I’ve been helping out on our Editorial Board for the last few weeks, interviewing candidates and writing editorials in advance of upcoming local elections. I should be back on the garden beat before long.

Meanwhile, my colleague Mary Shustack wrote a nice feature for the paper on the big mums show at the New York Botanical Garden. The show runs through Nov. 20, so you’ve still got time to get there. Mums are quite hardy and should have come through last night’s first frost with no problems.

Here’s Mary’s story:

“Mums are soon to be the word at the New York Botanical Garden.

“Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Chrysanthemum,” a celebration of Japanese flowers, art and culture, opens Saturday (Oct. 20) in the Bronx.

Billed as “the most extensive display of chrysanthemums grown in the Imperial style ever presented outside Japan,” the exhibition will continue through Nov. 20.

The culmination of a five-year exchange and partnership with the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden in Tokyo, the exhibition will offer an introduction to “kiku,” or chrysanthemum in Japanese.

The flower is revered in Japan, where it has been carefully cultivated and trained into elaborate shapes for some 1,500 years.

The ozukuri or “thousand-bloom” plants, for example, actually feature hundreds of simultaneous blossoms in a large, domed shape – all from a single plant.

A flower show featuring ozukuri and other kiku styles, along with other Japanese garden plants, will be held in the courtyards of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.

And while the flowers are indeed the focal point of the event, there is also plenty of programming that combines to make “Kiku” the most elaborate flower show and cultural celebration ever presented by the Garden.

“Kiku Matsuri: A Celebration of Japanese Art & Culture” special events planned for each weekend of the show, will feature traditional dance and music, bonsai and more.

“Kiku for Kids,” including an exploration of origami, the tea ceremony and other Japanese traditions, will be held in the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, while “Plants of Japan in Illustrated Books and Prints,” rounds out the event. This display continues into January in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library.

The festivities even extend to The Shop in the Garden, where specially designed kiku-inspired items will be on sale, along with Japanese plants and books on Japanese plants and gardens.

The garden is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Sunday. Admission is $18, $16 for senior citizens and students and $5 for children ages 2 to 12.

The New York Botanical Garden is off the Bronx River Parkway, at Fordham Road. Call 718-817-8700 or visit www.nybg.org.”

Looks like the Garden Clubs of Mamaroneck and Larchmont had a very successful show last week. Congrats to the winners and kudos to the clubs for holding the show at a local nursing home.

Here’s the press release from Beth Tafuri of the Garden Club of Mamaroneck about the show:

“The Garden Clubs of Mamaroneck and Larchmont staged a two-day Standard Flower Show titled “Come Fly With Me” at Sarah Neuman Center for
Healthcare and Rehabilitation in Mamaroneck on Oct. 18 and 19.

“Mamaroneck Flower Show Chairs, Caroline Silverstone & Pat McNelis, and Larchmont Flower Show Chair, Nedra Gilette, worked tirelessly to make this show the success that it was. The show consisted of four design classes which were open to all Club Members: Pedestal, Cubes, Tablescape and Petite and one design class open only to novice exhibitors.

“In addition to design, an abundance of horticulture, grown and raised by members, was displayed. Two educational exhibits, Garden Therapy” and “Endangered Birds”, rounded out the show. An oral judging program allowed attendees to understand how each design was judged and ribbons determined.

“A steady procession of Sarah Neuman residents and staff streamed into the beautiful Sally Froelich Winter Garden and enjoyed the horticulture, design and educational exhibits.

Awards:

DESIGN:
Designers Choice: Christel Pugin, Larchmont Club

Class 1 – Pedestals – First place: Christel Pugin, Larchmont Club
Second Place: Martha Zerega, Mamaroneck Club

Class 2 – Tablescape – First place – Pat McNelis, Mamaroneck Club
Second Place – Liz Porretto, Larchmont Club

Here’s Pat McNelis’ winning entry, Soar Like an Eagle:

Class 3 – Cubes – First place – Pat McNelis, Mamaroneck Club
Second place – Laura Sprengelmeyer, Larchmont Club

Class 4 – Petites – First place – Pat McNelis, Mamaroneck Club
Second Place – Mary McGee, Larchmont Club

Class 5 – Novice – Second place – Fran Lisa, Mamaroneck Club
Second place – Trish Klein, Larchmont Club

HORTICULTURE:
Horticulture Excellence: Julie Varca for her Rabbits Foot Fern
Award of Merit: Julie Varca (Rabbits Foot Fern & Hydrangea), Beth
Tafuri (Phalaenopsis Orchid), Liz Porretto (Dahlia)

Beth’s winner:

EDUCATIONAL:
Educational Award: Beth Tafuri, Nancy Brand and Shoko Iwata for Garden
Therapy Display.

The objective of The Garden Club of Mamaroneck, established in 1925,
is to stimulate active interest in horticulture, civic improvement,
garden therapy, conservation of our natural resources and the art of
flower arranging. New members are always welcome. For more
information, call Beth Tafuri at 914-777-1929.”

Ed Bonci, a master gardener who lives in Eastchester, sent me a note about a class he’s teaching on how to overwinter dahlias.

Ed is nuts for dahlias and a very enthusiastic, knowledgeable teacher about how to care for them. I heard him speak last year on the same topic, same place—very worthwhile.

Here’s Ed at last year’s class. (photos by Liz Orozco and Ricky Flores)

His note about the class this year:

“I’ll be giving a dahlia tuber digging, dividing and storing demonstration at The Hartsbrook Preserve on Monday Oct 29th @ 10:00 AM.

If you or anyone you know would be interested in attending, please feel free to pass the word along and come join me.

It should last between 1-1.5 hrs and will be similar to what you attended last year.”

Here’s a Web site with directions to the Hartsdale park.

And here are excerpts from the article I wrote for the paper after attending the workshop last year.

“If you want your big-blooming dahlias to return for another show next year, you have to dig them up now and get them into storage for the winter.

Many gardeners say, “Hey, I’m way too busy for that,� and just assume they will start fresh next spring with new plants that catch their eye. But it’s really not that hard to save them from year to year and certainly worth it if you were happy with the ones you had this year and don’t want to take the time to find them again.

Dahlias, like other summer bulbs and tender perennials such as cannas, begonias and gladiolas, are simply not hardy enough to survive winters in the Hudson Valley. Leave them in the ground or in pots on the deck and the first hard freeze will kill them.

To save your dahlias, you need to dig up the tuberous roots after a frost blackens the leaves. Then clean the tubers and store them in a cool place for winter.

Ed Bonci, a dahlia expert who grows about 100 different varieties in raised beds in his Eastchester yard, suggests waiting a week after the first frost before digging them up. This allows the “eyes� in the tubers to swell a bit so that you can more easily identify them when you’re dividing the uprooted clumps.

Before you dig, cut back the stem to a length of 4 to 6 inches; this gives you a good handle to work with as you pull up the clumps.

With a shovel or pitchfork, dig a circle that extends 8 to 10 inches away from the stem. Gently lift up the clump of tubers and roots and shake away as much soil as you can. Rinse away the rest with the soft spray from a garden hose.

Let the clumps dry out overnight, in a place where they won’t freeze, to allow the protective skin on the tubers to harden. Bonci, who led a demonstration on dahlia care on a warm morning last week at the master gardeners’ demonstration gardens at the Hart’s Brook Park and Preserve in Hartsdale, just lets his dug-up clumps sit on the grass for a day.

Noeline and Rocco Vicini, who grow dozens of dahlias each year in their Mahopac garden, let their dahlias dry out for a week to 10 days on a huge piece of plywood on the floor of the garage. Then they pack them into 17 wooden crates and store them in a cool room in the basement.

While the tubers are drying, the Vicinis also divide the tubers and cut away any spent or dead parts.

Bonci likes to get it all done as quickly as possible, and he’s pretty ruthless about throwing away any thin or weak-looking tubers and all hair roots within a large clump.

“As long as I get two or three viable tubers, I’m good,� he says.

He uses a sharp knife and clippers to cut apart the clumps and find the plump tubers worth saving. He then dabs the cut parts with a fungicidal powder to prevent rot.

“Each tuber has a body, neck and crown,� Bonci explains. The crown, the part that’s closest to the stem, contains the eyes that will be the source of next year’s new sprouts.

Each of your saved tubers needs to have at least one eye. In the fall, they are just small bumps that are difficult to see.

“If you cut off enough of the crown, you’ll probably get an eye, even if you can’t see it,� says Bonci, who works nights as a pilot for DHL (“I’m a pilot by night, a gardener by day.�)

Many gardeners like to wait until spring to divide their dahlias because it’s easier to see the eyes. In that case, you can just overwinter the whole clump. Bonci, who is a member of two dahlia societies on Long Island and one in Connecticut, recommends storing it upside-down.

He says it’s also important to keep track of any plant tags while you’re digging and dividing so that you can identify what you’ve got come spring. He writes right on his tubers with a Sharpie marker.

To store them for winter, Bonci sorts the tubers by variety into 1-gallon plastic bags and adds a couple of cups of vermiculite and a couple of teaspoons of fungicide.

“Never use peat moss,� he says. “It wicks away most of the moisture and the tubers will shrivel.�

He leaves the plastic bags unsealed and stacks them in newspaper-lined cardboard boxes that go up to his unheated attic for the winter. He checks them periodically to remove any rotten tubers before the fungus can spread. As a memory aid, Bonci recommends winter holidays: Christmas, Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day.
The ideal temperature for storage ranges from 38 to 50 degrees.

“If you don’t grow a lot, the best place to store your tubers is your refrigerator,� Bonci says. “Put them in the crisper inside a plastic bag. That way you can check on them whenever you want.�

Once all threat of frost has passed in May, your stored dahlia tubers can go right back into the ground.

After a few years of mixed results, Bonci says he’s had 100 percent success with his storage method the past two winters.

John Dusza, a great dahlia grower in Nanuet, is more cavalier about his approach.

“I’m very good at buying them from catalogs, not so good at storing them,� he says with a laugh. “I only get a 10 to 15 percent survival rate.�

He wraps the tubers from his 90 plants (down from 250 just a few years ago) in newspapers and then sets them into cardboard boxes that go into his unheated garage.

“I just hope for the best,� he says. “Most of the time, it stays just slightly above freezing in there. Some varieties come back just fine every year no matter what you do to them.�

Here’s a 2002 photo of John that I found in our photo library.

Rather than taking the time to divide them in fall, Dusza prefers to wait until spring to see what survives.

“I’m just so damned tired after digging them up,� he says. “I have two seasons, one in the garden and another in my wood shop. When frost takes my dahlias, I say, ‘Good riddance!’ Then it’s time to get to my wood shop for the winter.�

If you’ve got pokeweed growing in your garden, you’re probably in constant battle to get rid of it. Yes, it’s a native, but oh my is it aggressive.

I noticed one harmless-looking little pokeweed plant in my yard last year. This year, it’s everywhere. And it’s tough to get rid of because of its large fleshy root that easily breaks off when you try to pull it up.

All parts of the plant are poisonous, but native Americans used pokeweed to treat dysentery, hemorrhoids, rheumatism and sprains. In the South, the young tender leaves are cooked as a spring vegetable (cooking the leaves twice, rinsing carefully each time, is essential to getting rid of the poison).

Poisonous or not, the deer seem to love my pokeweed – which, for once, is a good thing. Perhaps they’ll help to keep it in check.

Pokeweed plants grow to a sprawling 6 to 8 feet tall. They are particularly attractive this time of year, with dark purple berries that birds like. The flowers are usually white or pink.

Here’s a big pokeweed plant that I noticed at the Lenoir Preserve in Yonkers a couple of weeks ago.

Really beautiful berries.

They are not fussy about soil or sun and will adapt easily to most conditions.

Known botanically as Phytolacca americana, pokeweed also goes by the common names of poke, pokeberry, pokeroot and inkberry.

Every year I notice new stands of Joe-pye weed somewhere else on the property. This great native perennial seems to like wet spots and I’ve got lots of those.

I like it because it adds height and verticality to the garden, raising your eye up to the trees and sky. Joe-pye, which grows to 6, 8, even 10 feet tall, looks great all summer and well into fall.

Here’s how it looked in full bloom in August.

Even with these great big mophead blooms, it never needs staking.

Some of the plants I have are a wonderful almost electric shade of pink-purple. Bees and butterflies are all over Joe-pye when it’s in bloom.

Here’s Joe-pye is as the blooms begin to fade and form big fuzzy seed heads.

This time of year, the seed heads turn a dull brown and the leaves begin to brown up from the base and fall off. The plants look pretty ugly, except in the late-afternoon sunlight. Just about ready for the compost pile. …

But I keep seeing goldfinches and other small birds landing on the brown mopheads and feasting on the seeds.

So I wait as long as I can before cutting them back to the ground for winter.

Sorry for the long delay between posts. We’ve had major technical difficulties with our blogs and they’ve all been down for several days.

Now back to gardening…

If you were a very good and diligent gardener and saved your amaryllis bulbs from last Christmas, now is the time to bring them inside and make them go dormant in time for another round of holiday blooms.

(photo from Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Center)

Amaryllis bulbs need a good four to six weeks of dormancy before they’ll come into flower again. Stop watering them now and put them in a dark closet or basement for six weeks and forget about them. Just let the foliage die back on its own.

The key to getting them to rebloom from year to year is to treat them just like any other houseplant for the rest of the year. After the big flowers fade (just after the Christmas holidays if your timing is good), cut off the stalks but leave the green foliage to keep growing.

In late May, I put mine outdoors for the summer in an inconspicuous corner of the garden and ignore them till late September or early October. Definitely bring them in before the first frost.

Here’s a pot of three amaryllis bulbs that I bought last December and set outdoors in May.

And another that was in a really ugly plastic pot that I threw out. You can just stick the bare bulbs into the garden for the summer and then dig them up now and cut back the roots.

After six weeks in the dark, dump out an inch or so of topsoil around the bulb and replace with compost or good-quality potting soil. Then start watering again and wait six or eight weeks for your bulb to begin anew.

Want to know more about amaryllis? Here are excerpts from an article for the paper that I did last December:

“Each winter brings a new crowd of amaryllis admirers who have discovered how incredibly easy it is to grow these showy, almost gaudy bulbs. Just stick the bare bulb in a shallow pot with a little potting soil, add water and sunlight and you’re ready to go.

In six to 10 weeks, you’re rewarded with a blast of richly colored blooms atop long, sturdy stems. Red remains the traditional favorite, especially for Christmas and Valentine’s Day, but new varieties in shades of white, salmon and pink arrive from growers every fall. Bicolored shades of red and white have been big sellers in recent winters.

Amaryllis bulb production has more than doubled worldwide since the late 1990s, according to the Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Center. Most of the new production has been in South America, the bulb’s native continent.

That means many more amaryllis bulbs for North American households, especially early in the season.

Brazil now has nearly 500 acres devoted to commercial amaryllis production, up from almost none in the late 1990s. Many of the new growers are immigrants from Holland, which had been the worldwide leader for many years.

Commercial growers in Holland still use nearly 150 acres for amaryllis, down from a peak of about 250 acres. Two other production centers, Israel and South Africa, have remained steady at about 62 acres.

Many varieties these days are doubles – when one flower-covered stem begins to fade, another rises up to take its place and add several more weeks of bloom time.

Unlike other bulbs such as tulips, daffodils and hyacinths, amaryllis bulbs don’t need a cooling-down period of several weeks to set their blooms. Like paperwhites, they’re ready to begin growing as soon as they come home from the garden center or arrive

Amaryllis (known botanically as Hippeastrum) like to be potbound, so set the bulbs snugly into a shallow pot with a drainage hole. Use just enough potting soil so that the top third of the bulb sits above the soil. Give them bright light and a good drink of water to start, then water sparingly until green shoots begin to appear. (The soil should be dry to the touch about 1/2 -inch down from the surface.)

After they begin to grow, water regularly to keep the soil moist but never soggy.

When in full flower, move the plants out of direct sunlight to make the flowers last as long as possible. The cooler the room, the better.

Because amaryllis have all the food they need inside the bulb, you can also forgo soil completely and just set them into pebbles or stones. Add just enough water to keep the roots wet.

Amaryllis bulbs can live for decades, and it’s easy to maintain them from year to year.

Mail-order sources

Brent and Becky’s Bulbs 877-661-2852 www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com

Dutch Gardens 866-866-3780 www.dutchgardens.com

John Scheepers Inc. 860-567-0838 www.johnscheepers.com

Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Center 802-293-2852 www.bulb.com

Van Bourgondien 800-622-9997 www.dutchbulbs.com

White Flower Farm 800-503-9624 www.whiteflowerfarm.com.

Know any really good gardeners in Rockland County? Cornell is starting a new class of master gardeners and is looking for applicants.

Here’s a note from Donna Cooke at Cornell:

“Cornell University Cooperative Extension of Rockland County is now accepting applications for the Master Gardener Training beginning in January 2008.

“This training lasts about 50 hours, and in return, trainees are asked to donate time working in the community educating youth and adults about gardening and the environment. The fee is $150.00 and includes training manual with horticultural resources from Cornell University.

“The 2008 training will be held on 10 consecutive Thursdays, 930am-2:30pm**, at the Education Center, 10 Patriot Hills Drive, Stony Point, NY.

“For more information, or to have an application sent to you, contact Donna Cooke, Community Horticulture Educator at dmc72@cornell.edu, or 845-429-7085 ext 108.

**If you can’t attend a daytime training, please contact Donna for future evening/weekend trainings.

Donna Cooke
Community Horticulture Educator
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rockland County
10 Patriot Hills Drive
Stony Point, NY 10980
Ph. 845 429-7085×108
Fax 845 429-8667

I’ve been getting questions about mums, about how late you can pinch them back and still get blooms.

Here’s an earlier post about when and how to cut them back. Basically, if you pinch anything back past August you’re cutting off your fall flowers.

If you didn’t pinch back your mums earlier in the summer and they’re flopping over, you can try staking them or using green Velcro for gardeners to hold them up (here’s an earlier post about that).

Along with dahlias and asters, chrysanthemums have long been a mainstay in the fall garden. They’re easy to grow and they require little maintenance. They’re incredibly cheap, too.

In return, you get a big splash of color for bare spots in the garden where summer-flowering plants like salvia and cardinal flower have died back and left ugly holes. Hardy mums – often simply called garden mums – will hide a lot of sins when much of the garden has gone stale.

The hardiness of cultivars varies greatly, and many experts say that mums are best treated as annuals. When fall comes, simply pick up pots of them at garden centers and plop them into the ground for an instant block of color until a killing frost takes them out. If they survive the winter, great. If not, try again next year.

To get mums that have a reasonably good chance of surviving the winter, check the label carefully. You want something that says “hardy mum.” Avoid the ones that say “florist mum” — they really are annuals and definitely won’t come back next year.

Good brands include Yoder Brothers/Flower Fields, Belgian Mums by Gro Link and the Simply Beautiful line from the Ball Seed Co. Another winner is My Favorite Perennial Mums from Anthony Tesselaar International.

Buy them now and you still have plenty of time to get them into the ground and settled before winter.

Mums prefer full sun but will still grow well in partial shade. Moderately fertile, well-drained soil suits them best. Good drainage is important because the crowns will rot if they are left sitting in water, especially in winter.

Getting mums to survive the winter can be a tricky proposition. It’s usually best to plant them in the spring, allowing plenty of time for the plants to form strong roots.

Mums are heavy feeders, but you should stop fertilizing them in August to discourage new growth late in the season. Also, avoid planting them in areas with cold, dry winds and mulch them loosely after the ground freezes (usually December, but it was well into January last winter).

New research shows that leaving the plants up for the winter improves their overall survival rate. Don’t cut them back until spring, after all threat of cold weather has passed.

Good companion plants for mums include ornamental grasses, snapdragons, asters, pansies and ornamental cabbages and kales.

My colleague Mike Risinit has a well-reported, thought-provoking article in yesterday’s paper on the ways local municipalities are composting their dead deer and other roadkill.

As Mike says,

“Composting roadkill eliminates worries about environmental contamination and is cheaper than paying a contractor to pick up the carcass or a landfill to take it, those involved say. Plus, as dead deer pile up on the region’s roads – more than 75,000 are killed every year by motorists statewide, according to Cornell’s figures – and more homes line those roads, traditional means no longer suffice.”

Not exactly a thing for home gardeners, but it sounds like a good use of resources.

And here’s info from Mary Kay Koch of Westchester Parks and Rec about a flower show at Lasdon Park.

“Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, but next weekend, October 12 – 14, girl’s and guys can both enjoy some natural “gemsâ€? at a Petite Standard Flower Show called “Gem Stonesâ€? presented by the New Horizons Garden Club at Lasdon Park and Arboretum in Somers.

“The show features miniature and dwarf horticulture and tiny floral designs from 4 to 8 inches tall. The horticultural exhibit categories are based on stones of all types and the design themes reflect the good taste and high price-tags of Tiffany’s, Faberge and George Jensen.

“But don’t worry, you can afford these gems – the show is free and open to all.

“Hours are Friday, 2 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission and parking are free. Lasdon Park is on Route 35 in Somers and may be reached via I-684 (Exit 6) or the Taconic Parkway (Exit Route 35/202). For more information call Lasdon Park at 864-7268 or log on to www.westchestergov.com./parks.

Contact: Westchester Parks, 914. 864. 7065
Or Auralie Logan, New Horizons Garden Club, 914. 739. 3469