The Thanksgiving afternoon cold front, steely gray cloudscape pierced by peachy sunset rays, was beautiful. It gilded treetops from Christiantown to Lobsterville. Even though it is now winter, it is good to dress warmly and get out of the house! Low light, simultaneously blinding and illuminating, creates shimmer and gleam: scintillating effects, especially on broadleaf evergreens such as rhododendron and holly.
There is still plenty of material outside for centerpieces and bouquets. Fertile and vegetative fronds of sensitive and cinnamon (native) ferns abound. Crabapples, sumac, winterberry, ivy: These are plentiful and colorful. The more berried pieces of bittersweet and multiflora rose we remove from the wild and use in decorations, the better — as long as they are properly disposed of (otherwise, they are merely spread more widely).
Resorting to florists’ high-air-miles cut flowers to impress your friends with over-the-top holiday centerpieces? They are gorgeous floral art, yes; but must you? Try making your own, albeit perhaps less extravagant, ones. Visit with Emily Thompson, Manhattan floral designer extraordinaire, at emilythompsonflowers.com/about, and try collecting roadside plants or undergrowth, and flesh out arrangements with fewer stems from the florist case. Or use living plants, such as sempervivums, orchids, cyclamen, or holiday cactus.
I have nothing but admiration for florists, and the beauty and artistry of their work. However, today we have arrived at a much greater awareness of the environmental costs of the cut flower industry. This link, bit.ly/CutFlowerCost, pulls up a Google page of articles and statistics detailing the price paid, especially by the global South, for these ephemeral luxuries.
Blips
Garden writing is mostly about things that reappear, season in, season out, in cyclical fashion. Sometimes, however, there is a blip. My colleague Lynne Irons mentions such a blip in a recent column: problems of boxwood.
This has actually been an aggravating (meaning, literally, worsening) situation for Massachusetts and Island boxwoods for a while, and there is not one single, sole cause. The worst, but not the only, pathogen that may attack boxwoods is the dreaded boxwood blight, Calonectria pseudonaviculata, which has been a serious threat to these plants since the mid-1990s in British gardens, and is now present in Massachusetts. Dwarf English boxwood, Buxus sempervirens ‘Suffruticosa,’ is the worst afflicted, although all species are vulnerable.
There is currently no cure for boxwood blight. Some fungicides may suppress it and contribute to its spread by masking symptoms on supposedly disease-free stock. However, other, more treatable diseases also afflict boxwoods. Two significant ones are Phytophthora occultans and Colletotrichum theombromicola. A plant pathology lab, such as UMass, must make the diagnosis on submitted plant samples.
Stress is, as always, a factor. If your boxwoods appear to be ailing, take steps to “give the patient chicken soup,” i.e., support the plants. Create or improve airflow; clean up interior debris; suspend shearing schedules (“pluck” instead, by hand-thinning down into congested interiors); apply a thin top-dressing of bagged manure; remove overhead irrigation from plants; and avoid waterlogged soils (the latter may be associated with downspouts). Here are some links that collect useful info on this: bit.ly/BoxwoodIllness; bit.ly/RecognizeBlight.
House and garden
Lilacs: A pest of lilacs, lilac borer (Podosesia syringae, also known as ash borer) is increasingly seen in Island lilacs. Now that leaves have dropped, inspecting the plants for the telltale holes in stems is easier.
Larger lilac stems are attacked. Swollen, unsightly areas on stems indicate the site of borer activity. Once the lilac borer is established, it is difficult to eradicate. Pruning out the larger, older stems may help prevent spread, since the borer prefers these for egg laying.
Ornamental grasses: Snow and ice shred the fluffy heads. Trim them off now; it is easier than cleanup later.
Ornamental sweet potatoes: As you empty containers for winter, be sure to check the soil. If you have used ornamental sweet potato vines, forming edible tubers is possible for all of them. Sold as annuals in four-inch pots, many types have been produced since their introduction in the late ’90s. Check for “dinner” in the container mix, when you dump those pots for winter.
Azaleas: Check for good fall color if planting azaleas is on your list. It is likely that most purchases of flowering azalea (all Rhododendron spp.) are made in spring, based primarily on plants’ “flower power.”’ Nonetheless, azaleas’ reddish or purplish fall foliage contributes deep color in the garden now.
The small-leaved evergreen cultivars, such as ‘Mother’s Day,’ the Polly Hill and Weston Nurseries introductions, and native North American species and hybrids, are good ones to try. Small-leaved rhododendrons ‘PJM’ and ‘Olga’ also color beautifully.
Houseplants: Photosynthesis and growth slow when light levels are low. Water only when pots feel light; lift them. Restrict fertilizing until light levels increase in the New Year. Eliminate standing water in saucers.
Paradoxically, indoor air is usually drier or dustier in winter. Many houseplants appreciate having leaves misted, or being stood on “humidity trays” or pans of pebbles and water. Mist foliage of pelargoniums (geraniums) and gesneriads, such as gloxinias, streptocarpus, and African violets, while watering roots sparingly.
Prune holiday cactus (Schlumbergera spp.) after bloom. These plants tend to grow unbalanced branches; now is time to trim them up. The pieces root easily, for more plants.
Reading while piemaking
The understatement of the month is that the holiday season results in kitchen time.
I am rolling piecrusts, reading the King Arthur organic flour bag. The following screed is printed on it:
“The Future of Farming: Putting a stake in the future of organic farming is putting a stake in our future: how we eat, how we bake, and what we’ll leave behind …”
