VOL.. 8, NO. 12 The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension DECEMBER 1997

Cochise County Master Gardener

The UniVersitv of Arizona and U.S. Department of Agriculture cooperating.

Late Bloonfiers

One of the challenges of gardening is having color all yearlong. This is easily accomplished fix)m spring to late summer but the landscape can lookbleak and sparse during &11 andwinter. Here are three greatplants that will fill the void:Anisacanthus thurberi, 'D^xt

honeysuckle, blooms in ^ring,summer, and late &11 and itslong tubular orange flowersmake it a great plant for eariyand late migrating hummingbirds. It has an upright formspreading to 3 feet wide and 4feet high.

Anisacanthus quadrifidus,Cohilla honeysucMe, h^ brilliant red-orange flowers fi-omJune to late November. Butter

flies love this plant' Height andspread is similar to desert-honeysuckle. Trademark varieties fixnn Mountain States in

clude A. q. brevilobus (Mountain Flame) and A. q. wrightii(Mexican Flame). There is also

a salmmi-coiored form calledAnisacanthus purbulis.

If yellow flowers are whatyou're afler, py Mt. Lranmmimarigold, lagetes lemmonii.An aromatic plant with finegreen leaves and one inch yellow flowers blooming from latesummer until the first hard fix>st.

Nice loose mounding habit, 3feet hi^ and wide, it has medicinal and wildlife value.

Some of the nicest fell/winter

blooming plants gaining popularity are the Daleas. Theyrange &(m groundcovers tolarge shrubs, colors fi'om blue,purple, rc^, and yellow. Someare evergreen or deciduous,scented, and rabbit-proof. Thereare about a dozra on the

market-my fevorites include

Ekilea pulchra, an evergreenshrub with silver leaves androse-purple flowers; Ekileagf^ggh, a groimd cover that'sgreat for slopes to control erosion with clusters of tiny purpleflowers; and the elusive Ekileaformosa, with small violet flowers that are surrounded wifefeathery plumes and seeds wifefeathery tails.

Cheri MeltonMaster Gardener/StaffWriter

cSsa^on ±

Don't Give Up!This summer I learned die mean-

ii% of patience and persistence. Ihave a lot of house plants, 22 in&ct; and some of them are feirlylarge (i.e., five to six feet tall).Naturally, with this many plants,the chances of one or more of theplants gettinga parasite increase.

I madethe mistakeofnot placingnewly purchased plants in quarantine to ^sute they didn't have anyparasites before int^rating themwith the older plants. Apparently,one of the new plants hadwhiteflies or something similar(I'm still not quite sure whidh insect it was, but based on the synqi-toms, my plant books indicat^whiteflies).

At first, I thought only one ortwo of the older plants was infested. Over a period of severalweeks, I began to notice a lot of insects hovering around more of theplants. You guessed it: ALL of theplants were infected!

I tried the standard insecticide

used for vegetables and ornamentals that are infected with

whiteflies. I diligently sprayed allof the plants two or three times aweek to no avail. So, I read myplant books again. The insects werelayingtheir eggs in the potting soil,and the newly hatched fli^ wereemerging from the BOTTOM ofthe pots! No wonder the spray didn't work.

Since the problem was in die soil,the books recommended malathion.

This insecticide is poured direcdyin the soil killing the larva andadults. I isolated the plants ingroups of four or five for severalreasons. First, malathion smellsterrible, so I applied it in a sparebathroom, which allowed me toshut the door and also preventedthe odor fixim permeating the rest

of the bouse. Second, I let theplants stand in the maladiion forseveral hours before draining diewater. These plants were thrai leftin the bathroom for at least 24

hours.

After 24 hours, I moved thatgroup oftreated plants into a separate room and closed the door. Af

ter approximately four days, I hadwater^ all of the plants withmalathion. I had four or five plantsin all rooms in the house. I felt that

this would help prevoit all of theplants fi'om being re-infected. Ihoped, if one of the plants widiin aparticular group was still infected,it would only re-mfect that groupofplants.

At first, I thought I had eliminated the insects. When I dqipedthe pots, a lot of dead whitefoesfell out of the bottom. I also man

agedto flushout someotherinsectsI didn't know were there. A few

days later, I still saw somewhittles oneiging fiom the bottom of some of the plants. To besafe, I ^plied die malathi(ni to all22 plants again.

After the second malathi(Hi application, four or five plants were stillinfected. This time, I moved onlythose plants back to the bathroomand tqiplied the malathion a thirdtime. This time, die plants remained in die badiroom. I closelywatched these plants and was ableto further iikntify the two or dueethat were still infested. They got afourth dose ofmalathion.

In the meantime, the odiergroupsof plants stayed in separate rooms.Each day, I tapped sdl of the potsto see if any live or dead whitefliesemerged. Any that had live flieswere immediately moved back tothe bathro<»n and doused withmalathion.

Eventually, after four or fivew^ks, I saw no further evidence ofwhiteflies. I'm keqiing my fingers

crossed, but since this summer, Ihaven't seen any more insects.Sometimes persistenceand patiencepays off.

Karen BrownMaster Gardener Trainee

Drying Flowers

Heloise (we all know who she is)suggeststhe follovting easy way todry flowers. The ingredients aresimply borax, white comme^, andsdt.

Combine the borax and white

comme^ in equal amounts, addingthree table^oons of salt for eachquart of the mixture. Next, putabout a 1-inch-deep, evoi layer indie bottom of a box. Put the cut

flowers on top and gendy covereach flower with more of the

blend. Be sure to ^rinkle some inbetwe^ the petals ofopen blooms.

Once the flowers are covered

veil, put die lid on the box andstore it in a verm, dry, out-of-the-way place.

It usually takes about 14 days orso for die flowers to dry thoroughly, but drying times will varywith ^ density ofthe petals.

When you diink the flowers aredry, feel the petals to see if theyare stiff and papery. Take specidcare in chet^g thidk blossomsbecause they may look dry on theoutside but may not be dry in thecenter.

Once dry, remove than and gendy brush with a clean, softrt^eup brush to remove the restof thedrying mixture.

Microwave coddxioks also suggest that drying flowers in the microwave leaves the flowers with a

fresher rqipearance and color thanflowers dried by traditional methods. Theyare also less perishable.For directions, consult individualcookbooks.

The Agent'sObservations

are some goodM choices for living Christ-

trees in Cochise

^^^^^^County? How shoulddiey be cared for?

Christmas trees

iiiJ^^Badd to the holiday sea-^^Mpison. Their freshness,ilSi^^^^scait, littleneedle drop,and foe opportunity to plant thetree after foe holidays make themvery attractive. Trees that will dowell include Eldarica pine, Allepo

pine, spruce, and some firs. Afterthe holidays remove the ornaments and lights and move the treeto a cooler but sunny location. Thiswill allow foe tree to acclimate

slowly for a couple of weeks tooutdoor conditions. Water to main

tain health and growtih, but do not

watOT so much to cause root rot. If

weather permits, meaning warmdays during foe first weeks ofJanuary, planting can be done. Iffoe wither is poor wait until foecold weatherof January, February,and the first weeks of March is

over. Plant foe tree as recom

mended and water to establish.

Planting recmnmendations areavailable at the Cooperative Extension Office.

What's in a Name?

In the Cypress fiunily, "Cu-pressus; symmetry (foe conicalsh^). In myfool<^, .^>ollotur^ Kypressos into an evergreen tiee." (Don't mess with foeg(Kls!)Source: TheNames ofPlants. D.Gledhill

Christmas Cactus

jB|did not bloom this year.[Ij^What happened?

are several

"holiday" cacti. Th^Christmas Cactus

WSM9^i{Schlumbergerabridgesii) with smooth leaf margins (M* edges; Thanksgiving Cactus{S. truncata) which blooms earlierand has saw-toothed leaf marginsand two oppositely pointed tips atfoe end of each leaf; and foe EasterCactus (51 gaertneri) vfoidiblooms tmturally in foe spring andhas smooth leaf margins. Thesecacti species originated firom foeBrazilian jungle and grow naturallyas q}iphytes (in foe air) in foebranches and bark oftrees.

These plants are short-day plantslike poinsettias. Flowering is initiated by cool tmperatures (45° to55° F.), drier soil, and foe naturallyshorter days of spring or foil. TheChristmas Cactus in question didnot bloom because one or more ofthese conditions were not met.

To induce flowering, determinewhat type of cactus specie youhave. Tai weeks before blooms aredesired, place the plant in a coolcloset or dark cupboard fixnn sim-down to sunup, never letting anylight reach foe plant during seclusion. Keqp foe soil drier than normal. Once flower buds are set youcan ceasethis practiceand increasewatering.Source: Houseplants. Hie American Horticultural Society, 1980,pp. 81-85

Newsletter Staff:Carolyn GruenhagaiCheri Melton

Viiginia Westphal

Robert E. Call,Extensioii Agent, Horticulture

tmed infurtherance ofCoq)erative Extension work, acts ofMay 8 and June 30,1914, incooperation with theUnited States Depaitm^ ofAgrioihure, JamesA Christemon,Director, Cooperative Extension, College ofAgriculture, The Univ^sity ofArizona and Amona Counties cooperating. The University ofArizona College ofi<^culture isanequal opportunity enqiloyer authorized to provide researdi, eduodional infonnation and other services only to individuals andinstitutions thattiinction whfaout regard to sex,race, reli^on, color, national origin, age, Vietnam Era Veteran's status, or disability.The information given herein issupplied with theunderstancting thatnodiscrimination isintended andnoendorsement byCoop^tive Extension isimplied.Any produces, services, or oiganizations thatarementioned, shown, or indirectly implied inthispublication donotinqily endoisemetU bytheUniversity ofArizona.

COOPERATIVE EXTENSION

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

THE UNIVERSIFY OF ARIZONA

TUCSON, ARIZONA 85721

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PENALTY FOR PRIVATE USE $300

The Viktval Cardenek-

Just For Fun

This monlfa I decided to take a

break from the heavy academic stuffand talk about a couple of interestingWeb sites I recently ^scovered.

The first site is just for visual m-joyment. It is the Flowerbase fi'cmithe Netherlands (http://www.flowerweb.nl/flowerbase/)- This sitecontains a database of over 7000beautiful photogr^hs of flowers.You can search the database by botanical name or common name in

English, German, Spanish, Dutch,French, or Italian. The results of asearch returns a list of plant names(botanical and common in all the languages) meeting your search criteriaand thumbnail pictures of the flowers. Clicking on the thumbnail

pictures brings up a largerhigh leso-lutim v^ion of the picture. Aseardi on the English ctHnmon name'hibiscus" for example, returned 34hits and a search on the botanicalname "Rosa" returned 177 hits. Ifyou feel in die moodto relax and enjoy a visual feast, this is a site youmust visit.

The second site not only containsphotogn^hs buta wealth of inferma-tion as well. This site. Plant Advisor—Southwestern E^tion (ht^://www.plantadvisor.CQm/) focuses onplants of theTow and mid deserts ofdie Southwest. It includes a PlantAdvisor that allows you to selectplants by sun ^posure requirements,water use, and basic landscape use(e.g., ground cover, feature plant,background plant, etc.) and a PlantList that albws you to select plantsby botanical or common names.

BULKRATE

POSTAGE & FEES PAIDUSDA

PERMIT No. G268

Information returned fiom searches

of the database includes photographsof the plant, water and sun requirements, planting guidelines, and abrief^hscussion of insect and diseasesusceptibilities. In addition, therearelots lots of links to other plant-related sites. All in all, this a a veryuseful site that is certainly worthadding to yourbookmark list.

GaryA Gruenhagen, MasterGardenergruenha@sinosa.com

Next month watdi for the reservation form for the fifth annual HighDesert Gardraiing & LandscapingConference to be held Februaiv^ ^12-14, 1998 at the Windemere Hote.&Coherence Center, Sierra Vista.

We hope to seeYOUthere!