Happy Memorial Day weekend! Here we are at the unofficial beginning of summer. For a lot of people this marks the start of the warm summer months and it is hard to disagree with them this year! The early warm spring has everyone in the summer frame of mind already. Even the strawberries are making an early arrival! For me that means that we are beginning a season of fresh fruits and vegetables! I love it!

There are lots of things happening this weekend and we tried to cover a few of them for you in the show this week. Enjoy this extended weekend and maybe you will catch the Garden Time crew at one of these events!

This week we featured...

Jan’s May Tips

We are joining Jan late this month for her tips segment, but not to worry, she has plenty for us to cover. We started with a dead branch. Actually it is part of an azalea that succumbed to 3 different problems. The first thing was root rot, there was just no drainage in the area where it was planted. That caused the small feeder roots to die. Then it dried out! That was in the summer last year when the irrigation didn’t make it over to the plant. The final straw was the Azalea Lace Bug. It shows that it can take a lot to kill a plant and it could be more than one thing to do it. Then we noticed Jan had some bulbs out. The tulips and daffodils were done and the foliage was dying back. For the bulbs that were in a pot Jan was just going to move those to a dry area in her garden since these bulbs don’t need a whole lot of water during the summer. She will move them out again next fall so they can get watered from the rainfall and will be blooming again in the spring. She also showed us some other bulbs that she had in her raised beds. She had pulled these out of the garden and had them in a bucket of water. This was allowing the bulbs to finish growing and storing energy for next year. Pretty soon she will pull them out and let them go dormant for a few months. Jan also showed us a publication that is available from OSU extension called Growing your Own. This publication is available on-line and contains a chart showing the best times to plant your summer crops. It also contains a map showing all the planting zones in Oregon. Jan also had some mosquito dunks to remind us that it is time to start thinking about getting rid those biting bugs. These dunks have a natural material that just takes care of the mosquitos and doesn’t harm kids or pets. Of course you can do a little cultural care as well by making sure you don’t have standing water around your yard.

Now we moved to vegetables. Jan started by showing us a tray pack of purple cabbage. She had placed some in her garden and it was huge. The remainder of the plants are struggling in the tray pack with their roots all tangled up. She told us that she can still get them out in the garden. Sometimes you can still plant things even if you think they are too root-bound. Next we looked at her basil. The plants had gotten a little leggy, meaning that they were a little tall and thin, and they were starting to fall over. Her solution, stake them up with florist wire until they got stronger. Problem solved. Finally we checked out her peppers and tomatoes. Jan is testing some grafted tomatoes and peppers. the key here is to keep the graft ABOVE the soil. This keeps the weaker, upper stem from rooting and drawing energy that it uses for foliar growth and not fruit production. We also talked about using a little protection to retain the heat around some of the plants. This extra heat gives them a nice boost on their way to earlier fruit production! If you would like more gardening information, be sure to check out the OSU Extension website.

Schreiner’s Iris Festival

May is a busy month for local blooming plants. The leading plant for most of May is a the Iris and we are lucky to have the leading iris grower in the country at Schreiner’s Iris Gardens (1-800-525-2367). Schreiner’s not only grows iris and hosts the public at their huge display gardens every spring, but this year they are also hosting the American Iris Society. A busy time for the Schreiner family, but irises are in their blood. In fact they have been growing iris as a family for 90 years. We met with Steve Schreiner in the display gardens to learn more about the family history. Steve told us that they even have the 4th generation working in the business now!
He also had some tips about iris for us. The number one tip was about watering. Iris are the perfect plant for areas with water restrictions. Iris are drought tolerant! Once they are established they can survive on very little water.

This weekend is always a big one at the display gardens. The Memorial Day weekend has special events scheduled every day. Stop by this weekend and you can see artists displaying in the garden. There will also be wine tasting from Methven Vineyards and spirit sampling from ‘Spiritopia’. The weekend wraps up with the annual Chicken BBQ by the Gervais Knights of Columbus and the final appearance from the Capitol City Jazz Band. This isn’t the end of the blooms though. The weekend of the 30th is also going to be a good one. Stop by and check out the gardens, it is always a blast.

Tip of the Week – Using a Sprayer Safely

In the late spring and early summer people start to pull out their sprayers. Whether they are applying weed control, moss control or other chemicals we thought it would great to give people a reminder about sprayer safety. These are good tips to follow even if you are applying an organic spray. First make sure that there is little or no wind. You don’t want drift from your sprayer to get into different areas than where you want it to go. Also, make sure that the temperature is not too hot or too cold. Most chemicals, either organic or synthetic, are most effective in warm weather. Of course you will always want to read the label for application to make sure that you are applying it correctly. When you are applying the product you should walk backwards so you don’t spread the spray on your shoes to other areas in your garden.
As far as attire, you should wear long pants, long sleeves and closed toed shoes. Eye protection, gloves and a mouth cover or respirator round out your clothing choices. Follow these simple rules and you can be sure that the spray will end up right where you want it!

Inviting Vines Tour

One of the best collection of plants is right here in the metro area. The Rogerson Clematis Collection is located at Luscher Farm in Lake Oswego and contains lots of beautiful clematis that you can’t find anywhere else! To help fund the care and maintenance of this collection they annually host the Inviting Vines tour. In the past this tour took visitors on a trek to see many outstanding gardens around the area. This year they are doing something different they are keeping the tour at one location, Kinzy Faire. Linda Beutler is the president of the International Clematis Society and the curator of the Rogerson Clematis Collection. She took us on a brief tour of the 3 acre gardens there. Kinzy Faire is one of the best kept secrets among the gardening community. Located near Estacada, the property used to be a farm and was owned by Millie Kiggins. Many years ago she rented a cottage to Penny Vogel. Penny asked if she could put in a garden and it took off. Millie has passed but the garden has continued to grow. This past fall and winter a new garden has been established and it shows that this garden is still growing.

The tour takes place this Saturday, May 23rd, from 10 to 4pm. Visitors to the garden will get to see a garden that is a great mixture of shrubs, vines, perennials, native and woodland plants. This garden has some very mature parts where you find yourself in little hidden nooks surrounded by color and texture. During the tour there will refreshments and Linda will also be giving 3 lectures. If you are looking for tickets you can find them at lots of local garden centers, check out the list on the Rogerson Clematis website. They are $20 and you also buy them at Kinzy Faire and at the Rogerson Clematis Collection garden at Luscher Farm.
This is a great way to support a great organization and also see a great private garden.

Cascade Nursery Trail Tour

One of the nicest organizations that we know of is the Cascade Nursery Trail. This is a group of smaller specialty nurseries that are located on the east side of the Willamette Valley. Some of these we have met before on the show and others are only open by appointment. This weekend is a great chance to check out all 8 locations as they will be celebrating their Spring Fever Open House. To get an idea about what you will find we stopped by 3 of the locations on the tour. We started at Out in the Garden (503-829-4141) with Carol. Carol has a great perennial nursery and she brought out a nice collection of plants for us to look at. She had Rogersia ‘Hercules’, which is known for its great foliage in the shade. Next was Ligularia ‘Britt-Marie Crawford’ which also loves the shade. The foliage on this one was great with dark purple leaves. The third plant was a cousin to the rhubarb, Rheum tangulicum. Once again a texture plant, with great red veins on the back side of the leaves. Speaking of texture, the next plant was a grass, Alpine Woodrush. This is a fine foliage plant that goes really well with the big leafed plants we were looking at. We went back to texture on the next plant, Beesia. This plant has wonderful glossy leaves with little white flowers that pop up in the center. The final plant we looked at here was a Hardy Begonia. This big leaf begonia has incredible detail in the leaves and some beautiful blooms that come out about mid-summer and go until the end of the season.

Our next stop was to Secret Garden Growers (503-651-2006) and a visit with Pat, the owner. She started with Honeybush (Melianthus major). This has incredible cut edged leaves. It gets big and is perennial, being hardy down to 0 degrees. The next plant was a golden jasmine called ‘Fiona Sunrise’. This one has a beautiful chartreuse leaf color and will stay shorter than other jasmine and also has fragrant white flowers. Then we saw a very unusual plant, a Dancing White Crane Ginger. This plant has tall stalks of variegated foliage and at the base it grows tiny orange flowers that are considered a delicacy in some Asian cultures. Pat then pointed out one of her favorite trees, a Japanese Hornbeam. It can grow to 20 to 30 feet tall so it is good for any garden. The cool thing about this tree is the flowers. They look like the cones from hops. They stay on the tree for a long time and then turn a light brown. They are used in florist arrangements. Finally we finished our visit with Pat looking at Hardy Impatiens. One of her favorite ones was ‘Arguda’. This one likes the bright shade and works great in hanging baskets. It will trail over the edge of the basket and produce flowers all summer long.

Our final stop was at Hydrangeas Plus (866-433-7896) to visit with Kristen. Hydrangeas Plus is a leader in growing hydrangeas and we are lucky to have them in the area. Kristen brought out 4 different varieties of hydrangeas for us to look at. We started with a climber, hydrangea ‘Quelpartensis’. This one gets really big and has wonderful fragrant blooms which are popping right now. It takes a few years to get big but it is well worth the wait. The second plant was a shorter one from the serrata branch of the hydrangea family, ‘Diadem’. This one is one of those varieties that you can change the bloom color by adjusting the pH of the soil. It is an early bloomer that is just getting going now. It not only has cool blooms now but also great fall color later this year. The third plant we saw was ‘All Summer Beauty’, this one blooms on new wood and gets about 4 to 5 feet tall. The final one was a foliage plant in addition to the blooms. This one was hydrangea ‘Sabrina’. The dark reddish/purple leaves are striking in the garden along with a two-tone flower color of pink on the outside and white in the center. This was a great last stop on our tour, we are just sad that we didn’t see all the vendors on the Cascade Nursery Trail, but you can try to see them all this weekend! Check out their website for a map and times for all the participating nurseries.

Memorial Garden

With Memorial Day here you may be looking for a way to memorialize a loved one. William and Judy paid a visit to Portland Nursery (503-231-5050) to learn how you can create a memorial garden. There are various meanings for different plants (click here to see the list) and we covered just a couple. We talked about the various ways you can choose a memorial plant like by fragrance or color. You may also choose a plant that held a special meaning to the person you are memorializing. Other things you can do would be to use a statue in your garden or by attaching a ribbon, flag or banner to a plant or container to mark it. Remember, you must have permission to bring a plant into a cemetery or on public property. Also, you don’t have to lose a loved one to plant a memorial garden; you can mark any big occasion by planting a special plant.

Deer Resistant Plants

Bambi is cute, except when he is munching on your tasty garden plants. We stopped by Portland Nursery (503-231-5050) on Stark in Portland and talked to Sara to learn about deer resistant plants and other ways for thwarting Bambi’s advances. First of all, when we say ‘deer resistant’ we are not talking about ‘deer proof’. For the most part, if a deer is hungry he will eat anything, even plants that taste terrible to him. Sara talked about some of the plants that are considered deer resistant. The plants were grouped into 3 categories. Some were texture plants, some were taste plants and some were fragrance plants. The texture plants were ones with rough leaves, spikes or thorns. These included Mahonia, barberry and juniper. They are tough to chew and so the deer avoid them. The taste plants were foxglove, euphorbia, and rhododendrons. These taste awful or are poisonous and so they stay away from those too. The fragrance plants are ones that the deer can’t stand the smell and those included rosemary, lavender and sage.

Sara also recommended that you use a deterrent spray to help chase them away. These sprays usually have a combination of natural ingredients like cloves, garlic and pepper to make even tasty plants yucky. You should look for ‘putrescent (rotten) eggs’ or wolf urine on the label. Both of those odors are known to chase the deer away. You can also try the Scarecrow sprinkler. This is a sprinkler that turns on when it senses something in your garden and gives it a squirt of water to scare it away.

If you like deer and want them to come to your garden create a place for them to forage and that might help save some of your plants, but remember once you invite them in it is hard to ask them to leave. For more deer resistant plants and other ideas you can stop by Portland Nursery or check out their website for a handout.

Stoller Geraniums

Geraniums are a staple in our gardens, but there are so many different colors and varieties now that we decided to stop by and visit with a local grower to see what is new and how to care for these beauties. We met with Marvin at Stoller Farms (503-829-5385) in Molalla where they grow a lot of annuals and hanging baskets. Our first question was about the difference between zonal and seed geraniums. Zonal are usually taken from cuttings and seed geraniums are grown from seed. The zonal types are stronger plants and can withstand a little more abuse than the seed type. The seed types tend to have blooms that shatter, meaning the petals fall apart. You will also want to look for lots of branching of stems. The more branches the more blooms. You should also look for good sturdy plants. Stoller Farms grow theirs in a larger pot so they end up much stronger when you take them home. One variety that is VERY strong is called a ‘calliope’. This one is a cross between an ivy geranium and a zonal geranium. These will cascade a little bit over the edge of a container if you use them in one.

For care you will need to keep them watered but not drowning. They also like a good balanced water soluble fertilizer like a 20-20-20, about once a week. To get more blooms you will also want to deadhead the plants when the old blooms start to die. Just go to the base of the old flower and snap it off at the main stalk.
If you would like to know more about geraniums you can visit their farm in Molalla, or check them out at the Beaverton Farmer’s Market or the Lake Oswego Farmers market.

Ruby Jewel Ice Cream

Summer is coming and there is nothing like ice cream to take the heat off. One of the newest and best ice cream shops is called Ruby Jewel (971-271-8895). We met with the owner and founder, Lisa to learn why her products are so good. She first told us how she started her business. She wanted to make an ice cream sandwich that was a step above the ordinary sandwich. She made her own cookies and then experimented with fresh products that she found at her local farmers market. That is her secret! She started to sell her ice cream sandwiches at the farmers markets and then opened up 2 ‘scoop’ shops in Portland. She still is experimenting with new combinations featuring products from great local vendors like Willakenzie lavender, Portland Creamery, Viridian Farms, Jacobsen’s Salt and Freddy Guy Hazelnuts. If you are eating her ice cream, you are probably enjoying a bunch of local products. We were able to have a couple of tastes of her new products, but we were sworn to secrecy, you’ll have to stop by and get a sample for yourself at one of her shops. If you can’t make it to one of the new Scoop Shops you can find her at some of the local farmers markets, plus her ice cream sandwiches are available all over the west at Fred Meyers, New Seasons and Whole Foods. Check at a store nearest you and then sit back and enjoy some good local flavors!