is a womanowned business. We are proud to be members of: · Garden Writers Association · Think Local First DC · DC Web Women · Green America Magazine Leaders Network · Green America Business Network To order reprints, contact Wright’s Reprints at 877.652.5295, ext. 138.

Volume 11, Number 4 ISSN 1555-8959 © 2016 Washington Gardener All rights reserved. Published quarterly.

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

Caption Contest

We asked our Facebook page followers to caption this photo.

Below are the winning responses. How would you caption this photo of local garden columnist Marianne Willburn at Ladew Topiary Gardens in Monkton, MD? Look for more caption contests at the Facebook.com/Washi ngtonGardenerMagazine page.

Winning Captions: “Miracle-Gro, Come Take Me Away!” ~ Emily Stashower “Argh.....crabgrass, dandelions!” ~ Carol Bristol “I TOLD them not to use a chainsaw!” ~ Rosanne Hull “Overcome by Understory.” ~ Shannon Beatty “A gardener’s work is never done!” ~ Holly Sbandi Fairburn “How exhausting it is, dahlink, to trim all that topiary!” ~ Daniel Weil “I do declare...I need a mint julep :-)” ~ Ed Hooker, III

Reader Contest

For our June 2016 Washington Gardener Magazine Reader Contest, Washington Gardener is giving away two copies of the Idiot’s Guides: Foraging (a $22 value).

“Heavens! The slugs this year!” ~ Rebecca Lake “Oh my, the earthworms don’t love me any more’’!” ~ Nancy Burns “Ah, sweet mystery of life, at last I’ve found you!” ~ Roberta Hagen “A rested gardener!” ~ Lena Rotenberg “Sick of yew.” ~ Anonymous “Oh no, the bunnies have eaten everything again!!!” ~ Sherri Arnaiz “Batteries exhausted on camera, and no extras in my pocket!” ~ Carol Bristol

To enter to win one of the copies of Idiot’s Guides: Foraging, send an email to WashingtonGardener@rcn. com by 5pm on Thursday, June 30, with “Foraging” in the subject line and in the body of the email. Tell us which was your favorite article in this issue and why. Please also include your full name and mailing address. The book winners will be announced and notified on July 1.

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EDIBLEharvt

How to Grow Okra

by Elizabeth Olson

or processed within a day of being harvested, although the F1 hybrid ‘Cajun Delight’ will keep well at room temperature for several days. Keep fresh pods in a breathable container such as a shallow, slotted cardboard pint or quart container box. Never store them in a refrigerator. Do not wash okra pods until just before use.

Whole okra pods can be baked (see recipe below). They also make excellent pickles. Gardeners who like to cook outdoors can skewer several whole okra pods and cook them in a vegetable basket over a grill—two skewers should be inserted about an inch apart in the sides to keep them from rolling.

Sliced okra is well known for adding thickness to the broth in soups. However, the thickening agent only starts to form when the pods are cut. Whole okra pods and freshly sliced okra pods that are quickly dredged and fried or prepared tempura style retain a drier texture.

Baked Okra Recipe

Okra is a fast-growing annual vegetable to add to the kitchen garden in the heat of summer. It is grown for its immature seed pods, which have a savory to earthy flavor, depending on the cultivar.

Okra is a member of the Malvaceae plant family and is related to cotton, cacao, hollyhock, and hibiscus species, including roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa).

The scientific name for okra is Abelmoschus esculentus.

Okra is best known for use in gumbo.

However, it has a wider range of culinary uses and it is nutritious and low in calories. Okra is a source of several vitamins, including Vitamins B1, C, and K, and it is also is a source of calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc, and dietary fiber.

The plants are very easy to grow. One caution, though: They should be planted in the thoroughly warmed soil of late spring to early summer since they are sensitive to cold.

Many okra cultivars are very attractive. Most have a shrubby to tree-like structure. The pretty, hibiscus-like flowers start appearing on the lower portions of the plant in as little as 50 days after the plants sprout. Each flower 6

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will last for just one day. The flowers will emerge on the new growth as the plants grow taller and the harvest will move upward. This provides a continuous harvest throughout the growing season. The pods do not stay tender long on the plants and should be harvested as soon as they reach optimum size, usually 2–4 inches long. Baby okra pods may be picked at less than 2 inches long. Okra plants are most productive when continually harvested.

However, one or two pods that set early in the season can be allowed to reach full maturity and the seeds can be saved for next year.

Culinary Uses for Okra

Although some people enjoy eating young okra pods fresh, the pods are most often cooked or preserved. The pods should be harvested when young to retain the best texture. Well-grown, young okra pods have a firm, but flexible feel. Overly mature okra pods become stiff and woody. Harvest each pod with its stem attached. Cut the stem as close as possible to its base, using sharp, parrot-beaked shears.

Most okra pods should be consumed

Here is a simple, traditional Greek recipe for baked whole okra pods. First, coat a baking dish with olive oil. Fill the dish with a single layer of tightly fitted whole okra pods (very young or baby okra pods are great for this). Next, cover the pods with a thick layer of chopped, fresh, garden-ripe tomatoes (deseeded paste tomatoes work best). Place a thick layer of shredded cheese on top of the chopped tomatoes. Finally, bake at 350 degrees F. until the cheese is melted and starts to become browned and the okra is tender, but firm.

Okra Availability and Recommended Cultivars

There are many wonderful okra cultivars. Some that grow especially well in the greater Mid-Atlantic growing region are listed below. Seeds for okra cultivars are available by mail, online order, and at many garden centers. Some garden centers also carry seedlings in the spring.

• ‘Aunt Hettie’s Red’ is a family heirloom from Tennessee. It is a vigorous, tall, highly ornamental cultivar that has a tropical appearance, with leaves and stems that are a deep-red color. The fresh pods are a very deep red and retain their color when fried. The yel-

EDIBLEharvt low flowers are splashed with red that reaches out from the red eyes. Seeds are available from VictorySeeds.com.

• ‘Clemson Spineless’ is perhaps the best-known okra cultivar. The plants are highly productive, with a slightly open, medium-tall growth habit that makes it easier to harvest than some other okra cultivars. It is available from many seed companies and is frequently available as seedlings at garden centers in spring. This green cultivar is relatively smooth, hence the term “spineless.”

• ‘Emerald’ has a bright-green color. It is best known for being a cultivar used in commercially produced gumbo soup.

The plants are tall and set pods ready for harvest early in the season.

• ‘Hill Country’ is a medium-tall, lovely cultivar that produces pods that are green splashed with red. The pods have thick walls and are excellent for making pickled okra.

• ‘Silver Queen’ pods are a very palegreen color. The plants are medium green with a lush, attractive, moderately tall growth habit. Each flower is pale lemon-yellow in color and has a small red eye. The pods are easy to harvest.

If you only have room for one okra cultivar, grow ‘Silver Queen.’

• ‘Star of David’ is a very tall-growing green cultivar—it may grow to 10 feet tall and will resemble a tree. The strongly flavored pods are deeply ridged and make sharply pointed cross-sections, with a few more points than the original Star of David.

• ‘Lee’ is a short, branchless green cultivar that has a very interesting, architectonic growth habit. It stops producing okra when it reaches its mature height. Make successive plantings to ensure a continuous harvest throughout the growing season. ‘Lee’ is also good for container gardening.

How to Grow Okra

The plants grow best in very warm to very hot weather. Site them in full sun.

The soil should have good drainage and be well-worked, fertile, and amended with compost. Use organic vegetable fertilizer to feed the plants. Install a soaker hose to supplement rainfall and

The okra flower is one of the most beautiful blooms in the vegetable garden.

keep the area mulched and free of weeds.

Okra seeds should be soaked overnight and planted where they are to grow in the kitchen garden. Spacing of the plants depends on the cultivar.

Okra pods are distributed all around the plant. Make sure that there is enough room to walk around each plant. If using a tall-growing okra cultivar as a temporary summer screen, plant the seeds in staggered rows for better coverage.

Alternatively, okra seeds may be started in sterile potting medium in individual biodegradable containers set

on horticultural heat mats. Harden off each seedling when it has one to two sets of true leaves. Install the seedlings in their biodegradable pots in the kitchen garden. Gently remove any container rims that extend above the soil line.

Be very careful when transplanting okra. The roots are tender. If there are two or more seedlings in a starter pot, choose and protect the plant that you prefer and scissor-prune the rest at the soil line. Pulling surplus seedlings out of the potting medium will disrupt the roots of the remaining plant.

Okra plants may cause skin irritation.

Gardeners should wear gloves, longsleeved shirts, and long pants while working around okra plants or when harvesting the pods.

Well-established okra plants will tolerate slightly cooler nights in early autumn, but will slow in growth and productivity. Okra plants decline soon after light frosts and should be removed from the garden. o Elizabeth Olson is a Maryland Certified Professional Horticulturist. She is also an avid home gardener who is fascinated by the stories behind the plants that she grows.

She can be contacted through Washington Gardener magazine.

Y ou Can Make a Difference. . . by

Sharing Your Harvest

Plant an extra row in your garden and deliver the harvest to a local food bank or shelter. The need is great!

With your help, PAR can continue to make a difference for America’s most vulnerable.

Call our toll-free number (877.GWAA.PAR) or visit our website at www.gardenwriters.org/par for more information.

JUNE 2016

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PRODUCTreview

More Legroom in the Garden

by Louise Clarke Growing up, I remember my grandmother commenting that my big brother had a hollow leg. I was perplexed, so she explained that he ate so much, his stomach surely couldn’t hold it all, so some had to go into his “hollow leg.”

Inventive gardener Robert Blomberg created the Gardener’s Hollow Leg (GHL), a clever solution to the task of having to clean up at the end of his gardening sessions. Being like Bob, I like to clean up as I garden on, and I find myself, like Bob, traipsing back and forth to a trug or recycle bag with weeds or garden clippings. That’s great for my daily 10,000 steps, but not for efficient gardening.

The Gardener’s Hollow Leg is a five-gallon fabric sack made of waterresistant, recycled polyester. It is a flexible bag that is 21" deep with a 9" uncollapsable ring opening. Its available in crisp celery-green, the classic Hunter green for you traditionalists, and a heavenly sky-blue. The genius is that it incorporates an adjustable nylon fabric belt that you wear around your waist. The belt accommodates your seasonal gardening attire, adjusting from 30" to 52" , so it can be at your side year-round whether you’re in shorts or Carhartts. Winter is surely no excuse to stop gardening!

The belt is sturdy enough to shoulder a pruner’s holster, especially useful if you don’t usually wear a belt. Its siderelease buckle easily snaps closed and pinches open even when you are wearing gloves. The handy outer pocket has a hook-and-loop tape closure at the top 8

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and is sized for mobile phones, iPods, seed packets, snacks, whatever. Once your Leg is filled, the nylon strap sewn to the bottom gives you a handhold to easily empty the bag. When you’ve finished gardening for the day, the Leg collapses flat for storage.

In my field testing, I’ve found the GHL to be useful for green roof gardening.

With it belted to me, I carry hand tools or small plants to the rooftop and have both hands free to grip the steep ladder and operate the hatch latch. I simply scoot the Leg to my back so it doesn’t interfere with my ascent. Before, I had to use one hand to carry stuff, leaving the other hand to grip the rungs. Once on the roof, I always have an available receptacle for dead-headed blooms, shrub trimmings, and weeds. I like carrying the weight on my hips and legs, which is less fatiguing and makes my descent safer than with full hands.

In home pruning of my Japanese maple, (the one that wasn’t supposed to grow taller than 6 feet), which now requires a ladder, both hands are free to climb, and once in place, I can prune with one hand while the other stuffs the bag. The fabric’s tight weave resists punctures from woody debris and doesn’t allow fine particles or moisture through, keeping my garden duds relatively clean.

This fall, I anticipate loading my Leg with bulbs for planting, especially at work, where I typically order them by the hundreds. I can also imagine it being useful for cleaning autumn leaves from my gutters. In winter, it’ll also be a

good ammo pouch for snowballs.

Even better, the Mini-Me-sized Gardener’s Hollow Leg Jr. holds 1 gallon and is useful for harvesting from your garden, gathering eggs from your hens, or collecting shiitakes from your mushroom log. With its smaller ring opening of 6" and a depth of 12", you can entice or conscript the young gardeners in your household to participate. The Jr’s belt ranges from 25" to 52", so some duct tape or rubber bands might be needed for the kids. This smaller size is convenient for pick-your-own outings for berries, cherries, and other fruits.

It comes in celery-green, sky-blue, or zingy lemon-yellow, so you can color coordinate or contrast with the full-size Leg. Just like the full-sized version, it can be rinsed out after use, if desired.

Others with GHLs have used them for clamming, environmental cleanups, and picking up toys. I can imagine using them on the tennis court to hold practice balls, for trips to the dog park, or for gathering Halloween candy. For home improvement projects requiring tools and a ladder, the Gardener’s Hollow Leg could be used to stash supplies at waist level, leaving both hands free to climb the ladder and perform repairs; I know whatever I put on the top step of the ladder always falls off.

At the Gardener’s Hollow Leg website, www.TheGardenersHollowLeg.com, you’ll find a video and more ideas for how to use this wearable gardening necessity. Practical, compact, comfortable, convenient, and easy to use, the Gardener’s Hollow Leg makes a great gift for the gardener or yourself. Even though my brother has outgrown his “hollow leg,” I think he’ll find this one a useful birthday gift. Thanks, Bob, for giving the gardening community a (hollow) leg up on garden cleanup. o Louise Clarke is a degreed horticulturist employed by the Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia, PA, where she tends more than 1,200 woody plants and two green roofs, as well as leading workshops, writing, and lecturing on horticultural topics. As a zonedenial gardener, after hours, she tends Halcyon, her lush home garden, a mixture of tender tropicals, bulbs, perennials, unusual annuals, and vines. She rarely has time to admire the garden while seated in her tiki hut, made from repurposed materials.

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TIPStricks

Birds that Eat at Feeders More Likely to Get Sick

Wild songbirds that prefer to eat at bird feeders have an increased risk of acquiring a common eye disease. In turn, these birds also spread the disease more quickly to their flock mates, according to an international research team led by Virginia Tech scientists.

The researchers found that this feeding preference, rather than social position in the flock, as previously thought, was more likely to result in a bird contracting the eye disease.

“Our results suggest that in this species, a few individuals—those that like eating at feeders—are likely very important in driving disease epidemics,” said Dana Hawley, an associate professor of biological sciences in the College of Science, a Fralin Life Science Institute affiliate, and member of the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech. “If this is true for other wildlife species as well, we may be able to more effectively reduce disease by targeting these ‘high risk’ individuals.”

The authors monitored the social and foraging behaviors of wild flocks of house finches, a common backyard songbird, and the spread of a naturally occurring bird disease called Mycoplasmal conjunctivitis, which is similar to “pink eye” in humans but cannot be contracted by humans. Infected birds have red, swollen eyes that can lead to blindness, and ultimately, death, as a result of not being able to see.

In the study, each bird was fitted with a unique chip containing a barcode that automatically recorded each time a bird visited one of the monitored bird-feeders over an entire winter. When bar codes from different birds appeared at feeders around the same time, the researchers knew that those birds were feeding together.

“This technology enabled us to capture where birds fed during the winter and whom they chose to feed with,” said Sahnzi Moyers of Portland, OR, a doctoral student in biological sciences in the College of Science who works with Hawley.

The researchers used this data to reconstruct the birds’ social networks.

Birds that were frequently seen together had stronger bonds. Based on previous 10

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work, the authors expected that birds that had many connections would be more likely to be exposed to the disease and to spread it.

“We expected birds that were more central in the social network, or had more friends, to catch the disease, because previous research has found that this was important for accessing information about where food is located.

But, we found instead that it was birds’ feeding preferences that were most important,” said Damien Farine, a postdoctoral researcher with a joint appointment at the University of Oxford and the UC-Davis and co-author of the study.

“Understanding which animals become sick, and which individuals are most likely to spread disease, can be critical to conservation,” said James Adelman, an assistant professor at Iowa State University, a former postdoctoral researcher at Virginia Tech, and coauthor of the study.

Feeding birds isn’t a bad thing for humans to do, as it helps birds survive the winter. However, the researchers recommend that bird-feeders be cleaned and disinfected each time they are refilled to help reduce the likelihood of spreading disease. o

Virginia’s Big Trees on Redesigned Website

The state’s big trees might seem even a little “bigger” on the Virginia Big Tree Program’s newly redesigned website at http://bigtree.cnre.vt.edu/.

“The website lists information about the largest trees in Virginia,” said Eric Wiseman, associate professor of urban forestry and arboriculture, and Virginia Cooperative Extension specialist.

It details the five largest trees of more than 300 different species and includes photographs of the honored trees as well as their locations, the names of the individuals who nominated them, and— in some cases—the name of landowner.

Virginia ranks fourth on the National Big Tree Register with 63 national champion trees. Having that many national champions is notable because, through its history, some of Virginia’s major economic development was through farming and logging operations, which removed many of the state’s largest trees. o

Smithsonian Gardens Unveils Newly Renamed Pollinator Garden

Smithsonian Gardens will unveil its newly renamed Pollinator Garden to the public on Tuesday, June 21, from 11am–2pm, outside the National Museum of Natural History to kick off Pollinator Week.

After 20 years, this popular landscape is being renamed. In 1995, Smithsonian Gardens opened it as the 11,000-square-foot Butterfly Habitat Garden along the east side of the National Museum of Natural History at Ninth Street, between Constitution Avenue and the National Mall.

The change reflects the growing importance of supporting pollinator health championed by the formation of a task force by President Barack Obama in 2014 and the implementation of the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge. As a key advocate for pollinators, Smithsonian Gardens’ reinterpretation of this space will educate visitors on the wide diversity of pollinators and the types of plants that support them.

The garden display will also show what can be done to create beautiful pollinator-friendly gardens.

Following the unveiling, Smithsonian Gardens will host its third annual Pollination Party. Visitors are invited to join Smithsonian Gardens and local groups in a celebration of pollination. They can enjoy the beauty of the garden, see pollination in action, and participate in fun, family-friendly activities staged throughout the garden.

“One in three bites of food you eat depends on pollinators—from butterflies and bees to flies and beetles; there are many different types of pollinators,” said James Gagliardi, lead horticulturist with Smithsonian Gardens. “The garden’s new theme focuses on the ‘Pollination Investigation’ that takes visitors on a discovery of the who, what, when, why, where, and how of pollination by interpreting the unique relationship between pollinators and flowers.”

The Pollinator Garden is presented

by Smithsonian Gardens. Its research and educational programs promote the ongoing development of collections of living plants, garden documentation, and horticultural artifacts. o

GARDENnews

Quick Links to Recent Washington Gardener Blog Posts

• Bring on the Butterflies!

• DC Plant Swap 2016 Video • Tomato Planting Tips • Wildflower: Bachelor’s Buttons • A Handful of Salad See more Washington Gardener blog posts at: WashingtonGardener.Blogspot.com o

June–July Garden To-Do List New Plant Spotlight Xanthos Cosmos brings yellow blooms to a garden favorite

It’s hard not to love the cheery blooms of cosmos. These lovely annuals are easy to grow, and they bloom profusely for weeks, making them the perfect choice for children and beginning gardeners. Thriving in just about any location, cosmos look lovely when planted in containers, or when sown in garden beds for a natural meadow effect.

Cosmos normally blooms in pink and white, but this year, the world’s first true yellow variety has emerged as a musthave flowering plant. Xanthos Cosmos, winner of the Fleuroselect Gold Medal, Europe’s highest award for a flowering seed, is a brand-new dwarf cosmos variety. It reaches only 25 inches high and about 12 inches wide when in full bloom. Every year in early summer, it blooms in masses of 2 ½-inch flowers that feature a delicate shade of gold and yellow with just the slightest tinge of primrose at the tips.

Like all cosmos, Xanthos is widely adaptable, and it will tolerate hot, dry soil, so it’s the perfect solution for those tough spots in your garden. Simply sow it directly in the ground or in a pot, and enjoy its sweeping yellow flowers all summer long. Xanthos is an open-pollinated variety and will generously selfsow, naturalizing the area and allowing you to enjoy it year after year.

Sow your Xanthos seeds after the last spring frost. You will be rewarded only a couple months later when the plants burst into bloom. A packet of 50 seeds sells for $2.95 from Park Seed, www. parkseed.com, 800-845-3369. o

• Direct-sow annual flower and vegetable seeds.

• Water newly planted trees and shrubs weekly or as needed.

• Contact a Certified Arborist to have your trees’ health inspected.

• Check on your container plants daily and keep them well-watered.

• Watch for insect and disease problems throughout your garden.

• Mow in the early evening and cut off no more than one-third of the grass height at one time. Leave clippings on the ground to provide nutrients.

• Add barley straw (in a bale or ball) to your pond to improve water clarity.

• Take cuttings from azaleas and roses to start new plants.

• Harvest herbs to use in salads and summer dishes.

• Try a few new tropical plants on your patio.

• Shape your evergreens and hedges.

• Look for slug trails in the early morning and put out slug bait as needed.

• Tie-up climbing roses and other wandering vines.

• Fill in bare spots in the garden with annuals.

• Deadhead spent flowers to encourage reblooming.

• Prune flowering shrubs as their flowers fade. Last chance to do so for fallblooming camellias.

• Spray roses with Neem oil every two weeks.

• Start a sunflower patch with help from a few kids.

• Harvest strawberry beds daily.

• Cut a few flowers to enjoy at your workplace.

• This is the perfect time to apply grub control.

• Change the water in your birdbath daily and throw a Mosquito Dunk (or bits) into any standing water.

• Put in supports for tomatoes and tall-blooming plants such as dahlias.

• Order spring-flowering bulbs to arrive for planting this fall.

• Take photos and update your garden journal.

• Inspect your garden hose for leaks and tighten all connections.

• Weed.

• Sow beets, beans, cucumbers, pumpkins, and squash for fall harvest.

• Prune boxwoods.

• Sharpen your lawnmower blade.

• Avoid using pesticides or any chemicals near your water garden.

• Make hummingbird food by boiling 2 cups sugar in 4 cups water.

• Turn your compost pile.

• Clean up fallen fruit and berries.

• Cover berry bushes and fruit trees with bird netting.

• Dig up garlic when the tops turn brown. Let dry in the sun, then store.

• Fertilize your azaleas and rhododendrons, and monitor them closely for any lacebug damage.

• Sow heat-tolerant greens like Swiss Chard and mustard greens in part- shade.

• As the heat and humidity move in, take it easy by working in the morning or early evening to avoid intense sun and humidity. Leave the big projects for this fall. For now, concentrate on maintaining the beds you’ve already established and nurturing your new plantings.

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TOP AREA GARDENING EVENTS DC-Area Gardening Calendar ~ Upcoming Events ~ June 16–July 18, 2016 • Thursdays 12:15-12:45pm Smithsonian Gardens Presents “Let’s Talk Gardens” At the East Walk of the Smithsonian’s Enid A. Haupt Garden. Join Smithsonian Gardens’ horticulturists for a series of free lunchtime talks and demonstrations on gardening basics. ~ June 16, Pollinator Gardens ~ June 23, Let’s Talk Hops ~ June 30, Top Native Plants for the Home Landscape Details online at www.gardens.si.edu/ whats-happening/lets-talk-gardens. html.

• Monday, June 20, 8pm Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener Plant breeding, the art of creating your very own new varieties of plants, may sound complex and technical, but it isn’t. People have been breeding plants since agriculture began, and you can easily create your own new plants in your backyard. In this talk, you’ll learn the simple principles and techniques that will allow you to start creating a perfectly delicious tomato, columbines in JUST the right shade of purple, technicolored corn, or whatever else you can dream up. Speaker, Joseph Tychonievich is a life-long gardener, lover of plants, and author of Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener (Timber Press, 2013). Talk held at Brookside Garden’s Visitors Center Auditorium, 1800 Glenallan Avenue, Wheaton, MD. Hosted by the Silver Spring Garden Club. Free and open to the public.

• June 20-26 National Pollinator Week Nation-wide event to promote the health of pollinators, critical to food and ecosystems, through conservation, education, and research. ~ June 21, DPR Native Bees and Natural Habitat Creation ~ June 21, Bumble Bee Blitz (registration required) ~ June 21, The Buzz About Bees ~ All week long, Pollinators in American Indian Art For more information about the week and individual events, follow this link: http://pollinator.org/npw_events.htm.

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• Saturday, June 25, 11am–1pm Garden Party Potluck The second event commemorating the Washington Youth Garden’s 45th anniversary a potluck picnic at the garden on the grounds of the U.S. National Arboretum. For more information on how to RSVP and what to bring, visit www.washingtonyouthgarden.org.

• Saturday, June 25, 7:15–8:15am Daylily Collection Walking Tour Northern Virginia Daylily Society President Janice Kennedy will lead a walking tour through Meadowlark Botanical Gardens’ impressive Daylily Collection.

Details at https://www.novaparks.com/ parks/meadowlark-botanical-gardens/ events.

• Sunday, June 26, 12n–5pm Daylily Show & Sale Sponsored by the National Capital Daylily Club. Held at Brookside Garden’s Visitors Center Auditorium. Details at http://www.montgomeryparks.org/ brookside.

• Monday, June 27, 7–8:30pm Mosquito Control: Gardening in the Time of Zika Held at the Beatley Central Library, 5005 Duke St., Alexandria, VA. Learn how you can help reduce mosquito populations in your yard and protect yourself from biting insects. This program will cover mosquito lifecycle, effective and ineffective control tactics, and the risks of using outdoor sprays and other chemical products. Free and open to the public. Advance registration requested at mgnv.org. Questions: telephone, 703-228-6414; or email, mgarlalex@gmail.com.

• Tuesday, June 28, 6–8pm Concert in the Garden at Green Spring Gardens Whether you are a Pretty Woman or a Brown-Eyed Girl, I Heard it Through the Grapevine that the Fender Benders have something for everyone. We are loading up our Van Morrison and our Mustang Sally, full of Old Time Rock-nRoll so we can take you on a Magic Carpet Ride. Whether you are from Mem-

phis, Sweet Home Alabama, or Margaritaville, you’d better lock the Doors because it is going to be a Wild Night!

This is a free musical evening in the gardens with the Fender Benders. Bring a picnic dinner or enjoy a prepared dinner from the Good Grubbin’ food truck.

Complimentary cake and lemonade will be provided by FROGS. This event will be rain or shine. Details at http://www. fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/greenspring/.

• Tuesday, June 28, 2:30pm, and Thursday, June 30, 2:30pm Gardener’s Focus: Summer Designs Get an intimate look at Hillwood’s gardens—and the creative design process— with Jason Gedeik, head of design operations, or Jessica Bonilla, head gardener. Note: This tour is limited to 20. Tickets are distributed at the Visitor Center upon opening each day. A limited number of tickets may be reserved

by Hillwood members. Included in suggested donation. Hillwood, 4155 Linnean Avenue, NW, WDC. Details at www.

HillwoodMuseum.org.

• Tuesday, July 5, 11am–12n Simpson Gardens Stroll Located at 420 E. Monroe St., Alexandria, VA (by the YMCA). VCE Master Gardeners who maintain the Simpson Park Demonstration Gardens will be in the garden to greet visitors, answer gardening questions, and describe what’s blooming in the garden. No need to register; just drop by. See: https://mgnv. org/events/mgnv-events/.

• Thursday, July 7, 7–9pm Garden After Dark: Wings and Wine What do butterflies do when the sun sets? Find out with exclusive evening access to our “Wings of Fancy” exhibit!

Sample local wines as butterflies and music swirl around you; learn more about the fascinating extended family of butterflies (Lepidoptera). Finish off the evening by potting up a butterfly container garden to take home. Meet in the Brookside Gardens Conservatory.

Register in Active Montgomery for Course #14886; Fee $60 for 2 (FOBG $54), Details at www.montgomeryparks. org/brookside/.

TOP AREA GARDENING EVENTS DC-Area Gardening Calendar ~ Upcoming Events ~ June 16–July 18, 2016 • Thursday, July 14, 10:30–11:30am Tour: Flourish: An Overview Working with, being in, and seeing plants and nature can be beneficial in numerous ways. Join Anna Mische John, USBG gardener, for this overview tour of the USBG’s summer exhibit, “Flourish: Inside and Out.” Spend some time on the terrace discussing sensory plants and programs around the country that use plants in programs and curricula.

Walk through the East Gallery and learn about plants for the indoors and adaptable tools, all of which should excite you to embrace nature and inspire you to flourish both inside and out! Meet at the Conservatory Terrace and East Gallery. Free, but pre-registration required.

See: https://www.usbg.gov.

• Thursday, July 14, 7—8:30pm Rejuvenate the Midsummer Herb Garden Held at the Burke Branch Library, 4701 Seminary Rd., Alexandria, VA. Learn how to keep your herb garden going strong in our hot summer weather through good maintenance practices and occasional replanting. Learn tips and techniques to use and preserve all the herbs you’ve just pruned, including how to flavor your own vinegars.

Advance registration requested at mgnv.org. Questions: telephone, 703228-6414; or email, mgarlalex@gmail. com.

• Saturday, July 16, 10am–5pm Waterlily and Lotus Festival This festival has an exhibit area, educational programs, arts and crafts, face painting, two performance stages, and acres of beautiful flowers.

For the first time, in celebration of the National Park Service’s Centennial, they are extending the festival beyond the one-day event. Saturday, July 16, will be the opening or kick-off event followed by a series of smaller events and programs during the week of July 17–23 which corresponds to the peak blooming period of the lotus flowers.

See details at https://www.nps.gov/ keaq/index.htm.

• Saturday, July 16, 1–4pm Fort Barnard Community Garden’s Open House Vegetables, flowers, bee demonstration, Plot Against Hunger, and 70 great community gardens. Come to 3800 S. 19th St. (between Pollard and Oakland-around the corner from the water tower and the fire station on Walter Reed.)

Eat some grilled veggies, stroll around, and visit Arlington’s showcase community garden in full July bloom. For information, contact Stephanie Joyce at 703-920-0865.

Save These Future Dates: • You are invited to view the winning images of the 10th annual Washington Gardener Photo Contest at an art show at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, VA. All 17 stunning photos were taken in DC-area gardens. Both inspirational and educational, this show represents the best of garden photography in the greater DC metropolitan region.

The photo show reception is Sunday, August 7, from 2:00–3:30pm at the Meadowlark Visitor Center’s lobby. The opening reception is open to the public and is free to attend. You may also come by and view the photos any time during the normal Visitor Center hours (10am–7pm daily). The photo show runs through September 21.

Still More Event Listings See even more event listings on the Washington Gardener Yahoo discussion list. Join the list at http://groups.yahoo. com/group/WashingtonGardener/.

Events are also posted on the Twitter feed (@wdcgardener) and Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ WashingtonGardenerMagazine.

How to Submit Local Garden Events

To submit an event for this listing, contact: Wgardenermag@aol.com—put “Event” in the subject line. Our next deadline is July 10 for the July issue (due out July 18), listing events taking place from July 20–August 19. o

Garden Book Club

Discuss “Planting in a Post-Wild World” with Washington Gardener Book Club For our Garden Book Club Summer 2016 Meeting, we will be discussing Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West. Please join us on Thursday, July 21, from 6:30-8pm at Soupergirl, located right next to the Takoma Metro stop.

“This groundbreaking guide presents a powerful alternative to traditional horticulture: designed plantings that function like naturally occurring plant communities.

“Thomas Rainer and Claudia West, two leading voices in ecological landscape design, reveal how plants fit together in nature and how to use this knowledge to create landscapes that are resilient, beautiful, and diverse. As practical as it is inspiring, Planting in a Post-Wild World is an optimistic manifesto pointing the way to the future of planting design.”

RSVP to washingtongardener @rcn. com or at the book club event page at facebook.com/WashingtonGardenerMagazine by July 15, so we know how many chairs to hold for our group.

If you like to read ahead, here are the next selection for the Washington Gardener Magazine’s Garden Book Club: FALL 2016 - Paradise Under Glass: An Amateur Creates a Conservatory Garden by Ruth Kassinger The Washington Gardener Magazine’s Garden Book Club is free and open to all. We meet quarterly on a weekday evening near a metro-accessible location in the DC-area. We will announce the details of each upcoming meeting about two months in advance. Please check back on this blog for schedule updates and announcements.

Your Ad Here Contact wgardenermag@aol.com or call 301.588.6894 for ad rates.

The ad deadline is the 10th of each month.

Please submit your ad directly to: wgardenermag@aol.com.

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PETgardens With this issue, we are introducing a new, occasional column in Washington Gardener Magazine featuring photos of pets in gardens. Please submit your photos to wgardenermag@aol.com and use the subject line “Pets in Gardens.” Tell us a bit about the animal and your garden as well!

Main Street Landscape of Haymarket, VA, shared this lovely photo. They wrote, “Caught a picture of a pretty cat blending in with our fieldstone wall and planting installation in Leesburg, VA.” Jennifer Lewis, landscape designer/project manager of Main Street Landscape, Inc. said, “The picture is of fieldstone walls and plantings that Main Street did—one of my designs and installations. I’ve been working with this client for years. The cat does not actually belong to my client, but rather to her next-door neighbor. The cat’s name is Frankie and he is part Maine Coon. He’s beautiful as you can tell from the picture. My client calls him the ‘Guardian of the Garden.’ He lives outside all year round. The neighbor just has a bed in the garage for him, so my client made a nice bed for him on her front porch—a blanket-lined basket—and that’s where he sleeps.

He basically spends most of his time at my client’s house, where he gets lots of attention as well as some leftover fish and chicken.”

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Meet Dandelion. “This Southern Belle enjoys eating vast quantities of dry cat food instead of mice, lying in the shade to watch you load wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of compost, and prowling the tomato patch to be sure you cut out all the blight. She does not enjoy getting out of the harvest bin or dieting.”

Pamela Hess, executive director of Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, in Alexandria, VA, writes, “Dandelion enjoys jumping in your car, biting your arm, and tricking you into giving her extra food.”

“She dislikes when you kick her out of your car and when you don’t give her extra food.”

Rindy O’Brien of Washington, DC, shared this cat’s photo. She said, “He is a regular in the Green Seed Garden on Capitol Hill—loves cruising around the manicured pathways and sunning himself in the community gathering area outside the vegetable fence.” o

PLANTprofile

Herbaceous Peonies: You Can Grow That

by Kathy Jentz

Herbaceous peonies are among my favorite flowers. Peonies are easy to grow and will reward you with armfuls of luscious blooms every May–June. Once established, the only care they need is to have the old foliage cut back in fall.

Select a sunny, well-draining spot in your garden for peonies. Be sure to give them space to grow as well, since this perennial grows to shrub-like proportions in a single season. Having said that, herbaceous peonies really do play well with others in your perennial borders and combine well with roses, catmint, salvias, and clematis.

The only “trick” to herbaceous peonies is not to plant them too deep. When you get a peony root division, you will see the reddish “eyes” (new emerging plants). Plant them with the tips of the

roots pointed downward and the eyes set just an inch or so below the surface of the soil. Amend the planting hole with peat, then mulch it over with leaf compost. Do not add in any fertilizer.

Herbaceous peonies are shallowrooted, so try not to dig or bother the plants too much around their crown area. When you weed, just cut them off at the soil level.

You may have to give the heavy blooms some staking and support, but I find that if I cut them at the bud stage to enjoy indoors often enough, I don’t have to worry about the characteristic peony flop.

If an early summer storm is brewing and your peonies are in full bloom, run out and cut all the blossoms that you can. A hard rain can often pummel and

destroy these beautiful flowers. So disappointing to go out after a storm and see your peonies beaten to mush!

Pictured above is the stunning ‘Do Tell’ peony at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC. I have recently added this selection to my own home garden. Two good sources of quality peonies are Peony’s Envy (www.peonysenvy.com) in Bernardsville, NJ, and Klehm’s Song Sparrow Farm and Nursery (www.songsparrow.com), based in Avalon, WI. Whether you choose an heirloom peony like ‘Festiva Maxima’ or a newer one such as ‘Green Halo,’ a peony is a must-have addition to your garden. o Kathy Jentz is editor of Washington Gardener Magazine and a long-time DC-area gardening enthusiast.

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INSECTindex

by Carol Allen Most people mark the passage of time by noting days, months, and years. They look to a time piece, their appointment book, or calendar to anticipate a coming event. My year starts about the time of the first bloom of Prunus mume in my back yard and with the anticipation of the daffodils, from that first early bloomer to the last recently planted pink hybrid. I note the phases of spring when the Baptisia bloom, when the iris bloom, and when the peonies bloom.

Right now, we are at the edge of daylily bloom and have already begun the Asiatic lily cycle.

As these plants are my days, weeks, and months, anything that threatens these yearly milestones becomes monumental. For me, the lily season is the apogee of the summer. This center point begins in June with the Asiatic lily bloom, crests with the Aurelian lilies, and sweeps out with the Orientals and Orienpets in August. Lilies are often not bothered by pests in my garden so my world has not been troubled, but this may change.

The Lily Leaf Beetle (Lilioceris lilii) is an introduced, invasive pest of the true lilies (Genus Lilium) and fritillarias (Genus Fritillaria). This beetle is in the order Coleoptera and the family Chrysomelidae (leaf beetles). The group of leaf beetles includes many members who feed on many different species of plants in both the adult and the larval form. They are one of the most common beetles people encounter. Members of 16

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note include: Colorado potato beetle, asparagus beetle, flea beetles, and other plant pests.

Found throughout continental Europe, east into Russia, areas south, and into North Africa, Lily Leaf Beetles were discovered in Montreal, Canada, in 1945.

They slowly spread to adjacent provinces during the 1980s and 1990s and were found in Cambridge, MA, in 1992.

They are now reported in all of the contiguous provinces of Canada and in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Washington (in 2012). The heaviest U.S. populations are found in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maine.

The Lily Leaf Beetle is believed to have arrived on this continent in a shipment of cut lilies. The larvae and eggs are easily concealed on cut lily leaves and adults and pupae can arrive in the soil of potted lilies or on soil or debris associated with bulk shipments of lily bulbs. Once introduced to an area, the adults prove to be strong fliers and will move from garden to garden. Even isolated gardens in problem areas have been attacked within a year or two.

When established, this pest overwinters as an adult and emerges at the same time as the lilies push through the soil in the spring. The adults will feed for about two weeks, then mate.

The tan to orange-colored eggs are laid in irregular rows of 2–16 eggs on the underside of lily leaves. A female can lay as many as 300 or more in

A scarlet lily leaf beetle eating a leaf. Source: Wikipedia Commons.

Learn About the Lily Leaf Beetle

her lifetime. The eggs hatch in about a week and the insects stay in the larval form for about three more weeks. They then pupate underground where they will stay for about 10 days. Adults can emerge as early as July and will feed on lilies until they over-winter. The newly emerged beetles will not mate until the following spring.

Gardeners may see chewing damage to the early shoots and leaves of their lilies and may see the approximately ½"-long, scarlet red beetles foraging in the lily plants. When disturbed, adults will drop to the ground upside-down, revealing their black undersides. This makes them more difficult to see against the surrounding soil. The larvae can also be difficult to observe since they have the very successful and disgusting defense of covering their backs with gelatinous fecal material. Since their fecal material piles up on the leaf surfaces, they are difficult to distinguish in the mess and are slippery.

The damage that this pest does to lilies is considerable. Besides chewing damage, there is abundant frass. They can rapidly defoliate a plant and will feed on buds, stems, and flowers as well. Early detection and mechanical removal are the best defenses for the homeowner. Carefully place a light colored tarp or cloth under the lily plants before attempting hand-picking. Hold a bowl of soapy water under the plants as you inspect them. The adults will fall into the water or can be more easily picked up from the cloth. The adults are fast-moving and difficult to crush so death by soapy water is most effective.

The chemical controls of azadiractin (Neem oil) or spinosad work best on early instar larvae. Be sure to spray thoroughly—to the point of drip. The larvae’s fecal shield helps deflect spray material. Hand-picking in combination with occasional sprays to the developing larva creates the best overall control. When hand-picking larvae, wear plastic gloves and use the death-bysoapy water method. The fecal-covered larvae are slippery, icky, and difficult to crush.

Natural enemies for this pest are not abundant in North America. Where the Lily Leaf Beetle is found natuInsect Index continued on page 20

GOINGnative Please forgive my somewhat ambiguous, possibly misleading, almost confusing and a tad deceptive title for this article. But at least it got your attention, didn’t it? Yes, you were supposed to imagine that this was a story about Bill & Hil relocating to our little paradise in the mountains. But, no, it’s not!

Actually, what you’re about to read is a story about a plant named Clintonia, a plant that just happens to be named for another somewhat famous politician, DeWitt Clinton (March 2, 1769– February 11, 1828).

DeWitt Clinton was an American politician and naturalist. (Now there’s a couple of occupations you don’t associate these days. Think of how much better things would be if you could.) He served as a U.S. senator and was the sixth governor of New York. In the latter capacity, he was largely responsible for the construction of the Erie Canal. Clinton was the leader of New York’s People’s Party and a major rival of Martin Van Buren, who was the attorney general of New York during part of Clinton’s governorship. Clinton believed that infrastructure improvements could transform American life, drive economic growth, and encourage political participation.

He heavily influenced the economic development of the state of New York and the United States. But you’re not here for a history lesson, you’re here to learn about a new plant, aren’t you?

All kidding aside folks, Clintonia umbellulata, aka “Clinton’s Lily,” aka “Blue Bead Lily,” aka “Speckled Wood Lily,” is a native that finds its home in many places in the Mid-Atlantic.

Actually, these plants are not true lilies, but are in the lily family. If you were to stumble across a colony in the woods, you’d think that you had discovered a treasure trove of native orchids, as the ground-hugging, slender foliage of both species of Clintonia is very orchid-like, even similar to that of a tropical orchid.

Yes, you heard correctly: I did say “both species,” since there is another plant that shares a home in the genus Clintonia, C. borealis, but more on that later.

The species name, “umbellulata,” describes the shape of the flower, which is reminiscent of an inverted umbrella.

The root of the word is “umbel,” which

At Home with the Clintons

by Barry Glick

is an inflorescence that consists of a number of short flower stalks (called pedicels) that spread from a common point, somewhat like umbrella ribs.

Now you know the origin of the word umbrella.

As far as the common names go, we’ve already covered “Clinton’s Lily.”

That’s pretty obvious, but “Speckled Wood Lily”? I never quite understood that moniker until this spring, when I looked closely at a couple of specimens in my own woodland garden. The flowers on these particular plants had lovely purple speckles around the edges of the petals. They were always there, but I never really looked closely at them. The next common name is “Blue Bead Lily” and this is another no-brainer. After those lovely white, speckled flowers are visited by pollinating insects, they slowly, over the summer, develop their seed berries, which are so dark blue that they almost look black, especially in the shade that you’ll find them growing in.

Clintonia borealis, the “other” Clintonia species native to our region, looks almost identical in leaf, but when in flower, they don’t even look like cousins. This species of Clintonia has even more nicknames than Clintonia umbellulata. They are “Blue-bead Lily,” “Clinton’s Lily,” “Corn Lily,” “Cow Tongue,” “Yellow Beadlily,” “Yellow Bluebeadlily,” “Snakeberry,” “Dogberry,” and “Straw Lily.” Phew! The color of the flowers on Clintonia borealis are a soft yellowish-green and appear to fly like flags the way they’re attached to the

stem. The color of the seed heads is a lighter blue than Clintonia umbellulata.

By the way, the species name “borealis” means north and refers to the fact that this plant is found in more northern climes than southern ones.

Clintonias are very easy to grow in the home garden. Light shade or dappled sunlight and average soil moisture, slightly on the acid side, are the conditions they gravitate to in the wild.

You can also find two other species on the left coast. Clintonia andrewsiana is a California and Oregon native, and Clintonia uniflora is native to California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and western provinces in Canada.

If you cross the Pacific, you’ll find the Asian counterpart to our natives, Clintonia udensis, in China, Korea, Japan, Myanmar, the Himalayas, and the Russian Far East.

Get out in the woods and look for those two to four orchid-like leaves hugging the ground, and, depending on what time of year you’re out, speckled white flowers or dark-blue/black seed heads. o Barry Glick, a transplanted Philadelphian, has been residing in Greenbrier County, WV, since 1972. His mountaintop garden and nursery is a mecca for gardeners from virtually every country in the world. Barry writes and lectures extensively about native plants and Hellebores, his two main specialties, and welcomes visitors with advance notice.

He can be reached at barry@sunfarm.com, www.sunfarm.com, or 304.497.2208.

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BOOKreviews few outstanding Victorian conservatories in the world that are still intact.

This is a useful reference book and should be welcomed by any outdoor or garden aficionado. It is a great companion for inspiring visits to Maryland gardens and parks. o

Cheval Force Opp lives in Dunn Loring, VA, with her husband Dana and corgi Marzipan.

She is currently renovating her garden to accommodate for large deer herds and arthritis. Visiting gardens gives her many adventures during the year, which she loves to share with friends and family. You can contact her at gardentours@gmail.com.

Love Reading?

Maryland’s Public Gardens & Parks

by Barbara Glickman Publisher: Schiffer Publishing List Price: $29.99 Reviewer: Cheval Force Opp After visiting the delightful Seneca Creek State Park for this month’s DayTrip article, I eagerly perused this book.

Glickman reviews all 52 of Maryland’s public gardens and parks, and illustrates them with 240 color photographs. The text highlights each park’s history and gives an overview of its facilities and attractions. Many of the gardens and parks have been reviewed in past Washington Gardener Magazine issues.

Maryland public parks and gardens are located in 18 of it’s 24 counties, Montgomery County leads with 10. The 52 parks and gardens are identified on a map at the front of the book. I found this very helpful for trip planning, since I could determine what parks are near each other.

Many of the parks have unique aspects. Assateague State Park is Maryland’s only state park bordering the ocean. Sotterley Plantation is the only surviving Tidewater plantation in Maryland open to the public. Adkins Arboretum is the only public garden dedicated to promoting and preserving the native plants of the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain. Merkle Wildlife Sanctuary is the sole wildlife sanctuary managed by the Maryland Department of National Resources. Deep Creek Lake State Park contains Maryland’s largest lake, with 65 miles of shoreline.

Cunningham Falls State Park protects Maryland’s greatest cascading waterfall, at 78 feet high. Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory & Botanic Gardens in Baltimore, MD, is one of the 18

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These books were reviewed by volunteer members of the Washington Gardener Reader Panel. We are looking for a few additional volunteers who live in the greater Washington, DC, region to serve on our Reader Panel. This will consist of about two email exchanges per month. Reader Panelists may also be asked to review new gardening books and test out new garden plants, tools, and seeds.

To join the Washington Gardener Volunteer Reader Panel, please send an email with your name and address to: wgardenermag@aol. com. We look forward to having you be a vital part of our local publication and its gardening mission. o

Visit DCGardens.com for: Photos of 16 Major Public Gardens by Month and Where to Buy Plants Where to Connect Local Garden Media Where to Volunteer Youth Gardens

Where to Find Designers

Tours and Events

Where to Learn to Garden

DAYtrip

The Schwar�z Peony Gardens at Seneca Creek State Park

Text and Photos by Cheval Force Opp

It was a bright, Memorial Day holiday weekend when I visited Seneca Creek Park in Montgomery County, MD. The park envelopes the scenic Seneca Creek as it meanders for 14 miles through meadows and woods before joining the Potomac River.

The park is so large at 6,000 acres that I came prepared with a printed-out map from the website, but I relaxed

when I found well-maintained park roads and plentiful, helpful signage.

Even at 8:00am, a few cars were already parked with families positioning picnic tables for large holiday gatherings.

“Seneca” is Algonquian for “people of the standing rock.” This heavily ridged Maryland region has a history that stretches back to when Native

Americans hunted for buffalo, bears, wolves, and deer. Today, on the more than 50 miles of trails, hikers report sighting deer, bears, and other wildlife, but the buffalo and wolves are long gone.

The park hosts interpretive signage for historic sites, including a mill, schoolhouse, and cabin. Seneca’s 90acre Clopper Lake was dug out and JUNE 2016

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DAYtrip flooded in 1975 by damming Long Draught Creek, a tributary of Seneca Creek. Trivia fact: Maryland is the only state devoid of natural lakes. All of the state’s hundreds of water bodies have been created artificially, most by damming waterways.

World Famous Schwartz Peony Garden

Realtor Edward P. Schwartz once lived on a five-acre property in a home that is now Gaithersburg’s City Hall. In 1913, he planted his first peony bush, fell under its spell, and began collecting peonies from all over the U.S. and abroad. Over the next 11 years, he collected an estimated 40,000 bushes.

The spring blooms became renowned and a yearly delightful surprise to visitors on the nearby railroad line, who admired the display from their windows as the trains passed.

In spring’s peak bloom, Schwartz opened his gardens to the public.

His collection became known as the “World-Famous Schwartz Peony Garden.” Even President Woodrow Wilson paid Gaithersburg, MD, a visit to enjoy the effervescent floral display.

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Schwartz died in 1924 and his widow Hanna took over the care of the garden. She continued their horticultural success, winning the American Horticulture Society’s highest honor, the Silver Medal. After she died in 1941, her daughter and son-in-law sold their Gaithersburg home and purchased 18 acres of land on Clopper Road. Determined to carry on the tradition, the Gloyds transplanted over 35,000 plants to their new home. The couple also operated a nursery business, selling roots to customers, and cut flowers to local florists.

The state purchased the Clopper Road property in 1963 to create Seneca Creek State Park. In the effort to create the larger park, the peony fields were abandoned, but not forgotten. In recent years, a representative number of peony varieties has been planted into a display garden bordering the Gloyds’ old Clopper property.

My visit was to see the cultivated 50-by-75-foot plot, an homage to the once-famous Schwartz Peony Gardens.

The perennials at Seneca Creek State Park were in full glorious bloom when I visited. The neat rows are bordered

by a fence to define the area. Viewing benches are positioned in the shade under high trees.

Next to the carefully tended plot was a grass-filled meadow where paths had been mowed. In this field, peonies dotted the green swath like exotic birds with vivid pink and scarlet bobbing above the poison ivy and buttercups.

The park has created a fitting memorial to the Schwartz Garden history.

Peony Heritage

My Dunn Loring, VA, garden is graced each spring with peonies I inherited from my mother-in-law’s flower beds, making them at least 50 years old.

The deer had spared them due to their smell, not favored by our largest mammalian garden destroyer.

Herbaceous peonies are documented in Chinese texts as early as 500 BC as flavoring for food. Ornamental cultivars appear in the records during the sixth and seventh century and were very popular in the imperial gardens. The tree peony was introduced in Europe and planted in Key Gardens in 1789.

Japan actively developed new varieties and, in the 1940s, crossed tree peo-

DAYtrip nies and herbaceous peonies to create the intersectional hybrids.

Peonies will grow in much of the U.S., but since they do require a period of dormancy, most varieties won’t survive in growing zones 9–10 and higher. A good way to learn more about growing peonies is by joining the American Peony Society. Locally, the Mid-Atlantic Peony Society is a group of enthusiastic garden peony admirers that supports, promotes, and affirms the goals of the American Peony Society.

Local Cut-flower Peonies

Maryland supports many fresh flower farms. The Specialty Cut Flower Growers (www.ascfg.org) is a resource for finding locally grown peonies. Today, the Netherlands is the largest peony cut-flower producing country, with about 50 million stems each year and ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ dominating the sales with more than 20 million stems sold annually. Cut peony colors range from white to yellow and every shade of red to pink, with an astounding range of size and shapes.

I always bring a few peonies into the house from our garden to enjoy their pastel colors and delicate scent. I try to cut my peonies in the morning, leaving at least two leaves on the plant stem.

The leaves allow the plant to continue to grow and store food in the tubers.

If you cut the flowers when still in the soft “marshmallow” stage, not only will the flower last longer, but there will be fewer ants. If you do find a few ants foraging for the flowers’ nectar, a quick water spray will sweep them off—a small price to pay for the frothy display of peonies.

More Seneca Park Fun After the Peonies

•Trails: With 50 miles of trails, there are various choices for every hiker, biker, horseback rider, and cross-country skier. The Lake Shore Trail loops around Clopper Lake. The Seneca Creek Greenway Trail follows the entire length of Great Seneca Creek for 16.5 miles from Route 355 down to the Potomac River.

• Kayaking: Sections of Seneca Creek can be travelled by kayak, mainly south of Route 28, Darnestown Road, or further north during periods of high water.

North of Route 28, it may be necessary to portage around trees down across the creek.

• Picnics, Golf, Cross-country Skiing, and Hunting: The park has picnicking facilities scattered liberally under trees and in sunny views, many near playgrounds. It also has a tire playground, and a 27-hole disc golf course. All those trails give cross-country skiers a great adventure in the snowy season.

Hunting is permitted in several areas of the park.

• Historic sites: A restored 19th-century cabin and a self-guided path interpret the history of the area. The Black Rock Mill, located on Seneca Creek at Black Rock Road, is partially restored with outdoor interpretive exhibits. The mill area is linked to the park by a trail network. The Seneca Schoolhouse, located on Route 190 west of Seneca, is a restored 19th-century one-room schoolhouse, originally built for children of the employees of the Seneca Sandstone quarries along the Potomac River.

The Woodlands, a short self-guided trail at the Clopper Day-Use Area park office, interprets the life and the estate of the Clopper Family.

Visiting Seneca Park

Seneca Creek State Park is at 11950 Clopper Road, Gaithersburg, MD. From Washington, DC, Virginia, and points south, take I-270 north toward Frederick, MD. Take Exit 10, Clopper Road (Route 117). Turn right at the light

at the bottom of the ramp. The park is approximately 2 miles on the left.

From points north, take I-270 south toward Washington, DC, take Exit 11 (MD Route 124 west). Turn right at the light at the bottom of the ramp. At the second light, turn right onto Clopper Road (Route 117). The park is approximately 1.5 miles on the left.

Admission price for Seneca Park on weekends and holidays from April to October is $3/person; no charge from November through March. Out-of-state residents add $2 to all day-use service charges.

The park is open from 8:00am to sunset during March–October; 10:00am to Sunset, November– February.

Certain activities are permitted outside regular park hours (e.g., fishing, boat launch, hunting where permitted).

Check with the park before your visit if you plan to engage in an activity that requires you to be in the park before or after the posted hours.

Leashed pets are allowed in Seneca Creek State Park.

Visiting Schwartz Peonies Visitors may see the historic Schwartz peonies from 8:00am to sunset at Seneca Creek State Park, 11950 Clopper Road, Gaithersburg, MD. To see the peony fields, take the first left after the gate at the main entrance.

The optimal time of year for viewing the peony bloom is late May into early June. Some years may vary. Follow the park on social media for updates and current bloom forecasts. Seneca Creek State Park is at @SenecaCreekSP on Twitter, To volunteer as a gardener, call the Maryland Department of Natural Resources State Forest and Park Service at 301-924-2127. o

Cheval Force Opp lives in Dunn Loring, VA, with her husband Dana and corgi Marzipan.

She is currently renovating her garden to accommodate for large deer herds and arthritis. Visiting gardens gives her many adventures during the year, which she loves to share with friends and family. You can contact her at gardentours@gmail.com.

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READERreactions Insect Index continued from page 16

rally (Europe, etc.), it is not considered invasive because of the presence of its natural enemies. Even fields of cultivated lilies in Europe have 60–100% control with natural enemies. Work is being done by University of Rhode Island Biological Control Laboratory, in collaboration with CABI-Bioscience and colleagues in France, on possibly four predatory wasps found in the beetles’ natural range. So far, Tetrastichus setifer holds the greatest promise, has been released in New England, and is being effective.

This pest is a serious threat to North American native lily populations.

Researchers in Canada are monitoring native populations of Canada lily (Lilium canadense), Michigan lily (Lilium michiganense), Turk’s cap lily (Lilium superbum), and wood lily (Lilium philadelphicum) for presence of the beetles.

Release of the parasitoid, Tetrastichus setifer has been made where native populations have been affected. Our native lilies are already endangered.

Bio-control of this pest will be vital in preventing loss of vulnerable species.

When scouting a landscape, look for Lily Leaf Beetle on Fritillarias as well as emerging lilies. They have been found feeding, but not breeding on: Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis), Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum), potato (Solanum tuberosum), flowering tobacco (Nicotiana), hollyhock (Alcea), and Hosta. Expect that Twistedstalk (Streptopus lanceolatus), Himalayan Lily (Cardiocrinum giganteum,) and Canada Mayflower (Maianthemum canadense) may be alternate hosts.

In 2012, a potted lily plant purchased in Clinton County, PA, was found to have Lily Leaf Beetle. The plant had been purchased at a mass merchandiser. Since then, no reports of Lily Leaf Beetle being found any closer to MD/DC/VA have been released. If you do see this pest, report your finding to MDA or bring a sample to the attention of an extension agent. o Carol Allen describes herself as a committable plant-a-holic. She has more than 25 years’ experience in the horticulture industry, with a special interest in plant pests and diseases, and is a Licensed Pesticide Applicator in the states of Maryland. She can be contacted at carolallen@erols.com.

Please use pesticides safely! Read and heed all label directions!

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Our Readers Share Their Thoughts “My favorite articles in the May 2016 issue were the strawberry growing tips and ‘Dirty Secrets.’ I liked the strawberry article because, well, I love and grow strawberries, and I hadn’t heard that I shouldn’t wash them after I pick them, rather I should wait until I want to eat them. Although, truth be told, I usually eat or freeze them immediately.

“I liked the ‘Dirty Secrets’ article, not necessarily because I learned something new, but because 1) I’m car shopping and feel better about my upcoming hatchback purchase, and 2) it made me feel like I have a more normal level of plant addiction compared to some others... :-)” ~ Stephanie Richard, Rockville, MD “I enjoy your calendar because it keeps me abreast of all the wonderful classes and exhibits to support my (gardening) habit!“ ~ Donna Thuotte Martin, Ashburn, VA “In the March ’16 issue, ‘Raising Arugula’ was my surprise favorite article, particularly because it was so simple. The author’s initial self-doubt and excitement when her ‘experiment’ worked were wonderfully expressed. Reading about a brave beginner succeeding, particularly with a fall greens planting, which I’ve never even dared try for some reason, was inspiring.” ~ Nina Bang-Jensen, Chevy Chase, MD “My favorite article in the February 2016 issue was the profile of Dr. Steven Cohan. He was my professor for the green roofs and urban sustainability course at the University of Maryland. It was interesting to read about how he got started in gardening and that he had such a varied career background. I always enjoy reading peoples’ favorite plant choices’ too!” ~ Christa Carignan, Rockville, MD “My favorite article in the March 2016 issue of Washington Gardener Magazine was ‘7 Stress-free Perennials that Work Hard for You.’ I am always looking for new additions to my garden that are less work and have great results. Adding anything native is now an added bonus, but not a necessity. Since I seem to have only shade, finding a few shade plants is also great.” ~ Robert Paul Ellentuck, Potomac, MD “I follow the task lists very closely. In the February 2016 issue, the February/ March tasks list identified pruning the holly bushes this month to rejuvenate them. I had completely forgotten about that. Thanks for the reminder.” ~ Rajat Sarkar, North Potomac, MD “Love the book reviews.” ~ Jeff Trunzo, Takoma Park, MD “I enjoyed ‘Key Ways to Prevent Zika.’ I am always looking for the easiest, most environmentally friendly mechanisms to limit mosquito breeding, and can rely on Washington Gardener for good ideas.” ~ Kit Gage, Silver Spring, MD “My favorite recent article was Louise Clarke’s write-up on the Silky saw. My Ryoba saw (a traditional two-sided Japanese blade from the New York Museum of Modern Art) is due for replacement, and this looks like a viable and cheaper alternative. ~ Lynn Title, Lanham MD

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