Get Ready for the Hummingbird Migration!

Extension Master Gardeners shared a great post with a map on Facebook today sharing the hummingbird migration routes. Here in south central Virginia, we can expect our little feathered friends to return to the area sometime around April 10th. That date isn't set in stone, however. Depending on the weather and I assume the birds themselves, the migration may be a little later or earlier.

Coming soon to a garden near you!

Why do hummingbirds migrate? Hummingbirds sip nectar from flowers and yes, hummingbird feeders, to fuel their incredibly high metabolisms.

Here are a few facts gardeners might like to know about hummingbirds:

• Hummingbirds sip nectar from flowers, tree sap, and ingest tiny insects caught in nectar and sap.
• Their wings beat 80 times a minute. Because of their rapid heartbeat and other factors, they eat a very high sugar diet, and eat frequently, to get enough calories to survive.
• They can eat at a rate of 13 licks per second!
• A hummingbird's nest is the size of a walnut.
• Hummingbirds hover in place by moving their wings in a figure-8 patterns.

Plant Flowers to Support Hummingbird Migration

Planting flowers, shrubs and trees to help hummingbirds through their migration period as well as during breeding season and beyond is a great idea. Purdue's Cooperative Extension offers a free, downloadable fact sheet on how to attract and nurture hummingbirds in the garden.

You can plant several different species in your garden to help the hummingbirds. You don't have to create a special hummingbird garden. Simply work in a few shrubs and perennials among your existing plants to offer hummingbirds an enticement to stop and socialize.

Trees that appeal to hummingbirds include the Tulip Poplar, Ohio Buckeye and Horsechestnut trees.

Common rhododendron (purple) and azalea (white) attract hummingbirds.

Shrubs to attract hummingbirds:

• Rhododendron spp. (Common Rhododendron and Azaleas)
• Hibiscus moscheustos (Rose Mallow)
• Clethra spp. (Pepperbush)

Columbine attracts hummingbirds.

Perennials to attract hummingbirds include:

• Aquilegia canadensis (Columbine)
• Phlox spp. (Phlox)
• Monarda spp. (Bergamot, Bee-Balm)
• Lobelia cardinalas (Cardinal flower)

Vines:

• Campis radicans (Trumpet Creeper)
• Passiflora spp. (Passionflower)

Nectar bird feeders are, of course, a fun way to easily feed hummingbirds. But when you add plants to your garden to help hummingbirds, you also help other pollinators such as butterflies, bees and many other insects.

So here's to the return of spring...and the return of hummingbirds to the area. It's coming soon and spring is just around the corner!

Don't Forget the Birds in Your Garden!

Make sure to include bird feeding and bird watching in your list of wintertime gardening activities. It's a myth that if you start feeding the birds in your backyard, you'll make them dependent on humans for food.

During the mid to late winter, natural food sources dwindle. Birds must work harder and fly longer to find sources of food. That's why backyard bird feeding helps local bird populations. It provides food at a time of year when birds really need a helping hand.

A few tips from the University of Maine's Cooperative Extension website regarding feeding backyard birds...

• Choose different types of feeders if you plan to hang more than one. Tray feeders, like the one above, are great for birds who peck their seed from the ground. Tube feeders provide perches for smaller birds like finches and sparrows to find seed. Suet block feeders support insect-eaters like woodpeckers and flickers. A variety of feeders will help the most birds, but even one feeder is appreciated.
• Keep feeders clean. Make sure to scrub them thoroughly before you put them away for the season. A mild bleach and water solution can be used to disinfect them.
• Add a variety of seeds to tube and other seed feeders. Black oil sunflower seeds appeal to many species of birds. A songbird mix provides a wide variety of seeds.
• Grow your own! Next year, add a row of sunflowers to your garden. The seeds are enjoyed during the blooming season but you can also dry the seeds to add to feeders during the winter. You can even dry the flower heads on the stalk, then hang them upside down from the stem in a tree to feed birds.
• Keep squirrels from feeders by hanging feeders on a thin wire between two trees. Squirrels can jump up to 20 feet, but a thin wire makes it difficult for them to reach a feeder. Squirrel baffles, or plastic shelves above and below the feeder, can also challenge squirrels and deter them from enjoying a banquet at your feeder.
• Place meal worms out for those birds who need an insect treat now and again. You can just place them on a tray for the birds.
• Make your own feeder. Take a stale bagel, smear it with peanut butter, press it into seeds and hang it with a cord from a tree. Instant bird and yes, squirrel feeder.

These and other backyard birding tips may be found on the University of Maine Cooperative Extension website.

Seed Starting Tips

It's that time of year when the mail brings catalog after catalog of seeds, plants, and gardening tools. It's time to dream about the perfect garden, and to do a little planning to ensure you've got exactly the varieties you'd like in your garden. One great way to do this is to grow plants directly from seeds. If you're starting your garden from seeds and plan to grow seeds indoors, these tips may help you create a flourishing garden.

10 Seed Starting Tips

1. Plan your garden out on paper so that you know what you'd like to plant and where you will plant it before purchasing seeds. It's tempting to buy too many seeds during winter when you're yearning to get outside and garden.
2. Decide which plants are more economical to buy from your local garden center and which are best started from seeds. If you need just one plant, for example, it may be better to buy a single plant at your favorite nursery than purchasing seeds.
3. Stock up on seeds you will use throughout the growing season. This includes lettuce, which may be planted in the spring as well as in the fall, and other seeds that may be difficult to find in the summer months.
4. Check your grow lights or seed starting lights if you're starting seeds indoors. Replace burned-out bulbs and clean the unit.
5. Purchase a timer so that your seed starting lights go on and off automatically. This way, you'll never forget to turn on the lights!
6. Sterilize all of your seed starting equipment before planting seeds. You can sterilize plastic pots, trays and containers using a solutions of 9 parts water to 1 part household bleach. Mix the solution and soak the plastic containers for 10 minutes. Rinse, dry, and use.
7. Heat is important for germination of many common flowers and vegetables. Check the back of the seed package to see what the preferred temperature is for germination. Purchase and use ONLY specially made seed-starting heat mats. These are intended to be used under seed starting trays. Don't try to make them yourself - you could start a fire.
8. Read the back of the seed package to determine when to plant seeds indoors. The back of the seed package provides plenty of information include how to plant the seeds, days to germination, and more.
9. Make labels for your pots or containers from clean popsicle sticks, cut up slats of old Venetian blinds, or any strips of wood or plastic you'd like to recycle.
10. Test seed viability for any opened seed packages you may have stored from previous years. Place 10 seeds between moist paper towels in a sealed plastic bag. Place the bag in a warm location such as on top of your refrigerator and wait a week. Check daily. The number that germinates gives you the percent of viable seeds in an open seed package. This gives you a good idea if you need to buy more or not this year.

Happy gardening!

How to Care for a Poinsettia

Poinsettia, licensed from Mensatic/Morguefile.com

It's that time of year when poinsettia seem to explode on the shelves of your local garden center, big box store and supermarket. Everywhere you turn, the beautiful red, white or pink "flowers" celebrate the holidays. But few people know how to care properly for a poinsettia and are disappointed when their plant doesn't last through the New Year. Here's how to care for a poinsettia to keep it healthy and happy.

Caring for Your Poinsettia

Poinsettia arrived in the United States with our ambassador to Mexico, Joel Poinsett, who "discovered" the poinsettia growing wild among the hills of Mexico. In its native habitat, poinsettia is actually a weed that loves to flourish in roadside ditches. That gives you an idea of how tough it is when given the right conditions!

Temperature

Think about this when you bring your poinsettia home. First of all, Mexico is a warm, temperate climate. Poinsettia HATE cold weather and drafts. If exposed to cold drafts, fluctuating temperatures or sudden bursts of cold, they will curl and drop their leaves.

Most garden centers know this and take great pains to wrap a poinsettia correctly before wishing you a Happy Holiday and ushering you out the door. But big box stores and supermarkets don't offer extra wrap, so you'll have to do the job yourself in order to keep your poinsettia warm and snug until you can get it home. Use an extra plastic bag and move the plant immediately to your car. Try not to run other errands when you've got a poinsettia riding along with you; they don't appreciate being outside for that long!

Watering

Poinsettia need evenly moist soil. Many poinsettia pots are wrapped in pretty foil at this time of year, which makes them an attractive gift but doesn't help drain away excess water. You may wish to move the foil away from the bottom of the plant container. Check the container while you're at it to make sure there are drainage holes. I've received a few plants over the years that didn't have drainage holes in the bottom of the container, and had to add them to make sure I didn't drown the poor thing.

Keep the soil evenly moist and your poinsettia will thank you. Just stick your finger into the soil. If the soil clings to it, you don't need to water. If the soil feels dry, give your plant a drink.

Light
Your poinsettia needs bright light. A southern window is great, or a bright western or eastern exposure. Make sure that your plants gets plenty of light throughout the holiday season.

Getting Poinsettia to "Bloom" Again

After the holidays, keep your poinsettia as a houseplant until all danger of frost is past. Then, give it a summer vacation. Bring it outside and let it enjoy some bright, dappled shade throughout the growing season.

Once summer is over, it's time to convince your plant to produce those lovely, colorful bracts or leaves surrounding the little yellow "true" flower. From September 1 to December 1, you'll need to give your plant a very strict regimen of light and dark. This mimics conditions in its native habitat.  

You can use a closet or a dark room to provide darkness. Bring the plant into the darkness and make sure it receives absolute darkness from 13 to 16 hours a night. Take it out during the day and place it back in its sunny spot, but make sure to keep up this routine. By December 1, if all goes well, your plant should have its color back.

Poinsettia are lovely plants and a wonderful symbol of the holidays. Enjoy your plants!

Getting Ready for Winter

These little garden statues should all come inside.

As you get your garden ready for winter, don't forget to take all of your garden ornaments inside. While most people remember to take their garden hoses and containers indoors to protect them from the elements, garden accessories can also be damaged by winter temperatures.

• Wind chimes:  You can leave wind chimes out if they're in a sheltered location. Rain, snow and ice do take their toll on the metal chimes and can tarnish or discolor them. The string holding the chimes together can also rot. 
• Small statues: Little stone or plastic statues, garden gnomes, etc. should be removed and brought indoors too. Stone may fare just fine outside, but plastic statues can be buried in snow, cracked, or even blown off of your lawn by a strong winter gale. 
• Plaques: I have some small stone plaques around my garden that have sayings and quotes on them that I like. During the summer, they're balanced upright against stones, but I take them indoors in the winter Snow and ice will crack them just as surely as they crack terra cotta pots and containers.
• Bird baths: Unless you have a bird bath heater, it's important to empty the basin of your birdbath and bring it inside. Plastic birdbaths should by removed from the garden entirely in the winter. Stone birdbaths that have detachable basins and pillars can be taken apart and the basin stored inside.
• Whirl-a-gigs and pinwheels: Many people like hanging wind catchers, whirl-a-gigs and pinwheels in the garden. Because wind can catch them and send them sailing into your windows (or worse, into a neighbor's windows!) you may also wish to move them indoors for the winter. 

Bird houses should stay outside during the winter months so that they are ready for spring, but you should take some time during the winter months to clean out old nests. Bluebird houses can become quite full with old nesting materials; bluebirds will simply add a new nest onto an old one until the whole house becomes packed with nesting material. Remove and discard old nests and rinse out birdhouses so that they are clean and ready for next spring's inhabitants. 

Take a walk through your garden and collect all of the little accessories you love. Store them safely inside a barn, shed, garage or basement. Then pour yourself a cup of cocoa and relax. You're all set for spring!

Why Leaves Change Color in the Fall

Have you ever wondered why leaves change color in the fall? There's fascinating science behind the fall color show here in south central Virginia.

Each leaf in a plant is a tiny, highly efficient factory that manufactures food for the plant throughout the spring and summer. Tiny cells called chloroplasts deep within each leaf contain chlorophyll, a chemical that absorbs sunlight. It also lends leaves their green hue. Chlorophyll transforms carbon dioxide and water into sugars and starch that plants use for food.

Leaves contain other chemicals, however. Carotene, the same chemical that gives carrots their orange color, is found in some plants, as well as xanathophyll and other compounds. These exist in smaller amounts than chlorophyll, so when you look at a tree, for instance, during the spring or summer, you simply see green leaves.

As the light begins to dwindle in both duration and intensity, trees shut down their food-making factories in preparation for winter dormancy. Chlorophyll production ceases. As chlorophyll levels drop, you can see the gorgeous orange and yellow hues more easily. Additional chemical changes in the leaves that prepare them to drop from the trees produce anthocyanin, a red pigment. Depending on how these three pigments mix - anthocyanin, xanathophyll and carotene - you see the gorgeous yellow of aspen leaves, the rich purple and crimson of sumac leaves, or the red-browns of the oak.

Special layers of cells that joint the tips of twigs to the branches develops and severs the leaves from the trees when the tree no longer needs its little food factories. Leaves drift to the forest floor or onto your lawn where nature sends bacteria, fungi, and other helpers to break them down into usable compounds that eventually add them back into the soil.

Why do some years seem to produce more brilliant color than others? According to the State University of New York Extension Service, numerous environmental factors affect the brightness, intensity and hues of fall leaves. Low temperatures that hover just above freezing for prolonged periods of time increase the amount of anthocyanin produced in the fall, giving trees a more intense red color. This especially affect maples. Rainy days, as well as overcast days, increase the intensity of all colors, but an early frost can dim them.

I grew up in New York State and thought that only New England could boast beautiful fall foliage. Then I moved to Virginia and wow - was I dazzled by BOTH the spring and fall colors. We truly live in one of the most beautiful states, and indeed, one of the most beautiful parts of Virginia. Enjoy the fall foliage, and think of the tiny miracles sprinkled throughout each leaf the next time one drifts to your feet on a light autumn breeze.

Problems with Too Much Rain

I don't know about you, but I've about had it with rain. Sure, at first a few showers are welcome. What gardener doesn't like a nice day of rain, especially during the summer months?

Here in central Virginia, we seem to have two seasons: drought and downpour. We're in the downpour season now, caught in a weather pattern that's dumping plenty of water onto your fields, farms and gardens. It's welcome, but it can also wreak havoc with your vegetables, fruit, and garden flowers.

The following five tips can help you keep your garden beautiful after this deluge is finished.

1. Check for powdery mildew, black spot, and other fungal and bacterial diseases: Fungi, bacteria and mold loves moisture. The damp, cool, cloudy days are perfect breeding conditions for these common garden ailments. The Virginia Cooperative Extension website has a good article on recognizing powdery mildew, a common problem in local gardens. I've noticed that my own plants all seem to be suffering to some extent from this problem right now and it's like to get worse before the rains end and the sun can dry off the leaves again. Recognizing it and treating it immediately after the rains stop may help your plants look and feel better before winter.
2. Check drainage: Make sure your planters, containers, and window boxes are draining! Plants can and do drown if there's too much water in their containers. Lift out plastic pots from decorative pots to allow them to drain. You can even more small pots, house plants and other portable containers under shelter if you're worried they're getting too much rain.
3. Harvest vegetables: Pick as many tomatoes and other vegetables as you can: Tomatoes will crack from too much rainwater, and other vegetables can rot. Pick as many as you can and can, freeze or otherwise store or use them.
4. Weed as soon as you're able: Weeds love this weather just as much as many plants do. Weed seeds in the soil may have been waiting weeks for the rains to come. Pull them up before they take over...but remember not to walk on wet soil. It can compact and damage it.
5. Watch for wasps: The wasps and yellow jackets are fierce in the fall. They're bad-tempered to begin with, but even more so when their tunnels and hives flood. I dodged a few today in my fruit tree orchard as I walked my dog. Their in-ground nests must be flooding. Avoid them as much as you can at this time of year...and give thanks for the first cold snap, which will take care of the pesky, stinging workers.

Rain is a wonderful thing, a gift for gardeners, and I am always thankful when I hear the beautiful song it sings as it courses through the gutters on my house. I know that it heralds good growth to come and a beautiful garden. But too much rain can make plants sick just as too much candy can give you a stomach ache. Too much of any good thing is...well, too much. 

Here's to rain...and sunny skies ahead!