PLUMERIAS – PERFECT PLANTS FOR LAZY GARDENERS WHO WANT TO LOOK LIKE EXPERTS!
BY BRENDA BEUST SMITH
PLUMERIAS are definitely in my “Lazy Gardener Plant Hall of Fame.” Is there another exotic plant on Earth that, when it start getting cold, you can jerk out of the pot/ground, strip off leaves and toss in a closet until Spring arrives?
Replant those “sticks” and watch first leaves, then incredible flowers appear. (on mature plants*). No wonder, in some areas, plumerias represent birth, love and new beginning. Despite what you see all over the ‘net, frangipani is not the Botanical name. “Plumeria” is, explains Paula Furtwangler, former Plumeria
Society of America president. Generally, the pretty colored plumeria are called Plumeria Rubra. Frangipani’s a nickname used in other parts of the world, like Australia.
As popular as plumerias are here today, they were virtually impossible to find in local nurseries back in 1979, the year three incredible Houston women — addicted plumeria collectors (one’s own words to me). ELIZABETH THORNTON, NADINE BARR and NANCY AMES (yes, the singer) — established the Plumeria Society of America here in Houston to officially document and professionally introduce this oleander cousin to local gardeners. The “rest of the story…“
Ah, but you’re thinking, is it ok to plant one now, in all this heat?Or, is your plumeria losing leaves in this heat!” Panic not, assures Paula. Her advice:
PLUMERIA LOSING LEAVES, LOOKING PEAKED?
Normally plumerias lose oldest leaves as the plant grows taller. Yellowing older leaves precludes the normal leaf drop. Bud drop can be caused by insects or too much heat. If moving a plant to shade does not stop bud drop, then suspect insects.
Epsom Salts be applied once per month during our extremely hot summer will help green up your leaves and protect them from
sunburn. (Note: Experts at the Aug.,5 Plumeria Society Sale will be glad to discuss specific insect problems with you.)
Reader Lori in Spring Branch coincidently just emailed:“I was given a new young potted plumeria. Should I leave it in the pot or get it in the ground now?”
PAULA’S ADVICE: “Dig a hole and plunge the pot almost to the pot top. Roots will continue to develop in the original pot. If you try to un-pot and re-pot, you could damage the newly emerging root system. In fall, the plunged pot can be dug up and stored in your garage. Be sure to never place pots directly onto cement. Place cardboard or carpet remnants to put a buffer between the pot and cement.”
NEWS FROM THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SOIL AND PLANTS # 250
I have talked about the value and importance of trees a lot over the last few years. I have been asked several times to compile all the information into one big list, so here it is.
The benefits of trees can be broken down into several categories: Environmental, Social, Health, and Economic. So, let us go through each of these areas.
Environmental:
Planting trees is the quickest and cheapest way to fight climate change:
One acre of mature trees removes as much carbon dioxide as produced by driving your car 26,000 miles (this is 26 pounds of carbon!)
In addition to storing carbon in the wood of their structure, trees produce root exudates composed of carbon atoms that feed microbes and store carbon in the soil as humus
three trees placed strategically around a home can significantly reduce energy requirements by 50%.
Note: When I purchased my first home over 40 years ago, it was on a lot with zero trees. The dining room/den area was on the southwest side of the house. If the air temperature outside was 90 degrees or above, we could not get the air temperature in those rooms below 85 degrees even with the ac running non-stop.
I planted three 5-gallon Chinese Tallow trees for quick growth and shade (they were not considered invasive back then). Within two years they were over 20 feet tall and providing good shade. The inside air would now cool to 75 degrees and the ac would cycle. I also planted three slower growing hickory trees in the same area to replace the Tallow trees. The hickories would eventually get much taller and wider which would provide more protection of the house from the sun and being deciduous, they would drop their leaves and allow the sun to warm the house in the winter. When the hickories became big, I cut down the tallow trees.
Trees absorb odors and pollutant gasses (nitrogen oxides, ammonia, sulfur dioxide, ozone, smoke, and other gasses) cleaning the air.
Trees remove particulate matter like dust and ash from the air that forms smog and causes breathing problems. Trees are great filters to clean and cool the air. For every square yard of forest floor there are 27 square yards of leaves and needles that blanket the crown.
Reforestation protects topsoil from degradation from the baking heat of the sun, wind, and rain.
Trees help prevent erosion as they act like an umbrella and reduce the energy from raindrops and reducing silting of bayous and streams. The slowing of the water stream allows more water to soak into the ground and recharge our aquifers.
Tree roots help loosen soils allowing water to infiltrate the soil. Microbes living on tree roots help biodegrade toxic chemicals. Trees prevent desertification.
Scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute have discovered that trees scream (produce ultra-sonic sounds that we cannot hear) when they are thirsty. They also found that fungi on the root systems of trees filter out heavy metals in the soil preventing them from harming the tree.
Additionally, trees use the fungal network to communicate with other trees even of different species.
Research at the University of British Columbia has confirmed that trees talk to each other. We have known for decades that they share nutrients and transfer them to each other by the fungal network in the ground.
They found that trees can also recognize their own siblings and can nurture them hence the new term “Mother Tree.” It is strongly suspected that the fungus receives a commission from the tree for providing this service in the form of carbon compounds that it requires.
Conifers forests also produce terpenes that rise into the air and causes moisture in the air above them to condense, which then forms clouds (reduces heating from sunlight) and eventually rain. This helps create the conditions they love which are cool and moist.
A study in Sweden published in the Journal of Landscape Ecology found that for pollinating butterflies, it is important for them to be close to forests rather than agricultural fields. They examined 32,000 butterflies from 77 species while studying how landscapes affect the butterflies. When grasslands were surrounded by forests there were higher density of butterflies and increased number of species.
Shade that trees provide, can reduce water requirements for turfgrass by 50% or more.
Social:
Trees are beautiful and pleasing to look at.
Trees provide food for caterpillars which are high protein, energy dense food that birds need to feed their young.
Trees provide beauty through their flowers and fragrance. Trees are host plants for many species of butterflies and moths.
Trees provide a tapestry of colors, scents, and forms to enjoy that change throughout the year
The color green that is found on tree leaves is relaxing to humans and relieves eye strain.
Trees screen unattractive views and soften the hard outline of concrete, asphalt, steel, etc. which leads to an improved sense of community.
Trees absorb and block sound, reducing noise pollution by 40-50% and even more in some cases.
Under the canopy of a big shade tree is often a great place to relax and visit.
I know as a boy we would play outside even in the heat of a summer afternoon. When we became too hot our favorite place to cool off was under a big umbrella Chinaberry tree which produced a solid dense shade.
Researchers have been studying trees in the forest and how they grow and work together. We now know that trees communicate with each other. This may be by airborne chemicals they produce, signals over fungal hyphae, and even by insect messengers.
We know that trees will share water or nutrients with each other as a tree in an area with an abundance of the resources will give or trade the resource with its neighbors. Trees also share the products of photosynthesis like sugars from an evergreen to a deciduous tree that has not leafed out. All this communication is becoming known as the “Wood Wide Web”.
Another 10-year study on forests, published in the journal Nature Communications (2018), has confirmed that the larger the diversity of animals and fungal species, the healthier the forest.
These same ideas apply to our flowerbeds and gardens, the larger diversity of plants, the less insect and disease problems we have.
Even little things like the type of mulch we use makes a huge difference. Pine or hardwood bark, dyed mulches, etc. do not contain or feed beneficial microbes. A good composted native mulch (sometimes called aged) which is made from hundreds of species of plants will contain thousands of species of good microbes. Little things add up to make our gardens healthier.
Neighbor hoods with lots of trees have less violence and other crime. Trees and landscaping give us a sense of peace and reduce fear.
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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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