Learn wild ways
All purple coneflowers are not alike. Only wildflowers bred from local plant populations carry particular native genes, says Denise Sandoval of The Natural Garden in St. Charles. So though Echinacea purpurea, for instance, is available from many mail-order sources and echinacea cultivars now come in a mind-boggling variety, none of those contributes to the native plant’s preservation.
Sandoval will be among more than two dozen speakers at “Native Plant Landscaping: More Than A Garden, It’s a Lifestyle,” a conference July 14 to 16 at the Holiday Inn Select in Naperville. Sponsored by the Wild Ones, a national conservation group, the conference offers tours and more than two dozen speakers on gardening and conservation topics. Basic registration is $90. See www.for-wild.org/conference/2006/.
Celebrating 50-year mark
It’s a golden anniversary. Chicago’s annual garden competition, Mayor Daley’s Landscape Awards, is 50 years old this year (remember that Mayor Daley? We do.). And the deadline is fast approaching for entries.
City residents may enter in four categories: community gardens, multiunit residential, schools and single-family residential.
Find an application at aldermanic offices, Chicago public libraries, the Department of Environment at City Hall or the Chicago Center for Green Technology, 445 N. Sacramento Ave. Call 312-744-8691, or see www.cityofchicago.org/Environment/.
Fertilize with care
Plants in containers need regular fertilizer because they have to be watered so often. Watering washes nutrients away — and if you used sterile soilless potting mix, there weren’t many to begin with.
But as always with fertilizer, more is not necessarily better. Too much can harm plants’ roots. As a rule of thumb, use any water-soluble fertilizer (including organic formulas) at half the strength recommended on the label every other week. Of course if your potting mix contained time-release fertilizer, or if you added it when you planted, you don’t need additional fertilizer.
For more container tips, see http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/dupage/new s/news2573.html.
———-
ebotts@tribune.com
