When Amy Whitney, Program Aid from the Cobb County Cooperative Extension Service, spoke on Organic Vegetable Gardening she reminded the audience to use the extension web sites to gather information. All of the cooperative extension bulletins about plants are available on line to read or to print. Most states have put their growing bulletins on line. So when you have a question on Saturday afternoon you can get quality information to help you continue to work in your garden. No more stopping until the office opens on Monday.!
When Sara Henderson spoke on bulbs she mentioned several books about bulbs.
The Little Bulbs by Elizabeth Lawrence
Garden in Winter by Elizabeth Lawrence
Heirloom Bulbs by Chris Wiesinger
Garden Bulbs for the South by Scoot Ogden
Daffodils in the South by Sara Van Beck
Spring is the time we enjoy most of the bulbs we plant. It is also a time to assess the bulbs we have and what we might want to add in the fall. Sara reminded us that many of the bulb companies let us order in late spring for fall planting. This allows the companies to plan there sale stock and assures customers the bulbs they want.
One of her tips was how to tell when bulbs can be moved. If you wait till all the foliage has died back you can not find the clumps you wanted to divide and spread. On most bulbs you can remove top growth and move when foliage starts to yellow. This is easier than trying to mark large clumps and waiting until fall to move them.
She does not recommend buying boxed or bagged bulbs from stores. She says the bulbs have been stored and transported for months and may have dried out. The bulbs were dug and packaged. Then they are shipped to a retailer who puts them in their warehouse until it is bulb season. Then it is loaded up and shipped to retail locations. It then sits at the store waiting for a customer buy it. The bulb has a long time to dry out and loose its viability. Bulbs may cost more from a direct shipper, but you usually get a much fresher bigger bulb. With the work involved in planting and caring for the bulb, it is worth starting with a high quality bulb.
When planting bulbs like cyclamen hederifolum which looks like a hockey puck it is not easy to tell top from bottom. If you are not sure which is the top plant it on its side as it will cope. But if you plant it upside down it will not come up.
Some bulbs are hardier in certain colors than others. One example is wood hyacinths. The blue is tough and works well, but the pink and white are not as hardy. With the dwarf iris - iris reticulata - the white is not as vigorous as the blue or purple.
Sara recommends trying byzantine gladiolus as they are shorter and stand up better than the common glads you see in the stores. They can be cut back when they yellow to keep the bed looking tidy..
So start planning your bulbs for next year!
When Dennis Krusac spoke about the Greater Atlanta Pollination Project he talked about the number of acres of host plants we are losing in the greater Atlanta area every year. The project is a combined venture with the Atlanta Botanical Garden and other groups to increase the public's knowledge about pollinator plants. They are also tracking the amount of garden space dedicated to plants to feed and host pollinators.
When Diane S. Minick spoke on Storm water Management she mentioned some of her favorite books.
Gardening with Native Plants of the South by Sally Wasowski
The Southern Gardener's Book of Lists by Lois Trigg Chaplin
Native Perennials for the Southeast by Peter Loewer
A Georgia Native Plant Guide by Tina M. Samuels
Gail Woody who spoke on Monarch Butterflies and hummingbirds mentioned some of her favorite plants to attract both. And she does attract them in large numbers. During the summer she feeds two gallons of sugar syrup to the hummingbirds every day. Last fall her yard was a site for hummingbird banding. She took out all of the grass in her backyard to provide space for host plants.
Milkweed is her favorite plant for attracting butterflies, but she reminds us to not use the new"fancy" milkweed varieties as the butterflies do not feed on them. Butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) and common milkweed (Asclepias sriaca) are the two she recommends. Other favorites include asters, black-eyed susans, coneflowers, false nettle, hollyhocks, Indian paintbrush, mallow, nasturtium, pussy-toe, shasta daisy, spider flower, sunflowers and swamp milkweed. She reminds us that no herb bed is complete without dill, fennel and parsley.
Grasses she recommends are little bluestem grass, orchard grass and panic grass.
.