Beginning with pagan tales of humans being mystically transformed into flowers by the goddesses, events celebrated in Greek mythology, humans yearn to honor plants by associating blooms and foliage with higher meanings. In medieval and Renaissance culture, flowers were often given moral meanings and later carried religious connotations. What do you think or feel when you look at a flowering plant; can its color change your mood? Do you simply admire its unique beauty and scent or have you discovered each plant has a deeper meaning when planted in your yard.

Perhaps no era of people have celebrated the unique beauties and attributes of plants quite as profoundly as those of the Victorian era. Victorians celebrated plants for their fragrance, medicinal properties, and as food, but they also asked if plants were able to function as symbols of a person's higher thoughts and could actually transmit subtle messages through color, fragrance, and forms. Plants, as visual and sensory materials, were thought to convey messages to the recipient though color and other structural properties because sentiment is embedded by culture. This phenomenon is exactly what Victorians sought to capture using floriography, a language of flowers created and catalogued into a book called La Langage des Fleurs by Charlotte de la Tour (later expanded and reinterpreted by others). The text assigned various meanings to certain flowers in the mid 1800's. Floral gifts during this era represented the feelings of the giver to the receiver in accordance with the strict etiquette guidelines set by the floriographers. The color of the flower and the presentation of the flowers were significant to the feelings that were being expressed.

While the nuances of this floriography language are now mostly forgotten, many of us still associate red roses with passion or romantic love and equate pink roses with affection; white roses suggest virtue and chastity and yellow roses still stand for friendship or devotion. For the perfect Mom, the gerbera (daisy) coveys innocence or purity. The iris, being named for the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology, transcends many time periods still representing the sending of a message. A delphinium would conjure images of big-hearted fun, while the daffodil denotes regard, and a strand of ivy, fidelity. What fun we might have this Mother's Day, sending a plant with a message of sentiment attached based on the understanding of the importance of flower color or floriography.

Written by Talley

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Endless Summer Hydrangeas are the official plant of Mother’s Day. Each plant even comes with its own Mother’s Day gift tag! Whether mom is an avid gardener or just wants to have a great looking outdoor space, a plant from the Endless Summer Collection is a gift she’ll enjoy for years to come.

May is here already and I remember just last week it was almost Christmas.

Well, maybe it was more than a week ago, because I do remember something about February.

In any case this is the time of year I try to decide how to set my irrigation timer. I have 8 stations with one station watering the lawn, one watering the fruit tree orchard and giving extra water to most of my roses and larger trees, one watering my back yard which is mostly in the shade, plus one more for my bonsai.

This can be tricky but I just gave a talk to the Oakdale gardening club about irrigation and I think that I am going to try what I told them to do.

First, the lawn needs watering 2 to 3 times a week depending on the weather, temperature and wind. Second, the bonsai need watering about every second day.

Now here is the difficult part. I told them that most shrubs and flowers can get by with watering weekly once they are established. My problem is that I am continually tucking in plants whenever something comes in that either Donna or I find interesting.

What to do?

Water for the established plants or water for the new plants. What most people do is water for the most water needy plants and let the rest of the water fall where it may. With the new water conservation mind set this wastes a tremendous amount of water. What I have decided to do is water weekly and then keep an eye and a hose handy for the new plants. Kelly Avila...you are the winner!

Generally, after a few weeks when plants get a chance to establish their roots in the native soil and soil conditioner, they can also go a week if they are checked in case there is some windy or hot weather to give them a boost. Our insistence in lots of mulch over the roots helps get over the transition. Mulch keeps the roots cool so they grow better and keeps moisture in the soil longer.

Twenty years ago. Martin and I wanted to see how long we could make an annual bed go between waterings. What we did was water heavily when we did water and walk the bed daily to check the flowers. The planting bed was in front of the nursery with LOTS of humus worked in. In the heat of the day they would soften slightly but be ok when the weather cooled. We let them be until we could hear them complaining, but just a little. Then we would soak them.

Question: what was the longest we made them wait for a drink of fresh water? For the answer check at the end of the newsletter! I don’t think you will believe it but “Believe It or Not!”

NURSERY NEWS:

Many of you have missed Diana at the register over the last several months. What has happened is she had neck surgery last fall. She missed several months of work completely and just now is working about half time. She is coming in for four or five hours, four days a week and is mostly working outside so she doesn’t have to stand in one place too long. If you want to see her you can usually catch her on the weekends in the afternoon.

We recently finished a complete redo an older yard out in the country. The owners had just finished a major refurbish and additions to an established home and wanted a complete new garden

We made some large raised planters to frame the entrance to the home. Planted some trees and redid the shrubs and redid the lawn and irrigation.

. In the back yard we replaced what was a deck under the arbor with a paver patio, added a pondless waterfall and again redid the lawn and irrigation. In addition we added some night lighting.

You can see more pictures at my personal picture sharing site at www.junglejim.smugmug.com and look at the garden crew category for Project C2.

As I go around to see clients' gardens I see lawn after lawn being cut too short! Especially in thin shaded lawns that people mow short because it looks neater. The general recommendation for most lawns is two to two and a half inches tall.

Why?

In every case you need to remember that the more leaf blade you have, the more light energy the grass can use to grow. That can be critical in shaded areas where the amount of light energy available is limited. It is important even in the sun. In addition, for sunny areas, a tall cut keeps the roots cool. Plant roots do not like being at 90 F soil temperatures. “If the roots ain’t happy, ain’t nobody going to be happy”

Remember, remind who ever is mowing your lawn, a tall cut is best!

The other thing I see is people taking away the grass clippings. When you do that you are removing nutrients from the soil. By leaving the clippings you are returning nutrients to the soil and in addition you are returning organic material to the soil this is truly a win-win situation.

The only excuse is if you missed a week's mowing during the growing season and the clippings are two inches long.

So, leave the clipping and mow long.

Words to grow by.

The first area we developed is an area near out drive. Obviously, this is an area that I see as I get home in the evening, and my main line of attack has been hand pulling. As I started weeding, the amount of nutgrass dropped quickly and dramatically. Last year after two years of pulling it was coming back very sparsely and with out a lot of vigor. This spring I have seen a couple of sprigs and that is all.

Because of the amount of ground cover, flowers, flowers and perennials there. I couldn’t use things like Round-up or Remuda. I couldn’t use a hula hoe or regular hoe. It was a limited area and as I started, the nutgrass re-growth reduced dramatically and quickly to just a few sprigs every few days.

This allowed me to keep up and ahead of it.

In the nursery where I have done hand weeding I have noticed the same result. There, unfortunately, I lost focus after a couple of months, and by the end of summer it was back just like it was before.

The key then is persistence.

You can use Remuda, Nutgrass-Nihalator or a hoe to kill it. but the key is to keep after each sprig until it quits. If you leave one sprig eventually you will end up where you started. If it is just everywhere, you have to start somewhere. Use bulk controls until if gets down to where hand weeding is not overwhelming and then stay after until is is gone--and then don’t quit looking. Give it al least a year with out any regrowth before you can relax.

Good luck and keep gardening!

Irrigation
As the weather changes review your irrigation timer. If possible schedule your shrub circuits less frequently than your lawn circuits. Without making a definite recommendation, look at lawn irrigation 3 times a week and shrub beds 1 to 2 times a week. Remember, the plants are in charge.

Weed control
Keep weeds from going to seed. Use Remuda to kill existing weeds where you are not risking getting it on landscape plants. Use Weed Impede (contains Surflan) in areas of shrubs and ground covers and treflan in flower areas to help keep seedling weeds under control. Mulching is also a good help in weed control.

Roses
Exhibition roses need regular fertilizing and regular deadheading for the best repeat bloom. Generally landscape roses only need regular fertilizing for best bloom. Prune to keep them in size.

Vegetable gardens
It is not to late to either add to your garden or start. Remember that our summer vegetable season extends into September and October. We have lots of time even for late season vegetables. We will still carry a good selection of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants squash, cucumbers into June.

Insect control
Snails are still active so keep an eye out for damage. Sluggo is pet safe and certified by OMRI as an organic pest control. For earwig control Sluggo Plus contains an organic insect control as well as slug and snail control.

Brown spots in lawns
If you have brown spots in your lawn first check for moisture leval in the area by digging in or using a screwdriver. If you do not see a watering problem bring in a pie pan-sized sample including the soil. We need a sample at the edge of the brown spot so we can see the progression of the problem.

While we make no recommendation for you to follow this, we went 4 weeks between watering. We watered the end of July and next watered 4 weeks later. This was a color annual bed in full hot Modesto sun!