Poinsettias, the Most Popular Potted House Plant

Well, Thanksgiving is the official kick off of the holiday season and the time Poinsettias hit the store shelves. The actual genus species name is Euphorbia pulcherrima.

Native to Mexico, Euphoria pulcherrima, actually is a small shrub or tree, which can reach a height of 2 to 16 feet. The flowers on Euphoria pulcherrima are actually small yellow blossoms surrounded by colorful leaves called bracts. Typically, the bracts come in a variety of colors from orange, pale greens, pinks, or whites with red being the most popular and traditional color.

Euphorbia pulcherrima was renamed Poinsettia after Joel Roberts Poinsett who was the first first United States Ambassador to Mexico appointed by President John Quincy Adams in the 1820's. Poinsett took some of the cuttings of Euphorbia pulcherrima back to his green house in South Carolina and thereafter the offspring were popularly referred to as Poinsettia.

Ambassador Joel Poinsett

If you want to learn to share some Poinsettia facts and trivia with your dinner guests there is a great site, University of Illinois Poinsettia Pages.    When you review this site, you will learn that

• Poinsettias are not poisonous to people and might cause indigestion only if you ate over 500 bracts.
• Poinsettias are the most popular potted houseplant and  represent over 85 percent of the potted plant sales during the holiday season, with  ninety percent of all poinsettias are exported from the United States.
• Poinsettias are commercially grown in all 50 states with California being the top poinsettia producing state.
• The Paul Ecke Ranch in California grows over 80 percent of poinsettias in the United States for the wholesale market and Ninety per cent of all the flowering poinsettias in the world got their start at the Paul Ecke Ranch.

• With $220 million worth of poinsettias sold during the holiday season, seventy-four percent of Americans still prefer red poinsettias with the remainder of consumers selecting whites and pinks.

　

Cranberries a Holiday Favorite

Went shopping yesterday and the bags of fresh cranberries are being cleared off  the supermarket shelves just in time of course for the Thanksgiving holiday and Christmas season.

Cranberries are in the family of plants in the subgenus Oxycoccus of the genus Vaccinum. The varieties of cranberries  are native to northern North America, northern Asia, and northern Europe. Some varieties of cranberries, some which are low creeping shrubs (2-8 inches in height), or whereas others are vines, which can reach a length of 7 feet.

Though there are different species and varieties of cranberries, most cranberries have flowers, which are dark pink, the leaves are small and evergreen, and the berries are larger than the leaves of the plant.

Contrary to popular belief, commercially produced cranberries do not grow in permanent watery bogs.

Rather a cranberry bed is constructed by removing the topsoil and replacing the topsoil with a 2-4 inch level of sand. Dikes are built around the beds to hold the water and there is irrigation equipment to provide watering to encourage spring vine growth as well as provide the flooding of the beds to provide autumn frost protection.

During the growing season, cranberry beds are well watered and fertilized. It is when the berries are red and ready for harvesting the cranberry beds are flooded. The ripened cranberries rise to the top of the water where they are corralled to the corner of the bed and then pumped out of the bed to be cleaned and sorted for packaging or processing.

Interesting facts about cranberries:

• Early American settlers named the plant cranberry because the flowers and stem resembled the neck, head, and bill of a crane. In parts of Canada, the same plant is referred to as mossberry
• 95% of harvested cranberries end up in fruit drinks or canned cranberries whereas 5% are sold as fresh cranberries
• Fresh cranberries can be frozen at home, and will keep up to nine months; they can be used directly in recipes without thawing
• Wisconsin is the leading producer of cranberries, with over half of U.S. production with Massachusetts being  the second largest U.S. producer
• White cranberry juice is made from regular cranberries that have been harvested after the fruits are mature, but before they have attained their characteristic dark red color

　

Dormant Oil Sprays Can Be Applied in Late Fall When Leaves are Off Trees

I have been asked many times what is a dormant oil spray and about its use in the maintaining the trees and shrubs in your landscape.
　
Dormant oil sprays are specific horticultural oils which when applied with the addition of copper fungicides or lime sulfurs suffocate the insects and destroy the disease carrying fungus which over winter on the tree.

With fruit trees, the dormant oil and fungicide combinations will control mites, scale, aphid eggs, leaf curl and shot hole fungus to name a few insect and disease pests which will attack and prevent successful fruit production.

 For those of you who wish to use an organic oil spray there are some composed only of cottonseed oil and there are some recipes as how to make your own spray. I would recommend searching the internet with the phrase "organic dormant oil" and you should successfully locate commercially prepared dormant oil sprays or do-it-yourself recipes.

I did locate one site, Chari's Bugs Online which had recommendations for a commercial organic oil spray as well as a home made recipe.
　
Regardless, oil sprays can be applied in the late fall when leaves are off the trees and temperatures are not freezing. When applied in the early spring, the dormant oil spray is applied before the leaves of the trees and flower buds have emerged.

Planting Amaryllis Bulbs

Our last blog was about amaryllis bulbs and noting that this is the time of year to purchase the bulbs due to their greater availability at the garden centers as well as the ability to be shipped before the freezing temperatures.
　
I prefer to purchase the bulbs bare-rooted due to the fact the bulbs are generally larger, almost always guaranteed to bloom, and I can select the container to plant the bulbs.

As you can see in the following diagram, amaryllis bulbs are not planted deep like other bulbs. Rather the crown of the bulb remains above the soil line.

Though I did not go into details, there are vases available that a bare-rooted bulb is in a water mix and then after blooming generally discarded. (Hyacinths are often times forced to bloom in much the same way.)  I like to save the bulbs and as noted in an earlier blog, I keep the bulb outside during the summer months, bring it inside for a several month period in a cool dry low-light area and then bring it out again in the later part of January.
　
When the bulb is starting to grow, the flower buds are very pronounced and the leaves are very slender. Sometimes there is initial confusion of distinguishing a leaf from a bud, but very shortly they are easy to note the differences.

　

Hippeastrum (Amaryllis) Now is the Time to Locate Bulbs Before the Winter Weather Sets In

Every fall one of my projects is to bring my amaryllis bulb from outside and move it to the dark cool basement to allow the bulb to rest and then bloom again in the winter time. The reason that I am writing about the amaryllis bulb is that this is really the time to order these great bulbs so you can begin the process of preparing the bulbs for your winter enjoyment.

Now, I am going to add a bit of confusion about the name.

Most garden centers and bulb companies sell bulbs which they label amaryllis which are actually Hippeastrum bulbs with are in the Amarylliddacea family. So, technically the most desirable bulbs most gardeners are looking for because they can be forced indoors are Hippeastrum.

Hippeastrum are native to the tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, Argentina, Mexico and the Caribbean. As with the most of the other available bulbs, the first commercial breeders of Hippeastrum were Dutch growers beginning in the 18^th century. And though the Dutch continue to be large producers of Hippeastrum, South African produces quite a few new bulbs and Japanese growers have developed double flower Hippeastrum.

The true Amaryllis is also known as the Belladonna Lily, which is native to the rocky regions of the South American Cape and they can also be purchased through some bulb catalogs.

Now is the time to purchase Hippeastrum bulbs which are sold as Amaryllis bulbs by most garden centers or bulb companies. Fortunately, many growers market the bulbs as Hippeastrum (Amaryllis) which can help assure the consumer that they are purchasing the correct bulb for indoor forcing. I like that way of labeling and will do so in all future writings.
　　
The best time to start selecting the Hippeastrum (Amaryllis) bulbs is now!

You will have the greatest selection of bulbs either already planted in a soil medium or sold bare rooted (without soil). If you are buying on line over the internet or from mail order catalogs, the bulbs can only be shipped when the temperatures are not freezing.

In my previous life when I worked at a garden center, I would recommend the bare rooted bulbs because you were able to obtain larger bulbs, which I could say with great confidence, would be guaranteed to bloom.

Paperwhites are Narcissus to Force Indoors for Winter Color

Most garden centers or mail order houses have non-hardy indoor flower bulbs which can be purchased now when they are available and can be successfully shipped without freezing out. Some bulbs like hyacinths and tulips are often times forced to bloom inside and if that is your goal, hold back some of these bulbs for that purpose.

Two of my favorites are the indoor paper white narcissus and amaryllis bulbs. If you have not had the pleasure of growing either one of these bulbs, you are indeed missing a treat.

Unlike the narcissus (daffodil) bulbs planted outside the paper white narcissus is a non-hardy bulb for the cold areas of Ohio and the northeastern states.

Paperwhite narcissus (paperwhites) are grown indoors. Unlike other more hardy narcissus, paperwhites do not require a long period of cold or darkness, grows and blooms in five to eight weeks and tolerates the temperature and conditions of indoor cultivation.

These bulbs are fun to grow and the white flowers will not only brighten up cold winter days but will also provide a room with a subtle fragrance.

To successfully grow paperwhites the bulbs are not actually planted in soil, but are planted in pebbles, gravel, or marbles. When forcing indoors:  

• Select a shallow bowl with no drainage hole and cover the bottom of the bowl with a layer of washed pebbles, gravel or crushed marbles.
• Generally for an effective appearance and if the bowl allows for it, place 5-6 bulbs on top of the layer of the soil, gravel, or marbles. Each bulb is planted with the pointed end of the bulb upwards. Because the bulbs are going to be discarded anyway, each bulb can touch either.
• After the bulbs have been set in place; add more pebbles, gravel or crushed marbles to the bowl, surrounding the bulbs until only the tops of the bulbs are visible.
• Add water to the bowl so the water level is at the bottom of the bulbs and this level should be at kept at this level throughout the bulbs’ growth.
• After getting the bulbs situated, place the bowl and bulbs in a cool (50 to 55 degrees F), dark place for one to two weeks to allow the roots to grow and then bring them into a well lit spot that remains at 70 to 75 degrees F.
• Monitor the water level and within a few weeks the bulbs will start sending up shoots and will be topped with flowers

After blooming, discard the bulbs. Often times, people stagger their planting of the bulbs so they can keep the blooming cycle well through the winter.

Time to Dig and Store Dahlia Tubers and Canna Rhizomes

After a week of heavy rains, we had a sunny yet cool day in northeast Ohio.   The weather was in the fifties and a perfect time to begin my fall clean up chores. Today, I dug up and divided my dahlia tubers and canna rhizomes and tomorrow will harvest the rest of the zinnia seeds.

Since the next couple of days will be sunny but cool, I am going to shred and throw all my perennial clippings and mulched leaves into my vegetable / flower garden and lightly till the plant material into the garden. 

Of course next spring I will do an early tilling and add peat moss, lime, and composted cow manure into the garden.

But let’s go back to the divisions of dahlias and cannas.

These flowers cannot survive an Ohio winter and need to be dug now or after the first light frost which kills the leaves.

Like the sweet potato, dahlias produce tubers, which are actually stems, which will serve as the beginning of the new dahlia plants. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I am recommending that you view  The Colorado Dahlia Society blog which has a great visual description on the digging, cutting and storing of dahlia tubers.
  　
I have not had great success with cannas this year or last but decided to dig them up and try the varieties again next year.  Cannas are actually tropical plants and the blog Cool Tropical Plants . Com has a very good description how to grow, plant, and store canna rhizomes.  

Essentially, both dahlias and cannas need to be stored in a dark cool dry area in a mixture of peat moss or saw dust and not be allowed to dry out or freeze.  The perfect location is in our basement pump room which is generally a cool 60 degrees through the winter. 

Throughout the winter, you should sporadically check the plant tubers and rhizomes to be certain that they are not drying out or rotting.   There are many who would recommend a light dusting of a fungicide on the dahlia bulbs which could help reduce some losses. 

Freshly Dug Dahlia Tubers and Canna Rhizomes