THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 29, 1996 TAG: 9609270100
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G3 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: GARDENING
SOURCE: ROBERT STIFFLER
LENGTH: 130 lines
I planted gladiolus bulbs 6 inches deep and they had grown 4 to 5 feet tall before finally blooming in late June. They are so top heavy that they are barely able to stand without being staked. Is there any explanation for their size?
I also have several types of roses, including Seafoam, Blaze, Dolly Parton, Lynn Anderson, First Prize, Double Delight and many others. Can yhou recommend the care for these roses?
James W. Scarbro, Norfolk
Your gladioli are a tall-growing variety. Many glads, because they get top heavy, have to be staked. You can plant them slightly deeper and that will help prevent their falling over. There are short glads, some that grow as low as 18 inches. As long as you have this tall-growing variety, you will most likely have to stake them.
As to your roses, they need spraying every week or 10 days with an insecticide and fungicide. Many use Orthenex, which is a combination product, but you can use any products you want, including Immunex, mentioned above. Add some liquid soap or a spreader-sticker to the spray so it will hang on to the foliage longer. Many also put some Miracle Gro in the spray to provide foliar feeding. Roses need to be fertilized once a month with a rose fertilizer or once a season with a long-lasting fertilizer such as Once.
Can you identify the flower enclosed? I planted a little packet of mixed country and wild seeds last summer. This plant is 3 feet tall, has a delicate scent and lots of flowers.
Also do you have information on the ``purple orchid tree'' (Zakania variegatae)? A friend in California sent me some seed. I have seven plants and would like to know how to care for them. The biggest is over a foot tall. I know it grows outdoors there, but I am planning to keep mine in a pot. I need to know how much sun, moisture, etc., they can tolerate. They seem very fragile.
Ruth P. Piland, Portsmouth
Your flower is Dame's Rocket (Hesperis matronalis). It's in the mustard family with blooms of white, pink or lavender. It is a perennial or biennial. In other words, sometimes it grows two years; othertimes it seeds itself and repeats for several years. Plant seed in the fall if you want to grow this plant. You can see Dame's Rocket and many other perennials in the new Virginia Tech Display Garden on Diamond Springs Road, next to the Research Station, in Virginia Beach. It's free and open to the public.
Your purple orchid tree looks somewhat like a redbud with big reddish-purple flowers. My references list it as Bauhinia or the Hong Kong orchid tree. Grow it in a pot of well-drained soil. It won't take frost, so you'll need to put it in a sunny room indoors for the winter.
In a recent column, you gave the phone number for a company that offers a product you found effective against a certain type of moth. I believe you called it a meal moth. I feel certain I have a problem with the same moth, because the problem began after we started keeping seed for our bird feeders on an enclosed patio. I would love to order the catalog you suggested but as usual I procrastinated and the newspaper was recycled. Would you provide the information on how to order the catalog? Being a very amateur gardener, with a history of killing any poor plant entrusted to my care, I am always in need of guidance and your column has helped me many times.
Nita Hutchison, Virginia Beach
The company is Gardens Alive. To order its catalog of organic pest controls, write to 5100 Schenley Place, Lawrenceburg, Ind. 47025. Phone (812) 537-8650 or fax (812) 537-5108.
It sounds like you have meal moths. Bird seed will attract them by the dozens in hot weather. The trap from Gardens Alive attracts the moths with a scent lure, and it really works. It cleared out our moths, but I keep a trap on hand at all times, just in case of future invasions.
For years, I have been trying to grow plants in a strawberry jar - to no avail. We tried everything, but the water always just ran out the bottom and the rest of the holes were dry. I am delighted to tell you that we tried your method and it works! We have a beautifully planted strawberry pot now. Thanks for the information.
Elizabeth Sykes, Norfolk
The method Elizabeth Sykes refers to came from the Canadian Spaghnum Peat Moss Association, who told how to grow herbs in a strawberry jar. You use a cardboard tube down the center of the jar and fill the tube with small stones or gravel, after putting 2 inches of potting mix in the bottom of the planter. Then fill in soil around the tube as you plant the jar. After it's filled with soil, you carefully pull out the cardboard tube. An alternate method is to use a perforated plastic tube instead of the carboard tube with stones.
About a year ago, my husband and I bought an 1830 farmhouse near Windsor, Va., located on three-quarters of an acre, which had been vacant and unattended for eight years. Needless to say, flowers, shrubs and weeds are way out of control. We are doing a little at a time on weekends, but the reason for this letter is the yard. There is no grass. Just mature weeds, except for something that looks like Bermuda with many runners that go deep. Where do we start?
Anna J. Rhodes, Virginia Beach
My suggestion is to cut the grass and weeds with a heavy-duty lawnmower. Virginia Tech officials recommend that you then let it grow back some before spraying with Roundup. After two weeks, till the soil with a tiller and seed it with whatever grass you want. In the meantime, trim off the lower tree limbs so you get good sunshine for growing shrubs and flowers.
If the yard already gets lots of sunshine, you're going to have Bermuda grass, whether or not you want it. What you have now is wiregrass. Virginia and North Carolina farmers fight it all the time. It's tough to eliminate.
You can reseed with Bermuda if you choose or try to grow one of the fine fescues such as Shenandoah, Titan, Rebel II or Southern Belle. Mid-September is an ideal time to sow the seed, preceding that with an 8-8-8, 10-10-10 or starter fertilizer and lime. Then fertilize twice again this fall, a month between applications, using a high-nitogen fertilizer.
Our central air-conditioning unit drains in the back yard, which is very shady. Consequently that area stays wet all summer. I planted hostas by the unit and they seem to do very well. The drain is 25 feet from the unit, and this is where the water stands. I would like to plant some type of annual and possibly perennial to pretty up the area. I have patches of mold. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Peggy Jarman, Chesapeake
It's difficult to eliminate the mold, because you must keep the area low for the water to drain. I'd plant some shrubs or tall perennials around it to hide the area. Here are some perennials that like wet feet: Swamp sunflower (Helianthus simulans) grows 4 to 5 feet tall with a yellow bloom and slowly spreads out; Japanese iris, (Iris Kaempferi) which grow 3 feet tall in colors of blue, white, pink or lavender; Cardinal flower (Lobelia Cardinalis) with red blooms, growing 3 feet tall; canna (Canna x generalis) in varying colors that grow to 5 feet tall or Calla lilies (zantedeschia spp.) which grow to 2 feet tall with blooms of white, yellow or pink. Also don't overlook ferns, which like shade and wet feet. Many grow 3 to 4 feet tall. For annuals, impatiens, coleus or caladiums are your best bet. For shrubs, spicebush, sweet shrub, clethra, inkberry and wax myrtle all like wet soil and will grow in the shade.
Many of these can be seen in the Arboretum and Perennial Display Garden at the Virginia Tech Research Center on Diamond Springs Road, near Northampton Boulevard, in Virginia Beach. ILLUSTRATION: Drawing
Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Center
Gladioli often grow so tall they need staking, but they make a
stately garden border. by CNB