Friends of the Hort Farm Newsletter

	MAY - JUNE 2008 Photo by Jen Mills, Summer 2007 at the Hort Farm CONTENTS: • Letter from the Kyle Albee, President of the Board of Directors • Bats! Where Are You? • Thank you! • Bloom-Time Festival • It's Never Too Early... • What's Happening at the Farm • Brush Clearing • From the Lilac Collection • Lilac Time • News from the Organic Apple Orchards • Lily Bugs! • The Dynamic World of Seeds • Crabapple Pruning • Spring Bulbs after Bloom • Avoid Lyme Disease While Gardening (see home page) • Jumping Genes • The Gardeners Letter from President Greetings, "Nous sommes content pour le printemps et c'est Mai!" Or as us English speaking folks would say, "Hurray for May!" Speaking of French, our French Lilacs are not only about to bloom as I write this, but I truly think they are about to explode!! By the time this newsletter hits your mailbox you may be looking out of your window and seeing pieces of our Lilac falling in your yard! But seriously, the real Lilac show may be found at the Hort. Farm. If you're not aware of it, we have lilacs from here to Kazakhstan found in our collections - many would regard it as a "world class" collection. Lucky are we to have a Curator as knowledgeable as Jeff Young. Jeff in fact is in the beginning phases of preparing our Lilac Collection to be visited by the International Lilac Society which will host their annual convention in 2010 right here in the Burlington area! To spend any amount of time with Jeff is to learn he's the Rembrandt of the Lilac indeed. So when would Jeff be available to share his knowledge of lilacs with the public, you ask? The opportunity is closer than you think! Mark your calendar for Thursday, May 15, from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. There will be a Lilac Pruning evening at The Hort. Farm. Maybe you'll be the lucky one to say you pruned The Kazak! For more information about this and other related events, see the calendar page on this website. On Saturday, April 19, we held a spring digging day in the nursery at the Hort. Farm. Our volunteers dug and potted a total of 75 trees and shrubs that I guaranteeyou will be hard pressed to find at any plant sale this year. Planted over the years by UVM students, staff, and faculty for research, they are a wonderful assortment of unusual specimens just waiting for your garden. These plants will be offered for sale at the Bloom-Time Festival on Saturday, May 17 for the benefit of The Friends of the Horticulture Farm. Keep in mind that this tree and shrub sale is in addition to the main plant sale of the Burlington Garden Club. But it does not stop there! Our friends from the Winooski Natural Resource Conservation District will be offering small native trees and shrubs left over from their 25th annual conservation plant sale. If you're a fan of native wildlife and wish to support their habitat then these plants are especially for you. Our Bloom-Time Festival promises to be better than ever, so don't delay in getting to the Hort. Farm on May 17. Last year the sale was a sell out for all of the obvious reasons; great variety, terrific prices and all to support three great causes! Please bring cash or checks as credit cards will not be accepted. So until we see you at Bloom-Time Festival, sharpen your pruners - the lilacs are coming! Kyle Albee, President BACK TO TOP Bats! Where Are You? by Barry Genzlinger Have you heard about the bat die-off here in Vermont? There is not much new beyond what has been in the Free Press. This year, I expect a 50% decrease in population in bats in our area, and that could go much higher. Close monitoring of the known populations will give a much better idea of the extent of the loss. If you know how many bats were in a particular roost last year thena count this year will tell us a lot. The best source for any new info: www.fws.gov/northeast/white_nose BACK TO TOP Thank you! by Kerry Mendez Thank you so much for having me as a speaker for the Friends of the Hort. Farm on February 29, "Three Seasons of Color - Hit the Easy Button!" What a super group of people! I really enjoyed presenting there. I would like to extend to your members my complimentary gardening newsletter (sent electronically) by going to my web site at www.pyours.com and clicking on the newsletter page. Thank you again for having me as a presenter. Bloom-Time Festival The arrival of spring in the Champlain Valley is a much anticipated event. To help celebrate. The Friends of the Horticulture Farm will sponsor a Bloom-Time Festival on Saturday, May 17, at the University of Vermont Horticultural Research Complex ("The Hort. Farm") in South Burlington, Vermont. During the Festival, the public is invited to experience the beauty of the Hort. Farm's extensive collections ofcrabapples, lilacs, viburnums, and other flowering plants in bloom, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Burlington Garden Club will hold its Annual Plant Sale from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., Common Ground Student-Run Farm student fanners will be on-hand to show you their fields and offer vegetable transplants for sale, and the Winooski Valley Resource Conservation District will be selling trees. And The Friends will have a selection of their own trees and shrubs for sale. The Festival will feature both guided and self-guided tours. Admission is free and family groups are welcome. For more details, call 864-3073. Here's a partial list of festival events as of press time: - Time TBA. Rain Gardens. Presenters: Emma Melvin and Jessica Andreoletti. - 11 a.m. - 12 noon. Tree Walk. Presenter: Paul Wieczoreck, proprietor, Lincoln Hill Nursery - 12 noon - 1 p.m. Bats. Presenter: Barry Genzlinger, Chiroptera Cabin Company. The world of bats and the important role they play today in controlling airborne pests. Talk and walk toour new bat house. • All Day. Lilac Collection Tour. Presenter: Jeff Young, Curator. See below for details. BACK TO TOP It's Never Too Early... If your garden is busting out at the borders and some of those specimens are disappearing in a jungle of foliage, perhaps it is time to make a donation to the Friends' Plant Sale. The Friends Plant Sale Committee gladly accepts donations from members' gardens. If you would like to donate, we have a few requests. Please donate your plants in plastic pots, as peat pots often deteriorate. We will have free plastic pots available at the Hort. Farm beginning the month of May. To arrange to pick up these pots, contact David Heleba at 864-3073 or david.heleba@uvm.edu. Make sure that your plants are properly labeled with species and cultivar name. A tongue depressor makes a great label and be certain to use a waterproof marker. Make sure your plants look perky and are disease and pest free. BACK TO TOP What's Happening at the Farm by Terry Bradshaw, Hort. Farm Manager With the arrival of the 2008 growing season, I would like to highlight some of the goings-on down at the UVM Horticultural Research Center (the Hort. Farm). First, with the start of research activities at the Farm, it is important that all visitors go to the front office in the Blasberg Building upon first entering the property and check the board for any potential spray applications that may have been applied. We also ask that you sign the guest book before heading put into the fields. Please remember that this is an active research facility so we have some simple rules. Visitors should stay out of research plots including the orchards and other demarcated areas. Please leave your dogs at home, and supervise any children at all times. Plant and/or soil materials must not be collected from the Hort. Farm grounds. As for when we are open, that depends on a number of factors. First, the facility must be staffed in order to open the gates. Generally someone is here on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. That being said, the gate will be closed when there are sprays applied or when there are certain research activities going on. It is best to call ahead at 658-9166 to see if we are open or to schedule an appointment for visits. Of course we are open during Friends' events as well. This year we will have an active program of research and teaching at the Farm. Common Ground, the student run educational farm, will be running their CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in the front fields as in years past. Margaret Skinner will be continuing the Branch Out Burlington! community tree nursery. Mark Starrett will be continuing his Elm Trials as well as maintaining the remaining plants in the nursery area and the Cary Award Garden. Sid Bosworth will conduct small grains trials and maintain weed demonstration plots for his fall weeds class. Sarah Taylor-Lovell will be trialing edible woody shrubs and small trees in the front organic section of the Farm. Jane Molofsky is continuing her large regional study to examine the characteristics that make Berberis thunbergii invasive and how this may change with climactic conditions. And the Apple Team, under the direction of Lorraine Berkett, will maintain their IPM (Integrated Pest Management) monitoring orchards,apple rootstock trials, and continue the Organic Apple Production project which began in 2006. Lorraine and I will also be maintaining the vineyard planted in conjunction with the coordinated NE-1020 multi-state cultivar evaluation trial. I look forward to a season full of activity at the Hort. Farm in 2008 and welcome any questions or comments at my email address: Terence.Bradshaw@uvm.edu. BACK TO TOP Brush Clearing Many users of the South Burlington Recreation Path, which lies to the east of the Hort. Farm property, have asked about the tree clearing that took place over this past winter. Land to the west of the fenceline, which the University owns, was cleared of brush and overgrowth that had gotten out of hand over the past decade. This clearing will allow us to maintain our fenceline and waterways, and will allow better access to the crop fields on the property. It also has the side benefit of improving the view of the lake and Adirondacks from the path itself. Previous clearing a bit further in the fenceline was necessary two years ago to prevent vital drainage systems from further plugging up with debris, causing flooding in the crop fields. The clearing performed to the east of the fenceline on both sides of the bike path and up to our fence was performed independently by neighboring private property owners. The city of South Burlington holds a right-of-way across these properties for the bike path, but does not own or manage the vegetation within. BACK TO TOP From the Lilac Collection by Jeff Young, FHF Curator of Lilacs At the end of April, The Friends will be adding some 80 lilacs to our burgeoning nursery in the newly plowed ground to the east of the current Lilac Collection. I will be including these plants in our training/workdays on Thursday, May 15 at 5:30 p.m. and Saturday, June 28 at 9 a.m. and 12 noon. I will do an hour of instruction, then we will do hands-on work in the collection. I am adding a short session this year on the proper planting technique for shrubs, which I think new and old gardeners alike will find enlightening. On May 15 we will concentrate on "spring" work, which will be gross pruning in the older specimens, clean-up pruning of the plants that have had regular pruning in the past, and building mulch rings. On June 28, we will have two sessions concentrating on gross pruning and deadheading. You can come for one or both sessions on June 28. All sessions are approved for Master Gardener volunteer hours. On May 17, during the Bloom-Time Festival, I will be available all day in the Lilac Collection to provide tours and answer questions. I will also have a large selection of lilacs for sale to benefit The Friends. These are one year old plants about a foot tall, grown from cuttings. The price will be $8 for members of The Friends and $10 for all others. If you have specific cultivar request(s), please e-mail me and I will include these in our order. We sold over 60 lilacs last year in May and another 30 in July. Leftover plants will be added to the nursery. Bloom-Time Festival, 2007. Photo by Jen Mills A lot of hard work goes into the Lilac Collection every year, but only a few get to see and appreciate the lilacs. So this year on Wednesday, May 21 and Thursday, May 29 the Collection will be open for casual strolling for any one who wants to visit. I will be on hand between 6:30 and 8 p.m. to answer questions and give "lite" guidance, however, these evenings will be just perfect for any one who just wants to come and wander, smell and appreciate the flowers, enjoy the Genus Syringa and all that the Hort. Farm has to offer. Please come alone or with friends to admire what The Friends is doing to make the Lilac Collection healthy, attractive, and available. BACK TO TOP Lilac Time Now is the brief season of the lilac bush, modest and enduring symbol of the depth and permanence of New England traditions. It has given a name to color, perfume, poems, songs, story. Translated into many languages, its name is upon the lips of millions in many lands. Yet it remains unspoiled by such widespread fame. It is still the sturdy, wholesome dooryard emblem of the New England home. With what eager anticipation has it been planted at the threshold of new, bravely begun homes. With what poignant grief has it been left behind forlong bitter migrations from whose hardship and loneliness homesick thoughts have turned in anguished longing. To what strange and distant homes have its roots been transplanted, there to grow blossoms and, in turn, be abandoned again. On this very day in mountain pastures and along deserted roads, over the graves of dead homes bloom the lilac bushes planted by the founders of those pioneer households. Many of those graves would be otherwise indistinguishable, their timbers long since buried, their cellar holes filled in and grassed over. Were it not for the steadfast lilac bush, there would be nothing to mark that here once dwelt human souls who shared happiness, sorrow, hope and despair. Who lived there, whither they went or what their adventures nobody knows. No descendants make annual pilgrimages to remember and decorate these forgotten graves of the homes of ancestors. But each year at this season, the lonely, faithful lilac bush blooms again and lavishes its sweetness in memory of the hands that planted it. Printed with permission of the Rutland Herald/Times-Argus. This editorial originally appeared in the Rutland Herald on May 29, 1929. BACK TO TOP News from the Organic Apple Orchards by Sarah Kingsley-Richards, OrganicA Team Big changes are happening in the organic apple research orchards at the UVM Hort. Farm and youcan read about these changes online in the new 'OrganicA Blog' section of the OrganicA website at www.uvm.edu/organica/ListservesBlogs/listservesblogs.html. The OrganicA Project has been busy and the OrganicA website continues to grow. An 'Organic Fruit Production Course' was offered in association with the Project this past fall, and a very successful organic apple workshop entitled, "A New Look at Organic Apple Production in New England," was held at the New England Vegetable and Fruit Conference in December 2007. Pictures, observations, and/or presentations from the course and the workshop have been posted on the website at: www.uvm.edu/organica/OrganicAProject/welcome.html A third case study was also recently added to the website at: www.uvm.edu/organica/CaseStudies/casestudies.html Some highlights from the orchards: The organic orchard by the front gate of the Hort. Farm is looking a bit more trim of late. The 'nurse limb' on each tree in this top-grafted orchard was removed in March. The nurse limb was a branch that was left on the tree after the top of the tree was cut off. The limb provided photosynthesis and energy for the tree as the scions that were grafted to the stump became established. Those scions were only the size of a pencil two seasons ago and now are several feet tall! The multiple scions that were grafted to each tree have also been pruned back to only one leader and several scaffold branches. To read more about the top-grafting and planting of the orchards, visit the 'Pictorial Guide to Top-grafting an Orchard' and 'Pictorial Guide to Planting an Orchard' at: www.uvm.edu/organica/organicorchardlnformation/Horticulture/howtoplant.html. This is the first year that the organic orchards will produce fruit! It is good practice to give a tree several seasons to establish before it is allowed to spend energy on producing fruit, so flowers have been removed from the trees by hand for the past two seasons. After this year's bloom, the early fruit clusters will be thinned by hand to maximize individual fruit development. Most commercial fruit is thinned by applying natural or artificial materials that cause a portion of the youngfruit to drop, but this practice is not recommended on younger trees. With all this activity, it promises to be a busy and exciting year in the organic orchards at the Hort. Farm. Visit the blog and join along as we watch the trees grow and help them on their way! The OrganicA Project is being funded by a grant from the USDA Integrated Organic Program for which we are very thankful. BACK TO TOP Lily Bugs! by George Africa, proprietor, Vermont Flower Farm, Marshfield, VT Check all your Lilium. If you know Gail and me, you know that we have grown tens of thousands of Lilium over the years. We have dozens of customers who have better collections than we ever had because they purchased and cared for new bulbs from Vermont Flower Farm. The current problem is a big one so please listen and look well. As our climate changes, our lands are invaded by more and more insect life from afar. In 1992, a very destructive, small red beetle, the lily leaf beetle, Lilioceris lilii, entered the east coast at Boston. See http://bugguide.net for some pictures of this nasty pest. Actually, I've subsequently learned that the beetle first entered Montreal in the mid forties. It immediately began its migration south and east. The various lily listservs I subscribe to have now documented the bug in all parts of the US east of the Rockies and now through Nova Scotia. The reason I am mentioning this beetle today is that the beetles were visible here in Central Vermont in May last year. This year, the first set of eggs will no doubt hatch and the larvae should be obvious soon if you haven't taken any counter measures. If you do not eliminate the beetles and the larvae by either hand picking or by using some chemical or organic means, you'll have only lily stems! So the issue is Control! The research funded by the North American Lily Society has resulted in a recommendation of a parasitic wasp. That's fine but it's questionable if the wasp will live in Vermont and similar climates and production has not even started. The second recommendation was Neem oil spray. This works well, is very expensive, and has to be reapplied several times. A friend of ours in Burlington has been using dormant oil* spray for years and even though he lives in a well-established pocket of lily beetles, he has never had a problem. I followed friend David's suggestion and went one step further and bought a light weight dormant oil with a built in fungicide and miticide. Remember, this stuff is made for fruit trees and people in the industry only know it as being used for that purpose. I sprayed early after seeing a few beetles which I presumed probably had already layed some eggs. To date there has not been any hatch and if there was, the oil prevented the eggs from developing. Is this accurate? I think so, but we have lots of gardens and I only sprayed the lilies I saw on the first passing. To continue with the study, I have sprayed gardens of two friends. One is a half mile from here and one is 3.5 miles from here. One had noticed beetles, one had not. Neither has larvae yet. I also gave some oil to a friend in Morrisville and it appears to be working there too. Please do some careful inspection today and if you find beetles, please let me know. Sevin has been recommended but that is a spray which kills the good bugs and beetles too and I am a butterfly man so I'm reluctant to get carried away with that stuff. A friend in White River Junction said the price just went up as the announcement of the beetles ran in the local paper. Similar stories abound. Last year, another friend asked the Vermont Department of Agriculture to comment and they kind of did a "what beetle?" response. That would not be the case today. So-o-o-o if you want some good looking lilies do a thorough inspection and formulate a control plan today. * Dormant oil is available in pint sized bottles at any farm store such as Blue Seal or Agway, Lowes, Home Depot, etc. The one with a fungicide I purchased from a greenhouse supplier which most gardeners do not have access to. I sprayed a couple times. First I sprayed when the lilies were just up out of the ground or out of the containers. I tried to be sure to spray the ground around the stems. Then as the lilies reached 16" to 18" I made sure I had sprayed them again, from the ground up with attention .to holding the sprayer nozzle so it sprayed underneath the lily leaves. That's where the beetle lays her eggs. If there is an abundance of foliage around garden planted lilies, then it might be prudent to spray a third time a couple days after the second spraying. This article first appeared as "Lilies, Oh My Lilies!" in George Africa's blog: http://thevermontgardener.blogspot.com in June 2007. We reproduce it here, with some editorial changes, thanks to George. Check out his website at: http://vermontflowerfarm.com/ BACK TO TOP The Dynamic World of Seeds by Ron Krupp We've all heard of Johnny Appleseed who was born in 1774 in Leominster, Massachusetts. His real name was John Chapman. For fifty of his seventy-five years, he planted apple trees through the pioneer wilderness. He got the seeds from cider presses in Pennsylvania and carried them in canoes down the Ohio River and on his back to clearings in Ohio and Indiana. Most of the apples were pressed for hard cider, the national drink. In 1857, Wendelin Grimn emigrated from his home in Baden, Germany, to Carver County in Minnesota. He brought with him as a prized possession a few pounds of alfalfa seeds, which he planted on his 137 acre farm. Each year, Grimn saved and planted the seeds that survived and thrived in the cold climate. It did not occur to him that his work had scientific importance - he was just being a good farmer. These two Americans experimented in the world of seeds. They played around with life itself. I also perform the annual ritual of sowing seeds right in my own home. I love to start many of my plants from seeds because it's my way of taking part in the cycle of the year. I launch the new gardening season by rummaging through seeds saved from previous years. The tradition of perusing garden catalogs already took place in early winter. New seeds were ordered and arrived in the mail. Before I begin to plant them, I want to tell you a little about the magic and nature of seeds. Seeds are alive but sleeping during the winter months. With moisture, light, warmth and a germinating mix, garden seeds awaken after a long rest. A seed is a miracle: it comes pre-packaged with a food supply and the vital genetic information it needs to grow properly. If you soak a bean seed in water for a day or two, then carefully open it up, you can see the young plant at one end of the seed. It will be tiny and delicate. You might notice the first few leaves as well as the small round pointed root. The rest of the seed contains stored food for the young plant. C.P. Estes put it well in a current poem. The Faithful Gardener. She says: New Seed is faithful. Its roots deepest in the places that are most empty. Georgie Starbuck Galbraith says it another way in her poem, On A Seed, written in the The New York Times on May 6, 1960: This was the goal of the leaf and the root. For this did the blossom burn its hour. This little grain is the ultimate fruit. This is the awesome vessel of power. For this is the source of the root and the bud.... World unto world unto world remolded. This is the seed, compact of God, Wherein all mystery is enfolded. Finally, Bill Cleary of Burlington shares with us parts of a poem taken from The Lively Garden Book, 1997. Here are my hands, and here are my dreams and my faith in the promise of your worldwide project: the web of life with all it might become. Yes, I will prepare the earth. Yes, I will study its mysteries and test its possibilities. Then, yes, I will choose seed, set it on a promising place and its environs, watering it above all, opening a way to the sun. But only a midwife shall I be. It is the seed that grows, it is the earth and sun that urge on and feed its growing forces, it is you. Divine Gardener, who gives it its purpose And then ultimately draws it toward its fulfillment. Take these hands then, and put them to use - so that in the process of gardening I myself may blossom anew. Amen. Seeds used to be passed down from one generation of farmers and gardeners to the next. In the latter half of 19th century, the Shakers developed the first seed packets. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, seeds only cost five to ten cents per packet, but that was a lot of money in those days. Many families saved seeds to conserve what little money they had. Today, it's surprising how few folks grow their own plants from seeds. Even those who stand to profit from doing so turn their backs on seed germination. They have come to depend on purchasing young plants from outside sources. Unfortunately, many stores of the Mc-Sprawl type limit themselves to just a couple of varieties, even though local nurseries and greenhouses are beginning to offer more choices. One advantage to growing your own plants from seed is that you can experiment with heirloom and rare varieties and share with other gardeners the seeds you have raised from the previous season. Well folks, let's get started. BACK TO TOP Crabapple Pruning by "Coyote" Mark Biercevicz On Saturday, March 29, the Annual Crabapple Pruning Workshop took place at the Hort Farm. During the last several years. Mother Nature has been very kind at this event. Usually seasonal temperatures have prevailed. The lack of snow has made the pruning/brush removal an easier task. But not this year. Snow on the ground, cold temperatures, and a biting wind summed up the Hort. Farm weather on March 29. But nothing could dampen the spirits of the Crabapple pruners. We started in the Blasberg classroom with a very informative and entertaining question and answer period. It was another large group of enthusiastic people. We then went outside to put our skills to work. This year, we focused on the crabapples.on the western side of the Farm. Entertaining stories and all around great comradery is a classic trademark of this event. And this year was certainly no exception. Many thanks to all who braved what Mother Nature had to offer. As they say, "Stick to your longjohns till they stick to you!" BACK TO TOP Spring Bulbs After Bloom by Dr. Leonard Perry, Extension Professor, University of Vermont Once spring flowering bulbs finish bloom, proper handling and care of perennial ones will help them to bloom again next year. The first question to answer is, which of your bulbs are perennial? This may be difficult to determine with some tulips, most of which are treated as annuals. Chances are, if your bulbs grew and bloomed this spring, they are hardy in your area. If they should have been hardy but didn't come up or bloom, there could be several reasons. If the soil is too wet (bulbs like good drainage), they could have rotted. Something could have eaten them, above or below ground. Perhaps they started growing last fall, or early in the spring, only to have the buds killed by cold. A couple rules apply to all bulbs in addition to providing them with good soil drainage. First, when planting, hopefully you added some bulb fertilizer or source of phosphorus for healthy roots. Just as leaves emerge in spring, and once again after bloom, are good times to apply more bulb fertilizer. If a granular form of fertilizer is used, don't get this on the leaves. The key is to provide nutrients as the leaves are making food for next year. The second rule is to let the leaves die back naturally. If they are unsightly and fall over, try clipping tips back by a third to a half. Daffodil leaves, if not too many bulbs, can be bent over and tied in a knot or with a rubber band. If you have room, plant some annual flowers in front or in between to hide the dying bulb leaves. These leaves are key to producing the food, and so healthy bulbs, for next year. You can, and should, cut off flower stalks after bloom, especially if they start to form seeds. You want all the bulb energy to go into next year's bulb, not seed production. If you must dig up spring bulbs, either to make room for annual flowers, or for other reasons, just make sure you leave the leaves on. Digging and transplanting often will make them die back faster. If you want to place the bulbs in a temporary holding area, or "heel them in", to replant next fall, just make sure you mark them so you can find them come fall! An easy way to do this is to just "pot" the bulbs in a large pot with soil, compost, or soilless medium where you know exactly where they are once the leaves die off. If bulbs are becoming too crowded, as often happens with large daffodil clumps, or are blooming much less than in previous years, perhaps they need dividing. Dig and shake the soil off bulbs after bloom, leaving leaves attached if they've not died off already. Bulbs should separate naturally; otherwise plant back ones still joined together. Don't forcibly pry bulbs apart. Tulips are a bit different. If you're like me and you got 50 beautiful tulip blooms the first year, you may have gotten only five the next year, and none the third, perhaps not even leaves. Most of the tulips you find and buy and love are hybrids. Once they reach several years old, the stage in their life in which they produce the biggest flowers and the stage we buy, they split after bloom into many smaller bulbs. If you've dug up tulips after the leaves start dying in early summer you may have noticed this. This is their means of multiplying naturally, and a trait, of course, that bulb growers love and often select for. Because these bulbs will not generally bloom again, treat them as annuals. A few groups of tulip hybrids, notably the Darwins, Emperors and some Triumphs, don't split and so will come back for many years. You'll find these marked in catalogs and stores as perennial or for "perennializing". Some plant tulips deeper in fall, nine inches or more deep instead of the usual five or six inches, and claim this helps make them last more years, possibly from cooler soil temperatures. I don't mind treating most of my tulips as annuals, as I like to try new varieties each year and don't have the space for many. They are so beautiful after a long winter that I find they are worth it. But, if you do want to try and keep the "non-perennial" tulips, they must have all of the following: — If the bulbs have already split when you dig them, you will need to nurse the baby bulbs for several years until they are large enough to bloom. — Tulips need a long, cool spring to generate lots of plant food, and soil rich in nutrients. — Dry tulips quickly when dug, and store over summer with lots of air circulation in warm to hot temperatures, not cool. Keep out of direct sunlight as this can scorch the bulbs. — Replant in fall well after the first frost when soil temperatures have cooled from the summer heat. These conditions mimic the ones in the tulips' native habitats in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains or the steppes of eastern Turkey. I'm just glad that the Dutch, with over 400 years experience producing these bulbs and precisely controlled temperature and humidity chambers, have figured how to copy these conditions and provide us with such a welcome treat for spring and a new growing season. Publication of this release is made possible by University of Vermont Extension and New England Grows—a conference providing education for industry professionals and support for Extension's outreach efforts in ornamental horticulture. BACK TO TOP Jumping Genes by Dr. John Craighead, M.D. It seems the more we learn, the less we know anunderstand. Modern genomic research continues tdemonstrate the validity of this notion. In the mid-nineteen forties, Nobel Prize-winning George Beadle convincingly championed his "one gene-one enzyme" theory that served in part as the basis for the Human Genome Project of the 1990s. Simplistically, one could envision the chromosomes in the nuclei of plants and animals to be akin to a necklace of pearls with each gem representing a gene. Hence, all it would take for science to understand the genetic code and its implications, and thus inheritance and evolution, was a road map to tell us the location of the pearls on the string and the ability to recognize an abnormality in their chemistry. Somehow the role of genes to regulate genomic expression initially was largely ignored, a concept first introduced from bacterial research in the 1960s by the Nobelists Jacob and Monod, but one that dominates thinking on genetic issues today. Now we also know that genes are not little circumscribed packages of information but are structurally complex and differ greatly in size and molecular configuration. Barbara McClintock was a pioneering botanical geneticist. In the mid decades of the last century, this first female recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine almost single-handedly introduced to a skeptical world new genomic concepts that have had an ever expanding impact on contemporary thinking. A creative thinker, she taught us that genes on chromosomes are not necessarily long-term residents but have the ability to "jump" from one chromosomal site to another and in so doing alter the regulation of biological events. These so called Transposons or Transposable Elements could be passed from generation to generation in their new location and thus were part of the inheritance of the organism. McClintock's research focused on Maize; it showed that mosaics in the coloration of the corn kernel were related to transposones which seemed to recklessly jump from here to there regulating the color expression genes. We also now know that higher plants and animals are packed full of biologically inactive transposons. For example, lilies have an enormous genome in which is located some thirty to forty thousand inactive transposons that have the potential for activation given appropriate stresses. Grasses are similarly well endowed. One wonders what all this means: could the montages of complex coloration in lily hybrids represent the effects of activated transposons rather than the distribution of color genes in the crosses? Of great interest is the potential role of environmental stress on the activation of transposons that regulate biologic activity and thus plant characteristics in future generations. To me this remarkable concept is particularly noteworthy for it brings to mind the pathfinding research of the eminent Russian biologist, Jean-Baptiste Lamarch, who first introduced this idea to botanical science in the early eighteen hundreds, at the time Linnaeus was making his major contribution to biology in nearby Sweden. Long debunked by western scientists to be lacking scientific credibility, Lamarch's notion of acquired characteristics due to the environment was popularized by Stalin who argued that stress-related influences on the genome accounted in part for the strength and resilience of the Russian peoples. Two recent articles in the journal Science concerning tomatoes are worthy of mention. In the first, an experimental biologist showed that transposons serve as the basis for the configuration of the fruit of different cultivars. In the second, a team of scientists found that at least 28 interacting genes influence the size of a tomato. Only one of these genes has been identified thus far and the role of transposons in influencing fruit size is currently unknown. Would these concepts apply to another common member of the Nightshade family, the pepper? Think of the great variety of shapes and sizes of peppers in common cultivation! The concepts discussed here are based on complex science. Obviously my descriptions are far too superficial to allow complete comprehension. I continue to struggle for understanding. I hope, however, this brief essay has conveyed some insights into current thinking on this fascinating field of plant science. BACK TO TOP The Gardeners by Lois Bresee, March 2008 I have seen them in dreams strolling through the garden gate visions in white flowing dresses pastel bonnets with satin ribbons loosely tied baskets in hand holding the snippets of freshly cut herbs or the long-stemmed flowers carefully pruned of their excess leaves. And now juxtaposed I see them still in the manicured suburban yards sighted in pedal pushers bright colored visors drawn low on the brow protecting the sensitive eyes or with wide brimmed straw hats their streamers askew shading the mottled skin from the sun's UV rays. I watch them stooping pulling the invasive weeds now sitting on the foam-cushioned mat leaning into the flowers getting up slowly using the garden trowel as crutch to rise. Both as vision and in modern version they have been bent close to the earth their tending and intent unchanged. BACK TO TOP NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES • January 2007 • March 2007 We will be adding more archived newsletters to this section. Please check back later.