From Karen Quinn, White Plains Beautification Foundation:

“White Plains Beautification Foundation 25th Annual Fall Gala is Bigger and Better
Contact:
Claudia Doherty – Co Chair: claudiadoherty@yahoo.com
Jean Bello  – Co Chair: jeanmbello@gmail.com
Mary Merenda – President: marymerenda@verizon.net

The White Plains Beautification Foundation is hosting their 25th annual Fall Gala Thursday October 29th at the Woman’s Club of White Plains.

This is a fall extravaganza that only the White Plains Beautification Foundation can pull off.  In addition to butlered hors d’oeuvres, serving stations and drinks, attendees can expect a dance exhibition presented by Arthur Murray Dance Studio, and a demonstration by Carla Iarocci of Gedney Farms Nursery – “Bringing in Your House Plants.”  To top it off, guests can also participate in a silent auction and raffle.

Me previewing the annual house tour sponsored by the Historical Society of Rockland County

Creating a cutting garden, in The Journal News (Higgins/Wash Post)

Apple picking, by Chris Sirico, in TJN, with local orchards

Free and cheap fall fun in the Hudson Valley, Sirico/TJN

The grass is greener at Harvard, Anne Raver in NYT—Harvard goes completely organic for lawn and garden care; good basic science of compost and compost tea

Give Birds a Break. Lock Up the Cat., in NYT

Oct. 8
North Salem: Conversations with Expert Gardeners. Listen to and ask questions of local gardeners. Free. Noon. Ruth Keeler Memorial Library of North Salem, 276 Titicus Road.  914-669-5161.

Oct. 9
Cold Spring: Farm Tours. 90-minute tour of the farm and gardens. Reservations. Free. 3 p.m. Glynwood Center, Glynwood Road and Route 301.  845-265-3338.

Oct. 10
Armonk: “As Time Goes By” Flower Show. Presented by Green Acres Garden Club. All amateur gardeners invited to exhibit. Entries must be registered on 10/9 6-8 p.m. or 10/10 8-10 a.m. Free. 1:30-6:30 p.m. North Castle Public Library, 19 Whippoorwill Road East.  914-276-7890.

Oct. 26
New Rochelle: New Rochelle Garden Club Exhibit.  Free. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. New Rochelle Public Library, One Library Plaza.  914-632-7878. Also on Oct. 27

From Mary T. Prenon at Thompson and Bender; (914) 762-1900,  mary@thompson-bender.com:

“Hudson Valley Tourism Presents the Top 10 Fall Foliage Viewing Spots in the Region

Mother Nature knows how to put on a show before she dresses in monochromatic winter white, and the Hudson Valley is just the place to see her don her brilliant finery.  Enjoy two months of fabulous fall foliage throughout the region, especially at our top 10 fall foliage viewing spots.

Crisp cold air is what brings out the color, so start north in Troy on the bluff at Oakwood Cemetery. You’ll have an expansive view of the majestic Hudson River and a large part of the region enveloped in red, gold, and orange. Across the river, the Helderberg Escarpment rises 1,100 vertical feet from an ancient ocean floor. The escarpment is one of the richest fossil-bearing formations in the world. From the top, enjoy spectacular views of the Hudson-Mohawk Valleys, the Adirondacks, and the Green Mountains of Vermont.

Another spot where you can see the splendors of autumn for miles is the Catskill Mountain House Site at North South Lake State Park in Haines Falls. In the late 1800’s this site was among the premiere resorts in the United States, and inspiration for countless paintings. The fantastic vistas from the hotel’s front steps overlook 50 miles of the Hudson River Valley into New England. Nearby in Germantown, Clermont State Historic Site sits on 485 acres with formal gardens and miles of hiking trails. Tour the beautiful 1700’s home, and enjoy the breathtaking views through the windows. Clermont is French for “clear mountain”, and that’s what you see as you look toward the Catskills.

From the Greenhouse Management and Production newsletter:

“Since April, visitors to 17 U.S. public gardens have been voting for their favorite garden plants.

The votes have been counted and the winners of the 1st American Garden Award competition are rudbeckia ‘TigerEye Gold,’

followed by petunia ‘Baby Duck Yellow’ and pentas ‘Northern Lights Lavender.’

The well-branching ‘TigerEye Gold’ produces long-lasting, 3-inch bright golden flowers with a dark eye on compact 16-24 inch tall plants. These F1 hybrid plants are tolerant to heat, humidity and powdery mildew.

The American Garden Award, a brainchild of the All-America Selections board of directors, is a new competition that enables garden visitors to text message or phone in their votes. 6 new seed-produced varieties were submitted by breeders for the 2009 competition. 10 entries is the maximum for the competition and no AAS winners will be allowed. The gardens were chosen based on their prestige, location and relationship with AAS.

Photo courtesy of C. Raker & Sons

Krys Mernyk has begun to send me info about events sponsored by the Taconic Garden Club, which meets at the Chappaqua library:

“Date:     Wednesday, October  21, 2009
Time         Coffee; 7:30 PM followed by lecture at 8 PM
Place:
Chappaqua Library
Topic:      “The Gardens of the Roman Empire” “The ancient Roman garden was more than its individual parts – architecture, plantings, water, sculptures – because together they were expressions of cultural identities and personal preferences.  Roman gardens, as all post-antique landscape designs, strove to define aesthetic norms and social environments, and as such are important elements in our knowledge of the ancient past.”

Speaker:  Mr. Kim J. Hartswick earned his Ph.D. at Bryn Mawr College in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology.  He was a professor for more than two decades at the George Washington University and taught as well at the American University in Paris and Bryn  Mawr College before becoming the Academic Director of the CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies in New York City.  He has published a number of scholarly articles, particularly on ancient Greek and Roman sculpture, and two books, one of which explores an ancient garden in the city of Rome – the so-called Gardens of Sallust.  He is presently completing, with other scholars, two volumes for Cambridge University Press on the Ancient Roman Garden
__
Date:      Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Time:        Coffee; 7:30 PM followed by lecture at 8 PM
Place:        Chappaqua Library
Topic:      “Provocative Perennials.” Perennials are the most popular garden plants, returning to your garden year after year. Discover some of the best varieties for form, color, and texture. Many are valued for their foliage as well as their flowers, making them beautiful even when not in bloom. Learn which plants do best in sun and shade, as well as in a variety of “difficult” conditions

Speaker:    Mrs. Ellen Zachos is a garden writer and photographer, garden designer, and an instructor at the New York Botanical Garden, where she teaches on tropical’s, orchids, perennials, annuals, containers, and rooftop gardening.  A Harvard graduate; she received certificates in horticulture and ethnobotany from the NYBG. Ellen’s latest book, Down and Dirty: 43 Fun and Funky First Time Garden Projects was published in January 2007.  She also authored “175 Irresistible Indoor Plants” & “ Orchid Growing for Wimps.” Ellen is the proprietor of Acme Plant Stuff, a garden design, installation, and maintenance company in NYC.  She is also a former Broadway performer and recently released her first CD, entitled “Green up Time.” On this recording, Ellen combines her two passions, plants and music, for a botanical look at Broadway.
Books will be available for sale by Ellen Zachos.

From the Hudson Valley Cornell newsletter:

“Why Invasive Plants Take Over

“Written By Don Comis, April 30, 2009, www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2009/090430.htm

New research shows that two key causes of plant invasion – escape from natural enemies, and increases in plant resources – act in concert. This result helps to explain the dramatic invasions by exotic plants occurring worldwide. It also indicates that global change is likely to exacerbate invasion by exotic plants.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) ecologist Dana Blumenthal reached these conclusions after studying 243 European plant species and their fungal and viral pests, both in Europe and in the United States.

The study was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Blumenthal, based at the ARS Rangeland Resources Research Unit in Fort Collins, Colo., and colleagues at the University of North Carolina and in the Czech Republic showed that fast-growing plant species adapted to moist, nitrogen-rich soils had many fungal and viral pathogens in the areas where the weedy species evolved. Once these species arrived here, they escaped many of their long-time enemies.

Such an escape from numerous enemies is thought to provide exotic species with an advantage over native species still burdened by their enemies. This is the first study, however, to show that whether a plant escapes from a few or an unusually larger number of enemies can be predicted from the type of plant: Exotic species that are fast-growing and weedy are likely to have more enemies to escape from.

Unfortunately, these are the same species most favored by global change. Fast-growing weedy species thrive in environments with ample plant resources. And global change increases key plant resources, such as carbon dioxide and soil nitrogen, through increases in the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, respectively.

Fast-growing, weedy exotic species therefore have a double advantage in today’s world. Increases in resources enable them to outcompete slow-growing plants. An escape from an unusually large number of enemies enables them to outcompete even fast-growing native plants. As global change proceeds, continuing increases in resource availability are likely to exacerbate such plant invasions.

The National Science Foundation, the European Union, and the Czech Republic supported the study.   ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency in the US Department of Agriculture.

Submitted by Rick Harper, Cornell Cooperative Extension Westchester County

Interesting blog post by Peter Kukielski, curator at the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at NY Botanical Garden, on how to ID rose diseases caused by wet, humid weather. Sort of black spot vs. downy mildew.

Perennials: Remove and destroy all old foliage from your bearded irises after the first heavy frost — borers winter over on the old foliage. Ornamental grasses are at their best now so make notes for new plantings using this wonderful material. Leave some perennials — rudbeckia, Echinacea and caryopteris — for seedhead interest and as food for the birds.

Flowers: Carry over some tender plants to stock next year’s garden. Dig plants from the garden and move them indoors shortly before frost. Nurture them through the winter and when growth resumes in early spring, take cuttings and discard the stock plant. The cuttings can be potted and grown to a healthy size, ready to plant in the garden in late spring. Another method is to propagate plants from cuttings taken in the garden from geraniums or coleus or other short-lived plants. It works well for those with limited space.

Vegetables and fruits: Continue harvesting and preserving if there is a bountiful crop. Be ready to cover tender crops during early fall cold spells. Basil can’t stand even a touch of frost, but lettuces will survive. Destroy all corn stalks and debris to prevent corn borers from wintering over. Read more of this entry »

Ask the master gardeners

Q: A friend suggested growing native plants.  What are they and what are the advantages compared to exotic plants?

A: Native plants are indigenous to the area where you live. Because they are well adapted to the environmental conditions of your area, they are more tolerant of seasonal conditions (dry, humid summers and harsh winters), more resistant to pests and diseases and therefore are easier to grow than exotic species.

This saves you money and time by taking the guesswork out of whether or not a plant will survive in your garden. In addition, native plants support our wildlife such as butterflies, dragon flies, bees, birds and the like, with food and shelter, and they help create a healthy ecosystem.

Though exotic plants are beautiful, some may become invasive by taking over the habitat where the native plants grow, thus reducing their population and the wildlife that depends on them.

Here are some suggestions of native varieties for our area:
Ferns: Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides); maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum); ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris).
Grasses: Little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium); American beach grass (Ammophila breviligulata); broomsedge bluestem (Andropogon virginicum).
Shrubs: American cranberry bush (Viburnum opulus var. americanum); mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia); red bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi); buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis).
Perennials: Marsh marigold (Caltha palustris); dogtooth lily, yellow trout lily (Erythonium americanum); creeping phlox (Phlox stolonifera); wild geranium (Geranium maculatum); wild bleeding heart (Dicentra eximia); New England aster cultivars (Aster novae-angliae ‘Alma Potchke’); sundial lupine (Lupinus perennis); spreading Jacob’s ladder (Polemonium reptans); Virginia spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana).

For more information on native plants for your area, visit www.gardening.cornell.edu or nativeplantcenter.org.
Laurie Lago Rispoli, Tappan, master gardener, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rockland