The health of your trees is critical for their long term survival. But there are problems that can be avoided and even prevented with the right care. We met with Terrill Collier of Collier Arbor Care (503-72ARBOR) to talk about a couple of conditions that he has noticed recently. The first stop took us to a business park near I-5. The old oak trees there had been ‘saved’ when the buildings were constructed and were in strategic locations around the parking lot. Over time, the encroachment of the pavement and the addition of soil and mulch have caused the base of the trunk to start to rot. This is a good lesson for the homeowner. You should never pile soil or mulch up against the base of your trees or woody shrubs. The bark needs to breath and this layer of soil and mulch will kill your tree.

We then moved to a neighborhood close by. The trees in this neighborhood have their leaves back and they are starting to show some problems that could have been avoided with easy spring care. The trees we were looking at were pears with really bad blight disease called pear scab. This problem can show up more often during our wet and rainy springs, but it can be avoided with an early spring spraying schedule to prevent the blight. This type of problem happens to a lot of our fruiting and ornamental trees. The key is early diagnosis by a tree professional. If you think you have a problem with a tree you can always call the experts at Collier Arbor Care, or any certified arborist. Remember a lot of these trees have been there for decades and with good care they can be there for many more!

On a previous show Kim Foren from Geranium Lake Flowers (503-228-1920) joined us to show us how to build an arrangement with cut flowers from the garden. This week she joined us to show us how to do the same thing in a water bowl. In the previous story she also warned people not to let the foliage from the cut flowers touch the water. If the foliage gets in the water it can rot and mold. However, this week she showed us how to use leaves submerged in water to create a cool effect. She pulled the leaves from the Redbud tree and placed them in the water. These leaves don’t rot very fast and so they really looked cool in the water. The other consideration was the vase. This one had a wide opening at the top and that could have been a problem for keeping the flowers in the water… however Kim cut the stems a little longer and did a crossing pattern in the bowl. That created a wonderful structure to hold all the flowers in the water. We also noticed how Kim did arranging with living plants as well. She had built a wonderful living wreath that could be hung on a door or wall. If you feel like you are decorating challenged, check out her blog for tips on decorating or take one of the many classes she has at the florist shop during the year. Or better yet, pick up a premade creation from her shop to take home!

Jan’s June Tips

We found Jan out in her garden again this month. The weather has been nice and it has Jan and her husband, Ray, out in the garden redoing some of their garden beds. They have decided that some of the plants have just gotten too big. So Jan showed us how she is going to go in and rescue some plants and cut back others. The late spring is still a good time to move plants as long as you follow a few rules. Make sure that you get a good chunk of the root ball, as much as possible. This will place less stress on the plant. Give the new hole a good shot of transplant fertilizer and mix it in with the soil. Once planted, keep the plant well watered. Jan and Ray have also been spreading garden mulch around their beds and that means lots of weeding. Some people, including Jan’s neighbor, have had mulch spread to help keep the weeds down, but if you don’t remove the weeds before spreading the mulch, they will just come back with a vengeance. Then you will have a big problem trying to get rid of them. We also talked about watering your containers. With the early heat we have had this spring we have had some of our wonderful containers get a little dry. Jan told us to make sure that they are thoroughly watered by watering in shifts. Water your plants in order and then return to the first pot and start the process over again. You will also want to make sure that they are watered enough so that they drain out the bottom of the container. For more early summer gardening tips you can check out the OSU Extension Website.

William likes to say that every garden needs a hydrangea. After visiting Hydrangeas Plus (866-433-7896) we can see why. They not only grow the plants they have a garden full of them. Kristin showed us some of her favorites in her garden and in the nursery. She started at her house with the hydrangea ‘Japonica Coerulea. This one had wonderful blooms and amazing foliage color. It is also one of the earliest to bloom in her garden. It starts out white and ages blue. We then moved over to hydrangea ‘Schizophragma Roseum’, this is a climbing hydrangea that starts out a soft white that ages to a gentle pink color on the lacecap blooms. The new growth has cool red stems! We then moved to her greenhouses to see a couple of other varieties. Inside the hoop house we saw the hydrangea ‘Serrata Shirofuji’. This is a small hydrangea and it is covered in white blooms. It is also an early bloomer. It would be great in a container! The last hydrangea is one of William’s favorites, hydrangea serrata ‘Painters Palette’. This one has blooms that are a rainbow of colors. The foliage only compliments that color blast. We also covered the rules for changing the color of the bloom on certain varieties. For blue blooms make your soil acidic, pink blooms go for an alkaline pH. It is a little too late to do that if your flowers are blooming but you can do it if you apply lime or aluminum sulfate at the right time of year. If you have any questions, you can call Hydrangeas Plus and they will be very happy to help you. Or you can catch her today, June 15th at Sebright Gardens in Salem, Oregon during one of their special sale.

Last year we visited the Portland Children’s Museum (502-223-6500) to check out the Zany Maze. This maze, on the site of the old planetarium, was loaded with fun and interactive places that kids could discover as they walked through twisting trails. This year the museum is kicking off the second phase of a much larger garden called Outdoor Adventure. The ground breaking took place just a week ago with a completion set for Earth Day 2014. To learn more about the Outdoor Adventure we met with Ruth Shelly the new Executive Director of the museum. She told us that the new area will consist of 10 environments that kids can enjoy year-round. The new garden will also include an Amphitheater, a creek, a grove and a toddler area among others. It will also include an observation deck so parents can keep an eye on their kids while they enjoy the outdoors! If you would like to get involved in this great garden for kids you can contact the museum. Check out the Outdoor Adventure webpage at http://www.portlandcm.org/outdoor-adventure/.

We are wrapping up the Rose Festival for 2013 but we took some time to celebrate the namesake of the festival recently. William and Judy were invited to the International Rose Test Gardens at Washington Park to help judge some of the newer varieties of roses and help vote for Portland’s Best Roses for 2013. The Portland Rose Society (503-777-4311) is the host for this event, but they are involved in so much more! We met with society member Rich Baer after the voting was done to learn more about that process and to get some information about the society. First we talked about the competition. The roses are judged based on how they look on judging day. The roses that are rated the highest are the winners and are billed as the most beautiful roses in the garden for that day. 35 new varieties are considered during the judging and rated on a scale of 1 to 10. There are winners in the following classes of roses: shrubs, floribundas, grandifloras, hybrid teas and fragrance, with the overall winner being designated as Portland’s Best Rose for 2013. This year that overall winning rose was Sugar Moon!

After all the buzz of awarding the honors to the rose winners, William talked to Rich Baer about the society. The Rose Society was started in 1888 by Mrs. Henry Pittock to celebrate the glory of the rose. The society is very inclusive, in fact they have members that don’t even grow roses. All you need to have is a love of roses! The society is very involved in the community at events that happen all year long. If you are interested in joining this fun and educational group you can go to their website or drop by one of their monthly meetings at Oaks Park. Dues start at $15 for one year. If you ever find yourself up at Washington Park see if you can do your own judging and find your own ‘best rose’!

Expand your gardening skills and your mind. The Oregon Garden (503-874-8100) is offering some great classes through their new Oregon Garden University program. This series of classes will be taking place about once a month through fall. The upcoming one features Matthew Levesque an award winning author and garden designer. His class, the Revolutionary Yardscape, Designing with Reuse and Repurposing, features a whole new perspective on utilizing local, used and repurposed materials as a garden design tool. Matthew's style is engaging, entertaining and informative. He has been designing award winning gardens for years and brings all of his experience to bear in a way that all gardeners will find useful. Sign ups are going on now for his June 22nd class taking place from 1-3pm. You can contact the garden or even just show up on the day of the class. This class is free for Oregon Garden members and only $6 for non-members and includes admission to the garden. Quite a deal!

If you can’t make it to the class there are still lots of things to do at the garden. Not only can you come and stroll the grounds, there are also movies in the garden every Thursday night and on the 3rd of July you can enjoy a great fireworks show on the grounds. There is always something happening at the garden, be sure to check the events calendar on their website for more information.

Green roofs are hot! A lot of people have heard about them and some folks have even looked into setting up their own green roofs at their home or business. For others, the thought of a green roof is just too daunting! To learn about green and solar roofs we met with Angela Jones from SolTerra Systems (503-360-1109) on top of the International Harvest building on the east side of the Willamette river. She told us that the roof we were on served a couple purposes. There were solar panels that were producing energy that was used in the building and also supplied back into the electrical system for everyone to use, and a green roof which included many varieties of sedums that helped keep our environment clean. The sedums and plants do quite a bit. They filter and slow down the storm water runoff. This is great because it helps keep the storm water system from being overwhelmed during rainy periods and cleans out pollutants before the water reaches the river. The plants also provide habitat for animals, oxygen for our air and helps control costs of heating and cooling.

One of the most unique functions of the roof top is a garden. This garden also has raised beds that grow a variety of fruits and vegetables for the clarklewis restaurant just a block away. You can do the same at your home. If you are interested in wind, solar, greenroofs or living walls give them a call.

Now that we have harvested the fresh vegetables from the roof of the International Harvest building we joined chef Kyo Koo at the clarklewis restaurant (503-235-2294) to see what dish he could whip up for us. He decided on a pan seared Alaskan halibut with chrysanthemum, flowering miners lettuce, and valerian, dressed brown butter all over a bed of amaranth seeds. First he seared the halibut and then placed in the oven to finish baking. While that was happening he prepared the amaranth in a pan with vegetable stock, salt and pepper and cooked it over medium heat until it was dry in the pan. This recipe had quite a few surprises. The amaranth was one surprise. Chef Kyo was using it as a grain to compliment the fish. He also used the flowers of the chrysanthemum and the miners lettuce, which most people consider a weed in the garden. The philosophy of clarklewis is to keep everything as natural as possible. They want every flavor to pop and so they don’t use a lot of heavy sauces. They also work with a bunch of local suppliers who grow everything local. From meats to greens, they believe in fresh flavors. Once the halibut was done, chef Kyo placed it on a bed of amaranth and covered it with the greens and the brown butter. If you would like to try one of these dishes, feel free to stop by clarklewis and really surprise your taste buds.