Saturday, December 12, 2015

Piet Oudolf Lecture

At our November meeting, there was a mention of the upcoming lecture by Piet Oudolf to the UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.

To quote Wikipedia:
 
"Piet Oudolf is an influential Dutch garden designer, nurseryman and author. He is a leading figure of the "New Perennial" movement, using bold drifts of herbaceous perennials and grasses which are chosen at least as much for their structure as for their flower colour."

The 
​lecture​
was sold out very quickly
​,​
but 
​for those interested it​
is now available on YouTube. Here's the link:​

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2Vjc-FJtH0



Posted by Christine Allen

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Mystery Plant Identified

At Tuesday's meeting, Barbara brought this plant to be identified.



Everyone loved its silvery foliage and dark velvet-red flowers, but no-one knew its name
Since then, both our speaker that evening, Anne Worrall, and I have separately gone on an internet hunt for it, and we both found it at almost the same time.
It's Pelargonium sidoides, also known as South African geranium or Kaloba.
Now we just need to find a garden centre that sells it!

Posted by Christine Allen

Monday, October 12, 2015

Upcoming Events and bits of news.

We had a terrific October meeting with special speaker Bardia Khaledi, an expert on BC native plants.
November's meeting will feature one of our own members, Anne Worrall, who will be speaking on garden design principles. She has a delightful garden herself, and I'm sure her talk will be really inspiring.
Note, too, that we won't have a December meeting.
Everyone seems to love our new space in the Learning Resources Centre under the Brit library. It's way cosier and so much easier to set up. So... it's all good!
In the meantime, here are a few upcoming events from Christine.
Cheers,
Penny


UPCOMING  EVENTS


Saturday and Sunday, October 17 - 18, 11 a.m .- 4 p.m. 
Annual Apple Festival: Apple displays, tasting, sales of fruit and trees.
Location: UBC Botanical Garden.
Admission: $4 cash only, under 12 yrs free. No dogs.
More information: www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/node/7

Saturday, October 24, 9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Vancouver Hardy Plant Group: Fall Study Day
Speakers: W. Gary Smith, landscape architect, artist, author, and lecturer
on Patterns in the Landscape and Art into Landscape Design 
Rosie Atkins, former Curator of Chelsea Physic Garden, former editor of Gardens 
Illustrated on Linnaeus and the Linnean Society and Chelsea Physic Garden.
Location:H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, 1100 Chestnut St Vancouver.
Admission: $45 at the door. Bring your own lunch.
More information: www.vancouverhardyplant.org/fall-study-day-saturday-october-24th-2015

Sunday, October 26, 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. 
Vancouver Mushroom Show
Displays, information tables, recipes, talks.
Location: VanDusen Botanical Garden
Admission: $3:00, under 12 yrs free. More information: www.vanmyco.com

NEXT MEETING

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12

TOPIC: A FEW DESIGN PRINCIPLES AND THE DESIGN PROCESS

Basic tools to organize your garden so that it fits your needs

SPEAKER: GGC MEMBER ANNE WORRALL

Born in Switzerland, Anne has a Masters in Architecture History. At film school in London, she met her Canadian husband. After working in film and for Radio Canada for 10 years, she realized that she wanted to work closer to nature.  She completed the horticultural program at Kwantlen University in Langley and became certified as an arborist.

Inspired by the picture for a better world, she designs outdoor spaces to invite people to connect with nature through all five senses. This is her second year working for her own gardening company.




Sunday, September 13, 2015

Our October meeting!

Our next meeting is October 8th, 7:00 p.m. and the speaker is Bardia Khaledi and his topic is Native Plants.

Bardia is an educator, a native-plant advocate, and a seed-saver. He currently heads the Seedsavers group at VanDusen Botanical Garden. Bardia sees gardening, and the creation of gardens, as an exercise of symbiotic co-existence with nature. His gardening philosophy focuses on diverse groupings of plants that are valuable for their flowers, seeds, and fruits because they attract wildlife and create self-sustaining ecosystems that nourish us. 

Find out more about Bardia at his beautiful and informative website: http://plantprofusion.com/

Note, also, that we now meet in the Britannia Community Centre’s LRC (the Learning Resources Centre), which is under the VPL library branch. You enter the meeting room from the south side of the library building. 

Our meetings are on the second Thursday of the month, 7:00 p.m.

We hope to see you there!

Bardia Khaledi in the Steveston Educational Garden.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Upcoming Events!

Pt. Grey Chrysanthemum Association — Early Chrysanthemum Show
Saturday, September 12, 12–4 pm Sunday, September 13, 10 am–4 pm
Location: Floral Hall, VanDusen Botanical Garden  
Admission: Free 


Alpine Garden Club of BC — Fall Plant Sale 
Saturday, September 19, 12 pm–4 pm. 
Location: Floral Hall, VanDusen Botanical Garden
Admission: Free


Dried Flower Arrangers' Sale
Friday, September 25, 2–4 pm
Saturday, September 26 and Sunday,  September 27, 10 am–4pm  
Sale of dried flower topiaries, centrepieces, wreaths, bouquets and arrangements created with materials grown at VanDusen Botanical Garden.
Location: HSBC Arrival Hall in the Visitor Centre, VanDusen Botanical Garden
Admission: Free


Annual Compost, Soil and Bulb Sale
Saturday, September 26, 10 am–3 pm   
Bulb Location: Entrance Plaza off the parking lot
Compost, Soil and Manure Location: West end of VanDusen parking lot off 37th Avenue.

Products
Red Label Topsoil from high grade organics
Brown Label Manure: essential organic mix 
Compost from Harvest Power

Price: $5 per bag (about 20 litres / 20 lbs.)


PRE-­ORDERS: Pre-Order at http://www.heavyethics.com/VanDusen 
Pick up for Pre-­orders (west end of the VanDusen parking lot):
Wednesday Sept. 23rd, 10 am–12
Thursday Sept. 24th, 12–2 pm
Friday Sept. 25th, 10 am–12



Monday, September 7, 2015

Our September meeting!

School resumes this week, and — happily — so does the Grandview Garden Club! Our meeting is Thursday, September 10th. And from now on we are meeting in the Britannia Learning Resources Centre (the "LRC"), the meeting room in the basement under the Britannia library branch (spot 38 on the map below). Enter where the wheelchair image is.


Our speaker for this month is Gwen Odermatt. She will speak to us about choosing the right plants for Vancouver’s conditions and climate. Our conditions and climate seem to be shifting rather dramatically these days, so this is a very pertinent topic!

Gwen is a lifelong gardener whose interest in the natural world led to a degree in science at the University of Alberta. For the last 20 years she has operated Petals and Butterflies, a farm nursery in Langley that specializes in growing plants that attract butterflies and other beneficial wildlife to gardens. The nursery offers an always-interesting collection of rare and unusual ornamental plants that she sells via consignment; for example, her plants can be found in the perennial section of the VanDusen Plant Sale.



She is on the Selection Committee for Great Plants Picks, is a member of the Vancouver Hardy Plant Group and was on the organizing committee for the Hardy Plant Study Weekend 2013, and belongs to the South Surrey Garden Club.

Her garden has been open recently for local, national, and international tours, and is open to garden clubs by request.


Sunday, August 16, 2015

Free young butternut tree to good home

Ian Marcuse has a small butternut tree in a pot that he would like to give to someone who would provide it with a suitable home. It's an offspring from the gorgeous butternut that once lived in the middle of Salsbury Garden (at the corner of Napier and Salsbury), pictured below, right.
You could let me know if you're interested, and I'll forward your info to Ian.


Monday, July 13, 2015

BEE FREEBIE

Saturday July 25, 11:00 - 1:00

A free tour to learn about honeybees. Learn from experienced beekeeper and Master Gardener Tony Puddicombe about the fascinating world of bees.
To register go to https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/kits-honey-bees-talk-and-tour-tickets-17556966359
The event will start with a 20 minute talk about honeybees and native bees and how you can introduce them into your garden. This will be followed by a question and answer session.

The group will then take a short walk to view orchard mason bee houses and a working honeybee hive. You can put on a bee-suit and look inside a hive as well.
We will finish with a honey tasting session-you will discover that local honey has many different flavours!. This will be interesting for anyone just interested in bees or in possibly keeping bees.

This event is made possible by a Neighbourhood Small Grant from the Vancouver Foundation. The grant is administrated by Kits Neighbourhood House.
To register:
The event is free but you must register to attend - limited to 30 people.
To register go to https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/kits-honey-bees-talk-and-tour-tickets-17556966359

Posted by Christine Allen

Monday, July 6, 2015

Meeting Thursday, July 9th!

For this month’s meeting we’re trying an experiment. It will be something like speed-dating for gardeners. We’ll have several stations set up around the room with host experts at each one, and you will be invited to move from table to table to learn about and discuss different topics. 
I’m not 100% sure yet who all the experts will be or what all the topics will be — Janet’s looking after the final list —  but it is guaranteed to be an entertaining evening. Please do join us. It will be our last meeting at 1739 Venables (the former Astorino’s).
Note that we won’t be having a meeting in August, and, starting in September, we will be meeting at the Learning Resources Centre (the LRC, the room under the VPL Branch at Britannia).
Cheers and see you Thursday!
Penny




Sunday, June 28, 2015

Strathcona & Cottonwood Gardens need help...

Posted for Strathcona Gardeners Joanne Hochu and Sylvia Parusel:

Hello Gardeners,

The City of Vancouver is planning the False Creek Flats future. Its website talks about upcoming planning for the area bounded by Terminal, Clark, Prior and Main Street. Our gardens lie within the planning area and there is consideration for running a major truck arterial road along the bottom of our garden along Malkin Avenue, taking away 30% of Strathcona garden and 70% of Cottonwood Garden.

The city is asking for crucial public feedback. The City describes the False Creek Flats as a major job centre and they're working with the Vancouver Economic Commission to plan transportation throughways, waste management infrastructure, and food distribution and production policies. We have to be heard about the importance of not dismantling Strathcona Community Gardens.
As we told them last Thursday at a planning workshop, the Gardens provide citizens with so many benefits that it doesn't make sense to have it destroyed in any way.

To insure the viability and sustainability of our gardens, we need all gardeners to go to the city website as soon as possible and take the survey on the upcoming plans for this area. Please give the city the feedback that gardeners do not want a truck route along Malkin Avenue and ask your friends to go to the website and state the same. By rejecting the widening of Malkin Avenue, that does not mean that traffic will increase on Prior Street. There is hope and consideration that National Avenue, and not Malkin, will be the widened traffic route for traffic.

The link to the survey is:
and look for the blue Flats Feedback  'take the survey' about halfway down the page. This is important and a simple thing to do!  Please take a few moments to do this to help preserve the gardens.

Thank you,
Strathcona Gardeners,
Joanne Hochu and Sylvia Parusel

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Our July Meeting, Thursday, July 9th! And new venue in September!

At our July Grandview Garden Club meeting (July 9th, the Hall at 1739 Venables, formerly known as Astorino’s), we’re going to have a few tables with experts talking about different gardening topics. 

If you would be willing to host a table — on any Grandview-relevant gardening topic of your choice — just let us know!

People who attend can move from table to table, following their interests. It’ll be a bit like speed-dating.

Note that membership is $20 a year, but now that the year’s more than half over, we have reduced the 2015 rate to $15.

We will not be having an August meeting, and, starting in September, our meetings will take place in the Learning Resources Centre (LRC) under the library at Britannia. Our meetings will continue to take place on the second Thursday of the month.

Cheers,
Penny

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Vancouver Trees on the App Store on iTunes


Vancouver Trees is a new mobile app, developed at UBC, that describes commonly cultivated deciduous and evergreen trees in the Metro Vancouver area.
Click on the link for more details. Proceeds from the sale of the app go to the UBC Botanical Garden. 

A few clever tips for summer gardening!


At our June meeting we asked people to write down a gardening tip to share with the rest of us. Here's a compilation of the tips we received:

Look at your summer garden. If you see a bald spot, go to the nursery and buy a plant immediately. If you wait, you will forget.

Water early in the morning. If you water at night, the plants will sweat.

Use pipe insulators on drip hoses to keep water off places you don't need to irrigate, like paths between beds, etc.

Plant native plants. Some of them are adapted to wet winters and arid summers — for example, columbine, shooting star, lewisia, penstemon.

When planting things out in your veggie garden, don’t just think about height – that is, putting the tallest plants in the back and shortest in the front – think also about access you’ll want later. Put the things you will need to get to frequently over the summer (peas, beans, lettuces, kale, parsley) in the front, and things you don’t need access to until you do a major harvest (such as potatoes, garlic, etc.) in the back. It’s hard to envision how big things will get and it looks easy to get to things when you plant seedlings, but it’s a rude awakening when the plants reach their true sizes!

Planting rue in your garden may help if the neighbourhood cats are using your garden as a litter box. Rue has a strong smell that cats do not enjoy.

Here are a few plants that like this dry weather: Russian sage, coreopsis, cotoneaster, santolina, lavender, rock rose, sedum, and yarrow.

Don't use fertilizer if your soil has become very dry, as mine is right now. You increase the chance of "burning" the plants with the fertilizer.

Prune your clematis Montana and tree peonies now, rather than later, to yield the most flowers next year.

To prevent late blight with your tomatoes, just water the ground around the plants and try not to get the leaves wet.

Make or buy a chickadee box to encourage birds in your garden. Small birds love to eat the bugs off your plants.

In June, cut your asters down by half; they will be a more manageable height in the fall when they flower, and will not need staking.

Buy a water barrel from the City to use next year. Call 3-1-1.

Plant alyssum to encourage beneficial insects that will keep aphids in check.

Deadhead often to extend the blooming season. Take off not just the spent petals, but also the seed pods behind them.

Water grass deeply only once a week; grass will recover from being brown when the fall rains comes.

For perennial gardens, water deeply twice a week, and let the plants dry out in between waterings (except for specific plants that droop and telly they need more water, such as hydrangeas, maidenhair ferns, astilbe).

Annuals may need daily watering in unforgiving heat. Hanging baskets might need watering twice a day!

If you are going away over the summer for more than a week, cut back your perennials before you go. You will be surprised at how much new growth happens while you are away. Your plants will be all ready to bloom when you get home.

Mix one part urine with 20 parts water to make a free fertilizer for your garden. Watch your plants bloom! Urine is also useful as a soil enhancer, compost accelerator, weed killer, and fungus fighter.

http://www.nwedible.com/how-to-use-pee-in-your-garden/

You should have done all the hard work in your garden by now! Get a friend and a couple of cups of tea and sit in your garden. Enjoy.


Friday, June 5, 2015

Next Meeting, Thursday, June 11th, 1739 Venables, 7:00!

Hello Happy Grandview Gardeners,

We have an exciting meeting coming up on Thursday! First of all, we’ll have a talk given by Robert Wilmott and Hayne Wai about their work documenting the Pruning at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden. With photographs and notes, they have been recording the pruning of the garden, undertaken by the Park Board gardeners and supervised by retired gardener and Penjing (bonsai) master, Pin Lee. They are still working on this project and, in conjunction with their work to date, Hayne has produced a PowerPoint presentation. Their talk will be about 40 minutes.

After that, and its Q&A period, we are asking YOU to participate!

We are going to compile a set of Summer Gardening Tips, and we’d like you to think of one clever Tip. Write it out on a piece of paper that you can leave with us, but then we’ll open up the floor and ask you to share your Tip with the group. Weed control? Helping climbers? Attracting hummingbirds?  Protecting carrots from carrot fly? Anything special that works for you. If everyone contributes just one Tip, we’ll have quite a collection. We’ll read them all and post them on our website.

And, as usual, clip a little sprig of something in your garden that looks just spectacular this week and bring it for our display!

And we’ll have a door prize !

See you all at the meeting! Bring your friends! And if you haven’t renewed your membership for 2015, please do! $20/year or $4 to drop in to a single meeting.

Cheers,
Penny

And don’t forget:




Wednesday, May 6, 2015

May 14th speaker is David Tarrant!

Join us for our meeting on May 14, when our speaker will be well-known Canadian television personality and garden expert, David Tarrant.
For 17 years David was host of CBC’s very popular national gardening program Canadian Gardener.
He has written articles for many horticultural publications; he has written four books and contributed to three others. His 1989 book, A Year in Your Garden, introduced many a novice to the principles of good gardening practice and has become a Canadian classic.
A highly respected horticultural expert, David is in demand locally and internationally as a public speaker, and has been involved in many special community projects in Vancouver. He has led 36 overseas garden tours, and continues to do so.
He is a mentor to thousands of Canadian gardeners, and is now happily enjoying his garden and retirement in Mexico. We are very fortunate that he has agreed to come and speak to our club during a brief return visit to Vancouver.

David will give us a tour of the beautiful gardens of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, including his own spectacular one.
Our meeting will be at 1739 Venables (the former Astorino's Hall), as usual, at 7:00 p.m. Yearly membership is $20 or you can pay $4 for a one-time drop-in.
Hope to see you there! 

Sunday, March 29, 2015

A Couple of Interesting Events

1. TreeKeepers is offering 16 different types of young fruit and ornamental trees to Vancouver residents for the modest price of $10 -15. You can see what is available and, if you wish, place an advance order for pick-up at a local community centre. Or just go there on the day and take your chances. Highly desirable offerings include Magnolia 'Leonard Messel', Cotinus (smokebush) 'Grace', and 'Honeycrisp' apple trees.

For more information, including pick-up locations and dates, go to http://treekeepers.ca/plant-a-tree/

2. Egan Davis, who will be our April speaker, is not only a knowledgeable gardener, but also a kite-flying enthusiast. In the latter role, he is choreographing a kite dance of dozens of pink kites at Vanier Park on Sunday, April 4 to celebrate Vancouver's Cherry Blossom Festival. More information in this Vancouver Sun article.
www.vancouversun.com/news/High+kite+cherry+blossoms/10919932/story.html

Posted by Christine Allen


Friday, March 13, 2015

Egan Davis coming back to speak at our 1st Anniversary meeting! April 9th!

Our April meeting will be our one-year anniversary, and we'll be celebrating by welcoming back our first Garden Club speaker, Egan Davis. This time, he'll be talking to us about soils.

Please join us for the monthly meeting of our
Grandview Garden Club
(northwest corner Commercial Drive and Venables)
on Thursday, April 9th
7:00–9:00 p.m.
Britannia’s Hall at 1739 Venables

Egan Davis is a brilliant, entertaining, award-winning gardener and UBC horticulture instructor whose diverse background includes garden design, landscape construction, botanical garden operations, and greenhouse and nursery production.
Questions & Answers!

Bring samples of plants that are particularly beautiful in your garden ... or of plants you have questions or concerns about or would like to identify. Our Master Gardeners will be there to advise you!

Excellent meeting with Mike Nassichuk on Vegetables

We had a big crowd out for our March meeting last night. Mike's presentation on growing vegetables was terrific and we all came away inspired and ready to prepare our garden beds, amend our soil with compost, organic blend fertilizer, and lime, and get our seeds started.



UPCOMING EVENTS
  • March 14, 2:00–4:00 p.m.:  Cherry Tree Walk, Downtown to Stanley Park (Free)
  • March 15, 1:30–3:00 p.m.: Cherry Tree Walk, VanDusen Garden, 3750 Oak St (garden admission fees apply). 
More information on Tree Talks and Walks at 
  • April 4, 12:00–4:00 p.m.: Alpine Garden Club Show and Sale, Floral Hall at VanDusen Garden, Free admission. Great plants to see and buy.

Monday, March 9, 2015

Thursday, March 12th! GGC Meeting! Mike Nassichuk on Growing Vegetables!

Hi. 

Just a reminder that the Grandview Garden Club meets this Thursday, March 12th, in the hall at 1739 Venables (formerly known as Astorino's), 7:00 p.m.

The topic for this month is GROWING VEGETABLES. How timely! 

Our speaker is Mike Nassichuk, a biologist and  Master Gardener who has been growing vegetables for over twenty years and has given many presentations, seminars, and clinics about growing vegetables and on other gardening topics. 
Mike teaches the “Growing Vegetables” course in the Master Gardeners program. He received the Van Dusen Garden’s Award of Distinction in 2001.
He recently retired from the federal government, where he was the regional Director of the Environmental Protection Branch at Environment Canada.

Bring your friends … and all of your questions about starting and growing your vegetable garden.
Win the door prize! Enjoy tea and cookies! Chat with your gardening neighbours!

Membership in the Grandview Garden Club is $20 per year. You may also drop in to any individual meeting that appeals to you for a $4 drop-in fee. (If you choose to be a member, you receive discounts on gardening goods at garden shops including Figaro’s, Magnet, and Gardenworks.)

Happy gardening!


Monday, February 23, 2015

Christine's Recommended Sources for Climbing Plants

Here are the nurseries where you can obtain most of the climbers I spoke about in my talk at the February meeting:
CLEMATIS and OTHER CLIMBERS
Clearview Horticultural Products
Free Spirit Nursery

ROSES
Brentwood Bay Nurseries
Select Roses


Posted by Christine Allen


Tuesday, February 10, 2015

February Meeting, this Thursday (February 12th), 7:00 p.m.

Hello Grandview Gardeners, 

Please join us this Thursday (February 12th) at the Hall at 1739 Venables (formerly known as Astorino's).

The speaker for this month's meeting will be Christine Allen on Growing Up: Climbing Plants for Every Garden, a look at the wide variety of climbers that can grace your garden month by month throughout the year, their advantages and drawbacks, and some of the creative ways to use them. Christine is a Master Gardener and author of several books, including A Year at Killara Farm, Roses for the Pacific Northwest, and Growing Up: Climbing Plants for the Pacific Northwest. Bring your questions about climbers!

We'd also love you to bring a sample of whatever is looking particularly good in your garden right now. Please name each sample (botanical name or common name, preferably both).


And, if possible, bring your own mug for tea. (Unlike our last meeting, there will be ample CHAIRS at this one!)

_______________________


Upcoming Events


Feb 28, 10:00–4:00 Seedy Saturday at VanDusen Floral Hall.  Specialty seed and plant sale. Admission by donation.
Derry Walsh, who spoke to us last year about fruit trees, will be there selling her young apple trees.
More information at  http://www.mgabc.org/content/seedy-saturday-vancouver-feb-28th-2015


Also Feb 28, 10:00–3:00 Soil and Manure Sale in VanDusen's parking lot, 37th and Oak.  You can pre-order for pick-up on Feb 25, 26, or 27.
More information at http://www.heavyethics.com/VanDusen/Description.html


Our next GGC meeting: March 12, 7:00 p.m. Mike Nassichuk will be speaking on Growing Vegetables
Mike is a UBC graduate in Biology and a Master Gardener. He has grown vegetables for over 20 years and has given numerous presentations, seminars, and clinics on growing vegetables and on other gardening topics to garden clubs and other groups. He also teaches the “Growing Vegetables” course within the Master Gardener program. He received the VanDusen Garden "Award of Distinction" in 2001. Mike recently retired from the federal government where he was the Regional Director of the Environmental Protection Branch at Environment Canada.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Upcoming meetings!

Just to give you a heads-up: The speaker for February (Feb. 12th) is Christine Allen (our club president and master gardener) talking about climbing plants.
For March (March 12th), it will be another master gardener, Mike Nassichuk, talking about vegetable gardening and mason bees.
We meet the second Tuesday of the month at the hall previously known as Astorino's (Venables at Commercial!)

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Notes from our January meeting on Pruning...



At our Grandview Garden Club meeting last week, Mary Dunn, a member of the South Surrey Garden Club and Master Gardener, was our special speaker, and her topic was Pruning!


I took a few notes and thought I’d share some of her tips with you.

Cheers,
Penny

4 Reasons to Prune (and in this order):
  • for the health of the plant — you improve air circulation and keep the plant open
  • to improve the beauty of the plant
  • to stimulate vigorous growth
  • to control the plant’s size

There are two kinds of pruning cuts:
  • Heading cuts
  • Thinning cuts

Heading cuts:
Heading cuts remove the apical bud (growth tip), which is a source of auxins. This stimulates lots of growth of lateral shoots.
You can do heading cuts, like with a hedge trimmer, on plants that have many close-together branches like lavender, thyme, rosemary, boxwood; they can all be sheared off.

Thinning cuts:
With thinning cuts, either remove an entire branch or stem or cut down to one that’s at least a third of the diameter of the one you’re taking off.

What do you take off?
The three Ds
  • Dead material
  • Damaged or dying material
  • Diseased

The two Cs
  • Crossing branches
  • Competing branches

She advocates the maxim: “Wander, Ponder, then Prune”
Spend a lot of time thinking about what you want to take off before you go to work.
Never leave stubs!

When to prune what:
  • Early spring bloomers, prune after they bloom.
  • Summer bloomers, prune when dormant (like now!)
Remember that the buds are on the new growth.

Keep your pruning equipment (loppers, secateurs) clean and sharp and well-oiled. Lee Valley has a good little hand sharpener; just 4 or 5 strokes should sharpen your secateurs. Sharpen between uses; sterilize (with bleach or Lysol®) between cuts, especially if you’re working on diseased or problem plants.

Remember: Pruning Stimulates Growth!

Mary recommended a few pruning reference books (see next posting). She says the Sunset Pruning Book is especially good (but is now out of print). Pruning and Training, published by the Royal Horticultural Society, is her favourite. She calls that one “the bible”.

Mary also teaches classes in pruning and she has sent along dates and registration info:

Langley Continuing Education
  • Pruning the Right Way H127 $49.99 + $5 entry to Darts Hill.  Saturday, January 31, 9:30am-3:30pm. Afternoon field trip to Darts Hill Garden in South Surrey.


Historic Stewart Farm (South Surrey) — Classes at the Historic Stewart Farm can be accessed on the City of Surrey website, the Langley Class on the Langley Continuing Education website.
  • Pruning Essentials  4386921  $40.  Saturday, March 7, 9:30am-3:30pm.  Afternoon field trip to Darts Hill Garden in South Surrey.
  • Fruit Tree Pruning  4386962  $40.  Saturday, February 14, 9:30am- 3:30pm.  Morning in the classroom, afternoon hands-on in the Heritage Orchard.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Mary Dunn's List of Pruning References


Mary Dunn, who spoke at our January meeting, sent along this list of useful references for pruning.


Books:

Pruning - Sunset Books Inc. 1998 ISBN 0-376-03606-0 (out of print, but you may find it) 

Sunset Western Garden Book - Sunset Publishing Corp. 2012 

The Royal Horticultural Society Pruning and Training – Dorling Kindersley Ltd. 
ISBN 0 7513 0207 4 

The Flowering Shrub Expert - Dr. D.G. Hessayon, - Expert Books ISBN 0 903505 39 B 

The Tree and Shrub Expert - Dr D.G. Hessayon – Expert Books ISBN 0 903505 17 7 

The Pruning of Trees Shrubs and Conifers - George E. Brown. Revised and expanded by Tony Kirkham Timber Press 2009 ISBN-13: 978-1-60469-002-6 

Trees and Shrubs for Coastal British Columbia J.A. and C.L. Grant Whitecap Books 
1990 ISBN 0 921061 83 8 

Pruning and Training of Plants – David Joyce – Firefly Books ISBN 1-55297-534-7 

A Practical Guide to Pruning – Peter McHoy – Select Editions ISBN 1-894722-00-0 

Cass Turnbull’s Guide to Pruning – 3rd Revised Edition - Sasquatch Books 2012

Product Details

Websites: 


These will provide links to many other websites of interest. 
Also see University Extension Department websites (U. of Washington, Oregon, UBC) 

Not about pruning, but excellent references for the home gardener: 

Home and Garden Pest Management Guide for British Columbia 2009 Edition 
Website: www.agf.gov.bc.ca (The guide can be ordered on the website) 
(There is lots of useful information on this website.) 

West Coast Gardening: Natural Insect, Weed & Disease Control – 2nd edition 2013 - 
Linda A. Gilkeson ISBN 978-0-9917335-0-7 www.lindagilkeson.ca 

Revised February 2014