Florists Swear by This Product and So Will You!

Chrysal Clear Professional 2 “T-Bags 

Chrysal Professional 2 T-Bags are permeable sachets (T-Bags) with Professional 2 powder. The T-Bags are suitable for all flowers, however for flowers with specific needs such as the Lilium, Alstroemeria and Narcissus we have speciality T-Bags. The T-Bag contains nutrients for the natural development of the flowers, without stimulating their full development. The solution remains active for several days, reducing time and money spent changing and cleaning buckets and keeping the flowers fresh and attractive during transport.

These T-Bags are the perfect conditioning product for all cut flowers. They increase vase life by 50%, optimize water intake, and provide  improved color retention.  And they are easy to use. Just drop one tea bag in a gallon of clean water. 

Try these and enjoy your flowers longer. 

Available from Amazon and wholesale floral supply houses.  The Plant Sale Committee will be selling the sachets at the October Plant Sale. Stock up in preparation for assembling your holiday decorations.

Fighting Boxwood Fungal Infections and Pests

Boxwood Blight

While most news continues to be bad, there is some good news in the fight against this devastating disease. As with all fungal diseases, boxwood blight is almost impossible to eradicate once in plants or soil; it can survive for five years or more. It was first noticed in Europe in the 1990s and eventually made its way across the Atlantic to begin devastating boxwood collections in North America. According to Purdue University’s College of Agriculture.

Boxwood Blight is a disease caused by the fungus Cylindrocladium buxicola. The disease has been prevalent in Europe for over 20 years, and made its way to the United States in 2011. First found in North Carolina, it has since spread along the east coast and continues to move across the states each year. Fungicides may prevent infections in uninfected plants. However, spraying already blighted plants is not only ineffective but expensive and harmful to the environment.

Common, and particularly English boxwood (Buxus sempervirens and B. sempervirens ‘Suffruiticosa’), are especially susceptible to boxwood blight. Some varieties, which are known to be more tolerant than others, are being studied, propagated, and hybridized. NewGenTM, a hybrid Buxus, will be introduced in the nursery trade in 2020. For established collections, do everything you can to prevent fungal spores from coming in contact with your plantings. While not wind-borne, sticky spores may move short distances in the air. Spores can come in on contaminated boxwood or other susceptible plants (pachysandra, sweet box), as well as infected holiday boxwood greenery. Pruning tools, spray hoses, clothing, shoes, and wildlife also spread the disease.

Boxwood Blight’s most characteristic symptoms include brown/black, circular leaf spots that lead to defoliation, as well as dark black streaks on the stems of the infected plant. It is a sticky pathogen that moves through splashing water, plant to plant contact, equipment, or in debris. The optimal conditions for this pathogen include damp areas with little air movement between around 70-75 F (21-23 C). Unfortunately this pathogen can survive for long periods of time in plant debris. There is no known cure at the moment, but there are lots of tips on prevention and management.

Boxwood Leafminer

Boxwood Leafminer (Monarthropalpus flavus) is one of the most destructive boxwood insect pests. First found in 1910, they can now be found anywhere boxwood grow in the United States. The eggs of this fly are laid inside the leaf where the larvae develop and feed on the tissue. This feeding results in blotchy, blistered leaves that swell, discolor, and can prematurely defoliate. The small, orange, mosquito-like fly emerge in late April or early May (in Virginia) and spend about 2 week mating and laying eggs. The larvae are the most destructive to the boxwood plant and they can feed from June through the early fall. It’s been reported in 20 US states, three Canadian provinces, throughout most of Europe, New Zealand, and the Republic of Georgia.

NEW BUXUS CULTIVARS

Cultivar: Buxus NewGen Freedom® ‘SB300’ Zone: 5-8

Growth Rate: Fast, 3 to 6 inches per year Sun Exposure: Sun, part sun, shade

NewGen Freedom® is a relatively vigorous, rounded cultivar that is slightly taller than wide. It has beautiful glossy medium green foliage. Its habit is more uniform and tighter than ‘Wintergreen’ or ‘Winter Gem’ thus making it an excellent choice for many formal and residential landscapes. Deer resistant! NewGen Freedom® should be pruned each year in late winter to early spring. If not pruned, the plant will tend to open up in the center, especially in spring when new foliage is wet and young. NewGen Freedom® is very resistant to boxwood leafminer and very tolerant of boxwood blight. It has very few disease or pest issues when planted and cared for properly. NewGen Freedom® is an excellent boxwood. It was selected due to its high tolerance of boxwood blight and resistance to boxwood leafminer. Its vigor helps it create an attractive plant quicker than many cultivars but it also makes annual pruning a must. With annual pruning, this plant makes a fabulous specimen.

Uses: Medium specimen, medium hedge, foundation plant

Substitutes: ‘Wintergreen,’ ‘Winter Gem,’ ‘Jim Stauffer,’ ‘Green Mountain’

Size:      15 years (3.5’ Tall and 3.5’ Wide) 25 years (5’ Tall and 5’ Wide)

Cultivar: Buxus NewGen Independence® ‘SB108’ PP28888 Zone: 5b-8 with continued testing underway

Growth Rate: Medium, 2 to 4 inches per year Exposure: sun, part sun, shade

NewGen Independence® is a very deep green medium sized cultivar that holds excellent color throughout the winter. It has a rounded habit that is nearly as tall as wide. NewGen Independence® can be used in formal plantings where a medium sized round plant is desired. Would be a replacement for Buxus sempervirens ‘Suffruticosa’ (English Boxwood) for foundational plantings. Branching structure is very strong allowing it to withstand most moderate to heavy snow loads. Deer resistant. NewGen Independence® should be pruned lightly in late winter to early spring to maintain uniform shape. It is not uncommon for fall frosts to burn new growth that occurred in the late summer or fall. These burned shoots can be removed in late fall after first freeze or in late winter/early spring depending on the gardener’s preference.

More information about Boxwood Blight can found in the Summer 2019 Issue of GCA’s The Real Dirt

Ban on Single-Use Plastic Bags Signed into Law in Delaware

Gov. John Carney on Monday signed legislation that largely prohibits retailers in Delaware from providing single-use carryout plastic bags to customers, a measure intended to reduce the amount of plastic bags making their way to landfills, roadways and stormwater systems.

The ban applies to stores with more than 7,000 square feet of sales space, and chain stores with three or more locations having at least 3,000 square feet of sales space.  Restaurants are excluded from the bag ban, which also allows exceptions for bags used to wrap meat, fish, flowers or plants, or that contain unwrapped food items. The legislation is set to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2021.

Gov. John Carney signs a bill that largely prevents retailers from offering customers single-use plastic bags.

The goal is to encourage a shift to to reusable bags. Additionally, the legislation aims to clean up Delaware’s communities and watersheds, reduce storm water and trash management costs to taxpayers, and promote the health and safety of watersheds, wildlife and humans, and the ecosystem’s food chain.

Every year, the average American uses approximately 500 plastic carryout bags. Single use plastics are made from natural gas or petroleum, a fossil fuel with extensive environmental impacts in its extraction, production, and transportation.   

Along Delaware's coastlines, despite the current voluntary recycling law put in place in 2009, plastic carryout bags remain one of the most prevalent and pervasive types of litter found annually during the annual Coastal Cleanup which is only three hours each September.  Statistics maintained by Delaware’s Recycling Public Advisory Council indicate that the current law has not achieved its goal of shifting shoppers’ norms to reusable bags. In addition, plastic is the most prevalent item found in a 2018 study of Delaware’s roadside litter.

Announcing the 2019 GCA Plant of the Year: ARISTOLOCHIA MACROPHYLLA!

Aristolochia macrophylla​ (Dutchman's Pipe)

The 2019 Freeman Medal winner is an intriguing native vine that can be used to create a lush living wall, a sheltering green roof, a thick ground cover, or an attractive privacy fence. Aristolochia macrophylla (Dutchman's Pipe) is a deciduous vine that has been used in American gardens since the eighteenth century, especially to shade porches and windows from the hot summer sun. Large, heart-shaped, densely overlapping leaves 6 to 12 inches long can quickly cover an arbor or trellis with attractive, glossy, deep green foliage and create a canopy impenetrable to the rays of the sun or moderate rain.

Aristolochia macrophylla (Dutchman's Pipe) is named for its exotic pale yellow flowers that resemble a “Dutchman’s pipe." The flowers bloom in May and June among a swathe of large, fuzzy, heart-shaped, dark green leaves.

A unique and underused vine, Aristolochia macrophylla is especially important as the host plant for the Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly.  Pipevine Swallowtails lay their eggs in small clusters on young leaves or stems. When the eggs hatch, the leaves  become an important food source for the growing caterpillars. 

The unusual shape of the pipe blossom serves as a type of 'fly-trap,' attracting small insects that are temporarily held and released to carry pollen to the next flower. Observers of all ages will be fascinated watching nature in action.
 
Aristolochia macrophylla, also known as Isotrema macrophyllum, is a versatile and valuable vine that thrives in USDA zones 4 to 8, in sun to part shade, and in average to moist soil.  It is deer resistant and pollution tolerant, and it has no serious insect or disease problems.  It is a workhorse vine with an exotic look that would highlight a small or large native garden in the twenty-first century.

Aristolochia macrophylla​ (Dutchman's Pipe)
Proposed by Abby Coffin, Chestnut Hill Garden Club, Zone I

Honorable Mention was awarded to a remarkable ornamental shade tree that is native throughout the northeast and central United States. 

Gymnocladus dioicus (Kentucky Coffeetree)

Gymnocladus dioicus (Kentucky Coffeetree) grows in USDA  zones 3 to 8 and has unique characteristics that make it stand out as a striking and aesthetically pleasing tree throughout all four seasons. In early summer, the showy greenish white female flowers are 8 to 12 inches long and have the fragrance of roses.  During summer, the tree has a soft lacy appearance and the female flowers give way to flattened, reddish-brown pods up to 10 inches long. The pods, which ripen in October and persist well into winter, provide a striking silhouette against a winter sky.  Male trees are also a good option because they provide seasonal interest with smaller flowers and no seedpods

Gymnocladus dioicus (Kentucky Coffeetree)
Proposed by Brenda Barrett and Elizabeth Schnabel
Garden Club of Lexington, Zone VII

Honorable Mention was awarded to Viburnum rufidulum (Rusty Blackhaw, Southern Blackhaw), an incredibly versatile and underutilized native plant that can be used as a small specimen tree, a showy shrub border, an understory planting or naturalized to provide habitat in a woodland setting.

Viburnum rufidulum (Rusty Blackhaw, Southern Blackhaw)

With four-season interest, it is covered in spring and early June with striking 5 to 6-inch-wide clusters of small, creamy-white fragrant blooms that provide nectar for bees, butterflies, and beneficial insects.  Its showy flowers can be cut or dried and are surrounded by lustrous dark green, glossy, summer foliage. During fall, its clusters of dark blue berries are extremely popular with wildlife including songbirds, upland ground birds, and small and large animals. The berries are edible and taste similar to raisins.  In fall, Viburnum rufidulum foliage puts on a brilliant display of autumnal colors. The show concludes with reddish-brown articulated bark that provides architectural interest in winter.
 
Viburnum rufidulum will grow 10 to 20 feet in USDA zones 5 to 9 in full sun or partial/deep shade.  It tolerates clay and poor soil and can be planted and naturalized in ravines and along rocky banks of creeks to prevent erosion.  It is resistant to disease, insects, and deer and, because it is tolerant of drought and pollution, it is an excellent option for public and urban areas.
 
You will probably not find this hearty, vibrant native in a big box store, but it is definitely worth asking your local nursery to get it for you.

Viburnum rufidulum (Rusty Blackhaw, Southern Blackhaw)
Proposed by Lisa Z. Manning
Garden Club of Nashville, Zone IX

“Weed Wrangle”, A Partners for Plants Project is Highlighted in the New York Times!

“Weed Wrangle”, A Partners for Plants Project is Highlighted in the New York Times!

Weed Wrangle, a coordinated effort to eradicate invasive plants in public parks and natural areas is an initiative founded in 2015 by the Garden Club of Nashville with funding from the GCA’s Partners for Plants program was featured in the New York Times in March 2019. With the GCA’s support — and the help of community partners like the Tennessee Environmental Council and Tennessee’s state park system — it has grown like kudzu, spreading to 60 other cities in Tennessee and to 12 other states.