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PLEASE NOTE: In the autumn of 1995, we hatched the idea for a free, local gardening publication. The following spring, we published the first issue of Michigan Gardener magazine. Advertisers, readers, and distribution sites embraced our vision. Thus began an exciting journey of helping our local gardening community grow and prosper.
After 27 years, nearly 200 issues published, and millions of copies printed, we have decided it is time to end the publication of our Print Magazine and E-Newsletter.

We will continue to update our Website with articles and enter current gardening events in our website Event Calendar. All the best wishes for 2024 and beyond.

Chicago Botanic Garden hosts orchid show

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Paradise Jewel 'Flame' (Photo: By Dougie WII via Wikimedia Commons)
Paradise Jewel ‘Flame’ (Photo: By Dougie WII via Wikimedia Commons)

The Chicago Botanic Garden Orchid Show will provide an infusion of warmth and color to guests visiting the Chicago Botanic Garden this winter. The event will run daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, February 15, through Sunday, March 16, 2014.

Visitors will enter the exhibition through an orchid-and-palm allée, then view a large orchid tree surrounded by other displays. The greenhouses will be filled with orchids on trees, in the ground, and suspended on hanging structures. The effect will give visitors the feeling of being surrounded by colorful, fragrant blooms. Guests can also wind their way through orchid columns as they read about conservation efforts.

This showcase of unusual and stunning orchids will give visitors the opportunity to learn about one of the largest, most diverse and revered flowering plant families.

The Illinois Orchid Society will have experts on hand to answer questions, provide re-potting services, and offer a marketplace every weekend.

For more information, click here.

Rock Garden Expert to Speak at Fernwood

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panayoti
Panayoti Kelaidis

Fernwood Botanical Garden in Niles, Michigan welcomes Denver Botanic Gardens’ rock garden expert, Panayoti Kelaidis, on Saturday, January 4, from 2:00 to 3:30 pm. He will present “The Gardener’s Year: Journey of a Rock Garden Plantsman.”

Kelaidis, Senior Curator and Director of Outreach at Denver Botanic Gardens, was the designer of its Rock Alpine Garden, one of the best collections of alpine plants in North America. Past president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the American Rock Garden Society, he received the Award of Excellence from National Garden Clubs, the most prestigious award given by the organization. He also received the 2000 Arthur Hoyt Scott Medal from Swarthmore College, one of the highest honors in American horticulture.

Kelaidis will present a lively lecture chronicling his love of rock garden plants and how the journey of gardeners is personal, but often can lead to much more. He speaks about his own interest in plants at a young age, which led to a career in gardening, world travel, and plant exploration.

This special program is $25, and Fernwood members are admitted free. Please register by Friday, January 3. For more information, please visit www.fernwoodbotanical.org.

Genetic sequence unlocks the origin of flowers

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The plant Amborella is found natively only in New Caledonian island of Grande Terre in the South Pacific. (Photo: Sangtee Kim)
The plant Amborella is found natively only in New Caledonian island of Grande Terre in the South Pacific. (Photo: Sangtee Kim)

Nature:

A shrub with cream-coloured flowers that is the closest living descendant of Earth’s first flowering plants has had its genome decoded. The sequence of Amborella trichopoda hints at the genetic adaptations that helped flowers to emerge and conquer the world some 160 million years ago — an evolutionary explosion described by Charles Darwin as an “abominable mystery”.

Read the full story here…

Garden Snapshots: Valerie Nava’s Fig tree

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Valerie Nava proudly shows off the fig tree she propagated from a cutting and is growing in northern Oakland County, Michigan. She covers it up in the winter and it comes back year after year. According to daughter Catherine, her mom’s motto is, “I never give up.” As a result, Valerie and her green thumb can tell you about many plants and how to grow them.
Valerie Nava proudly shows off the fig tree she propagated from a cutting and is growing in northern Oakland County, Michigan. She covers it up in the winter and it comes back year after year. According to daughter Catherine, her mom’s motto is, “I never give up.” As a result, Valerie and her green thumb can tell you about many plants and how to grow them.

Do you have a snapshot of a plant you have overwintered? Post it to our Facebook page.

Stolen tree tips challenge Christmas growers

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NPR:

That wreath on your front door could contain stolen goods.

The tips of fir trees used to make wreaths are collected by “tippers” and attract high prices — as well as poachers, who cut limbs and even whole trees on private land.

The Christmas greens industry is estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars. But like other cottage industries, no one’s really counting. Anyone with a desire to make some money can take part — on or under the table. And that’s become a problem for some woodlot owners trying to protect their trees.

Read the full story here…

Michigan apple growers are trying to freeze time

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AP:

This year’s Michigan apple crop is expected to be 10 times as plentiful as last year’s puny output.

While the big bounce-back is welcomed in the nation’s third-largest apple-producing state, the bounty presents its own challenges: How do growers, packers and processors maximize storage to avoid flooding stores with the fruit, thus crashing the market and lowering growers’ profits?

Read the full story…

Web Extra: Pruning to make great evergreens

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To read the full article by Janet Macunovich on pruning evergreens, pick up a copy of the Nov/Dec, 2013 issue of Michigan Gardener in stores or find it in our digital edition.

Captions by Janet Macunovich / Photos by Steven Nikkila

Even a tiny branch (circled) has great potential. Once clipping changes its position from shaded interior to sunny outer edge, this wimpy twig can become a husky, densely feathered leader.
Even a tiny branch (circled) has great potential. Once clipping changes its position from shaded interior to sunny outer edge, this wimpy twig can become a husky, densely feathered leader.

 

Evergreen pruning can be done at any time. I can even thin at one time, and cut back overall at a different time. I take advantage of that in winter when we need long branches for decorations. Look at all the great cuttings I've gathered just from thinning this boxwood (left) and these hollies (right).
Evergreen pruning can be done at any time. I can even thin at one time, and cut back overall at a different time. I take advantage of that in winter when we need long branches for decorations. Look at all the great cuttings I’ve gathered just from thinning this boxwood (left) and these hollies (right).

 

Work with the natural shape of the plant and you can do all the cutting at once, using pruners. Most stems are clipped by one year's growth. The thickest are cut by two years'. These shrubs were a matched set five minutes ago. They will be again in five more minutes once I've clipped the one on the left.
Work with the natural shape of the plant and you can do all the cutting at once, using pruners. Most stems are clipped by one year’s growth. The thickest are cut by two years’. These shrubs were a matched set five minutes ago. They will be again in five more minutes once I’ve clipped the one on the left.

 

If a shrub has become too big (photo 1), I wait until early spring to cut and thin. For instance, I cut and thinned these boxwoods shortly after budbreak (photo 2). At other times all this previously sheltered wood and foliage would have been suddenly exposed to summer heat or wintry cold. Such quick changes can kill leaves and make wood die back even further than it was cut. Recovery was well underway in August of that same year (photo 3).
If a shrub has become too big (photo 1), I wait until early spring to cut and thin. For instance, I cut and thinned these boxwoods shortly after budbreak (photo 2). At other times all this previously sheltered wood and foliage would have been suddenly exposed to summer heat or wintry cold. Such quick changes can kill leaves and make wood die back even further than it was cut. Recovery was well underway in August of that same year (photo 3).

Gardeners live longer and enjoy better health

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NPR.org:

Researchers in Sweden measured the health of almost 4,000 60-year-olds in the late 1990s. A dozen years later, they checked back in. The people who had been active but not “exercising” at age 60 had a 27 percent lower risk of heart attack and stroke over that time, and a 30 percent lower risk of death.

Read the full story here…

Endangered warbler population remains at all-time high

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Kirtland's Warbler.
Kirtland’s Warbler.

A recent annual survey of the federally endangered Kirtland’s warbler shows its population still remains near an all-time high.

Biologists, researchers and volunteers observed 2,004 singing males during the official 2013 survey period – 2,063 males were observed in 2012. In 1974 and 1987, when the lowest survey numbers were recorded, only 167 singing males were found.

“Although we do have a slight decrease of singing males this year,” said Dan Kennedy, DNR endangered species coordinator, “we are really excited to see these high numbers because many conservation groups have worked together for over 40 years to make this possible.”

The Kirtland’s warbler survey is conducted each year in a joint effort between the DNR, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Michigan Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, Michigan Audubon Society and numerous citizen volunteers.

During early June, when birds are actively singing and defending their nesting area, warblers are noted by listening for their song. The song can be heard up to one-quarter of a mile away. Only the males sing, so estimates of breeding population are obtained by doubling the number of singing males recorded.

Kirtland’s warblers nest on the ground and typically select nesting sites in stands of jack pine between 4 and 20 years old. Historically, these stands of young jack pine were created by natural wildfires that frequently swept through northern Michigan. Modern fire suppression programs altered this natural process, reducing Kirtland’s warbler habitat. The result was that the population of Kirtland’s warblers declined to the point that they were listed as endangered.

To mimic the effects of wildfire and ensure the future of this species, the DNR, U.S. Forest Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manage the forests through a combination of clear-cutting, burning, seeding and replanting to promote habitat for the Kirtland’s warbler and many other species, including snowshoe hare, white-tailed deer, other songbird species and rare plants. Because large prescribed fires are neither safe nor economical in northern Michigan, approximately 3,000 acres of jack pine trees are harvested and replanted annually on state and federal lands.

For more information about this rare bird, visit the DNR’s Kirtland’s warbler Web page.

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