Horticulture Articles

There is a Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) in my garden that was planted before my time.  It is not a shrub I like because, in addition to reseeding itself prodigiously, it is favored by the dreaded Japanese beetles.   After mating in the flowers, the pesky beetle couples head right over to my vegetable garden for their nuptial feast of green bean foliage.  Grrr….  I am tolerant of most insects but give no quarter to non-native ones.  Having recently conceded defeat to the red lily beetles by digging out all my Asiatic and Oriental lilies, I am not about to surrender to the Japanese beetle.

I believe that one should know one’s enemy so I have studied their lifecycle and am presently girding my loins for battle.   As you read this, the little suckers are emerging to eat, mate, and lay eggs.

Japanese Beetle Lifecycle

Actually Japanese beetles are just one of a number of non-native pesky beetles including Asiatic, Oriental and European chafer beetles.   Here are their mugshots.   They all have very similar lifecycles though Asiatic beetles are the sneakiest, hiding during the day and feeding on foliage at night.  Unlike Japanese beetles which tend to skeletonize leaves, Asiatic beetles notch the edge of the foliage so keep an eye out for that damage with no apparent culprit around.

As bad as the adults are, the larvae can be worse.  The developing grubs spend a year underground feeding on

Asiatic Beetle

organic matter and roots.  If you are a person who likes a pristine lawn, you get twice the fun.  Not only will a large community of grubs create great swaths of dead grass; the moles, skunks and raccoons will aerate your lawn in search of a grub snack.

So what is an organic, tree-hugging gardener to do?   Well, kill them of course!   The only question is when and how.

Plan A.   The Ten Fingers of Death

Trying to spray the beetles with pesticides is a non-starter as the most effective

insecticides are very toxic to insects I like.  So, my summer mornings are spent handpicking the suckers off my plants and plopping them into soapy

Oriental Beetle

water (they don’t swim as long as the jumping worms).  It is easier to handpick beetles in the morning when they are not quite as quick.  If you suspect Asiatic beetles, sit outside at night with a light on, sip a glass of wine and wait till they come to the light.  This, as you might suspect, is not real effective but you will feel relaxed and the mosquitos will be happy.

What about those traps you ask?   Well there are two types of traps you can buy.   One uses a bait that mimics the smell of virgin female beetles and of course attracts male beetles.  The other bait has a yummy food smell and attracts both sexes. These traps will bring in hordes of horny and hungry beetles and kill a good number of them.  Unfortunately, the ones that escape death will happily mate and increase the population in your

European Chafer Beetle

garden.   Sigh, this is the law of unintended consequences known as perverse results.

Plan B.  The Mercenaries

The adult females you did not get in Plan A have now laid their eggs in the soil.  Once the eggs develop into larvae, the wretched little pests will head toward the surface of the soil and start feeding.  Time to bring in the enemies of our enemy which are bacteria and nematodes.

In the past, milky spore bacteria was the only game in town but it is not considered that effective in Connecticut and only kills the Japanese beetle grubs.   The new darling bacteria is Bacillus thuringiensis galleriae (Btg), a strain that produces a toxin that affects both adults and larvae.   When consumed the bacterium disrupts the gut lining causing the pests to stop feeding and gradually die.   Sorry but yeah!   The most advanced products in this space are grubGONE! and beetleGONE! from Phyllom BioProducts.

Japanese Beetle Grub

Some earlier Bt products are only effective against 1st instar grubs (the grub immediately after hatching) but grubGONE! is also effective against the larger 2nd and 3rd instar (more mature grubs) which appear later in the season.    So grubGONE! can be used as an early season curative or a late season preventative.    Once the soil cools, the grubs move deeper into the soil and go dormant.

beetleGONE! is sprayed on the foliage that the beetles are eating and can also be mixed into the soil to control grubs.  It is compliant with organic growing standards and in fact, treated vegetables, fruits and herbs can be eaten the day of application (nothing will happen to your gut).  The chart below gives you an idea of timing.

Our friends the nematodes (the species you want is Heterorhabditis bacteriophora) are microscopic, soil dwelling worms that will bore into the grubs, release a bacterium and kill them within 48 hours.   Isn’t the natural world just so clever and deadly?    Nematodes are usually purchased online and as they are living organisms, care in their handling and storage is critical.  They must be applied in heavily overcast or rainy conditions as they are not too keen on sunlight and need moisture in the soil to travel.  They need to be applied around mid- to late-August so if we have a drought like last year, pre-irrigating with at least a half an inch of water is a must.  One online source for nematodes is North Country Organics.

Biological controls require patience as it may take more time to terminate your enemies.  If you want them to drop dead quicker, you will find many grub control products containing pesticides. The active ingredient in Scott’s GrubEx is Chlorantraniliprole (0.08%) and should be applied in the early spring.  The active ingredient in Bayer Grub Killer Plus is Trichlorfon (9.30%) and should be applied in the summer or early fall.

I am staying organic with beetleGONE! and will see how it goes.  If it doesn’t help, well, I never liked that Rose of Sharon anyway.

Renee Marsh, FGCCT Horticulture Chair

The April/May issue is always a challenging one to write for.  Let’s face it – we are all out in our gardens getting our spring fix.  Intoxicated with flowers and green leaves, why read this article?   Unless it is raining maybe?   Anyway, I am glad you are and thank you.  Now, as to the topic.  Since I cannot compete with the glories of spring, I decided to talk tools, specifically pruning tools.  I attended this year’s Flower & Garden Show in Hartford and love to see what tools folks are selling.  Some are useful, some are silly, and some are downright stupid.  There was one vendor demonstrating how to cut through a sizeable limb with a ratcheting lopper.   In my experience, ratcheting devices are heavy and require the upper body strength of a sizeable gorilla.   Try holding that up to a tree or shrub and ratcheting the multiple times needed to get through a large branch.  Hah!

So, I have decided to share my humble opinion on the subject.  It is based on my tools rules which are the following:

1. Use the right tool for the right job.
2. Buy high quality tools with replaceable parts.
3. Buy tools that fit your hands. (Pink is not a size, it is a marketing ploy.)
4. Don’t buy that many tools. More tools means more maintenance (see next rule).
5. Maintain your tools – yes, really – clean, oil, sharpen, repeat.
6. Be honest about what you can handle as you age. Face it, most of us can’t even open a jar anymore.

I have buckets of tools that I bought in big-box stores (who will remain nameless because Home Depot, Costco and Walmart won’t like it).  When I started really working in horticulture as an 8 hours a day job, I learned quickly how awful – and painful – they were.   So, here is my lineup of tried and true pruning tools based on my years as a manual laborer.

Pruners (or secateurs for those of you who think the British still rule) 

There are three types:  bypass, anvil and ratchet.  Anvil pruners have one blade that cuts like a knife, with the blade pushing through a stem onto a lower block – think a knife on a chopping board.   This tends to crush live stems so it is recommended for dead limbs only.   Don’t bother unless you are Morticia Addams and prune mostly dead things.   Ratchet pruners have either anvil or bypass blades and feature ratchet springs and mechanisms to “ease effort” and cut through a stem in a series of stages. You have to repeatedly squeeze and release the handles to cut the branch.   While they are sold as useful for gardeners who lack strength, believe me, the constant squeezing will kill your hands in no time.

Bypass pruners have two blades, with a sharpened blade crossing over a thicker metal platform just like a pair of scissors.  They give a clean cut which minimizes damage to the plant.   They should be sharp as razors which means sharpening them constantly if you are doing a lot of pruning.   If you get anything out of this article, remember this … they come in different sizes to fit your hand.  Gorilla size pruners (I hope that is politically ok) lead to tired hands, aching forearms and carpel tunnel syndrome.    My recommendations:

• Okatsune: You have to give it to the Japanese for forging quality tempered steel that is razor sharp and incredibly durable.   Think of this as your own little Samurai sword.  The design is incredibly simple with a V-shaped spring that distributes the load over the blade (and does not pop out) and a locking system that is easy to release and close.  The result is a really weightless pruner.  It comes with a cute little holster that you might seriously consider.  They will punch a hole right through the bottom of a rubber garden trug if you aren’t careful!    They come in three sizes; I use a 101.  There is a link at the end of the article to a website that shows the sizes.   This is for stems up to roughly ½ inch.   Will they cut larger?  Yes but don’t do it.

Felco:  This is my second favorite and comes in many sizes as well; I use a Felco 6.    Felco products are what one expects of the Swiss – quality and long term reliability.  All parts are easily replaced so their products will last a lifetime.  I find that the blades don’t hold an edge as well as my Okatsune though.  Felco has many permutations of pruners for various types of pruning but really, just get the basic one.

Loppers

This is the tool you use when the job is too large for a pruner.   My favorite is the Felco 200C-60 lopper.   The number one reason is the carbon fiber handles that make them lightweight (1 lb. 9 oz. to be exact), and a joy to use.    Shock absorbers soften the impact on the wrist and hands. The curved cutting head reduces the effort needed for cutting.  They will cut branches up to 1.4 inches diameter at which point I go to my next tool.

Pruning Saw

This little folding saw, the Felco F-600, will cut branches up to about two inches.   This is a pull-stroke pruning saw which means it cuts on the pull stroke, not the push stroke. You start the cut with the back end of the blade.  It gives clean, precise cuts with little effort and folds up to fit in your pocket.

Reciprocating Saw

There was a time I was a real purist and eschewed power tools.  Then I got older, wiser, and weaker.   Enter the handheld, battery operated reciprocating saw.  Mine is a Milwaukee M12 Hackzall complete with the additional batteries and charger – and just the cutest little red carrying bag.  One good reason to get the extra battery packs is that they are smaller and lighter for those little jobs.   You can get pruning blades of various lengths at any of the usual hardware places.   By the way this works really well for cutting roots too – which is a bit rough on the blades so use older ones.    Eat your heart out tool guys.

Shrub (Hedge) Shears

My Okatsune 217 shears are categorized as short handled with medium-long blades.   They are razor-sharp and very lightweight with ash handles that absorb vibrations.  At 22 inches long, they are perfect for light hedge clipping yet tough enough to prune small branches.    There are longer-handled ones and longer bladed-ones but keeping with Rule # 4, this can cover all the bases just fine.

The Art of Creative Pruning

And finally, maintenance.   There are lots of tools for sharpening blades like files and whetstones but my hands-down favorite is the iSTOR Professional Swiss sharpener.  Watch the videos online and it is a breeze.

So there you go, time to prune your little hearts out!   If you are as obsessed with pruning as I am, check out Jake Hobson’s book “The Art of Creative Pruning”.

Of course, there are other experiences and opinions out there so if there are tools you love, let me know at hortchair@ctgardenclubs.org.  I am always willing to try something new and to share your feedback.

 Resources:

https://okatsune.co.uk/

https://www.okatsune-europe.com/en/pruners-bypass/pruners-okatsune-101-for-small-hands.htm

https://felco.com/en_us/     **Check out the article on counterfeits on Amazon on the homepage**

 From a Reader, the View From YOUR Garden: 

Martha Doshan writes “On one of my walks I picked up a strange growth, on a small branch, and wondered what it was. After reading your article, I figured out that I had an old horned oak gall. I ‘ve attached a picture.”

Renee Marsh, FGCCT Horticulture Chair

Deciding what to write can be a torturous task. As you may have noticed, I like to explore the often overlooked parts of the garden world. This time however, I decided to be conventional (yawn) and chose the most obvious plant for December, holly.

Sounded like it would be easy but nope, I soon found that Ilex is a very large genus. Even narrowing it down to the major ornamental species that thrive in Connecticut, left way too many plants. There are natives species: Inkberry (I. glabra), American holly (I. opaca), and winterberry (I. verticillata). Then there are the non-native species: Japanese holly (I. crenata) and the myriad hybrids. Ironically, the species that epitomizes Christmas, English holly (I. aquifolium) with its deep green, vicious spiny leaves and red berries, is marginally hardy to zone 6b. Not relevant for those of us up in the hills.

To keep this article from being unbearably long — we all have holiday shopping to do — I decided to focus on the non-natives species. Yes, yes, I know this will offend the nativists but, as we are steeped in the European holiday tradition, it’s only fair. No one ever sang “deck the halls with boughs of winterberry”. And as it all traces back to the Druids who believed that holly offered protection against evil spirits, evergreen holly with red berries it is.

Big animal picture … these evergreen hollies prefer sun with some moderate shade tolerance, prefer acidic soil, don’t like it too cold or too hot but in general, they aren’t overly fussy. One notable characteristic of holly is that it is a dioecious plant which means the male and female reproductive parts are on separate plants. The flowers are white and not of much interest unless you are a bee, in which case you are happy to gather the pollen of the male flowers. Any male plant can pollinate any female plant IF the flowering time overlaps. Most holly plants are paired (boy & girl) to ensure that happens. If it does, the resulting fruit is botanically speaking a drupe – not a berry – but I will just call them berries.

The freewheeling exchange of pollen is why there are many hybrid hollies which are crosses of different species. It is these hollies we will explore here starting with the Blue or Meserve hollies. Here is a great story of a woman in horticulture. Kathleen Meserve, an enthusiastic 20th century amateur gardener on Long Island, wanted to create cold hardy hollies with red berries. She crossed a Japanese species (Ilex rugosa) with the English holly and created a hybrid called Ilex x meserveae which is hardy to Zone 4. The foliage of this hybrid is so dark green it looks bluish, thus the name, Blue Hollies. There is ‘Blue Prince’, ‘Blue Boy’, ‘Blue Stallion’, ‘Blue Princess’ and ‘Blue Maid.’ You need one male for every four to five females to get a bumper crop of red berries. Cultivars vary in size but, by and large, they are sizeable shrubs growing to 5 – 12 ft. tall and 6 ft. or more across. They can be used as a foundation plant if you don’t mind pruning. Luckily they take to pruning very well and also make awesome hedges (take that, boring Arborvitae).

Ms. Meserve continued her matchmaking and crossed Chinese holly (I. cornuta) and English holly producing ‘China Boy’ and ‘China Girl’ (Ilex x meserveae ‘Mesdob’ & ‘Mesog’). They have a rounded, dense form growing to 7-10 ft. tall by 5-8 ft. wide. They too are hardy to Zone 4.

Then a German nursery man, Hans Hachmann, crossed ‘Blue Prince’ and English holly. The resulting blue hollies were trademarked with “Castle” names. They are smallish for hollies, hardy to zone 5 and best of all, way less spiky with softer deep green foliage. ‘Castle Spire’ (I. x meserveae ‘Hachfee’) has bright red berries, dark glossy foliage and a narrow, pyramidal form reaching 8 – 12 ft. tall and 3 – 4 ft. wide. The male, ‘Castle Wall’ (I. x meserveae ‘Heckenstar’) is a bit shorter at 5 – 8 ft. tall. An even shorter guy is ‘Castle Keep’ at 3 – 5 ft. tall and wide; he has a rounded habit that needs no pruning to keep it shape.

Then there is my favorite, ‘Dragon Lady’ (Ilex x aquipernyi ‘Meschick’), a cross between English and Perny holly (I. pernyi). She is a looker with a narrow pyramidal form, 20 ft., tall but only 4 – 5 ft. wide. She has the deeply spiked, glossy leaves and bright red fruits of her English parent in a hardier, leaner package. Also on the smaller side is ‘Red Beauty’ holly (I. ‘Rutzan’) who hails from Rutgers University and is a cross of Blue and Perny holly. She is the same width as ‘Dragon Lady’ but half the height at 7 – 10 ft. tall.

Lastly, the grand dame of the hybrids is ‘Nellie R. Stevens,’ a cross of English and Chinese holly. She is monumental and will quickly reach a mature height of 15 – 25 ft. and width of 8 – 15 ft. She tolerates drought, air pollution, and heat but is only cold hardy to Zone 6. She will produce large, bright orange-red berries without a male pollinizer but a male Chinese Holly will increase the berry set.

Beyond being decorative, hollies provide protection for nesting birds and the flowers, though small, are loved by pollinators. In Celtic mythology the revered holly tree is considered the evergreen twin of the oak. The oak is the controller of the light half of the year and the holly controls the dark, winter months. Happy winter solstice!

By Renee Marsh, Horticulture Chair, Federated Garden Clubs of CT