Are Your Grasses Sassy?

This blue avena grass mother clump was cut back in late February. As you can see, new growth has come in since then. But the clump is still compact enough to allow for convenient dividing.

Are your ornamental grasses too fat?  Have they grown three to five times the size they were when you planted them? Are they looking unkempt? Are the centers dying out? In other words, are they getting sassy?

If so, it’s time to divide them. Late February to early April is the best time to divide grasses in Colorado. Cut them back to the ground in late February before new growth starts. Then sometime in the following six weeks, dig up the root ball for dividing.

Late winter/early spring is best for all of this activity because the new grass clumps will have time to grow additional roots and adjust to their new locations before the drought of summer and cold of winter.

Last week, I divided my three-year-old blue avena grass. Here’s how it went.

First, I dug holes for the new transplants so the roots wouldn’t have time to dry out once the new clumps were created.

After digging up the mother clump, I flipped it over so I could see the roots while sawing the clump apart. Between sawing with my reciprocating saw, chopping with my mattock, and digging at the clump with my shovel, I was able to break the clump in two.

Second, I dug up the mother clump and flipped it over so I could see the roots as I sawed the clump in half with a reciprocating saw. That way, I made sure each half had plenty of roots. Then I sawed each new clump in half, ending up with four new plants.

As you can see at the top of the photo, each half of the mother clump has a well-developed root system, which is essential for successful transplanting. I kept a bucket of water nearby to hold the new clumplets and keep the roots moist.

My original clump was 16 to 18 inches wide after being cut back in February, which means it would be considerably larger when all fluffed out. There was no dieback in the middle of the clump.

If you have a clump with dieback, just remove healthy chunks of grass from the outer edges of the clump for transplanting.

Third, I took the first small clump, transplanted it in a hole and watered it. I did the same with the remaining three clumps.

This new clump has been successfully transplanted and awaits watering and mulching.

Finally, I mulched all four new plants and watered again lightly to help keep the mulch in place.

Then I took a second mother clump and divided it into five pieces for more transplanting around the yard.

As for my third clump, I’m sharing it with friends.

I wanted a more upright grass to replace the three blue avena grasses I removed. So I planted a new variety, Lightning Strike feather reed grass(Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Lightning Strike’). It’s a variegated grass that will grow 2.5 to 3 feet high. So far, it looks terrific with backlighting.

How to Avoid Expensive Mistakes When Selecting Shrubs

Tiger eyes sumac grows in full sun to part shade, is drought-tolerant, and reaches six feet high and wide. You can grow it as a tree or shrub. It’s a stunner in the landscape. The one downside is that it suckers. So when you plant it, don’t amend the soil because rich soil will encourage suckers.

If you’re like me, you’re always looking for ways to spiff up the curb appeal of your home. In my case, that often means buying new plants.

A key component of the landscape is shrubbery, and now is a great time for installing these woody additions.

It’s important, however, to select shrubs carefully because they’re expensive, and they frequently constitute a major part of your overall design. So when you need a new shrub, ask yourself several questions before heading to the nursery.

How long, deep, and high is your planting area? If I want to fill a border that’s, say, four feet deep, don’t select large shrubs, such as rose of Sharon, flowering quince or Cheyenne mock orange. Instead, aim for shrubs that are four feet wide or less at maturity, such as small shrub roses (example: Bonica) or dwarf varieties of Japanese barberry. Take shrub height into consideration, too, especially if you have windows that you don’t want obscured by plants.

How much sun/shade does your planting area receive? If your area faces south or west, you’ll need full-sun plants unless the area is shaded by trees, buildings or other structures. If your area faces east, your plants will likely be in sun part of the day and shade the other part unless you also have sun streaming in the side from the south or west. If your area faces north, you’ll likely need shade-loving shrubs unless there are mitigating factors.

Some top-performing shrubs for Colorado include:

Spring bloomers, such as autumn brilliance and regent serviceberry (full sun to part shade), Cheyenne mock orange (full sun), Carol Mackie daphne (part shade), black elder (part shade), viburnum (full sun to part shade), Pawnee Buttes sand cherry (full sun to part shade), and red chokeberry (full sun to part shade).

Summer/fall bloomers, such as hardy hibiscus (full sun to part shade), Annabelle hydrangea (full sun to part shade), tiger eyes sumac (full sun to part shade), dogwood (full sun to part shade), ninebark (full sun to part shade), and roses (full sun to part shade, depending on the cultivar).

When it comes to fall color, hedge cotoneaster is hard to beat. It’s easy to grow, and birds love the berries.

Is fall color important to you? If so, select plants known for their stunning fall foliage, such as autumn brilliance and regent serviceberry, tiger eyes sumac, Pawnee Buttes sand cherry, red chokeberry, hedge cotoneaster, and purple smokebush.

Do you have a working sprinkler system? If you do, you can select shrubs with high, medium or low water needs. Conversely, if you need to water by hand, consider low-water users, such as barberry, cotoneaster, serviceberry, Cheyenne mock orange, Pawnee Buttes sand cherry, Siberian pea shrub, potentilla, and sumac varieties.

Purple smokebush, nestled here in a bed of prairie winecups, can be grown as either a tree or shrub. When backlit by the sun, this plant just glows. Smokebush will produce summer blooms that resemble puffs of pink smoke. For smaller gardens, I recommend the Winecraft Black cultivar, which grows 4 to 6 feet high and wide.

How much maintenance are you willing to do? If you want to do as little maintenance as possible, stick with barberry, serviceberry, cotoneaster, viburnum, Cheyenne mock orange, purple smokebush, and Pawnee Buttes sand cherry. If you’re all right with moderate maintenance, such as occasional deadheading, install hardy hibiscus and Annabelle hydrangea. If, however, you enjoy pruning your shrubs at least once a year, look at roses, dogwoods, and tiger eyes sumac (which requires cutting back suckers).

Colorado State University Extension offers two helpful publications for selecting shrubs: Fact Sheet 7.415: Deciduous Shrubs and Fact Sheet 7.229: Xeriscaping: Trees and Shrubs.

What to Do with All Those Pine Cones

These four plucky gnomes reduced the stray pine cone population in Larimer County, Colorado, while providing holiday whimsy. My friend’s gnome is on the far left; mine is on the far right. If I had a day job, I wouldn’t quit it to pursue a career in gnome-making.

Are you one of those gardeners who has a pine tree with a gazillion cones? Although those cones are beautiful, they can make a mess and even pose a fire hazard.

So what can you do with them?

The Garbage Garage at the Larimer County, Colorado, Landfill has an answer: Make pine cone gnomes.

Yesterday a friend and I attended a Garbage Garage class facilitated by Cindy Tunney, Larimer County education assistant. Cindy even provided five-inch pine cones from her own yard. We industrious crafters created our gnomes in about an hour.

If you would like to make your own gnome, here’s some information:

What you’ll need. A pine cone; felt for the hat and feet; beads or pom-poms for the nose; pom-poms or other trim for decorating the hat; one 12-inch pipe cleaner for bending the hat; a lid from a frozen juice can for the base; yarn for the beard; cardboard for hat and feet patterns and for winding the beard yarn; scissors; measuring tape; and a glue gun.

Making the hat. The hat is the most complicated part of the project. All 4 One Home provides one of the better hat-making descriptions I’ve seen, but you’ll need to adjust the size of the hat, depending on the circumference of your pine cone. After you’ve made a pattern and cut your hat triangle out of felt, glue the 12-inch pipe cleaner vertically on the inside of the hat triangle before gluing the hat together. The pipe cleaner should start at the pointy end of the hat and run to the bottom. Any extra length can be wrapped around the pine cone at the hat’s base to secure the hat to the pine cone. The pipe cleaner will enable you to bend the hat a funky angles. If you want, you can add a contrasting strip of felt around the base of the hat, a pom-pom at the point, and other baubles for decoration.

Making the beard. After you position the hat on the pine cone, cut a piece of cardboard about six inches wide and as tall as the space between the base of the hat and the bottom of the pine cone. If you have a five-inch pine cone, for example, the distance from the base of the hat to the bottom of the cone will likely be 3.5 to 4 inches. Holding the cardboard so the six-inch side is parallel to the ground, wrap the yarn vertically around the cardboard 20 to 25 times, depending on the thickness of the yarn. Cut the end of the yarn. Then cut a separate piece that’s twice as long as the short side of the cardboard. Insert that piece under the looped yarn at the top edge of the cardboard and tie the yarn together. If possible, the inserted piece should hang evenly from each side of your knot so that the ends can be incorporated into the rest of the beard. Now insert your scissors along the bottom edge of the cardboard and cut through the loops. You should have some semblance of a beard, which you can trim later. Using your glue gun, fasten the beard to the pine cone at the base of the hat.

Making the nose and feet. Glue a pom-pom or bead at the base of the hat and over the center of the beard to make the nose. For the feet, cut a heart-shaped piece of felt. Glue the heart to the juice can lid so the humpy end of the heart extends over the edge of the lid. Then glue the feet and lid to the bottom of the pine cone.

Adding finishing touches. Trim the beard so you can see the gnome’s feet. Fluff it appropriately. Glue on other enhancements as you see fit.

If gnomes aren’t your thing, Craftaholics Anonymous offers 25 other pine cone crafts that you can tackle.

What if you don’t have a pine tree, but want to make gnomes and other treasures? Check around your neighborhood. If you find a pine tree, be sure to ask the owner’s permission before harvesting any cones.

If you live in Fort Collins, Colorado, don’t take cones from the city’s parks and other properties. It’s illegal. If you live in other municipalities, contact the city or county before foraging on their land.

As a last resort, you can buy pine cones on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, as well as at craft stores and other retail outlets.

Thank you for reading my blog over the years. I wish you the happiest of holidays. I’ll write to you again in March 2022.

It’s Payback Time for Trees in Winter

In the summer, trees provide shade from blazing sunlight and help lower our air conditioner bills.  On top of that, these impressive plants absorb pollutants, such as carbon dioxide, from the air and emit oxygen so we can breathe more easily.

So in the winter, it’s payback time for trees. We need to look out for them the way they look out for us.

How? There are several ways:

Wrap trees to prevent sunscald and discourage frost cracking.  Protect your young, thin-barked trees by wrapping them in the fall, preferably around Halloween.  If you’re like me, you may not get around to it till November.  It’s still not too late to do it now before snow starts, causing reflection of sunlight off of snow and onto trees.  But get it done.  Then be sure to take the tree wrap off around Easter so insects don’t burrow under it and start munching or building nests.  CSU offers tree-wrapping tips.

This is what happens if you don’t wrap thin-barked trees when they’re young. Notice the vertical crack in the middle of this spring snow crab. The trunk has grown around the crack to seal it, but the tree is permanently disfigured.

Water trees once a month. Do this only when temperatures are above 40 degrees, and do it during mid-day so water has time to soak into the ground before freezing at night.  But don’t water where there’s snow on the ground.

Place a hose at the drip line (under the widest part of the tree canopy, where rain would drip from the branches to the ground) and let water trickle into the ground.  Move the hose periodically until you’ve gone all the way around the tree.  Evergreens, in particular, need winter watering because they lose water through their needles in dry air.

Notice the location of the green watering hose. It’s about three feet from the base of this little Tina dwarf crabapple tree because that’s where the drip line is. Also, notice the tree wrap around the trunk. As needed, keep trees wrapped and watered during the winter.

Prune trees when necessary, usually during dormant season.  Have you ever noticed all the broken branches after a major snowstorm?  Breakage usually results from poor tree maintenance.  That’s one reason it’s important to keep your trees pruned.

Winter is the best time to prune most trees, especially species that are susceptible to fire blight. I’m talking about apples, crabapples, pears, serviceberries and hawthorns, among others.

Also, after the leaves fall, you can assess a tree’s structure and problem areas more accurately before pruning.

Take good care of your trees in winter, and they’ll stick around to take care of you the rest of the year.

Take Stock Now for Next Spring

Lily-flowered Merlot tulips and Alexander’s white candytuft create a striking combination in mid-spring.

October is an ideal time to scope out fall color and plan for next spring in your garden.  Items you might want to add include:

Spring-flowering bulbs.  It’s not too late to order and plant tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, corydalis, and such.  October is a great time to plant them, and you can even plant in November as long as the ground isn’t frozen.

Big-headed Darwin hybrid tulips and lily-flowered tulips are my favorites.  Just plant them in clumps or drifts around your yard.

If you want to add a complementary ground cover, try woolly speedwell (Veronica pectinata, not the invasive V. repens) or candytuft (Iberis sempervirens).  These two stellar plants have evergreen foliage, providing a carpet for both early-blooming and later-blooming bulbs.

For outrageous fall color, tiger eyes sumac is tough to beat.

Plants with vivid fall color.  Walk or ride around to check out the fall color displays in parks and gardens.  Then you can figure out what to plant now or next spring to increase autumn excitement in your own garden.

I love red/orange fall displays.  That’s why I’ve planted tiger eyes sumac (Rhus typhina ‘Bailtiger Tiger Eyes), autumn brilliance serviceberry (Amelanchier x grandiflora ‘Autumn Brilliance’), and  Pawnee Buttes sand cherries (Prunus besseyi ‘Pawnee Buttes’).  Then there’s always the complementary golden glow of regent serviceberry (A. alnifolia ‘Regent’).

Other plants that provide striking fall color include hedge cotoneaster (Cotoneaster lucidus), hot wings maple (Acer tartaricum ‘Garann), Ginnala maple (Acer tartaricum subsp. ginnala), Washington hawthorn (Crataegus phaenopyrum), purple smokebush (Cotinus coggrygia), burning bush (Euonymus alatus), Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii), gro-low sumac (Rhus aromatica ‘Low-Gro’), and leadwort (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides).

Cute, scruffy bangle genista sports green branches year-round, creating winter interest.

Plants that add winter interest.  Trees, shrubs and ornamental grasses provide structure to your garden to prevent it from looking like a moonscape in the winter.

And of course, evergreens lend color.  I’m not just talking about pines, spruces and firs.  I’m also talking about “evergreen” groundcovers, such as candytuft (brilliant green all winter), dwarf brooms (such as bangle genista, green all year long), Veronica pectinata (purplish winter foliage), and Angelina sedum (orange/red winter foliage).

In my winter garden, dogwood shrubs transform into a red twig forest, complemented by the white bark of my miniman viburnum and the green branches of the bangle genista.  It’s beautiful on a carpet of fresh snow.

It may be too late to snag bargains this fall at garden centers.  But in late April every year, Fort Collins Nursery sells its gallon-sized perennials for half price, so sign up for their newsletter to stay informed.

Talking Trash at the Garbage Garage

A milk-jug skeleton and fish greet visitors as they enter the Garbage Garage at the Larimer County Landfill.

Gardeners are born recyclers. Some of us toss fruit and vegetable scraps into compost piles. Others start seedlings in egg cartons or use old tires as flower planters.  Still others are endlessly creative when using old materials for whimsical garden décor.

So imagine my excitement when I discovered The Garbage Garage at the Larimer County Landfill here in Colorado.

The Garbage Garage, established in 2003, educates consumers about reducing, reusing and recycling waste.  Its drop-in hours are 10am to 2pm Tuesday through Friday.  The garage also offers free tours and activities.

Earlier this month, I attend a DIY Natural Cleaners workshop, complete with recipes, at the garage. My fellow attendees and I learned how to make non-hazardous household cleaners from vinegar, baking soda, alcohol, castile soap and other everyday solutions.  Cleaning’s a lot easier when you have a couple of all-purpose cleansers on hand instead of one cleaner for the bathroom bowl, another for windows, another for countertops, still another for laundry, etc.  And think about it—you later have to dispose of all those containers, some of which hold relatively toxic liquids.

Cindy Tunney, Larimer County education assistant, pours Borax for workshop participant Abby Chemers as Cindy teachers Abby how to make laundry detergent pellets.

The garage offers a range of activities for all ages, especially children. Kids can, for example, participate in the Recycling Relay, Where Does it Go Game, Trash Art, and my personal favorite, Making Methane.

An educational display challenges visitors to determine whether certain everyday items are recyclable or disposable.

If you’re in the area and would like to check it out, visit the Garbage Garage at 5887 S Taft Hill Road in Fort Collins.  Or take a look at the garage’s Facebook page.

Hippity Hoppity, Damage is on its Way

Getting rid of weeds is one natural way to help reduce the number of grasshoppers in your garden. (Photo courtesy of Whitney Cranshaw, Colorado State University, Bugwood.org)

Lately when you’ve walked through your garden, have you noticed swarms of grasshoppers bouncing out of your way? They’re not just annoying; they also cause serious damage by chewing holes in the leaves, stems and fruit of your plants.

What can you do to control these critters? You can always go the chemical route, using baits, dusts and spray insecticides. But there can be complications, such as the expense, need for reapplication, killing of beneficial insects, and chemical sensitivity issues for gardeners with allergies. Also, grasshoppers move around a lot, making it difficult to reach them.

So what are other options for dealing with grasshoppers?  Here are five suggestions.

• Invite natural predators. One reason I cultivate a pollinator/wildlife-friendly garden is because birds and other creatures like to feast on pests, including grasshoppers. Provide native trees and shrubs where animals can hang out and raise their families. Avoid using pesticides, which can harm beneficial insects in addition to harmful ones.
• Get rid of weeds. Weeds provide food for newly hatched babies, as well as egg-laying adults. 
• Till your soil. Till in the early spring, summer and late fall to destroy grasshopper eggs buried in the ground.
• Raise chickens.  Chickens, ducks and geese love to feast on grasshoppers, so if you’ve been thinking about establishing a chicken coop or other shelter, think about these birds’ pest-control capabilities.
• Dust your plants with flour.  When grasshoppers ingest flour, it interferes with their digestive systems.  Of course, you have to reapply the flour after irrigation or after a rain.  But if you used an insecticidal dust, you would have to do the same thing anyway.

If you don’t have the time or inclination to deal with grasshoppers, you can always just wait for them to die off when the weather gets cold.  You can also let your cats treat them as playthings, pouncing on them periodically.

Meet Bob’s Siblings

Last July, I posted Meet Bob, announcing that my tiger eyes sumac, (Rhus typhina ‘Baltiger’ Tiger Eyes) had its first bright red baby.

This July, at five years old, my sumac now has ten, count ‘em, ten babies (or bobs).  Tiger also is suckering some, but she’s not out of control.  While other varieties of sumac sucker to the point of weediness, Tiger is better behaved.

My friend and fellow plant geek, Steve Aegerter, points out that planting tiger eyes sumac in unamended soil will reduce suckering.

Tiger is currently five feet high and wide.  Her mature size is reportedly six feet high and wide.

This drought-tolerant specimen really pops in the garden, both during the summer when she’s chartreuse and in the fall when she’s fiery red.  Right now, her lacy chartreuse foliage contrasts beautifully with her bright red, almost maroon, bobs.

The bobs will last until next year, providing winter interest to the garden.

If you’re looking for a showy tree or shrub that’s easy to grow, take a look at Tiger.  She won’t disappoint, whether in sun or part shade.

Tulips and Tuft–a Killer Combo

 

Alexander’s white candytuft groundcover offers a brilliant white backdrop for vivid merlot tulips.

It’s not unusual for me to get compliments from people walking by my garden.  But this year, things ramped up.  People in cars started pulling to my curb to tell me how much they loved my tulips.  In particular, they liked my killer combo—Merlot tulips and Alexander’s white candytuft.

This mid-spring duo attracted more attention than any other pairing I’ve ever tried.  Unfortunately, the merlot tulips developed botytris blight, probably from too much rain.  So there were small brown patches on some tulips, but not enough to detract from their beauty.  Next time, I’ll buy my bulbs from someone other than John Scheepers.  My bulbs from other suppliers were fine.

I’ve also planted bloody cranesbill near the candytuft, so when the tuft pooped out this week, the bloody cranesbill was taking off with its fuchsia blooms.  In a couple of weeks or so, the fire meidiland groundcover roses nearby should start flowering, as well.

Bright red tulips peek out beneath regent serviceberry. Blue Veronica pectinata provides a carpet for spring-blooming bulbs.

In early to mid-spring, I have many white-blooming plants—autumn brilliance serviceberry, regent serviceberry, Pawnee Buttes sand cherry, and candytuft.  I was concerned that so much white going on at the same time would be monotonous.  Quite the contrary.  I’ve found that the white blooms provide a delightful backdrop to more colorful plants, such as fluffy blue Veronica pectinata groundcover and multi-colored Darwin hybrid tulips.  Once the tulips start to fade, the purple alliums begin opening up and little Trudy catmint is in full swing with its purple-violet flourishes.

Although the merlot/candytuft combo was intentional, some of my other favorite combinations have been accidents.  Take blue avena grass and spring-blooming soapwort as an example.  Last year, a river of pink soapwort streamed between two of my avena grasses.  It was stunning.  So I made sure it happened again this year and added some alliums close by.

In the summer, Sonoran sunset Agastache blends nicely with upright Karl Foerster feather reed grass. Complement this pair with yellow evening primrose as a groundcover in sunny areas.

In the shade, try mixing periwinkle with sweet woodruff and variegated Solomon’s seal for a lovely purple and white spring display.

When experimenting with plant combinations, it helps to remember that the vast majority of plants are easy to move around.  So if one medley doesn’t work, transplant those babies in the fall or early spring for a different look next year.

 

Multiply Your Perennials Through Division

After you’ve dug holes for new plants, move mulch away from the mother plant and dig out the rootball, keeping as many roots as possible.

Suppose you have a few empty spots in your garden that you want to fill with perennials, bulbs or grasses.  You run to the nursery and buy more plants, right?

Not necessarily.  You may already have plants that you enjoy and would like to spread around.  Why not propagate them on your own?

Perennials, bulbs and grasses come back every year, and they often reproduce on their own through reseeding.

But if your plants don’t reseed, don’t worry.  There are other means for propagating them, such as by taking cuttings and rooting them, or by division.

Rooting cuttings requires skill and patience.  Division doesn’t.  I like division.

You can divide grasses, bulbs and a slew of perennials, such as agastache, bee balm, coneflower, penstemon, catmint, candytuft, veronica, yucca, bleeding heart, coneflower, dianthus, Joe Pye weed, sedum and Shasta daisies, just to name a few.

Notice all of the roots on the plant chunk to the left once the mother plant has been sawed in two. That’s what you want so the new plant can get a healthy start.

But there are also perennials that don’t divide well.  They’re typically plants with large taproots, such as prairie winecups and wild indigo (Baptisia australis), or plants with several stems rising from a single crown, such as peony. 

University of Minnesota Extension offers an outstanding worksheet on individual perennials with specifics on when and how to divide each one.

So, what’s the process for dividing?  It’s basically the same, whether you’re dividing perennials, bulbs or grasses.

Insert the baby plants into your pre-dug holes, backfill, and gently snug the soil around the base of the plants.

Step 1.  Dig holes for where you want your new plants to go after you’ve divided the mother perennial.  Once the mother perennial is out of the ground, it’s important to replant the chunks quickly so roots don’t dry out.

Step 2.  Clear mulch away from the mother perennial and carefully dig up the rootball, preserving as many roots as possible.

Step 3.  Separate the rootball into two or more chunks, making sure that each chunk has plenty of roots attached.  Sometimes the rootball will fall into pieces on its own.  Other times, you’ll have to saw it apart.

Step 4.  Place each chunk into its pre-dug hole and backfill the hole with a mixture of soil and compost, in most cases.  For plants that prefer lean soil, leave out the compost.

Water and mulch the baby plants. I also water after mulching to hold the mulch in place in case of windy weather.

Step 5.  Water the new plants and add mulch.  I also water after mulching to help hold the mulch in place.

One more thing:  Don’t divide plants when they’re in bloom.  The need to use their energy for establishing new roots, not for producing flowers.

Besides giving you more plants for your money, division is actually good for the health of your plants.  Why?  Because the new plants have more space for roots to grow, soak up nutrients from the soil, and absorb water.

Spring is an ideal time for dividing most plants.  Why not give a try soon?