CBMGA Plant Ramblings Issue 1, September, 2016

CBMGA Plant Ramblings

Issue 1, September 2016

Welcome to our first official digital newsletter/blog (at least in a long time). We hope you find it interesting, informative and entertaining and if you have any thoughts concerning the newsletter/blog, you can comment at the bottom. There are several places, include at the bottom of the newsletter/blog you can subscribe. We hope you do and that you share us with your friends.

CBMGA held its monthly meeting Thursday evening September 8, 2016. Lisa Egner, owner of Texas Heritage Gardens Egner Farms was our guest speaker. The topic was Southern Bulbs and was very informative. Lisa also brought some of the items she has for sale at Texas Heritage Gardens and many members were able to purchase several unusual bulbs, plants and seeds that Lisa stocks.

We want to thank Lisa for being a great speaker and presenting a lot of information about bulbs, their history and uses in such a way that even with all of the information provided, it was entertaining, informative and yet not overwhelming. Great job.

After the speaker’s presentation, President Sharon Cowan conducted the business meeting. The agenda included numerous items with the number one topic of “The Pittsburg Pioneer Days” where CBMGA will have a booth to talk to people about gardening, hoping to encourage more folks to join the group. Part of the “Pioneer Days” celebration will be a parade through downtown Pittsburg. Noelle Hood, secretary, has secured a spot in the parade for some CBMGA members to participate in the parade as the Marching Master Gardeners Kazoo Band (we understand there may be a celebrity that we cannot name at this time marching with us). We encourage everyone to come out to the Pittsburg Pioneer Days, see the parade, enjoy the day and visit our booth on Saturday, September 17, 2016.

We have one work day a week where members arrive at the Titus County Extension Office to work on and care for the Master Gardens we have there. If you have never been, we want everyone to drop by sometime and see some the work CBMGA members have done. If you can’t drop by in person, you can drop by our website and take the Master Gardens Virtual Tour. We have the Front Office Beds with numerous perennials and a few annual plants, our Perennial Bed many unusual varieties of perennials, our Texas Superstar beds featuring plants from the Texas Superstar collection, our Flowering Bulb Bed with over 500 bulbs, corms, rhizones and tubers, our Native Plants Bed featuring many native plants from our area, our http://cbmga.org/care-free-beauty-earth-kind-rose/, our Veggie Bed, Herb Bed, Blueberry Bed, our Blackberry Bed, Our Greenhouse and Demonstration Beds, and currently under construction, soon to be finished Grape Bed(web pages to follow) and Wildflower Areas(also web pages to follow). There is also a Woodland Trail with a picnic and where several of the species of trees are marked with QR codes that you can pull up information on each species on your smart phone.

And speaking of our workday, we had a wonderfully productive one this past Saturday. At least twenty seven people showed up to work and a LOT was accomplished. From our President Sharon Cowan:

It was a lot of fun and a lot was accomplished. The grape beds are nearing completion. Some have already been planted and Dale will complete that part.

Wild flower areas were prepared and attractively marked so the area won’t be mowed. Many seeds were packaged for the give-away at Pioneer Day and the Titus County Fair. Bulbs were bagged to be sold at the two events already stated. Maintenance was done on the rain water system at the perennial bed, and perennial bed was trimmed/maintained.

GREAT DAY-GREAT PEOPLE! Thanks.

Sharon

Here are some photos of the work that was done:

[slideshow]

The people shown were not all of the people nor all of the work. We had a really great work day from a great group of folks that accomplished a lot.

And as though having a great meeting, and a great workday with such a great turnout where so much got accomplished was not enough, even more was done. Our very own Keith Kridler not only finds time to put our retaining wall plans (designed and drawn up by Tommy Morgeson) into effect, he wrote up some great information to share about some of what is currently going on in our Master Gardens. Thanks Keith.

Kridler’s Korner

There were just over 150 open blooms on the Yellow Brugmansia outside Jenifer Ross’s window in the south perennial flower bed on Sunday morning. Common name for this plant is “Angel Trumpet” as the blooms hang down facing “Earth”. The similar blooming plants in the Datura Family are far more poisonous/more hallucinogenic compounds in Datura’s. These are commonly called “Devil’s Trumpets” for all of the single blooms on Datura plants “Look Upwards” from “Hades”. Both families of plants show off massive trumpet flowers, both now are available in multiple colors. September is a good month to make hardwood limb cuttings of the Brugmansia’s. This month is also the time to collect and dry the seeds from the Datura plant family. On the common white blooming Devil’s Trumpet the open seed pods will split open with four petals, revealing hundreds of seeds. The pod is about the size of a spinney golf ball. The seeds are arranged in such a way as to resemble the human brain. Maybe Mother Nature warning early humans that if you eat these seeds it will severely affect your brain? Each bloom on these plants will only be open for about 12 hours, scent from the blooms is more intense within the first few hours of opening.

Our Angel Trumpet

Also in the south bed on the Fennel plant there were 17 large caterpillars, Giant Swallow Tail larva munching away on the last of the leaves. They are within days of forming a chrysalis. It appears that they will eat every leaf on the fennel/dill only leaving behind the stems and seeds that are almost ripe for harvest. Monarch Butterflies were drifting south over the weekend, riding the north winds on south to Mexico after the front passed through. There were dozens of the Gulf Fritillary female butterflies busy laying eggs on the passion vines. Only about 1 out of 100 butterfly eggs will mature in the wild to create an adult butterfly.

Early morning, just before dawn is the best time to “hear” nature. The early bird species, American Robins were busy in the new wildflower pocket prairies running down crickets and the wolf spiders that were chasing the crickets. The Northern Cardinals were busy hopping around eating the just planted wildflower seeds! There were a couple of American Goldfinches, still in their bright yellow breeding plumage. Grey Squirrels were being busy dashing hither and thither just because they can. There was a kaleidoscope of color from leaves that were drifting down to earth. As the leaves spin, twist and sail on the breeze, sunlight reflects off leaf surfaces, changing the hue and color in bursts maybe a poor man’s fireworks. Dawn is breaking now, we have another day, enjoy every moment. Keith Kridler

The Cypress Basin Master Gardeners