Back Forty Arboretum & Apiary

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[backfortyarboretum]

Why don't my SAVANNAH HOLLY have berries?

When you are country folk like Lucia and I, among the things that you have to notice are which of the cats did not show up for breakfast do you think that it’s time to get the septic tank pumped out did you see the possum under the carport this morning and why haven’t the savannah holly produced berries?

Driving around town recently it is impossible not to notice the proliferation of holly trees absolutely loaded with red berries. And then driving home and passing in front of my own home noticing that my Savannah hollies do not have a single berry on them. Ken: Honey, do you ever remember the Savannah having berries? Lucia: No. Ken: How long have we had those, maybe three years? Lucia: Yeah, probably.

I did an internet search...Why don’t my Savannah holly have berries? Well, these bushes are female and there needs to be a male nearby to pollinate them.

I am not unfamiliar with this. I planted two Winterberry holly last year and was stopped by the owner of the nursery who told me that I needed to buy a male to go with them. Asked whether I needed a lesson about the birds and bees I declined, asking simply which ones were the males? I did not realize that the not so pretty ones without the berries amongst the pretty ones with berries were the males. He gave me a really good deal, of course I bought one.

After visiting quite a number of websites that ALL SAID the same thing about Savannah holly requiring a male American holly for pollination I set about trying to find one or four of them. The local nurseries had no idea of what I was talking about so after a lengthy search I found a very nice gentleman in Ohio who owns Holly Ridge Nursery. Paul had four males and sent them to me without requesting a payment up front. How crazy is that? The bill was enclosed with the plants and was really shockingly low.

Anyway, the new plants are fairly tiny so I figured that I ought to write my local LSU Agriculture Center hero, Dan Gill about any special planting techniques. Having told him the story and sent him a picture of my new baby boys he sent his response.

NOW, I need to say that the reason I have told this whole story is because his response was nothing short of fantastic (at least to this plant lover) and was information that I had not found anywhere else. So, somehow, I am going to see that his answer is the first one that shows up on an internet search.

Here is what everyone needs to know about Savannah holly and about planting bare root plants:

Hey Ken;

You should not need to purchase male American hollies to pollinate your Savannah holly. The Savanah holly is not an American holly cultivar. It is a hybrid between the American holly (Ilex opaca) and the Dahoon holly (Ilex cassine). It’s Latin name is Ilex x attenuata.

Hollies are rather promiscuous and it is typical for species to cross pollinate (the Savannah holly is a good example of this). Since the dwarf yaupon hollies that are planted literally everywhere are males, there is generally plenty of holly pollen for the bees to carry from holly to holly and ensure fruiting. I’ve never seen a Savannah holly that did not produce fruit due to lack of pollination.

That said, if your Savannah holly has been blooming heavily for years and not setting any fruit, planting the males will hopefully help. But, you will likely have quite a wait. It may be a number of years before the small male holly plants in the photo are mature enough to bloom well. But, when you see abundant flower production on your female Savannah holly and abundant flowers on your male American hollies, bees should carry out pollination and you should eventually get berries.

As to planting, the information on the WRKF segment applied to container grown or balled and burlapped trees. These holly trees are essentially bare root trees in bags of medium to keep the roots from drying out. Dig a hole deep enough to comfortably accommodate the root system and wider than needed. Place a mound of soil in the middle of the hole. Remove the tree from the plastic bag. Shake off most of the medium from the roots. Arrange the roots over the mound of soil and then fill in the hole thoroughly covering the roots with the soil you removed to create the hole. Water thoroughly to settle the soil. These small trees will not need to be staked.

Dan Gill Consumer Horticulture Specialist LSU AgCenter

There are so many bright sides to this story. I have four new plants to put into the ground now, thanks to the Baton Rouge Green fall plant sale last year I had planted two Dahoon holly, and earlier last year I had planted some dwarf yaupon holly. With the addition of two bee hives now and two more later this year I should not be Jonesing other peoples hollies.

Amen.

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In the second picture you'll notice the flower hanging off of the left of the spire. it only lasts about a day. if you suck on the end where it was pulled off of the spire it tastes sweet. When eaten the flower is a bit tart.

In the third picture you will notice the spiraling of the stems

In the bottom picture you can see where the plant has started rooting where the stem touched the ground.

[backfortyarboretum]

Red Button Ginger

A few months ago the custodian at Lucia’s school passed away unexpectedly.  Although they picked with each other about eating habits and the too many electrical things Lucia had working in her classroom, they had a good working relationship.  The funeral was to be in an area of town that Lucia did not know very well and when she called me and told me where she was I knew that she had missed a turn and was in an area where there are so many interstate exits that I would not be able to get her to where she needed to go with phone directions.  The best that she could do was to find her way back to an area that she knew and then go home. 

Lucia was pretty sad when I got home from work. I suggested that we go to the nursery and buy a plant that we could name it for him.  Turns out that was a good idea so we headed out.  

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Fred Taylor, a Costus Woodsonii.  Many times the label on the plants at the nursery might read something like tropical or ginger variant.  I’ve been referring to it as lipstick ginger, but a search for that got me to the more common name, red button ginger. Costus are ginger like plants with spiraling stems. This one is named for Robert E. Woodson, Jr., Missouri Botanical Garden curator and botanist.  This was also interesting to me as my favorite internet destination to find out more about plants is the Missouri Botanical Garden website.

As a ginger we figured that it could take a substantial amount of water and as one area around the pond holds water for a while after a rain, it got put there.  It is a fairly prominent location being right on the path to the Back 40 and is impossible to not notice as you walk the path.  The yellow flowers are edible and yes, I have eaten one.

They are easy to grow and spread like crazy. Filtered light is ideal, but as I understand it they will grow in full sun or total shade. Keep it watered in the summer, not so much in the winter. It is recommended for zone 9 and above if you want to plant it in the ground.  Mulching will be critical as the cold here in 8b will probably kill it to the ground in the winter.

For a lot more information I found this link:

http://www.jaycjayc.com/costus-woodsonii-red-button-ginger/ 

Go there, check it out. 

Then go to the nursery and buy one (or two).

Turns out that the school had given out the wrong information and that the funeral was at a different location than specified.  Lucia would have missed it even without the wrong turn.

[backfortyarboretum]

I HAVE KILLED A LOT OF PLANTS

I had not intended to do another in my occasional series on plants, but my very long time friend Judy made a comment that cannot be answered in a single sentence. It is going to take a few sentences and will be embarrassing for me.

Many, many plants have died in my care, so Judy, I may not be your best choice for saving trouble ones (although I’m sure that you requested that in jest). I was talking with my son, Brad, the other evening and he said that I had a green thumb. “My thumb is green in the middle and brown around the edges just like most of my plants.” Funny, but really true.

As a general rule for shrubs, I have about a 75% success rate. If I plant four things, one of them will die. In total, my success rate is probably less than 50% as I have had some spectacular failures. In the area in front of our deck we have planted no less than six different types of plants only to have them die. The christmas berry that are there now, although murdered by last year’s winter, are still hanging on and I am optimistic that they will continue to do so. I planted 13 Spring Bouquet vibernum (for a crap load of money) to create a tunnel. It took about 6 months for all of them to die. Maybe 12 or 14 would have been a more lucky, but 13 was the perfect number for that area. Monrovia said that they would replace them, but never did. I refrain from purchasing their plants now.

I cannot grow rosemary, azaleas, or gardenias. Being a glutton for punishment and feeling that no arboretum would be complete without them I have some poor looking azaleas and worse looking gardenias struggling along right now. A break in the heat may give them what they need. Aside from those and some dead looking abelias the rest of the property looks satisfactory. My success rate with trees is much higher and that has buoyed my spirits in the last week or so. I few trees that I thought were near death have started pushing out new leaves.

When Dan Gill checks his email in the evening he’s probably thinking, “what, him again, he needs to give it up.” I’ve worn out his inbox over the last couple of years, but he has tolerated me and I have learned so much from him.

So what do I look at when planting? I see something that I don’t have and it’s “Oh, I have to have one of those.” If Lucia is at home, she gets a call and I’m hyperventilating on the other end of the phone... “Look up this plant for me.”What’s the zone? After last winter, my cut off point is zero degrees. If a plant can’t take that I don’t want it. No more citrus. Sun or shade? I’m pretty much out of places for full or part shade or speckled sun right now, but could find a spot if I absolutely had to have something that required it. There are areas for full or part sun available, but many of those areas will find themselves in the shade in a few years. I think that this was a problem with plants by the deck. Trees were maturing and full sun became mostly shade. Soil condition? If a plant needs sandy soil it would be s.o.l in my yard. If a plant likes wet feet I’m a lot happier with it. My clay soil tends to hold water for a while, which brings me to one of the most important things I’ve learned... drainage. A plant requires well drained soil, what the heck does that mean? Dig a hole that will fit a 5 gallon bucket where you want to plant. Pour 5 gallons of water in the hole and watch how long it takes to drain. I’ve found that if it drains in an hour it is really well drained. Some sources will say that 24 hours is too long, but I find it tolerable for things that require well drained soil. I have areas of my yard that hold water for a while when it rains a lot and areas where the 5 gallon hole takes 4 days to drain. Find a plant that likes wet feet and put it there.

Short of the cold killing off some plants, I’ve probably done quite a few plants in by giving them the wrong sunlight and quite a few more with the wrong soil conditions. Over-watering, under-watering, and improper fertilization have killed a few. I’ll worry about that topic another time, but for god’s sake nothing planted in the yard needs watering every day. Once a week, twice tops is plenty good.

Today was the annual LSU Hilltop Fall Plant Sale. Lucia and I purchased 24 plants. Some of them are additions to similar plants that we already have and some of them are new. After we got home, we spent time figuring out the best place for each of the new plants so as to give them the best chance for survival.

I’ll end this with paraphrasing one of my favorite lines in a movie... I’m sorry for all of the many plants that I have killed, and for those I am about to.

[backfortyarboretum]

Arboretum: a place where trees and plants are grown in order to be studied or seen by the public.

I’ve decided to start an occasional series on trees and plants on our property. Figuring out where to start has been a thoughtful experience. I had thought to start it on October 16 as that was the day in 2010 that Lucia and I started planting in earnest on the back one-third of our acre that we commonly refer to as “the back 40”, but as yesterday was also a special day, today became as good a day as any to write the first of my series.

Between the trees that were originally on Lucia’s property, the trees that she planted, and the trees that we’ve added over the last six or seven years there are (I think) 52 different (not total) trees and a hundred and something different types of shrubs and ground cover. More about that later, but I’m hoping that everyone will give me a pass on calling what we have an arboretum. You will all be welcome to see it when most of the trees are over 24” tall. As far as the studying part goes, Lucia has to make me come inside most evenings or else I’d probably spend the night outside.

Yesterday was the annual Plantfest Teaser put on by the LSU Hilltop Arboretum (my home away from home). Last year, Dan Gill was the featured speaker. This year the topic was Marion Drummond remembered. She passed away a little over a year ago. After the teaser discussion is over, participants are allowed to walk around the grounds of Hilltop and see what plants will be on sale the following weekend. My list is pretty extensive as usual and Lucia says that we are going to be there before the gates open next Saturday morning.

I met Marion Drummond at the Fall plant sale two years ago. She asked me if I needed help and when I told her that I had room for a lot of plants she was very obliging. Of the 28 or so trees and shrubs that I bought that day the one that I remember her heaping the most praise on was the Almond Verbena (Aloysia virgata... Dan Gill suggests that you always know that you always know the latin name as it tells you a lot about a plant). “The smell is unbelievable, you have to put it in a very prominent spot,” she said. So we did, right behind Meagan’s old room in the back yard.

It didn’t really do much for some time and Lucia, who is one for immediate gratification, wanted it gone. Oftentimes I pay her no mind when she says she wants a plant gone (and I will have other stories about that), but after a while I gave up on this fight and dug it up. I moved it to the back 40 and gave it little chance for survival. It proved me wrong in a big way. It really came alive and was truly amazing last year, the smell being quite incredible. I’ll go ahead and give Lucia credit for making me move it as it may never have been good where it was.

As most of you in Louisiana and really most of the country, last winter was exceptionally brutal. I went to great lengths to protect many of my plants with little success. I covered this plant with an oven box filled with leaves and yet by the end of the winter there was only a bit of green still on it close to the ground. It has not come back as big as it was, but we planted three more of them in close proximity to it. Standing 20 feet from them last evening and 40 feet from them this evening the delicious smell was very evident. I told Marion’s daughter today that we had named that original almond verbena in honor of her mom.

It is attractive to birds, bees, butterflies, and human being olfactory senses so if you live in zones 8a through 11 you should definitely get one. To you folks up north...too bad. Mine stands only 18” tall or so, but was 36” tall last year. They can get up to 8’ tall. It is drought tolerant and should be planted in the full sun.