University of Vermont Extension
Department of Plant and Soil Science
Winter News
Article
GARDENING
REVIEW FOR 2011
Dr. Leonard Perry, Extension
Professor
University of Vermont
While thinking back on news and
events from this past year, recall some of our top gardening tips
and ideas
towards making your fruit or vegetable garden more bountiful and
landscape more
beautiful this coming year. Some of these
topics from our 60 Green Mountain Gardener articles during 2011
included ones
on fruits, vegetables, new annuals, and new perennials.
New perennials voted as choice among
many professional nationwide are all hardy to at least USDA zone 4.
The upright Northwind switchgrass, to 4 feet
tall, with bluish-green leaves is attractive summer into much of
winter. Caramel, with its orangish leaves, is one of
the many new introductions of coralbells and is one of the more
vigorous and
hardy. Hot Lips is a great name for this
choice turtlehead, with pink flowers in late summer resembling
turtle heads
(with mouth open). For spring bloom with
small blue flowers like a forget-me-not, and silvery leaves in part
shade, Jack
Frost bugloss is a great choice.
New annual flowers featured were
recent winners in the All-America selections program. Arizona
Apricot is a blanket flower with
daisy-type flowers, a rich apricot with yellow edges, on compact
plants about
one foot high. Glamour Red is an
ornamental kale with fringed leaf edges, bright purple in the
center. As with other kales, this one is attractive
into late fall. Summer Jewel Red is a
scarlet sage type of salvia, the bright red flowers on spikes to 2
feet
high. A good viola choice,
similar to pansies only with smaller flowers, is Shangri-La Marina
with light
blue flowers with dark centers.
New vegetables (again All-America
winners) for this past year included a pumpkin and 2 tomatoes.
Hijinks pumpkin has small and deep orange
fruits, 6 to 7 inches wide, earlier than some. Lizzano tomato is has
red cherry
fruits, semi-determinate (between a bush and a vining type), and
tolerates late
blight disease. Terenzo is another red,
cherry type but as a trailing or “tumbler type” is good in hanging
baskets and
raised beds or walls.
Articles on vegetables included ones
on how to grow them vertically or hanging, how to grow a fall
vegetable
garden—a season often neglected, and several of the more common
tomato
diseases. Articles on fruits included ones
on pruning grapes and fruit trees, how to espalier fruit trees
(growing them in
2 dimensional shapes such as fans), or how to grow them in
containers.
When choosing fruit trees, it’s
always best to get at least two different cultivars that bloom at
the same time
for cross pollination. Even though some
may be listed as “self-fertile” (if you have only room for one tree,
look for
these), they invariably fruit better with a partner nearby (within
50 to 100
feet). Peaches, however, generally don’t
need such cross pollination. Several
common cultivars for the north were listed for various tree fruits.
Mildews and black rots are some
diseases which were described to watch for on grape plants, while
main pests
include the grape berry moth, Japanese beetles, and rose chafers. A
new pest to watch for on fruit plants, as
well as many others, which is spreading northward through the
Northeast is the
brown marmorated stinkbug. It can become
quite a home nuisance as well, overwintering indoors.
Similar to other stink bugs, the
shield shape (wider at the rear) of this adult bug is about
as wide as
long. Their differences from other
stinkbugs may not be obvious to the untrained eye so, to make sure,
consult your state university plant diagnostic clinic. These can be
found online, including those
for Northeast states (www.nepdn.org).
Some of the articles this past year
on indoor gardening covered paperwhites, orchids, and herbs. Other
outdoor flower articles covered the
bluestars perennial, grape hyacinths, and dahlias. A variety of
other articles covered such
topics as hummingbird gardens, designing an accessible garden, and
invasive
plants. More on these and other topics can be found online, and
searched,
either by season or by topic
(perennialsperennials.info/articleS.htm).
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