Sanhedrin Nursery – Garden Blog

• Plant potatoes! St. Patrick’s Day is a traditional day to plant potatoes, so the season is upon us now.

• Spring vegetables love cool, moist weather and don’t mind a little frost. Set out lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, spinach and Swiss chard starts now.

• Apple trees are still available as bare-root trees, but only for a short while longer. Start your orchard now!

• Cut branches of forsythia, pussy willow, quince, spirea, and dogwood and bring them indoors to force them into bloom.

• For blue hydrangeas, apply aluminum sulfate around the plants this month.

“Irish” Potatoes

The history of the potato has its roots in the windswept Andes Mountains of South America. The Incas were cultivating them for a long time before the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Peru in 1532 in search of gold. Though gold was scarce, potatoes were plentiful and the Spaniards took some with them when they left for home.

From Spain the lowly potato spread through Europe. In many places it was considered weird, poisonous and even evil, but in Ireland it found a home. The Irish were the first to seriously consider potatoes as an important food, and by 1688, they had become a staple of the Irish diet. By 1770 it became known as the Irish Potato.

The Irish became so dependent on the potato, that it displaced many traditional foods. In the 1840’s the potato crop became diseased and the “Great Famine” was the result. At the height of the famine (around 1845), at least one million people died of starvation.

Fortunately, thousands of varieties were still being cultivated in the Andes, where over 100 cultivars might be found in a single valley. Proper genetic diversity is the key to insuring a healthy potato crop.

Today we have a great number of potato varieties available to the home gardener. There are reds, whites, blues, yellows and russets. Reds may have white, yellow or rose-colored flesh, and blues or purples are bluish all the way through. Fingerling potatoes are small, finger-shaped potatoes, often yellow inside.

Potatoes should be planted as soon as the soil has dried out enough to turn it. Potatoes like cool weather, especially when the tubers start forming. The best crops are produced when the daytime temperature is in the 60°-65°F range. When the temperature goes over 84°, tuber production stops.

Potatoes can also be grown in large containers. Fill the container about one third full with potting soil. Put the seed potatoes on top of the soil, spaced about 6 inches apart, and at least 4 inches away from the sides of the container. Then cover them with two inches of potting soil.

When the plants reach 6 inches tall, add two or three inches of potting soil, covering the lower leaves of the plants. Repeat this every time the plants reach a height of 6 inches above the soil, until the soil is 2 inches from the top of the container. Try to keep the soil evenly moist through the growing season.

It is best to plant certified, disease-free potatoes sold at nurseries. About eight to ten pounds of seed potatoes will plant a 100-foot row and yield 50 to 100 pounds of potatoes. Plant your favorite varieties now, and look forward to those delicious, home-grown flavors.

• Pansies will fill your spring flower beds with their bright faces in many shades of blue, yellow, red, pink and purple.

• Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce and other cool season crops should be planted this month for delicious spring harvests.

• Rhubarb, the “pie plant”, can be planted now for mouth-watering pies for many years to come.

• Cherry trees are still available for bare-root planting, but only for a short while longer. Start your orchard now!

• Prune wisteria trees and vines by cutting out unwanted long runners and removing old seed pods. Don’t damage flower buds that are clustered at the end of short branches.

Bright New Roses

The line-up of bright new roses looks pretty appealing this spring. Wish reds and yellows, pinks and purples, there are roses that are perfect for almost any garden.

Start with the new, and only, AARS Winner this year: Sunshine Daydream. The light yellow Grandiflora, the first garden rose to win under no spray conditions, was selected as the best of the best after participating in the rigorous two-year AARS testing cycle. With fantastic bloom production and great vigor, this rose is sure to brighten any garden. The light yellow, cup-like flowers mature to a creamy yellow and are set off by its dark green, glossy foliage. With excellent disease resistance and a long blooming season this is truly a winner.

Another lovely yellow rose is Walking on Sunshine. This bushy floribunda rose sports tight clusters of fragrant, bright yellow buds that open to ruffled blossoms. Add in disease resistance and you have a great rose for any gardener.

Red is the color of the year and red roses are always popular. Firefighter is a large, intensely fragrant, classic Hybrid Tea rose. It was chosen as the first sponsorship rose of the ‘Remember Me’ garden fund to honor the victims of 9-11. This vigorous, bushy rose grows 5 to 6 feet tall and holds up well even in intense heat.

Purple Splash brings a new color scheme to climbing roses. Its wine-purple and white striped and speckled flowers bloom the first year with a moderately strong, spicy perfume. The mostly single flowers come in large clusters on canes that have minimal thorns. It will be a real eye-catcher in your garden.

For a bright rose with peach, coral and salmon all wrapped up in one beautiful flower, look for Colorific. Warm sunshine deepens the hues to orange, scarlet and burgundy, resulting in a festival of colors on each bush as new blooms open and others age. Strong, long stems are great for cutting and disease-resistance rounds out the colorful package.

White Licorice is a floribunda rose with ivory white blossoms touched with lemon-chiffon, that emit a powerful perfume. The hybrid-tea-shaped flowers bloom continuously all summer on sturdy stems. These beauties will look and smell lovely in a vase.

With lots of lovely roses to choose from, now is the time to check out the bright new roses for the new year.

• Asparagus will provide you with delicious, low-priced spears for years to come if you plant them now from dormant crowns.

• Raspberry, blackberry, loganberry, and boysenberry vines should be planted now for delicious, home-grown berries.

• Prune Hydrangeas now by removing old flower heads down to the first new leaves. Don’t prune stems which have no old flowers, and they will bloom first this summer.

• Fragrant daphne is an early-blooming shrub that will delight you with its strongly scented blooms each spring. Plant it in well-drained soil.

• Potatoes can be planted this month. Plant red, white, yellow and russet for a variety of uses and flavors.

Old King Cole

Cole is the old English word for cabbage, and if you measure this vegetable’s popularity by the mass consumption of cole slaw, cabbage deserves the status of Old King Cole. Since cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collards and others are closely related to cabbage, they are known collectively as Cole Crops.

Two of the most popular cole crops are broccoli and cabbage. Increased interest in healthful foods has made broccoli a regular part of most American diets. And cabbage is one of our most versatile vegetables.

Many types of broccoli can be harvested for 4 to 6 weeks. They produce large heads, which are harvested first, and then many sideshoots which prolong the harvest. Broccoli should be harvested while the buds are blue-green in color and are tightly compressed.

Broccoli is a heavy feeder, so prepare the soil with compost, well-rotted manure or a balanced fertilizer before planting. Space plants 18 inches apart. Set the young plants 1″-2″ deeper then they grew in the pots. Remove weeds around young plants, and keep plants well watered during dry spells.

Cabbages are grown around the world and there are many different kinds to try, from the delicate, loose-leaf Savoy of France to the spicy mustard cabbage of China. Cabbage has a better texture and flavor when grown in enriched soil.

Early cabbages mature in about 60 days from transplanting. Early Jersey Wakefield is a top choice for thin leaves and sweet heads, and Copenhagen Market is also early with 3- to 4-pound heads.

Mid-season varieties hold well in the garden without splitting. Red Acre is an excellent red cabbage. Heads are deep red, globe shaped, 6 to 7 inches in diameter, and they make a colorful addition to the garden landscape.

Savoy cabbages are mid- to late-season producing. They have very tender, crinkled, mild-tasting leaves on a loose head. Their flexible leaves are good for cabbage rolls.

Late cabbage has very tight heads making it especially easy to prepare coleslaw or sauerkraut. They tolerate night temperatures in the 20s, so they’re good for winter gardens.

Cabbage isn’t difficult to grow, and the big payoff is flavor: homegrown crops taste sweeter than those sold in markets. Cabbage is undaunted by frost, and hardy kinds can withstand snow.

Other cole crops include Brussels sprouts and Chinese cabbage, which grow best as a fall crops, cauliflower, collards, kale, mustard, mizuna, kohlrabi and turnips. All like to grow in cool weather, so the time to plant them is now.