Anchorage Daily News

Our first Philadelphus, better known as mock orange to those who have one growing in their yard, usually blooms by July Fourth. It is a beautiful shrub, nice enough that we have planted several more, though their youth prevents them from comparing to the original.

Click to enlarge

Story tools

Comments

E-mail a friend

Print

Share on Facebook

Digg this

Seed Newsvine

Send link via AIM

Follow on Twitter

Font size : A | A | A

Never mind that Jude and I are having a gentle argument about whether this favorite shrub finally bloomed Aug. 2 (she) or Aug. 8 (I), because it is of no difference. It is blooming a month later than normal. The heavenly scented flowers have been sorely missed.

So here we are. The mornings now have a distinct autumnal chill, and the mock orange isn't the only plant that is late in running through its cycle. Lilies are late, as were the lilacs, of course. Well, you don't need me to tell you things are blooming later than normal. Still, other things are right on schedule, like meadow rue and delphiniums. Go figure.

Knock on wood, one thing we can do without is also, apparently, blooming later than normal -- or should I say blooming later or not at all. I am referring to the birch leaf miners that in previous much warmer and drier years would have caused many a tree around town to have yellow and falling leaves by the second week of August.

Will some good come from this record cool and wet? Could this snap of bad weather (it is a snap and not permanent, isn't it?) be the cause that ends the saga of Southcentral's battle with the birch leaf miner? Time will tell.

And where are all the slugs this year, by the way? A few, but not as many as last year, I think. I keep telling people that slugs are really not as bad as they are made out to be. They are major recyclers of dead material in the garden.

More certain is that this cool weather has limited pollinators in doing their jobs, so be sure to pollinate greenhouse-grown plants such as tomatoes, squash, peppers and peas if you want crops.

And, sad to say, you might consider supplemental heat during the evenings. To me, it defeats the idea of sustainability to such a degree that I refuse to turn the heat on in our tomato house, but I may change my mind real soon if we don't set a few more fruits.

Also certain is the ripening of raspberries all over town. If we have as many bears as Alaska Department of Fish and Game says we have around here, they could beat you to your fruit if you don't act quickly. You know they are ripe when the fruit crumb falls off the "cone" or "cap," which stays attached to the plant.

Then there are delphiniums, the No. 1 needs-to-be-staked plant grown in Southcentral. It is too late now, so cut them and bring them indoors to enjoy. Hotels and fancy restaurants would kill to have our fallen flowers. This is not a great time to divide them, but it is a good time to plant new delphiniums, which you can still find at local nurseries.

Now is also the time to start picking the flowers off of those invasives in the garden. I am thinking of Centura montana, also known as giant bachelor buttons, and purple clustered bell flowers, Campanula glomarata, both of which are in bloom now. Pick all the flowers off, if not the entire plant. Yellow foxglove, Digitalis grandiflora, lovely when in bloom, is also a bed invader and should not be allowed to set seed.

I love to see peony seed heads form, and they are useful in some flower arrangements. However, I can't see any reason for the plant to spend energy developing seeds that are not going to be used. Pick off peony flowers as they fade. Better yet, take them indoors and enjoy them before they fade.

Potatoes should be flowering by now. One more addition to the hilling won't hurt. These cool nights will help get good starches and sugars into the meat.

Finally, with dew on the lawn in the mornings now, I doubt you will have to worry about watering the lawn again this year. However, if you are thinking about putting in or reseeding a lawn, do it soon. It takes about three weeks to get a decent start, and this year that may be all we have left.

Jeff Lowenfels is a member of the Garden Writers Hall of Fame. Reach him at gardenerjeff.googlepages.com or by joining the "Garden Party" show, 10 a.m. to noon Saturday on KBYR 700 AM.

Garden calendar

• INVASIVE WEEDING: Do yourself and everyone else a favor and really go after them.

• COMPOST: Turn the pile. Add green to increase heat. Consider a blue tarp to protect it from the rain.

• ALASKA BOTANICAL GARDEN: Visit. Send visiting relatives and guests. You may notice the new garden that is going in.

ADVERTISEMENT