Rhododendron & Azalea News - Ideas for Chapters

Rhododendron and
Azalea News

Winter 2008 Vol. 11 No. 4

ARS Home Page R&A Index Plant Tips People and Events Gardens

Ideas for Chapters
A chapter's president appeals...		Herb Spady of the Willamette Chapter comes up with the neatest things for his newsletters! This is just another expression of concerns...a word is spoken and may or may not convey the thought intention. Listen to these: APHORISM: A SHORT, POINTED SENTENCE EXPRESSING A WISE, CLEVER OBSERVATION; A GENERAL TRUTH OR ADAGE. 1. The nicest thing about the future is it always starts tomorrow. 2. Money will buy a fine dog...but only kindness will make him wag his tail. 3. If you don't have a sense of humor, you probably don't have any sense at all. 4. Seat belts are not as confining as wheelchairs. 5. A good time to keep your mouth shut is when you're in deep water. 6. How come it takes so little time for a child who is afraid of the dark to become a teenager who wants to stay out all night? 7. Business conventions are important because they demonstrate how many people a company can operate without. 8. Why is it that, at class reunions, you feel younger than everyone else looks? 9. Scratch a dog and you'll find a permanent job. 10. No one has more driving ambition than the boy or girl who anxiously awaits his 16th birthday. 11. There are no new sins; the old ones just get more publicity. 12. No one ever says 'It's only a game' when their team's winning. 13. I've reached the age where the happy hour is a nap. 14. Be careful reading the fine print. There's no way you're going to like it. 15. The trouble with bucket seats is not everybody has the same size bucket. 16. Do you realize in about 40 years we'll have millions of old ladies running around with tattoos? (And rap music will be the Golden Oldies!) 17. Money can't buy happiness - but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Mercedes than in a Kia. 18. After 70 if you don't wake up aching in every joint, you are probably dead.

Learning time! Cultivar		Bruce Palmer, of the Eureka Chapter, is one of the ARS' masters of the Queen's English and delights in challenging all members to extend their knowledge. The word of interest he offers is "cultivar."
its meaning		Cultivar is a hybrid word constructed from cultivate (from Latin cultus, to care for or cultivate) and variety (from Latin varietas, absence of monotony). What it means is a plant type that has been propagated to show specific characteristics reliably over time. Cultivars can originate from the discovery of unusual characteristics on a plant (called sports, from the Middle English disporte, to diverge) or from crossbreeding. Crossbreeding, or hybridizing, is the most common method for originating cultivars. Hybridizing two plants results in a large variety of genetic recombinations, sometimes called a grex for short. More commonly, the results are called sister seedlings. When the hybridizer has decided which sister seedling to propagate there are a number of options. Usually the hybridizer will want a consistent set of characteristics to be repeated over a long period of time. To get them, seeds will not do very well, though some seeds, particularly for vegetable gardening, are called cultivars. For plants like our rhodies, we want to be sure that each plant has the exact characteristics the hybridizer chose. To get them, they can be propagated several ways. The easiest for the amateur is to grow cuttings. By taking shoots of a desired plant and raising them in a soil mixture until they are safely rooted, it is possible to get a fairly large number of plants that are alike.
meristem culture...		A more difficult method that can produce huge numbers of identical offspring is meristem culture. In meristem culture, unspecialized cells from buds are shaken apart and grown separately to produce entire identical plants. This is definitely not a method for the amateur but is used by many nurserymen to get hundreds of one cultivar at the same time.
grafting...		Another way to get a desired cultivar is by grafting. This method is seldom used anymore, but was used consistently by Cottage Gardens in Eureka for a long period of time. The method gets good, healthy plants that bloom well, but there is a major drawback. Rhododendron ponticum from Central Europe was used as the stock plant for grafting. Nothing can kill it but its lax, pale purple trusses are not very showy. Eventually the stock plant has a tendency to produce shoots from below the graft, slowly out-competing the grafted plant. We have all seen large old rhodies around the area that have some purple trusses and some pink ones. What happened is that its root stock plant overwhelmed one of Cottage Gardens’ grafted rhodies. The same problem occurs with our roses and a number of other grafted plants.
best way to get a cultivar...buy it!		There are some other ways to get a cultivar, such as air layering or ground layering, but generally the best way for most of us to get a good one is to buy it from a nursery. Get out there and enjoy your favorite Rhododendron cultivars; right at the moment you don't have to do much to them.

An editor speaks out...		Merilee Mulvey of the Siuslaw Chapter speaks out about "Change". The world is fully aware of change taking place in the United States and how it affects the entire world. Merilee is concerned, too, about a need to change in each of our ARS chapters. She wrote her newsletter...Change...a challenging process. It affects all of us. The success or failure of any group, whether it is a business or organization, often is embedded within the process of change. I say the "process of change" because it is the process that can make or break a group. You know the old adage... it's not the destination, it's the journey. Well, that is the issue with change.
all of us have a choice of three types...		We all have a part in change, and our roles can be categorized three ways: the Believers In Change are right away on-board and really thrive on change; the Cautious Ones really want to think about the pros and cons before saying yes or no to a change; and the Resistors Of Change prefer the status quo and really feel uncomfortable with change. We all know the category into which we fall... All three of these categories are important in groups. Our chapter is changing. Some will say certain changes are good and some will say they're not sure, and some will say certain changes are not good. But, what I hope we all will consider is the fact that whether we like it or not, change can be healthy for an organization, and can empower our chapter with longevity, strength, and respect from the other chapters that look up to us as a successful role model.
you have a part to play...let's listen...and act...		When change is on the horizon, the most important thing an organization's staff can do to create a positive process is to present the reason for the changes and then allow the membership to discuss the supporting and opposing views. Everyone has a stake in the process of change, and it is important for all of us to be heard, knowing that our voices are important, but also knowing that our thoughtful and sincere consideration for whatever the final result turns out to be is important as well. Are we up to the task of listening to each other's opinions and coming to agreements with all the changes we must consider? I believe we are. Some changes are really needed with the larger group we now have. Some changes need to be discussed a bit to find the right fit for everyone. And, some changes may not be good after all and we must listen to the reason why and allow some things to remain the same. I hope we will all take an active part in our process of change. If we do that, we all can feel pride in the roles we have taken to create the very best organization possible. Editor's Note: Change is so important and can be very effective. The art of listening to each other is especially important. Young people are to be encouraged to join and give their viewpoints of how to expand memberships and interests in all ARS chapters. Thanks to Merilee for speaking out.

An excellent book for nestling in...		Luurt Nieuwenhuis of the Portland Chapter does the greatest job of reviewing books and then has the enthusiasm to share. In May 2006 he reviewed, The Truth About Garden Remedies: What Works, What Doesn't and Why, by Jeff Gillman of Timber Press. It seems appropriate to bring this to the attention of all readers. It's Winter...the beginning of Spring...let's be more prepared. A good book, a cup of tea, a cookie or two, soft music playing in the background...you're ready for a most enjoyable time. The Truth about Garden Remedies is a book that is sorely needed in the gardening world. Just as there are Internet web sites to illuminate and debunk urban legends, here comes a book that does the same thing for the backyard gardener gurus. The subtitle tells it all: "What works, What Doesn't, and Why". There is a large body of gardening "folklore" that is being continually repeated and renewed in today's popular culture. All sorts of home brews, folk remedies, and secret recipes to make your garden grow better than anyone else's, have less bugs than anyone else's, and which are supposed to be environmentally "friendlier" than modern horticulture provides. The author takes us on a journey through many of the common conceptions of home remedies for gardening problems...he tells us what they are...whether or not they work...explains why...and, of what the remedy actually does to our plants. In some instances, he explains how his simple first-person experiments were done to verify the remedy. In other cases, he provides a list of references to the technical literature at the end of the book.
plain water for spray on mildew...		An example is in order: powdery mildew and a baking soda spray. Plain water sprayed once a week was just as effective as having baking soda added to the water, which is to say slight. Adding some oil to the water...whether with baking soda or without...improved the mildew control markedly. Vinegar in the water was effective for mildew control...the stronger the solution...the more effective the resultant control...but the greater the collateral plant damage. Vinegar's effectiveness does not extend to other plant disease...such as black spot on roses.
boost root development and plant growth...		Another entry discusses mycorrhizal additives to boost root development and plant growth. Mycorrhizal fungi are a well-documented feature of many plants. They benefit the host plant by scrounging nutrients that the plant can use in exchange for sugars that the plant manufacturers. How necessary they are in soils where plenty of nutrients already exist is questionable. But what is much more questionable is the efficacy of store-bought fungal additives which will often not perform as advertised. Besides, growing a particular fungus from spores or small fragments of mycelium and keeping them healthy...especially ones that are obligate symbionts...is no easy task.
more pluses for reading...		The Truth about Garden Remedies: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why includes major sections on fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, and pesticides...as well as...water and bio-stimulants...remember willow extract? The discussions are thoughtful and researched or tested by easily repeatable experiments. There are conclusions for each of the remedies that explain what it will mean for your plants...if you use it. You will, doubtless, find a number of garden remedies that you have heard of...or read...about in recent years documented in this book. You will probably find some that you have tried. See why your results were not always what you wanted. This thoroughly delightful book will make you a less gullible...and, hence, better gardener. Jeff Gillman has degrees in entomology and horticulture. He holds a Ph.D. and teaches in the Department of Horticultural Science at the University of Minnesota...specializing in pesticide use and nursery management.

It can begin at an ARS meeting...		Friendship is something that raises us almost above humanity... It is the sort of love one can image between angels. - C. S. Lewis