budding
NOVEMBER 2014
BCMASTERGARDENERS.WEEBLY.COM
news
A PUBLICATION OF UME MASTER GARDENERS OF BALTIMORE COUNTY
C a le n d a r
NOVEMBER
6 Plant collection at Ag Center, 10-1
(raindate November 7)
13 General Meeting, Native Plant training
with Sara Tangren, 9:30-1
15 Entry garden workday, 8-12
22 Grow It Eat It Preserve It: Apple Butter
making workshop, 1-4 at Ag Center
DECEMBER
11 General Meeting, Holiday arrangements
with our own Pat Parker, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
JUNE
4 Annual State Training Day,
College Park
Th e Ba ltim o re
C o u n ty E xte n s io n
O ffic e h a s a n e w
p h o n e n u m b e r:
( 4 1 0 ) 8 8 7 -8 0 9 0
NOTES ON A NATIVE…
KIM BARNES
P o lys tic h u m
a c ro s tic h o id e s
C h ris tm a s F e rn
As winter approaches and the leaves
on the trees, shrubs, and many other plants
begin to turn red, yellow or brown, one of
the plants that will remain green in the
landscape throughout the winter is the
Christmas fern. The fronds have historically been used for Christmas decorations,
hence the common name. This native fern
is found in moist to dry woodlands and on
shady slopes throughout the eastern half of
the United States and Canada. Snow and
ice will cause the previous season’s fronds
to be in a flattened clump by the time the
new silvery fiddleheads begin emerging in
the spring, but they do provide an evergreen presence in the landscape. I recently
learned that you don’t want to remove the
old fronds too soon as that can weaken the
plant, but rather wait until the new fronds
begin to mature.
Christmas fern grows in an asymmetrical clump from a short, creeping rhizome,
expanding slowly over time. The fronds
are typically one to two feet long, with
shiny, deep green, lance-shaped pinnae (the
“leaflet” parts of the frond). The fertile
fronds are slightly taller than the sterile
ones, with smaller pinnae near the tip of
the frond. The undersides of these pinnae
are covered with reddish brown spores in
late spring or early summer. I have had a
few baby Christmas ferns show up in my
garden, presumably from spores, but division is another way to propagate them.
Polystichum acrostichoides has many
good qualities to recommend it, with a key
one being that it tolerates a wide range of
growing conditions in the landscape. It
does not have any serious disease or pest
problems, and as with most ferns, is seldom bothered by deer. It adapts well to
different soil types, from acidic to almost
neutral, preferring medium moisture, but
tolerating drought and warm humid conditions. Poorly drained soil is the one thing
it does not like, as crown rot can be a
problem. It grows in part sun to full shade
and is well suited to many areas of the garden. Christmas fern is one of the few
native plants that will grow successfully
for me in containers, and it even survived
last winter!
budding
NEWS
NORMAN’S PATCH 43
NORMAN COHEN
P u ttin g th e G a rd e n to Be d —
Th e S o il
The most important chore in the fall is to amend the soil.
The soil test, which is recommended to be performed every
three years, is the basis for our decisions about which nutrients
need to be added. The soil test determines soil fertility, composition and acidity. The acidity is given in pH units: pH lower
than 7 is acidic, greater than 7 is alkaline. Two reported
macronutrients that control pH are sulfur and calcium.
However, the pH of turf and ericaceous (or lime-hating)
plants is taken yearly to determine if pH needs to be adjusted.
This can be accomplished with a purchased pH meter, although it
is not as accurate as laboratory methodology. The pH scale is logarithmic, the difference of one unit is a factor of ten; the difference of 4 units is a factor of 10,000! The pH should be maintained around 6.8 for good lawn care. When the pH is determined
by a laboratory, the application rate in pounds of calcium per
1000 square feet is given.
My garden contains quite a few ericaceous plants:
Leucothoe axiliaris and L. fontanesiana, commonly called Doghobble; Rhododendron sp., deciduous and evergreen; Camilia
sp.and Pieris Japonica and, in the Grow It Eat It demonstration
garden, the blueberries, Vaccinium corymbosum. The pH readings
in my garden ran from 6.5 to 5.9, and, in the blueberry patch, 6.3
to 4.9. When the pH is maintained around 4.5, sustainability and
flowering with proper exposure are maximized.
The analysis on the six-pound bag of sulfur was 30 percent
by weight in the form of pelletized free sulfur and gypsum, a
hydrate of calcium sulfate. From the broadcast rates, apply 12
The Grow It Eat It garden, under the
leadership of Debbie McKearney and
Tiffany Bowers, finished up the 2014 season with resounding success. The consistent
work of the committee throughout the season.... planting, watering, weeding, harvesting, and repeating.... resulted in year-to-date
PAGE 2
pounds per 100 square feet for each one point reduction in soil
pH. In heavy clay soils, the application rate is 15 pounds per 100
square feet. When the blueberries were planted in the demo garden, copious amounts of Leaf Gro were added to improve the
cation exchange capacity (CEC) of the soil. The area of each
plant is 2.25 square feet with nine plants in the blueberry bed.
Dividing 2.25 by 100, then multiplying by 12 equals 0.24
pounds of soil acidifier to lower the pH one unit or approximately 0.5 pounds for two units.
Sulfur and calcium are in a solid form that must be converted into ionic forms, which are soluble, in order to react with
water to adjust the pH. These chemical processes take months,
especially the conversion of sulfur, which is microbial as well
as weather dependent. The pH will be rechecked in the spring
and repeated again in order to obtain the desired acidity.
The fall is the time of year to amend the perennial-shrub
borders, vegetable beds and lawn with compost—of course, my
favorite is Leaf Gro. Compost is not fertilizer, but does contain
one to two percent nitrogen and potassium. I’ll come clean, I
do not do much for lawn maintenance. However, the addition of
a quarter inch of compost, approximately, a half a yard per
thousand square feet will have as much effect as fertilizing with
18-0-6 in the fall. If you haven’t yet read the new Maryland
State laws for fertilizing your lawn, please do so.
For shrubs, the blueberries included, and perennials, the
mulch is moved to the side, pH taken and adjusted, if required,
an inch of compost added, one inch from the stem out to one
foot and the mulch returned one inch from the stem. Since I do
not need to add nitrogen in the fall and my soil test showed high
levels of phosphorous and potassium, I did not add fertilizer. If
bulbs or garlic are planted, a bulb fertilizer or bone meal is
added to the soil.
As long as the soil is not frozen...start amending!
total of 786.75 pounds of which 671
pounds were donated. October added 190.5
pounds of which 129.5 were donated to
area food pantries and kitchens, not just
Cockeysville. We’re trying to spread the
‘wealth’ throughout the county where our
GIEI volunteers live or work.
E n try g a rd e n fa ll
wo rkd a y
Please come out to help on Saturday,
November 15 from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00
noon. We will be extending the berms to
connect to the arbor.
BALTIMORE COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS
budding
NEWS
P o llin a to r G a rd e n
S e p te m b e r No te s
LINDA MYERS
The Pollinator Garden, under the
direction of Jack Leonard, is the most
recent addition to our Demonstration
Garden. I walked through the garden in
September and noted the following.
Bed 3 is full of glorious color and furious insect activity. The smooth asters
(Symphiotrichum laeve) have butterflies,
small bees, honeybees and bumblebees.
Pyracantha muticum (clustered mountain
mint), in the container, has little insect activity now that the tiny blooms are almost gone,
but it was full of tiny native bees and flies at
the height of its bloom period a few weeks
ago. Wish we had the space to let it grow in
the garden soil, but it is a bit of a thug. The
Asclepius tuberosa (butterfly weed) is totally
finished blooming; lots of seedpods. We saw
scads of monarch larvae on it earlier. Where
do they go to pupate, I wonder? The
Boltonia asteroides ‘Snowbank’ (false aster)
is in full bloom—what a cloud of white! As
In Bed 4, the African blue basil
(Ocimum kilimandscharicum x) is covered
with honeybees; you can hear them buzzing
as you walk into the garden through our new
entry arbor (also courtesy of Paul D.). The
zinnias have many butterflies, including the
yellow clouded sulfur, a golden-brown fritillary (either the great spangled or the variegated), and that funny little skipper.
Although we feature native perennials in the
garden, we will always leave room for the
single-blossom zinnias for their cheery,
unflagging bloom habit and the constant
insect activity they attract.
Salvia farinacia, the annual salvia, is
very floriferous and has huge carpenter
bees and some smaller bumblebees. On
the Conoclinium coelestinum (hardy ageratum) I see a kind of beetle. This longblooming, freely-seeding perennial attracts
many pollinators. The annual milkweed
(Asclepius curvassica) still has a few
blooms hosting a small native bee or fly. I
see one milkweed larva on it. Its seedpods
are starting to split open, so there will be
more of this tropical next year unless we
decide to remove it from the garden. There
is some controversy on whether this is a
good plant for monarchs in this zone. The
pretty yellow and orange blooms recommend it, and monarchs love it, but does its
late blooming interrupt their migration?
The annual white sweet alyssum
(Lobelia maritime) is blooming beautifully
and it seems to have a few small native bees
or flies on it—it would have had more earlier
for insects: tiny, tiny flies, a bigger fly that
I’m not familiar with, and a small brown
butterfly with that odd wing arrangement
that Barbara Gruver tells me is a skipper.
The cardinal vine (Ipomoea x multifida),
pollinated by hummingbirds, is still blooming, but I didn’t see a hummingbird today, or
any noticeable insects on it. It looks so
much nicer this year growing on the sturdy
support that Paul Dorsey installed.
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND EXTENSION...SOLUTIONS IN YOUR COMMUNITY
in the season but got a late start. The
Solidago rugosa ‘Fireworks’ (goldenrod, also
in Bed 3) is at the peak of bloom and has
honeybees, native bees, wasps, beetles, and a
small golden-spotted butterfly—it’s really
busy. In fact, it rivals the African blue basil
for activity, and has more kinds of insects on
it. Plus, it is a stunner with its narrow sprays
of bloom shooting in all directions.
The New England asters
(Symphiotrichum novae-angliae) in this bed
are finishing up their bloom. The Lobelia
syphilitica (great blue lobelia) is nearly finished blooming, but there are still a few honeybees and bumblebees checking it out. The
honeysuckle vine (Lonicera sempervirens)
on the arbor is starting to vine and climb—it
should bloom next spring. The Amelanchier
x grandiflora ‘Autumn Brilliance’ (serviceberry) is nearly denuded. We need to get a
jump on the oak sawfly next year, if that is
what it was—we will consult with Norman
Cohen on this.
There are still monarch butterflies fluttering about the entire garden, probably
enjoying the nectar. Are they still laying
eggs? If so, let’s hope it is not too late in the
season for the larvae to hatch and complete
their appropriate growth stages.
We have much to learn about pollinators and the plants that support their life
cycles. If you would like to join the Pollen
Nation to help us learn and grow, please contact Jack Leonard, Linda Myers or Judy
Ciofalo.
See the first half of the pollinator garden notes
in the October issue of Budding News.
PAGE 3
budding
NEWS
P la nt colle ction hunt
HELP WANTED
The next Ag
Center plant collection activity will
take place on
November 6 from
10:00 a.m. to 1:00
p.m. Fee is $5.
Maryland botanist
Charlie Davis and MG Judy Fulton will
first lead an interesting hunt finding and
collecting plant specimens. Participants
can expect to learn a lot about the plant
species we see and how they look in the
fall. Afterwards, we will press the specimens so that they can be identified and
included in an inventory of what grows at
the Ag Center.
This activity, sponsored by Baltimore
County Master Gardeners in conjunction
with the Natural History Society of
Maryland, is part of a much larger project:
an inventory of the plant species growing
throughout the seasons of the year and in
the varied habitats at the Baltimore County
property (e.g., fields, woods, stream banks
and strips bordering paths). Species of
trees and shrubs, grasses, sedges, and
herbaceous plants will all be included in
the inventory.
You can use these as either advanced
training or volunteer hours. Find full
descriptions and sign up by clicking on the
events listed on the calendar at www.meetup.com/marylandnature/events/.
O r h o w to g e t yo u r
vo lu n te e r h o u rs
Hours are due the end of December.
If you are looking for a new MG volunteer
activity, please consider the following
openings:
Demo Garden Committee Chair:
Last year after four years of service, Heather
Wight wanted to step down as chair of the
Demonstration Garden Committee... yet
she’s still in charge a year later. She’s willing
to lend her support to one or two MGs who
wish to take on the exciting and transformative Demo Garden chairmanship.
Iris Garden Caretaker: Work with
Carol Warner of Draycott Gardens to tend
the small, but beautiful iris garden.
Maintenance involves mostly weeding (two
or three times a year) and planting new rhizomes (once a year). When the iris bloom,
visitors to the Ag Center are delighted to see
such rare and wonderful iris species. Its
mailbox offers important information for
anyone who wants to add deer resistant
plants to their garden. Contact: MG
Coordinator Anna Glenn
Courtyard Caregiver: Help maintain
the shade plant garden that rims the entrance
to the Ag Center. There is always an opportunity to add more shade plants and propagate the ones that are growing there. This
garden helps smooth the hard edges of the
N O VE MBE R G E NE R AL
ME E TING
Nove mbe r 1 3 th, 9 :3 0 a .m. to 1 :0 0 p.m.
S p e c ia l Na tive P la n t Tra in in g
with UME ’s S a ra Ta n g re n
NOMINATIONS
PAGE 4
ANNOUNCEMENT AND BYLAWS VOTING FIRST.
building and welcomes the hundreds of
Baltimore County residents who use the
facility. Contact: Pam Spencer
Demo Garden Entrance and Allee:
This area is looking for an adopter who can
pledge a few days per growing season to
keep it looking clean and attractive.
Contact: Heather Wight
Grow It Eat It: The very productive
vegetable garden needs plot leaders and
eventually a new garden leader. Contact:
Tiffany Bowers
Don’t want to obligate yourself to
one garden? Weed Weed Weed. Please
stop by and pull a weed or two. There are
always weeds to pull and you can stop by
anytime weekday or weekend to work on
these gardens. You can also pot some volunteer plants to nurse until our next plant sale.
No need to call ahead.
Communication: Writers, editors,
graphic artists, and photographers are needed if the newsletter is to continue. Contact:
Natalie Hamilton
Work from home typing contact information from MG Plant Sale Raffle entries,
using Excel or Word tables. The Lecture
Series and Plant Sale are always looking for
leaders. Contact: Nancy Lewis
Thinking about joining a new committee? Please contact committee chairs (complete list on Weebly site) to find out more
and be added to their membership list. Your
help is always appreciated and needed.
INFORMATION ABOUT
A L L MG A D V A N C E D
TRAINING CLASSES
MAY BE FOUND AT:
H T T P :// E X T E N S I O N .
UMD.EDU/MG/ADVANC
ED-TRAINING
BALTIMORE COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS
budding
NEWS
G e n e ra l Me e tin g ,
No ve m b e r 1 3 th
UME’s Sara
Tangren will be coming to our November
13th meeting to present her workshop
“Native Plant
Essentials: Part 2.”
Over 70 Baltimore
County Master
Gardeners have signed up for this event so
it is sure to be exciting and a great opportunity for us to learn more about this topic!
If you haven’t registered yet for this event,
you can still do so through the Sign-up
Genius located on our Weebly homepage:
http://bcmastergardeners.weebly.com/. We
want to have enough material on hand.
Please do your best to complete the
Native Plants Essential online class. You
might want to take this course even if
you’ve had the in-person course, because
there are many differences. The course
may take more than five hours to complete,
but you can do it in sections and in your
own time and free of charge. Here’s the
link for now (may be changing in the
future): https://extension.umd.edu/learn/
native-plant-essentials-online-class.
Also, remember that we will be voting
to accept our bylaws prior to the presentation so arrive by 9:30 a.m. Be sure to review
the bylaws in advance and bring your questions or concerns. Anna Glenn emailed them
to the general membership on October 14th
for initial review.
De a n We i vis its
De m o G a rd e n
On October 17th, Dr. Cheng-I Wei,
Dean of UMD College of Agriculture and
Natural Resources, visited the Ag Center to
join in the 100th anniversary celebrations
of Extension. While visiting, he was able
to meet with some of our Baltimore
County Master Gardeners and learn about
the great work we are doing here educating
the residents of our county. Dean Wei
remembered visiting the garden in its early
stages and was impressed to see how much
it has grown in such a short period of time.
He was particularly interested in the Grow
It Eat It garden
and didn’t hesitate to get his
hands dirty
investigating the
potatoes that are
just about ready
to be harvested.
Our Master Gardeners Ernie Ritchey,
Sally Stanhope, and Angie Goodman
manned a table at the event for three hours,
showing teachers how to make a “garden
in a glove” and incorporate this fun and
easy lesson into their classroom of any
grade. It was a successful evening because
many teachers who have never tried incorporating agricultural lessons in their class-
Dean Wei with his
potatoes
Dean Wei with
MG Linda Myers
rooms were able to leave the event with
their arms full of curriculum ideas and
materials. Anna Glenn will be following up
with these teachers in hopes of helping
some of them start their very own school
gardening program.
Te a c h e rs ’ Nig h t
O u t o n th e F a rm
G IE I P re s e rve It
Wo rks h o p
On Thursday, October 16, the
Maryland Agricultural Resource Council
hosted their second Annual Teacher’s Night
Out on the Farm, an open house and
resource fair for teachers in Baltimore and
surrounding counties interested in learning
more about incorporating agricultural education into their classrooms. More than 130
teachers registered for the event and were
able to tour the farm and meet with representatives from over 50 different agricultural/environmental organizations, including Baltimore County Master Gardeners!
On Saturday, November 22 from 1:00
to 4:00pm at the Ag Center, Shauna Henley,
Family and Consumer Science Educator,
will discuss the types of jellied products that
can be made at home, the ingredients needed, the necessary equipment and supplies,
and the basic steps of water bath canning.
You will spend time in the kitchen preparing
and canning your own apple butter.
Cost is $35 for the first workshop,
$20 for each additional workshop. To register, call the office at (410) 887-8090 then
bring your check or cash to class.
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND EXTENSION...SOLUTIONS IN YOUR COMMUNITY
PAGE 5
budding
NEWS
Ha ve you me t your
2 0 1 4 hours to re ma in
a n a ctive MG?
A fe w c h a n g e s
in th e o ffic e
Our coordinator Anna McGucken is
now Anna Glenn following her September
27th wedding to Nathan Glenn. She wants
to thank everyone for the well wishes and
congratulations that Master Gardeners have
been sending her way in the past month!
Her email address will remain
amcguck@umd.edu until the university is
able to set up a new account. She will notify the Master Gardeners when that occurs.
Also, the Baltimore County Extension
Office phone number has changed. It is no
longer (410) 771-1761. The new number
is (410) 887-8090. If you accidentally call
the old number, there will be a recording
reminding you of the new number.
As of October, only 50 percent of our
registered Master Gardeners have entered in
their 2014 volunteer hours. If you have
hours that you have not yet recorded, please
make an effort to report these immediately
because, come 2015, it will be too late! As
a reminder, to remain an active Master
Gardener, volunteers must provide 20 hours
of service, participate in 10 hours of continuing education requirements, and attend
three general membership meetings. If you
have not been able to complete your
requirements this year, please contact Anna
Glenn for ideas on where you can volunteer
or get education hours.
Additionally, if you have not yet set
up an online account to enter your hours,
please contact Anna Glenn
(amcguck@umd.edu) or Wendy Dilworth
(wendydil@umd.edu) for help. We will
send you an email with a user name and
then you will be able to generate your own
password and begin entering your hours. If
you are having trouble using your account,
please don’t hesitate to contact the office.
There are also instructions on the Weebly
website for how to enter online hours.
D E C E MBE R G E NE R AL
ME E TING
De ce mbe r 1 1 th, 6 :3 0 to 8 :3 0 p.m.
Ho lid a y a rra n g e m e n ts
with o u r o wn P a t P a rke r
budding
NEWS
Editor: open
Designer: Natalie Hamilton
Submissions are welcome!
Please forward to
infobcmg@yahoo.com
The Maryland Master Gardener Program was started in 1978
as a means of extending the horticultural and pest management
expertise of University of Maryland Extension to the general
public. The program is designed to train volunteer horticultural
educators for the University of Maryland Extension—the principal outreach education unit of the University of Maryland.
UME B A L T I M O R E C O U N T Y E X T E N S I O N
1114 Shawan Road
Cockeysville, MD 21030
NEW Phone: (410) 887-8090
Fax: (410) 785-5950
NEW website http://extension.umd.edu/baltimore-county
www.bcmastergardeners.weebly.com
Anna Glenn, Horticulture Faculty Extension Assistant,
amcguck@umd.edu
University of Maryland Extension (UME) programs are open to any person and
will not discriminate against anyone because of race, age, sex, color, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, religion, ancestry, national origin, marital status, genetic information, political affiliation, and gender identity or expression.