Where the "new plant" action is

According to the American Nursery and Landscape Association (ANLA) the winner of the "Garden Idol 2012" award is "The Scallywag Holly" from Monrovia Growers. The Garden Idol awards are are held at The ANLA annual clinic and are for what attendees think is the best new plant introduction of the year. Each grower presents their new introduction, with some presenters putting on quite a show.  In the case of Scallywag Holly, Monrovia Growers put on a skit complete with pirate gear and song. It can be viewed here.

While the presentation by The Monrovia staff in their pirate gear is great, no amount of "song and grog" will change the fact that the winner is a holly. What are the outstanding attributes of this plant? Here is the description according to Monrovia. "Ahoy Maties! "X" marks the spot for this four foot, dense, Ilex Scallywag. This is your next garden treasure that is sure to bring in lots of loot. This will make all other dwarf hollies walk the plank. An exciting discovery, this attractive sport of Little Rascal® Holly is a more upright grower, still having a dense, rounded form. Shiny dark green foliage takes on attractive purple-burgundy tone in fall and winter. A wonderful foundation shrub with improved disease resistance. This male holly will not produce berries; use as a pollinator." Yarrrr, a pollinator.

If "Scallywag Holly" doesn't have you running to the local garden center, what will? How about  a local grower who is crossing various heirloom tomatoes to get new varieties? Wild Boar Farms is "Located 40 miles North-East of Berkeley bordering Napa County to the East is the Suisun Valley which is located in Solano County". Check out this page with pictures of all the new tomato varieties. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the future of garden diversity is in the hands of the amateur and small gardener. Wild Boar Farms currently sells to restaurants around The Bay Area. "'Wild Boar Farm's Tomatoes are Beautiful and Flavorful. They're Tomatoes You'll Never Forget'. The Office and Staff of Alice Waters at Chez Panisse". Wild Boar Farms is starting to sell their seedlings to smaller, local garden centers. Now that's exciting!

From the pictures and description I cannot attest to how "exciting" Scallywag Holly is, nor have I tried any of the tomatoes from Wild Boar Farms. It just seems that the action in the gardening world is increasingly in the hands of the smaller operations who are not afraid to take chances, or have no other choice but to take chances. Look for the real exciting stuff in gardening to come from the smaller players in the corners, when you least expect it!

Mastery, and staying small

My friends in the horticultural businesses have two choices. One is to align yourselves with the increasingly boring world of mass merchants, plant trademark companies, and mega growers. The second option can seem lonely at first, but  in my opinion is the way forward.  That market is smaller, but is willing to pay for craftsmanship, and quality. Just as in the restaurant business, there are places like Long John Silvers and Red Lobster, and then there is a place like the one featured in this movie trailer. It's about the world’s grea­test sushi chef, 85-year-old Jiro Ono. Whether you are into sushi or not, the story is about "mastery" of your craft, and staying small. The restaurant owned and operated by Jiro Ono is located in a subway station, and serves only sushi. No appetizers or side dishes, TV shows, or endorsements. Just a tiny ten seat restaurant, that you have to make reservations for a year in advance! If you have read this blog for any length of time you know I am found of saying, "small is cool". I believe it's the way forward for my small business, and perhaps yours. Jiro Ono and his restaurant are an example of what can be accomplished. Easy? No. Worthwhile? Yes.

"This is the most significant plant disease invasion into California in modern history"

California's citrus industry accounts for $2 billion in revenue. You would think a disease that threatens the industry would get more attention, yet this is the first I have heard about it. According to Yahoo news, "state bug detectives fanned across...suburban Los Angeles neighborhood Monday, vacuuming backyard trees with bug catchers, setting traps and taking tissue samples from citrus in a frantic effort to stop the spread of a deadly disease detected there last week."

According to the article, "the USDA confirmed on Friday what state agriculture officials had feared: Both a psyllid and the 8-foot, 8-year-old grafted lemon-pummelo tree where it was found March 22 in the Hacienda Heights suburb of Los Angeles County were infected with huanglongbing. The disease is 'citrus greening' which is transmitted by 'an infected psyllid.'  A psyllid is an insect that when feeding on a citrus leaf can transmit the disease from one tree to another. 'This is the most significant plant disease invasion into California in modern history,' said Ted Batkin of the Citrus Research Board."

Are you an organic gardener? State inspectors are fanning out across LA searching for the bug, and potentially infected tree's. If you have a infected tree the state will, "spray the tree with the pesticide TEMPO, a pyrethroid-type insecticide that lasts up to 30 days." Then they will remove the tree for destruction. "The state is asking the Office of Administrative Law for emergency authority ordering mandatory treatment all of the trees in the half-mile zone in an attempt to kill the psyllids and prevent the spread of the disease. County agriculture officials are working to educate homeowners by mailing out information prior to a community-wide meeting April 9".

I remember the early 80's living in The Bay Area, helicopters would fly over at night spraying Malathion in an attempt to eradicate The Mediterranean Fruit Fly. Ironically, the man who ordered the spraying then was Governor Jerry Brown, our current governor. Of course aerial spraying would be much more difficult to pull off in today's environment. So for now state inspectors are walking door to door hanging traps and inspecting trees. "In one 15-minute span on Monday CDFA trappers using vacuum-like devices collected 25 Asian citrus psyllids from a single backyard tree in the target area."

I think this would be a great opportunity for garden centers, nurseries, and garden bloggers.  Use the power of social media to inform, and help people understand the nature of this threat. With so much happening in the world stuff like this can "end up under the fold" so to speak.  As the Yahoo article say's, "the people of Los Angeles County need to realize how important this is. It's so common to have citrus in residential backyards, and nobody wants to see widespread losses there."

Here is a post I did awhile back on the original Washington Navel Orange Tree, which still lives in the middle of a busy thoroughfare in Riverside. That tree has sure seen a lot of changes in the 130 plus years of it's existence.

The future of garden bio-diversity is in our hands

The future of garden bio-diversity rests in the hands of thousands of amateur gardeners. As the large concerns continue to hybridize and focus on the "best sellers", other more unusual varieties are shut out, and potentially lost. It's through the efforts of individuals, and the ability of The Internet to connect people that many varieties will be saved.

According to sfgate.com, "Moon & Stars" Watermelon "was introduced in 1926 by Peter Henderson and Company, the melon had disappeared from the commercial market for decades and was thought extinct when, in 1981...Kent Whealy, cofounder of Seed Savers Exchange, was contacted by Merle Van Doren of Macon, Mo., who was growing the melon and gave Whealy some of the seeds from the melons he grew. The Southern Exposure Seed Exchange re-introduced the oblong 'Amish Moon & Stars'".

The variety was thought extinct. The efforts of a couple of people saved the variety, which is now sold by many seed houses. What other varieties of fruit, vegetables, or flowers would be lost if not for the efforts of a few people? Now with the connective qualities of The Internet, we can share these rare seeds for future gardeners. It's really quite exciting. The future of gardening is in the hands of  individuals working together.  I think it's in good hands.

Pier 39 horticulture in good hands

Tulipmania has come and gone at Pier 39 in San Francisco. I had forgotten about the event it until reminded by a post at Far Out Flora last month. Every year this tourist hot spot on the bay puts together a fabulous flower display, with the focus on Tulips. The pier juts into the bay, so any planting is done in containers. Because the location near Fisherman's Wharf, its often ignored by the locals looking to avoid the maddening crowds. It was fun to see Far Out Flora take the time to photograph this display. It's beautiful and took me back 35 years to the start of my horticulture career.

Right out of high school I attended The College of San Mateo so as to take advantage of their fine horticulture program. It was there where I met Denise Dirickson, who at that time had recently been hired to care for the container gardens at the newly constructed Pier. We attended a horticulture class together, and I always wondered what had happened with Denise.

Through a Tweet from Pier 39  we found out that Denise was still in charge of the horticulture at The Pier after 35 years. During Tulipmania she gives tours of the plantings and according to the SF Examiner has her crew plant "39,000 bulbs from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Most of them are tulips but there are also others such as Narcissus." During the rest of the year the many planters are always well tended, and filled with greenery and flowers.

Through their photographs and blog, Far Out Flora brings to life the beauty that Tulipmania is. That's what the bulb industry needs, a fresh look at what is possible and not tired assumptions and stereotypes. I hope Denise knows her 35 years of work is appreciated by a whole new generation of gardeners. The idea that we are working in a trade that is declining in popularity can be frustrating, to say the least. All those years of working in the garden center or on the pier are actually paying off now with a whole new generation of gardening enthusiasts.

Here are more pictures of the event as well as some other SF novelties. Notice in the picture above how Denise used parsley as filler between the flowers. What a fantastic idea!

Guerilla Gardeners, "dig, drop, done, move on"

The bulb industry is wondering how to invigorate the bulb trade. As we have talked before, bulb sales are way down and the bulb trade is looking for ideas. The have tried the Dig, Drop, and Done campaign, which was panned by most garden centers, and customers. The three ladies who are suppose to represent three different demographics never hit the nerve they we're suppose to.

Seems to me that bulbs would be a perfect match for the guerrilla gardening movement. Since the beauty of bulbs is revealed sometimes months after planting, it's perfect for the delayed gratification that is guerrilla gardening. Guerrilla gardeners savor passing by a "target", and watching the reactions from passerby's. "Who planted these?" someone asks, as the guerrilla gardener smiles to themselves knowing they are responsible.

What if "guerrilla grafters" carried a cache of bulbs along with their grafting bud wood? After grafting their bud wood to the flowering pear tree they drop to the ground, all the while repeating the mantra they we're taught, "Dig, Drop, Done, Move On". Imagine the look of surprise on passerby's when they see pears on formally barren trees, and bulbs sprouting from the soil. "Who did this?" people ask as our guerrilla gardener walks by the site, smiles knowingly, and continues down the street with her bag of recently purchased bulbs in hand. Where will she strike next?

This could be a whole series of fun escapades. Bulb growers, give me jingle if your interested.

Far Out!

Check out this cool blog from San Francisco, titled "Far Out Flora". Megan And Matti write the blog from their home near Ocean Beach. The blog is a visual delight, filled with photographs of plants that grow in the frost free climate.  Megan tells me that investing a few years ago in a decent SLR camera made a big difference in the quality of the photography. The colors really do jump out. It makes me want to use more photographs in my own blog. What's  cool is the two work for different garden shops. Matti works for Flora Grubb Gardens while Megan works for Annie's Annuals. Both garden centers know about, and encourage their blogging. Flora Grubb recently posted about Matti's mounted staghorn ferns  that are for sale at the shop. It's a win-win for everyone involved.

It's been cold and rainy here in Norcal the last few days. I think I'll head over to their latest post titled, "Driftwood Insanity in the Sunset".  You'll feel like you're walking down  The Great Highway on a sunny day, enjoying the show.

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot...

My last post "Want Bio-Diversity in the garden? Plant natives" elicited a comment from a nursery woman in St Louis, Ellen Barredo. She say's, "The Horticulture Co-op along with the Missouri Botanical Garden hosted Doug Tallamy. Two weeks ago here in St Louis! Great speaker, great message. Anybody interested in this topic will not go wrong with this engaging speaker. The insect photos were awesome! The sad part was the attendance, 96 people of a possible 200 bought a ticket up to hear his message, attend other lectures, participate in the silent auction, or interact with vendor booths of local nurseries. Economy is improving somewhat here in St. Louis, so I was surprised! The breakdown occurs when you can’t get the media interested in promoting the topic and the speaker. More interested in sensational news." Sensational news like the new Lorax movie by Universal pictures. Many of my friends in the trade are excited about tying promotions to the movie. We're told that it presents an opportunity to take the enthusiasm for planting Truffula trees and turn it into enthusiasm for "Plant Something".   As Frank from New York City Garden say's in the comments, "Have you ever seen the ‘plant native’ back lashing given over at garden rant?! And you would think gardeners are the most likely to support such things, but man do some hate the idea. Meanwhile, I've seen invasive plants being planted more and more (like purple loosestrife). Oy."

So what's our message? "Plant Something?" It apparently does not matter what you plant.  In the case of The Lorax and IHOP you can plant Blue Spruce or Canadian White Pine, neither which grow well here in California. I know most of my friends in the nursery trade will disagree with me on this. "Trey, how can you not take advantage of this great opportunity to leverage the interest in planting trees from the movie?" I certainly would love to see an uptick in people interested in planting trees, but frankly the message Universal Pictures, Mazda, IHOP, and Hewlett Packard are sending via The Lorax doesn't "speak to me". More sensationalism that wanes away once people realize that "Truffla Approved" is for sale to the highest bidder, like Mazda. My daughter, and some trade friends told me I am over reacting. Commercialism is a part of our culture, and most younger people are use to it. Go with the flow, and jump on the bandwagon. Plant something! It's Truffula Tree approved! I can't, on account of the advice of the Lorax.  "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

Want bio-diversity in the garden? Plant natives.

Did you catch the lecture by Doug Tallamy at the New York Botanical Gardens the other day? Neither did I, but there is a nice wrap up here.   Dr. Tallamy is the Professor & Chair of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at The University of Delaware. The nature of his talk was, "if you take away the places for wildlife to live and feed, you will lose your wildlife."  He continues, "through continuous and careful research that shows how native plants are vastly better at supporting wildlife than exotics. Even amongst the natives there is no equality–oaks (Quercus) support 534 different forms of wildlife while Canadian redbuds (Cercis) support only 19."

This poses a challenge for those of us in the nursery trade, especially those of us in Mediterranean climates. How do you encourage people to plant according to climate, when so much of what's available for gardeners doesn't take our unique climate into consideration. We talked about this back in July of 2007 when I wrote a post with the catchy title, "California Horse Chestnut" This particular tree does what any sensible California native should do in the summer, it goes dormant during the summer drought, and returns to life with the late winter rains.

My hope would be for people to use the water that's available for maintaining their food crops, and use more natives or Mediterranean plants for the "landscape".  It will mean looking at the garden here with a different approach than we have in the past. I wonder if people are more willing to do that now than they we're back in 2007?

Know Your Local Garden Pro

We had a new neighbor and customer come in yesterday all jazzed about growing their first vegetable garden. It seemed she was thankful to find someone to talk with about the local conditions. It seems that while The Internet has all the answers, it’s almost impossible to find the right answer for the right geographic location. You get info from all over the world, how do you narrow it down? Many if not most new gardeners would love to have someone local they can ask questions of. If you just moved to a new area, or are gardening for the first time the best advice you might receive is, “Know your local garden pro”

In some communities it might be the local Master Gardeners, garden club members, or neighbor that take on the role of "Garden Pro". In most places however it can, and should be the local well run garden center. They are the ones who deal day in and day out with the peculiarities and advantages of where you garden.  Here in the foothills and mountains of The Sierra we have folks all the time who see plants for sale way too early down in the Sacramento Valley, or our local box store. It falls to us, the "Local Garden Pro" to explain why they should wait to put those tomatoes in until May. Some don't like to hear that, and plant too early. After a year or two of disappointment, they finally realize we we're right.

We deal daily with younger people just starting out with their gardening. They have all the savvy and knowledge to look this stuff up on The Internet. I sense they are also looking for a trusted adviser to bounce ideas off. “Hey Trey, I just saw tomatoes for sale down in Folsom. Can we plant them here now?” The answer will save them time, money, and a huge amount of frustration. That’s where the locally owned garden center can really shine. What we said about The Internet is true in the neighborhood. Honesty and trust will, in the long run, trump the quick buck. The solution? Get to "know your local garden pro".

What the frass?

While checking out the feeds of some of my favorite blogs I see one with the headline, "Can you believe this frass?" Carol, at May Dreams Gardens has my picture of insect frass in a bag. Seems Carol wrote a post back in 2010 titled, "Frass" in which she asks, "You know what frass is, don’t you? It’s a fancy word for insect poop! I've been looking for opportunities all week to use “frass” in a sentence…"

Imagine Carol's surprise when she see's Insect Frass being sold in  a bag. She asks, "can you imagine?  How in the world does a company get enough frass to fill not just one bag, but enough bags to market and sell it as plant food? Who came up with the idea of collecting insect poo and using it as fertilizer, anyway? In all my wildest gardening dreams, which include dreams of someone delivering and spreading a wonderful well-composted, odor free load of manure on my garden, I never dreamed of collecting insect frass for fertilizer."

What's really interesting about Insect Frass is an ingredient called, "Chitin".  According to EPA fact sheet #128991, "Chitin appears to control pathogenic nematodes by stimulating the growth of certain naturally occurring microorganisms in soil, which, in turn, release substances that kill the pathogenic nematodes and their eggs." The EPA fact sheet also say's, "Chitosan is used primarily as a plant growth enhancer, and as a substance that boosts the ability of plants to defend against fungal infections. It is approved for use outdoors and indoors on many plants grown commercially and by consumers. The active ingredient is found in the shells of crustaceans, such as lobsters, crabs, and shrimp, and in certain other organisms. Given its low potential for toxicity and its abundance in the natural environment, chitosan is not expected to harm people, pets, wildlife, or the environment when used according to label directions."

Much like mychorizzae, the beneficial plant fungus, Insect Frass may sound weird and exotic now.  Sometimes weird and exotic only stay that way for awhile. If you interested in finding out more, or purchasing some to try visit our online store at Amazon, The Golden Gecko Garden Center

Guerrilla Grafters

The mantra repeated in the horticultural trade businesses at this time is, if we don't start a national campaign to promote gardening people will spend time doing something else. But, why go through all the expense and time of that when we have a younger generation that is very interested in horticulture already? The concern for us in the gardening business is they're  just not shopping at the garden center like mom and dad use too. Don't think the younger generations are interested in gardening? Your not looking in the right places. The newest expression of urban gardening is "Guerrilla Grafters". Talk about taking matters into your own hands, literally.  According to SFBay.com "Guerrilla Grafters bring fruit to the masses". According to the article, Tara Hui is one of the founders  of "Guerrilla Grafters, a renegade agricultural group that  fruit-bearing branches onto public trees in the Bay Area for locals to enjoy for free."

According to SFBay, "Volunteers in the Bay Area collect branches from the California Rare Fruit Growers association or pick up donated branches from backyard gardeners and regional orchards." This bud stock is then grafted onto existing non-bearing trees like flowering pears.  In the short video above you can learn what they are trying to accomplish.

There are a host of unanswered questions we could think up about this. That's not the point, however. This crazy interest in grafting and gardening is what catches my attention. Grafting is not always an easy process, yet this 100 member volunteer group has learned how to do it, and are doing it. It is even spreading to other cities and countries. Call it "Guerrilla Grafting" if you like, but it's still a form of gardening. If we in the trade are going to capture these peoples interest and enthusiasm it's not through large campaigns, or media blitzes. It will be by providing the tools they need, and helping them spread the word of how cool gardening is via social media.

I'm part of the "big business, energy- and resource-consuming compost tea industrial complex"

We started selling compost tea last year, and soon enough the name Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott came up. Dr. Chalker-Scott is a professor at WSU (Washington State University) who has written about compost tea before. She feels the science is far from proven, and has emerged as the most visible counter point to the compost tea hysteria going on in northern California. Yesterday in "The Garden Professors" Dr. Chalker-Scott posted "Compost tea-now a part of landscape design?", as an answer to the APLD (Association of Professional Landscape Designers) recently published "Guide to sustainable soils".

Dr. Chalker-Scott say's, "Imagine my frustation, then, when I was sent the national APLD 'Guide to Sustainable Soils.'  Most of this document is very good - lots of information and graphics from the USDA and other reliable resources.  But scroll down to page 5, under the section 'Soil Additives.'  And yes, there it is, compost tea.  Acccording to the APLD member who sent me this (not a Washington state member, by the way), the advisory committees that write these guidelines include people who make money from selling compost tea.  Surprised, no.  Disappointed yes."

Dr. Chalker-Scott makes valid points, just as proponents of compost tea do. At the end of her post Dr. Chalker-Scott says, "Compost tea is marketed, very effectively, through targeting emotional response.  We've already got science on our side, so here's my suggestion to those of you who fight the compost tea battle:start a little emotional targeting yourself:" You can read the suggestions for "fighting the battle", but the part that caught my attention was where the she suggests to, "point out that using compost is a natural, environmentally friendly approach to caring for the soil, rather than the big business, energy- and resource-consuming compost tea industrial complex that's exploded in that last decade."

As a seller of compost tea that puts me in the “big business, energy-and resource-consuming compost tea industrial complex”.  It seems that beyond the science there is a bit anger that people are making money selling tea. Dr. Chalker-Scott say’s “In this economy, there aren’t many people who can afford to live on principle rather than a paycheck.”

Why is it so important to “fight the compost tea battle”? Wouldn’t it be better that we sell compost tea that my customers like rather than some synthetic fertilizer produced by a real "industrial complex"? I don’t mind talking about, and discussing all aspects of compost tea. What I want to point out is that most tea brewers in my area are small business, not the ” big business, energy-and resource-consuming compost tea industrial complex” described.

The Lorax and IHOP want you to plant trees

Have you heard about the IHOP and The Lorax Sweepstakes? If you haven't you can, "visit any participating IHOP (resturant) starting February 20. Kids 3-12 get a free Lorax bookmark (while supplies last).  Plant the tree seed paper on the bookmark and help IHOP plant 3 million trees. Seed paper contains an evergreen mix of Blue Spruce and Canadian White Pine which may grow 20-40 feet wide. May be planted in a container to minimize size."

The Lorax is the children's book written by Dr. Seuss that, "chronicles the plight of the environment and the Lorax, who speaks for the trees against the greedy Once-ler." The Lorax Movie is being put out by Universal pictures who has partnered with IHOP to make as much out of it has they can. There is a sweepstakes and a couple of links to help you either,  "be more friendly to the environment" or "hug a tree, and have it hug you back."

Is this a worthwhile project? Some of my colleagues feel that it's a positive. Anything we can do to get people interested in trees and the outside world is good.  Hopefully they might come into the nursery asking for advice. Others feel giving away seed of trees that don't grow well in our climate (California) only sets people up for disappointment.  The idea that these trees can really be kept in a container to "minimize size" is not practical, either.  Is this the  classic question of the ends justifying the means? Perhaps  a child inspired by the movie and the potential trees that come from such tiny seeds is worth it? Or is this just a case of a couple of huge companies trying to capitalize on the Eco-movement, and nothing more? A little of both?

This is not good

According to the website care2.com, Walmart, "is set to sell a new form of genetically-engineered (GE) sweet corn as early as this summer. Monsanto’s Bt sweet corn contains three GE traits that have never before been consumed directly by humans, and have not been subjected to thorough safety testing. There will be no labeling whatsoever indicating that the corn is a genetically modified organism."

They problem is the corn will not be labeled as a genetically engineered. There will be no way for you to tell . If this isn't a reason to grow your own, or support your local farmers market then what is? We have talked before how the interest in growing your own food is partially fueled by food safety.  How can you feel safe eating the food from the grocery store? Walmart could make a decision to at least label this stuff, but they won't.

If you want to take control of your food supply this year here is a great primer from Farmer Fred for the beginning gardener.