16 minute read
MCH Corner
Ready for 2022 MCH Events?
Happy New Year! As we take much-needed downtime during the winter or in between snowstorms, it is the perfect time to plan for this year’s MCH events.
We start off on March 2nd with our winter MCH Exam. For anyone taking it, it is a 150 multiple-choice written section, and you choose 20 of 25 plant samples for the plant identification section. The second chance to take the exam this year will be in August.
August is my favorite time as an MCH as we all get together for Plant Geek Day. Each year has a different feel, and I always walk away proud of an industry that makes these awe-inspiring places. Last year’s event at Long Hill had me walking around stumped as I viewed the mature tree specimens, which sparked my interest in new plants or those plants long forgotten. It was also our highest attended Plant Geek Day. It can be so easy to continue to use my good old standard plants, and Plant Geek Day always has me ready to try something out of the box when I leave. This year’s event will be held at Blithewold Mansion in Bristol, Rhode Island, on Wednesday, August 24, 2022. That is right: This year’s MCHs are going out of state. It has been twelve years since our last event there, and the MCH Board is itching to get back.
The last two years have been a time when many of us have really evaluated what we want in life, business, etc. While last spring feels like two years ago to me, I have recently reflected on where I was then, both in business and personally. As with anything in life, goals were set, plans were made, tactics were shifted, and headway towards those goals have been made.
I want to set the same goal for MCH events, so I ask you all: What do you really want from your MCH continued education and participation? Is it plant-themed bingo night, more socializing events with our fellow horticulturists, group volunteering, online plant ID quizzes or webinars, or even a good, old-fashioned field day pitting company versus company for the tug of war? The possibilities are endless! Let us shake things up a bit.
Community involvement is the name of the game. If you have some ideas on this, or better yet want to get involved, join our talented team on the MCH Board.
Best wishes for 2022. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone soon.
Corinne Jeanne, MCH Wisteria & Rose MCH Vice Chairman
2022 and beyond…The MCH Way!
Email us at mnlaoffice@aol.com
Celebrate the Season
Landscape inspiration for a cold winter’s day
by Trevor Smith, MCH , AOLCP, LEED GA
Plant like no one is watching. To play on the famous saying, I say this with the full intent of the phrase. To dance like no one is watching implies letting go of inhibition, feeling the music, and moving in celebration of life without caring how one may look. To plant like no one is watching is to celebrate the Earth, the landscape, the plants and rocks, and our connection to them.
Allow the season to flow through you like music and express without regard to the “rules.” This concept is what I teach my students in my Regenerative Design course. Plant like no one is watching.
To accomplish this, we must realize that the time to plant for aesthetic alone has passed. For centuries, people have been bending nature to their will. We are changing whole environments or microenvironments to accommodate a desired aesthetic. Coupled with industry, we changed the environment to meet our financial desires. We are eliminating entire forests for timber or monocropping. We have strayed from the seasons in the way we eat, and now strawberries are available year-round. We have engineered and manipulated nature to mirror the ondemand nature of our technology. We have what we want when we want it delivered to our door.
This mindset has permeated the landscape and gardening industry with the hybridizing of plants for longer blooms and fertilizers that grow plants quicker or keep lawns greener when they should be dormant. I was recently asked why two equally sized hydrangea standards, bought at the same time, didn’t grow the same and stay “matching” four years later.
I often find myself explaining the nature of nature — her uniqueness, quirks, and imperfections. I compare matching plants to twins and how they are almost identical, but each has unique traits. This type of questioning led me to several talks, articles, and classes to adjust the lens through which we see the world, especially the landscape. To show people the depth, detail, and uniqueness of the land and the plants that grow there. To show them the time involved in growing a garden is part of the beauty. Like raising a child, there is magic and beauty
Landscape inspiration for a cold winter’s day
in every phase. There are special moments to be enjoyed that may never occur again. I remind people that moments in the garden are the commas in our busy lives. To pause, take a breath, and reflect. To remember that we, too, are a part of nature.
This is a pretty sentiment, but what does it mean? How does this idea translate into design? Start by realizing that your garden or landscape is part of the entire ecosystem, and what you plant and what you do in your garden has a much more significant effect.
The first concept I teach is “be the plunk.” If you were to cast a stone into a pond, the plunk is the moment the stone enters the water. From there, ripples are sent across the surface. To be the plunk means to cast the ripples of your action as far as you can. If your garden is the stone, then the plants you choose and the products you choose to use in the garden are the plunk.
Using this idea if you would like to create a perennial bed means choosing plants that will provide bloom all season. You create beauty for your eye. Ripple. But you also will provide nectar and pollen for many bees, butterflies, and moths. Ripple. If you incorporate native species, then your garden is not only beautiful for you, but it also has more of an impact on the pollinator community. Ripple. If you choose to add some native host plants, you will not only increase the number of pollinators in your garden, but you will also increase the number of birds who live there eating caterpillars. Ripple. If you choose specific natives, your perennial
bed could provide pollen to specialized native bee species, and your perennial bed could play a role in saving a native bee from extinction.
And you thought you were just planting some flowers. This principle has inspired a deep sense of reverence for my work.
Celebrate the season
In designing a landscape, I begin with the winter and work my way back through the seasons. I begin with form and static elements like stone. Consider the evergreens but also the skeletal shapes of the woody plants. How do those forms relate to each other and to the design as a whole? What will those structures look like on a canvas of snow?
Next to autumn. When placing trees and shrubs, I consider their fall color. Do I want a pocket of red, or do I want to add a splash of yellow? What will slanting rays of the morning or evening sun look like coming through this tree or shrub? Have I provided any berries for the birds? When designing perennials, I consider seed heads and stalks of plants past bloom like rudbeckia, echinacea penstemon, and grasses. How do these add contrast and interest? There are seeds for birds, and the stalks are winter cover for my pollinators. Do I have late-season blooms for migrating insects and those preparing to hibernate?
Summer gardens always look beautiful, even if poorly designed. In summer, I return my focus to the static pieces of the landscape — the stones — and evergreens. I like to mask stone either entirely or partially, taking it from view so when it returns in the autumn and winter, it will be discovered all over again and appreciated. The evergreens provide contrast and backdrop to the flowers and leaves of the perennials, changing their appearance from that of autumn and winter. If static elements remain as they are, we soon fail to notice and appreciate them.
The garden in spring is the most appreciated. Eyes starved for color scan the landscape searching for signs that winter’s veil has finally lifted. Through bulbs and ephemerals, I look to get life and color in the landscape as early as the warming spring sun will allow. I am
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conscious of all the overwintering pollinators awakening from winter slumber ravenous, so I provide early blooms for pollen and nectar, offering a healthy start for the new generation within the garden. These early players set the stage for the more robust characters to take the lead as spring progresses.
I teach that one way to approach residential design is to view the landscape as a wave that rolls out from the foundation, blanketing the property before retreating. The other is the stage, with areas of the garden or landscape lighting up at different times of year contributing to the story of the season.
A Part of Nature To assume our role as a part of nature, and plant like no one is watching and allow ourselves to get swept up in the song of the season. Through our choices and actions, we create gardens and landscapes that speak to the essence of each season, both in beauty and in bounty, providing for the larger ecosystem. Then, with winter’s quiet upon us, sit and reflect on all that was and allow the joy of being a part of it all to keep us warm until spring arrives once again.
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The Snow Molds
By M. Bess Dicklow and Angela Madeiras
Snow mold refers to a group of diseases that occur in cool to cold weather and are favored by snow cover. The principal diseases are gray snow mold and pink snow mold.
Gray Snow Mold Gray snow mold is also known as Typhula blight. In the northeast, it is most often caused by the fungus Typhula incarnata, while T. ishikariensis is more common in colder regions. The disease is called gray snow mold due to the characteristic gray-white mycelium that appears at snowmelt. The disease occurs where snow cover is present throughout the winter and infects all species of turfgrass. Symptoms appear after snowmelt as circular patches, 1–3 ft in diameter, of yellow, straw-colored, or gray-brown turf. Individual leaves are matted and often covered with a lint-like, gray-towhite mycelium that disappears as the grass dries. The leaves become grayish to silvery-white, brittle, and matted. Large areas of turf may be affected, but in most cases, only the leaves are killed, and regrowth occurs from the plant crowns. Both species of Typhula produce sclerotia — small, hard, round structures, visible to the naked eye, on infected leaves. T. incarnata produces larger, cinnamon-brown sclerotia, while those of T. ishikariensis are smaller and black.
Typhula species survive the summer as sclerotia, which germinate when exposed to wet, cool conditions in late fall to form sporocarps (fruiting bodies) or mycelium. The pathogens grow well at temperatures near freezing and under snow covering wet turf in unfrozen soil. The disease is favored by deep snow that prevents the soil from freezing, high relative humidity within the turf canopy, mats of dead grass leaves, and high nitrogen levels that promote succulent growth. The disease typically requires at least 60 days of snow cover to develop, and is most severe when snow cover is present for 90 days or more. Disease susceptibility varies among turf species: certain cultivars of Kentucky bluegrass are among least susceptible.
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Pink Snow Mold Pink snow mold is also known as Microdochium patch. It is caused by Microdochium nivale (formerly Fusarium nivale) and is commonly referred to as pink snow mold due to the occurrence of spores in a pink matrix of mycelium and sporodochia (fruiting bodies) under moist and sunny conditions. The disease is not confined to snow-covered turf, but can occur any time of year in cool, humid weather. Kentucky bluegrass and fine-leaved fescues tend to be less susceptible to damage than other species. Pink snow mold may occur alone or in conjunction with other cold-weather diseases. Symptoms develop following long periods of cool, wet weather and first appear as small water-soaked spots that turn orange-brown to dark reddish-brown before fading to light-gray or tan. The spots are usually less than 8 in. in diameter with a dark, watersoaked margin. Under snow cover or in very wet conditions, spots may be covered with a fluffy white mycelium. As the snow melts, spots appear bleached-white to tan, often with a pink margin.
M. nivale survives unfavorable periods in plant debris and infected plants. The pathogen grows rapidly under overcast, wet conditions and temperatures ranging from near freezing to 60°F. Conidia (spores) and infected debris are transported to healthy areas on equipment and shoes. Pink snow mold is most severe in excessively thatched turf that is growing slowly
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and under snow covering unfrozen soil. It is favored by repeated frosts, cold fogs, slow drizzling rains, high nitrogen levels, compacted soil, and matted foliage. The disease becomes inactive during warm, sunny periods and when there is little surface moisture.
Cultural Management • Avoid heavy applications of nitrogen in late fall. Apply fertilizer a few weeks before dormancy. Slow-release forms are recommended for fall fertilization. As a rule of thumb, no nitrogen should be applied after the first frost. • Continue to mow the grass until growth ceases to prevent a tall canopy. • Avoid excessive thatch. • Reduce compaction of snow by snowmobiles, skis, and animals. • Prevent the formation of large snowdrifts by proper placement of snow fences, wind barriers, or similar structures.Promote rapid drying
and warming in the spring by snow removal and improving drainage. • Promote new growth in the spring with light fertilization. • Reseed affected areas if regrowth does not occur. • Improve drainage in problematic areas prior to reseeding. The aim is to prevent water from pooling in these areas when snow melts next spring. • Plant resistant turf species or cultivars. • Maintain a soil pH of 6.5 to 6.9 and high levels of potassium to discourage Microdochium patch.
Chemical Management Cultural management techniques, particularly raking and light fertilization, are frequently sufficient to control snow molds on residential turf. Fungicides are typically not recommended. If fungicides are used, they must be applied in late fall. Fungicides applied in spring are ineffective. Additionally, the turf must be actively growing in order for recovery to occur, and this may be delayed if temperatures remain low.
A single application can give winterlong control if the right fungicides are chosen, and there are many to choose from. Combinations of a contact (protectant) fungicide and systemic are highly recommended. For a listing of fungicides currently labeled to manage these pathogens, refer to the Disease Management chapter of UMass Extension’s Professional Guide for IPM in Turf for Massachusetts.
M. Bess Dicklow is a retired extension plant pathologist for the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
This article was updated in 2022 by Angela Madeiras UMass, Extension Extension Plant Pathologist.
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