Happy Easter and Passover! It is a time to think about the Easter Bunny and spring! This weekend it seems like summer is closer than ever! Another sign that spring is finally here is the arrival of GardenPalooza presented by Dramm next weekend. You can enjoy shopping among over 45 different garden vendors and growers, and it is all free! Also, while you’re there, you can pick up a free box of Black Gold fertilizer (while supplies last) and sign up to win a garden makeover from Black Gold. If are looking to save money and get your gardening season off the ground, GardenPalooza is the place to be. You can check out the GardenPalooza website and download coupons for additional savings.

If you do come to GardenPalooza, stop by and check in with William and Judy and sign up to get Garden Time Magazine for free. Once an hour we will draw a name from everyone who signs up and they will receive a great tool from Dramm. Some of these tools include watering hoses, sprinklers and pruning tools.

We will see you there!

This week we featured...

Peninsula Park Roses

There is a celebration brewing… Peninsula Park is getting ready to have a party to celebrate its 100th birthday in June. To get the garden ready, a dedicated group of volunteers has been working overtime so that the roses are ready for the party. We met with Pat Frobes an OSU Master Gardener who helped coordinate over 200 volunteers over a one month period to replant the entire floor of the Peninsula Park Rose Garden. Volunteers came from around the neighborhood and also from the OSU Master Gardener program, the Rose Society, the Rosarians, Elders in Action, and even Standard Insurance had a group show up. It was truly a community effort. There were not only the volunteers, but also lots of companies got involved. Star Roses, Weeks Roses and Bailey’s Roses donated all 3000 of the roses. McFarlane’s and Phillips donated the mulch. Cascade Minerals donated the soil amendments. Portland Nursery and Home Depot donated the tools. New Seasons and Whole Foods even brought in food for the volunteers.
When you are walking through the garden this summer you will notice that there was a plan for the garden. This is Oregon’s only sunken garden and that means that the bowl where the roses are located holds the fragrance better. Keeping this in mind the garden is packed full of fragrant rose varieties, including one called ‘Sweet Fragrance’. You will also notice that they took into account the structure of the roses. Taller ones are in the middle off the beds and the shorter ones are near the walkways.

Now if you are planting roses we have some tips for you. Hillary Maurer from the Portland Park Bureau told Judy about some of the rules that they follow when planting. The most important thing that they do when planting in the rose gardens is to plant the crown of the plant (where the branches meet the roots) at least one or two inches below the ground. A lot of people believe that you should keep the graft above the soil level, but they have found that by burying the crown it prevents frost and freeze damage. She also recommended that you root prune your roses. This cutting of about 1/3 of the roots will promote new root growth. Other keys include digging a large whole, amending the soil with a good soil conditioner and compost (nothing with too much nitrogen), and make sure it is well watered while it gets some new growth on it.

If you would like to celebrate the new roses and the 100th anniversary of Peninsula Park Garden mark your calendar for the 27th of June. The party lasts from 11am to 11pm. Hope to see you there.

Ruhl Mason Bees

The spring garden is home to the ‘loner’ of the bee world. The Orchard Mason Bee is a wonderful, early spring, pollinator. It will fly in colder weather than its honey-making counterpart. It is also a very busy bee. It can pollinate many more flowers than the honey bee, plus it is much more docile too. It hardly ever stings! The one difference between the 2 varieties? The mason bee is pretty much done pollinating by mid May and then it heads into hibernation to wait for the next spring to start all over again. We met with John Edwards from Ruhl Bee Supply (503-657-5399) to learn more about these little ‘busy bees’. He told us about these industrious bees and how they reproduce. These bees will find holes in the wild to lay their eggs. We have found them laying eggs everywhere including cracks in our house. The best part is that they don’t do any damage to the area where they lay their eggs. You can watch these bees as a family project with some of the cool mason bee homes that you can get at Ruhl Bee Supply. For more information on welcoming the Mason Bee to your backyard, stop by and check in with John and his staff.

Daffodils

The true sign of spring, daffodils! We start our new season in the fields of daffodils and visit with Karen Bever from Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm (1-800-711-2006) to talk about how they can add an early touch of color to your garden. We talked about care and feeding of these early bloomers and how you can use them in your yard or garden. Daffodils are incredibly hardy and are one of the bulbs that can handle really cold temperatures. They are only tender when they are freshly planted. Wooden Shoe cuts and ships daffodils all over the country so they have to know how to make them last! Karen talked about some of the different types of daffodils including doubles and large cups ‘daffs’. Some of the varieties that she showed us included ‘Johann Strauss’, ‘Rip Van Winkle’ ‘Dutch Master’ and ‘Ice Follies’. Karen also gave us a tip for using daffodils in arraignments. They ooze a sap that will block other flowers from taking up water. Let the daffs sit in water for a couple of hours and then rinse them off and use them in your flower arraignments. Daffodils are also great at keeping deer away from your prized tulips; surround them with daffodils. Deer hate the ‘daffs’ and will ignore your tulips to avoid the daffodils. If you have anymore questions about daffodils or tulips you can contact Wooden Shoe or stop by this weekend for the start of their annual Tulip Fest. If you are looking to make the trip to the fields remember to check the ‘field cam’. Now you can check the cam on the Wooden Shoe website and see the field conditions before you leave the house! Stop by and pick up some daffodils and tulips to bring spring into your own home!

Pruning Apple Trees

Now is the perfect time to prune your fruit trees. We caught up with our friend Terrill Collier and his crew from Collier Arbor Care (503-72ARBOR) as they were pruning an apple tree to get some tips for the home gardener. The first thing Terrill told us was to make sure that we know what type of tree we are pruning. First there are the ‘stone fruits’ which include cherries, peaches and plums. Then there are the ‘pome fruits’ which are apples, pears and Asian pears. The type of pruning you do depends on the type of fruit you have. Apple trees fruit on 3 year old wood or older, on what are called fruiting spurs. These are tiny spurs on the smaller branches of the tree and look like tiny wrinkled buds. You don’t want to prune out too much of the old wood because you are cutting away part of your harvest. You do want to cut out the suckers or ‘water sprouts’ that are usually growing straight up from the limbs and look like new, smooth growth. You can thin these out and shorten the long branches to reduce the risk of too much weight on the end of your branches when they fruit. The key to good fruit production is light and if you prune out a lot of the unproductive wood you will allow light to get to the branches where your fruit is growing. Don’t prune your tree only at the bottom and at the top. A very productive tree will be evenly pruned through the entire tree. If you feel overwhelmed you can always call Collier Arbor Care.