We all can help replenish city's aging tree canopy

Make sure a tree is on your list as you think about plants to add to your landscape this fall. You’ll be doing a service for your neighborhood and your city, as well as yourself.
“Charlotte has a geriatric tree canopy,” says Dave Cable, executive director of Trees Charlotte, a 2-year-old organization that’s working to add more than 5,000 new plants between October and April 2015.
Cable will talk about proper tree care at the Charlotte Garden Club at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 15 at the Mint Museum, 2730 Randolph Road. Anyone can attend. Cable also will talk about programs that offer free trees to local neighborhoods.
Charlotte ranked second nationally by American Forests recently among its “10 Best Cities for Urban Forests,” but the city’s trees are aging and need to be refreshed, Cable said. Development, storms, pests and diseases also cause tree loss.
“We have an extraordinary asset,” Cable said. “If we’re not careful about expanding it and diversity, it may not be here in the year 2050.”
For diversity, look beyond willow oaks and crape myrtles. We’ve got more than enough of those. Too many of one species increases the chances for insects and diseases to wipe out or weaken the canopy.
Japanese maples, on the other hand, are fine to plant, and they’re the most popular in Trees Charlotte giveaways. “They fly off the truck,” Cable said.
Get information for caring for your trees at http://treescharlotte.org.

Karen’s blog: http://homelifeclt.blogspot.com; on Twitter @sullivan_kms

Before you spray, think of the bees

It was the rosebush or the Japanese beetles. One of them would lose, and that year I sided with my rugosa Magnifica, a fragrant repeat bloomer that produces plump rose hips once the magenta flowers are pollinated.
Don’t think it was an easy decision to spray the shrub with an insecticide to get rid of the pests that had devoured more than a few plants in my yard. The pollinators that made it possible for me to get rose hips from that bush might have been the next visitors. So the flowers had to go, too.
Unfortunately, my homemade spray of soapy water and cayenne pepper hadn’t worked. Manually collecting beetles every day didn’t fix things, either. This year, I’m just watching the bugs munch. I don’t have a solution, but I don’t want to put the bees at risk. They’re too valuable.
Bees, butterflies, beetles, hummingbirds, bats and flies carry pollen among plants as they collect nectar. In the process, they pollinate more than 75 percent of our flowering plants and close to 75 percent of our food crops, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Bee colony losses are an international concern, and household pesticides are among the dangers to those creatures. Before spraying in your yard, read up on protecting pollinators at www.fws.gov. Post your suggestions for protecting plants from pests at the blog address below.

Karen’s blog: http://homelifeclt.blogspot.com; on Twitter @sullivan_kms

Gardeners, mark your calendars

Charlotte's spring gardening season is in full swing. That means you'll find plenty of opportunities to pick up new plants, tour gardens and gather with other growers for programs and social events.
Here's what’s ahead:
Saturday:
The largest of the annual plant sales at UNC Charlotte's Botanical Gardens returns from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (also same hours Friday), 9090 Craver Road. Special items include native plants, exotic botanicals, tropicals, succulents and carnivorous plants. Cash and checks only. Details: http://gardens.uncc.edu or 704-687-0721.
April 26:
The Charlotte Iris Society will present its annual horticulture show, noon to 5 p.m. at Blacklion, 10605 Park Road. From 9 to 10 a.m., the public is invited to enter named cultivars for judging and unknown irises for display and possible identification. Visitors to this free event may vote for the People's Choice Award.
May 3 and 4:
Friends of Fourth Ward will host the second annual "Secret Gardens of Fourth Ward" tour, noon-4 p.m. both days. See private gardens at historic homes and enjoy other activities, including free food and drink samples, and appetizers at nearby restaurants. The picture shown here is a teaser for those secret gardens. Horse-drawn carriages will provide free shuttle service between 7th Street Public Market and Fourth Ward. Tickets are $20, good for both days, and may be purchased online at www.fofw.org or at retail locations listed on the website.

Karen's blog: http://homelifeclt.blogspot.com;
on Twitter @sullivan_obs

UNC Charlotte professor's book opens up world of native plants

The movement that tells us to choose native landscaping plants has found a firm footing in Charlotte. But it hasn’t always been easy to identify and find those plants once a gardener gets interested in species that support local wildlife and tend to thrive more readily in our climate.
That led UNC Charlotte biology professor Larry Mellichamp to publish “Native Plants of the Southeast” ($39.95, Timber Press).
The just-released, 367-page hardcover book by the director of UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens lists more than 460 species and rates their value as landscape plants. (visit www.charlotteobserver.com/clever for a chance to win a copy.)

Color photographs by Will Stuart and detailed plant profiles are intended to also make the book useful as a reference.
The garden’s Van Landingham Glen has been cultivated as a native plant landscape for nearly 40 years, and Mellichamp’s status as an authority has grown with it.
Classes for a native plant certificate proved so popular that a reference for gardeners was a natural step, said Paula Gross, assistant director at the gardens. “We feel like the homeowner wants to know which ones, where to get them, and how they perform.”
Now 15 to 18 classes a year are offered through the Certificate in Native Plant Studies Program. Native plants are also a focus of the spring and fall plant sales at the botanical gardens.
With the book published, the staff is focusing on raising money for a renovation to transform one-fifth acre in an ornamental garden into the Native Plants in the Home Landscape Demonstration Garden.

The staff thinks we’ll see the beauty of native plants and we’ll want to bring them home to remake our own ornamental gardens. Imagine that.
Sullivan: http://homelifeclt.blogspot.com; Twitter @sullivan_obs 

What I learned in a Charlotte garden

There was so much that I didn’t say about Annie Patterson last week.
I wrote that she’s a new recruit to the Backyard Friendship Gardens program. She and others donate food they’ve grown for the nonprofit Friendship Trays meals on wheels program. More donors are needed.
I was inspired by the garden and what I learned about Patterson during my visit.
“There are two kinds of people,” Friendship Gardens Director Henry Owen said as he looked over the crops. “People who live in scarcity and people who live in abundance.”
Gardeners, Owen said, live in abundance.
It seems true when Patterson talks about her life, although abundance is not what many would see. The Camden, S.C., native was one of 12 children and lost her mother when she was 8, the year before she planted her first garden.
She finished 11th grade before coming to Charlotte and working for 28 years at an 80-unit Myers Park residence for seniors. She looked after the place and the people, she said. She’d do extra cleaning for some of the residents and other chores. Many times she wouldn’t accept anything in return, she said. That went on for years.
She decorated the building with flowers and houseplants and shared vegetables she’d grown.
She decided to buy a small house off Old Pineville Road some 20 years ago. The residents gave her a down payment – on the house and later on a car.
One man called the bank after her mortgage loan was denied. Finally, it went through.
At 79, Patterson still grows such a full garden that people drop by to see it, meet her or pick up gift baskets.
This year there were rows of peppers, okra and lima bean plants. She grew 10 rows of tomatoes and lots of eggplant, although she doesn’t care for either.
She grows them because she believes the abundance in her life comes from giving.