Colorado Cactus and Succlent Society's Show and Plant Sale by Dusty M

Specialized plant groups can be valuable resources to gardeners who want to explore subdivisions of the gardening world. Here in Colorado there are a host of organizations with special focus, from African violets and orchids to daylilies and dahlias, from water gardening to carnivorous plants. In these groups one can tap into a wealth of information, practical experience, and passion for particular plants and styles of gardening. Most of them are also a source of plants.

This weekend took me to the Colorado Cactus and Succulent Society's show and plant sale at the Denver Botanic Gardens. I'm planning a non-irrigated ornamental plot in my backyard and expect cacti and succulents to play a prominent role. So this seemed a good chance to get started.

Arvada Gardeners Taste Test! by Dusty M

What's a really cool and unique way for gardeners to entertain friends and colleagues at the end of summer? How about arranging a tomato-tasting and cider-pressing party? That's what Arvada gardeners Tom and Char Gottlieb did on a recent Saturday afternoon. It was their 12th annual gathering, held despite the July hailstorm that flattened their garden and destroyed all their apples. So this year, particularly, the guests were asked to bring their favorite tomatoes and apples to share.

25th Anniversary Harvest Show by Dusty M

Hail survivors played a key role in last weekend’s 25th anniversary Jeffco Master Gardener Harvest Show. Top winners in several show divisions were among gardeners “wiped out” by the devastating July 20 hail and other hail storms before and after that big one. Some entries were from plants that had recovered from the damage. For others, the judges were lenient in grading blemishes caused by the hail. A few came from plants in sheltered spots where they escaped damage.

In all, there were 277 entries in the show, held Friday, August 21, through Sunday, August 23, at Echter’s Garden Center in Arvada. The annual competition, staged by Jeffco Master Gardeners, was open to all gardeners near and far. It included vegetables, herbs, fruit, annual and perennial flowers, floral arrangements, container plants, cuttings from trees and shrubs, educational displays, garden photos, and scarecrows.


Diane, Rebecca and Michelle Sullivan of Arvada stand beside their garden scarecrow entered in the Jeffco Master Gardeners Harvest Show. The scarecrow was awarded a champion ribbon, as was Diane’s arrangement of dried plant materials.


Norma Faes, a Master Gardener from Golden, holds her champion thyme entry in the herbs division of the Jeffco Master Gardener Harvest Show held last weekend in Arvada.



Karl Tomaschow of Arvada won the championship of the vegetable division with the eggplant shown here. Karl grows a number of different vegetables in containers. All were wiped out by hail this year, but Karl coaxed most of them back into production, and was able to exhibit a variety of vegetables in the Master Gardener show.



Paul Luzetski, a Master Gardener apprentice from Evergreen, won champion in garden photography and reserve champion in everlasting flowers. His everlasting entry, three sprays of globe thistle (echinops), is shown here.



Show winners-web – Jack Shea (right) of Lakewood and Duane Davidson, Arvada, were overall champion and reserve champion among Master Gardeners who exhibited at the Harvest Show. They scored the most points in a tabulation of ribbon-winning entries by Master Gardeners in all divisions of the show. The gardens of both men suffered severe damage in the July hail storm.


A pair of single dahlia flowers entered by Linelle Zimmer, an apprentice Master Gardener from Golden, was awarded reserve champion in the bulbs, corms, and tubers division of the show. Other Golden award winners were Mary Kirby, champion rose, and Jim Faes, reserve champion vegetable (carrots). Other awards won by Lakewood residents were Cheryl Mulhauser, champion container plant (orchid), Jack Shea, reserve champion rose, and Jane Thorell, reserve champion, garden photography. Top award winners from Littleton were Mike Boyle, champion perennial flower (hibiscus) and Peter K. Szilagyi, reserve champion annual flower (cleome). Division award winners from Arvada were Duane Davidson, champion annual flowers (asters) and Charlotte Gottlieb, reserve champion floral arrangement. Tom Taggart of Wheat Ridge received the reserve champion award in the educational exhibits division for his display of mushrooms and bonsai.

More Pictures by Heirloom Fan

Yellowhorn (Xanthoceras sorbifolium) by Dusty M

Yellowhorn (Xanthoceras sorbifolium) occupies the place of honor in my front yard, in the corner of sidewalk and driveway. It is a delightful small tree that intrigues passersby both when it blooms in mid-spring and in winter when its dark brown seed capsules the size and shape of apricots accent its twiggy skeleton. That is, until the squirrels have harvested them all and emptied them of the pea-sized seeds inside.

The Yellowhorn is said to grow to 18 feet in height; mine is about 12, after more than 15 years in place. It has flowered rather reliably, but late freezes have destroyed its blossoms several times. Neighbors across the street have a Redbud tree that blooms at the same time, so I had come to think of them as sharing the same hardiness. This year, however, the Redbud had no flowers.

Michael Dirr, in his Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs, says the Yellowhorn is adaptable to well-drained soils, either acid or alkaline. Mine is the latter. It is hardy to Zone 3 or 4, so it should be happy even with our neighbors at higher altitudes.

Siberian Peashrub by Dusty M

Siberian Peashrub (Caragana arborescens) is a tough utility shrub, useful for hedge, screen or windbreak. As its name implies, it survives harsh cold weather and heavy dry soils. Yellow flowers in May yield short, narrow seed pods that make a popping sound when they dry and open later in the summer. A friend who has four Siberian Peashrubs, each about 10 feet high, in her backyard says she hears the pods popping as she sits on her back porch. Like other members of the pea family, it fixes atmospheric nitrogen in the soil.

I noticed in the other morning’s newspaper article on urban homesteading that some folks near Denver City Park are growing Siberian Peashrubs for the concentrated edible protein in the peas they produce. A “homesteader” explained that the peas could also be used as chicken feed. Not to disparage his good intentions, I trust his chicken flock is not very large. The pods are 1-1/2 to 2 inches long and the peas are very small. My shrub has grown to about 6 feet in 10 or 12 years. Were I to try to collect all the peas before the pods opened on their own, I can’t imagine having even a cupful. I would humbly suggest the growing space and other resources be devoted to higher-yielding crops.

See “Deciduous Shrubs” at http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07415.html for a listing of shrubs, including the above, recommended for our area.

Fern-leaf Peony (Paeonia tenuifolia) by Dusty M

A worker at Denver Botanic Gardens first pointed a Fern-leaf Peony out to me. (“You want to see a cool plant?” “Sure.”) When I noticed it offered in a southeastern U.S. nursery catalog, I had to have one. That was about 15 years ago. I don’t remember the price, but recall it was “pricey!” Like all peonies, it was slow to establish, maybe slower than its larger, elegant cousins. The photo shows this year’s performance in early May.

The Fern-leaf isn’t as tall as standard peonies. It blooms earlier. Its flowers are smaller (and don’t flop over). It comes only in red. My plant is double, and as with other peonies, as the flowers age, they open wider to reveal orange-yellow stamens. I understand there is also a single-flowered version, but I have not seen it. Late spring frosts don’t seem to bother the foliage, but will damage the flowers. As summer progresses, the ferny foliage withers, but faithfully reappears in the spring. I’ve never noticed ants on my plant.

The Fern-leaf allegedly was carried to the West by early settlers. I’ve heard that story from a local nurseryman. I also found it posted on the Internet by a grower in Indiana. I’ve pondered why this plant might have been selected for the long trek west, and why it is one of those few plants to have earned mention in pioneer lore. Perhaps it has been seen as a tough, persistent survivor that embodies the spirit of Western settlement.

Try Brunnera in Dry Shade by Dusty M

Last year I attended a garden center class focusing on perennials for shady areas. I’m always looking for something that tolerates dry shade. I care for a family member’s yard filled with trees that cut off most sunlight except early and late in the day. The soil seems always dry, despite a thick layer of wood chip mulch plus the pine needles and leaves that collect there naturally. Tree roots suck up all the moisture in the soil. Grass stopped growing there some years ago. A little ivy has crept into the area, and there are a couple of other plants I’ll mention below. I place pots of shade annuals there in the summer. Fibrous begonias, impatiens, coleus, caladiums, and elephant ears do fine with daily watering.

At the end of the class I decided to try two possibilities. One was Paxistima canbyi (mountain lover), a low-growing spreading evergreen shrub that could provide some winter color, and Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’ (Siberian forget-me-not), with blue spring flowers and silvery-patterned leaves for spring, summer, and fall. I planted the Brunnera at the edge of the grouping of annuals in their pots, which surround the trunk of a large old apple tree. It was watered daily along with the annuals through the summer but was neglected after frost and the annuals died away.

I was a little surprised a couple weeks ago when I noticed a hazy blue splotch near the apple tree trunk. I remembered the Brunnera and felt guilty forgetting it for half a year. I promised to do better next winter.

The Paxistima did not survive. Neither has bishop’s weed (Aegopodium podagraria), which I’ve tried in the past. In sunlight and more favorable conditions, it’s considered a pest that’s hard to control.

Others that do grow in this dry shade: Mahonia repens (creeping Oregon grapeholly) volunteers have moved in from a nearby foundation planting. An Agastache foeniculum (anise hyssop) plant has survived five or six years, after putting roots into the ground from one of the pots. (That’s a survivor!) This is not the popular xeric agastache that hummingbirds like. It’s a more compact anise-scented perennial with dark green leaves and blue/purple flowers, generally considered a plant for full sun and ample moisture.

(For more details about the Mahonia, see “Evergreen Shrubs for Home Grounds” at http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07414.html and “Native Shrubs for Colo Landscapes” at http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07422.html Paximista is among perennials and shrubs cited in “Ground Cover Plants” at http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07400.html

Upside Down Tomatoes by Dusty M

Have you seen the ads for the hanging planter with a tomato plant growing upside down from the bottom? Last week an out-of-area friend contacted me to ask what I thought about it. Since it’s a timely topic, I thought I might share what, after some research and reflection, I told him.

My friend, who has been raising vegetables only a couple of years, lives in the northeastern U.S. The TV ads caught his attention because he is plagued by slugs and snails, and a suspended container would avoid that big problem. He also has a late frost date that shortens his growing season. He figured he could start a tomato plant in the hanging container in his sunroom, move it outside on warm days, and finally leave it outside after the threat of frost had passed.

It sounded reasonable to me. So when I attended a Master Gardener committee meeting later in the week, I asked my colleagues if anyone had tried growing upside-down tomatoes. None had, but one person reported on a relative’s experience. The tomato plant grew well but it didn’t bear any tomatoes. The relative confessed that she might have given it too much fertilizer, stimulating green growth rather than the development of fruit. (This would be excess nitrogen in the fertilizer formula, rather than phosphorus, which stimulates flowers and fruit.)

I passed this on to my friend, along with some other thoughts on the subject. I don’t know if he has occasional strong winds such as we experience here. But I think his tomato would need to hang in a spot well protected from wind, as mature tomato vines become rather brittle and would snap if the container swung back and forth. Heavy tomato fruit would also fall to the ground.

At the same time, the container should also be located for maximum exposure to the sun. Tomatoes require a minimum of eight hours of sun a day, and more is better. In my own yard, I don’t see a spot that would work, but I can envision a protected south-facing corner in which a tomato plant would be hot and happy. Then I’d have to find a way to hang the container.

I told my friend that a container sitting on the ground might work as well and be easier to situate than the hanging container. He might attach a copper wire or band around the base of the container to prevent the slugs and snails from climbing aboard. I regularly grow tomato plants in a couple of containers, about 18 inches in diameter at the top. A tomato variety adapted to containers has performed well. The fruit is smaller than what I harvest from plants grown in the ground, but they are plentiful and tasty. I haven’t stretched the start of the growing season through use of these containers, but do stretch the end. By moving the containers in and out of the garage to avoid frost and cold nights, I have been able to harvest fruit as late as Thanksgiving. We have plenty of warm autumn sunshine to keep them producing.

Water is a critical element in growing anything in containers. I water my tomato containers every morning, and add a little water-soluble fertilizer when the plant blooms and starts to set fruit. There’s already an alfalfa-based organic fertilizer that I mixed into the potting soil at the time of planting.

Have any of you grown tomatoes in containers – upside down or right side up? How did it go?

Here's a video on how to do it.