Georgene A. Bramlage's Blog

Posted by Georgene A. Bramlage

Winter holiday landscape design in both residential and public spaces thrives on traditional greenery, lighting and imagination. Each year I look forward to driving through silent December nights to watch my own private light show. Being the writer that I am, I also can't help but categorize my favorites. And to the probable dismay of the person riding with me - usually my husband - I usually have some suggestions on how I might make the display different.

Here is how readers of Landscaping at Suite101 have voted in my yearly Holiday Landscape Poll in 2006 and this year, 2007, on what their favorite outdoor holiday decorations are:

• Traditional / Colonial (Most Popular Winners) = 42.5%
• Religious (Keeping the Spirit) = 17.5%
• Nothing! (Bah, Humbug!) = 15%
• Contemporary (Cool and Elegant) = 12.5%
• Theme-Park / Cartoon Characters (Party Time) = 12.5%

If you haven't voted in this year's poll, there is still time. It closes at midnight, December 31st.

Happy Holidays and Joyful Decorating to All!

Posted by Georgene A. Bramlage

Readers asked for more crabapple information and here are the nuts and bolts of why crabapple diseases ruin even the most beautifully designed landscape.

The growing season of 2007 was a tough one for crabapples in New England. A warm and wet spring in New England caused infection in a lot of blossoms and newly emerging shoots. Photos at the end of my article Crabapple Diseases: Disease Knowledge and Proper Environment Lead to Healthy Trees

give some idea of what area crabapple trees looked like, and what kind of hazards they produced.

A culprit, other than weather in April, May and June, continues to be the abundance of neglected eating apple trees and crabapple trees growing wild, like around farmhouses and cellar holes. They may appear romantic in song, verse, paintings and photos, but they harbor bacterial and fungal diseases.

The 40-year-old, 30-foot-high pink-flowered crabapple tree that graces the small deck entrance into my kitchen was completely defoliated and all the fruit prematurely dropped. This was the worst I've ever seen it. It was so bad that despite the fact that I was constantly sweeping away masses of dead leaves and withered rotting fruit, my family could not use the space because it was so filthy!

Yes, there are many old trees around my neighborhood and property that harbor diseases. And no, I won't spray fungicide. That is time-consuming (requires many applications), expensive and not particularly healthy.

Fungicide applications do work relatively well. There were no diseases showing in the UMass (Amherst, MA) Cold Spring Orchard that is culturally well cared for and receives required timely fungicide applications.

I can only hope that my crabapple tree will be its usually lovely self during the 2008 growing season.

Posted by Georgene A. Bramlage

Landscape Maintenance Mistakes...what I term Horticultural Horrors... abound in both residential and public landscapes. One of my garden groups has its end-of-the-year meeting on or close to Halloween. For several years, I've put together a year-end landscape photo presentation for them called "Halloween Horticultural Horrors."

Late summer and autumn are good times to notice landscape maintenance errors because the abundance and colors of flowers and early fruit don't distract. I started enjoying such a perverse sense of pleasure looking for errors and questioning why they occur that my husband decided to get in on the fun.

Now, in addition to looking for outstanding examples of landscape design, we both look for horticultural horrors. In no way do we feel that we are "Horticulturally Correct Persons" (HCPs), but this perverse sense of pleasure helps to make short work of long car trips.

I now have so many photos of horticultural horrors that I have to prudently decide which photos to present. About half of the presentation is met with the boisterous gaiety of "How can people do that sort of thing?" The other part supplies a wake-up call by pointing out common landscape maintenance errors in our community that we, individually and as a group, seldom notice.

All told, these presentations meet with so much success that I put together this week's article with five photos that illustrate some fairly common horticultural horrors / landscape maintenance errors, and how and why they happen. Sometime in the future, I'll follow up with more photos and speculations.

Please Note: Photos with each article are thumbnails. Select a photo, click on the blue underlined description (really a link), watch the selected photo enlarge on a new page. You'll see my caption, credit, and a link back to my original article. The larger image allows an indepth understanding and clarity.

Posted by Georgene A. Bramlage

Veterans' Day, November 11, is fast upon us. Earlier this week, I recalled just how important this particular commemoration is when I attended an elementary school Veterans' Day concert put on by first grade students.

Many like myself, school-age during the 1930s and 40s, learned that the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month marked the temporary cessation of hostilities between the Allied nations and Germany early in the 20th century. We were very used to seeing veterans selling paper poppies to mark this day. In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared November 11 as Veterans' Day.

What does this holiday have to do with landscaping? For me it is also a reminder that the annual corn poppy or Flanders poppy (Papaver rhoeas) can be an important part of a summer garden. Autumn, before the end-of-year holiday rush, is a good time to begin planning a colorful annual flowerbed or wild flower meadow to include Papaver rhoeas.

Here are some Suite101 Landscaping blogs and articles about growing and using poppies in garden landscapes:

• Poppies and Landscapes of War
• Corn Poppies Grow in Wheat Fields
• Poppies and Landscapes of War
• Landscapes and Remembrance
• Landscapes of Poppies
• Poppies and Landscape Design
• Integrate Poppies into the Landscape
• Poppies in Residential Gardens
• Annual Poppies as Landscape Focus

By the way, the school performance that I watched was the second one the students put on and the kids were great; they perform next at the local Veterans' Hospital (VAH). I hope the vets enjoy themselves as much as I did.

©Text by Georgene A. Bramlage. 2007. Reproduction without permission prohibited.

Posted by Georgene A. Bramlage

Many thanks to both readers and colleagues here at Suite101 for your patience. I have spent my time the last several weeks in mentally and physically becoming a "snow-bird" and making a five-month winter move to Virginia. The move means many more experiences to share with you, my readers.

I have always claimed that I have a zone 7 soul trapped in a weak zone 5 gardener's body. Now, I will have a chance to prove it. Earlier this week, my husband and I moved into a condominium cottage nestled in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

We have left the cultivated landscapes of Japanese yews (Taxus cuspidata) and arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis) for those of boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) and crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica). We have also traded the traditional somewhat down-to-earth landscapes of the New York – New England regions for those originating from Williamsburg and Jeffersonian-style sophistication.

Spring will be glorious because our location is roughly right where the northern and southern Blue Ridge Mountains meet. This is a location where populations of North and South Eastern North American native plants merge into one large population. Here is my opportunity to realize a decades-old dream of pursuing plants I have only seen in specialized collections or fieldguide illustrations.

The winter weather here is more moderate than that in western MA, and there is little snow and ice. This allows me much leeway to indulge my zone 7 soul. Instead of a garden almost one-acre in size, I will attempt to put together a small one suited for condominium-style living. The ground is still warm and the location deer-proof enough for me to plant and enjoy tulips. I will luxuriate in new cultivars of hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) and Encore Azaleas®.