October 2013 Newsletter

Note from the President-   Another Hosta and gardening season is coming to a close.  At Pace Gardens we did not do any additional watering on top of what Mother Nature provided for the past few months and because of that decision the gardens are going dormant very early.  Cyclamen hederifolium is in bloom right now, but the number of blooms per corm is significantly reduced from precious years.  The Colchicums are just now sending their blooms up from the bare ground.  Their pink, white, or purple leafless blooms bursting forth from the bare soil is such a welcome sight this time of year that I usually order a few new ones every year so the collection keeps expanding.  Another fall spectacular plant is Begonia grandis.  By this time of the year it has reached its 18 inches in height and has drooping flower racemes of medium pink blossoms up to 8 inches long.  The leaves are angel winged in shape and are green on top and red/burgundy on the reverse.  Begonia grandis is hardy in our area as long as it isn’t kept wet during the winter months.  This is also the time to plant spring flowering bulbs so get any newly purchased bulbs into the ground to give them a good start on developing roots before the frost reaches their root zone. 

Despite the rain showers at Mark and Becky Hanner’s during our last meeting, the EMHS Annual Plant Exchange was a great success.  Thank you Mark and Becky for being our hosts for the biggest meeting of the year and for being such gracious hosts, your studio was the perfect food court and your yard and gardens were perfect for the large selection of plants that were donated to the exchange. 

I am curious to hear feedback about how the exchange was run this year.  We voted at the December 2012 Meeting to change the drawing order to; according to how many meetings a member had attended.  I keep an attendance record for every member and meeting and this year’s exchange was drawn according to that record.  We also had the $5.00 table per last year’s vote.  Please let one of the board members know your feelings regarding this year’s Plant Exchange or you can email me at pacegardens@charter.net

The October 10^th, 2013 meeting is open to anybody that would like to come hear a great speaker.  Joseph Tychonievich will present “Thinking Outside the Hosta: Great, unusual options for the shade garden”.  Joseph is the Nursery Manager at Arrowhead Alpines in Fowlerville, MI and is the author of the new book “Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener” published by Timber Press.  For those who wish to obtain Joseph’s new book, he will have copies for sale at the meeting.  I have also asked Joseph to bring plants to sell at the meeting.  For those that have ever browsed the online Arrowhead Alpines catalog, you know that there are not many “common” plants listed, so you can expect there to be some interesting purchases waiting to be secured during the refreshment time of the meeting.

 

Please remember that at this meeting we are only having cookies, coffee, and tea so as to facilitate time management for book and plant purchases as well as to give Joseph time to speak and answer questions. 

Since I forgot the August Minutes at the Sept meeting, we will vote on them at the October meeting.

See you at the meeting,
Glen

Please review the Minutes of the August and September Meetings prior to the October 10th meeting.  We will vote on the Minutes at the meeting. The minutes are posted on the blog for your convenience.

Next Meeting- EMHS is proud to announce that Joseph Tychonievich the Nursery Manager at Arrowhead Alpines, Author of the new book “Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener”, speaker across the USA, and a self-confessed all-around plant obsessed garden nerd will be our speaker for October.

Our next meeting will be on October 10^th, 2013 at 5:30 PM at the Mayfield Twp. Hall, 1900 N. Saginaw, Lapeer, MI 48446.  This is our regular meeting place located just south of the point of M-24 and N. Saginaw, (the driveway just north of the Cemetery). 

The doors will open at 5:30 PM.  Cookies, Coffee, and Tea will be served at 6:00 PM and Joseph will be selling his book as well as plants.  The presentation will start at 7:00 PM, and the business meeting will start at 8:15 PM.    

Comments to the EMHS blog:  I am mentioning blog posting to let you know that your comments to the blog can be published too.  All you have to do is go to the EMHS blog at http://easternmichiganhostasociety.blogspot.com/   and comment to a blog posting which will alert me that you have made a comment.  Once I deem the comment valid for publishing I will okay and it will automatically be posted.  Please note that I cannot edit or spell check your comments, all I can do is to publish, ignore, or delete your comments.  All comments will be screened by me to deter any vulgarity or inappropriate comments being published to the EMHS blog.    Glen

2013 Calendar of Events:

Oct. 10^th- EMHS Meeting, Mayfield Twp. Hall,
            Speaker- Joseph Tychonievich
Nov 3^rd- Hosta Hybridizers Group, Ann Arbor
            Matthieu Botanical Gardens

Nov- no EMHS meeting
December 12^th- EMHS Christmas Party, Mayfield Twp. Hall

Club Members selling Hosta or related products;

Please call or email to set an appointment before visiting

Hanner, Mark/Becky- Pottery.  810-631-4292, mhanner@aol.com

Hunter, Barb- Hosta, Daylilies, Pond supplies. 810-664-7531, baha@chartermi.net

Lisik, Phil/Ginger-Hosta, Daylilies, other plants.  989-642-5772, lisik46@yahoo.com
Moore, Dyane- Fairy houses https://www.facebook.com/GardenArtAndMoore

Pickard, Carolyn- Daylilies, Hosta.   989-871-2873, robfamily5@yahoo.com

Salk, Pat/Bill Kapustka, Daylilies.  810-678-3519, daylilyabode@msn.com

Smith, Stan/Mary Lou, Concrete leaves, toad houses.  989-845-3455 smlsmith@chartermi.net

Websites of Interest:

American Hosta Society- http://www.americanhostasociety.org/

American Hosta Society Convention Website- http://www.hosta2012.com/
AHS Hosta Library Website- http://www.hostalibrary.org/
Michigan Hosta Society Website- http://www.hostahappenings.com/
Eastern Michigan Hosta Society blog- http://easternmichiganhostasociety.blogspot.com/

Hosta College Website- http://ihostohio.com/portal/glhc/

Hosta Society Membership info-
American Hosta Society,  $30 individual, $57/2 years, $34 family, $62/2 years
Send dues to: Sandie Markland, AHS Membership Secretary, Post Office Box 7539, Kill Devil Hills, NC 27948

Michigan Hosta Society, Dues are $15 per household for up to two people, good for 2 years. Make checks payable to: The Michigan Hosta Society and send to; Michigan Hosta Society, 2509 Wembly Lane, Troy, MI 48084-1280

Eastern Michigan Hosta Society, Dues $5 per year per household, Make check payable to EMHS and mail to: Barb Hunter, EMHS Treasurer, 316 Davis Lake Rd. Lapeer, MI 48746

EMHS Board of Officers:

President                     Glen Pace                    pacegardens@charter.net      989-244-4029

Vice-President            

Treasurer                    Barb Hunter                baha@chartermi.net              810-664-7531

Secretary                     Marlene Daniels         gardenfairy50@aol.com         810-664-8317

Past President             Mark Hanner              mhanner@aol.com                 810-631-4292

Fund-                          Mick and                    

Raising                        Cathy Hodgson            cehodgso@hotmail.com         810-664-8985

Email extra;

By Mary Bardens and reprinted from the newsletter

of the Northwest Indiana Hosta Society, August 2008

issue

Mini Hosta 101

At the 2008 American Hosta Society National

Convention in St. Louis, Missouri, Warren

Pollock presented a lecture titled “Mini Hostas

101”. Here are some of the recommendations Warren

made for good mini hosta growth.

§ Minis need sharp, rapid drainage. This can be

accomplished by adding up 50% chicken grit to the

growing medium. Chicken grit, a crushed granite

stone, is inexpensive and can be purchased at the

county coop or feed store.

§ Minis need moisture. Although this sounds like a

contradiction to sharp, rapid drainage, it actually

refers to watering often. They do not like to dry out

and will not recover well from a drought. A light

mulch is advised. Keep the leave dry and do not let

them touch damp soil.

§ Minis need good air circulation. This is easier to do

when the minis are in pots or troughs and can be

elevated. If planting in the ground, don’t try to tuck

it down under a larger hosta or grouped too tightly.

§ Minis only need about 3” of soil when planted in

containers. Many of them have very short root

systems to go with their small stature.

§ Minis do not like to have their root disturbed. This

is why they do well in pots and the pots can be

moved instead of disturbing the hosta.

§ Minis like a light application of nitrogen in the

spring.

§ Minis like to be mulched over the winter. It keep

the soil temperature even and helps prevent

heaving of the entire plant out of the ground.

§ Minis may be put into the soil, a large pot or large

trough by burying the entire small planting pot in

which it came. To give the mini good drainage,

place a few inches of pea gravel under the mini’s

pot and fill the soil in around it to the top of the

pot. If you lift the pot out of the soil and the roots

are trying to emerge from the bottom of the pot,

you may repot it in a slightly larger pot and return

its slight larger space.

Another Extra from the AHS Newsletter Exchange

Milorganite as a deer chaser

Milorganite as a deer chaser? We were

surprised to learn this fact at the recent

AHS convention in Milwaukee.

For those of you that were able to attend the

convention and visit the beautiful garden of Bill

Radler, developer of the Knock Out rose; you saw

many hostas placed throughout the garden. We spent

about 2 hours in the garden and even toured the area

with Bill as he discussed various plantings, how the

beds were laid out and some in the group of 6 or 7 even

were able to identify some hostas for him. The home is

located near a major stream and a large portion of it

floods during storms. This is also a heavily wooded

area with deer, one of which walked across in front of

us as we drove down the street to his home.

But if you really stud-ied the yard you not-ed there

were a lot of hostas and other plants outside the deer

fence. How do they survive?

At the dinner on Saturday night Barb and I, along with

the Isaacs, were at one of the front tables and Bill was

there talking to some of the others at the table about his

garden. A question was asked how he kept the deer

from eating the hostas. The answer – Milorganite!

Everyone said “What?” It seems that about every one

to two weeks they broadcast Milorganite on the beds

outside the fence and have zero deer damage. In

addition to not seeing damage, I did note the ones

outside the fence were very large and great color, even

some that appeared would be in more sun than shade.

If you have not used Milorganite Fertilizer on your

garden or lawn you need to check it out. For some 85

years this product from Milwaukee has been used by

professionals and gardeners. It does not have to be

watered in, does not burn, is slow release over

some 8-10 weeks and is safe for children and pets. I

mix it with my yard fertilizer when I broadcast each

spring. In addition, I broadcast Milorganite on our

hosta beds at least once or twice a year and add some

to pots along with the other fertilizer.

Milorganite is organic nitrogen with 4% iron and does

contain some phosphorous, but the manufacture notes

it will not leach out as occurs with mined phosphorous.

It is more available for the plant and will not move into

groundwater, lakes or streams. If you have concerns or

areas where you think this may happen the decision to

use it is yours alone.

Milorganite is available at any of the garden centers

here in 50 pound bags. So if you have a deer problem

check this out. It may be the best solution to your

problem instead of using sprays, hanging soap in the

trees in your yard or building the 6-foot tall fence.

For more information go to www.milorganite.com.