Certified, Emeritus Members Vote For 2010 Officers Today From the ...

Schroeder Asks: Which Plants Performed Best in Gardens?By Schroeder Wilson Plant lovers are invited toparticipate in a survey of this year’sbest plant performers. What plantsmet your expectations or exceededthem? What are the prize winners ofyour garden? Talk about amazingperformances, whether it wasspectacular foliage, form, flowersfruits or fragrance. Maybe your favorite plant didn’t tantalize youreyes, but it did a wonderful job on your olfactory lobes.Some plants may just blend into the green textures ofyour landscape, but the blooming flowers’ fragrance willstop anything in its tracks. A perfect example of this isthe butterfly ginger. This plant has exotic lilyfoliage, but nothing compares to the spicysweet fragrance of its flowers. The flowersbloom in a bundle on a towering stem,beautiful white petals with a pale yellowcenter. But forget the panicle of pale whiteblooms. Just breathe the exotic sweetfragrance surrounding the bloom. I planted Hedychium (Butterflyginger) right next to my front entry, for obviousreasons. Its only disappointment is it only blooms inthe fall, starting in September. I love that plant’s foliage,form, flowers and unforgettable fragrance. It only needsmorning light and someone who appreciates itsindividual beauty. But this is only one of my garden’s starplayers, there were many who deserve honorablemention. The hardy bananas trees reached amazingheights this year with all of that heaven-sent water. Theyare usually impressive, with sturdy trunks and tropicalfoliage; but this year the trees stretched to new heights. Iwould judge they are over ten feet tall, maybe fifteen.Unfortunately the summer’s not long enough for flowersand fruit to develop. Next spring, try a Musca Basjoo(hardy banana) in your landscape, and enjoy a part of thetropics in your own back yard. I have to talk about fig! My brown turkey figtree is truly amazing! It’s the only fig tree that willproduce figs in the first year. I have seen first-yearcuttings produce fruit while still in their pots. The littlestem cuttings are only few months old but they will stillproduce figs. They’re little round buttons of good eating,turning slightly brown when ready to pick and eat. Eachyear I take many cuttings of my Brown Turkey fig, andthey never have difficulty finding homes. That’s because the fig is not only fruitful but hasvery attractive foliage as well. The leaves are two colors,green on top and silvery on bottom, but it’s the wellcutlobes of the leaves that are striking. I thinkthe tree adds a more tropical foliage look inthe gardens, but that might be in the eye ofthis beholder. So, this lovely, fat tree givesfoliage and fruit, and is a blue ribbonwinner for sure. Unfortunately, you will never seeBrown Turkey fig’s blooms. The flowersform inside the bud to be pollinated by smallwasps. If you were lucky enough to be on theMaster Gardeners’ bus tour last September, you mighthave noticed how many gardeners had brown turkey figsin their yards. And every one of those fig trees had littlefruits! So I have talked about three of my favoriteplants of 2009. Actually, there are many more, too manyto include in this brief survey. Consider the categories:foliage, form, flowers, fruits and fragrance. Choose aplant to include on our list of the top plants of the year. Iwill write a column on the top ten nominated by OK COMaster Gardeners.Vote Today!Schroeder@cyberphysics.comCrew Works Hard in OctoberBy Jennifer Fox We had a greatly productivework day on October 22. We planted anew Arizona Cypress and a Ninebark,Summer Wine, as well as about 12 flatsof pansies, kale, mums andsnapdragons. We transplanted sometropicals and potted up someasparagus ferns for the 2009 students. Don’t forget to have a look at the new plants inthe East Garden. My special thanks to Brenda Finch,Debbie Melland, Kathleen Hardwick, Linda Dunn, andAnn Michalski for working diligently in the misty rain toget all of these plants in the ground. We also installedMemorial bricks in the patio garden, pruned out deadannuals and perennials and cleaned out the veggie beds. The real challenge for Brenda Finch and me wasto re-install one of the Memorial bricks which was a tadtoo long after the new bricks were substituted in. Thatbrick fought us hard! Even though the weather was not the best, andthe temperature was dropping quickly, we still hadseveral visitors strolling around the walkways andadmiring the Black Pearl ornamental peppers (Capsicumannuum) and the Copper Leaf plants (Acalyphawilsesiana macefeana) that line the Crescent garden. Don’t miss the ever-lovely Lion’s Ear (Leonotisleonurus) as this plant is glorious right now! And whocan ignore that show stopper, David Verity Orange Cigarplant (Culphea)? We look forward to putting the gardens to bedfor the winter this month. I hope you sent design ideasfor the new shade garden by Halloween. We want to getstarted on this project as soon as possible. And finally the combination to the Garden Shedhas been changed because yours truly misplaced the oldlock! If you had the combination before, please see me toget the new one!OKLAHOMA COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS November 2009 MASTERGARDENER@OKSTATE.EDU7