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The Garden Club |
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We love roses. With proper selection and placement, there are few other plants that reliably deliver more vibrant color and overall garden satisfaction, than roses. Roses can also be one of lowest maintenance plants in your garden. Our Garden-Worthy™ roses are carefully selected for their cold hardiness, lower maintenance needs and disease resistance. This year we’re adding the red Knockout™ rose and its blushing pink sport* the Blushing Knockout™ rose to the very exclusive list of Alan’s Picks. This is a result of near universal accolades from our clients applauding the performance of Knockout. That is a powerful testimonial given the fact that we’ve sold thousands of “Knockout” for many different situations during the past several years. Knockout™ is also designated as the 2004 ARS Members’ Choice by the American Rose Society. This is exceptionally noteworthy because that group usually favors the more formal hybrid teas as opposed to shrub roses. What first caught our attention about Knockout™ was its outstanding blooming capabilities from a truly low maintenance, blackspot-resistant shrub rose. It never stops performing -- blooming profusely throughout the growing season into late fall. When planted early in the season, new plants produce impressive, repeat blooms the first year. It matures as a well-behaved bush up to 4 ft. x 4 ft. The dark purplish green leaves, as well as the blooms, are so tough they actually resist Japanese beetles. The foliage turns an attractive burgundy in autumn. Orange-red hips last into winter and are attractive to birds. Knockout™ rose maintenance is as close as you will get to a “plant it and forget it” -- we promise! It truly is a very resistant to blackspot and other nuisance diseases. Unlike most roses which require at least six hours of sun, both Knockout™ varieties do fine in a location with as little as four hours of sun. A moist, well-drained soil is ideal. It thrives in humid climates where most other roses need spray and maintenance and is also very winter-hardy, even in windy areas, in zones 4-10. The petals fall cleanly, never needing dead-heading – that’s right, NO DEADHEADING! Knockout is now available in both red and blushing pink varieties. Consider trying both colors in mixed groups of three each. This is a beautiful red shrub rose. Its semi-double 3-3 1/2" blooms are fluorescent fire-engine red in cool weather and deep cerise-pink in the heat of the summer. Your best choice for a low maintenance red shrub rose. 2004 ARS Members’ Choice (American Rose Society). Blushing Knockout™ (Blushing pink) New this year and in scarce supply – sure to be a sellout. The wait is over for a pink version (sport*) of our popular Knockout™ rose. Just like its parent, this shrub rose never stops performing -- blooming profusely throughout the growing season into late fall. The semi-double 3-3 ˝” light blushing pink blooms change nicely into a shell pink, as the bloom ages. It is identical to red Knockout™ in every respect except for color. Every Blushing Knockout™ rose in existence is a descendant of the same branch sport. *A rose "sport" is a naturally occurring genetic mutation that appears on a branch of a rose bush. |
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Garden Club Questions & Answers |
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Question: My parents listen to your show and I was able to find your website. I live in Calvert County, Maryland and I have some questions about seeding my lawn this spring. Some specifics; the lawn is fairly new (2 years old) and it has never really taken from the original seeding. It’s thin and has a bit of a thatch build up. The landscape is sloped down hill from front to back yard. Front yard has a greater slope from left to right. I believe I have some crab grass in the back half of the lawn. No shaded areas so the lawn gets a lot of sun, too much in fact in the summer. I’m looking to rent a slit/slice seeder and seed with rebel tall fescue. Should I try and de-thatch before seeding this spring? I’m not greatly concerned by the crab grass, want to over seed as much as I can first. Is it too early (March) to seed? Our soil is very sandy, would it be of any benefit to lime the lawn? Answer: I’m afraid you are headed down the wrong path. Overseeding should be done around Labor Day. In a hot sunny place, spring-planted grass seed usually perishes in the summer. I suggest Black Beauty grass seed for your lawn. It’s the best tall turf-type fescue that I have ever encountered - - certainly superior to Rebel. If you properly care for your lawn this spring, it will thicken up and you will probably find that major reseeding is not necessary in the fall. I recommend you apply Turf Trust lawn food now. Spray the whole lawn with Super Bio beneficial microbes. You should be concerned about crab grass - - every crab grass plant you had last year made thousands of seeds, ready to sprout, take over and crowd out big patches of good lawn grasses. Apply Dimension crab grass preventer over the entire lawn when the Forsythia is in full bloom and then again six weeks later. Spot treat your broad-leaved weeds with Tiger Brand liquid lawn weed killer, amended with a spreader sticker. You need to do a soil test to determine if lime is necessary. (In Calvert County, I suspect lime is needed). If so, apply the lime in mid June. If you need to overseed in the fall, I doubt thatching will be needed on such a new lawn and the Super-Bio will help the thatch to decompose.
Please scout around
our website, I think you will find lots of information on my philosophy on lawn
care. Question: Last week you mentioned on your radio show that if we have a warm night we should apply lime sulfur spray to roses to help control mildew and black spot next year. When I went to the garden center the only product I could find was a mixture of oil and lime sulfur. Can I use that? How do I use it? Answer: Yes. Lime Sulfur and horticulture oil can be purchased as a pre-mixed product for simultaneous application. The mixture is applied to the stems when plants are still dormant with no tender green shoots. You must choose a day when both the temperature is going to remain over 35 degrees and it will not rain, both within the next 24 hours. The lime sulfur kills fungus spores; the horticultural oil smothers over-wintering insects. This mixture is primarily applied to roses, fruit trees and grapes. It can also be applied to dormant flowering trees, shade trees and deciduous flowering shrubs. This mixture should not be applied to evergreens. On roses especially, spray the surrounding mulch to prevent the spread of fungus spores from the mulch onto the roses. On mounded-up roses, for more thorough fungus control, once the roses start to sprout and you pull the pile of mulch away from the rose, carefully apply a second spray. You can spray the disturbed mulch, as well as the lower rose stems that were covered in mulch. Just avoid spraying any low sprouts. You can temporarily wrap an occasional low sprout in cloth, or just avoid that cane entirely. Question: I’m a long time listener to the Garden Club radio show and I’ve heard you mention Black Beauty Grass Seed. We’re about to put in a large new lawn at our home as soon as we move in. I’ve heard you say you consider Black Beauty to be the best grass seed for this area in a sunny spot. Before I invest in several acres of grass seed, I need to ask you exactly why is Black Beauty superior to other grasses? Also what are the negatives to using Black Beauty? I hate to put you on the spot, but a lawn is an important investment. Finally my brother is also building a house, but in Massachusetts. Will Black Beauty grow there?Answer: No problem. Black Beauty is a tall fescue. There are many tall turf-type fescues. The differences are in the genetics, with the exception of the Black Beauty grasses, virtually all other tall fescues were bred from an old variety called K-31 and they are all similar. The Black Beauty varieties were developed by a company, Cascade Research that started a little more than a decade ago. Cascade sent researchers on collection trips to gather from the wild, samples for evaluation and hybridization. They particularly explored the extremities of the typical adaptation range for tall turf-type fescues. Upon evaluation, three clones were particularly interesting. One was collected from droughty soils in Missouri, the second from an oasis on the edge of the Sahara Desert and the third was a very cold tolerant plant found in northern Michigan. All of these plants shared a common trait; vibrant dark-green color. Much more importantly, these plants exhibited an unusually thick cuticle (a protective, wax-like coating on the outer leaves). The thick cuticle layer was probably an adaptive trait, which had evolved to counteract the effects of the extreme growing conditions from where they were selected. The theory is that the thick cuticle layer slowed the rate at which moisture escapes through the leaf, making them much more drought, heat and cold tolerant. The cuticle coating also protects the leaf from turf disease because the pathogens are held above the leaf and cannot attack the leaf surface directly.Breeding from these collected and selected specimens, it became apparent that the new generation of turf grasses (the grasses in the Black Beauty mix) had successfully combined the following exceptional and unique characteristics:
As for the negatives, a Black Beauty lawn is slightly more difficult to establish. Germination is slower and the initial growth is slower. The percentage of grass seeds that actually establish is also slightly lower. To overcome these difficulties we recommend three procedures:
Finally, your brother can use Black Beauty, as it has proved to be hardy in northern New England, unusual for tall turf-type fescues.
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