Prune and fertilize your roses for fuller, longer bloom Page 16
Concord Pioneer • www.concordpioneer.com
NICOLE HACKETT
GARDEN GIRL
Rose pruning is easy. An annually pruned rose should take five minutes to prune. As I approach a rose to prune, I always look right to the bottom
of the plant. I don’t worry about all the buds, blooms or leaves still left on the bush, I look towards the bottom and begin there. A well-pruned hybrid tea, grandiflora or floribunda rose should have 3-5 nice, straight, clean canes without any leaves once you’ve finished. The object of pruning is to remove most of the past year’s growth and all the crossing canes and lateral branches. Remove all gray canes. You may have to use a cordless saw to get through thick wood. Don’t worry about how thick the canes are, you won’t hurt the rose at all. Make all your cuts at a slight
Cut too high
Cut too low
Gail Trimble
angle, right before a swelling of growth. If you look closely at a rose cane before you make the cut, you’ll see a seam with a swell. This is where the rose wants to grow from. I don’t tell people how many inches of
JAY BEDECARRÉ Concord Pioneer
• INTERIOR: plumbing, drywall, electrical, trim, tile. Lic. 979406
cane to leave. It really depends on the amount of room you have for your rose to grow. If you have limited space, then cut further down. If you like your roses tall, then don’t cut down as far. Rose trees should be pruned the same way as the floribunda, hybrid tea or grandiflora. Remove old canes, crossing branches and lateral branches. With rose trees, leave more canes on the plant so they’ll look fuller. Groundcover roses don’t get the same amount of attention. I reshape the groundcover roses, bringing them down and in. If
the groundcover roses that I am pruning have grown crazy, it’ll be severely pruned. For a newer installation the pruning will be lighter. Fertilizing roses is very important. We have been sharing this recipe for more than a decade. This recipe is for established ground grown hybrid tea, grandiflora, floribunda or tree shaped roses. Each rose is to receive: ½ cup 16-16-16 Fertilizer ½ cup Bone Meal ½ cup Granular Iron ½ cup Alfalfa Meal 2T Epsom Salt Work into soil along drip line and top-dress with an inch of chicken manure and water in. This may sound like a lot of products, but imagine how deep the roots of your rose are. Don’t premix a batch of products. There is a reason for each ingredient and the quantity. The 1616-16 is a multi-purpose fertilizer. The bone meal is a source of phosphorus and will encourage
Gritty heroine stars in tale of true love Jay Bedecarre
THE KIRKER PASS RD. LOCATION OF NAVLET’S GARDEN CENTER opened in spring 2004 with nearly 70,000 square feet of plants and gardening supplies. The 130-year-old company closed its four Contra Costa stores at the end of January and reopened Feb. 12 under the new ownership of Sloat Garden Centers.
130 years of serving local gardeners, Navlet’s Garden Centers are closing its doors. We truly appreciate your support over the years and will always be grateful. We are fortunate to be able to pass the torch to Sloat Garden Centers, another highly respected, locally owned and operated garden center. We are confident that you will enjoy your shopping and gardening experience with Sloat as
Everything from home repair & maintenance to construction • EXTERIOR: painting, windows, doors, decks, outdoor structures.
Correct cut
Photo:
Sloat Garden Center takes over 130-year-old Navlet’s nurseries A business that traces its roots back to the 19th century closed its doors late last month when Navlet’s announced its four East Bay stores had been sold to Sloat Garden Center. The new owners reopened the stores Feb. 12, including the Concord location on Kirker Pass Rd. Navlet’s, founded by Charles Navlet, began operating in 1885. His nephew Arthur Navlet took over in 1923. The company kept a high profile with Bert Bertolero and now his son Buzz Bertolero giving nursey tips to millions of Bay Area residents for decades at their stores and in the media. Buzz Bertolero will continue giving his “Dirt Gardener” seminars as part of the Sloat staff. The Kirker Pass location opened in spring 2004 with nearly 70,000 square feet of every plant, flower and garden accessory imaginable from the common azalea to the not-socommon perennial. At the time of the closures a message from “The Navlet’s Team” was posted on the company’s website and on the door of each store. It read, “After
February 26, 2016
Specializin g in deferred m aintenance , prepping home for sa le, repairs from home insp ections
Gary Romano
787-2500
Reliable & Professional Service Owner operated Over 35 years of experience
much as you did with Navlet’s.” In announcing the purchase Sloat said they offered jobs to all the Navlet’s employees at the four East Bay locations. Besides Concord, Navlet’s were in Danville, Pleasant Hill and Martinez. It’s understood that the entire Concord staff is now with Sloat. Sloat opened its first store in San Francisco in 1958 and had a single East Bay location in Danville to go with eight more stores in San Francisco and Marin. Company president and CEO Dave Stoner says the many years of drought in California have taken a toll on the gardening business. The company said, “We are proud to continue their [Navlet’s] tradition of expert gardening know-how. Both Sloat and Navlet’s were built through a passion for gardening, a commitment to community, a responsibility for sustainable gardening and a desire to offer the highest quality plants, pottery and products.”
The next best thing to riding in a time capsule is to periodically return to the first novel of an author you’ve followed, loved and watched evolve. By returning to the genesis of an author’s creative arc, you have a chance to savor that kernel of genius anew and with fresh appreciation. You can see the promise, taste the potential of a writer’s stamina. Plus, you get to go back in time. You get to smack up against what are now cultural references when they were just current events. On Jan. 1, 1993, author Joanne Mapson published her first novel, “Hank & Chloe” (HarperCollins e-books; Reprint edition October, 2009). Last weekend, I jumped back 23 years and savored every salty phrase Chloe uttered and shed more than a few tears at the utter heartbreak Mapson so masterfully delivers in the course of delivering a flawless narrative. Think Orange County, circa 1988. Think vanishing wild places, think an exploding housing market and tract homes for miles. On the one hand, we have orphaned, flinty, horse-and-dog-loving Chloe, living in a shack in one of the last unincorporated pieces of dirt in Orange County, where the geography is as much a character in this
SCREEN SHOTS
• All new Jewelry Collections have arrived too! Mon-Sat 10-5
925-672-2025 1028 Diablo St., Clayton
Visit us on Facebook
Nicole is the Garden Girl at R&M Pool, Patio, Gifts and Garden. You can contact her with questions or comments by email at Gardengirl@claytonpioneer.com
CYNTHIA GREGORY
FOR
THE
BOOKS
how lucky he’s had it all his life until he encounters this ill-tempered angel in mud-covered boots, and she isn’t about to let him forget just how mismatched they are. The thing is, she has as much trouble convincing herself as Hank that their star-crossed match is only another bad deal waiting to happen. Mapson is more than just a master of tracing the rutted roads that lead to love. She understands pain and loss and the thousand ways that one good love can make up for all that dross. And she does it with kitchen table wisdom, a poet’s eye for language. “Answer the door after midnight and you might as well set a place at the table for trouble.” “Hank and Chloe” is a luscious and gritty tale of all the ways love can shake you to your core. And it’s worth every minute of it. Cynthia Gregory is a North Bay nonprofit leader, writer of short fiction, and author of a blog. Email comments and questions to Editor@ConcordPioneer.com
Top-notch performances highlight Oscar faves
JEFF MELLINGER
Easter Sunday is March 27
tale as Chloe herself. “The Wedler Brothers Café was a cult hangout that served more than one master. In the early mornings they fed truckers and fishermen, regulars Chloe knew by name and menu preference. A little later, frustrated telemarketing salesmen fed on farmhand’s breakfasts, the poor man’s Valium.” On the other hand, we have kind, sober, straight-as-a-BoyScout Hank, community college teacher of mythology. There couldn’t be a more unlikely pair than these two, and yet before the book is over, you’re betting they are the ones who may just redeem romantic attraction. “He watched her firm behind strain against the denim skirt as she measured out fresh coffee into the tall coffee urn. She wiped her hand on the dish towel tucked into her skirt and turned to face him. ‘I’m telling you, sit quiet in this place you you’ll go hungry. You should have thrown your napkin at me or something. What’ll you have?’” Of course, what he wants is her, though he’s too polite to say. Chloe was handed a dirty deal from the start, but she learned to survive. She understands horses, gives lessons to rich suburban kids to get by, and that’s enough for her. Hank doesn’t actually realize
bloom. Granular iron is applied to keep your rose leaves green and free of chlorosis. Alfalfa meal will stimulate new cane growth. Epsom salts are used to intensify flower color. Container roses get half a dose of each product. Groundcover roses are only given the multi-purpose fertilizer and iron. Apply this rose recipe now and again in July. Those that rely on drip-system watering will have to hand water twice a week after their July application to make sure the rose recipe gets soaked well into the ground. Do not use systemic rose 31 fertilizers. Aphids are a part of spring, and if you have aphids your garden will attract the beneficial insects to eat them up. No aphids, no beneficial insects.
The quantity of great films in 2015 may be lower than in previous years, but the quality of the ones at the top are, for the most part, well-represented in the Best Picture category. “Room” – Brie Larson plays Joy, a young mother raising her 5-year-old son Jack (a marvelous Jacob Tremblay) in a tiny garden shack. Kidnapped at 17, Joy has spent seven years as a prisoner. Joy pretends for Jack’s sake that there is no outside world. Jack believes everything on TV is make-believe: trees, cars, dogs and other people. It is only
when Joy spies an opportunity to escape that she sees hope for Jack. Director Lenny Abrahamson handles the material with a gentle touch, creating one of the most beautiful, moving films in years. “Spotlight” – In 2001, the Spotlight division of the Boston Globe uncovered the massive sexual abuse scandal involving the Catholic Church. Using every reporting trick in the book, the team carefully unravels something everyone wants to bury and no one wants to believe. Director Tom McCarthy shines his “Spotlight” on a true journalistic endeavor, harkening back to the grand exposé days of the newspaper industry. “The Big Short” – Adam McKay expertly explains the 2008 housing crisis while tip-
toeing the line between tragedy and comedy. The film never makes light of those who suffered and never gets so dark as to be outright depressing. Steve Carell and Christian Bale are hedge fund managers who “short” the banks when they realize all the terrible housing mortgages will fail. “Brooklyn” – Saorsie Ronan delivers a career performance as Eilis, a recent Irish arrival in 1950s New York. After many painful adjustments, she finds love and builds a life. When incidents across the ocean call her home, her past and her future collide, forcing her to choose. “Bridge of Spies” – Steven Spielberg directs Tom Hanks in a Cold War spy tale.
See Movies, page 18