For the Birds

I must preface this article, by stating that I am NOT a Birder.  I have been around enough real Birders to realize that this is a title reserved only for select individuals.   Birders are the dedicated few who willingly get up at 4:30am with simply a pair of binoculars and hiking boots to search for spring songbirds.  I would much rather be in be in bed.  Birders are the people who skip work during the migratory season to trek to frosted wetlands to get a glimpse of migrating waterfowl.  I’d rather take a vacation day and head to the outlets.  No, you wouldn’t see me flying to the swamps of the Gulf Coast to hunt for the elusive ivory-billed woodpecker just so I could check it off my life list.  I’d much rather be drinking hurricanes in New Orleans.  Nor would I voluntarily live on an uninhabited volcanic island off the coast of Alaska for 3 months with nesting arctic birds like my sister Erin did.

Although I come from a family of Birders, I am not one.  Perhaps because of my complete lack of musical ability, I’ve always found it impossible to ID bird songs.  At least for me, it’s so much easier to ID a stationary tree than a bird that’s zipping around in the treetops making all sorts of crazy noises.  Nevertheless, coming from a family of Birders has certainly made me appreciate birds and nature. 

About two weeks ago, I came home from the gym around 8:30pm to my condominium complex in Commack.  As I gingerly walked my already sore legs up to my front door, I hear a muffled, “Who! Who-who whooo!”  I turned around and wondered if I could have imagined such a strange sound on a quiet night.  I stood there and listened to the cold stillness.  As the moon shined down on the hard, frozen snow, I held my breath.  “Who! Who-who whooo!”  Again I heard it!  I hadn’t imagined it!  The low call of an owl eerily pervaded the silence that had enveloped the condo complex.  I looked around, but the mysterious owl was hidden in the darkness.  I felt its large, piercing eyes staring at me as I unlocked my door.  Once safely inside, I recalled the experience to my boyfriend Kevin.  “Well,” he asked me, “Did you answer the owl with a ‘YOU!’?”

Photo: A Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus)

Photo Source:  www.allaboutbirds.org

The next day, I told Sally, my Birder co-worker, about my avian encounter.  Needless to say, I was shocked to learn from her that what I had heard was a Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus), an enormous, predatory bird.  With a wingspan up to 57 inches, the Great Horned Owl regularly kills other owls, osprey, peregrine falcons, and even skunks!  Apparently it is found in a wide variety of habitats, but prefers open and secondary-growth woodlands and agricultural areas.  I never thought a Great Horned Owl would make its home in our condo complex, but the dense brush around the complex’s perimeter and the empty 3 acre lot behind it, probably has made our home more attractive.  Trees and shrubs that provide good sources of food and/or shelter are great for attracting birds to your home.  The following trees and shrubs are recommended by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for attracting certain birds to your backyard.  With luck, you might even hear an owl too!  

Photo: Native plants such as the vine, Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), are great for attracting birds to your backyard.

Deciduous Trees:

·         Serviceberries (Amelanchier species) Robins, waxwings, cardinals, vireos, tanagers, grosbeaks, others.

·         Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) Robins, bluebirds, thrushes, catbirds, cardinals, tanagers, grosbeaks, many others.

·         Crabapples (Malus species) Robins, bluebirds, thrushes, catbirds, cardinals, waxwings, Pine Grosbeaks, finches, many others.

·         White Oak (Quercus alba) Woodpeckers, jays, Wild Turkeys, grouse, Wood Ducks, others.

Coniferous Trees:

·         Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) Waxwings and others

·         Spruces (Picea species) Crossbills and other seed-eaters in fall and winter. Migrating warblers search for insects in spring.

Vines:

·         Wild Grape (Vitis species) Robins, bluebirds, thrushes, catbirds, cardinals, orioles, Wild Turkey, Pileated Woodpecker, mockingbirds, thrashers, many others.

·         Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) Robins, bluebirds, thrushes, catbirds, cardinals, starlings, Wild Turkey, vireos, warblers, Pileated Woodpecker, many others.

Shrubs:

·         Northern Bayberry (Morella pensylvanica) Tree Swallows (especially wintering), catbirds, bluebirds, many others.

·         Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina) Robins, bluebirds, thrushes, catbirds, cardinals, chickadees, starlings, Wild Turkey, Pileated Woodpecker, many others.

·         Red-osier or Gray Dogwood + others (Cornus spp.) Robins, bluebirds, thrushes, catbirds, vireos, kingbirds, juncos, cardinals, warblers, Wild Turkey, grouse, others.

·         Arrowwood (Viburnum species) Robins, bluebirds, thrushes, catbirds, cardinals, finches, waxwings, others.

·         Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) Robins, bluebirds, waxwings, others.

Your Gardening Cheat Sheet

The overgrown rhododendrons just had to go.  Although they had been there for perhaps 10 years, there was now more deadwood in them than living.  Where there once been a nice, informal, evergreen screen, there was now an almost unobstructed view of the neighbor’s driveway.   Borers crawled in the rhododendrons’ stocky trunks, and the disease phytophthora was likely rotting their roots. 

Photo: Declining rhododendron in the landscape; Commack

It was definitely time to do some basal pruning and get those dreaded things out of there.  After a decent amount of work, only a few holes were left in the ground where elaborate root systems had once been.  But that side of the garden now looked strikingly bare and empty.  I had to plant something, but what?  I mulled it over in my mind for a while, but nothing jumped out.  After all that sweating and digging, I decided I must be having a gardening brain freeze.

I’m sure many gardeners can empathize – with so many ornamental plants to choose from, how do we select a plant for our garden and know that it’s the right one?  Even after doing a site analysis (Sun, shade, or part shade? Wet, moist, or dry soil?  Acid, neutral, or alkaline soil?), it’s still sometimes difficult to choose the right plant… 

If you’re like me, and need a gardening “cheat sheet,” I’d suggest starting with the Long Island Gold Medal Plants.  LI Gold Medal Plants are underutilized plants of exceptional merit that are trees, shrubs, perennials, vines, groundcovers, and grasses.  These award-winners display a range of outstanding ornamental features, including breathtaking spring flowers, unique exfoliating bark, or glossy red winter berries.  But Gold Medal Plants are not simply beautiful additions to the garden, they are also sustainable selections.  Resistance to destructive insects and diseases, and the ability to thrive in Long Island’s unique climate and soils, are important criteria in the selection of Gold Medal Plants.  Since 1999, a volunteer committee of Long Island horticulture professionals has awarded gold medal status to almost fifty plants.  Photos and descriptions of award-winning plants are available at www.ccesuffolk.org/the-long-island-gold-medal-plant-program/

After consulting my Gold Medal Plants list, I decided upon ‘Conoy’ Burkwood Viburnum as an excellent replacement for the rhododendrons. 

Photo: 'Conoy' Burkwood Viburnum, a LI Gold Medal Plant

                                         Source: R. Weir, 2009

The soil test I had previously taken showed that the soil was too alkaline for the acid-loving rhododendrons, and this evergreen shrub would be able thrive in its place.   ‘Conoy’ Burkwood Viburnum is described as:

“a terrific pest-resistant, dwarf, evergreen shrub with flat, fragrant, creamy white May flowers; dense, rounded to 4’ tall and 7’ wide.  Grow in sun to part shade locations in well-drained alkaline soil; best fruiting (reddish purple) for birds if planted in groups or as a hedge but is a good specimen or foundation planting; hardy in zones 5 to 8.”

So if you just can’t figure out what to plant in an empty spot in your garden, or are simply interested in trying out some less common plants, consider a Long Island Gold Medal Plant.  We’d also like to hear your suggestions for Gold Medal Plant winners!  If you would like to nominate a plant for an award, be sure to fill out a Plant Entry Form on the website.  Remember to “Go for the Gold!” when gardening!

Surviving the Winter Weather

The problem of winter injury on plants and avoiding it can be a tricky one.  After the recent snowstorms, I’ve seen many trees and shrubs with broken branches and downed limbs, the result of heavy snowpack and high winds.  Besides going out there and physically knocking the snow off the sighing branches (not quite so easy for a full-grown tree), there’s not much that can be done to prevent this type of winter injury.  Remedying it would include restorative pruning to eliminate broken branch ends and making a clean, smooth surface over which the tree’s callus tissue can grow. 

Photo: Limbs may break under heavy snowpack, like this Pitch Pine; Riverhead

But two other types of plant injury may not be as obviously attributable to old man winter - freeze injury and winter desiccation.  Many of the scorched-brown Cryptomeria, Leyland Cypress, and other NON-green evergreens that I saw last year, succumbed precisely to this.  Get a head start this season by understanding the problem of winter injury and knowing what you can do about it!

For many plants, it’s not the actual number on the thermometer that causes the problem, but the time of year that the thermometer is down.  The critical times of the year for cold or freezing temperatures are in the fall before plants have hardened-up, in the spring after plants have lost their hardiness, and whenever cold temperatures follow a particularly warm spell during the dormant season.  The time of year cold weather hits is important because of the plant hardening or cold acclimation process.  When plants acclimate every year to the cold weather, water within their cells is pushed out to the small spaces between the cells.  If the water stays inside the cells and freezes, the cells burst and are destroyed.  (Remember from your high school chemistry class that water expands when it freezes!)  So if freezing weather comes abruptly, the plant doesn’t have time to get the water inside its cells out and freeze injury can occur.

Another type of winter injury is winter desiccation.  Plants, especially evergreens planted late in the fall, can suffer from drought even during the winter time!  Normally there is lots of moisture in the soil during the winter because of lots of precipitation and no plant transpiration.  But a relatively warm winter day with bright sunshine and high winds can increase the temperature of the leaf surface of evergreens enough to cause transpiration and water loss.  If the soil is still frozen or even at a cold temperature that restricts water movement into the roots, the plant can suffer from winter drought-stress or winter desiccation.   

Photo: Winter desiccation caused this Cryptomeria to brown and die; Riverhead

You can tackle winter desiccation by:

1. Irrigating during a relatively warm winter day, especially when there has been no precipitation for a while and it will get cold again the next day.

2. Applying a 2-3 inch layer of mulch to insulate the soil and keep it moist. 

3. Reducing wind by constructing temporary wind barriers.

4. Situating the plants in partial or full shade (as long as they don’t require full sun) so that their needles do not heat up as much in bright sun on a warm winter day.

5. Especially for broadleaf evergreens, plant earlier in the season, so that they can develop a more extensive root system and be less sensitive to drought before winter comes.

You can also try applying an antitranspirant at the beginning of the winter and following up with repeat applications.  There really aren't enough studies on antitranspirants and cold hardiness to form general recommendations.  In other words, they MAY help, especially when combined with other strategies.

Unlike winter desiccation, freeze injury is much more difficult to prevent.  There are some studies that suggest that maintaining soil fertility (and thereby plant nutrition) will improve winter hardiness.  This does NOT mean to fertilize all your evergreens with a heavy application of nitrogen fertilizer in the fall – too much nitrogen too late in the season can spur tender growth which is especially susceptible to winter injury.  Instead, make sure that your soil fertility is maintained throughout the year and your soil pH is optimal for the types of plants you are growing.  Calcium especially, may be an important nutrient for proper cold acclimation.  Calcium can become unavailable to the plant in highly acidic soil.

So let’s hope that we get no freezing temperatures and crazy snowstorms again in late winter/early spring, and that our plants are off to a good start for 2011!

Take Home the Tropics

One of the best family traditions I have ever heard of is going to the Caribbean for the holidays.  “Quality family time” seems pretty darn good when it involves snorkeling, searching for shells, and downing piña coladas.  I seriously couldn’t have thought of a better way to ring in the New Year than on a tropical beach, so of course I jumped at the chance to partake in my boyfriend Kevin’s family tradition.  On December 26^th, while the rest of NY was preparing for one of the biggest blizzards in decades, Kevin and I waved good-bye from Flight 660, non-stop service to St. Martin, French West Indies.

Photo: Monarch on Ixora (Ixora coccinea); St. Martin, FWI

As always, we had an amazing time and were very grateful for his father Clif’s generosity.  In between swimming, sunbathing, and horseback riding on the beach, I did get a chance to appreciate the breathtaking flora of St. Martin.  Lush greenery burst forth all over the island – coconut palms swayed in the constant breeze, while candelabra cacti studded the dry roadsides and sea grapes garnished the coastline.  The only thing that surpassed all this tropical greenery was the flowers.  They were everywhere!  Bougainvillea draped our wooden portico in a vibrant fuchsia, while monarch butterflies fluttered among coral pink ixora flowers.  It was truly a tropical paradise. 

My excitement grew as I realized that there were so many plants that I had never seen before!  One cloudy afternoon I whipped out my tropical plant ID book and my camera (like the PLANT GEEK that I am), and walked around the entire complex taking photos of all the plants.  The next day, while lounging in my beach chair, I felt a tap on my shoulder.  Behind me was a woman holding up a bright, variegated leaf.  She asked me if I could ID it for her and if I had any tips on how to get rid of the bare patches in her Bermudagrass lawn.  I then proceeded to daydream about starting my own Caribbean Cooperative Extension the rest of that afternoon. 

If you are lucky like me to get to a tropical destination this season, be sure to appreciate the lavish flora.  But if you aren’t able to go, you can instead bring the tropics to your home garden by incorporating tropical plants.  Many tropical plants are propagated and grown by nurseries in mild-climate areas of the US, such as Florida and California, and are shipped to nurseries all over the country.  The best time to look for tropical plants is in the spring after any risk of frost has passed.  You’ll find many great tropical plants in the greenhouse or houseplant section of your local garden center.  You can plant tropicals in the ground and use them for one growing season, like annuals, or you can plant them in containers and bring them inside when the weather starts to get cold.  Whatever way you choose, tropicals in the garden will create a vibrant, dramatic effect. 

Photo: Yellow Allamanda (Allamanda cathartica); St. Martin, FWI

Two tropical plants I saw in St. Martin and that I’d love to try in containers in my own garden are Yellow Allamanda (Allamanda cathartica) and Plumeria (Plumeria spp.).  Yellow Allamanda is a vigorous vine that has vibrant, canary-yellow, trumpet-shaped flowers which stand out against glossy green leaves.  It requires full sun and well-drained, sandy soil.  To maintain its size, it can be pruned in the spring.  Plumeria, also known as Frangipani, emit a wonderfully exotic fragrance and have delicate, pinwheel-shaped flowers.  Full sun and well-drained soils are needed.  Plumeria is drought-tolerant once established.  With these plants, I’d have something to remind me of the beauty and warmth of the tropics, and our quality family time there … at least until I become a Caribbean Extension Agent.

For more information on tropicals, a must read is Hot Plants for Cool Climates – Gardening with Tropical Plants in Temperate Zones, by Susan A. Roth and Long Island’s very own Dennis Schrader.