The Garden Club July 15, 2005

July 15, 2005

A unique and rare plant that will thrive in your garden.

- Spigelia marilandica (Indian Pink)
- Garden Q&A

Unique and Beautiful - A Splendid Spigelia

Walking through your neighborhood or a local garden, you probably recognize most of the plants that you come across. This week we are featuring a perennial that you may not have seen before - the Spigelia or Indian Pink. Also called Woodland Pinkroot or Wormgrass, this wildflower is very rare, but easy to grow and visually striking. Not only beautiful, the Indian Pink has other uses. Several Native American tribes have used the Indian Pink's root for its medicinal qualities. It is also widely used by hummingbird gardeners as its low growth and conspicuous blooms attract Ruby Throat hummingbirds. Operation Ruby Throat, an international education and research initiative in York, South Carolina, listed the Indian Pink as one of the top ten hummingbird plants. If you have hummingbirds in your area, this is the perfect plant to attract them. But even if you don't, the Indian Pink will still be a wonderful and unique addition to your garden.

Indian Pink can still be found in the wild, usually growing along stream banks or in the moist soil at the edge of wooded areas. It loves the subtle shade from the tall trees above and the cooling from moist soil on warm days. Despite its uses and wild growth, it is still uncommon to see the Indian Pink for sale in nurseries and garden shops. But don't worry about hunting for Indian Pink; Carroll Gardens is fortunate to have excellent specimens of this hard to find beauty. Our plants are nursery propagated -- not dug from the wild.

Create Drama and Interest in Your Garden

A southeastern woodland native, the Indian Pink will bloom in June, giving a show that is sure to catch the eye of everyone who passes by. The tubular scarlet flowers face upward, displaying lemon yellow stars on the inner side of the lobed rim. The bright color contrast between the scarlet and yellow will add color and drama to your garden. The ovate leaves unfurl in pairs as the self-supporting stem extends upwards. Each stem will produce two to twelve flowers, covering the stem with the stunning blooms. Easy to grow, Indian Pink will do well anywhere in the garden, but prefers slightly acidic soil in partial shade. Ideal for planting under tall established trees, in shaded border fronts or in a woodland or wildflower garden.

Planting and Care

The high quality Indian Pinks from Carroll Gardens will let you bring these wildflowers to your garden with the greatest of ease and with simple maintenance.

For best results, plant anytime from early spring into early fall.
Prefers partial shade, but can take full sun if moisture is available.
Pinch off wilted flowers to extend blooming season.
Plant 15"- 18" apart in a well-drained, slightly acidic soil.
Water regularly until well established.
Fertilize new plants with soluble seaweed fertilizer such as SeaMate.
Fertilize established plants with Cottonseed Meal, plus Kelp Meal.
Grows about 18" high.
Will thrive in zones 5-9.
From two quart pots. $9.85 each or 3 for $23.85 (20% savings).

Our Garden Worthy Certification means that your satisfaction is guaranteed.

Spigelia (Indian Pink)

Garden Club Frequently Asked Questions

A note from Alan:

This is the worst year for Japanese beetles in quite a long time. Below is a composite answer to the many questions we have been asked:

The beetles emerged from grubs that were in your lawn and your neighbors' lawns since last summer.

All of the beetles do not emerge at the same time. They emerge over a period of about a month. Within a few days of emerging, they mate and the female lays thousands of eggs, primarily in sunny lawns. These eggs hatch out into young grubs which eat the roots of the lawn late in the summer and fall as they grow. The grubs burrow deeper over the winter and then rise to near the surface in the spring when they eat more lawn roots, before emerging as Japanese beetles next summer.

One female Japanese beetle lays thousands of eggs before she dies. I have seen numbers as high as 40,000 in print. The percentage of these eggs that will mature into Japanese beetles next year is caused primarily by the weather we have this August. If the lawn is green and lush because there is ample moisture in the soil, expect a bumper crop of Japanese beetles next year. In an August-September drought, most of the eggs will perish and not mature into full sized grubs.

All Japanese beetles are descended from a few Japanese beetles that came into this country with a shipment of Japanese irises early in the 20th century.

The damage the Japanese beetle grubs do to the lawn is much worse than the damage that the beetles themselves do to your plants. In general, the plants will recover; a damaged lawn will need to be at least partially dug up and re-seeded.

The best spray to kill Japanese beetles is Sevin. To protect our bees, apply Sevin at dusk thoroughly drenching the flowers and the foliage. The beetles will die in a matter of hours. Sevin does not need to be re-applied until other beetles come to the affected plants, usually in about a week.

Light infestations can be controlled by hand picking and dropping the beetles into a jar of soapy water.

If you use beetle traps (bags), place them 20-30 feet from the plants you are trying to protect. The goal is to attract the beetles away from your desirable ornamentals.

The introducer of the Knockout Rose stated that this rose is Japanese beetles resistant. This has been proven to be principally correct. Japanese beetles seem to be attacking the Knockout Rose only as a last resort, when there is nothing else to eat.

Japanese grubs can be controlled with Mach II applied to the lawn before mid-August or Dylox applied to the lawn after September 1st.

Large, dull green and brown beetles (about 3 times the size of Japanese beetles) are June beetles. They emerge a few weeks later than Japanese beetles and they feast primarily on fruit trees. They are rarely in such large numbers to be troublesome.

Question: Some of my Leyland Cypress trees are getting pine cones. I have never seen this before. Also my Leyland Cypress doesn't look particularly healthy this year. They are kind of brown and thin looking.

Answer: Leyland Cypress never get cones; you have bagworms. The reason that your Leyland Cypress trees look thin is because the bagworms are feeding on the foliage. You need to hand pick as many of the "cones" (bags) as you can. Be sure to put the "cones" into a sealed plastic bag and then into the trash. Spray immediately with Acephate.

If you remove all of the bags, you do not need to spray. The bagworms move the bags; so you need to check your Leylands every day for a week to make sure you have gotten all the bags.

Question: I thought my crape myrtle tree died last winter. But I see now that it is sprouting from the base as well as from the lower part of the trunk. Will my crape myrtle grow back again and if it does will I have a tree or a bush?

Answer: The shoots that are coming from the partially dead trunk will not mature into a nice strong tree because the new tree will have weak crotches where the sprouts grew from the old trunk. Select the strongest of the shoots that are emerging from the ground and let them develop into a tree. This tree will eventually mature to the same height of your old tree. For a multiple-stemmed tree you can have as many as seven stems; or you can train your crape myrtle into a single stemmed "lollipop" tree. My personal preference is a multiple stemmed crape myrtle with an odd number of stems -- either 3 or 5.

►Garden Club Newsletter Index