Volume 4 Issue 5 | May 2023
May is the month of the "good tired." Longer days filled with work in beds and gardens. Treks through newly awakened forests, meadows, and parks. Immersed in garden work, stresses dissipate and heads clear. The end of the garden day brings a good tired, and anticipation of the next.
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Look Around
A Kirigami Columbine's cotyledons look nothing like its true leaves.
photo by E Barth-Elias
Warming days, settling weather – what a delight to see green shoots poking through the soil surface! Are they welcome – self-sown dill, the lettuce we planted, a fresh crop of forget-me-nots or columbines – or are they thugs and invasives that need to be removed before they get a toehold? A seedling’s first leaves may not tell us. In most plants they are the cotyledons, often called seed leaves, which make up a significant part of the seed and provide a temporary food supply for the emerging plant. When we eat these foods - walnuts, rice, beans, peanuts - we’re largely eating cotyledons. In the germination of plants such as beans, maples, and sunflowers, a radicle, or primary root, thrusts down and a hook-shaped embryotic stem, called a hypocotyl, hauls the seed through the soil to the light, where the cotyledons expand, and the hook elongates (epigeal germination).  
The nondescript cotyledons nurture the growing seedling, and are discarded when no longer needed. Identifying the seedling after the first set of true leaves emerge, leaves that are a smaller version of the mature plant's leaves, is the ticket. A carrot’s true leaves will be ferny, a pumpkin’s will be fan shaped – you get the picture. 

In some plants, especially plants with large seeds, the seed remains below the soil surface, surrounded by the seed coat. A radicle powers down from the seed and a shoot, or epicotyl, reaches for the soil surface and light. Cotyledons, with their important nutrients, remain below ground within the seed coat. The first leaves of these plants are true (hypogeal germination). Oaks, peas, and corn exhibit hypogeal germination. For a look at epigeal and hypogeal germination in action check out this beautiful, short VIDEO. Seed germination is one of the wonders of the plant world.

Whether we must wait to see the first true leaves, or they are the first to emerge, it's fun to learn to identify seedlings, and important when growing flowers and vegetables. Weeding or thinning requires knowing what is what. Recognizing noxious weeds from the get-go makes removal so much easier. Look below for a few sources to help with seedling ID. Enjoy the first shoots of spring. LOOK AROUND!



K Edgington
Leaf Brief - Fire Light® Hydrangea
Hydrangea paniculata 'Fire Light®'
photo by E Barth-Elias
Hydrangeas are one of the joys of summer. The payoff is big for those who like bold colors, giant flowers, and lots of green. With so many types and hybrids, there are endless choices but, honestly, they can be a disappointment if you don’t have the right plant for the conditions. Cold snaps, incorrect pruning, the wrong soil pH, too much shade, not enough shade, or stubbornly persistent deer and you have a plant that can break your heart. 

Fortunately, hybridizers keep looking for the perfect hydrangea and in 2019 they came up with an extremely cold hardy paniculate hydrangea known as Fire Light® which created some buzz among growers and became Hydrangea of the Year!
Fire Light® hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata 'SMHPFL') is a deciduous shrub that grows 6-8 feet tall and wide with white flowers, transitioning to pink in the summer, then to a deep pomegranate-red in the fall. Like all paniculatas, they have elongated blooms and an upright habit as compared to a mop-head or macrophylla hydrangea. What makes Fire Light® special is its hardiness (zones 3A-8B), low maintenance, and variable blooms, achieving a dark red that is not easily found in ‘hydrangea world’.

Known as the perfect hydrangea for “black thumbs,” Fire Light® tolerates full sun (6+ hours of sun) or part sun (4-6 hours). It likes average soil (not soggy) and average rainfall. For doing nothing, you are rewarded with 12” to 16” flower heads that resist flopping and look good through the fall. As an added bonus, Fire Light® makes a great cut flower.

Because Fire Light® blooms on new wood, it can be cut down a third or more in the early spring. If you prefer, you can fertilize once in spring with a formulation designed to encourage blooms (such as 15-30-15 or rose fertilizer). A 2-3 inch layer of mulch is helpful. Like any hydrangea, the deer like them as much as we do, so protect them with sprays or netting. (Maybe one of these days hybridizers will develop a hydrangea with a deer-resistant scent.) Bugs and diseases are generally not a problem. Be patient, as Fire Light® may take a few years to get settled in your garden and produce a complete color cycle.

This large shrub makes an excellent back-of-border plant, focal point, or mass planting to create a screen. If space does not allow, you are still in luck. Another in the series, Fire Light Tidbit® is the smallest hydrangea yet, growing just 2-3 feet tall. It blooms earlier and isn’t as red, but it's easier to find a place for it in your garden. Just don’t crowd it to keep it blooming.

Good luck on your quest for the perfect hydrangea. I’m not sure it exists, but a plant that brings you happiness with little effort is the next best thing.

J Gramlich
Square Foot Gardening
Beautiful lettuce plants fill this square foot garden bed.
photo by G Kennedy
Square foot gardening (SFG). The phrase was coined by Mel Bartholomew, an engineer who in the 1970’s decided that traditional gardening by rows for a homeowner was inefficient and wasteful. He developed SFG to produce high yields with minimal land and effort, and published Square Foot Gardening in 1981, creating a juggernaut that continues today. His bestselling book led to the creation of the Square Foot Gardening Foundation, which is dedicated to spreading Mel’s method throughout the world. There are now multiple books, a course for beginners, and the opportunity to become a certified instructor. The Foundation claims that SFG costs 50% less, uses 20% less land, only 10% of the water and 2% of the labor when compared to gardening in rows! Check out the SFG Foundation's website HERE.
 
Those are pretty big claims, but fortunately Summit County Master Gardeners have our own SFG proponent, Geoff Kennedy. He grew tomatoes as a child, and as an adult had a traditional garden for several years, but always got overwhelmed by weeds in late summer. Searching for a solution, Geoff came across Mel’s Square Foot Gardening TV show on PBS in the early 1980s, and has been a fan (with a few tweaks) ever since. WATCH Mel’s son Steve talk about SFG.    
 
Geoff talked me through SFG basics, beginning by noting that high-efficiency gardening has been around a long time—especially in densely populated areas and regions with limited arable land. Industrialized farming practices in the U.S. popularized growing in rows, which works commercially but wastes space, water, nutrients, and time in a backyard garden.
 
The four guiding principles of SFG are raised beds, good soil regularly improved, close planting and succession planting. Geoff has 17 raised beds in his backyard built from various materials including wood and cinderblock; a simple mound of soil will do, but Geoff likes a barrier to keep things neat. Raised beds should be no more than 4 feet wide so you can reach the middle without stepping on soil; 4 by 4 feet or 4 by 8 feet is typical, but narrower beds may be more comfortable to work in for many people. Beds need 6-8 hours (or more) of direct sun, and don’t forget to leave paths to walk around your beds and push a wheelbarrow. THIS VIDEO highlights some common raised bed planning mistakes.
 
Raised beds warm quickly and drain well, allowing for earlier spring planting. (They dry out quickly too, but targeted watering is easy.) Raised beds use less water and fertilizer than row gardening, and allow for gardening on unsuitable land —uneven ground, poor soil, parking lots, etc. Geoff notes that raised beds are not ideal for plants that require lots of space such as corn, large pumpkins, melons and vining squash.
 
Soil is the second critical element in SFG. SFG calls for Mel’s Mix™, a growing medium composed of one part peat, one part coarse vermiculite and one part blended compost. Here’s a Geoff tweak—he doesn’t use Mel’s Mix due to concerns that it lacks mineral content and its cost. Geoff uses equal parts topsoil and organic matter. If necessary for drainage, Geoff will use one part coarse vermiculite or perlite, one part organic material and two parts soil. He adds compost or fertilizer after every harvest.
 
The third key element of SFG is close planting, defined as planting in 12” by 12” square plots. The SFG method divides a garden into one-foot squares – so a 4 foot by 4 foot garden would have 16 squares to plant. Squares are delineated with dividers made from wood, plastic or other material. Each square is planted with the number of a particular plant that works in that space, i.e. 1 tomato plant, or 16 carrots. SFG spaces plants close together to shade out weeds and maximize efficiency. Geoff generally utilizes close planting but warns to watch for overcrowding which can promote disease. Beginning gardeners may find dividers helpful, but Geoff considers them more of a burden than a help—he prefers to eyeball his square feet. More linear-thinking gardeners may like the structure of dividers, creative types may not! Geoff has tutored many gardeners on SFG, even designing a one-foot planting guide with varying numbers of holes to ensure correct spacing (patent pending!).
 
The final element of SFG is succession planting, the principle of immediately following one crop with another. The cardinal rule is never leave an empty space in your garden. Once you harvest, enrich the soil and re-plant. There are many guides to help you decide what to plant when. HERE'S one. Geoff suggests starting with a quick-growing or early season crop, then following up with another—radishes to onions, lettuce to Swiss chard, peas to beans. Or plant some of the same crop every few weeks to maintain a supply. With long-season crops, choose varieties with different maturity dates—Fourth of July, Early Girl and Big Mama varieties will allow you to enjoy tomatoes for several weeks.

Geoff’s final bits of advice—position taller plants to the north so they don’t shade out the rest of your garden, and plant what you like to eat! Geoff also notes that planting flowers will attract pollinators and add color and beauty—he is lucky to have a wonderful wife who takes care of that!

Click HERE for a good overview of SFG.
C Christian
Brighten the Shadows
Ajuga,heucharella, hellebore, Sun King aralia, Japanese fern, and lily of the valley brighten this partly shaded garden bed.
photo by E Barth-Elias
When we think of gardens, we usually imagine sun-drenched patches of flowers, bright colors and foliage. But not all of us have such idyllic conditions at our disposal. Often, we must contend with shade and, most challenging, shade that is dry a good bit of the time.

Shade produces a microclimate with a general cooling effect, which helps retain moisture. However, the towering trees create dappled to dense shade, prevent rainwater from reaching the soil and what rain does get through is quickly absorbed by the trees’ thirsty roots.

Understanding the four levels of shade will aid in your plant choices.

  • Dappled shade – light filtering through the trees to the ground
  • Light shade or part shade – 3 to 6 hours of shade
  • Full shade – less than 3 hours of shade
  • Deep shade – almost no sunlight.
Some plants, such as coleus or begonias, do well in part sun/part shade. Hellebores thrive in near complete shade. The key is making sure the plants you choose are shade lovers.

Plants grown in the shade may not look as full or colorful as those grown in sunlight. There must be enough light for photosynthesis, the chemical process by which plants convert sunlight into food. The good news about shade plants is that breeders are working on many new, colorful plants.

Dry shade presents the greatest challenge to gardeners. Whether caused by planting under eaves, against a north-facing wall or under large trees, dry shade requires careful plant selection and care. Plants such as hosta, lungwort (Pulmonaria) and sweet woodruff (Gallium odoratum) are all plants that do well in dry shade.

Still, no matter how well adapted to shade your plants are, you most likely will need to provide some supplemental watering, especially important in the critical first year when the plants are establishing. Consider drip irrigation as it puts the water at the roots where is it needed. Amend the soil with organics (compost is best) to help retain moisture or mulch with about 2 inches of shredded bark of another organic mulch. 

When searching for dry-shade plants, look through plant lists from arid climates to see what might work well in your dry-shade garden. The growing zones may be different so be sure to check. Among 15 plants recommended by Utah State University are many well-known to Ohio gardeners: columbine (Aquilegia), lady’s mantle (Alchemillia) and fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica).

Hostas and ferns are also well-known shade lovers. Hostas come in such a wide swath of greens, whites and yellows that they can brighten your shade garden. Ferns known to do well in dry shade are maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum), lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina) and ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris).

Gardening in the shade may not be optimal, but those understory areas and dark corners represent opportunity as well as challenge. Sun isn’t the only game in the garden. Finding ways to brighten the shadows adds dimension to your landscape. 
 



S Vradenburg
Panicle Hydrangeas on Trial
Hydrangea paniculata 'Fire Light Tidbit®'
photo by E Barth-Elias
Most of us have a panicle hydrangea, or two, or ten in our gardens. They have become the darlings of the hydrangea family for good reason: they flower on new wood and are reliable bloomers.  Panicle hydrangeas (Hydrangea paniculata) are distinguished by cone-shaped flower heads and smaller, thin, toothed leaves. They are long-lived, easy to care for, and not particularly fussy about their location (given at least 4-6 hours of sunlight per day). Most importantly, they bear gorgeous flowers that can last for months, often turning beautiful shades of red and pink as they age. 
The selection of hydrangeas can be overwhelming, with many new cultivars, complete with big marketing campaigns, coming onto the market each year. Choosing a hydrangea with the best blooms, form, and vigor can be challenging. What fortune to have the panicle hydrangea trial at Secrest Arboretum in Wooster, Ohio to inform our decisions!

Why a hydrangea trial at Secrest? Per Jason Veil, Arboretum Curator, the explosion of panicle hydrangea breeding and a newly cleared rose-trial bed across from the Secrest Visitors Center presented an opportunity to sort through the cultivars and determine which are best suited for home gardens. This trial fits right into Secrest’s mission: to educate and conduct research.  Jason notes that the trial data and conclusions will be of particular use to Midwest gardeners.

In the fall of 2020, three each of 64 Hydrangea paniculata cultivars were planted side by side in slightly raised beds. They were given a year to establish, after which pruning regimens and evaluations began. Five years of data collection will include a first-year report with preliminary findings, another at the three-year mark, and a final report with observations and conclusions at the five-year mark. 

These trial hydrangeas are being maintained with minimal care, mimicking hydrangea development in the average home garden. Paul Snyder, Secrest Operations Manager, notes that after establishment the plants will not be given supplemental water or fertilizers and will not be treated for pests or disease. Landscape fabric covers the beds to minimize weeding and provide a uniform surface. 

Characteristics that are being assessed include flower size, bloom period, scent and color, ability to attract pollinators, foliage quality, and overall habit. Three different pruning regimens are being evaluated: hard pruning (cutting back to 6-8”), moderate pruning (pruning away 50%) and light pruning (removing spent flowers, which keeps buds intact and yields the same result as not pruning at all). A team of trained Master Gardener Volunteers collects data, following a predetermined schedule throughout the growing season.

In 2022 the data collection team completed its first year. Jason and Paul do have a few favorites, although are quick to note that all the data is not yet in. Fire Light® has caught Jason’s attention, and at this point Fire Light Tidbit® and Berry White® are high on Paul’s list. Master Gardener data collectors are also drawn to Fire Light Tidbit® – this is one to watch as the trial proceeds.

Look for the first-year data report on the Secrest Arboretum website due out this spring. Make plans to visit the hydrangea trial garden this summer – it was a stunning sight during my summer and fall visits. After touring the trial beds a walk through the arboretum gardens will illustrate the use of these beautiful plants in the landscape.

What’s next at Secrest? A report on the just completed echinacea (coneflower) trial will soon be posted on Secrest’s website. A physocarpus (ninebark) evaluation has just begun, and a yet-to-be determined trial will be located at the echinacea trial site (superior echinacea cultivars from that trial will be moved to arboretum garden beds).   

What a pleasure to wander through the panicle hydrangea trial beds, noting differences in the plants and choosing favorites! I found myself making return trips to take in the beauty and check out my picks. I’m wondering what trial plant will replace the coneflowers. Shasta daisies? Sedums? Hardy Geraniums? I look forward to checking out the selections in this next trial.

Visit secrest.osu.edu to learn more about Secrest Arboretum, their collections and events, or to support their efforts. To access the panicle hydrangea trial reports, click on the Research tab and then on Hydrangea Trial.
K Edgington
Down and Dirty
May Checklist

  • Plant summer annuals and vegetables after the last frost. On average, the last spring frost occurs on May 15th in the Akron area.
  • Monitor newly planted flowers and vegetables and be prepared to protect plants during the inevitable cold snap. FROSTS AND FREEZES: Texas A&M Extension
  • For Mother’s Day, say “I love you” with flowers or plants that can be replanted.
  • Weed now to prevent proliferation in the summer.
  • Mow grass to a height of 2-3 inches, leaving nutritious clippings on the lawn.
  • Mulch flower beds (and vegetables) once the soil has warmed.
  • Spray periodically for rabbits, deer, and other foraging guests. Tender perennials are a favorite.


J Gramlich
Tickets are now on Sale for the

Summit County Master Gardener 
Tour of Gardens

featuring a tour of six
Gardens of Distinction

plus our "must-visit" Posie Shoppe

Mark Your Calendar For

Saturday, June 24th, from 9:00 a.m. through 4:00 pm

General admission tickets are $25.
Sponsors, with tickets available at varying levels, are recognized in the tour booklet and may attend a catered pre-tour breakfast and enjoy early access to the Posie Shoppe.

Tickets must be purchased in advance and are available at: Dayton Nursery, Suncrest Gardens, Graf's Garden Shop, The Bird Store & More in Fairlawn, Canton Road Garden Center, Lepley & Co. (Furnace Street, Akron) and on the Summit County Master Gardener website. Tickets may be purchased with check or cash, and by credit card on the SCMG website.


Don't miss this premier event!
Visit our website for further details and updates.
New Growth!
More learning opportunities:
The world's favorite season is the spring. 
All things seem possible in May.
Edwin Way Teale
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The Root of It staff: Karen Edgington (Editor), Emma Barth-Elias (Photo Editor), Carolyn Christian, Jennifer Gramlich, Sarah Vradenburg, and Geoff Kennedy (Technical Advisor)
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