Roots & Shoots February / March 2011 February 1 , 2011 @ 6:30pm MGSOC General Society Meeting & Location Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church 5631 North Adams Rd, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304 Speaker : Gary Eichen of Mike’s Tree Surgeons Education: “Healthy Tree Care” A business meeting will take place, prior to the start of our Educational Program. March 1 , 2011 @ 6:30pm MGSOC General Society Meeting & Location Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church 5631 North Adams Rd, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304 Speaker : Dale White, owner of Uncle Luke's Feed Store in Troy Education: “Organic Fertilizers and Soil Amendments” A business meeting will take place, prior to the start of our Educational Program. April 5 , 2011 @ 6:30pm MGSOC General Society Meeting & Location Telly’s Greenhouse 3301 John R Road, Troy, MI 48083 Speaker : George Papadelis, owner of Telly's Greenhouse in Troy Education: “Spring Blooming Perennials” A business meeting will take place, prior to the start of our Educational Program. Carol’s Corner As I write this shortly after the New Year, your volunteer reports have been flooding in with many of you actually making the December 31 deadline! Thank you!!! Recertification cards will be mailed out in the next few weeks. As I read through the reports I see the need to remind you of a few things. Specifically what volunteering activities count or more importantly what doesn’t count. Our Michigan Master Gardener Volunteer Program Guidelines state that volunteering must be only done for non-profit organizations. This includes schools, houses of worship, local governments, garden clubs, MGSOC projects, Tollgate, neighborhood associations, etc. For instance volunteering at retail nurseries outside of the Ask a Master Gardener Program in May/June is not something that can be submitted. They should be paying you for whatever you are doing for them! Make sure that what you are submitting to us is related to horticulture. That means that decorating a museum for the holidays or making quilts for a fundraiser does not count. We encourage you to donate some of the veggies from your garden to feed the hungry. Just don’t count those hours. Working in a PAR garden does count. Answering your neighbors’ garden questions and doing garden chores for them is being neighborly and is a great thing to do to build community but won’t count toward your volunteer hours. Volunteer hours need to be done in Michigan as you are a Mich. MGV. If you spend your summers at a cottage up north, call that County’s MSUE office and see if they have a Master Gardener Volunteer Program. If any of their projects interest you, they would probably be thrilled to have your help and it’s a great way to meet some of the locals! Please give us your hours in no less than ½ hour increments. You can round up. If you are not already using the online record keeping system to submit your hours, please consider doing so. If you are submitting paper reports, please use the volunteer report forms. You can download them from our website. If you have any questions about volunteering, please don’t hesitate to contact me. If you have questions about hours you’ve submitted, please contact Cathy Morris (248-858-1639). Our winter training class just started with 67 participants. The schedule is posted in this issue. Remember that as a MGV you are welcome to sit in on any of the classes and we will give you 2 education hours for it. Please consider attending, especially if it’s been a long time since you’ve taken the class as recommendations change. If you’d like to do this, give Linda Smith a call (248-858-0887) to make sure that the schedule has not been changed. 2011 Continuing Education Committee Class Schedule Growing Vegetables Organically March 19, 26 Curb Appeal April 16 (this class is geared to the new homeowner) Garden Design 1-2-3 April 30, May 7, 14, 21 Basic Lawn Care May 12 (this class is geared to the new homeowner) HerbFest 2011 June 11 Other dates to save Pontiac Home and Garden Show March 11-13 MGV Recognition Banquet May 26 Master Gardener Conference June 24-25 Oakland County Fair July 12-17 National Children & Youth Symposium July 21-23 MSU Garden Day August 5 As information on each becomes available it will be posted in the Oakland Gardener I hope that despite the typical nasty Michigan winter weather you can see the beauty of the season. I for one wouldn’t mind if I never saw snow again and I’m already sick of all the layers of clothes I wear. (I tend to be cold so I start with the long underwear when the temps are in the 40’s!). I hope that the garden catalogs you’re now getting feel like gifts to you and they have you daydreaming of your beautiful yards and the new plants you just have to try! 2011 Winter Master Gardener Training Class Schedule 6:00pm-10:00pm Executive Office Building Conference Center, #41 West 2100 Pontiac Lake Road, Waterford January 27 Introduction/Native Plants February 3 Plant Science February 10 Soils/Composting February 17 Water Quality/Invasives February 24 Lawn Care March 3 Flower Culture March 10 Backyard Fruit March 17 Vegetable Culture March 24 Indoor Plants March 31 Diagnostics/Plant Health Care April 7 Woody Ornamentals April 14 Household Pests April 21 Volunteering April 28 Snow Day if needed The Year at a Glance—MGSOC Meetings for 2011 February 1 Gary Eichen “Healthy Tree Care” March 1 Dale White “Organic Fertilizers and Soil Amendments” March 21 Board Meeting April 5 George Papadelis “Spring Blooming Perennials” Meeting is at Telly’s Greenhouse in Troy May 10 Peter Bray “Loss of Soil Carbon” Note date change June 7 Ruth Vrbensky “Native Plants to Attract Wildlife” July 5 Janet Macunovich “50 Favorite Gardens, Before and After” August 2 Rick Lazzell “Sustainable Home Landscape Practices” August 15 Board Meeting September 6 Cheryl English “Spring Beauties - Bulbs for the Southeast Michigan Garden” October 4 Joe Peterson “Growing and Caring for Orchids” October 17 Board Meeting November 1 { to be announced } { to be announced } November 21 Board Meeting December 6 Holiday Potluck Dramatic Garden Lighting Sue Grubba from Creative Scapes gave a talk on dramatic garden lighting for our January meeting. She showed pictures of beautiful night-time views of various gardens and houses. In order to design garden lighting, you have to decide what you want to highlight. Different techniques are used for different landscaping purposes. Uplighting is a technique using lights placed close to the base of a specimen tree or shrub to highlight branching patterns, colorful bark or flowers. This type of lighting can accentuate foliage and create striking effects. One or more evenly spaced floodlights or spotlights can be used. Twenty to forty watt bulbs can be used with different lenses that change the width of the beam. This lighting is particularly effective on ice and snow. Sue uses this technique on Japanese maples, river birches, Japanese snowball and ornamental grasses among other species. A variation on uplighting, grazing is a subtle technique of brushing light beams across a surface to emphasize texture and make a contrast between light and dark as the light catches the high points of the surface and creates low points in the shadows. Garden accents such as foliage, bark, water features and wall textures can be effectively highlighted using this technique. The architecture of a blue spruce, the bark of a honey locust and the texture of ivy foliage can all be shown off with grazing. Contour lighting is aiming 2 or 3 lights at focal points like fountains, trees and statues and illuminating them from different angles. A feeling of depth can be created by making one of the lights stronger than the others, thus providing sharper contrasts of light and shadow. Plants grow, and landscapes change along with them, so lights may have to be moved for best effect. Down lighting can be functional and/or used for mood lighting. Lights can be attached to peaks or high in trees (strapped on not screwed in please) to accent interesting branches or simulate moonlight. It provides illumination for paths and can define larger areas like driveways. A pond surrounded by ornamental grasses was a particularly beautiful example. Indirect lighting can create a feeling of mystery in the garden because the lights are hidden behind flowers, rocks, shrubs or under decks or steps. This type of lighting creates an interesting play of shadows and can even be placed in water. Shadowing is a technique of lighting that casts a shadow on the wall behind the lighted object. The shadows can be varied by changing the distance from an object and the intensity of the light. Silhouetting creates a dramatic effect by placing the light behind the focal point and shining it at a wall. Spread or path lighting is a technique of placing low lights that direct the light downward in circles, thus accenting ground covers and flowers and lighting the way to a entranceway or other feature. The lights should be staggered 8 to 10 feet apart if possible. Mirror lighting on a garden pool can have a dramatic effect. The light is aimed at an object of interest behind the pool so that it is reflected in the dark water. Filters can be used to change the quality of the light, for example, a blue filter softens the light. Beams can be wide or narrow depending on the desired effect. Sue gave us several caveats. Lights can be overdone so that the drama is lost. Lights can get hot and damage plants if they are too close. Lights should never shine in anyone’s eyes. Cables should be buried in places where they will not be damaged by cars, mowers and lawn services, and you should keep a diagram of where the cables are buried for future reference. Bulbs should be easily accessible and handled with gloves or a cloth because the oil on your fingers can reduce their lifespan. They should be periodically cleaned of debris. —Submitted by Jean Gramlich N? h?o fellow gardeners! Greetings from Shanghai! For those of you who do not know me, my name is Laura Duff (class of 2008). In October 2010 my husband’s company transferred us to Shanghai for 2 years. Not wanting to give up being a part of the Master Gardener program I found a way to stay connected, through Roots and Shoots, to my garden-enthusiast pals back home. I hope you enjoy reading about my garden adventures during my stay in the Middle Kingdom. Since my new address is in Shanghai, I decided that my first garden trip should be to the most well- known garden in the city, Yu Yuan. Yu Yuan was created during the Ming Dynasty (Ming Dynasty lasted from 1368 to 1644). The garden was built between 1559 and 1577 by Pan Yunduan as a retreat for his father. By the end of the Ming Dynasty the garden fell into disrepair as the family fortunes dried up. The garden remained neglected until 1760 when a group of merchants purchased the property. During the Opium Wars the garden was ransacked, and it was occupied by imperial troops during the Taiping uprising. The garden lost its status as a pleasure garden in the early 19th century when businesses were established on the grounds. It suffered damage again in 1942 when the Japanese invaded, but was restored from 1956 on. I set out with a friend on a beautiful, sunny, crisp December morning to see the famous Ming Dynasty garden. Yu Yuan is located in the center of the old city, which is on the west side of the Huangpu River (Pu Xi). We live in the east side of the river (Pu Dong) and getting there, like getting anywhere in China, is an adventure all on its own. This neighborhood is always chaotic and teeming with people. The Yu Yuan neighborhood has expanded outward from the original garden area and now a maze of streets lined with shops selling all kinds of souvenirs, artwork, books, jewelry and everything else in between. There are a several restaurants, street food vendors and even a Starbucks. The traffic, both auto and pedestrian, is crammed in these old, narrow streets. We stepped out of the car and into the mayhem of the pedestrian-only area and wove through the tangle of shopping and throngs of tourists to find the entrance to the garden. Music was blaring from different shops, and shopkeepers are constantly yelling at you to buy what they are selling. My friend and I could hardly hear each other over the all the noise as we approached the Bridge of Nine Turnings. This zig-zag bridge is a very popular place to have your photo taken with the Wanzai Tea House (Shanghai’s oldest tea house) in the background. It is also said that crossing the Bridge of Nine Turnings allows you to leave all of your worries behind you. So, after dodging all of those posing for pictures, and leaving our worries behind on the bridge we finally made it to the ticket gate, bought our tickets, and entered into the famous Yu Yuan. Magically, it was peaceful and quiet. The garden walls blocked out the noise, traffic and chaos. We were immersed in a beautiful, classical Chinese style garden. It was tranquil, people were hushed, and the calmness and mysteriousness of the garden was inviting. Today YuYuan covers about 5 acres and is divided into six general areas. Just inside the entrance is the Three Ears of Grain Hall, a large building with carvings of grains and fruit that symbolize good fortune. Attached to the Three Ears of Grain Hall is another hall, which overlooks a pond. Looking out from the main hall is the Jade Stone Peak. It is made of Taihu stone and is arranged to resemble the Chinese character for mountain (Sh?n ?). A path to the right of this passes beneath a pergola supporting an old wisteria and leads to a complex of small pavilions, walkways and courtyards. In one small courtyard there is another pond and rock arrangement set against a whitewashed wall and planted with azaleas, peonies and other evergreen shrubs. Just outside this courtyard are several Camellias in bloom. Having gardened in Michigan for a few years, I have forgotten that other parts of the world aren’t as bleak during winter. The Sycamore trees and Wisteria vines have lost their leaves, but the willows, azaleas, camellias and many other plants still have green. Since Shanghai is located at about the same parallel as New Orleans that means very different growing seasons than what I am accustomed to. Next is the largest open space in the garden, which has a large pond with goldfish, a waterside pavilion, and a small pavilion reached by a bridge. It is another perfectly picturesque spot. It is nice to stop and watch the fish, cross the bridge to the small pavilion and take your time doing so. Also growing here is a beautiful willow tree with branches that brush the surface of the water whenever a gentle breeze passes by. This pond is crossed by a small zig-zag bridge. Just across the small bridge is another large, old wisteria vine. Other interesting plantings include maple, gingko and pear. The garden also has a number of interestingly shaped doorways that add a certain whimsy to the garden while also creating secret views into the different garden rooms. Windows are also carefully placed throughout corridor walls allowing you to peek into other areas of the garden creating still more changing views. There are other walkways with beautifully carved and lacquered wood that connect the garden areas. Yu Yuan also has a small museum, a stage area and several halls such as the Hall of Jade Magnificence and the Hall of Heralding Spring. The Pavilion of Spring in the northeast corner of the garden was the headquarters for the anti-imperialist “Little Sword Society” which, in 1853 led an uprising against the Qing Dynasty. Artifacts from this period are on display in the exhibition hall. My favorite architectural element is the undulating Dragon Wall that surrounds the entire garden. The garden walls are white, but they are topped with gray tiles that are arranged to look like scales on a dragon. The dragon walls also separate garden areas with each terminating at the dragon’s head. This Chinese garden is not an expanse of green with measured plantings like many European or American gardens. Rather it is an area in which buildings surround arrangements of rocks, plants and water which all combine to create a peaceful retreat. With our visit complete we each took a deep breath and prepared to step back into the crazy crowds of Shanghai. At least now we know where we can go to get away from the hustle and bustle even if it is only for a few hours. —Submitted by Laura Duff Someone / Somewhere Volunteering Is My Life, Experimenting Is My Bag, Did you know we have a Distinguished International Award Winner among us? Dr. David S. Thompson received the 2010 Annual Award for Distinguished and Meritorious Service to Delta Sigma Delta and the Dental Profession, in Orlando Florida. Quite an honor since this covers the United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. You never know where a high school assignment will lead you. As an 11th grader, his assignment was to write about a profession or business. David and his friend were trying to think of something to write about, when the friend’s mother just returned from the dentist and suggested they write about dentistry. So David went to see his dentist, Dr. Carroll Kennedy, and started asking questions. Dr. Kennedy was such an inspiration to him, that in 1955 David graduated from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. He also became a member of Delta Sigma Delta Fraternity, another important step in his life. David practiced general dentistry in the Detroit area until he was called to serve in the Army. He completed his basic training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, was commissioned as a First Lieutenant, and spent two years in Germany giving dental care to our troops. While in Germany he met his beautiful wife-to-be, Brigitta. She studied singing in Frankfort, and had a beautiful voice. Wherever they went, she was asked to sing. Brigitta was on a list to immigrate to Canada, and when she finally was approved, David did not want to lose her, so he proposed. It was a whirlwind courtship; they met in September and were engaged by December. At that time, marriages were only official when you got married at City Hall in Berlin. Later you could get married in church. Since Berlin was occupied by Russian soldiers at that time, and he was an American soldier, David can tell you some interesting stories about the dangers of going into Berlin to meet her family and then again to get married. Take some time to talk to him about it, the next time you see him. When David and Brigitta came back to the U.S., he opened a dental office in Royal Oak. When Brigitta became pregnant they needed a larger home and found a great place in Farmington, with approximately two acres and a little river. They knew it was their dream house before they even saw all of it. They lived there happily until Brigitta passed away after 47 years of a wonderful marriage. They had a son, Peter, and later a daughter-in-law Shannon, and two terrific grandchildren, Patrick 15, and Abby 10. David’s dental practice kept him busy and being a member of Delta Sigma Delta Fraternity, brought out his leadership skills. Throughout his professional career, he dedicated many hours and held many volunteer positions. He held every office at the local level, and was chair of the fraternity’s Centennial Celebration in Ann Arbor. He was eventually elected as Grand Master of the Detroit Graduate Chapter. On the national scene, he served as President of the fraternity’s half-million dollar education foundation, used for dental student loans. As President of the International Council of Graduate Chapters, it gave him a chance to meet dentists from all over the world. In 2001, while he was Chair and Guardian of the Delta Sigma Delta historical archives, he was asked to write a history of the fraternity going back 50 years. He continues to oversee the Delta Sigma Delta Museum collection at the Bentley Historical Library in Ann Arbor. In 1984, David began taking care of the Detroit Graduate Chapter’s “Penny Fund”, and became the treasurer. In 1994, he served as President of the Educational Foundation. David also writes once every four months for the Oakland County Dental Journal. David has not missed a Michigan Dental Assoc. or American Dental Assoc. meeting in 30 years. The profession of dentistry and Delta Sigma Delta has been blessed and has benefited greatly by the efforts of Dr. David Thompson. When David retired on his 63rd birthday, he did not slow down. He took piano lessons and even wrote a song that is eight pages long. He thought about getting a part time job to keep busy. Since he enjoyed gardening, he went to Mattaei Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor. He found out they were not hiring, however, they were taking volunteers. He was hooked. David volunteered there once a week for six hours. It was there, that he learned about the Master Gardener program and took the course in 1996. He quickly got his Basic MG and Advanced MG certificates. Thru the class, David found out about the Master Gardener Society of Oakland County. He went to two meeting, wasn’t too interested but decided to give it one more try. At this meeting, they were holding elections and someone nominated him for Treasurer. He accepted and was Treasurer for two years. During that time, he started helping with Hospitality and 15 years later, he is still helping. David loves to experiment with plants. Right now, his son Peter is expanding David’s hothouse to make it twice as big, with plenty of room for experimenting. In the past he has cut and rooted part of the Kiwi tree to try and make it into a bonsai. He has also tried this with the Giant Redwood. The Royal Poinciana tree that normally grows 50 ft. tall is in a bonsai type pot, and Dave has kept it at 18 inches for at least five years. To keep these plants small, he has to cut the roots as well as the top. Twenty years ago he tried to hybridize the Chinese and European blight resistant tree with the American Chestnut tree to produce one that would be blight resistant. He did not succeed, but now catalogs are selling American Chestnut hybridized blight resistant trees One time, he got a half-dozen cuttings of trumpet vine, rooted and twisted it all together to make one big trunk instead of many vines. It is now 6 ft. high and blooms every season. If you are interested in experimenting with plants, you and Dave can have some interesting conversations. Be sure to ask him about the time he grew a cocoanut tree from a fresh cocoanut. David has planted many varieties of trees on his property, among them are, Meta-Sequa, Paw Paw, Lemon, Orange, Grapefruit, and Palm. Chestnut trees now line the border of his property. His latest desire is to plant a chocolate tree. In his backyard, he has a very nice stand of Bamboo. David has some property up north near Wolverine, in the Lower Peninsula in Cheboygan County, where he has planted many sequoia and sequoia redwood trees. Some are from seeds and some from seedlings. He noted with interest that the trees started from seed, caught up with the seedlings, in size, in just a few years. He uses special mycorrhizae fertilizer especially made for the sequoias. Eighteen, out of 50 trees, have survived. David’s years of volunteerism, dedication, and experimentation continues today, and this desire comes straight from his heart. —Submitted by Sylvia Schult Notes From Nutcase Nursery A garden is not only a place in the soil, it’s a place in the soul. It can be enjoyed in the company of others or it can be like a private chapel. It can be inside or outside; it’s all up to the gardener. It’s a place we go, and we can be reverent and calm there in a little piece of peace. Or not. I hate to bring this up, but the winter break is almost over. You have mere weeks to clean your tools, wipe your pots, prepare your flats, procure your seeds and make peace with the houseplants you neglected last year. Right now, I’m just getting back to being on speaking terms with that last group. Heck, I just got all the seeds sorted and finally put away It may be time to have a really serious talk with the ones who used to be outside but were offered a stay of execution from winter. It’s just about now when the dry inside air catches up with foreign organisms resulting in that evil fairy dust called powdery mildew. If you plan for the defense and start spraying soon enough you can beat this unsightly and unhealthy malady. The poor things have made it this far so how can you give up on them now? Tough love isn’t pretty, but either are crisp, dusty, dead leaves. If you are overwintering plants that are prone to mildew, like rosemary, the American Herb Society recommends spraying affected plants weekly with a mix of 3 tablespoons of baking soda to 1 gallon of water. It’s also imperative that you keep vigilantly checking up on the insect population. A slightly discolored leaf on something you brought in might just catch your eye. Sneak up on that plant and turn the leaf over. It’s very likely you’ll find something you wish you hadn’t. Whiteflies might take flight or the tiny little webs of spider mites may be visible. And if you look long enough you’ll probably notice the little dots are moving. Oh goody. My treatment for those kinds of critters also involves recycling. One of my friends informed me that I was “practically Amish” because I didn’t have cable, high-speed, a garbage disposal or dishwasher. She knows we use only rainwater to irrigate the insiders but she doesn’t know that I reuse the leftover dish water to bathe them. Considered “grey water,” it is recyclable for use on the plants as long as it isn’t overly greasy or toxic. If you happen to recycle aluminum foil you can make a little skirt out of it and cover the soil and rim of the smaller pots so the dirt can’t escape, then just dip the plant upside down in the lukewarm water a few times to smother the critters. A weekly shower, bath or dip with used dishwater is a lot less dangerous for all concerned than resorting to chemicals. And don’t forget about using sticky traps for the fruit flies and fungus gnats. In a pinch, cut up a yellow foam meat tray and spread it with Vaseline, stick it on a wooden skewer and plant in a pot in the area of highest activity. Gnats are drawn to clear, bright yellow but if you have an exploding population of them, the yellow trays, although not so bright, are almost as attractive and effective. If you are inclined to paint the traps, use the brightest, clearest yellow that you can find. Okay, so you’re doing your chores, it’s cold outside, and what do you know? It’s time for a break already. While you walk around nursing your potted population, entertain yourself by making a mental list of plants you would like to expand your gardens outdoors. As reward for ministering to the needs of the indoor greens, take a short break, pour yourself a beverage, curl up with your catalogs and start dog-earing the pages with photos that tickle your fancy. Just make sure you only shop the catalogs that provide proper genus and species names. No nursery worthy of your business should ever forgo the use of the requisite Latin nomenclature in their catalogs and websites. The only way you will know for sure what you are getting is by using the genus and species naming convention developed by Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish naturalist to whom we owe the plotting of the natural order of not only plants but also animals and minerals. Before you decide that Latin is oft deemed too difficult to deal with, admit that English is no walk in the park either. Consider how much easier life would be if the words amuse, booze, choose, lose and shoes were simply spelled amuz, buz, chuz, luz, and shuz. Actually the day probably isn’t too far off when they will be spelled that way because of the exaggerated use of electronic shorthand. OMG! Linguists will tell you that there are rules governing all languages. And the second thing you will learn is that rules are made to be broken, which I find slightly irritating. It says to me that regardless of my intense search to find a pattern that I can count on, there will be exceptions. If gum is gum, and rum is pronounced rum, why is dumb not spelled dum? And why, if we have gummy and rummy, is dummy spelled dummy instead of dumby? Who was in charge of this? This kind of stuff probably never happened when everyone spoke Latin. And since Latin is becoming more common as more people turn to gardening and horticulture, it is incumbent upon Master Gardeners to be as comfortable with the roots of plant names as they are with the roots of the plants themselves. Back in the day, all of the erudite, wise, scholarly types spoke Latin. It was the international language so countries could communicate. And as anything does, it evolved over time. The Latin of Linnaeus’ time was not the same as ancient Rome’s. Classical Latin didn’t have all of the letters we have today. There were no Ws or Js. And the letter C was always hard. For example, today we pronounce Caesar Salad as SEE zer SAL add. The Romans called it KYE sar salad. Of course they would have used the Latin word for salad but I can’t remember what that is. (If I ever really knew it at all.) Latin as the ancients knew it evolved over time to become ecclesiastical Latin, or church Latin. Whereas a Roman queen would have been called ray GHEE nah (GHEE indicating a “hard” G as in “geezer” as opposed to “jeepers”), when church Latin evolved, letters took on softer characteristics. Regina coeli was pronounced ray JEE’ nah CHAY’ lee, queen of the heavens. In botanical Latin the word regina is pronounced the same way. In Canada, however, it is pronounced re JYE’ nah, the capitol of Saskatchewan. One of the most commonly mispronounced plant names belongs to the pretty flowering shrub, Weigela. It is only three syllables and is pronounced WHY – as in why, GHEE – as in geezer, and LAH as in falalalala, lala la la, with emphasis on the GHEE: why GHEE lah. And some plants have accepted ambidextrous pronunciations like our beloved Clematis, kle –MATT’ – iss or KLEM’ – uh – tiss. And the old favorite cultivar that produces bluish purple flowers can be pronounced jack MAN nye or jack MAN knee eye, depending on whether there is one “i” at the end or two. I like to pronounce it differently every time I say it. In Canada, Forsythia is FOUR-SYE’-THEE-UH after a gentleman named Forsythe who apparently first identified it, while we say FOUR-SITH’-EE-UH. Either way, Forsythia is a great example of botanical Latin not being Latin at all. It is a word taken from elsewhere as Linnaeus freely borrowed from Greek and other languages when there was no Latin word to use. He developed his classifications by describing plants to define them. Take hostas for example. Generally the rules for binomial nomenclature (you might remember this from class) call for the masculine form of the genus in which case the species must agree in gender. The Hosta is an example of the feminine form of a genus. Hosta ends in an “a” and its modifier or species must also. Hosta undulata has the wavy leaves and Hosta variegata of course is the one with variegated green and white leaves. See how easy botanical Latin can be? When we use the genus and species to identify a certain plant, there is generally no doubt as to its real identity unless the international botanical gang has decided to reclassify said plant, which does not happen often but definitely occurs. A good catalog will reference both new and old nomenclature and usually uses the phrase, “formerly known as.” Our white-blooming, fall flowered vine, the Sweet Autumn clematis is one such example. It used to be called Clematis maximowicziana twenty years ago but no one could pronounce max i mo vish ee ann ah, which is likely Polish. So now it’s called terniflora, paniculata, or maybe diascoreifolia. And the first two save on ink. And what about Penstemon? The New Pronouncing Dictionary of Plant Names produced by the American Nurseryman Publishing Company allows two pronunciations: pen STEE men for the genus but PEN ste men for a common name. I have no idea why that is but I am happy just knowing one of them. The butterfly bush also has two pronunciations and doesn’t care when you use them. Some say BUD lee ah, some say bud LEE ah. Ajuga with AJ u ga or a JU ga is another switch hitter. I am sure that there is some delightful story about how they came to be known as bugleweeds but stick with Ajuga no matter how you say it. It’s Latin. It’s good for you and helpful to the novices we try to educate. If you are interested in finding good resources that include pronunciations, try the Taylor’s guides, which are based on Taylor’s Encyclopedia of Gardening, and also The Perennial Garden Color Harmonies through the Seasons by Jeff and Marilyn Cox. Happy Spring from Nutcase Nursery and don’t forget to water the birds. Some Information You Should Know MGSOOC Board Members President: Christine Covell………………...…….(248)852-1890 Vice President: Tom Hershberger………….….(586)573-3954 Secretary: Ruth Vrbensky ……………………….(248)969-6904 Treasurer: Jean Gramlich …………………..….. (810)714-2343 Team Administrator: Susan McLarty ……… (248)673-8092 MSU Extension Oakland County Coordinator Advisor: Carol Lenchek ………………………… (248)858-0900 lenchekc@oakgov.com Team Coordinators Bowers Farm: Wayne Lapinski…………….(248)391-6269 Project Support: Denise Brown ……..….…… (248)640-5977 Hospitality: Mary Golla……………….…..(248) 371-0476 Membership: Julie Kowalk …………………(810)655-2228 Programs: DeeAnn Bauer …………...….(248)828-7385 Door prize Coordinator: Janie Grissom…..(248)887-6096 Trips & Tours: Sandie Parrott ………….….....(248)394-1532 Corresponding Secretary: Margy Truza…… mat4744@aol.com Roots & Shoots Editor: Dick Wanat………...(248)644-5699 Web Site Address: www.mgsoc.org Webmaster: Sheri Trout sheri@oaklandweb.com Web Site Calendar: Peggy Wanat pwanat43@comcast.net Currently Available Opportunities: Communications, Education, Project Support, Volunteer Activities North Office Building, #26 East Carol Lenchek…248-858-0900 1200 N. Telegraph Road Extension Educator~Master Gardener Program Pontiac, MI 48341 Email: lenchekc@oakgov.com Office Hours: M- F 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Linda Smith…248-858-0887 Marie Ruemenapp Horticulture Office Assistant 248-380-9100 or 248-858-0885 Email: smithlin@oakgov.com MSU Extension District Coordinator Email: ruemenap@msu.edu Cathy Morris…248-858-1639 Clerk & Contact for Certification of Volunteer Charlene Molnar…248-858-0902 & Education Hours Horticulture Advisor Email: morrisc@oakgov.com Plant & Pest Hotline Hours of operation vary seasonally Bindu Bhakta…248-858-5198 Extension Educator~Water Quality Robin Danto…248-858-0904 Email: bhaktabi@msu.edu Extension Educator~Food Safety Email: dantor@oakgov.com Saneya Hamler…248-452-9726 Extension Educator~Children, Youth & Family Tom Schneider…248-858-0905 Email: hamlersa@msu.edu Extension Educator~4-H Youth Programs Email: schneidert@oakgov.com Eva Poole…248-858-1993 Extension Educator~Children, Youth & Family Email: ander204@msu.edu - 3 - Michigan State University Extension- Oakland County “Bringing Knowledge to Life”