THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 3, 1995 TAG: 9509010080
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G2 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: GARDENING
SOURCE: ROBERT STIFFLER
LENGTH: Long : 114 lines
We are having a problem with bamboo. When we purchased our home three years ago, the bamboo was not bad, but this stuff has steadily spread. I contacted the city of Chesapeake, because a ditch is full of it, and they said it was not their responsibility. Please help us get rid of this stuff. It appears that Roundup only fertilizes bamboo.
Lisa B. Robinson, Chesapeake
Most everyone who has bamboo has a problem. There are few ways to control it other than planting it in a cement container.
To try to contain yours, you can dig a trench 2 feet deep at the edge of its growth and line that with heavy plastic sheets. By heavy, I mean like the shelves in a refrigerator. Otherwise, use cement to line the trench. Some authorities say you can cut it off and then spray with full strength Roundup when new growth appears. Doing that several times is supposed to stop its growth.
The April issue of Southern Living magazine had an interesting article on Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica). I know these native wildflowers grow well in northern Virginia, but the article recommends substituting blue phlox in the Coastal South. I have a very small, shady garden in Ghent. If Virginia bluebells would do well here, can you recommend a source?
Wendy Bradfield-Smith, Norfolk
Virginia bluebells are difficult to grow here, although some do it successfully. I don't agree that blue phlox is any more reliable. It grows a year or two for me and then vanishes. In a damp shady area, bluebells may grow. If they do, they spread by seed. If you can get them through one season and they bloom, you should have more.
Sources are: Appalachian Wildflowers, Box 275, Reedsville, Pa. 17084; Brookside Wildflowers, Box 740, Boone, N.C. 28607 and Gardens of the Blue Ridge, Box 10, Pineola, N.C. 28662. Each of those sources charges $2 for its catalog.
I know you have written about bats for insect control in the past. I seem to be having a hard time finding bat houses. Can you point me in the right direction? And can you tell me the optimum location for them?
Ray Hightower, Chesapeake
The problem is there's little evidence that North American bats use roost boxes, says the American Bat Conservation Society. Your best best is to send a self-addressed stamped envelope to the American Bat Conservation Society, P.O. Box 1393, Rockville, Md. 20849 and ask for directions for making your own. Many mail-order garden catalogs sell them, as well as bird shops and shops in gardens, museums, etc.
The optimum location is on the sunny side of houses and buildings under the roof or on tree trunks 10 feet above the ground with no limbs below the house. Windy locations are rarely successful.
What insecticide should I use on my pansies? They get eaten every year. Also my daffodils and tulips did not bloom this year. Was it the weather? I do not cut off the foliage but did throw pine straw over them after they bloomed last spring. The tulips were new bulbs and didn't come up or bloom. Their leaves consisted of two or three scrawny pieces. Should I dig them up or leave them for next year?
Carolyn M. Johnson, Virginia Beach
I suspect your pansies were eaten by rabbits. They're death on pansies. The problem also might be slugs. If you believe it's insects, use Sevin or an insecticidal soap.
As to your bulbs, voles will eat tulip bulbs and that might have happened. Mulch the bulbs when you plant them but not after blooming, because that could prevent the foliage from growing properly. Another possibility is that if you bought a mesh bag of bargain bulbs, they're often too small to bloom the first year. Such bulbs require more growing time, such as another season. Fertilize them with a bulb food before they bloom next spring and you should see better results.
I have a suggestion for the person who wrote you about a deer problem. I am a cosmetologist, and when I lived in Midlothian, I had people in the salon regularly from surrounding rural towns asking for bags of cut hair. I was told by these farmers that the scent of human hair kept deer and rabbits out of their crops and gardens. They told me that they sprinkled it around their plants and it worked great.
Now that I live at the Beach, I haven't been able to pass this tip on quite as often but thought your reader might give it a try.
Leta Whitehead, Virginia Beach
Thanks for the tip. I've used human hair to keep rabbits away from roses and find that it works until a few heavy rains. Then the rabbits begin to eat again. The same is probably true for deer, but I am so desperate to solve a rabbit problem that I called my barber when your letter arrived and asked him to save me a bag of hair.
Here is a recipe for deer prevention just arrived from Glen Ellen, Calif., in the Napa Valley. There the vineyards are surrounded by 7-foot fences to keep deer out. Homeowners have found that one egg, whipped into one quart of water, plus one-third bottle of hot sauce and some liquid soap (to help it spread), will keep deer from eating shrubs. Out there, they have little rain this time of year, so it lasts up to three or four months. Unfortunately, rainfall washes the spray off and then deer move in again.
It's late for tomato advice, but your readers may still find this interesting. I have tested tomatoes for quite a few years and have found that Kotlas is the earliest tasty tomato. At 2 ounces, it is not as large as I would like. Husky Gold, a very attractive, potato leaf, golden orange tomato is also very early and delicious. However, when really hot dry weather comes, these plants require a lot of help. Oregon Spring is another that is hard to beat. It requires no staking, sets fruit in cold weather, has few seeds, tastes great, bears all summer and into late fall. I started eating them the first week of June. Equally remarkable, is Sun Gold, a small cherry type, voted the sweetest tomato. Sun Gold ripens at the same time as Oregon Spring.
Dorothy Pefley, Virginia Beach
You tomato aficionados should save the letter above to use when buying seed this winter. Dorothy Pefley is probably the best gardener in lower Virginia Beach, near the North Carolina line, growing many rare plants, fruits and vegetables. MEMO: No gardening questions will be taken over the phone. Write to Robert
Stiffler, The Virginian-Pilot, 150 W. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk, Va.
23510. Answers will be published on a space-available basis. For an
earlier reply, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope. by CNB