CELEBRATING POLLINATORS WHILE ENVYING THEIR HEAT TOLERANCE?
by BRENDA BEUST SMITH
PROLONGED EXCESSIVE HEAT is definitely on our agenda for this week (and next) which, coincidentally, is also National Pollinator Week (June 19- 25). Early heat predictions indicate our “feels like” temperatures can go as high as 113º. With calefaction like this, even indirect heat can easily scorch leaves and kill plants.
What should we do?
Mulch inground plants (leaves from local trees ideal) Move potted plants, even those that prefer sun, into shade
Water as late at night or early in morn as possible. Watering mid-day during extreme heat is like dumping plants into a hot Fry Daddy Overhead sprinklers are the least efficient methods in our normal summers, especially if used when the sun is overhead. Most water is lost to evaporation. If you must, use in the coolest part of night you can.
The most effective method is to place a hose nozzle at the base of the plant and let a slow flow soak downward for a significant period.
Don’t fertilize or prune. Both stimulate new growth that demands water. Don’t put in new plants now. Store protected until civilized temperatures return. Digging now also exposes below surface soil to high temperatures which will trigger even more moisture evaporation.
Vegetable gardens are often the hardest to accurately protect during extreme heat. Whatever you use, be sure you don’t cut off air flow!
Easy to use are umbrellas, rigged to protect during the hottest part of the day when the sun is most directly hitting treasured plants without totally cutting off cooling air flows closer to the ground.
All evidence points to increasingly hot summers (like our increasingly cold winters). One solution: be observant. Take time after this hot spell passes to notice which plants survived and continued to thrive, and which don’t.
Great time to visit your area public gardens to take notes.Mercer Botanic Garden and Houston Botanic Garden are actively testing plants that can take not only our increasing cold, but our hotter summers and our unfortunately increasing flooding. Ditto for Greater Houston Area Master Gardener Demonstration Gardens
Back to National Pollinator Week . . . talk about a word that has tsunami’d its way into our vocabulary — starting with the honeybee’s decline from Colony Collapse Disorder to the fact that now, every school child probably knows more about pollinators than most adults do. They’re part of every curriculum.
Pollinators, of course, adapt much easier to temperature extremes than we do. Tithonia, pictured above, is one of my favorite flowers. So happy, so visible from across the yard and now, its most valuable attribute — it’s an incredible triple-pollinator attractor — bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. Pretty neat, eh?
Several years ago, I conducted a random email survey of area public gardens, flower-laden independent nurseries, gardeners focusing on pollinators and other area resources. I asked for flowering plants that attract their most “on- site” hummingbirds & butterflies. Of course non-blooming plants are very important as well. But just focused on flowering plants in that survey.
- Echinacea purpurea (purple coneflowers) – beloved by all bugs & butterflies; can bloom almost all year
2. Solidago canadensis (goldenrod) – fabulous in autumn; covered by bees and all sorts of critters
3. Conoclinium coelestinum (mist flower) – fabulous in autumn
4. Salvias (sages) – great tubular flowers for nectar and pollen
5. Senna alata (candlestick plant) – host plant of cloudless sulfur, orange- barred sulfur, and large orange sulfur butterflies
More reports:
Verbena “Homestead” for butterflies
Lion’s Tail (Leonotis leonurus) for hummers
Firebush (or hummingbird bush / Hamelia patens) for hummers, butterflies & bees
Those planting specifically for bees were partial to Mealycup sage (Salvia farinacea ‘Henry Duelberg’), Gulf Coast penstemon ( Penstemon tenuis); cigar plant, batface cuphea, beebalm, almond verbena, cosmos, buttonbush, false indigo, clasping leaf coneflower and blue mistflower.
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Brenda Beust Smith’s column is based on her 40+ years
as Houston Chronicle’s Lazy Gardener Email: lazygardenerbrenda@gmail.com
— Note: This column’s gardening advice focuses ONLY on
the Greater Houston area. Personal reports MUST include your area.
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NEWS FROM THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SOIL AND PLANTS # 243
A study published in the journal Plant Diseases (2023), researchers
discovered that licorice leaf extract is a potent bactericide and fungicide. It does not have the toxic side effects of conventional pesticides. We are seeing
more and more natural biocontrol products being released every year.
The March issue of Greenhouse Magazine had an article on a new bio fungicide from Obtego Fungicide and Plant Symbiont. It is a collection of naturally occurring fungi, Trichoderma asperellum strain ICC012 and Trichoderma gamsii.
They work over a wide range of temperature, pH, moisture, soil media, etc. They are especially effective against soil borne pathogens that attack root systems. They have multiple modes of action and are effective on Phytophthora spp., Rhizoctonia spp., Rosellinia spp., Sclerotinia spp., Sclerotium rolfsii, Theilaviopsis basicola, and Verticillium spp.
These strains of good fungi are also a curative as well as a preventative. They work by parasitizing the pathogenic fungi or bacteria (essentially eating them). These modern biological control products only target the pathogen versus the old toxic chemical fungicides that kill everything good and bad.
As the Bible states “Study Nature and let it teach you.”
For those whom enjoy the culinary aspects of fungi and the health benefits they provide, there was an article in the April/May 2023 issue of Mother Earth News titled “Dead Tree Delicacies”. It was authored by Bruce and Elaine Ingram whom are the authors of the book Living the Locavore Lifestyle.
We are continuing to learn almost daily how important fungi are to the health of our soil and plants to human health. A lot of doctors are now recommending either eating more fungi (mushrooms) or take supplements as they are a powerful way to boost one’s immune system.
The article has lots of photos and includes several recipes on how to find and cook these delicious and nutritious foods of nature.
A question I get asked a lot is about yellowing of one’s plants, what is often referred to as chlorosis. There are three primary causes of chlorosis directly related to nutrients.
The first is nitrogen (N) deficiency which develops on the oldest leaves. If there is insufficient available nitrogen in the soil then plants will move nitrogen atoms from older leaves to new ones. The old whole leaf appears yellowish.
Next is magnesium (Mg) deficiency which also occurs on older leaves. The symptoms are a little different than N deficiency. In this case the veins of the leaves stay green while the surrounding areas become yellowish.
Third is a shortage of any of several minor nutrients like iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and manganese (Mn). These deficiencies show up as yellowing on the leaf’s veins on new growth.
Magnesium (Mg) shortage is often caused by too much calcium (Ca), either from excess fertilizer or calcium carbonates in the water supply. Calcium often builds up in the soil if plants are over watered. Excess calcium prevents plants from absorbing magnesium.
Another common cause of yellowing is applying gypsum (calcium sulfate) to break up clay or loosen soils. Gypsum easily dissolves in water providing too much calcium. One should only apply gypsum is a test report shows a deficiency of calcium. Over the years I have seen a lot of folks ruin their soils by applying gypsum when it was not needed.
For the minor nutrients a lack of quality organic matter and microbes will limit absorption of these nutrients. For example, with the old fashioned toxic chemical methods, alkaline soil (high pH) will limit absorption of these elements and acidification is required. In other words, treat the symptom and not the cause.
To correct yellowing in the long term, there are a few basic steps that one can take. Use a good quality leaf mold compost in the soil and around your plants to provide the required microbes and organic matter (a probiotic for your soil), use re-mineralizer to ensure trace elements and use a good organic fertilizer like MicrolifeTM.
For faster results one can spray the plants with a solution of Super Seaweed (another MicrolifeTM product). The plants can absorb the required nutrients through their leaves and provide temporary relief. For long term health one needs to correct the soil problems.
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ABOUT US
BRENDA BEUST SMITH WE KNOW HER BEST AS THE LAZY GARDENER . . . but Brenda Beust Smith is also:
- a national award-winning writer & editor
- a nationally-published writer & photographer
- a national horticultural speaker
- a former Houston Chronicle reporter
When the Chronicle discontinued Brenda’s 45-year-old Lazy Gardener” print column — started in the early ’70s as a fun side-project to reporting, it then ranked as the longestrunning, continuously-published local newspaper column in the Greater Houston area. The name, she says, is not just fun, it’s true. Brenda’s gradual sideways step from reporter into gardening writing led first to an 18-year series of when-to-do-what Lazy Gardener Calendars, then to her Lazy Gardener’s Guide book which morphed into her Lazy Gardener’s Guide on CD, which she now emails free upon request. Brenda became a Harris County Master Gardener and, over the years, served on theboards of many Greater Houston area horticulture organizations. She hosted local radio and TV shows, most notably a 10+-year Lazy Gardener specialty shows on HoustonPBS (Ch. 8) and her call-in “EcoGardening” show on KPFT-FM. For over three decades, Brenda served as Assistant Production Manager of the GARDEN CLUB OF AMERICA’S “BULLETIN” magazine. Although still an active broad-based freelance writer, Brenda’s main focus now is THE LAZY GARDENER & FRIENDS HOUSTON GARDEN NEWSLETTER with John Ferguson and Pablo Hernandez of Nature’s Way Resources. A native of New Orleans and graduate of St. Agnes Academy and the University of Houston, Brenda lives in Humble, TX, and is married to the retired Aldine High School Coach Bill Smith. They have one son, Blake. Regarding this newsletter, Brenda is the lead writer, originator of it and the daily inspiration for it. We so appreciate the way she has made gardening such a fun way to celebrate life together for such a long time.
JOHN FERGUSON John is a native Houstonian and has over 27 years of business experience. He owns Nature’s Way Resources, a composting company that specializes in high quality compost, mulch, and soil mixes. He holds a MS degree in Physics and Geology and is a licensed Soil Scientist in Texas. John has won many awards in horticulture and environmental issues. He represents the composting industry on the Houston-Galveston Area Council for solid waste. His personal garden has been featured in several horticultural books and “Better Homes and Gardens” magazine. His business has been recognized in the Wall Street Journal for the quality and value of their products. He is a member of the Physics Honor Society and many other professional societies. John is is the co-author of the book Organic Management for the Professional. For this newsletter, John contributes articles regularly and is responsible for publishing it.
PABLO HERNANDEZ Pablo Hernandez is the special projects coordinator for Nature’s Way Resources. His realm of responsibilities include: serving as a webmaster, IT support, technical problem solving/troubleshooting, metrics management and quality control. Pablo helps this newsletter happen from a technical support standpoint.
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