Quotation of the Week: "A weed is a plant that is not only in the wrong place, but intends to stay." — Sara Stein

Morning Glories

Perennial morning glories (Ipomoea acuminata) get started rapidly when planted now. We carry one and five gallon sizes. Plant them in full sun. This is a bulletproof plant that will tolerate poor soil, with no nitrogen fertilizer added. Water them regularly to get them going and occasionally thereafter. These vines are fast growing, drought resistant, and permanent once established. Use morning glories for an old-fashioned colorful look in your garden. This plant is great when used to screen out fences and walls. They're not for the formal garden, but can be a dramatic eye-catching ornament in the right spot.

Summer Heat Stress on Japanese Maples

Many homeowners purchase a beautiful Japanese maple in spring only to bring in burnt and damaged leaves in summer, worried that their investment is about to part ways with their yard. The tree isn't dying - it's just suffering from heat stress. A common misconception is that Japanese maples can't tolerate a full sun location. But this is not true. All Japanese maples can adapt to a full sun location and, in fact, tend to color up better when they are in one. What most people experience is summer heat stress due to infrequent (or lack of) water when the tree needs it, especially during a heat wave. Most Japanese maples will burn a little on the leaf tips in the first year while acclimating to a sunny location. But after that, they should not experience more stress. The reason maple leaves turn brown on the edges in summer is that the tree is unable to replenish the moisture the foliage loses through natural transpiration. As moisture leaves a plant, the tree draws moisture up from the ground to keep the cells in the leaves healthy and robust. If the tree has no moisture to draw from, the cells burst and die, which leads to the burning one sees on the leaf edges. This condition can also be caused by salt burn from the use or overuse of strong chemical fertilizers containing high amounts of nitrogen, especially ammoniacal nitrogen. Even if the soil is moist around the trees, the tree can burn because the moist soil actually activates the fertilizer and the tree cannot control the amount of fertilizer it draws up. What Japanese maples do need is a consistently moist, well-drained environment and, preferably, the use of an organic fertilizer. The term "well-drained" is key because regular watering in a poorly drained area will lead to root-rot and, ultimately, death. So never plant a Japanese maple in a low spot or next to a downspout or gutter. The amount of watering it takes to maintain a consistently moist condition will vary with soil type and location but on average Japanese maples should be checked for watering every 2-3 days. Use an organic fertilizer such as Whitney Farms Azalea-Camellia Food when feeding. It is activated by temperature, organic soil microbes and beneficial organisms rather than moisture. Another way to cut down on heat stress and leaf damage is to spray the tree with an anti-transpirant that coats the leaves to hold in moisture and reduce stress caused by temperature extremes and a dry environment. We recommend Cloud Cover.

Peach leaf curl (PLC)

For all the backyard peach & nectarine growers, it's been a tough spring for many of you. I've been seeing a lot of peach leaf curl; how about you? Peach leaf curl (PLC), formally known as Taphrina deformans, is a fungal disease that causes leaves to pucker, distort and curl in odd ways. Cool wet weather that occurs in the spring, especially during flower bud break and leaf emergence, is ideal for the over-wintering spores of PLC to germinate. Think back a month or two: Spring 2005 'treated' us to periods of rain and cooler-than-normal temperatures. When PLC is severe, affected leaves (and in some cases, fruit) will drop earlier in the season. So what can be done? Spray in the fall after the leaves have dropped or in the spring before bud break. It’s late now to be preventing PLC. Lilly Miller Dormant Spray for Disease is the product to use to stop the spread of the disease. It can be used now, but once the leaf is damaged the disfiguration is permanent.

Ray Sturgess Green Thumb Garden Pro

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Tropicals and Subtropicals

Fertilize tropical and subtropical plants, according to their individual needs, during summer while they are growing. Continue to plant them except in interior valleys, where scorching days may burn their foliage if they are planted this late in the season. Tropicals and subtropicals give us our distinctively Southern California atmosphere, and not all are great water users, some are drought resistant. Among the numerous tropical and subtropical plants that can deal with being planted in summer (in all but the hottest interior zones) are bougainvillea, natal plum, hibiscus, gardenia, ginger, palms, tree ferns, and many flowering trees such as golden trumpet tree (Tabebuia chrysotricha), floss silk tree (Chorisia speciosa), orchid trees (Bauhinias), crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica), cassias, and coral trees. Also plant blue hibiscus (Alyogyne huegelii), a splendid dry-climate shrub from Australia with eye-catching bright blue flowers that bloom on and off year-round in full sun. It's widely available either in its natural shrub form or as a standard, with a 3 to 4 foot trunk. The only fault of blue hibiscus is that it's rangy and open, and doesn't branch freely. You can remedy this and also keep the plant blooming once a month from spring to fall if you cut back two or three of its longest branches by half or two-thirds their length. Other choices to plant now include tropical fruit trees such as avocado, banana, citrus, pineapple guava, sapote, and cherimoya. In most areas, other than the warmest interior valleys, the early summer weather stimulates growth but isn't yet hot enough to dry them out. Keep them well watered until they become established.

What you need: 6 medium ripe tomatoes 1 bunch green onions 3 tbsp. minced fresh parsley 3 tbsp. minced fresh basil 2 tsp. red wine vinegar 1 tsp. each salt and sugar 1/8 tsp. black pepper 1/4 cup olive oil 2 cloves garlic, crushed 8 ounces spaghetti 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese Step by Step: Chop the tomatoes and mince the green onions. Combine tomatoes, green onions, parsley, basil, wine vinegar, salt, sugar and pepper in a large bowl; mix well. Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Saute garlic in hot olive oil until golden brown. Remove skillet from heat and discard the garlic. Pour the garlic oil over the tomato mixture and toss gently to coat. Cover tomato mixture with plastic wrap and chill for 3 hours or longer. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain well. Place in a warm serving bowl. Add chilled tomato mixture to pasta and toss to mix. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and serve. Yield: 4 servings