Groff`s Plant Farm

Groff’s Plant Farm
Open through November 1st
Monday-Friday 9-5 Saturday 9-5
CLOSED SUNDAY
Fall 2012
What is Wrong With My Impatiens?
There is a scourge striking one of the most
popular garden annuals in the country. Its name is
downy mildew, and it is a disease caused by a water
mold Plasmopara obducens. The spores are spread
by water and in the air.
Downy mildew was first found on impatiens in this country in 2008, but was not a real
problem in the landscape until last winter in Florida.
There, impatiens are planted in the fall for enjoyment over the winter months before it gets too hot.
As early as January, we started hearing reports of a
Impatiens with downy milstrange disease causing yellowing of the foliage,
dew. Photo courtesty of
stunting, and eventual complete defoliation and
death. Another tell-tale symptom is whitish powder
on the underside of the leaves.
Downy mildew caused defoliation.
It seems to have made its way north this
Photo
courtesy Hyannis County Gardens
summer.
If you have had problems with your impatiens this year, it is not your fault. Downy mildew is
probably the cause. Longwood Gardens, the Penn
State field trial at Landisville and other plantings in
the area have all found the disease.
There are preventative treatments that growers can use, and we treated the seedlings and young
plants with fungicide to protect them for a short time.
But as it wears off, if there are downy mildew spores
in the area, the plants may become infected. Unfortunately, there is no "cure" and once plants are sick, the
White spores on the underside of the
only thing to do is bag them up and put them in the
leaves. Photo courtesy of Palm Beach
trash. DO NOT compost diseased plant material.
County Extension.
The spores also persist in the soil for several
years, so if you had diseased plants this summer do
not plant impatiens there again for 3-5 years.
There is some good news- begonias, torenia, New
Guinea impatiens and coleus are resistant to this disease. Fall Mums $3.99 or 3 for
$10
Those would be all good substitutes for impatiens until the disOrnamental Cabbage and
ease is under control.
As with everything in gardening and life, challenges
are cyclical, this is just our latest challenge.
Kale $2.99 or 5 for $12
Pansy 6-packs $2.49
Worth a Drive to Wilmington
Every summer we go on a field trip to visit gardens in the area. Goodstay, Gibralter and
Delaware Center for Horticulture in Wilmington, DE were our destinations this year. Three more
different places I probably couldn't find.
Goodstay is a DuPont family estate that University of Delaware acquired in 1968. Built
in the early 1800s in the Tudor style, the garden is divided into "garden rooms" by formal boxwood hedges. The garden is at its peak in the spring with individual rooms bursting with iris, peonies, roses, lilacs and spring bulbs. The traditional knot garden filled with herbs and lateblooming perennials shines in late summer and fall reflecting the times the family spent at the
estate in Wilmington.
Just across the road is Gibraltar, another
19th century estate, with a distinctive garden built
by Marian Cruger Coffin, the first female landscape architect in the United States. Unfortunately, the house itself has fallen into disrepair
with a preservation group trying to find money to
refurbish or repurpose the old structure.
The garden is now separate from the
house, and is maintained by a volunteer friends
group.
Gibraltar has been described as a
"diamond in the rough", and I didn't really understand what that meant until I saw this amazing
place. Completely surrounded by a craggy stone
wall, this 2-acre garden contains waterlilies in a
dark reflecting pool, old crumbling statues,
Gibralter Gardens -romantic and mysterious
shrubby roses, overgrown trees, the biggest
Magnolia grandiflora I've ever seen, and a central walkway with stuffed perennial borders leading
to a distant gazebo. It is a romantic, mystical place. We couldn't resist picking a few weeds as we
strolled along its cobbled or grassy pathways.
From the bones of the place, it is a four season garden, and anytime would be a great
time to visit- it is open most days for self tours and there is a small box for donations.
Our third destination, The Delaware Center for Horticulture, is a non-profit organization
started in the 1970s with the goal of bringing horticulture and a love of gardening to inner city,
underserved areas. On site, they have a display garden filled with containers, a small vegetable
garden, bee hives, and idea beds filled with perennials and shrubs all suited for urban environments. The building houses a lending library, art gallery, and meeting room.
More importantly, the organization supports 16 community gardens throughout the city
and many street and median plantings, as well as coordinating park plantings and educational programming. It is a very dynamic group promoting horticulture with contests and many classes for
children and families. They have a
great website if you'd like to learn more
about this valuable group. http://
www.thedch.org/
We also stopped at a few private homes in the city. Most of us out
here in Southern Lancaster County are
spoiled by large yards for vegetables,
flowers, and outdoor living spaces, surrounded by farmland. Two friends of
mine have done amazing things with a
postage- stamp sized space in downtown Wilmington. See the next article.
Next time you are wondering
what to do with a Saturday, point your
Succulent container garden
car in the direction of Wilmington and visit some littleat DCH
known gardens. You'll be glad you did.
Gardening in Small Spaces
Gardening magazines for the past several years
have talked about the rise in container gardening both for
people starting out in gardening, or for those gardeners
downsizing into small spaces, or those with limited time.
I've always had several pots of annuals in front of
the house or on the porch, but I never thought too much
about it. Here in Southern End most of us are spoiled with
lots of room for flowers, vegetables, and need a riding
mower to cut the grass.
A visit to Wilmington this summer to several of
our customer’s gardens has made me a true believer in the
versatility of containers. Erin Delano and Suzanne Tuthill
have been coming here for years, and I've always enjoyed
visiting with them about their gardens in downtown Wilmington, but I had never seen them. Both women practice
intensive gardening in a limited space.
With over 40 containers, Erin has transformed her
sidewalk into an oasis with containers brimming with vegetables and herbs like lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, and basil
combined with flowering petunias, marigolds, salvia and the
like. Larger containers hold shrubs like red-twig dogwoods,
hydrangeas, and 2 jasmines. Window boxes attached to the
wall spill over with begonias, fuchsia and coleus. Vines like
clematis, moon vine and morning glories climb up trellis
Delano garden– pots lining sidealong the walls.
walk
Shadier locations
hold containers of
specimen hosta and other woodland perennials. Her
limited ground space is reserved for green beans,
peas and other salad greens requiring more room.
A few blocks away, Suzanne has made her
small patch of ground into a crazy quilt of color with
annuals started from seed. Her walkway is lined
with containers leading to a rear patio and a raised
bed containing vegetables and flowers. Bird feeders,
ornaments and wind chimes draw the eye along the
way, and we all marveled at the 6 stately corn plants,
the cucumber climbing the fence and the watermelon
perched on the petunias to ripen. She has also made
good use of mirrors to reflect and expand the sense
of space.
Other neighbors have been inspired to use
their limited yards for small specimen trees- we saw
a spectacular deep red crape myrtle. Another boasts
the earliest tomatoes on the block. Extensive herbs
are another neighbor's specialty. One yard is an oasis for wildlife with a narrow ribbon of grass between beds lined with sunflowers, coneflowers,
feeders, heliopsis, impatiens, mandevilla and honeysuckle.
Our hats are off to these ladies and the amazing Tuthill raised bed for vegetables
things they and their neighbors have done in the Triangle neighborhood.
Crazy for Chickens
Photo Contest-Deadline
October 1st
Ok, I've become a little obsessed. With chickens.
This spring we started talking in jest about getting some chickens to eat grasshoppers. I started reading about the different breeds that do well free range,
and other types of poultry, like guinea fowl. Did you
know they are tick eating machines?
Over the summer I discovered more friends and
customers that raised chickens for eggs, and as pets.
Several weeks ago my husband bought me a chicken
coop for my birthday, and set up an electric fence to
keep out wild animals and the ever-curious Zeke and
Kimpa, our dogs. Tuesday we brought home 6 Red
Star pullets. Ali and I named them Ginger, Pepper, Butterfly, Bumblebee, Cherry and Fence (don't ask me). So
far we've enjoyed watching our girls explore their new
home.
Liam is getting some guinea chicks for his 7th
birthday (shhh, don't tell) and we'll experiment with
poultry over our off season. If all goes well, we'll get
some other chicks in the spring.
If you have chickens or love chickens, drop me
a line, I'd love to hear of your experiences.
We’ve already received some
great entries, but just a reminder– we
will be accepting your garden photos
for our contest until October 1st.
Please submit up to 3 photos
of your garden with your name and the
town where you live.
We will
accept photos through the mail or emailed to groffsplantfarm@epix.net.
Our staff and customers that
stop by in October will judge the winner. We’ll pick three winners in the
categories of best garden, and best
individual photo. 1st prize wins a
$100 gift certificate, 2nd prize wins a
$50 gift certificate and 3rd place wins
a $25 gift certificate.
Our apologies, but we cannot
return the pictures.
Happy Fall from everyone at Groffs
Find us at:
Groff’s Plant Farm
6128 Street Rd, Kirkwood, PA 17536
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Questions or comments? E-mail us at groffsplantfarm@epix.net or call 717-529-3001