Plant Answer Line questions and answers.
I am trying to discover the common and scientific name for the orange spotted wild lily that looks like an orange tiger lily. It blooms in the forests of the Pacific Northwest in June and early July.
You must be thinking of Tiger Lily, Lilium columbianum (also known as Columbia lily and Oregon lily).
Source: Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast by Pojar and Mackinnon (Lone Pine, 1994).
Click here to see images of Lilium columbianum.
I have several hardy Fuchsias that are quite large, about 4 – 5 feet tall, that bloomed profusely this year. The leaves are gone now, but when should I prune them? How far back should I prune? Is there anything special I need to know about pruning Fuchsias?
Fuchsias are pretty tough shrubs, especially once established. You can prune just to tidy them up, but it is best to wait until the leaves begin to grow (between March and June).
Here are two links to more detailed information:
From Rainy Side Gardeners,
“Some years when we have an exceptionally cold winter, Fuchsias will die down to the ground. Before pruning in spring, wait until leaf buds swell, then prune out dead twigs, or prune down to the ground if winter knocked it completely back.”
Another site is the Hardy Fuchsia List from the Northwest Fuchsia Society.
Can you give me specific directions on how to germinate Brugmansia seed and care for the seedlings. Also, at what age or size do these plants flower?
The following information is quoted from the book Brugmansia and Datura: Angel’s Trumpets and Thorn Apples (by Ulrike and Hans-Geog Preissel, 2002, p. 74):
The fresh seed should be sown as early as possible, at temperatures between 64–79 F. Cover the seed with approximately 1/5 (.20) inch of humus, which must be kept wet.
The seed is relatively large and is pressed lightly into the humus to ensure contact with the moist planting mix. Initially cover the seed box with a glass plate to provide optimal humidity. At temperatures around 68 F, the various species of Brugmansia germinate very differently. As a rule, germination takes between 10 and 20 days. The young seedlings can then be planted out directly into small containers.</p?
Young plants that are grown from seed go through an immature phase, easily recognized by the change in leaf shape. The plants do not reach flowering maturity until the end of this immature phase. The length of time before the first flowering varies with the species. On average, most Brugmansia flower for the first time when the plant is between 2.5–5 feet in size. If they are well cultivated, then they will usually
reach this size in six to nine months.
Plants grown from seed can look very different. They differ not only in leaf shape and size, flower shape, color and size, but also in other traits, such as susceptibility to diseases or willingness to flower. The possibilities are almost endless and many interesting and valuable discoveries are undoubtedly waiting to be made…
I have several immature rose bushes, including some native Washington roses, that must be removed from my property. Are there any organizations, or individuals, who would be interested in transplanting them to another site?
You might want to check out the Seattle Rose Society website, which has lots of good information about roses.
You could also post your information about the roses, or reply to those seeking rose bushes, on the Pacific Northwest Garden Exchange on Houzz.
Another place that might have an interest in helping to find a new home for your roses is the adopt-a-plant list on the website of Plant Amnesty.
Can you tell me some varieties of corn that do well here? I would like to do an early and a midseason variety. Which ones do you like the best?
I consulted Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades by Steve Solomon, and he says the thing to look for is the number of heat units (HU) required for the corn to reach maturity. Early corn needs about 1,300 HU, later types need over 2,200. We need to choose varieties on the lower end of the HU scale. (Seed catalogs for commercial growers typically have this information, while retail catalogs may not. If you look at a Northwest catalog, such as Territorial Seeds in Oregon, the maturity dates will be closer to our own.)
Solomon lists ‘Earlivee’ as an early sweet corn variety. In general, he seems to prefer hybrid varieties to open-pollinated, because they may have low yields and less than optimum eating quality, although ‘Hooker’s Sweet Indian’ is one that Territorial carries and which he thinks is worthwhile. He recommends ‘Jubilee’ as a main season hybrid choice, but says, “It will just barely mature in warmer microclimates around Puget Sound.” He recommends choosing small-eared and richly flavored varieties like ‘Seneca,’ and his final word is that he would grow early corn as the main crop in our area.
The New Twelve Month Gardener: A West Coast Guide has a longer list of recommended varieties, but less detail about their particular requirements and merits: ‘Golden Jubilee,’ ‘Seneca Horizon,’ ‘Sugar Dots,’ ‘Bodacious,’ ‘Chief Ouray,’ ‘Miracle,’ ‘Sugar Buns,’ ‘Jubilee Super Sweet,’ ‘Seneca Appaloosa,’ and ‘Golden Bantam.’
What do the experts recommend regarding time(s) to prune the native roses, Rosa nutkana and Rosa gymnocarpa? I am interested in controlling their growth without losing bloom and/or rose hips. Do either or both of them bloom on second year wood?
Peter McHoy’s A Practical Guide to Pruning says that the pruning method would follow that of vigorous species roses, which produce flowers on old wood. He says to remove any dead wood in early spring (similar to ‘late winter’).
The Royal Horticultural Society A to Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants (edited by Christopher Brickell, Dorling Kindersley, 1996) says to prune species roses as needed only, cutting out one fifth to one fourth of the oldest stems. A Pacific Northwest native wildlife gardening source on the web recommends only pruning out dead wood, and otherwise leaving it be.
Since Rosa gymnocarpa is also once-flowering, it should be pruned–if you need to prune it at all–just after flowering.
The following are general guides on rose pruning in the Northwest, from the Seattle Rose Society and Roses for the Pacific Northwest.
Can you give me some general information about Dogwoods and anthracnose? Also, I would like to know about coppicing Cotinus coggygria.
Here is information about dogwoods and anthracnose from University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Washington State University’s HortSense website has a factsheet on anthracnose for home gardeners which recommends the following:
Oregon State University Extension’s Online Guide to Plant Disease Control (aimed at professional horticulturists) provides a corroborating list of cultural controls for Anthracnose and adds an extensive list of chemical controls. It’s always best to use cultural controls and avoid chemical ones if you can.
Some dogwoods in the Pacific Northwest have been known to recover from anthracnose, according to Douglas Justice of University of British Columbia Botanical Garden.
The Royal Horticultural Society has useful general information on coppicing, and includes Cotinus coggygria (smoke tree) among those plants which respond well to this pruning technique.
I have seen references to Climate Zones or Plant Zones, could you please point me to a reference that would help me to find what areas of the country or climates that these zones refer to.
The handiest way to tell what part of the country a given zone covers is to consult a map. Here are two web sites that will help you do just that.
The National Arbor Day Foundation web site has a concise explanation of Hardiness Zones. Just enter your ZIP code in the search box and press the Look it Up button. A map will pop up telling you the zone in which your town falls.
In case you would like to compare the above site to another one, The United States National Arboretum has a clickable map that will also allow you to determine your zone. Just click on your state on the map or, alternatively, click on the state abbreviation below the map and you will be able to tell what zones apply to your area.
If you are on the West Coast, you may find the Sunset climate zones more helpful, as they take into account other variables besides just winter minimum temperatures. Search for keyword ‘climate’ or ‘zones.’
Another great resource at the library is The New Sunset Western Garden Book, edited by Kathleen Norris Brenzel. Menlo Park, CA : Sunset Pub. Corp., 2012.
How can I find out about plant exchanges? I also have some plants I want to donate.
There are several places you can go for this information.
Houzz (formerly Garden Web) has a page with Pacific Northwest plant exchange information.
There is a Native Plant Salvage Foundation based in Thurston County through which you might be able to make some contacts or find homes for plants you want to donate. You could also explore the Washington Native Plant Society’s page on native plant sources.
Plant Amnesty has an Adopt-A-Plant program.
Community centers, places of worship, and public schools also appreciate plant donations; contact some in your area and see if they want what you have. People also post plants to share on Craigslist.org and Freecycle.org, or on their local “Buy Nothing” group on Facebook.
The Seattle Times published this article about plant swaps and exchanges.
Finally, various plant societies/gardening organizations have plant exchanges. Here is a link to information about such organizations:
Miller Library’s Organizations List
Are the berries of wild woodbine poisonous?
Wild woodbine or woodbine is Lonicera periclymenum. But many species of Lonicera are found in the United States.
For photos of L. periclymenum, see the two sites below:
West Highland Flora
Paghat’s Garden
North Carolina University’s poisonous plant website indicates that the berries of Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) are poisonous.
Toxic Plants of North America (G.E. Burrows and R.J. Tyrl, 2001, pp.321, 322) says that while some species of Lonicera (i.e., L. involucrata) are edible, the rest are associated with digestive tract problems in children (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea), especially the European species. In the U.S., on the other hand, records of complaints are not often associated with records of clinical signs.