My pop culture age is showing again. The title of this blog is a phrase often used by one of the greatest talk show hosts of all time - Johnny Carson. In case you weren't on the planet between 1962 and 1992 when his show ran, click on the link to get a feel of his late night humor. How Hot Is It? Johnny used this expression often over the years with funny, witty responses. This is the only video I found online. You know what I'm talking about if you used to watch the original The Tonight Show. Right now as I'm writing - it's 103 degrees and perhaps a degree or two hotter at the airport where they keep the official record for temperatures in the Denver area. I heard on the news that we were warmer today at noon than they were in Phoenix or Vegas at the same time. Yikes!
During the gardening season there's nothing we can do about the weather but remain hydrated when we're outside, cover up with sunscreen and a hat. I was in and outside very early this morning for about thirty minutes to putz and water the ornamental containers and the raised bed of seeded cover crop. I'm giving all five raised beds the summer off from warm season crops. It was time, they were needing a break and so was I. Three of the five are growing a red clover cover crop, the other two are happily breaking down a thick layer of composted leaves and grass so they'll be ready for the fall garlic planting. I'm still growing plenty of basil in Smart Pots® and a couple of tomatoes in the herb bed. I think my decision to
take this summer off was a good one, it's been so hot and so dry already. Have
I mentioned the heat?
Stay on top of deeply watering your vegetables, new plantings and young trees. Mulch goes a long way to keep soils cool and moisture in. Our tomato plants are covered with a perforated shade cloth that reduces temperatures by five to eight degrees. Tomato blossoms easily drop or abort with temperatures over ninety, so fruit obviously can't or won't develop. With just two plants, we're hoping for enough tomatoes to have a few BLAT (bacon, lettuce, avocado, tomato) sandwiches later in the summer. Once temperatures cool back down tomatoes, pepper and eggplant will resume flowering and all will be well my friend. In the meantime, take a look at the next three month weather maps from NOAA - temperatures and precipitation. They have been spot on in their predictions this entire year. Looks like the heat will continue, hopefully not with many days in the hundreds.
'Tis the summer vacation season but if you're not hiking another fourteener or relaxing in a resort endless pool, check out the three following outstanding garden events in the Denver area. And don't forget your hat and sunscreen - the heat is on.
Donna's WONDERFUL Habitat Hero Garden
1) Thursday, June 28, starting at 5:30 pm. Check out this bird and pollinator-friendly central Denver garden at Audubon Rockies’s Habitat Hero Fundraiser. The event will be emceed by - - Danielle Grant, 9NEWS meteorologist - Marcia Tatroe, author and gardener - Rob Proctor, author, gardener, and host of "Proctor's Garden" on 9NEWS The party will also include - Tour of Donna Baker's award-winning Habitat Hero garden - Silent auction - Photo booth - Garden scavenger hunt - Hors d'oeuvres and drinks Tickets are $45. Click HERE to purchase. "All funds raised will support Audubon Rockie's Habitat Hero program, which helps communities across Colorado and Wyoming
create bird-friendly habitat. By planting gardens with native species,
not only are we creating more beautiful and water-efficient communities,
we're connecting people to nature." 2) Saturday, June 30, Denver Rose Society Rose Show 7:00 am to 4:30 pm at Denver Botanic Gardens FREE with paid entrance to DBG
The public and Denver Rose Society members are welcome to enter
their roses, arrangements and rose photography for judging in many
categories. The theme of this year’s show is “Around the World in 80
Roses.” Registration will be accepted through the morning of the show. The show will be held in
Mitchell Hall at Denver Botanic Gardens. Staging and getting your roses
and entries ready will take place in Gate’s Court, outside of Mitchell
Hall.
Volunteers will be on hand to assist first time exhibitors. Schedule: Entries accepted for exhibitors: 7:00 am – 9:30 am.
Judging: 10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Show
open to the public: 1:00 pm – 4:30 pm. Awards presentations at 3:00 pm.
Please note that there is no charge to view the winners, just the
entrance fee to Denver Botanic Gardens if not a Denver Rose Society or
DBG member.
With questions on exhibiting or attending click HERE.
3) Saturday, June 30, Native Plant Garden Tour, 8:00 am to 2:00 pm
Internet Photo from High Plains Environmental Center
Visit five area private gardens. Gardens may be toured in any order.
CoNPS Member $20; Non-Member $30 Sponsored by Terra Foundation
Marcia and Randy Tatroe: This
small 30-year old suburban garden is a Humane Society wildlife, Audubon
bird and Xerces insect habitat. With an emphasis on water conservation
and sustainability, no pesticides or herbicides are used and all waste
is recycled into the garden. A collector’s garden with hundreds of
native wildflowers, trees, shrubs, cacti and succulents and edibles,
there are at least two dozen mature specimens of native trees and shrubs
taking advantage of the diverse microclimates even a small property
provides.
Donna Baker-Breningstall: Two
log cabins sitting on a half-acre in Observatory Park. All the gardens
were created from scratch 5 years ago by the owner who is a Colorado
Master Gardener. There is a wildflower meadow with native and
non-natives plus a small orchard in this same area. Fruits include
blackberries, strawberries and rhubarb. There are currently 15 vegetable
beds that grow almost exclusively for the local food pantry. These beds
by tour time may become 3 large raised beds. There is a substantial
variety of perennials, both native and non-native, in various beds
around the property. Mason bee/native bee homes are a feature on the
property.
James Marquez and David McCreedy: James
and David's little urban yard packs a lot of variety into a small
space. This all-season garden provides year-round interest with well
over 1000 different species and cultivars (with around 10% being
Colorado natives). Because it's just seven years old, some plants have
yet to bloom. James has indulged his interests in container and rock
gardening throughout the yard. His 35 handmade troughs highlight some
of the smallest and most easily missed plants. Transition gardens,
using space gladly on loan from the next-door neighbors, line the
driveways. Blue Vietnamese pots and David's stained glass stepping
stones add color and tie the various areas together.
Jim and Dorothy Borland: This
primarily Colorado native plant garden was installed in the summer of
1997 and immediately decimated by hail. The entire garden has been
watered only once since that time. Perennials and annuals move of their
own free will even though they were originally planted where it was
thought they would do best. The major theme of the garden has evolved
somewhat by including plants from similar climates around the world,
including 4,000+ Tulipa, Allium, Calochortus and Colchicum species. Visitors are welcome at any time. Enjoy!
Kelly Grummons: Kelly’s
garden is a testing ground for new varieties of xeric plants: trees,
shrubs, perennials, grasses and annuals. You’ll see numerous Arctostaphylos
species in evaluation, over 100 species of western, native cacti,
Agaves and Yuccas and many of Kelly’s hybrids and horticultural
selections of native and exotic perennials. The garden is dominated now
by Dog TuffTM African dogtooth grass which is under
evaluation and going through maintenance protocols for commercial
production. This location is also the home of the mail order website
coldhardycactus.com. Kelly has three (soon to be four) greenhouses to
produce cacti for the mail order operation.
MORE information and Purchase Tickets HERE. Have a great week!
Rose shrubs are practically"older than dirt." I say that very fondly knowing my grandparents and relatives often used that expression, plus they grew roses. Roses have been around for at least 35 million years. See what I mean? We know they are that old because rose fossils have been discovered, documented and photographed in the Herbarium at Florissant National Monument, just down the road from Denver. Worth checking out for sure.
Internet photo
I wonder if the 35 million old rose growers assigned names to their roses like we do today? Can't answer that one so...fast forward to World War II. Yes, a war story, but this one has a very happy ending.
The stories behind the naming of roses is a blog unto itself, thank goodness there is an excellent book about this very topic by Stephen Scanniello and Douglas Brenner named "A Rose by Any Name."
The authors do a great job tackling the "thorny task" of writing about the provenance and names of several roses - old and new, many surrounded by scandal, romance and lore you'd never think to make up. My focus is the naming of the ever popular hybrid tea 'Peace' rose - a favorite of so many gardeners, the number as high or higher than one hundred million around the world.
'Peace' rose is a newly minted forever stamp - honored in April by the United States Postal Service and the American Rose Society as one of the most popular roses of all time. One other piece of trivia - the rose is the official national flower of America, designated as such in 1986 by Congress. I've read where it beat out the marigold and lilac - go roses!
Do you have one in your garden, if not maybe it's time to plant a 'Peace' rose and add to your collection. After all, the name is the story.
The 'Peace' rose ... It was a dark and stormy night, no, that's not the beginning, but maybe. In 1935 while the Germans were planning and soon carrying out the occupation of Europe, rose seedling number 3-35-40 was growing in a trial rose garden by Francis Meilland. Francis was the son of Antoine Meilland who in 1850 founded Meilland International SA, a family owned rose growing business in south eastern France.
Francis was expert in rose breeding and bringing them to market through distributors all over the world, including America. In 1939 Francis invited some of his international growers to view No. 3-35-40 - a very large, full petaled canary yellow, pink edged fragrant, beautiful rose. They liked what they saw so orders were placed by his customers in Germany, Italy and the United States. The two former countries received their rose orders, but not his American distributor in Pennsylvania. Something got in the way of the shipment, a little period in world history called the Nazi occupation.
Now we're getting to the "stormy night" part of the story. Once France was occupied, nurseries were ordered to grow food crops for their troops and people. Francis complied by plowing under a couple hundred thousand rose bushes to make room to grow pumpkins, cabbages, rutabagas and more crops. He kept a little patch of land for his special roses.
In 1940 important diplomats were getting out of dodge (France) quickly. This included the American consul in Lyon who was asked by Francis Meilland to smuggle a packet of 3-35-40 bud eyes out of the country and through his dispatch hand deliver them to Robert Pyle of the Conard-Pyle Company in West Grove, PA. Yes, it was literally the last plane out of France. No doubt Ingrid and Bogie comes to mind.
Later, during the war Francis named his special yellow blend rose 'Madame Antoine Meilland' after his deceased mother. It was also being sold in Germany as 'Gloria Dei' ("glory of God" in Latin). In Italy it was called 'Gioia' ("joy"). It wasn't until 1944 and the liberation of France that he learned in a letter that 'Madame Antoine Meilland' made it to Robert Pyle who was growing and cultivating the rose in America.
The letter from Robert Pyle read "my eyes are fixed in fascinated admiration on a glorious rose,
its pale gold, cream and ivory petals blending to a lightly ruffled
edge of delicate carmine. I am convinced it will be the rose of the
century."
On the same day Berlin fell to the Allies - April 29, 1945, rose No. 3-35-40 was officially named 'Peace' at the Pacific Rose Society exhibition. According to Stephen Scanniello and Douglas Brenner from their book, Robert Pyle paid a higher royalty fee (33%) for 'Peace' instead of the customary 15%, but asked for exclusive rights to market the rose. No matter the loss of sole proprietorship, the Meilland family was happy and making huge profits in royalties. Robert Pyle was rewarded with considerable profits as well, he sent Francis and his family a grand thank you gift - a new model 1946 Chevrolet sedan!
If you like 'Peace' rose and other roses, your opportunity to enter a judged rose show is fast approaching. The Denver Rose Society is hosting their annual rose show on June 30, 2018 at Denver Botanic Gardens in Mitchell Hall. First time exhibitors are encouraged to give exhibiting a try.
There's no charge to enter the rose show, you just need to grow the roses yourself, the exception is the photography entries. The theme this year is "Around the World in 80 Roses," which means several of the categories to enter follow this fun theme. Read the entire rose show schedule at this LINK. Click on 2018 Rose Show Schedule. If you have specific questions about exhibiting please contact the Denver Rose Society HERE. A volunteer will be on hand to assist first time exhibitors.
If you wish to just check out the exhibited roses and winners, please stop by Mitchell Hall at 1:00 pm on June 30. No charge to sniff and view the roses, just pay entrance to DBG if you're not a member of the Denver Rose Society or Denver Botanic Gardens.
If you planted garlic last fall and live along the Front Range, then it's probably time to cut the flower scapes on your hardneck varieties. It's important to cut them down now so they'll focus the next couple of weeks before harvest on growing a larger bulb. Softneck varieties do not grow a flower scape.
In my garden the garlic is about two weeks ahead of the normal time to cut scapes, which means you may be ahead as well, so we'll be harvesting earlier too.
Cut a couple of inches above where the scape grows from the plant, there's really no major right or wrong, just cut enough so you'll have plenty of length to saute or grill. The scape is fairly woody (stiff) closer to the plant so that's why I cut a couple of inches above that part.
Below are links to a couple of past blogs on garlic so click for more information- Glorious Garlic Scapes
Garlic Harvest - Fall Planted Also, check out the video I did a few years ago with the Denver Post on harvesting garlic. If it doesn't open, please click on the link below.
My garden life wouldn't be complete without growing basil (Ocimum basilicum) every summer. I suspect you're in the same camp. Today I direct seeded two containers and will seed every few weeks all summer. It's one of the easiest herbs to germinate and grow to your heart's pesto desire.
'Red Rubin' Basil and Golden Sage
There are
over 160 varieties of basil. Pick your favorites. The
purple leaves of ‘Dark Opal’ or ‘Red
Rubin’ are a wonderful contrast to the usual green varieties, they taste
great and add a pop of color to green salads. 'Purple Ruffles' produce
large leaves making them a pretty culinary garnish or a very attractive
plant in containers or beds.
Try the large leaf varieties 'Italian Large Leaf' or 'Napoletano' and use in place of lettuce in sandwiches. They are large enough to use as chicken or fish wraps.
'Napoletano' Large Leaf Basil
Scented
basils add a unique flavor to dishes and can be used to make jams, jellies and
vinegars and teas.They include lemon, lime,
cinnamon, and licorice basil. 'Sweet Thai' is served in Thai and Vietnamese dishes. Basil leaves
are used for seasoning Italian dishes and are the main ingredient of pesto
sauce. Use the traditional 'Genovese' variety for authentic pesto flavor.
Basil
prefers well-drained, amended soil. Use new potting soil for containers (see my video below, or click HERE if it doesn't open).Keep the seedbed moist during germination, and watered throughout
the growing season, the soil can dry a bit between waterings. Basil prefers full sun with late afternoon shade. For the best flavor avoid over fertilizing basil unless the soil is very depleted of nutrients.
Pinch off
flower spikes as they form.This will
maintain basil’s full flavor.Harvest
leaves regularly during the growing season. Cut or pinch directly above a
set of leaves so the plant becomes more bushy. Start harvesting early, at
the four leaf stage - younger leaves taste the best, especially when
tossing into salad.
Although not university
research-tested, companion planting with basil is said to repel insects such
as aphids, mites, tomato hornworms and asparagus beetles. Whether true or not,
basil looks great inter-planted throughout the entire garden.Basil
is vulnerable to slugs, whitefly, spider mites and Japanese
beetles. Fusarium wilt, a fungus can attack plants leaving them yellow,
stunted with discolored stems. Rotate where basil is planted each year
and look for resistant varieties if you've had disease issues. My plants came down with downy mildew a few summers ago so I'm seeding in Smart Pots®. I cover the plants with inexpensive veil from the fabric store to prevent Japanese beetle damage.
Cut or pinch leaves directly above a set of leaves
Basil leaves can be preserved by
freezing or drying.
Remove leaves from stems, then rinse, then dry with a salad spinner.
Toss leaves (not stems) in a food processor with oil. Chop well, add
more oil if needed, the mixture shouldn't be dry but not too oily. Freeze in small containers. For quicker processing, rub olive oil on leaves first then place in ice cube trays or bags. Dry plants by hanging them upside down in
a dry area.Crumble
leaves and place in
an airtight container to use all year. Dried leaves don't taste nearly
as good as fresh or frozen, but they are better than store purchased dried.
Internet Photo from theseamanmom.com
To end a stressful day steep one teaspoon of dried basil leaves with a cup of boiling water. Cool and add ice if you prefer chilled. It's goods for the digestive system, but even better for your outlook even if your outlook doesn't need improving!
